Incredible: From 100 To 500 Leads Per Week. How did we do it?

Incredible: From 100 To 500 Leads Per Week. How did we do it?

We are finally to part 3 of scaling your business. It has been an eye opener thus far and I can’t wait to see what the next 6 months hold. If you haven’t read part one or part two you may want to.

Here are the links:

Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 9.23.51 AMScreen Shot 2016-03-23 at 9.23.41 AM

The other morning I was laying in bed in the twilight zone. I may be a little weird; I’ve had some crazy ideas come to me in the realm between fully awake and asleep. It’s like my brain is firing on all cylinders and the ideas start to flow.

It may sound crazy to some, but it happens to me all the time. One of these days I’ll tell you about the time I did calculus all night in my dreams, which helped be get a 99% on my calculus test.

Anyhow… I jumped out of bed and sketched our marketing blueprint.

As I looked at it, I could see a few holes that need to be filled and where we could adjust our remarketing and banner ad campaigns.

I’ll keep you posted on our results in the coming weeks. But for now, we have a complete online marketing blueprint. Here’s what it looks like:

Online-Marketing-Checklist

As you can see, I am not the artist behind Ydraw videos. My chicken scratches will pass for a third grader and are fine for the time being, but I’m having this created professionally.

When I got done drawing I could see why we were generating so many leads. This Online Marketing Blueprint is a system that keeps getting better and better over time. To get the kind of results we are getting, each section has to be mastered. For example…Adwords is a big part of our business. We have put in a lot of time and effort to create the right text ads, keywords campaigns, display campaigns, etc. The same goes for Facebook, emails, and YouTube. Each section needs to be perfected.

It’s a lot of work, but very doable.

If you leave a part out…it may not work.

I just know that we have gone from 100 leads per week to 500 leads per week in a 3-month period. Which brings with it some growing pains, but those are great problems to have.

Here are the numbers from our Adwords accounts:

October 2015

Adwords
Spend: $8,083
Leads: 81
Cost per lead $99.79
Click To Conversion Rate was 3% to 9%

March 2015

Adwords
Spend: $10,653
Leads: 165
Cost Per Lead: $54.55
Click to Conversion Rate 13%

The Changes We Made to Adwords

You can see we’ve doubled our leads and cut our cost per lead in half. With the small changes we are making weekly, I can see this getting even better over the next couple of months.

Here are some of the changes:

  • We redesigned and simplified the website. I can’t stress the importance of simplification. Cut out steps and cut out the clutter. It made a huge impact on our conversion and I know it will make a huge impact on yours.
  • Create one call to action. What do you want the audience to do?
  • Google eliminated the right hand ads which gave us a little boost. This may have hurt a lot of other companies. We were always bidding high. It eliminated some of our competition.
  • Added more negative keywords.
  • Did A/B testing with text ads.
  • **added Gmail sponsored ads to the mix**

Gmail Sponsored Ads

I hate giving away secrets like Gmail Sponsored Ads because I know there are other video companies out their watching our every move. It’s a curse, but I want to make sure I give you as much value as possible.

In return I ask that you subscribe to our blog. It’s for the greater good. 🙂

Gmail sponsored ads have been a big focus of mine for the last couple of weeks. With Gmail sponsored ads you are able to run ads within Gmail.

We can place ads based on the account activity of a personal Gmail account. Think of all Gmail users out there. We are able to run promotions directly in their inbox.

The Gmail advert is set out in two sections in the Gmail inbox – a collapsed ad and an expanded ad, but essentially this is the same advert. The collapsed ad appears as a ‘new message’ in your inbox and when you click on it, this then leads you to another ad – the expanded ad. You pay for the cost per click (CPC) every time somebody clicks on the collapsed ad. The expanded ad then leads the user to your landing page; however, you do not pay for the click from the expanded ad to the landing page (this is free).

Here is what one looks like.

Gmail-Sponsored-ad

They are simple and have had a big impact on our Adwords account.

I created a simple tutorial video on how to set up Gmail sponsored ads. Watch it so you can see what I am talking about.

Now let’s jump over to Facebook and Instagram.

When we first started…here is what the numbers looked like:

Facebook and Instagram

(30 Day Time Period)

Spend: $4665
Number of Leads 446
Cost Per Lead: $10.45

Facebook and Instagram March 2016

(30 Day Time Period)

Spend: $6970
Number of Leads: 1461
Cost Per Lead: $4.77

Yay for Facebook and Instagram! Our leads have gone up drastically and our cost per lead has been cut in half.

Here are the changes we made to our Facebook and Instagram ads to achieve our results:

  • We basically had Facebook track anyone who hit our conversion page and created a lookalike audience that matched our conversions. It has been very effective.
  • Created a new whiteboard animation video that provided a little better messaging.
  • Increased our ad spend budget.
  • Allowed our good ads to keep running continuously.

That is exactly how we increased our leads.

Please note that we have created an overall system and you are getting a glimpse into this portion of our marketing campaigns. There are more videos and blogs coming in the near future (and most likely a book).

Now it is your turn.

