I spent yesterday afternoon talking to people about their website...it was very fun. Thanks to all who played.
The spots filled up very quickly and I'm sorry if you missed out. I'll do it again soon.
Everyone I talked to is doing well...and had a transaction cost of between $200 and $350 -- even if they didn't know it when we first started talking. We worked through the numbers to figure it out pretty quickly.
There were a couple of things I probably need to be clear on because 3 of the people I talked to had sort of mis-interpreted what I have been saying.
So...I'd like to clarify.
**1. I recomend you get ALL the traffic you can get from Google BEFORE moving to overture.
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If you've got a limited budget, spend it ALL at Google first. Don't split it up "evenly" between the two.
Every person I talked to who was using both, had a higher cost per click on Overture than google, and they were all reaching their daily maximum google budget.
So, to be crystal clear -- get all the traffic you can get from Google FIRST.
**2. I suggest you pay the LEAST for the MOST traffic you can get.
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This was sort of a point of confusion for a couple of people I talked to yesterday, so they are probably representative of many people I DIDN"T talk to.
When I suggest lowering your bids on google, I don't mean to do it just to pay less for the SAME number of clicks, I want you to pay the same amount of money for MORE clicks.
Let's use a $10 budget as an example with a 50 cent maximum cost per click.
If you're reaching your daily maximum budget of $10 -- at your CPC of 50 cents, you would get 20 visitors a day.
$300 a month for 600 visitors.
Now, if you're reaching that daily maximum EVERY day...it means you're paying TOO MUCH for those visitors that you're getting, because once you reach your daily maximum they stop showing your ad....leaving potential visitors to your site behind.
What I want you to do is find the OPTIMAL balance between what you pay...and what you get.
Ideally, I'm looking to see you spend ALMOST your daily maximum budget...and get MORE visitors.
Let's say you were able to lower your bids to 40 cents...and STILL reach your daily maximum budget. Instead of getting 20 visitors a day for your $10 -- you'd be getting 25 visitors a day for same money...or an EXTRA 150 vistiors a month.
If you were able to lower your bids to 30 cents, and not quite reach your daily maximum budget, but you got to $9.90 -- you'd get 30 visitors a day...or 300 MORE visitors than you're getting right now for the same money.
That's what I really want you to focus on. i don't want you to spend less money. I want you to get the most for the money you're spending, and if you're reaching your daily maximum budget, you are NOT getting the most you can from your money.
That said...my real desire is that you know your numbers (especially the big important one -- your cost per transaction) and spend accordingly.
In the same afternoon I talked to someone who was spending $4000 and getting 12 transctions ($350 cost per transaction) and someone who was spending $10,000 and getting 30 transactions ($330 CPT)
The amazing thing is, it doesn't immediately dawn on people that if I spend more I can make more.
I want you to spend as much money as you'd like to multiply.
The formula?
How much you spent / How many transactions you did = Your cost per transaction (CPT)
Ok...onward.
**3. Stop beating yourself up for NOT being perfect at follow up.
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I know I sometimes sound like a broken record trying to get you to focus on follow up, and I'm sorry.
My job here is to point you in the direction of what would be OPTIMAL and help you get there.
2 of the people I talked to, are doing fantastically well in connecting with leads, and if they are going to buy in the next 90 days, they are converting almost everyone....but they're not doing so well on converting the people who are MORE than 90 days away.
Both these people had CPT's in the $300 range...but felt bad about not converting more of the long termers.
For one of them, I recomended he try his hardest to help the ones who were going to buy in 60 or 90 days, pass on the leads to someone else after 90 days, and just spend more money to get more right now leads, at his current CPT.
Do what you're best at...and don't beat yourself up over not being optimal.
More on that later.