What I've learned after consulting with over 50 companies on their ads

  1. Conversion tracking problems are widespread. Most companies struggle to get it right without help.
  2. There is a huge need for GA4 & GTM experts right now.
  3. Many blame their ads for issues in the business. Ads are pretty easy to get right, but getting your business right to afford running ads is very difficult.
  4. The Ad → Landing Page → sales call funnel is very difficult and expensive to make work.
  5. Don’t let Google or a Google rep run your ads. Ever.
  6. If you need the ads to be profitable in the next 90 days or you’re going out of business, don’t run them.
  7. It does seem like people are tighter with their money right now than 1-2 years ago.

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So what are some solutions you’ve been able to use for some of these? I’m mainly curious about the final point; people are getting tighter with their money right now.

That I don’t know. It’s what I’ve heard from my clients, but I don’t generally give offer or pricing advice to them, so not sure how they could solve it.

What I believe is if people don’t want to pay your price, they might not think you’re worth it, not that they don’t have the money. They definitely have the money; money is not in short supply in this world. Trust is in short supply, and people who can solve problems are in short supply.

What I think the solution is: You gotta be willing to change with the market. Change your pricing, change your offer, change how you fulfill, etc. You gotta test out different things. Add more value, simplify your offering so you can deliver it easier, etc.

Thank you! It’s only gotten worse since COVID. I say the exact same thing and people shake their heads.

Yeah, I talk to a lot of business owners. As much as I don’t want to blame ‘the economy,’ there’s a lot of evidence that maybe some things are outside of our control.

1-2 are absolutely right, but nobody pays right for that. That’s my line of expertise.

Where are you based? I have a requirement for that but live in NZ and the exchange rate isn’t favorable in most western countries

I may be able to help if you like; the exchange rate is favorable for you. Based in South Africa.

What are the main errors you see in #4?

I think it’s less about errors—I see many—and more that this is the most expensive way to get clients, which puts a lot of pressure on the funnel and the business.

I’m an ads guy all day, but I think this funnel would be more effective with more organic content.

I think people are savvy enough now that they look you up on social media.

I’ve experienced it in my own business; when people see my organic videos, the sales calls work better.

The second thing I’d say is, not enough companies have an email follow-up campaign for those that don’t buy right away. I think most salespeople would tell you, the vast majority of sales come from following up, something I think a lot of businesses drop the ball on.

Thank you for that.

I agree. It IS expensive, and you have to put in the work and pay good people for a solid PPC→landing page→sales call funnel.

It all has to be on point, real team effort. And that takes time, talent, and $$$

Our strategy right now, starting this from a mid-tier, fully-established digital agency going SaaS, is what you laid out.

We all feel we’re on the right track. You reassured me. We already have a deep client list to call; now we’re working on a more developed funnel.

I’m just the copywriter/SEO specialist working from the outside in, helping them organize it.

  1. Really? I thought there are a lot of tools out there to do conversion tracking. I’m curious what’s the conversion tracking issue here for most companies?

I’m also confused haha; there are tons of tools.

Usually the issue is that they’re tracking all kinds of nonsense. They have page views set up as conversions, the conversion tag fires multiple times a session, etc., so they’ll end up with hundreds of conversions in a month but wonder why they only spoke to like 5 people.

Haha, bad software I guess.

Thank you for the great insight. I’m curious, for #4, what would be the better alternative for you?

I can’t say, as I have no experience outside of providing this funnel. It’s been my whole career.

But I’m personally exploring using more organic content.

1: I’m going to test more ads through organic before launching them as ads
2: Having a strong organic content channel, like a YouTube channel or linked page with lots of content, might help with sales calls.

I’ve experienced this on a small level; getting on sales calls from people who found me organically. They go a lot better. I’ve been watching other marketers use YouTube channels to bolster their funnel. I don’t mean the ‘gurus’ type thing but just general people making videos.

I think people trust organic social a lot. So even without a big YouTube follower count, if everyone watching your videos are your customers and they’re finding you directly from ads and then searching you, it can work.

It’s something I’m experimenting with (hence this exact post) and I don’t expect it to do anything for another year or two, but I suspect it’ll make the whole funnel work better.

The downside is, it’s a lot more work than ads to a landing page to a sales call, so I don’t know how commercially viable this will be as a service to help others.

Agree with all of this, solid post.

Thank you for your reply. Generally, what kind of video do you feel is the most effective, that is not guru-ish?

Good to know, 6 partly and 7 felt bit strange aspect.