Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses

[Dmorr]

Thanks Andy, I remember watching one of your videos (possibly the one that you've posted above) where you mentioned that it's better to do some work upfront, make sure you can get traffic in that particular area for X business type, generate a lead and then get in touch with business owners offering your service.

This is exactly what I did prior to calling 3 of my potential clients as I explained above, but I think I was looking through this idea with rose-tinted glasses and completely ignoring the fact that, as you say, some business owners are just happy with whatever work volume they currently have and are not necessarily looking to grow...

After failing with my 4th potential client last week and spending £200+ on Google Ads, I decided to change my strategy slightly and make use of your saying of "helping people in motion".

What do I mean by that? So instead of just randomly looking up business owners who cover the area where my lead is in Google, I now look for businesses who not only cover the area that I need, but ALSO who advertise their business on Google Ads themselves.

That means that they are aware of Google's advertising platform and are willing to spend money on marketing, whether they do it themselves or through a marketing agency, but it's a clear indicator that they will be a lot more likely to make use of my leads, rather than someone who is not advertising on Google.

You might argue that what's the point of using my service, when they are currently doing the same thing, but I guess it would depend on what kind of results they are getting, because a poorly set up Adwords campaign can cost tons of money without generating any relevant leads...

And the second thing I'm planning to do is to contact business owners by posting personalised letters, sending to their company address, instead of calling/texting or emailing. I think the latter methods are heavily over-used, but possibly for a good reason....So I guess, I'll have to try my method and see how it goes.

I think a phone call is too spontaneous to introduce yourself, explain how the process works and offer your service, while a text is a bit too informal/non-professional, and an email could end up in their junk folder or these guys receive so many emails that yours could simply get ignored.

A letter will definitely make you stand out, especially with a hand-written address, a personalised message specifically geared towards that business owner, and of course a list of the calls that you've referred to that business prior to sending the letter.

1. Generate leads/calls for the business owner
2. Send a letter introducing yourself and asking for how did it go
3. Then email/call and secure the client

This is all theory at the moment, but I'm interested to find out how it will go.

This is a good route to take to start procuring customers to generate leads for. The success will be determined by the cost per lead to the customer based on the gross margin of the service that they sell. Also, the type of business is important. This type model works with some businesses better than others. I would consider sending the letter before actually sending any leads and if possible have a way to track the leads and how the customer handled them.

 

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[Blackman]

A little update from me on client acquisition, if anyone's interested, and hopefully @Andy Black will drop in with a few tips?

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to send letters, instead of calling or emailing my potential clients, but I quickly discounted that method, after my letter didn't get delivered, because I posted it with a signature requirement....

To make matters worse, the person who it was addressed to, only collected the letter from the local delivery office like 2 weeks later. Of course, I tried to call him and email in the meantime, but that's not the point anyway. Letters consume a lot of time and it's just an unnecessary delay in communication.

Lesson learned - don't re-invent the wheel, calling is the popular choice, because it simply works. No more silly letters, and I would rather NOT email as well - calls only.

For the last few weeks I also changed my strategy of how I choose which clients to promote and contact offering my services.

Instead of spending hours trying to find that perfect company that looks professional, covers many areas and has many years of experience, I now go to Google, search for the service + area that I'm looking to find a client in, make a list of 10, 20, 30 relevant businesses, ideally those with a direct mobile contact number instead of an office number, and START CALLING.

So at this point, I've already promoted a few clients for my own testing and I KNOW that I can get relevant leads, I KNOW approximately how much it costs to get those leads and I KNOW that they are genuine customers looking for quotes - exactly what a business wants.

This means that when I'm contacting a new client, I essentially have customers with phones in their hands looking for a service in the area that my potential client covers. All I need is a "YES" from a new client, and the next day their phone will start ringing, because my landing page is already all set up and the Google Ads campaign is all up and running - it's just a matter of directing the traffic/calls to whoever I choose to work with.

Now as much as I don't like cold calling and "selling myself" over the phone, but this is a necessary process that needs to be done in order to "qualify" your potential client and not waste time blindly promoting companies who have no interest in paying for any kind of advertising/marketing.

I made this mistake with my first few clients, where I just found their website, it looked professional to me, so I decided to promote them (without calling them first), spent some money on ads, got the traffic, referred the calls, and then when I tried to call/text to say that I've referred real customers to them completely free of charge, some of them weren't even bothered to reply to me....

The approach that I've been taking lately is a lot more "pushy", but I believe it helps to weed out those who don't have the interest or the budget to spend on marketing.

The reason why I say it's "pushy", is because I mention the costs involved for using my services in the first call. First, I get the basics out of the way, making sure they offer the service and cover the area, where I can get the leads, and I they ask if they would be interested in getting more work from those areas.

I offer them a short trial of 4-5 customers free of charge, so they can see that I'm a genuine guy and can get real business for them, and once I've done that, I can attempt to secure a minimum of 1 month marketing for a fixed monthly fee + advertising spend.

I tried the above with 2 guys so far, but 1 of them was a bit rude over the phone with customers, so I didn't like that and decided to give him a miss, and the other guy was apparently very happy with everything, even completed a few jobs that I referred to him during the trial, but told me he wants to start from March 2020?

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but this seems to be a better strategy for client acquisition, where you call them up, have a quick chat, explain how it all works, discuss the costs involved, refer a few calls free of charge, so they can see that you're serious, and then "close" them for a monthly service.

I'm totally new to local lead gen client acquisition via cold calls, so I'm just dumping my thoughts/experience here, which hopefully will be useful for those starting out.

Can you please dig any holes in the above for me, Andy, and what's your approach to this, assuming you still do cold calling?

 

[Andy Black]

A little update from me on client acquisition, if anyone's interested, and hopefully @Andy Black will drop in with a few tips?

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to send letters, instead of calling or emailing my potential clients, but I quickly discounted that method, after my letter didn't get delivered, because I posted it with a signature requirement....

