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Should I just go all in on Facebook Ads?

Marketing, social media, advertising

Busch_Jager

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Hello, I have recently finished making my service surefirebetting.com which is a sports betting arbitrage service. If you don't know what that means that's basically my biggest problem in marketing it. But essentially it's hedging the odds of two sportsbooks that disagree with each other.

I beleive the service is really good and it is the only of its kind in the U.S. Where I am struggling is marketing.

I have been experimenting with Facebook ads for a few weeks and through split testing have narrowed down my audience and my current ad sets have a $0.40 cost per link click. Which I beleive is pretty good. My issue is that I am having trouble converting these leads, I also don't have the capital to continue to dump money into Facebook ads without a return. Thus far I have only spent $150 a lot of which was optimizing my ad sets and audience to reach these numbers. But I don't know if I can continue to pump money in it without return.

Starting social media from scratch is tough especially without coming off as spammy. I currently have a Facebook page, group, Instagram, Twitter. I also have been working on acquiring new affiliates through LinkedIn.

I clearly need some optimization on my website to increase conversions. I am currently pointing my Facebook Ads right at my home page. It is difficult to A/B test to achieve higher conversions without a large number of visitors.

In sum, does anyone have any marketing tips for a startup without a ton of capital?
 
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So you’re trying to start an American version of matched betting?
 

Speed112

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Hello, I have recently finished making my service surefirebetting.com which is a sports betting arbitrage service. If you don't know what that means that's basically my biggest problem in marketing it. But essentially it's hedging the odds of two sportsbooks that disagree with each other.

I beleive the service is really good and it is the only of its kind in the U.S. Where I am struggling is marketing.

I have been experimenting with Facebook ads for a few weeks and through split testing have narrowed down my audience and my current ad sets have a $0.40 cost per link click. Which I beleive is pretty good. My issue is that I am having trouble converting these leads, I also don't have the capital to continue to dump money into Facebook ads without a return. Thus far I have only spent $150 a lot of which was optimizing my ad sets and audience to reach these numbers. But I don't know if I can continue to pump money in it without return.

Starting social media from scratch is tough especially without coming off as spammy. I currently have a Facebook page, group, Instagram, Twitter. I also have been working on acquiring new affiliates through LinkedIn.

I clearly need some optimization on my website to increase conversions. I am currently pointing my Facebook Ads right at my home page. It is difficult to A/B test to achieve higher conversions without a large number of visitors.

In sum, does anyone have any marketing tips for a startup without a ton of capital?

Well how good is your homepage at communicating your service's benefits? "What's in it for me?"

You promise them something, and apparently the promise is good because $0.4 CPC is pretty solid... but is there a disconnect between your promise and what they are served on your website?

Is it clear how the user can go from A to B to fulfill that promise and get the results they want?

Lots of things could be messing up your conversions and the answer can be in any of those questions.

You should only go all-in on anything if you're confident it's gonna work out, or if it's already profitable...

But it doesn't necessarily have to be profitable in the front-end. No idea how your service is structured, but you can offer multiple tiers of your service or different aspects of it in order to increase the repeat buyers and the lifetime value of your prospects.

What is the goal of your conversion? Getting them to sign up? To buy a subscription?

What you can try is sending the traffic to a low friction landing page that targets specifically that intended action, instead of overwhelming the prospects with all the random stuff they don't care about on your homepage.

Make the value proposition clear and hammer as hard as you can How they can benefit.

"Sign up today and profit off the back of bookies' hubris."

Everyone hates the house... Nobody likes the guy who always wins.

Putting a spin on that could work well.

"Make sure the house always loses."

Try things out...

Once you have a winner, iterate and improve.

Can't really say more without seeing your ads and/or website, but $150 isn't that much money when it comes to testing ads.

On your price, I guess the average is higher so you probably got about 250 clicks. How many conversions do you expect from that? 1-2? 5-10?

How many of those clicks did you capture to continue selling to?

You've got to think about these things, and what your goals are, and then figure out ways of turning a profit. Once you manage that, it's a batter of managing your growth.

And if you can afford it...

Getting a conversion copywriter to look over your website and work on your marketing strategy is probably going to help a lot and save you time and headaches.

But this sounds like a bigger job than just optimizing your homepage. So perhaps focus on how you can best help your ideal customer. Come up with an avatar or several if you haven't yet, and tailor your message for them. Put yourself in their shoes and figure out how they would most easily benefit from what you have to offer.

Use your network and talk to people that resemble those avatars. Ask around. Get data.

If your service is "really good" then you're doing them a disservice by not getting in their face.

So go out there and get in their face.

And if you have questions that are more specific or information that people can use, you'd probably get more targeted responses. So don't hold back.
 

