I just signed a client that was spending 7k per month on Google Adwords and taking in about 50k before expenses. Now this business is profitable but they asked me to pull information and look over the setup. They want to exponentially grow but felt something was wrong.
With Adwords you need target specific niche business first ( easier and cheaper then taking the giants head on although we will get next to them for 20% of their click costs) and you can be very profitable. It takes alot of work and research to find keywords and expand on the niches along with landing pages that get people to take action. The advantage of a fantastic campaign is that it matches you exactly to a person with the need you can solve if you have your ducks in a row.
This is immediate and it's like shooting fish in a barrel not the ocean.
Here is what i noticed for this customer
- They outsourced the marketing and closing to a 3rd party who was taking over 40% of the closed deals.
- They only help clients with property in Florida yet the ad's were blocking Florida in Google. They were picking up out of state people which was good but still leaving a bunch on opportunities on the table. They were missing all the Florida instate business. They probably have another site hidden to grab those for themselves.
- They were in the Google display network - wasting about 5.8k per month of the 7k spend with ad's running on websites that had nothing to do with what they offer. Anyone on the google ADSENSE network can say serve up Ad's looking for business clients on my website and then generate clicks through friends and you PAY FOR THEM. so 80+% of their spend was way off track
- Then i started thinking what is happening to all the leads that call in for clients who have problems in other states? are they selling those leads to other companies in other states offering the same services or do they have outside business interests in those states. My best guess proved true and they had my client paying for leads nationwide and these people are opening offices in states where they saw opportunity with zero marketing costs.
- Now I also think they were taking many of the instate deals for themselves on the side but giving my client enough profit to never question it.
The Conclusion - They are dropping the marketing company, managing the leads and then deciding what to do in other states. They will eliminate the Google display network and we are adding in hundreds of very targeted keywords with about 10 different landing sites. My expectation is we will be spending about 25-50% of what they did before and generate 5-10x the customer volume.
How do i get paid on a deal like this - I will get a percentage of every order they receive and they will pay for the Google ads. So I am working on a model where i get paid for RESULTS. They will be saving the 40% on the marketing company and can hire 1-2 people to take and manage the back-end business themselves.
Now the other guys were paid for results but the question to ask anyone you hire is what happens to all the other possible results I pay for and who benefits from them.
THINGS TO DO- Take the time and make the effort to learn this business or hire someone to work with you that is passionate about making you successful.
- The free Google is OK but it should be used as a backup to Adwords in most instances.
- You need a solid group of Ad's to test and rotate
- You need a monthly budget
- You need custom landing pages that serve up what your client is ready to take action on - you need to speak their terms not yours.
- Stay off the Google display network unless you really understand what you are doing or just want to get your name out there - those people are not looking for what you are offering, that network is more like throwing an ad in the newspaper.
- Monitor all results - You have Clicks and Conversions. Getting clicks without conversions means your landing page and ad's are not in alignment with your potential customers
- Learn their lingo and use it in the ads. What phrase words o they use when searching for answers? Is is different in Different places in the USA if you are running national ads - which means you will be breaking your campaign into smaller pieces with more landing pages and ads.
- Target to the area where you get biggest bang for your buck.
- Monitor everything - eliminate states, cities, ads that don't drive results and revenue.