First Experience at PPC: Over £23,000 in Sales. Lesson Learnt.
I made over £23,000 in sales at my first experience with PPC. (Pay Per Click Advertising)
Background story:
In August 2020, I read a post by Eugene talking about how Bing was not a joke and how it was working for him.
I was inspired to try out Microsoft advertising for my new business. My goal was just to create awareness for my niche market.
I was given a £100 credit by Microsoft advertising so creating an account and I added £50 to it to test the waters. So in total, I had £150.
First Lesson - Change things up and analyse the need.
I launched the campaign through a telephone call with a consultant at Microsoft. He worked through the process with me and helped me set up my first PPC.
The audience I chose was too narrow, the copy was not direct. There was no need for my offering at the time.
After 3 days of 3 clicks, I went to my dashboard and I changed the advert. To what the need was. I knew that the impact of Covid meant that my target market was looking to fly. It was an urgent need. People wanted to see their family, attend to their businesses, or just take a break.
Second Lesson - Create a landing page with Email opt-ins
After changing the adverts, I started to get clicks to my website and I was so happy that my brand was gaining some awareness. However, I didn't have an email opt-in option. I only had the landing page which stated what I was selling and my personality. I just can't stop wondering how having 300 more emails from the 342 clicks to my website would have even changed the prospects of my business. I got 42 emails because they made the sales.
Third Lesson - Create your product
Yes, I made over £23,000 in sales of air tickets however, I only earned around £420 in commission. How is this even possible? As a travel agent, we rely heavily on commission and volume. For every air ticket I sold, I only got a flat fee of £10 in commission and that's lucky.
What's the way forward here then - I am planning to work directly with air consolidators next year rather than through a host agency. Most air tickets are not commissionable anyway.
Why am I selling something not worth the effort?
I am passionate about travelling and I hope that I can get turn buyers into return customers.
Fourth Lesson - Optimise my website better
Looking through the device analysis, I found that I need to work on my mobile speed. It has always lagged behind the speed of my desktop and it showed clearly when it came to sales too. I made more sales with those that used a computer.
Final ThoughtsWill I try PPC again?
Absolutely! I believe as a service business in a competitive market, I need to be out there, showing up and grabbing whatever is left from the big guns.
I have learned greatly from my mistakes, I will be going into the deep waters of YouTube advertising and Google advertising next.
Again, I have £100 credit with Google to get things started.
Disclaimer:
The training here teaches that organic traffic is the best and if you are a newbie, that is the route I will advise you to follow.
I have created an online business with the training I got here and I am at the stage where I need to be doing more marketing. Please don't read this and feel the need to spend money advertising.
I also started with Pinterest advertising for £10 before jumping to Bing at £50.
I believe the returns I have made on my investments have been amazing and I am just starting. Watch this space.
Speak soon.
Bolupe.
Recent Comments
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Hi Bolupe,
I'm starting to looking into Bing ads as well.
How much did you set your per-day cost for your campaign if you invested $150?
Is there any way to adjust how much you want to pay per click?
I didn't see that option when setting up my campaign.
Thank you in advance.
Cheers!
-Hon
When it comes to Bing, the vast majority of people tend to ignore it, but what we have to remembers is this, it is STILl a search engine and produces the same results, but when it comes to advertising on it PPC wise, it is a lot less than Google, so you get more bang for your buck
Hi, It was a PPC option so I didn’t set a limit per day. All I did was start with my budget - £150, and I monitored the clicks closely. The keywords are priced according to search volume and positions.
I was always on Page 1 link 2 or 3. That enhanced the results.
You highlight a key point, which is monitoring the keywords closely. Its very important especially with Google because if you don't your bank account can drain quite quickly
Very nice.
It's great to hear that you went about this in an analytical way. Your insights are great! Learning how to improve based on the results is so important.
We do hope you can work directly with air consolidator next year to increase your earnings.
We can tell your are very excited about this. We are excited for you.
Oh, thank you for your kind comments. I am hopeful as well.
I love data and I always want to review every action I am taking in my business.
Congratulations, Bolupe!
PPC has a lot of potential, as does most paid advertising.
It is important to know how to go about it though.
Wishing you more success.
Cassi
Thank you Cassi. It is very important to know how to go about it and that's why I'm sharing the lessons I have learned.
It definitely is, Bolupe.
My revenue is growing in all my income streams with organic traffic.
I am doing some research to decide how to start working with outsourcing and paid advertising.
A great share!
Cassi
Wow Bolupe I was wondering where you had disappeared to. You certainly have been busy working on monetizing your site. I am keenly interested in your approaches as I am in a similar niche so will PM you at some point. Thank you very much for this inspirational post.
Hugh
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What a brilliant and inspiring post, with some great lessons in it, especially Lesson 4.
While you are right about the training here, teaches that organic is best starting out, there is no question that paid advertising, produces the BEST results and lets you scale, which is perfectly demonstrated in this post.
Good to see you are moving into Pinterest and YouTube is also worth doing
Well done though and congratulations
Thank you David. You are absolutely right, when we are ready to scale, PPC is an option.
You are welcome