MQL
Business & Finance abbreviation · Marketing & Advertising
| Stands for | Marketing-qualified lead |
|---|---|
| Categories | Business & Finance |
MQL stands for Marketing-qualified lead, a marketing & advertising abbreviation.
Lead that marketing judges more likely to buy than others, based on fit with the target profile and engagement such as downloading content, attending a webinar or visiting pricing pages, usually via a lead-scoring model. MQLs are passed to sales for follow-up.
Example: We generated 1,200 MQLs last quarter, but sales accepted only 400.
Usage notes
The lead funnel stages became widespread through SiriusDecisions' "demand waterfall," introduced in 2006. Critics argue that MQL targets encourage volume over quality, and some companies have moved to account- or opportunity-based measures. MQL is followed by the sales-accepted and sales-qualified stages.
Related abbreviations
More marketing & advertising abbreviations
- LP – Landing page
- LTV – Lifetime value
- MarCom – Marketing communications
- MDF – Market development funds
- MEDDIC – Metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process…
- MOFU – Middle of the funnel
- NAP – Name, address, phone number
- NPS – Net Promoter Score
- OOH – Out-of-home advertising
- OTT – Over-the-top
- PESO – Paid, earned, shared, owned media
- PLA – Product listing ad