To make matters worse, the person who it was addressed to, only collected the letter from the local delivery office like 2 weeks later. Of course, I tried to call him and email in the meantime, but that's not the point anyway. Letters consume a lot of time and it's just an unnecessary delay in communication.

Lesson learned - don't re-invent the wheel, calling is the popular choice, because it simply works. No more silly letters, and I would rather NOT email as well - calls only.

For the last few weeks I also changed my strategy of how I choose which clients to promote and contact offering my services.

Instead of spending hours trying to find that perfect company that looks professional, covers many areas and has many years of experience, I now go to Google, search for the service + area that I'm looking to find a client in, make a list of 10, 20, 30 relevant businesses, ideally those with a direct mobile contact number instead of an office number, and START CALLING.

So at this point, I've already promoted a few clients for my own testing and I KNOW that I can get relevant leads, I KNOW approximately how much it costs to get those leads and I KNOW that they are genuine customers looking for quotes - exactly what a business wants.

This means that when I'm contacting a new client, I essentially have customers with phones in their hands looking for a service in the area that my potential client covers. All I need is a "YES" from a new client, and the next day their phone will start ringing, because my landing page is already all set up and the Google Ads campaign is all up and running - it's just a matter of directing the traffic/calls to whoever I choose to work with.

Now as much as I don't like cold calling and "selling myself" over the phone, but this is a necessary process that needs to be done in order to "qualify" your potential client and not waste time blindly promoting companies who have no interest in paying for any kind of advertising/marketing.

I made this mistake with my first few clients, where I just found their website, it looked professional to me, so I decided to promote them (without calling them first), spent some money on ads, got the traffic, referred the calls, and then when I tried to call/text to say that I've referred real customers to them completely free of charge, some of them weren't even bothered to reply to me....

The approach that I've been taking lately is a lot more "pushy", but I believe it helps to weed out those who don't have the interest or the budget to spend on marketing.

The reason why I say it's "pushy", is because I mention the costs involved for using my services in the first call. First, I get the basics out of the way, making sure they offer the service and cover the area, where I can get the leads, and I they ask if they would be interested in getting more work from those areas.

I offer them a short trial of 4-5 customers free of charge, so they can see that I'm a genuine guy and can get real business for them, and once I've done that, I can attempt to secure a minimum of 1 month marketing for a fixed monthly fee + advertising spend.

I tried the above with 2 guys so far, but 1 of them was a bit rude over the phone with customers, so I didn't like that and decided to give him a miss, and the other guy was apparently very happy with everything, even completed a few jobs that I referred to him during the trial, but told me he wants to start from March 2020?

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but this seems to be a better strategy for client acquisition, where you call them up, have a quick chat, explain how it all works, discuss the costs involved, refer a few calls free of charge, so they can see that you're serious, and then "close" them for a monthly service.

I'm totally new to local lead gen client acquisition via cold calls, so I'm just dumping my thoughts/experience here, which hopefully will be useful for those starting out.

Can you please dig any holes in the above for me, Andy, and what's your approach to this, assuming you still do cold calling?

I don't cold call, but your strategy sounds sensible. I don't think mentioning the price in the first call is necessarily pushy. They probably want to know anyway, and you want to screen people out quickly too. Just bear in mind you're trying to find the people who see the value in what you do and not the cost.

 

[Blackman]

I don't cold call, but your strategy sounds sensible. I don't think mentioning the price in the first call is necessarily pushy. They probably want to know anyway, and you want to screen people out quickly too. Just bear in mind you're trying to find the people who see the value in what you do and not the cost.

Thanks Andy. Good to know that I'm on the right path.

Did you end up doing any cold-calling in your earlier days, when you just started out with local lead gen? Or did it sort of take off from word of mouth, helping out locals, people you know, etc?

I know you get a lot of inbound nowadays, but I'm sure you weren't always known as the "Adwords guy", so how did you do it "back in the day"?

 

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[Andy Black]

Thanks Andy. Good to know that I'm on the right path.

Did you end up doing any cold-calling in your earlier days, when you just started out with local lead gen? Or did it sort of take off from word of mouth, helping out locals, people you know, etc?

I know you get a lot of inbound nowadays, but I'm sure you weren't always known as the "Adwords guy", so how did you do it "back in the day"?

I helped my electrician friend for free. That opened my eyes to doing this full-time.

I then got people (my electrician friend and his family) to mention it to other people. Not much came of that.

I sent myself on "start your own business courses" (omg they were so bad). I met lots of budding business owners on those courses. Tada!

 

[Blackman]

Tried closing another 3 clients, who all were happy to go ahead with my "5 customer free trial", and referred them genuine customers who converted into sales, but for some reason I'm struggling to close those clients for a regular monthly package after the trial...

I'll admit I'm in a quite low paying industry, where the revenue made from a job is not huge, so I'm thinking my efforts would be better spent in an industry, where services are more expensive? Initially, it makes sense, but then obviously the keywords in those fields will be more expensive as well, thus raising the overall monthly cost for my services?

What gives me motivation to continue trying in my current field, is that one of the potential clients that I reached out to, mentioned to me that he's been using another agency for regular advertising for the last 2 years and it's working well for him.

So basically I've got proof, albeit from just one guy, that my service can be bought on regular basis, but I've already been through 5 guys and none of them took it further than the trial, citing the high monthly cost as the main reason...

Am I in the wrong industry or it's a bit too early to draw conclusions and I should try another 4-5 guys?

 

[Dmorr]

Tried closing another 3 clients, who all were happy to go ahead with my "5 customer free trial", and referred them genuine customers who converted into sales, but for some reason I'm struggling to close those clients for a regular monthly package after the trial...

I'll admit I'm in a quite low paying industry, where the revenue made from a job is not huge, so I'm thinking my efforts would be better spent in an industry, where services are more expensive? Initially, it makes sense, but then obviously the keywords in those fields will be more expensive as well, thus raising the overall monthly cost for my services?

What gives me motivation to continue trying in my current field, is that one of the potential clients that I reached out to, mentioned to me that he's been using another agency for regular advertising for the last 2 years and it's working well for him.

