Hey guys!
I just wanted to leave my two cents about free vs paid traffic here, and what I've found over the past couple of months of testing and tweaking my funnels.
As you may all know, there is no such thing as free traffic. You are either paying per click, per view, per visitor or you are putting your time and effort in generating traffic (like SEO and organic Social Media for example). And you know that in business time is money so there is not actually a free source of traffic anymore.
In fact, many free sources of traffic usually die or become paid traffic after a while. Think about SEO: You just needed a couple of tweaks here and there and BAM you were in Top 3 position. Now it's not like that anymore and Google is becoming more and more a "pay to play" kind of search engine.
The same happens with Facebook. Having a 20.000 likes fans Page used to be a nice business, because ALL of your audience would see whatever you put in your page. Now it's hardly the case, you need to boost your posts to reach your entire mass, and even further if you are starting out.
So the point would be: which type of traffic will give you the most bang for your buck? If nothing is free, then how would you efficiently invest your time and money to grow your business?
This is a question I ask myself over and over again, and each traffic source and type is different. I've been into SEO for the past 9 years but I'm starting to setup funnels where you'd put $1 and take $2 out in paid advertising.
So here are some of my intakes, I hope they are useful to you:
- Use every possible type of traffic out there. It's not about doing SEO OR PPC. It's about using them both so that you can create a synergy where you can both scale and enjoy natural growth.
- Capitalize in every opportunity to create rapport and authority. If you are getting SEO traffic or organic social media, you still need to grow your list and gather emails, setup a retargeting campaign and keep serving ads to those people.
- If you are only using PPC, then consider using the power of growing organically. Whether you use SEO with a blog or you share value to grow your online presence, usually organic traffic is more qualified and it's pre-sold thanks to the content they find about you online.
- DO NOT depend on just one source of traffic. We all heard horror stories about people making $50.000 a month and tanking in Google or having to lay off people because Facebook banned your ads account. If you are depending on one source of traffic, then you don't have a sustainable business.
- Paid traffic is much more scalable and reliable than free traffic. If you want to test a funnel or an offer, then paid advertising is your way to go.
- Know your numbers! Use something like Improvely to track your entire funnel, stop traffic leaks and make them go back to your offers over and over again. Once you have your numbers in place you can scale like a maniac and still grow your profiles with organic traffic.
- Have a plan B in place. Whether it's a 301 redirection or a second Adwords account ready to go, have a plan B to drive traffic just in case something happens (you don't want your Facebook ads account shut down in the middle of a big product launch. Believe me, I've been there).
- Give away value. It doesn't matter which kind of traffic your are using, always deliver value to your potential customer. Both paid and "free" traffic can be turned into customers if you deliver enough free value.
Ok guys I hope these insights help you out. I'll keep testing and report back with more insights if you want.
And I'm giving away a free course for the members of Warrior Forum. It's about creating your ultimate Lead Magnet and start building your audience from the ground up. If you guys are interested just ping me and I'll send you a link to register.
Thanks a lot!
Hernan
I just wanted to leave my two cents about free vs paid traffic here, and what I've found over the past couple of months of testing and tweaking my funnels.
As you may all know, there is no such thing as free traffic. You are either paying per click, per view, per visitor or you are putting your time and effort in generating traffic (like SEO and organic Social Media for example). And you know that in business time is money so there is not actually a free source of traffic anymore.
In fact, many free sources of traffic usually die or become paid traffic after a while. Think about SEO: You just needed a couple of tweaks here and there and BAM you were in Top 3 position. Now it's not like that anymore and Google is becoming more and more a "pay to play" kind of search engine.
The same happens with Facebook. Having a 20.000 likes fans Page used to be a nice business, because ALL of your audience would see whatever you put in your page. Now it's hardly the case, you need to boost your posts to reach your entire mass, and even further if you are starting out.
So the point would be: which type of traffic will give you the most bang for your buck? If nothing is free, then how would you efficiently invest your time and money to grow your business?
This is a question I ask myself over and over again, and each traffic source and type is different. I've been into SEO for the past 9 years but I'm starting to setup funnels where you'd put $1 and take $2 out in paid advertising.
So here are some of my intakes, I hope they are useful to you:
- Use every possible type of traffic out there. It's not about doing SEO OR PPC. It's about using them both so that you can create a synergy where you can both scale and enjoy natural growth.
- Capitalize in every opportunity to create rapport and authority. If you are getting SEO traffic or organic social media, you still need to grow your list and gather emails, setup a retargeting campaign and keep serving ads to those people.
- If you are only using PPC, then consider using the power of growing organically. Whether you use SEO with a blog or you share value to grow your online presence, usually organic traffic is more qualified and it's pre-sold thanks to the content they find about you online.
- DO NOT depend on just one source of traffic. We all heard horror stories about people making $50.000 a month and tanking in Google or having to lay off people because Facebook banned your ads account. If you are depending on one source of traffic, then you don't have a sustainable business.
- Paid traffic is much more scalable and reliable than free traffic. If you want to test a funnel or an offer, then paid advertising is your way to go.
- Know your numbers! Use something like Improvely to track your entire funnel, stop traffic leaks and make them go back to your offers over and over again. Once you have your numbers in place you can scale like a maniac and still grow your profiles with organic traffic.
- Have a plan B in place. Whether it's a 301 redirection or a second Adwords account ready to go, have a plan B to drive traffic just in case something happens (you don't want your Facebook ads account shut down in the middle of a big product launch. Believe me, I've been there).
- Give away value. It doesn't matter which kind of traffic your are using, always deliver value to your potential customer. Both paid and "free" traffic can be turned into customers if you deliver enough free value.
Ok guys I hope these insights help you out. I'll keep testing and report back with more insights if you want.
And I'm giving away a free course for the members of Warrior Forum. It's about creating your ultimate Lead Magnet and start building your audience from the ground up. If you guys are interested just ping me and I'll send you a link to register.
Thanks a lot!
Hernan
