Demand generation is one of the least standardised things an agency can sell. To one firm it means content, search and community that create awareness of a problem your product solves. To another it means paid media plus a form, measured in leads per month. Both call themselves a B2B demand gen agency, and a buyer comparing their proposals is often comparing two different businesses using one vocabulary. This page separates what the work actually contains, how it gets priced, and the handful of definitions you should fix in the contract so that a year from now everyone is arguing about the same numbers instead of about what the numbers meant.
Demand generation is not lead generation
Lead generation captures people already looking, usually through search, review sites and bottom-of-funnel content, and it is measured in forms filled. Demand generation creates the looking: it makes a buyer aware that the problem is worth solving and that your category is the way to solve it. The two run on different timescales and different metrics, and confusing them is the single most common cause of a failed engagement. If your pipeline is already full of people who know your category and you simply want more of them, you want lead generation and should say so. If your problem is that nobody is searching for what you sell yet, a form-fill target in month two is a promise the agency should not be making.
How the work is priced, and the models to avoid
Most credible B2B engagements are a monthly retainer covering strategy, content production and channel management, with media spend billed separately and transparently. Content volume and the seniority of the people writing it drive most of the number, because credible B2B content requires subject-matter interviews rather than a generalist writer with a keyword list. Be careful with two models. A percentage-of-spend fee rewards the agency for spending more of your budget. A per-lead price rewards volume over fit, and in B2B a cheap lead is usually a student, a competitor or someone at a company one tenth your target size. If you buy per lead, define qualification in the contract and pay only for leads that meet it.
The definitions to fix before you sign
Write down, in the contract, what counts as a qualified lead, who decides, and what happens to disputed ones. Write down the attribution model and its window, because a self-reported source field, a last-click model and a multi-touch model will produce three different pictures of the same quarter, and the agency will naturally prefer the one that flatters it. Write down who owns the content, the ad accounts, the CRM fields and the audience lists at the end of the term. Then agree what the reporting will actually show: pipeline created and opportunities influenced, not impressions. Agencies that resist these definitions are usually the ones whose results depend on the definitions staying loose.
Judging the content, which is where most of the money goes
Google's guidance on creating helpful content asks whether the content demonstrates first-hand expertise and depth of knowledge, whether it was created for people rather than to rank, and whether a reader would leave feeling they learned enough about the topic. Those are exactly the questions a B2B buyer should ask about the agency's samples. Read three pieces the agency wrote for a client in a technical category and check whether the specifics could only have come from talking to a practitioner. Then ask who wrote them and whether that person is on your account. Case studies deserve the same scrutiny: the FTC's endorsement guidance is clear that advertisers should not make claims through testimonials that would be deceptive if made directly, and a results claim in a case study is a claim you are being invited to rely on.
Questions people ask about b2b demand gen agency
How long before a demand generation program produces pipeline?
Longer than most contracts assume. Paid channels can produce meetings quickly, but genuine demand creation moves an audience over quarters, not weeks. Ask the agency to forecast leading indicators for the first two quarters and pipeline for the third and fourth, and hold them to the leading indicators in the meantime.
Should I pay per lead?
Only with a written qualification standard and a rejection process. Without one, per-lead pricing rewards volume over fit and you will spend sales time on unqualified conversations. Many strong agencies decline per-lead deals for that reason, which is itself informative.
What should the monthly report contain?
Pipeline created and influenced, meetings booked, cost per qualified opportunity, and the content and campaigns actually shipped. Impressions and traffic belong in an appendix. If the agency cannot connect its work to CRM stages, it cannot tell you whether the program is working.
In-house or agency for B2B demand generation?
Agencies buy you speed, channel breadth and people who have run the play before. In-house buys you product knowledge that no external writer will match. Many companies land on a hybrid: in-house subject-matter interviews and product marketing, agency production and channel management.