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The quality issue you’re describing is real and it compounds downstream in a way agencies often don’t flag to clients.
Even when AI Max surfaces a genuinely good lead — someone who did match your ICP — there’s a second problem waiting: how fast the client’s team actually responds. We’ve run controlled tests across B2B and service businesses and the average response time is 2+ hours, often much longer.
The lead quality debate becomes moot if the follow-up window closes before anyone picks up the phone. Harvard data puts first-response within 5 mins at 100x higher connect rate vs. an hour later.
So for agencies managing these clients: fixing targeting is one lever, but pairing it with a tight speed-to-lead process is the other half. Otherwise you’re optimising the top of the funnel while the bottom leaks.