So basically I've got proof, albeit from just one guy, that my service can be bought on regular basis, but I've already been through 5 guys and none of them took it further than the trial, citing the high monthly cost as the main reason...

Am I in the wrong industry or it's a bit too early to draw conclusions and I should try another 4-5 guys?

You might do an analysis using the prospect’s gross margin and figure the lead cost a percentage of that margin and see if its worth staying in the niche

 

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[Blackman]

You might do an analysis using the prospect’s gross margin and figure the lead cost a percentage of that margin and see if its worth staying in the niche

I'll admit it's a low-paying niche that I'm currently in, so I've already decided that I'm going to take a break from it, switch to a completely different, higher-paying niche, and see what difference that makes.

It's only a matter of making a new landing page, creating/optimizing a new campaign and doing a trial with a few clients.

 

[Andy Black]

In a nutshell:

1. Start with buyer search terms.
2. Use one modified broad match keyword per ad group.
3. Use appropriate negatives (shared negative keyword lists are handy for this).
4. Name the ad group after the keyword (so you can view ads and see what keyword each ad is written for).
5. Echo back the keyword in the ad copy.
6. Echo back the keyword in the landing page.
7. Start with a simple page that's relevant.
8. Don't forget to make your landing page CTA prominent!
9. Launch and learn.

 

[sonny_1080]

Here's what I did... maybe you can skip steps, or modify them for your situation.


Getting started - that first "client" and my first AdWords campaign

What I like about client work, is that you learn with someone else's ad budget. Ideally they pay you for your time too, so you're getting paid to spend someone else's money - quite different from learning with your own ad spend, where you're also trying to learn what products of your own sell etc.

Let me say that again:

Client work allows you to get paid to learn AdWords using other people's money.​

You can take on a client and manage their campaigns with no knowledge of paid search before-hand, just a willingness to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in.

My suggestion would be to start with someone you already know. Maybe you have a friend or someone in the family who runs a local service business or is a tradesman?

I started with an electrician friend who wasn't getting enough work. I offered to build a website for him and he bit my hand off. I didn't even know about AdWords back then, and it wasn't until a voucher fell out of an SEO book I'd bought that I decided to have a go.

He agreed to pay the AdWords bill, and I didn't charge him for my time.

He was just delighted that someone who knew computers was going to help him.

Don't underestimate your current knowledge of online marketing, and your skills on a computer, compared to the average small business owner.
​

Some small clients, then the first time as an employee since year 2000

Once I had my first client success, I was able to tell the story to other people.

Here's the story I tell people all the time:

• The Biggest Benefit of AdWords.

Back in 2009 I was so excited about this first taste of helping someone get more work that I didn't renew an IT contract when it was offered, and decided to jump straight into selling this service to small, local businesses.

I got onto a programme for local business startups to get training on all the cr@p that I now realise we don't need when starting a business (business plans, business networking tips, etc).

On those courses I'd introduce myself as a guy running paid ads to get businesses more leads, and I could see other attendees taking note, and a few would talk to me on coffee breaks. This was back in 2009, so I imagine you'd get even more interest doing this now.

I picked up a few small clients that way, and again, it was good experience. I charged a small flat monthly rate, and naively thought I'd scale this on my own to maybe 50 clients.

I quickly learned that a lot of these "startup" businesses weren't going anywhere (because they had a "great idea", no-one actually wanted what they were selling, and no-one was therefore searching on Google for what they were selling.)

So before my war-chest ran out I took a job in a company that was buying 1m clicks a day via AdWords. This resulted in a massive paycut from what I was used to as an IT contractor, but I thought it was worth pursuing.

I've only had two jobs since 2000, and both were so I could reskill and focus on a skill I thought would add value to many businesses.

Learnings:

1. It's not a bad idea at all to get a job in a company or agency running campaigns if it's going to pay your bills while you rapidly gain experience.
   
   
2. Many small businesses are small for a reason. They don't have a market who want to buy their products/services, and/or they don't believe in investing in leads and sales. Many are a completed headache to deal with, but if you go into it with your eyes open and knowing that they likely aren't going to last more than a few months, then they're a good way of learning, gaining more experience (aka gathering more stories), and making more contacts.
   
   
3. Businesses new to paid advertising will all start out with budget mentality. They will have a budget in mind that they are prepared to spend until they see some revenue.
   
   
4. Businesses typically don't move to an ROI mentality until they see some revenue coming in, and some businesses will NEVER change to an ROI mentality and will always be trying to reduce costs.
   
   
5. When they get to seeing AdWords spend as an investment (typically when they turn it off for a while and then quickly realise they need it back on), then they're likely to keep you managing their campaigns for a long time.
   
   
6. If a business always sees you as a cost, then you want to drop them quick as you can anyway. They're going to be a pita to deal with ALL the time.

Trying to scale what works

I noticed that not all campaigns worked out.

Sometimes there just weren't people searching.

Sometimes it was just too competitive.

I could get a Dublin washing machine repairs campaign to work, so built www.corkwashingmachinerepairs.com (Cork being the second biggest city in Ireland).

I created ads, had them running, and cold-called plumbers and electricians in Cork to offer to put their number on the website for free for a month, as long as they told me how many enquiries they got.

I was surprised when NO-ONE took me up on the offer. Even back in 2009, these guys were fed up with the daily calls from SEO guys, Yellow Pages guys, and AdWords guys pretending to be from Google.

Obviously I could have kept trying this, but I decided outbound wasn't really for me, and focused on inbound instead.



The beauty of inbound

I created lots of blog posts, updated my Linkedin profile, and agreed to meet any business owner in Dublin who contacted me to find out about AdWords. I'd let them buy me lunch and they could pick my brains for an hour.

I enjoyed it, got better at explaining things, asking questions, telling stories, and selling the benefits of AdWords.

I didn't chase up, so maybe this strategy could be used to get more clients than I did. Never-the-less, I still got some pieces of work out of this, and started building up a reputation in Dublin.

Working in one city for 5 years, where everyone knows everyone else, and sticking with one focus (AdWords) really helps gain some momentum.