Busch_Jager

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So you’re trying to start an American version of matched betting?

No matched betting is using free incentives/offers for profit.

Arbing or sports betting arbitrage is basically placing bets on both sides of a match that two sports books disagree on the outcome so you make profit regardless of who wins.
 
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Primeperiwinkle

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No matched betting is using free incentives/offers for profit.

Arbing or sports betting arbitrage is basically placing bets on both sides of a match that two sports books disagree on the outcome so you make profit regardless of who wins.
Would you be doing all the work or are you going to somehow teach your customer something that will enable them to do it themselves?
 

Busch_Jager

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Would you be doing all the work or are you going to somehow teach your customer something that will enable them to do it themselves?
Our website finds all of the opportunities. All the customer has to do is place the bets on the sportsbooks' websites after using our arbing calculator to figure out how much of their stake should be on each side. It is only a few minutes of input from the customer to earn 0-20%+ profit on a game.
 

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"You win wvery time"

But then its 29.99 a month? , why not give it to me free and take a cut of my profits

Your ad goes right to your site , i'm not invested. The elevator pitch just sits naked (im seeing this on mobile btw)

What do the ads say?

Hook me. You're apparently selling money right?

Like , when I go to signup for 29.99 , how much more on average do I then need to bet using your technology before I make that back?

You have the "free surebets" with less than 1% profitability hidden in a sidebar, no popups try and coerce me to stay when I'm clicking away.

The sizzle is great , but I cant see the sizzle. Move me OP , move me to open My wallet.
 
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Speed112

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But then its 29.99 a month? , why not give it to me free and take a cut of my profits

Don't think there's any way to take a cut of the profits unless you're the one placing the bets for them. And that's a sure-fire way to get banned by bookies for being too profitable haha. What he's selling is information, and you can't police what people do with it.

But every other point is pertinent.

This is free money being given out. Make that obvious!

"With your $29.99 subscription, you just need to place just SIX $100 bets a month to make your money back!" assuming a 5% average ROI per bet. Seems like a conservative assumption but no idea what your numbers are. Figure out a realistic but too good to refuse proposition.

How many bets a month do you have? What's the average ROI?

If you've got 31 bets with a 7.2% average in a month you literally make almost 8x profit (depending on compounding memes).

Show examples of historical results... graphs are really effective.

"With just $29.99 a month you can turn a $100 investment into $781!!!" and then you show how.

Since you're arbitraging your winrate should be 100% so even by compounding 1% bets you can make huge bank.

"By the end of the year? $5389 on your $100 investment with just 1% average returns!"

How outrageous the claims is up for the market to decide... too big and they seem too good to be true and put people off, too small and you're leaving money on the table. See how hard you can go.

Arbitrage is really strong stuff.
 

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It's always hard to give feedback in cases like this without sounding like you're just trying to be an axehole. But here it goes.

The tl;dr is:

Stop wasting money, you have no idea what you're doing, and you don't have the capital to make paid traffic work right now. Find a marketing channel that can work for you, paid traffic isn't it.

I'm sorry, I know it's disheartening.

Let me unpack all the mistakes you are making with paid traffic.

  • You say split testing, but odds are you haven't. You have been trying different ads on different groups of people chosen randomly by the Facebook algorithm.
  • Even if you did, with $150 spent you just got some random variance by the algorithm acting up, not decent data.
  • 40c CPC is not good at that low spend, and the fact you think it is, scares me.
  • You haven't found your audience if you can't convert them. You want sales, not clicks. Clicks are worthless. To get clicks, you just need to make people curious. How? With bad ads that say nothing but an empty tease. Which is what you use.
  • What you did is find an audience that is curious, and clicks on your (terrible) ads that say nothing to see what the hell it's all about. They are bored people looking for dopamine hits. That is the audience you want to repel, not attract.
  • Even if you had good clicks, that landing page would never, ever convert cold traffic.

Please stop wasting your money. I'm telling you this because I want you to succeed, not because I am an axehole online to pump my ego.

As for advice, what I would recommend is for you to invest your limited cash in a decent positioning and sales letter, and then find betting and arbing communities (groups, for example) and sell your service directly. Get some traction doing stuff that doesn't scale before looking for scalable channels.
 

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Wouldn't run any other ads until you re-work your home page. Forget about the Facebook page, Facebook group, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for now. Trying to juggle too many things that don't lead to sales. It's great you have them up (although potentially bad if people can see you only have 5 followers or whatever - so only share them if you think there are zero ways a potential customer would see them negatively).

You really need a long form sales page here. You haven't done anything to walk the customer through the sales process.

