A lead magnet is something a business offers in exchange for a prospect's contact details: a calculator, a template, an assessment, a guide or a webinar. On Google the formats are far from equal: across 24 Italian searches we measured on 28 October 2026, calculators and templates accounted for 87% of 21,410 monthly searches, while checklists drew 110.
You've seen the definition before.
In the UK, "lead magnet" gets 480 searches a month on Google Ads data, and the results page on 28 October 2026 was full of email-platform blogs and small agencies: Plezi, Emma, Salespanel, Campaign Creators, Exposure Ninja, AWeber. They all list formats. None of them checks which formats people actually search for.
When a B2B company shows us its lead magnet, we usually find the same three problems:
- an ebook written because "that's what you do", on a topic nobody searches for and that Google's AI Overview already summarises at the top of the page;
- the download counted as a conversion, so Google Ads learns to bring browsers instead of enquiries;
- an eight-field form for a six-page PDF.
Two public cases show what we mean by a contact that counts.
Macropix makes LED walls and screens: Google Ads has brought it 2,906 quote requests since 2018, with the cost per request down to €39.44 in 2025. Sunscape looks for land for solar farms: from January to August 2026 Google Ads brought 144 contact requests.
So what has that got to do with lead magnets?
In both cases the conversion that matters is an enquiry, not a download. A useful lead magnet is the one that leads there, and on Google you pick it by looking at what people search for. Here's what follows:
- what a lead magnet is and what it isn't;
- six formats measured on 24 searches, with volumes and what Google shows;
- which format suits a B2B business;
- conversion rates, with the data that exists and the market it comes from;
- how to build one in five steps, and what changes with AI answers.
Let's start.
What is a lead magnet (and why a brochure isn't one)
A lead magnet is a trade: the visitor gets something useful straight away, the business gets a name, an email address and often a company name. From then on that person is a lead, someone who has shown interest, not yet a customer.
A lead and a prospect aren't the same thing. A lead has left contact details; a prospect is a lead someone has qualified as a possible customer, by sector, size or need. In B2B the gap between the two is often wide, and the way to judge it is the ideal customer profile.
So any PDF behind a form counts?
No. It has to solve one specific problem, quickly, and be tied to what you sell.
The Italian agency We Are Funnel published a case that shows this well. For a maker of laser machines, the Google Ads campaign offered a brochure download: in two weeks it got 17 clicks on the button and 0 form enquiries. They replaced the brochure with a "talk to an expert" form, sending the brochure afterwards: in a month, about 16 qualified enquiries (We Are Funnel, case published in 2023, in Italian).
The brochure was information. The lead magnet was a conversation with an engineer.
Six lead magnet formats measured on Google (a test on 24 Italian searches)
The format people already search for is the one that can bring contacts without paying for every visit. To find out which it is, on 28 October 2026 we took six formats and, for each, four professional searches in Italian with at least 20 searches a month, then read Google's first page on mobile.
| Format | Example searches (Italian) | Searches per month (total) | Searches above 200 a month | Results pages with an AI Overview | Top 3 results that are a tool or a file |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calculator, simulator | calcolo tfr (severance pay calculator), simulatore fotovoltaico (solar simulator) | 11,700 | 4 of 4 | 4 of 4 | 5 of 12 |
| Template | template business plan, modello preventivo (quote template) | 6,900 | 2 of 4 | 4 of 4 | 9 of 12 |
| Online test, audit, check-up | seo checker, analisi sito web (website audit) | 1,570 | 3 of 4 | 3 of 4 | 5 of 12 |
| PDF guide or manual | business plan pdf, manuale haccp pdf | 650 | 2 of 4 | 4 of 4 | 11 of 12 |
| Webinar | webinar gratuiti (free webinars), webinar intelligenza artificiale | 480 | 1 of 4 | 4 of 4 | 0 of 12 (9 are event pages) |
| Checklist | checklist seo, checklist haccp | 110 | 0 of 4 | 4 of 4 | 8 of 12 |
Read row by row, the table says four things.
