Earlier this week, I was on the phone with Perry Marshall, one of the top paid traffic experts in the world…
We were talking about his upcoming Definitive Traffic Seminar.
… And the challenge with getting traffic today.
Buying traffic online used to be a Wild West.
There were a bunch of sites willing to independently sell you banner ad rotations… A few smart enough to do paid blasts to their email lists… A few other bit players…
And then there was Google.
And even Google’s AdWords wasn’t even that well-established yet as a traffic platform.
So you could throw the proverbial s*** at the wall, and see what stuck.
I remember writing a script I called “keywordmerge.” The idea was that there were a bunch of standard search phrases people might use. And each one might have one replaceable keyword.
So I’d take a list of certifications, like…
— CCNA
— CCNP
— CCIE
— MCSA
— MCSE
Then I’d take a list of keyword phrases, like…
— * Certification
— * Training
— * Video
… And so on…
And using my keywordmerge script, I’d combine the two lists automatically, with the term from the first list replacing the asterisk (*) in the second.
The above lists would only combine to 15 unique keyword phrases. But in practice, I was able to quickly come up with a list of thousands of unique keyword phrases people might type into Google.
And because of how AdWords worked back in the day, my relevant phrases that matched the search term helped me show up on top — in lots of searches.
I managed to put our IT training in front of thousands of searchers, cheap. And that was part of what took our ads from basically breaking even (before I got there) to making as much as 300% ROI every month.
Those halcyon days didn’t last for long…
Google realized that what I was doing was part of a larger trend of basically gaming the system. And their systems grew more sophisticated, to match searcher with advertiser.
Plus, more advertisers came online.
And then Facebook built its own paid advertising platform.
Now YouTube. And Ad Networks. And a whole pile of other paid advertising channels.
Then there’s organic.
Which also used to be about optimizing for keywords. Until that got gamed. At which point things shifted, dramatically. Until your site reputation grew to supreme importance.
But then there’s social. ALL the social media platforms. Which seem to change constantly.
And only some of which have your ideal customers. But it’s often hard to figure that out until you have spent a ton of time trying to build an organic following.
It can be OVERWHELMING…
And that’s a large part of what Perry is trying to tackle at his Definitive Traffic Seminar.
Basically, how do you manage the dozens of potential traffic sources today, and fit them into a total strategy for your business.
Part of what Perry and I talked about — and really clarified — is that it’s not just about what traffic sources are right for your business.
Because at some point, nearly every traffic source can be of huge value to the leading businesses in any market.
At the very least, your customers probably overlap in something like a dozen or more major websites and ad platforms that you could potential use to reach them.
But how do you manage that?
How do you look at your business, and decide what to do first, second, third, and so on?
And that’s when we got crystal clear on this point:
There are 3 distinct phases to building out your traffic strategy…
And here’s the thing — they’re basically universal.
If you are paying for traffic to your website, you should do it following this 3-phase model.
If you’re launching a new funnel, you can do it with this 3-phase strategy.
Anywhere you’re trying to get and convert traffic, this strategy will give you clarity.
It doesn’t matter what market you’re in. It doesn’t matter where your customers congregate online.
Yes, some of the technical, tactical details like selection of certain traffic platforms change.
But the fundamental 3-phase strategy stays the same.
Now, I prefer a different name from Perry, for each of the phases. But the strategy is the same.
Phase 1: Traffic Foundation…
Just like the foundation of a building ensures everything built on it will be solid, that’s what this phase is all about.
And for this, I do have to give a hat tip to Justin Brooke from AdSkills (and a presenter at Perry’s seminar) who I first heard this specific implementation from.
Basically, this phase is all about controlling how your warm and hot leads will engage with your site.
So first, you create a Google Ads campaign that’s all about branded search. Take all your relevant brand terms. And create search ads that direct people who search for those terms toward the most relevant sales or landing page.
Second, you build a Facebook retargeting campaign, directing site visitors back to the most relevant offer. This puts your ads in front of people who’ve been to your site before.
Optionally, any and all other retargeting campaigns would officially fall under this umbrella. So whatever or however you’re able to put ads back in front of your site visitors, you set them up here.
