How To Improve the Quality of Your Paid Advertising Leads Fast

Over the last 5 years, I've generated more than three and a half million leads from the internet.

And in this article, you're going to learn the #1 strategy I use to generate cream-of-the-crop-qualified leads ready to buy.

This strategy works tremendously well in information businesses - specifically online coaching businesses.

But it works in really any business that acquires customers through a sales call.

How do I know?

I’ve worked behind the scenes at multiple 7, 8 & 9-figure online coaching businesses - building funnels and managing ad campaigns upwards of $350k/day in budget.

So I’ve seen first hand how lead quality impacts profit of the entire business.

When your lead quality improves, your conversion rate improves. . .

Which means you get to help more people, make more money, and have a bigger impact.

And on the flipside, I’ve seen the pitfalls of using lackluster strategies that fail to improve lead quality.

Most of these common strategies actually make your lead quality problem worse.

So before revealing my #1 fix to instantly boost lead quality, I’m going to briefly cover:

3 Common Strategies Marketers Use To Fix Poor Lead Quality (and why they DON'T work):

Common Mistake #1: Adding questions around budget/income/savings to your application questionnaire or calendar booking form.

While adding "money" questions to your application sounds good in theory, it’s not fixing the root cause.

Because asking questions like "what's your budget?" before a sales call is like asking someone for their preferred wedding venue before a first date.

The same goes for “how much do you have in savings?” and even more pointless questions like “what’s your current monthly income?”

These questions create uncomfortable pressure that usually backfires.

And no one is going to answer truthfully!

It's better to address these questions on the sales call where you have proper time to build trust and rapport.

Furthermore, these questions consider access to credit / other people’s money. 

Remember: price is a myth. If prospects want your program badly enough they will find a way to get the money.

Just think, if you knew one of your loved ones was going to pass away unless you came up with $10,000 in the next 24 hours, would you be able to come up with the money?

I know I would. I’d be doing anything legal to try to get that cash.

While that’s an extreme scenario, there are ways to curate your sales calls to positions your offer as the only solution that will help your prospects achieve their goals.

If you can do that, your leads will do just about anything to join your program. . .

(Unless you filter them out by asking money related questions before you even talk to them).

Common Mistake #2: Changing the targeting settings in your ad campaigns.

A popular one I hear is “let’s target the top 5% of zip codes."

Please don’t fall for this trap.

Ad targeting has the least impact on the profitability of your campaigns.

Especially now in 2024 and beyond, ad networks are REMOVING targeting settings at a record rate.

Targeting is driven by ad creative and the AI, not lever-pulling media buyers.

Soon, we will only be allowed to upload ads and hit publish. That’s it.

What will we do then?

The answer: It’s all about feeding the algorithm conversion data of the EXACT leads we want. (hint hint)

Remember: Targeting DOES NOT improve lead quality. 

Common Mistake #3: Adding a button delay timer that makes prospects wait before filling out your application or going to the next step in your funnel.

You’ve probably seen this before or maybe even used it yourself.

Some people add a timer on their funnel pages that hides the button going to the next step in their funnel until the timer ends.

The theory is that by making prospects wait to go to the next step in your funnel, they watch more of your VSL / webinar and are more “warmed up” than a prospect who doesn’t watch your entire VSL / webinar.

While this sounds good in theory, I’ve never seen it yield statistically significant results.

A button delay will only throttle your lead flow and tank your conversion rates.

Nor will it fix lead quality.

Sure, there’s an argument to be made that prospects who wait around for the button to appear are more invested in your brand. . . 

But it does not fix the root cause.

The root cause has nothing to do with your application questions, your ad targeting, or button timers.

The root cause is in the “first ten words” of your sales process.

Let me explain. . .

Here's The #1 Strategy To Drastically Boost Lead Quality, Almost Overnight 

The "first ten words" of your sales process are the most important. 

As legendary salesman, Elmer Wheeler said:

“If your first ten words aren’t the right words, you won’t have a chance to use the next ten thousand because your customer will walk away from you physically, if he doesn’t float away from you mentally.” 

Remember: nobody cares what you do, they only care what you can do for them.

So make this clear from the start.

Your sales process starts when someone visits your landing page for the first time.

Contrary to popular belief, the sales process does NOT start at the ad! 

In the context of internet marketing, ads merely acquire sales opportunities. . .