Let us know if you have any questions. We would love to help implement our whole marketing strategy to your business.

Thanks for reading Incredible: From 100 Leads Per Week To 500 Leads Per Week. See How We Did It!

How to Reach The Right Audience With YouTube Video Ads

How to Reach The Right Audience With YouTube Video Ads

Normally I will tell a story or shoot the breeze for a bit before I jump into the meat of my message. But we do not have time for that because I am about to show you something amazing.

Not Kidding!

This is the ultimate lesson on how to reach the right audience with YouTube Video Ads. When I say “right audience” I mean those people who are looking for your product or service.

We are not just talking about clicks or cheap traffic. We are talking about conversions.

You can target certain groups that are interested in your product or service and I am going to show you how.

Note…there are some options for big brands who like spending a lot of money for top of mind purchasing, but I really want to focus on in-market audiences. In other words…Conversions

Let’s jump in.

 

Finding people who are interested in your product or service

Choosing the right audience in ad groups can make or break your campaign. Google Display Network provides you with a lot of options yet you have to be careful. Listen to what Google says. This is how they collect so much data on people and what they are searching for.

[xt_blockquote author=”Google”]“When someone visits a Google partner website, we may use the content of the page or website to show contextually relevant ads. We use the main topics and themes from the page as well as data from third-party companies to associate interests with a visitor’s anonymous Cookie ID. This takes into account how often people visit sites like those, among other factors.

“Google may use information that people provide to these partner websites about their gender, age, and other demographic or interest information. We may also use the websites people visit and third-party data to infer this information. For example, if the sites a person visits have a majority of female visitors (based on aggregated survey data on site visitation), we may associate the person’s cookie with the female demographic category.” [/xt_blockquote]

Basically you’re being tracked. Everything you are doing on the internet provides Google with information so that they can run you targeted ads.

This includes YouTube ads otherwise know as Trueview ads.

Back in February Google made a big adjustment to Trueview Video Ads. They divided the audiences into to groups.

1. Affinity AudiencesTargeting YouTube Audiences
2. In-Marketing Audiences

Affinity Audience (broad)

If you are going to use Affinity Audiences you will want to make sure you have a nice chunk of money sitting around. This audience is set up for big brands who would like to extend their TV campaign to an online context. They can also do some targeting, but everything is more broad.

We do not suggest this, but to each their own.

Here is how to limit the affinity audience. For example, instead of reaching hotel lovers, a hotel located in San Francisco may want to reach a certain tech audience that will fit their hotel style. Or instead of reaching Women, a Women’s clothing story may want to reach women who love a certain style of dress. You can do this by:

-Using free form interests entered as keywords
-And/or using URLs as proxy for interests

In-Market Audiences (more Defined)

When you use In-market audiences you are able to reach customers who are actively searching for your product or service. Once again, Google uses all of your search history and browsing data to determine if you are actively searching for a certain product or service.

The biggest difference…this audience is close to completing a purchase. This will help us get more conversions.

Isn’t that what we want?

Here is an example from the almighty Google.

Say that you own a car dealership and want to advertise on AdWords. Here’s how you could use audiences based on your goals:

• When to use “affinity audiences”: Your goal is to reach as many people as possible and drive awareness of your dealership, so that when people need to buy a new car or have their car serviced, your business comes to mind. You’re probably running ads on TV stations and want to complement this campaign with an online campaign to expand your reach. With affinity audiences, you could go beyond car enthusiasts, and reach “green living enthusiasts” with ads about hybrid cars, “bargain hunters” with ads about a big sale coming up, and “luxury shoppers” with ads about high-end cars.

• When to use “in-market audiences”: Your goal is to reach people who are actively considering buying a car and have narrowed their decision down to a handful of brands or types of cars. These customers are open to various options or dealers, but intend to make a decision soon. You could complement your search campaign or display keywords campaign with “in-market audiences,” and reach people who are looking for “new sedans” or “new luxury vehicles.”

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497941

So there you have it. Now lets jump into the video ad campaign and see where this is located.

In-Market Video Ads. Locating the right audience

Here is another side note. Getting the right traffic to your website is expensive, bringing them back is not. So you want to make sure you have your remarketing pixels in place.

This is a key to getting the maximum amount of leads. Start building lists of people who visit your website. Once they land on your site, watch one of your videos, or click on an ad you can put them into your remarketing list. By the end of the year you will want to have thousands of people cookied.

I know I am going to get this question…

“What is the difference between interests and topics?”

Heck if I know! It’s not like I am a video marketing genius…or am I?

Wait, I think I am so I am going to answer this question for you.

In a pumpkin/nutshell, the big difference is context. Topics will place you video ads on websites or videos that are directly related to the topic.

For example

Sports products would go on espn.comin-market YouTube Audiences

That is fine, but we still want to make sure we get the In-market interests dialed in. This is the big one. In-market allows you to find people who are actually searching for your product or service. It doesn’t matter what website or video the person is on.

Why not try both?

I am testing that right now to see happens. Google tells you to not do this because it might restrict your audience, but their motives are a little different than mine.