I now know many agency owners in Dublin, and all the different clients I've had over the years has helped with referrals and inbound leads.


My problem with inbound

(Actually, this is a problem with my positioning.)

When you're known as an AdWords guy, anyone with a website thinks you can help them.

If I get 4 inbound leads in a month, and I knock two out of the park in a couple of days, I then spend a LOT of time trying to get the duds to work.

So I spend most of that month working on campaigns that I can't get to fly, and that aren't going to pay me the next month.

Learnings:

1. Paid search can't help every business.
   
   
2. If you're not positioned precisely enough, then your leads aren't going to be qualified enough.
   
   
3. Landing a client and THEN trying to generate them leads might not be the smartest way to do this.

Where my revenue comes from currently


CONTRACTING

Like I said before, I'm still slow-laning.

Most of my revenue comes from being an onsite contractor. I go on client sites from 9am till 3pm from Mon-Thu. I am available out of hours via email and work on small pieces out of hours every now and then. Mostly this isn't required.

I've found to date that being a contractor who'll work on the client site is VERY attractive to larger companies compared to them working with an agency.

I've took over two largish accounts doing this. If I could find people to backfill my positions, then maybe this can be scaled, but I'm not focusing on that at present.

I bill them at a daily rate for the 5 hours onsite, and a flat weekly rate for the out of hours support.


I like being a contractor for various reasons:

1. I work IN the client teams. This gives me much better visibilty of things outside of just paid search. I meet with Marketing Directors, Pricing Directors, other marketing specialists. I get to see the revenue attributed to the paid search campaigns (if they know it that is), and help them work out their Daily (ROI) Trading so we can manage their bids and maximise profits.
   
   
2. I don't have to go to the numerous standing meetings that permanent staff go to. Yay!
   
   
3. I don't do annual performance appraisals. Yay!
   
   
4. I get paid into my limited company... so can be more tax efficient paying myself, and can use some of that revenue pre-tax to build my own sites and buy my own traffic. Awesome.
   
   
5. When I "clock-out" and go home, I don't take any of this home with me as mental baggage. My evenings are free to work on my own stuff.

MENTORING

I have one client business that I provide support to, and mentor one of their employees so that he can build and optimise their campaigns. I'm also helping to build out their Daily (ROI) Trading reports.

So far this is working out well as a flat rate of €1k/mth (just to give you an idea of numbers).


SMALLER CLIENTS

I've found that I get contacted a lot by agencies and other marketing consultants. They get me to build and manage campaigns for their clients, and effectively white-label my services.

It's a great way to get clients, because they will do it for me when they see positive results.

They will also manage the end clients (which can be great when they are small clients).

It can sometimes be painful as their goals might not be aligned with mine. I want to drive leads, whereas a website consultancy might want to sell more website functionality.


An interesting model that ran for 12 months for me was a direct client in Dublin. He did window repairs and I built a landing page and campaign and put his phone number on the page. I owned the site and campaign, and he put his credit card details in the AdWords account so I didn't pay the bill myself and then have to chase him for the payment. He just paid me a flat monthly fee on top of the bill, to effectively RENT the funnel from me. It lasted 12 months, with the only work I needed to do from months 2-12 being to meet up with him to get my money.

Handy wee model.




Other notes:

1. Basecamp is great not just for managing client projects, but also for pre-sales. When you put the conversations and audits/reports into Basecamp, they see how you're going to be much more organised to deal with than agencies they've dealt with in the past, and it can help to win the business.
   
   
2. When you find a niche that works, you're probably going to be much better off focusing on that niche. e.g. become known as "the guy who generates leads for lawyers", not "the AdWords guy".
   
   
3. I prefer the flat monthly rate for new clients. I've no idea sometimes if the campaigns are going to work, so there's no point having a performance based arrangement when there's a chance all your work is going to amount to nothing.
   
   
4. Clients often prefer paying you a flat monthly rate anyway. Some are used to paying the Yellow Pages a flat monthly fee.

EDIT: I've still not answered the questions, but I'll get round to it. I thought I'd add the context first.

I've gone through all of your AdWords threads and this is the first time you flat out say: better off focusing on a niche. Can you elaborate why?

 

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[Andy Black]

I've gone through all of your AdWords threads and this is the first time you flat out say: better off focusing on a niche. Can you elaborate why?

Firstly, there’s people making it work whether they focus on one industry or not.

If I focused on generating leads for blacksmiths then I wouldn’t just use Google Ads, I’d Facebook, Instagram, and whatever works.

I’d really get to know the blacksmith industry if I had 10 blacksmith clients instead of 10 clients in 10 different industries.

If I had a website such as blacksmithmarketing.com then it would likely be more attractive to a blacksmith looking for marketing help than paidsearchmarketing.com.

I never did focus on an industry but instead stayed focused on the service (Google Ads). That’s proved fortunate with the C0VlD-19 pandemic decimating whole industries while leaving others going.

 

[Blackman]

Andy, and other guys who are doing local lead gen....Have your search volumes plummeted since the coronavirus outbreak?

This will obviously vary from industry to industry, but I'm struggling to get impressions even for emergency type of services, which you would think wouldn't really be affected by the pandemic, because when you have an emergency, it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible?

Anyone experiencing similar changes?

 

[sonny_1080]

I've been doing quite a bit (probably too much) market research on this very thing. From what I've seen, landscaping, home health care, and various cleaning services (i.e. disinfecting) are doing ok. Everything else seems to be barely getting by. Even plumbing. I'm curious to know what industries @Andy Black has seen navigate the pandemic best.

 

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[Andy Black]

My electrician friend stopped his appliance repairs business for the moment. I don’t know if the search volume is still there as the campaigns are paused.

Locksmiths are still being searched for.

Some other essential services are still getting volume but it does seem lower.

 

[sonny_1080]

Example of initial exchanges with a prospect

So I had a text out of the blue last week from a Child Physiotherapist in Dublin.

She got my details from a guy I met for a coffee years ago, who ultimately never turned into a client, but sends me a referral probably once a year.