Demand sits with tools and templates. Calculators and templates account for 18,600 of 21,410 searches. The single biggest query is "calcolo tfr" (severance pay calculator), at 9,900 a month; "seo checker" and "calcolo roi" reach 1,000.
The checklist, which Google's AI Overview lists among the most common examples, is barely searched for in Italian. The four best queries get 20 or 30 searches a month each, and English-language pages such as gdpr.eu and cas.com.au show up near the top.
PDF guides run into files that are already available. In 11 of 12 top positions the result is a downloadable file, often from public bodies: the Turin Chamber of Commerce for the business plan, schools and trade associations for the HACCP manual. Asking for an email against a public PDF is a hard sell.
Google answers first on 23 of 24 pages. The only one without an AI Overview was "test velocità sito" (site speed test), where the first two results are tools: Google's PageSpeed Insights and Host-Tracker.
Does that make the checklist useless?
No, but publish it openly inside an article rather than behind a form. That's what we did with our SEO checklist.
These are Italian figures. The same exercise on UK data is worth doing before you build anything: the method in step 1 below works in any market.
Which lead magnet suits a B2B business (it depends on what you sell)
The right format is the one that answers the doubt that stalls the purchase: what it costs, what it returns, whether my case fits. For a company selling to other companies, from the test data and the projects we run, the choice comes down to this:
- Price depends on size or quantity (installations, machinery, windows): a calculator or quote tool. "simulatore fotovoltaico" gets 590 searches a month in Italy, and SolarEdge's simulator ranks first.
- Service depends on the starting point (consultancy, software, marketing): an audit or check-up. Our SEO and AI check-up works like this: you enter the site address, get a report with issues in order of priority, and talk it through on a 30-minute call.
- A process the client repeats (quotes, plans, budgets): a template. "modello preventivo" gets 1,300 searches a month in Italy, with Canva first.
- A new topic or changing regulation: a webinar. In 2024, 65% of B2B buyers surveyed by Demand Gen Report valued webinars and digital events, up from 52% in 2023 (Demand Gen Report, Content Preferences Benchmark Survey 2024).
In the same survey, interactive content fell from 49% to 38%. Interactive doesn't mean useful: a generic quiz tells the buyer nothing about their case, a calculator with their numbers does.
68% of the 1,015 B2B marketers surveyed by the Content Marketing Institute, mostly in North America, collect data through content such as gated assets, webinars and interactive tools, yet the same institute advises dropping "vanity gates" on content that doesn't justify the trade (CMI, B2B Content and Marketing Trends 2026).
How well do lead magnets convert (and why the global numbers need care)
There's no UK or Italian benchmark for lead magnet conversion: the studies available come from international platforms and measure different things. Two can be checked at source.
Unbounce analysed more than 41,000 of its customers' landing pages: the median conversion rate is 6.6%, calculated on page visitors. Pages written in plain language convert at 11.1%, those written at a professional reading level at 5.3% (Unbounce, Conversion Benchmark Report 2024, global data).
MailerLite measured more than 41,000 signup forms: on average 22.16% of people who see a form fill it in. Interactive tools reach 26.44%, templates 21.14%; embedded forms convert at 24.44%, pop-ups at 8.96% (MailerLite, March 2026, customers worldwide).
Why are 6.6% and 22% so far apart?
Because the first divides by people who land on the page, the second by people who see the form. And MailerLite's forms are its customers' forms, not a sample of B2B companies.
The number that matters to you is a different one: how many quote requests come from people who downloaded. Hardly anyone measures it, as we explain in why a website doesn't generate leads.
How to create a lead magnet in five steps (starting from Google)
Build it the other way round from the usual: first the search and the conversion you'll measure, then the content.