Your sales process - everything AFTER the ad click to the time someone pulls out their credit card and buys - is responsible for converting sales opportunities into customers.

Therefore, the first ten words of your sales process is the first 10 words of your landing page.

So that means. . .

Your Landing Page Headline Is The Single Most Important Element That Impacts The Profitability Of Your ENTIRE SALES PROCESS

Yes, the #1 fix to drastically improve lead quality overnight is to change the headline on your front-end landing page.

If unqualified, low-quality leads are going through your funnel, I recommend testing an exclusionary, specific headline:

A headline that appeals only to the exact people you want and repeals the prospects you don’t want.

The headline on your landing page is the most important factor that affects the conversion rate of your entire funnel/offer.

Even Claude Hopkins understood the importance of the headline. He said, “I spend far more time on headlines than on writing. I often spend hours on a single headline.”

Let’s put it into practice. . .

Here’s a basic framework you can model to create headlines that appeal to the exact people you want: 

"This (delivery mechanism) is only for (your primary market) who are serious about ___”

You can even add in a monetary amount on the headline to qualify people even more. 

Or key similarities you see among your best clients. 

Or reference problems/solutions only “people with money” have - i.e. “reduce client churn” appeals to people who already have clients vs. messaging like “get more clients.”

Examples:

• This Workshop Is Only For SaaS Owners Serious About Scaling From $10k/month To $100k/month

• This Strategy Session Is Only For Piano Players Serious About Producing Their First Song

• This Video Series Shows Forex Traders How To Turn $5,000 Into $20,000 Over The Next 90 Days

• This 4-Week Bootcamp is Exclusively for Startup Founders Who are Serious About Raising Their First $1 Million in Funding

• This Free Training Is Exclusively For Agency Owners Serious About Reducing Client Churn

• This Email Newsletter Is Exclusively For Online Media Buyers Spending Over $100,000 A Month

Who's going to opt-in for that newsletter if they aren't a media buyer that's spending over $100,000 a month on ads?

Not many people.

Here’s what’ll probably happen after you test an exclusionary, specific headline:

Your landing page conversion rate will suffer for a little bit, but your down-funnel conversion rates should improve tremendously.

Changing your headline to be exclusionary and super-specific is a surefire way to improve lead quality.

And the beauty of making a change like this is that it improves your campaign targeting without you changing any targeting settings in your ad account.

How?

Once the ad network algorithms start learning which type of people are opting in and going through your funnel. . .

It'll adjust your ad delivery accordingly. It’ll start delivering your ads to people most likely to complete the actions on your funnel.

And by having a super-specific, exclusionary headline on your front-end landing page, you end up with more qualified leads into your sales process for a lower cost. . .

So - there you go!

Now, some of you reading this may think it’s too simple. 

The truth is, it is a simple.

In fact, so simple that most people won't do it.

But those that do, could possibly make a boatload of money.

So implement it and let me know how it goes.

Here's a story that'll drive this point home:

One of my favorite books is 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall. 

There's a story in there about a man named John Paul Mendocha (Perry's friend and another direct response marketing consultant).

As a teenager, John Paul dropped out of high school and went to Las Vegas to become a professional gambler.

There, he found a mentor named Rob. 

Rob was a seasoned high roller who used some "unconventional" strategies to teach John.

Rob said, “Son, the first lesson about gambling is you have to play games you can win. You need to play people who are not as good at poker as you are. Those people are called marks.” 

To demonstrate how to find "marks", John and Rob head to a nightclub and sit down at a poker table amongst the loud music.

Crazy Rob brought a sawed-off shotgun in his trench coat. . .

"He pulled the shotgun out, slipped it under the table. He pressed the lever, popping the chamber open as if to load it.

But instead of inserting a shell, he loudly snapped it back shut, with that sharp, signature ratcheting sound shotguns are famous for— what enthusiasts call “racking the shotgun.” 

A few heads in the crowd twisted around, trying to see where the racking sound had come from. Everyone else was oblivious, absorbed in their haze of nightclub revelry. Then Rob slipped the gun back into his jacket." 

Rob leaned over to John and said:

"John, the people who turned around— those guys are NOT marks. Do not play poker with them. “John, your job is to play cards with everybody else.” 

This "racking the shotgun" story is an analogy used to explain the importance of qualifying your primary market and focusing on the people who respond positively.

And the best way to do that is with your Landing Page Headline.

Other resources to help you get more customers from your internet marketing campaigns:

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