Text Exchange:

I put the ball back in her court by asking where she was based, what her catchment area was, and what she thought people might search for.

I'd leave it for her to come back to me. If she didn't then I'd not follow up.

She emailed me these details within a few days, which shows me she's been thinking about this already, and that she's quite keen.




I sent a short email back:

I replied to acknowledge receipt of her email, both because it's good manners, and to "take her off the market" for a few days until I could do a bit of research and send her a report.





Last night (about 4 days after our last email exchange) I spent about 20 minutes doing Keyword Research with the Google Keyword Planner. Search volumes were low as expected, so I didn't screenshot the Google Keyword Planner results.

I did send her the screenshots below as a Powerpoint attachment last night.


Here's the slides from the powerpoint doc:

She's replied saying "That info you have sent looks good so far. Can you let me know if you can help set it up and also the fee involved?".

For me, these initial exchanges have gone reasonably well.



I've now replied with a lot more detail of what could be done, and only now have given a ballpark range for costs.

Here's the top of that email:

​

There's some more meat in the middle of that email, and then here's the end:

​

NOTES:

• She's asked for fees in the first text exchange. This is a red flag for me. Fees for what? This indicates she sees the cost in what I do, and not the value. It's up to me to show the value before we discuss costs again.

• I try hard to SHOW her her "bleeding neck". Screenshots help her visualise where her ad could appear, and how it could look better. Other screenshots (not included in the post) show how her landing page could look more relevant.
  
  
• I show all the other things she could (needs?) to do.
  
  
• Only then do I mention fees, and I mention that we can't determine those until we've better discussed her requirements. I give a ballpark range that ends with €3000+/mth to "anchor" the price high (also... I do genuinely have clients on that package).
  
  
• My goal is to have a phone call or meet up next.
  
  
• None of this is templated. It's a bespoke email based on her business, and our previous exchanges.
  
  
• I talk about "we", not "I".

What was the criteria that made you say this?


Was "child physiotherapist dublin" under 1K avg. monthly searches and the competition high in the keyword planner?

How did you come up with "paediastric physiotherapists tallaght"? Was the avg. monthly services low and the competition low?

I ask because I'm currently prospecting a campaign for a moving company. I'm not used to this vertical as its a bit different to a run a campaign for them than it is a window washer.

 

[Andy Black]

What was the criteria that made you say this?

View attachment 32268
Was "child physiotherapist dublin" under 1K avg. monthly searches and the competition high in the keyword planner?

How did you come up with "paediastric physiotherapists tallaght"? Was the avg. monthly services low and the competition low?

I ask because I'm currently prospecting a campaign for a moving company. I'm not used to this vertical as its a bit different to a run a campaign for them than it is a window washer.

I followed my nose and figured out what people would search that indicates they wanted to speak to someone local. The volumes didn’t matter so much as I’d run campaigns to find out the volumes.

 

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[sonny_1080]

I followed my nose and figured out what people would search that indicates they wanted to speak to someone local. The volumes didn’t matter so much as I’d run campaigns to find out the volumes.

Ah... I'm just thinking too hard

 

[Blackman]

A quick update for anyone who's doing local lead gen via Google Ads.

I managed to do 7 free trials after calling 100+ prospects, but couldn't close anyone after the trial. The business owners are happy with what I'm doing and they are getting genuine leads, which result in sales, but it seems like they cannot justify the cost of advertising + my service fee.

After having a chat with Andy back in March about this, I decided to change my strategy slightly, and instead of sending the maximum number of leads possible to my prospects, which obviously increases the ad cost, I limited the ad exposure to keep the costs down, so I could pitch overall lower monthly costs.

Unfortunately, this hasn't worked yet, as I'm struggling to find someone new who would go for the free trial, let along a full monthly package. Tried contacting some of the previous guys that I did trials for to try and pitch cheaper monthly packages using the above strategy, but had no luck.

I tried a more expensive niche back in April, but I couldn't see it working, as the CPC was crazy, so despite the higher revenue per sale for the prospects, I would need to pitch significantly higher monthly cost for the ads, while keeping my service fee aka profit low, to make the monthly package more appealing.

Anyway, just recently decided to switch to a new simpler niche, where the cost of the service is quite low, so the conversions from calls are pretty high, making business owners happy. The question is whether I can make it work for me, not just for the prospects.

Overall, it's definitely a pain in the backside calling random guys and pitching your service, trying to convince them that advertising/getting more customers and doing more business is good for them, but it's amazing how ignorant some people can be or that they just happy with whatever they've got, which is fair enough.

Let's see how this new niche goes, but without a doubt, personally for me, the hardest part of the local lead gen is securing a client. Before I started with this back in Dec 2019, I thought it would be getting relevant traffic or getting the visitors to make a call, but turns out all of that is pretty straightforward (at least for me)....However, making cold calls and closing sales is where the real work happens.

View: https://youtu.be/bkjfZctGMq8

 

[sonny_1080]

limited the ad exposure to keep the costs down, so I could pitch overall lower monthly costs

How are you doing this? I’m assuming you’re limiting impressions by tightening your matching, right?

Unfortunately, this hasn't worked yet, as I'm struggling to find someone new who would go for the free trial, let along a full monthly package
a

It sounds like you’ve been running ads for long enough to bring value to people. Why are you giving away you're services for free?

You know that story @MJ DeMarco tells in TMF about the dude who puts the dresser on the sidewalk and no one takes it until he put a sign on it say “$50”? Thats what you’re post reminded me of.

Let's see how this new niche goes, but without a doubt, personally for me, the hardest part of the local lead gen is securing a client. Before I started with this back in Dec 2019, I thought it would be getting relevant traffic or getting the visitors to make a call, but turns out all of that is pretty straightforward (at least for me)....However, making cold calls and closing sales is where the real work happens.

View: https://youtu.be/bkjfZctGMq8

I’m in a similar boat but I’m coming at it differently and it’s working so far. My background is in sales. Going into business for myself I’ve learned that I have to talk about my service like a business owner, not a salesperson. Big difference. I’m sure @Andy Black shared some Game on this.

