Growing an email list with Google Ads

[Andy Black]

I started this project accidentally last month while messing about in another thread (here).


Here’s the Google Ads stats for the last 7 days (I'm targeting the whole world at the moment, hence the low CPC's):




Here's a screenshot of the list growth in a new MailCheat(Chimp) account I setup for this project:




I then created a new YouTube channel so people could follow-along. The first couple of videos are linked to below.

What's your takeaways?

What will you do different going forward?

View: https://youtu.be/38mgK3LDD3I

View: https://youtu.be/lmGdO8pgQLE

 

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[SEBASTlAN]

Impressive! Do you split test your offers?

 

[Andy Black]

Impressive! Do you split test your offers?

No split-testing done yet.

The second video shows the simple offer on the simple landing page.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

@Andy Black's totally killing it! Going back to first principles...

 

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[Andy Black]

@Andy Black's totally killing it! Going back to first principles...

Thanks.

Ignore the low CPC and CPA for the moment. I just wanted to show how simple it can be to get started.

I’ve a whole thread explain that landing pages don’t convert, people do:

• The biggest landing page mistake

It’s all about getting the right person to the right offer at the right time.


I’m also trying to show how little copy needs to be on a sales page / landing page.

And I’m trying out a way of building a YouTube channel by having serialised content that’s a follow-along.

I’ll start running YouTube Ads to the videos that I’m creating on the channel and see if that can start growing a different email list.

Next steps though are to start making money so I can keep spending the €5-10/day on this project.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

It’s all about getting the right person to the right offer at the right time.


I’m also trying to show how little copy needs to be on a sales page / landing page.

I agree. In direct response circles, long copy tends to always get promoted ahead of short copy in terms of effectiveness. But from my observations, the most effective length actually depends on the offer and more specifically on where the prospect is on the buyer's journey and how far along the landing page is trying to take them.

In your case, as in the second vid, a short landing page with just a headline makes sense. You're targetting people who just want to learn more about something - they're at the information-seeking stage, somewhere problem or solution aware. And you're just giving them the information. Adding more copy is actually probably going to reduce effectiveness since it will either (1) give too much away and take away from their curiosity, (2) confuse them as to what the offer is, (3) make it seem like you're trying too hard.

On the other hand, if you wanted to sell them a $300 dollar product about the info they're seeking, then just a headline would not do, since you're trying to move them through quite a lot of stages in the buyer's journey in one go - you'll likely need quite a long landing page.

Next steps though are to start making money so I can keep spending the €5-10/day on this project.

Have you thought about having an on-boarding email series? You can soft-promote one or more affiliate products in your niche (these can be products you yourself are using - basically giving people tips on how (and most importantly why) to use them) - that will likely get you the $ you're looking for at this stage without requiring you to create your own product.

 

[Andy Black]

Even if long sales copy would win I like to start with none and see if I can get ads running, ads showing, and ads clicked on.

My thinking is there’s no point agonising over what’s on the page if you can’t get anyone to it.

Have you thought about having an on-boarding email series? You can soft-promote one or more affiliate products in your niche (these can be products you yourself are using - basically giving people tips on how (and most importantly why) to use them) - that will likely get you the $ you're looking for at this stage without requiring you to create your own product.

I’d like to put an offer on the Thank-You page first and see if I can dial it in so it’s “self-liquidating”.

I’ll definitely look at an onboarding email series later. For now I’m trying to use the free plan on MailCheat(Chimp) that doesn’t allow automations other than a first welcome email.

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

Even if long sales copy would win I like to start with none and see if I can get ads running, ads showing, and ads clicked on.

My thinking is there’s no point agonising over what’s on the page if you can’t get anyone to it.

This is very similar to how we work at my agency. The idea is to a/b test starting from very general features (offer, marketing angle, etc.) to very specific ones (copy, length, etc.). Gradually you get all elements into place, but you always start with the most general ones, since if those aren't right, as you say, then there's no point in getting anything else right.

I’d like to put an offer on the Thank-You page first and see if I can dial it in so it’s “self-liquidating”.

