The 5-Dimensional Scoring System: How Ghost Ranks Your Warmest Leads

You've got 847 LinkedIn connections. 312 people have engaged with your posts in the last month. Your CRM shows 156 "warm" leads.

But which ones are actually ready to buy?

Most founders and sales teams treat all engagement equally. A like gets the same attention as a thoughtful comment. A connection request from your ideal customer profile gets lost in the noise of random outreach.

This scatter-gun approach is why 67% of B2B sales teams miss their quotas, according to Salesforce's State of Sales report. You're not prioritising the right leads at the right time.

Ghost's 5-dimensional lead scoring system changes this. Instead of guessing which prospects are hottest, our algorithm analyses five distinct signals to rank your leads by genuine purchase intent.

Here's exactly how it works—and why it's identifying 3x more qualified opportunities than traditional lead scoring methods.

Why Traditional Lead Scoring Fails on LinkedIn

Traditional lead scoring was built for email marketing and website visits. It assigns points based on actions: downloaded a whitepaper (+10 points), visited pricing page (+15 points), opened three emails (+5 points).

LinkedIn doesn't work like that.

On LinkedIn, buying intent shows up in subtle social signals. The prospect who comments on your post about cash flow challenges isn't just being polite—they're signalling a problem they need solved.

The connection who likes your last three posts about sales automation isn't just being supportive—they're researching solutions.

But most lead scoring systems miss these signals entirely. They're looking for form fills and page views while your hottest prospects are engaging with your content, commenting on industry discussions, and updating their job titles.

A recent study by LinkedIn Sales Solutions found that prospects who engage with vendor content are 90% more likely to convert. Yet only 23% of sales teams track content engagement as a buying signal.

That's the gap Ghost fills. Our outbound automation platform doesn't just track who opened your message—it tracks who's been warming up to your brand for weeks through content engagement.

Ghost's 5 Dimensions of Lead Scoring

Ghost analyses every prospect across five distinct dimensions, creating a composite score that reflects genuine buying intent. Each dimension captures a different aspect of prospect behaviour, from surface-level engagement to deep buying signals.

Here's how each dimension works and why it matters for your sales pipeline.

Dimension 1 — Engagement Frequency

What it measures: How often a prospect interacts with your content over time.

A prospect who likes one post might be scrolling mindlessly. A prospect who engages with your content three times in two weeks is paying attention.

Ghost tracks engagement frequency across a rolling 30-day window, weighting recent interactions more heavily. Someone who engaged with five posts this week scores higher than someone who engaged with five posts spread over a month.

Scoring logic:

• 1-2 engagements in 30 days: Low frequency score
• 3-5 engagements in 30 days: Medium frequency score
• 6+ engagements in 30 days: High frequency score
• Multiple engagements in 7 days: Velocity bonus applied

Why it works: Consistent engagement indicates genuine interest, not random scrolling. Our data shows prospects with high frequency scores are 4.2x more likely to respond to outreach messages.

Dimension 2 — Engagement Depth

What it measures: The quality and effort level of each interaction.

Not all engagement is created equal. A like takes one second. A thoughtful comment takes two minutes and reveals the prospect's thinking.

Ghost assigns different weights to different engagement types:

• Likes: 1 point (shows awareness)
• Shares: 3 points (shows endorsement)
• Comments: 5 points (shows engagement)
• Thoughtful comments (10+ words): 8 points (shows consideration)
• Question comments: 10 points (shows buying interest)

The system also analyses comment sentiment and relevance. A comment that asks about implementation gets weighted higher than a generic "great post" response.

Real example: Sarah, a SaaS founder, posted about sales automation challenges. Prospect A liked the post. Prospect B commented: "We're facing the same issue with our current CRM—how did you solve the integration problems?"

Prospect B's engagement depth score is 6x higher, and Ghost flags them for immediate outreach.

Dimension 3 — Profile Fit (ICP Match)

What it measures: How closely the prospect matches your ideal customer profile.

High engagement from the wrong audience won't drive revenue. Ghost analyses each prospect's LinkedIn profile against your ICP criteria:

• Job title relevance: Does their role involve buying decisions?
• Company size: Do they fit your target market?
• Industry match: Are they in your focus sectors?
• Seniority level: Do they have budget authority?
• Geographic location: Are they in your target regions?

The profile fit score is binary but weighted. A perfect ICP match who likes your content once scores higher than a poor fit who comments frequently.

Scoring example:

• VP of Sales at 50-person SaaS company (perfect fit): 100% profile score
• Marketing Manager at 500-person fintech (good fit): 75% profile score
• Student interested in sales (poor fit): 20% profile score

This prevents you from chasing high-engagement prospects who'll never buy.

Dimension 4 — Content Topic Alignment

What it measures: Whether prospects engage with content related to their likely pain points.

Someone who likes your motivational Monday posts might be building rapport. Someone who engages with your posts about sales pipeline management has a business problem.

Ghost categorises your content by topic and tracks which themes each prospect engages with:

• Problem-focused content: Posts about challenges, pain points, industry issues
• Solution-focused content: Posts about tools, strategies, case studies
• Relationship content: Personal updates, team news, motivational posts

Prospects who consistently engage with problem and solution content score higher than those who only engage with relationship content.

Advanced insight: Ghost also tracks topic progression. A prospect who moves from engaging with problem posts to solution posts is showing classic buyer journey behaviour.

Dimension 5 — Timing & Velocity

What it measures: The recency and acceleration of engagement patterns.

Timing is everything in sales. A prospect who engaged heavily six months ago but went quiet isn't hot. A prospect whose engagement is accelerating this week might be in active buying mode.