Back when I sold home and auto insurance, I was an independent agent. Due to my software, access to a wide variety of insurance carriers, and knowledge, along with factors on the customer's end, I could usually offer the them a better price and maybe even better coverage. But I couldn't do it in the first 5 minutes that they picked up the phone. The sweet spot was around 20 minutes. Sometimes 30 or 45 minutes. There was a process that had to be followed.

The same thing goes for here. This website is the equivalent of me calling someone and saying "hey want to save money on your car insurance? I have a price for you $20 cheaper, ready?" It just doesn't work like that.

You need to build a problem, address some pain points, make them really imagine what's going on.

Simplify the concept. Dumb it down. Who's your target audience? The gambling type? If so, do they even care about "limited time early adoption pricing" or would they be more motivated by hard FOMO direct-response?

1) Research your customer more

2) Research long form landing pages

3) Build the page with your customer in mind. This isn't just a brochure website that looks nice and professional that you can put on a business card. You are running ads to it. Start treating it like a potential sales machine.

4) Stop running ads until you have all of the above figured out and then learn ads more before you proceed further
 
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Matt Sun

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Hello, I have recently finished making my service surefirebetting.com which is a sports betting arbitrage service. If you don't know what that means that's basically my biggest problem in marketing it. But essentially it's hedging the odds of two sportsbooks that disagree with each other.

I beleive the service is really good and it is the only of its kind in the U.S. Where I am struggling is marketing.

I have been experimenting with Facebook ads for a few weeks and through split testing have narrowed down my audience and my current ad sets have a $0.40 cost per link click. Which I beleive is pretty good. My issue is that I am having trouble converting these leads, I also don't have the capital to continue to dump money into Facebook ads without a return. Thus far I have only spent $150 a lot of which was optimizing my ad sets and audience to reach these numbers. But I don't know if I can continue to pump money in it without return.

Starting social media from scratch is tough especially without coming off as spammy. I currently have a Facebook page, group, Instagram, Twitter. I also have been working on acquiring new affiliates through LinkedIn.

I clearly need some optimization on my website to increase conversions. I am currently pointing my Facebook Ads right at my home page. It is difficult to A/B test to achieve higher conversions without a large number of visitors.

In sum, does anyone have any marketing tips for a startup without a ton of capital?
Have you read the book "Cashvertising" ? Is great for improving marketing, some tips:
1) Always name the benefits of your product, can you name 5 ways that your product will improve your customer's life ?
2) Show some social proof, like reviews of people that already bought (you also can give some for free to get reviews).
3) Try to create some urgency, make limited-time discounts, special offers, promotions etc.

Again, the book Cashvertising covers this sort of stuff and much more. Much recommended.
 

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Btw. why can't you print your own money with this system and need other people to participate?
 

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Hello, I have recently finished making my service surefirebetting.com which is a sports betting arbitrage service. If you don't know what that means that's basically my biggest problem in marketing it. But essentially it's hedging the odds of two sportsbooks that disagree with each other.

I beleive the service is really good and it is the only of its kind in the U.S. Where I am struggling is marketing.

I have been experimenting with Facebook ads for a few weeks and through split testing have narrowed down my audience and my current ad sets have a $0.40 cost per link click. Which I beleive is pretty good. My issue is that I am having trouble converting these leads, I also don't have the capital to continue to dump money into Facebook ads without a return. Thus far I have only spent $150 a lot of which was optimizing my ad sets and audience to reach these numbers. But I don't know if I can continue to pump money in it without return.

Starting social media from scratch is tough especially without coming off as spammy. I currently have a Facebook page, group, Instagram, Twitter. I also have been working on acquiring new affiliates through LinkedIn.

I clearly need some optimization on my website to increase conversions. I am currently pointing my Facebook Ads right at my home page. It is difficult to A/B test to achieve higher conversions without a large number of visitors.

In sum, does anyone have any marketing tips for a startup without a ton of capital?
As someone who had betted for leisure before, let me try to give you an honest feedback.

The first question I have is if this works 29.90/month is too cheap.

What if the profitable odds pair only appear a few seconds? Do I have to get another set of auto click software?

The burden of execution is on the consumer.

Instead of selling as a software service, have you thought of taking a step back and sell it as an “automated arbitrage betting course”?

When you are selling a skill you take the pressure off on delivering the service. Another application could be arbitraging across crypto exchanges.
 
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Busch_Jager

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As someone who had betted for leisure before, let me try to give you an honest feedback.

The first question I have is if this works 29.90/month is too cheap.

What if the profitable odds pair only appear a few seconds? Do I have to get another set of auto click software?

The burden of execution is on the consumer.

Instead of selling as a software service, have you thought of taking a step back and sell it as an “automated arbitrage betting course”?

