The scaling is in motion. We are going to show you how we are scaling our business, with Ydraw videos, using Facebook, Adwords, and Instagram Ads.
When I say scale, I mean increase our ad spend which will, in turn, increase our leads.
The idea is more leads generate more sales. You’re getting a front row seat to the show. Feel free to ask questions and make comments–we love feedback and new ideas.
Many of you know, Ydraw is a video marketing company that focuses on whiteboard animation. We leverage our whiteboard animation videos to generate our leads on both ads and landing pages.
During this process, we hope to inspire you with ideas to scale your business by using the same mediums we are leveraging to generate leads. We are dropping a not-so-subtle hint that a whiteboard video from Ydraw is one of the most effective marketing tools to generate leads for your business. If you already have a Ydraw video, you can start implementing our practices. If you don’t have one, or need a new one, give me a call at 801-660-5154.
THE HISTORY OF SCALING YDRAW
Over the last couple of years we have been content with the growth and profits at Ydraw. This year, we decided to add another 100k a month in revenue.
One of the biggest limitations of Ydraw is that each video is customized. It takes a lot of creativity and human capital to create a whiteboard animation video. It’s even worse with 2D and 3D animation videos. For us to scale perfectly, we would need to have a turnkey video in place or we have to find a lot of new talent.
We don’t know if we want to do that yet.
Once we increase our sales another 100K a month we will put a freeze on our ad spend and decide if we want to go on another hiring spree. Stay tuned.
WHERE WE CURRENTLY STAND
When I talk numbers, I will only cover Adwords (YouTube), Facebook, and Instagram. The numbers don’t include referrals, SEO, repeat business, referral partners, etc.
We’ll be discussing ads and video ads only. All the leads are coming from ad spend.
October 2015 Ad Spend (not a good month)
Adwords
Spend: $8,083
Leads: 81
Cost per lead $99.79
Click To Conversion Rate was 3% to 9%
Facebook and Instagram (Zero)
Last October we were running the following:
Keywords Search Ads (Adwords) : These are just simple keyword-targeted ads.
Gmail Sponsored Ads (AdWords): These are Gmail ads that pop up on the Gmail promotion tab
Video keywords Ads (Trueview AdWords): These are YouTube display ads for specific keywords
Video Placement Ads (AdWords): Hand-picked YouTube videos that allow ads
YDRAW’S ADJUSTMENTS
After looking over our numbers we realized we needed to make some adjustments to the website. This didn’t come to a surprise to us. We had discussed making changes to the site but didn’t make time to for the necessary adjustments.
I know…STUPID!
Anyone else have this problem? I hope it’s not just us, especially if things are going great and you’re making good money. It’s human nature to keep the status quo when all is well.
Our number 1 goal for the website is to collect leads. We want their email addresses or for them to pick up the phone and call. Calls have a much higher closing rate, but a lot of people are in research mode and will only leave their email.
That’s ok.
Once we collect an email address they enter our Email Campaign.
Our website was ok at the time, but was random and lacked a clear call to action.
Not to mention, there were a couple issues on Mobile that needed to be fixed.
Over Thanksgiving break, we went to work on the website. The updated version now has a clearer call to action (CTA) and we eliminated a lot of the clutter.
Basically, we simplified.
Our website contains:
- Videos
- A Clear CTA
- Case Studies
- Social Proof
- Strong Headline
- Mobile Friendly
- Loads Quickly (click here to test your speed)
The results are below.
If you’re reading this with the intention of scaling your own business, there are a few numbers you need to nail down before you increase your ad spend.
Numbers you should know:
-Cost Per Leads
-Cost Per Customer
-Closing Percentage
-Profit Per Sale
-Life Time Value Of A Customer
If you’re losing money every month, one of the numbers above is messed up.
Cost Per Lead is different for everyone.
If your industry is highly competitive you could be spending $50 dollars a click which could turn into a $500 cost per lead. This is not uncommon (Attorneys are known to spend this kind of money on leads).
At Ydraw we can afford to spend $150 to $300 per lead or $2500 a customer, and still come out on top. You may only be able to spend $3 a lead.
Just make sure know your numbers.
Obviously, the name of the game is to get the lowest cost per lead.
If you can only spend a couple dollars to generate a lead, AdWords might not be the best place start. I would look at Facebook or Instagram. You will have difficulty reaching your goals with AdWords unless you find a way to increase your prices and profits per customer.
Either way, you have to test it.
FAST FORWARD TO JAN 2016
It was time to start scaling up. The new website was up, Instagram ads were working and our Facebook strategy was in place.
Adwords
Spend: $8,185.35
Number of Leads: 117
Cost Per Lead: $84.62
Click to Conversion: 5.69% to 10.53%
Facebook and Instagram
Spend: $4665
Number of Leads 446
Cost Per Lead: $10.45
As you can see, the website adjustments made a big impact on our conversions. We saw a 35% decrease in Cost Per Lead and close to 87% increase in Click to Conversion.
You will also notice that Facebook and Instagram campaigns really added to the number of leads.
Our Cost Per Lead is much lower on Facebook and Instagram, but those leads are not as high of quality as AdWords.
There is a difference between people who are actively searching and people you interrupt. Facebook and Instagram are interruption techniques, meaning they are not actively searching for our product or service.
There is a longer sales cycle, but the return on investment (ROI) is still big.
What I love about Facebook and Instragram ads are the shares, likes, and comments. Here is the Instagram video ad we are running.
Take note of the comments and shares. We love these ads because we are getting free customers. When one person sees our ad and thinks their friend needs it, they share the ad.
This is like an instant endorsement.
These are factors that are extremely hard to measure. All I know is that things are working.
For example…
In one day I had $18,000 in sales from Instagram ads.
We spent around $150 on ads that day. The whole month of January we spent $4665 on ads for both Facebook and Instagram.
I do not have the exact amount of sales that came in from Facebook and Instagram, but it was a lot (still trying to track them more effectively).
These are exciting numbers!
The Plan Moving Forward:
Over the coming weeks I plan to increase ad spend by $3000 and make some more adjustments.
The goal is to lower or maintain the same Cost Per Lead.
Here are some key factors that contributed to our success in the month of January.
- New Website Design
- New Facebook and Instagram Video Ads
- Lookalike Audience Created from Conversion
- Increase Ad Spend
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me at wes@ydraw.com I would be happy to discuss your business.
I am excited for what 2016 holds.
Happy Scaling…