Using paid solo ads might be one of the easiest and fastest ways to test out your marketing funnel, to build your list and even to make a quick profit. Yet most new Internet marketers are deathly afraid to try paid solo ads. It’s likely because…
A) They have to set up their funnel first and
B) They have to PAY for the solo ads
It’s scary. What if they don’t get a response? What if they blow it? What if they choose the wrong solo ad provider, or write the wrong email, or create a squeeze page that doesn’t convert, or…
If you try hard enough, you can find a hundred reasons not to use paid solo ads. But if you get over your fear, you might find that there is no better or faster way to build an Internet marketing business.
Since having the knowledge to be successful tends to trump fear, I’m going to give you some tips to help you make your solo ads successful and even profitable as quickly as possible.
Write a solo ad that targets exactly who you want. You’re paying by the click, which means the solo ad seller will continue to mail until you get the number of clicks you pay for. So don’t write just any ad – write one that directly targets the exact people you want to reach. This builds a higher quality list that is more responsive, compared to a less responsive generic list.
Monetize your funnel immediately. Don’t just settle for building a list with your squeeze page – put in a sales page for a related product immediately after the squeeze page. Your goal is to make enough sales to pay for your mailing.
Further monetize your funnel with an upsell and a downsell. They didn’t buy the product on the sales page? Make a smaller offer. They bought the product? Offer them something else to buy, too.
Maximize your conversions by being 100% consistent. If your solo mailing says they get a free video series on the 3 best traffic driving methods, then that’s what your squeeze page should say, too. Don’t change the topic from your solo ad to your squeeze page or you’ll confuse your prospects into leaving without signing up.
Try twice to sign them onto your list. If they don’t sign up on your squeeze page, then use an exit pop to try one more time to capture their email address.
Alternate method: Use your exit splash for your main offer. This way if they don’t join your list, they still see the offer. Consider your priority – is it making money now, or building your list? If it’s making money now, show them the sales page. If it’s building your list, try one last time to capture their email.
Use an effective follow up series. To further monetize your new list, put an autoresponder series in place that contains several offers in addition to all the good info and credibility building stuff you want to add.
Recruit affiliates within your solo ad funnel. Don’t just settle for building your prospect and customer lists – build your affiliate list as well. Send out a request for affiliates within your autoresponder sequence. This can be on the first email you send, or the second. “Welcome to ___. In the coming weeks you’re going to discover (insert benefits.) Affiliates: If you’d like to earn commissions, please visit ___ for all the details and to sign up.” Easy.
Mail new subscribers daily. Yes, daily. You want them to get to know you and become accustomed to receiving, opening and reading your emails.
Track everything. You want to know what people are doing, what they’re buying and when they’re buying it within the funnel and in the autoresponder series. Tweak accordingly to make your funnel as profitable as possible. The more you’re making, the more you can afford to spend on solo ads to build your lists even bigger.
Think about it – if you spend $100 to get 250 clicks, and you have your funnel optimized to convert at 50%, you’re adding 125 people to your list each time. If your funnel is further optimized to clear $150 on offers, upsells and downsells, that’s excellent.
Each time you spend $100, you’re earning $50 profit and building your list. How many times could you do this per day? As many as you want, because you’re in profit.
Best case scenario: You have your own products and thus when sales are made, 100% of the money goes straight into your account. And since you get paid immediately, you can immediately reinvest those funds in additional mailings.
Second best case scenario: You don’t have your own products, but you’re using an affiliate program that pays you immediately. Since you’re not making 100% of the profit, you’ll have to work harder on optimizing your funnel to make it profitable, but it’s still quite doable. And since you get paid immediately, you can immediately reinvest those funds in additional mailings.
Worst case scenario: You’re using an affiliate product from some place like ClickBank, where it takes awhile to get paid. You can still make money this way and still build your list, but the challenge is obvious: You won’t be able to immediately reinvest your profits in additional mailings.
Still, even the worst case scenario is far, far better than doing nothing. And once you are building your list, you can also look into doing ad swaps with reputable marketers – you mail your list for them, they mail their list for you, and it costs you nothing.
Just be sure their products and their reputations make you look good. You don’t want to send your list anything that will bite you in the end.
