The problem with online advertising is there always seems to be a disconnect between your customer seeing your ad and making a purchase. Sending a thousand visitors to your homepage isn’t going make much of a difference if they leave right away.
Think of advertising like herding sheep. You have to keep gently nudging them to where they need to go or they’ll easily lose interest and wander off. The goal of the advertiser is to push as many sheep to the goal (which is a sale) as possible.
Here’s an example of a very simple lead generation marketing funnel.
First level – Traffic Generation
This is the part so many people focus on: making a good ad. Whether you’re advertising on Facebook, Google or everything in between, make sure it’s eye-catching, attention-grabbing, and entices the viewer to click on it. According to a study back in 2015 by Smart Insights, the average click through rate across all industries and channels was 0.06%. That’s less than one click per one thousand impressions.
On top of running ads, make sure you promote your landing page on social media, blog posts, email newsletters, etc. The more additional traffic you can send
Second level – Landing Page
Let’s say your ads reached 100,000 people. That means 600 people clicked through to your landing page. If you don’t have a landing page, GET ONE. We personally recommend Unbounce for it’s awesome design capabilities and decent rates.
Why use a landing page?
We’ve touched on this in the past, but the reason we always suggest using a landing page is because it’s hyper-focused. Each landing page should only have one purpose, whether it points to a contact form, a phone number, or a sales page, you. Every link that takes people away from the landing page is another hole for your sheep to escape.
For our landing pages, we like to use both a contact form and a trackable phone number to give people more options.
Third level – Retargeting
The vast majority of visitors will (unfortunately) bounce right off your landing page. It’s important to use retargeting pixels to track and target the ones that got away. We like to use a combination of Facebook retargeting (which will cover Facebook, Instagram, and mobile app ads), and Adroll (which covers everything else). Remember, repetition is the key to a successful sale. The more times an individual sees an ad, the more likely they will become a customer.
Fourth level – Close the deal
Once they sign up or call, you need to have the staff on-hand to handle it. They’ve clearly shown interest in your business, so the rest is up to you.