I’ll definitely look at an onboarding email series later. For now I’m trying to use the free plan on MailCheat(Chimp) that doesn’t allow automations other than a first welcome email.

Seems like a great idea, especially given MailCheat(Chimp)'s automation constraints on the free plan. I still have a much older account, started way back in the day, and that one has no automation constraints on the free plan. Kind of a pity that they introduced automation constraints for all newer accounts.

 

[Deleted74396]

What's your plans on making it profitable? Is it to send people to your course?

 

[Andy Black]

What's your plans on making it profitable? Is it to send people to your course?

I doubt I’ll sell my course to people currently signing up. My course likely costs more than an average monthly salary for where I’m getting signups from.

I’ll figure it out as I go along.

If the average salary is $280/mth in Indonesia for instance, then I’m wondering what folks might be happy to spend $2.80/mth on.

 

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[Deleted74396]

I doubt I’ll sell my course to people currently signing up. My course likely costs more than an average monthly salary for where I’m getting signups from.

I’ll figure it out as I go along.

If the average salary is $280/mth in Indonesia for instance, then I’m wondering what folks might be happy to spend $2.80/mth on.

This will be an interesting thread to watch for sure! About 20% of my audience are from the Philippines (totally randomly, actually) where the average wage is about 15% of my main audience (USA), so I can't wait to see you approach this

 

[guidaccio05]

Great thread! I will start with Youtube Ads tomorrow so I'll follow along. What would you say is an appropriate size for an audience?

 

[Blackman]

Hey Andy, you know I love your Adwords/Google Ads content, so no prizes for that.

As for building a list with Google Ads, isn't it slightly on the greyish side and could get you in trouble, especially if you have a very short "squeeze page" for the sole purpose of collecting email addresses?

I remember Google doesn't like blatant email collection like that, so maybe a slightly longer page with more content will put you on a safer side?

Also collecting sign ups from third world countries while paying pennies is all well and good, but you'll struggle to get anything out of those sign ups, because I'm sure as you realise yourself, these guys won't be buying anything and only want free stuff.

The CPC for English-speaking countries is higher for a reason, but even in that case, you really need to have a good funnel to be able to recover your costs, let alone make a profit.

With this type of advertising a lot of clicks are "wasted", because initially you have those people who will simply click away after landing on your page, then you have those who will sign up, but possibly later won't open your first email, and then you have those who will sign up, open your email, but won't necessarily click-through to your offer...

Yet obviously you are paying for every single click and considering the above, the numbers often don't add up in your favour. Anyway, that's my limited experience, as I haven't done email marketing via PPC much, to be honest.

 

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[Andy Black]

Great thread! I will start with Youtube Ads tomorrow so I'll follow along. What would you say is an appropriate size for an audience?

I’m not running YouTube Ads yet in this thread. I am/did in my “Figuring Out YouTube” thread:

• Figuring Out YouTube

 

[Andy Black]

Hey Andy, you know I love your Adwords/Google Ads content, so no prizes for that.

As for building a list with Google Ads, isn't it slightly on the greyish side and could get you in trouble, especially if you have a very short "squeeze page" for the sole purpose of collecting email addresses?

I remember Google doesn't like blatant email collection like that, so maybe a slightly longer page with more content will put you on a safer side?

Also collecting sign ups from third world countries while paying pennies is all well and good, but you'll struggle to get anything out of those sign ups, because I'm sure as you realise yourself, these guys won't be buying anything and only want free stuff.

The CPC for English-speaking countries is higher for a reason, but even in that case, you really need to have a good funnel to be able to recover your costs, let alone make a profit.

With this type of advertising a lot of clicks are "wasted", because initially you have those people who will simply click away after landing on your page, then you have those who will sign up, but possibly later won't open your first email, and then you have those who will sign up, open your email, but won't necessarily click-through to your offer...

Yet obviously you are paying for every single click and considering the above, the numbers often don't add up in your favour. Anyway, that's my limited experience, as I haven't done email marketing via PPC much, to be honest.

I’m just showing how quickly a page can be setup, especially if we’re just after an email address and aren’t “information harvesting”. If a project has legs then get more content created on the site.