This is a great place to start with paid traffic, because these are often the highest ROI campaigns. Someone comes to your site, or becomes aware of you. They are warm at least, potentially hot. You run ads to bring them back, and show them relevant offers. This is total low-hanging fruit.
Not only that, everything else you do in the next two phases will be driving traffic to your website. Which will mean more brand searches. And more visitors to retarget. Creating a positive feedback loop.
In fact, if you don’t have this in place and skip to the next two phases, it makes it much harder to create an overall profitable advertising strategy.
Phase 2: Core Traffic Sources…
Here, you’re basically looking for the fastest, easiest way to create a decent flow of cold leads.
This means you’re probably going to go to Facebook, Google, and YouTube.
Preferably, give yourself at least one more traffic source, beyond these.
Find your core audience. You can use targeting. You can also use lookalike audiences, where the ad platforms use AI to try to match your site visitors, prospects, and customers. Or probably both.
And work to create a profitable ad campaign at this level.
You’ll be driving traffic to the top of your funnel, to opt-in pages and acquisition offers.
Your funnel has to be solid to make this work. So you should have your conversions dialed in, as well as your funnel, offer, and customer value economics.
Keep optimizing here for your key performance indicators, until you can reliably spend $1 and have it bring back a new customer who yields $1 or more in margin. (Preferably more!) … And I’ll note that math isn’t exactly right — I’m not telling you to put $1 offers into the market — it’s an illustration of principle.
And I’ll note — part of the reason you did Phase 1 was to make Phase 2 more effective. If you only attribute revenue at the ad level, or ad group level, or whatever… You’re doing yourself a disservice. Your goal is to get all your KPIs for paid advertising working together to create a successful total strategy.
Phase 3: Scaling Your Traffic…
Okay. So to recap… You have retargeting and brand search down. You have cold traffic working effectively on at least a couple ad platforms.
(One of the MAJOR dangers Perry is trying to help advertisers avoid is the single-source traffic trap — where you get Google-slapped, or Facebook-slapped, or whatever-slapped and suddenly your biz has ZERO new leads coming in.)
Then, how do you maximize?
In short, find more cold leads in more places.
Look to alternative traffic sources. Get free traffic where you can. Paid traffic where you can. Experiment with different platforms. Throw test budgets here, there, and everywhere.
Limit your downside risk of trying something new, knowing that paid traffic has HUGE upside reward if you find something that works.
The final phase is about exploring to find whatever you can make work.
And building more and more sources of traffic, visitors, prospects, and leads into your business.
Because the fewer traffic sources you use, the more fragile your entire operation will be.
But the more traffic sources you use, the more anti-fragile you become. Because if all your competitors get killed on Facebook, it’s not that the market disappears. It’s just that they’re no longer being spoken to on Facebook. If you have 14 different ways in addition to Facebook that you’re reaching the market, they’ll be hungrier when they find you there. And you’ll thrive.
This 3-phase model is ultra-versatile…
Like any good strategy, you can apply it on lots of levels.
You can apply it to an individual funnel. To all your marketing around a particular product line. To your entire business. It’s micro and macro.
Not only that, it adapts to your traffic sources. Yes, paid ads make up an important part of Phase 1. But honestly, I could throw in a good email marketing strategy there, too. It’s all about maximizing the value you get from existing visitors and prospects.
Then, it doesn’t matter how you add traffic in at the top. Sure, paid ads are a fast and very controllable way to drive leads into the top of your funnel. But maybe you prefer JVs and affiliates. Or you have a big YouTube following. Or you have a good following on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or you are a regular on podcasts. Or… Or… Or…
You simply plug and play your traffic platforms and sources into the second two phases, in whatever is the best fit for your business.
So you can take full advantage of the dozens of major traffic sources available to you today.
Again, Perry is integrating this into his Definitive Traffic Seminar curriculum — to give attendees a powerful tool to make the best use of every traffic platform today.
The letter describing the seminar is incredibly informative.
I’m actually scheduled to be in New York that week, or else I’d be there. But I’m hoping I can get access to the content in one way or another.
I know this just scratches the surface on the breakthroughs that will be included…
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