Once I found that I’m good enough to bring value to the market, I started pricing by services. F*ck a free trial.

So I started with my existing network. People ask me what I’ve been doing, I tell them what I do and usually get dismissed.

I was planning on cold calling but then I caught something Andy said about networking events.

The goal is to get in front of business owners. The best way to do that is going where they go. I joined BNI and got my first paying client immediately. There’s a video of Andy and I talking about it here:

HOT! - EXECUTION - To Those Panicked/Discouraged by the PANDEMIC (or New to FLF)

Wow ! Really inspiring ! Can't wait to see your progress one year from now. Wish you the best of luck Thank you

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Anyways... I already got another referral from my first client before I got results from her because she loves me.

I don’t plan on cold calling with a business like this because business owners for a number of reasons that can be summed up by saying it’s probably the least effective way for this business

People have to know, like, and trust you before they pay you for what the type of business we do. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you buy from a stranger making your approach?

However... if you met a fellow business owner (not salesy guy) at a networking meeting, or a local business course, or some kind of association for your specific vertical... and you made friends... then offered to help your friends... it would make it waaaaay easier for people to want to buy from you

And that’s what sales is -> making it easy for people to buy.

Hope that helps man feel free to PM if there’s anything I can do for you.

 

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[Blackman]

How are you doing this? I’m assuming you’re limiting impressions by tightening your matching, right?

Matching and campaign relevancy is already perfect, so I'm simply lowering the daily budget to limit the impressions/clicks. In other words, I'm pitching a cheaper monthly package, because ultimately I'm spending less on ads, but obviously referring less leads as well - there's no getting away from that.

Sure, if you want the max number of leads, then be prepared to spend, but otherwise if I just want to close a new client for a monthly package, then it makes sense to start small, then possibly grow bigger in the future, if that's what the client wants.

Like Andy explained to me, not everyone wants as many leads as possible, so you might think you're doing the right thing by maxing out your campaign, but unfortunately not everyone thinks BIG and wants to grow their business to the next level.

It sounds like you’ve been running ads for long enough to bring value to people. Why are you giving away you're services for free?

You know that story @MJ DeMarco tells in TMF about the dude who puts the dresser on the sidewalk and no one takes it until he put a sign on it say “$50”? Thats what you’re post reminded me of.

Free trial is the ice-breaker to show them I'm the real deal and can do what I say. Yes, it's money down the drain, if I fail to close a prospect, but you could look at it as a client acquisition cost. Spending £100 on ads to have the possibility to close someone for £500/month package (example figures), where the client would be very likely to stay with you for many months or even years to come, is totally justified in my view.

Besides, before I do a free trial, I try to "feel out" the prospect on a cold call, find out if they've done any advertising in the past, how big is their business, and just generally get an idea whether I'm talking with someone who wants free money or they have real interest in my offer.

There's no way on Earth that I would be able to close someone on a cold call by pitching them the above monthly package or anything similar. I think the only way to get around doing free trials would be to physically set up a meeting with business owners after a successful cold call, do some kind of a presentation (exactly what Andy does) and then once you've built up the trust in the meeting, then there will be a chance to close the prospect at the end of it.

You could say the free trial is an expensive shortcut to building trust. Yes, it costs you money upfront, but it's totally remote, it's quick and it's not just you waffling for 2 hours, but you're actually referring real customers to the prospect, and essentially making money for him.[/QUOTE]

The goal is to get in front of business owners. The best way to do that is going where they go. I joined BNI and got my first paying client immediately. There’s a video of Andy and I talking about it here:

People have to know, like, and trust you before they pay you for what the type of business we do. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you buy from a stranger making your approach?

However... if you met a fellow business owner (not salesy guy) at a networking meeting, or a local business course, or some kind of association for your specific vertical... and you made friends... then offered to help your friends... it would make it waaaaay easier for people to want to buy from you

And that’s what sales is -> making it easy for people to buy.

Hope that helps man feel free to PM if there’s anything I can do for you.

What you're saying totally makes sense, and it clearly works for you, and many other people, including Andy.

I've read many of Andy's posts and watched his videos, where he described how he was approached by business owners for help with lead gen, but he couldn't always help them due to various reasons, such as limited search volume, expensive clicks, etc.

So while networking is without a doubt a good way to build relationships and find clients, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be able to help those people with their businesses.

Local lead gen via Google Ads can get really expensive, especially if you dive in to high-price service niches, where the customer's location doesn't always form part of a keyword, so you end up bidding on quite generic keywords and using radius targeting to make the campaign more relevant, but the intent is obviously not the same as when you have a location in the keyword. This means, less calls and less sales.

This is why I'm doing things backwards, you could say, where I build out a campaign in my chosen niche and make sure I can genuinely help businesses to get more leads, before I approach them with my offer.

Thanks for the tips @sonny_1080 - a PM is coming your way.

 

[sonny_1080]

Matching and campaign relevancy is already perfect, so I'm simply lowering the daily budget to limit the impressions/clicks. In other words, I'm pitching a cheaper monthly package, because ultimately I'm spending less on ads, but obviously referring less leads as well - there's no getting away from that.

Sure, if you want the max number of leads, then be prepared to spend, but otherwise if I just want to close a new client for a monthly package, then it makes sense to start small, then possibly grow bigger in the future, if that's what the client wants.

Like Andy explained to me, not everyone wants as many leads as possible, so you might think you're doing the right thing by maxing out your campaign, but unfortunately not everyone thinks BIG and wants to grow their business to the next level.

Are you paying for the ad spend or are you having you're customers pay the ad spend?

Free trial is the ice-breaker to show them I'm the real deal and can do what I say. Yes, it's money down the drain, if I fail to close a prospect, but you could look at it as a client acquisition cost. Spending £100 on ads to have the possibility to close someone for £500/month package (example figures), where the client would be very likely to stay with you for many months or even years to come, is totally justified in my view.