When you are selling a skill you take the pressure off on delivering the service. Another application could be arbitraging across crypto exchanges.
Ya I know it IS too cheap! Rebelbetting the largest competitor overseas (they do not have US sportsbooks) sells this service for $172/month!
 

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Awesome responses guys! I have turned off all my ads until I finish implementing some of the tips I have found here (create landing pages, improve copy, etc). I do not feel disheartened and knew that marketing would be my most difficult task.

Keep roasting my stuff, honesty! I'm looking to improve and will happily accept any feedback.
 

Busch_Jager

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Btw. why can't you print your own money with this system and need other people to participate?
I actually did do this in college and I do use my website to make additional bets which is a nice stream of income.

I once heard somewhere why dig for gold in a goldrush when you can sell shovels and that's the method I am shooting for here. Short term yes I will make more money if I just spend all my money and time investing in the website but I am going for a long-term source of monthly income where I can eventually quit my job to focus full time on.
 
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Busch_Jager

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I am more of a coding/math dude by trade (engineer). Before this, I literally didn't know anything about marketing and still really don't. I have a LOT of learning to do but I am confident in my product and I believe I can make this work.
 

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Is it against policy to advertise this service on FB?
 
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Kevin88660

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Awesome responses guys! I have turned off all my ads until I finish implementing some of the tips I have found here (create landing pages, improve copy, etc). I do not feel disheartened and knew that marketing would be my most difficult task.

Keep roasting my stuff, honesty! I'm looking to improve and will happily accept any feedback.
Regarding marketing I suggest you forums where punters hang out.

You are not looking for people for places a bet once or twice a month for fun, but people who look into this seriously for serious money/or serious delusions.

In south east asia where I live there is a very famous forum called asianbookie.com. This is for famous for people looking for betting tips.

Another place is trading forums where traders hang out. They are always looking for money and edges. And some might not mind having exposure into the sports betting business.
 

Busch_Jager

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Is it against policy to advertise this service on FB?
I think it is kind of a grey area since I am not a casino or taking bets but providing information. Depending on my copy I have or have not had my ads denied. If I make the copy sound more gambling-ish it seems to get denied.
 

Busch_Jager

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I have been working on my stuff ALOT and have been reading a ton on copy and digital marketing so some excited things to come there but I have a question.

Regarding building an email list do you think it would viable as an offer to subscribe to my email list (free) and weekly I will send you one 5-20% arbing profit opportunity? So I am basically teasing them on what they could have. Do you think this this is too much? Too little? Or just a bad idea? I would love to hear some thoughts.

I have a really awesome landing page I am working on that I will share soon but I am still wondering about the viability of converting cold traffic to subscribe ($30/month) right from a landing page. Although I do have a 14 day money back guarantee.
 
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Genius01

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Regarding building an email list do you think it would viable as an offer to subscribe to my email list (free) and weekly I will send you one 5-20% arbing profit opportunity? So I am basically teasing them on what they could have. Do you think this this is too much? Too little? Or just a bad idea? I would love to hear some thoughts.

This sounds like a good idea.
And you could basically upsell them at the end of each email every week saying- "You could get many more opportunities like this every single day if you subscribe.
Click here to subscribe at a 50% discount just for today."

Disclaimer: I don't bet, have never betted, so I don't know if it works for real.
But sounds like a good idea to me.


Also,
Have you considered renting the email lists of betting blogs, magazines and websites?
They could give you much more targeted traffic than Facebook can initially, at least till Facebook's algorithm learns to find your target market after spending some good money.
 

Busch_Jager

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This sounds like a good idea.
And you could basically upsell them at the end of each email every week saying- "You could get many more opportunities like this every single day if you subscribe.
Click here to subscribe at a 50% discount just for today."

Disclaimer: I don't bet, have never betted, so I don't know if it works for real.
But sounds like a good idea to me.


Also,
Have you considered renting the email lists of betting blogs, magazines and websites?
They could give you much more targeted traffic than Facebook can initially, at least till Facebook's algorithm learns to find your target market after spending some good money.
I honestly didn't even know you could rent other businesses' email lists.

It sounds like a good idea to me though.
 

Busch_Jager

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Since targeting a subreddit directly related to my niche (hot leads), I have my first two subscribers. I also created an email opt-in and have 10 subscribers so far.

Automatically sending out emails from Zapier 1 time a week and set up a 3 email drip campaign for new subscribers.

I literally can't even advertise on Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc., due to the content (gambling service), I will focus on Quora, Reddit, and email marketing.
 
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If I were you I'd focus on ranking organically, and luckily, you can do all the SEO yourself for free. It'll only cost time upfront, but we both know that will pay dividends in the future.
 

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