1. Find the question people already ask
Open Search Console, filter queries containing "calculator", "cost", "template", "price" or "how to choose", and check volumes in the Google Ads Keyword Planner. If a pricing question gets 300 searches a month and your general guide gets 20, the choice is made.
2. Pick the format the first page rewards
Search the question on Google from a phone. If tools sit at the top, you need a tool; if public PDFs do, another PDF behind a form will lose. It's the same stage-by-stage reasoning we use in a marketing funnel built from search.
3. Ask only for the data you'll use
Name, work email and company are almost always enough to start. Marketers surveyed by HubSpot used 4.92 fields on average, but the sample was 173 people and the figures were self-reported (HubSpot, 2020). Ask for a phone number only if someone will actually call, and keep privacy consent separate from marketing consent.
4. Track the download as a secondary conversion
In Google Ads, set the download as a secondary conversion action: according to Google Ads Help, secondary actions appear in the "All conversions" column but aren't used for bidding, so bidding optimises for real enquiries. In GA4 keep "download" and "enquiry" as separate events. If you need a hand, that's what our tracking service does.
5. Prepare the follow-up before you publish
People who download expect a reply within hours. You need two or three useful emails, a customer case and an offer of a call: the rules are those of email marketing that holds up in 2026. Without this step the lead magnet produces a list of addresses nobody contacts.
Is Google Ads learning from downloads or from enquiries?
You've just seen how a download counted as a primary conversion pushes budget towards browsers. That's where we start: we check what your account counts, which searches bring real enquiries and which lead magnet makes sense for what you sell.
Book a strategy callLead magnets and AI answers (what sits behind the form doesn't get cited)
Google says it in its documentation: to appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be "indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet", with no additional technical requirements (Google Search Central, AI features and your website). A PDF locked behind a form isn't read by crawlers, so it can't be cited.
With an AI Overview on 23 of 24 pages, the consequence is practical: the data you want cited goes on an open page, the personalised work goes behind the form. Publish the summary of your guide, the main table and the method; keep the calculation on the client's numbers, the editable file and the audit of their site gated.
That way the open page can be cited by ChatGPT and Google, and the lead magnet collects the people who want more. How to measure that presence is in our guide to AI visibility, and which bots read your pages is covered in AI crawlers. No promises: citation remains the engine's choice.
Lead magnet FAQs
Depends on who's asking, but the core meaning is one: a useful resource offered in exchange for contact details. It can be a calculator, a template, an assessment, a guide or a webinar; what counts is that it solves a specific problem tied to what the business sells.
Yes, in the sense that nobody pays with money: they pay with their contact details and attention. That's why the value must be clear before the form, and why the business should use the data only for what it says.
Yes, if they answer a question people actually ask. In our test on 24 Italian searches, calculators and templates accounted for 18,600 of 21,410 monthly searches, checklists for 110: the format matters more than the lead magnet itself.
Depends on how the company defines them, but usually a lead has left contact details and a prospect is a lead qualified as a possible customer by sector, size or need. A lead magnet brings leads; qualification comes later.
Depends on what you'll do with the data. Name, work email and company are enough to start; a phone number only makes sense if sales will actually call. In MailerLite's 2026 data, embedded forms converted at 24.44% and pop-ups at 8.96%.
In short (and where to start tomorrow)
A lead magnet is a trade, not a PDF.
Calculators and templates: 87% of searches in our test.
Checklists: 110 searches a month, so publish them openly.
Downloads as secondary conversions, enquiries as primary.
Data you want cited on an open page, tailored work behind the form.
One thing none of the first-page guides says: for many B2B companies the best lead magnet already exists, and it's the quote page. Turn it into a calculator that answers with the client's own numbers and it catches pricing searches, gives what an AI Overview can't (a calculation on the asker's figures) and brings enquiries instead of downloads. If you want to work out where to start in your case, that's the job of our lead generation service, inside a B2B marketing strategy built on search.
Speak soon!