Besides, before I do a free trial, I try to "feel out" the prospect on a cold call, find out if they've done any advertising in the past, how big is their business, and just generally get an idea whether I'm talking with someone who wants free money or they have real interest in my offer.

There's no way on Earth that I would be able to close someone on a cold call by pitching them the above monthly package or anything similar. I think the only way to get around doing free trials would be to physically set up a meeting with business owners after a successful cold call, do some kind of a presentation (exactly what Andy does) and then once you've built up the trust in the meeting, then there will be a chance to close the prospect at the end of it.

You could say the free trial is an expensive shortcut to building trust. Yes, it costs you money upfront, but it's totally remote, it's quick and it's not just you waffling for 2 hours, but you're actually referring real customers to the prospect, and essentially making money for him

As a business owner, I offered the free trials to get some hands-on experience with a guinea pig until I got good enough at it to get results for people.

If you're good enough at getting results for people, you may want to reconsider doing it for free.

I can only share with you my experience with the hopes you can glean something from it.

I called like 6 people in my network offering a free trial (they just had to pay Google the $10/day to get the ads posted) - no one took me up on it.

I called a friend of mine just to check up on him. Coincidentally, he couldn't pay his rent because the shops were closed due to COVID. I offered my services and he agreed. I was stoked. Then he called back like 6 times second-guessing his decision and I had to keep convincing him to let me do it for him (red flag).

He let me run the ads, made $500 in the first 7-10 days and probably made some repeat customers if he did a good enough job.

At about the 14th day (2-weeks) I told him he's gotta pay me a fee and I strongly suggest he raise his ad budget. He couldn't see the value and thought since the shops will be opening soon, he's made enough money and decided to end the account. He wanted to pay me for the work that I did, but I didn't let him. That was my first "win"

I took 4 days to visit family in Santa Cruz and when I came back, I immediately got into looking for more customers - minus the free trial because my "how" was unique, and my "why" was to help the people who "want" the help.

The phrase "sales is a screening process" took a whole new meaning for me. That's a quote I'm sure you've heard from Andy before. I like what Buffet said, "a ballet and a rock concert can both be successful... as long as the rock concert doesn't advertise itself as a ballet." In other words, I just started saying "I do Google Ads for service businesses" every time I spoke to someone.

I visited a lot of networking groups (probably like 3 a day for 4 days straight) until I landed my next client. "$298 to set everything up, $198/mo. to rent the optimized funnel + ad spend. I take Apple Pay"... Boom.

She just sent me an email while I write this saying she wants to continue renting the funnel when this month is over.

So while networking is without a doubt a good way to build relationships and find clients, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be able to help those people with their businesses.

True.

I think building the relationship is the most important aspect in getting someone to pay me to run ads for them.

I had no idea if it would work for the clients I've gotten so far. In fact, I told them that. They liked me enough to have a casual, hour long conversation with me in which I explained the whole process and answered all their questions. By the end of it, the process made enough sense to them that they were willing to try it, even though results aren't guaranteed.

Luckily, I've got this forum, the inter-web, and a friend named Andy Black... which means results are very, very possible.

Local lead gen via Google Ads can get really expensive, especially if you dive in to high-price service niches, where the customer's location doesn't always form part of a keyword, so you end up bidding on quite generic keywords and using radius targeting to make the campaign more relevant, but the intent is obviously not the same as when you have a location in the keyword. This means, less calls and less sales.

This is why I'm doing things backwards, you could say, where I build out a campaign in my chosen niche and make sure I can genuinely help businesses to get more leads, before I approach them with my offer.

I like your style. One of the reasons I love this stuff is because it's so versatile.

When I was deciding to do this I wasn't sure if I should get leads first or a client first. I chose get a client and have them pay the ad spend. The only thing you need to have a business is a customer. Without that, you don't have a business. If after the first month, they don't want to do it, fine. No contract, no cancellation fees, no risk. We tried. They're paying for the process.

Not sure which vertical you're doing, but it sounds like you're spending a lot of money and not getting customers. That sounds immensely frustrating.

Are you running ads to your own website and then when you get the lead are you calling business to give them the leads?

 

[sonny_1080]

I forgot to mention... after my friend didn't want the account anymore, I called 6 other people in the same niche as him. I already had the LP and ads set up that were averaging at least a new client everyday... all I had to do was plugin their phone number and direct the traffic to them...

No one took me up on it.

So I know what you mean.

 

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[Blackman]

I forgot to mention... after my friend didn't want the account anymore, I called 6 other people in the same niche as him. I already had the LP and ads set up that were averaging at least a new client everyday... all I had to do was plugin their phone number and direct the traffic to them...

No one took me up on it.

So I know what you mean.

When I'm doing the free trial, I cover the cost of advertising - that's kind of the whole point, the prospect spends nothing, but gains a few customers, while I build up my trust with him. It would be silly to call it "free", waiving my service fee, but then turn around and say that they've got to pay for the ad cost.

I totally agree, a lot probably depends on the niche. So in niches where the customer acquisition cost is high for the business owner, then he may be more willing to cover your ad cost, while you promote his business without charging any set up or service fees.

However, in niches where new customers can be acquired quite easily or cheaply, especially if the cost of the service is low, then business owners are hesitant to spend anything on ads, because whatever referrals they get from existing customers or word of mouth is good enough to keep them going.

You see, whenever I make a cold call, after I've done the basic intro of who I am and what I do, then it all essentially comes down to "how much is it?"....

It's a totally natural question that any sensible business owner would ask, so you don't necessarily dismiss a prospect when he starts asking questions about the cost, without allowing you to go into details about what they're paying for.

Yes, it can often be a red flag, but I ALWAYS mention the usual monthly costs BEFORE I pitch them the free trial, because obviously you don't want people doing free trials and then telling you to jog on. It can still be hit and miss, but if I'm struggling to get someone to go for a completely free and no-commitment trial, then I can't see how I'll be better off trying to convince someone to pay for the ad cost, while waiving my set up and service fees.

Without a doubt, when you do the whole thing in person, then it's a totally different story compared to getting a cold call. Having a physical contact definitely builds a better connection and it cannot be compared to any kind of calling.