We often build equally simple pages to generate phone call or email enquiries.

As for whether people buy or not... some people will likely buy something and I’ll get an earning-per-click. Whether that EPC is high enough to cover my CPC remains to be seen. For €5/day I’m happy to run little tests.

Also... bear in mind they’re still people doing searches to solve problems they have.

Can I help them? - Probably.

Will I get paid enough? - I don’t know.

Can I get people on the email list to get initial views on videos, learn more about what they’re trying to do and why? - Maybe.

I’d rather launch and learn than second guess myself.

I’ll talk about this stuff in another video. A few people are asking why I’m running campaigns in emerging countries...

 

[Blackman]

I’m just showing how quickly a page can be setup, especially if we’re just after an email address and aren’t “information harvesting”. If a project has legs then get more content created on the site.

We often build equally simple pages to generate phone call or email enquiries.

As for whether people buy or not... some people will likely buy something and I’ll get an earning-per-click. Whether that EPC is high enough to cover my CPC remains to be seen. For €5/day I’m happy to run little tests.

Also... bear in mind they’re still people doing searches to solve problems they have. Can I help them? Probably. Will I get paid enough? Don’t know. Can I get people on the email list to get initial views on videos, learn more about what they’re trying to do and why? Maybe.

I’d rather launch and learn than second guess myself.

I’ll talk about this stuff in another video. A few people are asking why I’m running campaigns in emerging countries...

I can see how building a list would be a great long-term idea for selling your Google Ads course, but I imagine the CPC for relevant keywords would be ridiculous for the usual suspects, i.e. US/CA/UK/AUS.

Testings things yourself is always a good idea, rather than guessing, so see how it goes for you and if you can get anything out of it.

 

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[Andy Black]

I can see how building a list would be a great long-term idea for selling your Google Ads course, but I imagine the CPC for relevant keywords would be ridiculous for the usual suspects, i.e. US/CA/UK/AUS.

Testings things yourself is always a good idea, rather than guessing, so see how it goes for you and if you can get anything out of it.

I’m less interested in selling my Google Ads course than serving info-seekers for other subjects. People are on Google searching for so many different things.

CPCs for info-seekers are generally cheaper than for buyers. I normally start with buyers and then have a look at the info-seekers. For some clients there’s just not much volume for buyer search terms for their products, but there’s a LOT of volume for info-seekers.

 

[broswoodwork]

If the average salary is $280/mth in Indonesia for instance, then I’m wondering what folks might be happy to spend $2.80/mth on.

Is it safe to assume, based on the lead gen process, that their English is serviceable? Maybe instead of getting them to buy something, they could be paid to do something. There must be something an army of tech literate people can do for $1.60/hr each that throws off a profit.

 

[Andy Black]

Is it safe to assume, based on the lead gen process, that their English is serviceable? Maybe instead of getting them to buy something, they could be paid to do something. There must be something an army of tech literate people can do for $1.60/hr each that throws off a profit.

Exactly. Folks in emerging countries may well want to work for folks in the Tier 1 countries...

 

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[Andy Black]

Short update...

I created a short video on a completely different YouTube channel and then sent an email to the list telling them to watch how to do something *without* needing their credit card.

And now my MailCheat(Chimp) account is under review and I can't send emails. I presume because I mentioned "credit card" in the email?

Argh.


I’m itching to find out how many people on the list will open that email and then click to watch the video on this new YouTube channel.

The 34.3% open rate is basically for the automated welcome email. I haven't sent anything else in the past few days. I wanted to get the new YouTube channel created and a first video on it.

 

[broswoodwork]

Short update...

I created a short video on a completely different YouTube channel and then sent an email to the list telling them to watch how to do something *without* needing their credit card.

And now my MailCheat(Chimp) account is under review and I can't send emails. I presume because I mentioned "credit card" in the email?

Argh.


I so want to find out how many people will open that email and then click to watch the video on the new YouTube channel with no subs. : (

View attachment 29870

There should be like a marketer's bill of rights. The balance of power on all of these platforms is ridiculous.