I have found that when Google suggests something, it will usually increase my cost per lead. Their goal is have us pay the maximum amount per lead, so be a little weary of their suggestions.

Finally, I must warn you that this is a new thing Google came out with February 17. Be tight on your budget until you have proven the concept. This is exciting because Google is only going to get better at it.

Also make sure you are tracking conversions. Set up the conversion pixel so know that the money spend is bringing you in leads.
Until next time this is Jace Vernon signing off.

One other thing…if you run the right ads, you get these types of comments. How long as it been since a person say they enjoyed your marketing ad?

Social Proof on Video Ads

I should get something for giving you guys such amazing content…oh wait, I do.
Look for our next Video Marketing Tip. Hope you enjoyed.

How To Reach The Right Audience On YouTube

 

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How to Reach The Right Audience With YouTube Ads

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How To Compete In PPC (pay-per-click) On A Small Budget

Small companies or startups are always looking for a way to compete against the big corporations that have thousands, if not millions of dollars to spend on PPC campaigns.

Lets say you only have a budget of $500 a month and your competitors have a budget of $500,000 a month. How are you going to be able to compete?

They are Goliath and you’re David. There is just no way to compete against Goliath.

Most of you know that David did win, but it wasn’t by facing Goliath with a sword and shield. He brought a sling, which is basically like a gun. He fought with brain…not brawn.

“The same misunderstanding happens in David vs. Goliath fights in business. Most fail to recognize the advantages an underdog brand has when it faces off against a competitor who has strength, size, and wealth. And that’s exactly why nimble, upstart companies, with their new solutions to old problems, often can best Goliaths.”

Inc magazine

This applies to PPC ads. You don’t have the budget so you have to be quicker, more creative, and extremely observant. You need to know what is taking place on your Campaigns.

Let’s take a look at Adwords.

If you have an extremely tight budget you have to be so selective. Most small businesses will run hundreds of keywords to their account. You can’t do this. It’s like going head to head with your competitors…Which is a bad idea.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Focus on a limited number of keywords
2. Watch it like a hawk (ad negative keywords)
3. Focus on a certain area
4. Create amazing ads. (this is a big one.)
5. Create better landing pages
6. **Use Facebook, YouTube Ads, and Bing (much less competition)**

1. Focus on a limited number of Keywords

Keyword research is the beginning of all ads. Lets look at the hotel real-estate industry.

If you want a chance to get some leads you have to go after long tailed keywords in certain areas.

“Find a home to purchase in Salt Lake City Utah” (long tailed keyword)

vs

“Real estate Salt Lake” (you’re going to get crushed)

What you lack in funds you have to make up in brains. Make sure to do your keyword research. It pays big dividends.

You can use the keyword planner tool or you can use other resources.

2. Watch your PPC Campaing like a hawk

Do not set and forget it. You have to make adjustments according to the results.

Example:

You might be getting clicks for “Real Estate Rentals.” You will need go into your account and add a negative keywords.

“Rentals”

You will also want to make sure you check your Ads often and see which one is producing the best results.

3. Focus on a particular area.

Even though you do business all around the globe you still need to focus in on an area. You do not have the budget to compete globally so you will need to compete locally first and then expand as revenues grow.

4. Create amazing ads.

Here is another place where you have to spend time. You can afford to be like everyone else because you can’t blow your budget. Every click counts.

Take a look at the ads below.

The first one shows you a bunch of ads. Everyone is the same.

Same old boring ads

These two stand out because they use everything that is available plus they add in a lot of numbers and symbols

Great Ad Copy

Amazing PPC add

5. Create better landing pages.

I wrote an entire article on landing pages so I am not going to go into it here.

http://marketinghy.com/2014/09/behind-perfect-landing-pages/

6. **Use Facebook, YouTube Ads, and Bing (much less competition)**

This is big…Really BIG

More often then not the best strategy is to not compete. Go elsewhere.

Facebook is way cheaper and it is only getting better. You can spend 10 dollars a day on facebook and get better results. Some of my campaigns are 1/10th the cost of Adwords.

YouTube is another one of my favorite avenues. It costs 9 cents a view and can get you a lot more traffic. Just last night I decided to rank a video for a long tail keyword.

It took me 10 minutes to hit page one of Google and the top spot of YouTube. Best of all…It was free to do. Check out the proof below.

Screen Shot 2015-02-12 at 10.05.17 AM

Bing is also another great source. Although it has less traffic it still produces results at 1/5th the cost of Google.

There you have it. If you have an extremely small budget you really should consider fighting the battle a little differently.

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Alot of times people we find they are too busy or they just do not have the technical skills to implement our strategies. If you can not implement this strategy, we would love to do it for you. Everything we do is based off of ROI and will help your business. Sign Up and we will get you started right away. We will manager your Video Ads Campaigns, Email Campaigns and Autocomplete Services. They Work and we use them. Sign Up and see if we are a good fit. We may not be…but it’s worth seeing. This could change your business.

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Thanks for reading.

How To Compete In PPC (pay-per-click) With A Small Budget

Until next time.