This article will show the step-by-step process used to reduce a cost per call of +$1,200 to $210 and generate +$100,000 in sales.
The objective is to be the united States’ most fun, motivating, and effective college planning resource for high school students and parents. The goal is to book calls with parents willing to pay for college planning for their kids.
When this client came to us, he had worked with a few ad agencies but none of them could achieve his main goal which was getting a cost per call of $350. These agencies were far beyond the goal at +$1,200/call and +$25/lead. That way, we proposed to prepare a funnel that consisted of 6 steps:
We dove into his funnel and ads structure to find where the bottleneck was. We encountered a low conversion rate of 10% on the landing page (When the lead magnet is free material, we usually expect a conversion rate above 20%), only one type of ad focused on a single image, and a long storytelling text (High CTR but low conversion rate), and a big gap between the leads that optin for the free material and schedules/surveys booked (8.9% on average).
We did research to understand our persona's main pain points, desires, and fears. After that, we followed 3 steps:
1. Testing new ads (and how to find your GOLDEN AD!)
1) Choose 3-5 different angles (3-5 different approaches to your customer's main pain points) to approach based on the pains we detected after our research.
2) We use simple images and strong headlines for each angle and then run the ads for a few days. You should aim for at least $200 in ad spend to gather enough data.
The ones with the best cost per lead and highest CTR are the best ads to try to scale. During this test period, we were able to reduce the cost per lead considerably from +$25 to less than $15.
After we found the winning angle, we created new creatives in a video format. We suggest finding your winning angle before creating videos.
BONUS: Video ads are one of the best formats nowadays. Create a good copy (no longer than 1 minute), a great headline (you can test different ones within the same video), and add subtitles (so you can impact those watching without sound).
In addition, we made a few improvements on the landing page (the conversion rate was still low).
2. Landing Page Improvements
Old landing page:
1) Headline did not present a strong promise that could meet our potential client needs.
2) The description was too long.
3) CTA button was a weak color.
4) There were no details about the expert, nor social proof to testify his authority.
New landing page:
1) Headline with 3 important points: "How To Ensure" (shows confidence because there is a method); "Avoid Rejection Pile" (Important Pain/Fear); "Dream School" (Important Desire)
2) Shorter description with the benefits highlighted
3) Stronger color on the CTA button. A CTA should always have a different and contrasting color from the rest of the page
4) Here we introduced the expert with social proof + his credentials + method. 5) We added a more compelling image so our main persona - the mother - could see herself in this very important moment.
After we set up the new ads + landing page improvements:
However... We still needed to improve our cost per call. So we put our efforts into the improvement of the next steps of the funnel - after the lead optin for the free material.
3. Schedule Improvements
The VSL page where the lead is directed to after the optin had a video with a CTA button to schedule an appointment with the expert. Basically, the lead NEEDED to watch the video to take further action. We observed (using Hotjar) that the lead was not watching the video at all.
So this is what we did for the VSL and Survey Page:
VSL Page:
Survey Page:
After the final adjustments, the cost per call dropped from $450 to $210, The company generated +$100,000 in revenue, and the same ads and campaign are keeping a high performance for more than 4 weeks in a row!
Astonished with the results, Jack Delehey, the College Admission Expert (Coach) manifested himself about the strategy: “Carlos is the real deal. He's incredibly personable, organized, and detail-oriented...but most importantly, he delivers. When I joined LinkerDots my cost/sales call was over $1,200. Even with a 40% close rate, this was not profitable. Now, after only working with Carlos for 2 months, he's got my cost/sales call down to $485...in just two months. Because of this, I just had one of the best months of all time. Looking forward to seeing our continued progress together. Thank you, Carlos!”
Here at LinkerDots, we have a team of experts ready to analyze and improve your results as we did with Jack. Since you have read this post, you get a 30-MIN STRATEGIC SESSION with our specialists.
We can also audit your funnel and tell you how you can improve your results and it's totally on the house. Don't wait to book your slot. Press the link below to schedule your STRATEGIC SESSION.
Or if you want to tell us about other business plans you have, you can click on the page below and complete the form. We will reach out to you as soon as possible:
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