 

[Champion]

Hey Andy, thanks for sharing this case study. I think I will launch something similar very soon and let u guys know my results as well! Keep you updated.

 

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[Andy Black]

Hey Andy, thanks for sharing this case study. I think I will launch something similar very soon and let u guys know my results as well! Keep you updated.

You’re welcome. I hope I’m showing how easy it is to get started.

 

[Andy Black]

There should be like a marketer's bill of rights. The balance of power on all of these platforms is ridiculous.

I don’t even have control over my email list it seems.

I’m ditching MailCheat(Chimp) and will find something else that’s less trigger happy.

A learning for me is to catch mistakes earlier. If I'd started emailing earlier I would have learned earlier that their system would frown upon what I’m doing

I also think I’ll keep my email content super short in future and sell people on clicking a link to a YouTube video or to an article on a website I own. I figure that the less I write in the email the less I can get flagged for.

My usual landing page formula is for a headline, a couple of bullet point benefits, a call to action bullet point, then something to click. I’ll use that for emails and "teach people to click".

As it is I’ve spent €100 and a few hours to acquire 400 signups and learn quite a bit.

I don’t know if I can import them into any other platforms, or if they’re now gone for good.

It’s a learning and I’ll move swiftly on.

It just goes to show ... “You don’t learn until you launch.” (Dan Norris)

 

[JohnForte]

Yeah. I don’t even have control over my email list it seems.

I’m ditching MailCheat(Chimp) and will find something else that’s less trigger happy.

A learning for me is to catch mistakes earlier. I could have started emailing links to video tips earlier and found out this.

As it is I’ve spent €100 and acquired 400 signups. I don’t know if I can import them into any other platforms, or if they’re now gone for good.

It’s a learning and I’ll move swiftly on.

You should be able to just export it from MailCheat(Chimp). Just know email done right so you don't get added to blacklist, show up correctly in email clients and not jump up in spam rankings, is somewhat a dark art from a technology standpoint. That is why it's hard to move off of established players like MailCheat(Chimp).

I am starting to see more people build SMS list and since I am a freelancer I am even playing with that. Something to think when capturing emails.

 

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[Andy Black]

You should be able to just export it from MailCheat(Chimp). Just know email done right so you don't get added to blacklist, show up correctly in email clients and not jump up in spam rankings, is somewhat a dark art from a technology standpoint. That is why it's hard to move off of established players like MailCheat(Chimp).

I was hoping to not go down any more rabbit-holes. Maybe I’ll stay safe by writing less?

I am starting to see more people build SMS list and since I am a freelancer I am even playing with that. Something to think when capturing emails.

Interesting. What about apps? Do people create apps to push information to people on their phones, rather than send emails?

 

[Andy Black]

People have pointed me towards:

• Market Hero
• Mailerlite
• Convertkit Freemium

I've signed up to them all and am testing them out quickly.

I just want my landing page working again, adding signups to an email list.

I'm already annoyed with ConvertKit and it's form and landing page templates. I just want it simple!

Market Hero was a bit confusing initially but then I'm off creating automations already. There seems to be a lot to it, and what I like from the video on the homepage is how it's all geared to figuring out your LTV per subscriber.

Mailerlite seems nice and simple to setup. I'm just waiting for verification about my site or email address.


I need to get a couple of email addresses setup properly for the two lists and YouTube channels.

 

[PapaGang]

I started this project accidentally last month while messing about in another thread (here).


Here’s the Google Ads stats for the last 7 days (I'm targeting the whole world at the moment, hence the low CPC's):

View attachment 29790


Here's a screenshot of the list growth in a new MailCheat(Chimp) account I setup for this project:

View attachment 29789


I then created a new YouTube channel so people could follow-along. The first couple of videos are linked to below.

What's your takeaways?

What will you do different going forward?


>> Watch video 1 <<

>> Watch video 2 <<

This looks really cool. I'm following this.

 

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[Andy Black]

That's one down then. Two to go.

Why the heck do I need a fully finished website?

 

[PapaGang]

That's one down then. Two to go.

Why the heck do I need a fully finished website?

View attachment 29911

?