As for my landing page setup, I'm dealing with calls only, using a call tracking service through my own number. The lander is very simple and quite generic - it's designed to make the visitor call, that's it.

The calls are recorded and re-directed to any number I choose, that's how I keep track of the leads referred and let the business owner deal directly with customers, without me having to get involved in any way.

 

[Andy Black]

There's no way on Earth that I would be able to close someone on a cold call by pitching them the above monthly package or anything similar.

Some people do. Maybe figure out what they're doing different? Also... beware of those "limiting beliefs".

 

[Blackman]

Some people do. Maybe figure out what they're doing different? Also... beware of those "limiting beliefs".

Andy, have you got any more info on this?

I've watched numerous videos and read various articles on cold calling, but the general consensus is that you don't close on the first call, but rather arrange a meeting in person, where you then pitch your service during a presentation.

I'm sure there's no need for this, if your service is $50/month, but surely any other considerable amount of money would be a hard sell to a complete stranger over the phone?

 

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[Andy Black]

Andy, have you got any more info on this?

I've watched numerous videos and read various articles on cold calling, but the general consensus is that you don't close on the first call, but rather arrange a meeting in person, where you then pitch your service during a presentation.

I'm sure there's no need for this, if your service is $50/month, but surely any other considerable amount of money would be a hard sell to a complete stranger over the phone?

I don't do cold calling or cold emailing. There's whole threads in here about both though, and a million Facebook groups of folks talking about how they cold call/email to get clients for their agencies (mostly Facebook agencies funnily enough).

 

[Blackman]

@Andy Black and everyone else who does Google Ads, wanted to get your feedback on an experiment I tried with a local prospect for lead gen and hear your thoughts.

So normally when I set up a campaign for a new client, I always take the main service keyword, let's say "washing machine repair", and make sure to add a location to every keyword variation.

Meaning, I would have broad match modified keywords as below:

"+washing +machine +repair +location1"
"+washing +machine +repair +location2"
"+washing +machine +repair +location3"

You get the point...

As for targeting, I target the whole country (people actually located in target country), because keywords do all the work anyway, so I don't have to worry about going after specific areas in town, etc.

This works really well if your locations have a decent search volume for whatever service you're promoting.

However, I recently tried to help out a client in a smallish city, and unfortunately the above strategy didn't work, because it's such a low populated area, that none of the location-specific keywords were generating impressions, let alone clicks.

Therefore, as a test, I decided to switch my strategy slightly, and target a specific radius that covered the service area of my client (instead of the whole country), and bid on generic keywords, such as "+washing +machine +repair", but with NO LOCATION added.

This improved things in terms of impressions/clicks, but now I was getting mostly irrelevant traffic, that wasn't actually looking for a company to repair their washing machine, and instead, they were after tools, tips, DIY stuff, etc.

Naturally, I kept an eye on the search terms, and I tried to add all the useless stuff into negatives, but after a few days decided to stop, because it seemed like a never-ending battle. There are sooo many variables that you come across and I couldn't justify spending money on these stupid terms, because they were eating my budget and not producing any calls/business.

If you are still with me, then I guess my question is whether you think it's possible to run a lead gen campaign for a local client this way, or you should ALWAYS bid on keywords with locations in them, because otherwise the intent is simply not there?

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black and everyone else who does Google Ads, wanted to get your feedback on an experiment I tried with a local prospect for lead gen and hear your thoughts.

So normally when I set up a campaign for a new client, I always take the main service keyword, let's say "washing machine repair", and make sure to add a location to every keyword variation.

Meaning, I would have broad match modified keywords as below:

"+washing +machine +repair +location1"
"+washing +machine +repair +location2"
"+washing +machine +repair +location3"

You get the point...

As for targeting, I target the whole country (people actually located in target country), because keywords do all the work anyway, so I don't have to worry about going after specific areas in town, etc.

This works really well if your locations have a decent search volume for whatever service you're promoting.

However, I recently tried to help out a client in a smallish city, and unfortunately the above strategy didn't work, because it's such a low populated area, that none of the location-specific keywords were generating impressions, let alone clicks.

Therefore, as a test, I decided to switch my strategy slightly, and target a specific radius that covered the service area of my client (instead of the whole country), and bid on generic keywords, such as "+washing +machine +repair", but with NO LOCATION added.

This improved things in terms of impressions/clicks, but now I was getting mostly irrelevant traffic, that wasn't actually looking for a company to repair their washing machine, and instead, they were after tools, tips, DIY stuff, etc.

Naturally, I kept an eye on the search terms, and I tried to add all the useless stuff into negatives, but after a few days decided to stop, because it seemed like a never-ending battle. There are sooo many variables that you come across and I couldn't justify spending money on these stupid terms, because they were eating my budget and not producing any calls/business.

If you are still with me, then I guess my question is whether you think it's possible to run a lead gen campaign for a local client this way, or you should ALWAYS bid on keywords with locations in them, because otherwise the intent is simply not there?

If there’s enough volume I run geo-modified keywords (keywords with locations in them), and if there’s not then we have to go for campaigns IP-Targeted to the city and add more negatives.

 

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[Blackman]

If there’s enough volume I run geo-modified keywords (keywords with locations in them), and if there’s not then we have to go for campaigns IP-Targeted to the city and add more negatives.

Exactly what I've done, but felt that running non geo-modified keywords was killing my budget and not producing enough results.

I guess when you go for city/radius targeting with no location keywords, you just have to suck up the initial period of neg'ing irrelevant stuff until the campaign becomes more targeted. No other way, really.

Thanks

 

[Andy Black]

Exactly what I've done, but felt that running non geo-modified keywords was killing my budget and not producing enough results.

I guess when you go for city/radius targeting with no location keywords, you just have to suck up the initial period of neg'ing irrelevant stuff until the campaign becomes more targeted. No other way, really.

Thanks

There’s some standard negatives of course:

• “free”
• “job”
• “jobs”
• “course”
• “courses”
• “how to”
• “youtube”
• Etc