Ghost tracks several timing signals:

• Recency: When did their last engagement occur?
• Velocity: Is their engagement frequency increasing or decreasing?
• Clustering: Are multiple engagements happening in short timeframes?
• Trigger events: Did they recently change jobs, get promoted, or update their profile?

The velocity component is particularly powerful. Our data shows that prospects whose engagement velocity increases by 200% or more in a 7-day period are 8.3x more likely to be in active buying mode.

Case study: James, a prospect, liked one post per month for three months (low velocity). Then in one week, he liked three posts, commented on two, and shared one (high velocity spike). Ghost flagged him as a hot lead. The sales team reached out within 24 hours and discovered he'd just secured budget for sales automation tools.

How Scoring Drives Your Outbound Priority

Ghost combines all five dimensions into a single composite score from 0-100. But the real power isn't in the number—it's in how the system uses that score to prioritise your outbound efforts.

Here's how it works in practice:

Hot Leads (80-100 points): These prospects get immediate attention. Ghost automatically adds them to your priority outreach sequence and sends you a real-time notification. These are people showing multiple strong buying signals across several dimensions.

Warm Leads (60-79 points): These prospects enter your standard outreach sequence within 24-48 hours. They're showing interest but might need more nurturing before they're ready to buy.

Cool Leads (40-59 points): These prospects go into a longer-term nurture sequence. They're on your radar but not immediate priorities for direct outreach.

Cold Leads (0-39 points): These prospects stay in your content audience but don't receive direct outreach. They might warm up over time through continued content engagement.

The system also adjusts messaging based on which dimensions drove the high score. A prospect who scores high on engagement depth gets a different message than one who scores high on timing velocity.

Smart automation example: Ghost detects that Sarah (mentioned earlier) has a composite score of 87, driven primarily by engagement depth and content topic alignment. The system automatically:

1. Adds her to the "high-intent prospects" list
2. Sends a personalised connection request referencing her specific comment
3. Schedules a follow-up message for 3 days later if she accepts
4. Alerts the sales team that she's showing strong buying signals

This level of automation ensures no hot lead falls through the cracks while preventing spam-like outreach to unqualified prospects.

Setting Up Your Scoring System

Getting Ghost's lead scoring system working for your business takes about 30 minutes of initial setup. Here's the step-by-step process:

Step 1: Define Your ICP Criteria

Ghost needs to understand your ideal customer profile to weight the profile fit dimension correctly. In the platform, you'll specify:

• Target job titles and seniority levels
• Company size ranges (employee count and revenue)
• Industry sectors and sub-sectors
• Geographic territories
• Technology stack indicators (if relevant)

Step 2: Categorise Your Content Themes

Ghost's AI automatically categorises most content, but you can refine the categories to match your specific solution areas:

• Problem categories (what challenges does your solution solve?)
• Solution categories (what outcomes do you deliver?)
• Industry-specific topics
• Relationship and thought leadership content

Step 3: Set Your Scoring Thresholds

Based on your sales cycle and volume, you can adjust the thresholds for hot, warm, and cool leads. SaaS companies with shorter sales cycles might set a lower threshold for "hot" leads, while enterprise sellers might require higher scores.

Step 4: Connect Your Outreach Sequences

Link your scoring system to your outreach campaigns. Ghost integrates with your existing LinkedIn automation or CRM to ensure high-scoring leads get appropriate follow-up.

Step 5: Monitor and Optimise

Ghost provides detailed analytics on scoring performance. You can see which dimensions are most predictive for your audience and adjust weightings accordingly.

Most users see a 40-60% improvement in response rates within the first month of using the scoring system, simply because they're reaching out to more qualified prospects at better times.

Ready to stop guessing which leads are hottest? Start your free 7-day trial and see how Ghost's 5-dimensional scoring system transforms your LinkedIn outbound results.

Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate is Ghost's lead scoring compared to traditional methods?

Ghost's 5-dimensional scoring system is 3.2x more accurate at predicting conversion likelihood than traditional lead scoring methods. This is because it captures LinkedIn-specific buying signals that traditional systems miss—like content engagement patterns and social selling behaviours. Our users typically see 40-60% higher response rates when prioritising outreach based on Ghost scores versus gut feeling or basic demographic data.

Can I customise the scoring weights for different dimensions?

Yes, Ghost allows you to adjust the relative importance of each dimension based on your specific sales process. For example, if you sell to very specific ICPs, you might weight the Profile Fit dimension higher. If you have a relationship-heavy sales process, you might emphasise Engagement Depth. The system learns from your feedback and conversion data to optimise weights automatically over time.

How often does Ghost update lead scores?

Lead scores update in real-time as new engagement data comes in. When someone likes, comments, or shares your content, their score recalculates immediately. The system also runs a daily batch update to account for profile changes, job moves, and decay factors (older engagement becomes less relevant over time). Hot leads can trigger instant notifications so you can strike while the iron is hot.

What happens if someone stops engaging with my content?

Ghost applies a natural decay function to engagement data. Recent interactions carry more weight than older ones, so if someone was highly engaged three months ago but hasn't interacted recently, their score will gradually decrease. This prevents you from reaching out to prospects who've lost interest while keeping warm leads who are consistently engaged at the top of your priority list.

Does the scoring system work for all industries and company sizes?

Ghost's scoring framework works across industries, but the specific weights and thresholds should be calibrated to your market. Enterprise software sales might require higher engagement thresholds due to longer buying cycles, while professional services might weight relationship-building content more heavily. The system includes industry-specific templates and learns from your specific conversion patterns to optimise over time.

How does Ghost handle privacy and data protection with lead scoring?

Ghost only analyses publicly available LinkedIn data and engagement with your own content—we never access private messages or personal information. All data is processed in compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations. Prospects can opt out of tracking at any time, and we provide full transparency about what data is collected and how it's used in our scoring algorithms.