Pay Per Call Follow-Along (25)
Short introduction
Let start with a short introduction. I have a decent AdWords experience. Lets say 2 years. Used to work for $xx.xxx a month AdWords clients when I had a 9-5 Job. Did quit it a year ago. Now i've a consultation company that helps business with SEO and SEA. Next to my business i've build the last 3 years a solid base with SEO. Sold all my SEO sites last summer for around 15k US dollars. This was a great starting point to get started with AM. Use to do some Facebook (dating) but had to stop it. Because I'm a semi pro in AdWords I ended up with Pay Per Call (AdWords Search) last summer.
Overall spend: $11.748
Overall revenue: $10.860
Profit/loss: -$888
Overall ROI: -7,56%
First 5 months journey
I started my first decent campaign with a bundle legal campaign and went broad like a mofo. After spending 2k with around -30% ROI I optimized my campaign I did cut most of the ad groups and ended up with a few converting ones. After scaling these ad groups I ended up doing 200$ a day.
During this period I started several campaigns, but all didn't get close to the volume and profit that my legal campaign was hitting. So after a few weeks I was only focussing on my money maker campaign. Too bad, after a week my 200$ day the campaign died because I wasn't sending the traffic the advertiser was looking for. After that I tried different campaigns all in the same niche but all didn't convert. Because I didn't make any new campaigns I was down to 0.
After losing my money making campaign I tried some stuff with old 'oke' converting keywords but didn't end up that good:
During that time I was hoping that it maybe could convert. I was in a mode/habit that my traffic still could convert, but a good mate helped me out and said: "WTF are u doing. Ur throwing your money away". After a great skype session I killed most of my campaigns and started all over.
After the 11-20-2014 I've build 8 new campaigns, with the following statistics:
Overall spend: $130,08
Overall revenue: $27.50
Profit/loss: -$102,58
Overall ROI: -78,86%
Current status
Traffic source: Google AdWords
Offer(s): Adoption, Pet Insurance, Dental insurance, Flooring, Legal Advice & Pest Control
Budget: $120 a day overall
Campaign structure: 1 keyword per ad group, if necessary local landing pages.
LP: I use a simple lander: 
Actions: Launch at least 3 campaigns a week
Pro's
- I can launch campaigns really fast. I've a decent system how to launch campaigns and some php scripts that helps me make GEO LP's really fast.
- Still have 5000$ testing budget
- Still have income even if my campaigns are losing money
Con's:
- Taking action, i've a evernote with around 20 campaigns researched but didn't launch it
- Not having a mentor
- Time difference with my AM.
Why do I start a follow along?
- Second opinion: after losing my money making campaign my mindset was wrong and ended it throwing dollars away.
- Get in touch with other pay per call people
- Tell my story, and get motivated from it
If you have any question regarding my journey/follow along. Just ask, love to answer.
I'm curious - you say you have a lot of experience with Adwords from your various client work, and you consider yourself a pro, but your friend that helped you out couldn't understand what you were doing.
I see that you didn't hit profitability, so what exactly were you doing wrong? What did your friend tell you? You couldn't use any of the converting data?
Excuse my question if sounds cheeky, I swear, I'm not trying to be 
Originally Posted by quinnn
I see that you didn't hit profitability, so what exactly were you doing wrong? What did your friend tell you? You couldn't use any of the converting data?
Excuse my question if sounds cheeky, I swear, I'm not trying to be
That old traffic where keywords that use to do a few dollar a day. That was when i was hitting 26,5$ per conversion. After the changes i made only 7,50$ per conversion. During that time I didn't think straight and was still sending the old traffic.
My friend did the following thing. He asked me the cost, the revenue and made a clear point that i was losing way to much money from the 31-10'th. He was telling me, you tested those keywords before, and you're running it now 2 months later and don't make profit. You're never going to make it profitable.
Sometimes a second opinion, or somebody that isn't that deep in the campaigns (your child / babies / loved ones) can think more relative than you do. I considered that campaign as my baby and wouldn't give it up.
Spend for the day: $48,33
Revenue: $54.28
Net profit/loss: $5,95
Actions I took: Launched a Foreclosure campaign last night and expanded my current pest control campaign with a GEO approach. The pest control campaign expansion was a great move. Because the new expansion gave me two conversions with a total amount of $40,-
Current tasks: Getting more data in and building two new campaigns this weekend.
27-11-2014
Spend for the day: $26,90
Revenue: $0
Net profit/loss: -$26,90
Classic example of different time zone. Forget to stop the campaigns because of thanksgiving. Spend a few bucks, ended up with no calls.
Oops. That sucks.
It happens though.
It's something publishers don't think of. Pay per call campaigns are affected by holidays, since pay per call requires an agent at a call center to answer the phone.
Time differences can make things difficult. I recommend scheduling a weekly call with your AM, or just sending meeting requests giving them the option to edit.
- Jon B
28-11-2014
Spend for the day: $14,65
Revenue: $0
Net profit/loss: -$14,65
Had a few calls coming in. No conversions. Did pause my adoption campaign. Reason: Spend $105,18 what resulted in 42 clicks and 6 calls. My approach to go niche niche with this campaign but didn't end up that well. Going to rethink this campaign this week because I think there's still a goldmine ;-).
Actions for 29-11-2014:
Launch two campaigns, first one is a structure settlements and a car selling campaign.
Current campaigns running: 7
Hey mikeyboy, I don't run much pay per call myself but I suggest sticking with it till you make it work on big volume.
I see numbers on F5 and pay per call is the biggest vertical and very worth learning.
Keep us updated with your progress!
I'm following your thread and about to start mine too. Let meet soon in my follow along
29-11-2014
Spend for the day: $29,68
Revenue: $0
Net profit/loss: -$29,68
Current campaigns: 8
Most of the spend was on my flooring campaign. For 17$ I got 5 recorded calls, i'm going to get more data in and going to optimize the campaign this week.
Build yesterday also the structured settlement campaign. During my research i've found out that the clicks are going to cost me alot. I know from my experience that you also send dekstop traffic to the LP. Because of that I made a slick LP to get the most of my money. Added also a small form to get contact details who I can maybe sell.
Due the fact of building the new LP i didn't have time to build the new car selling campaign. I'm going to build that campaign the 1'st of december.
Preview:
Nice lander mate!
Certainly has a professional (read: credible) feel to it.
30-11-2014
Spend for the day: $8,41
Revenue: $0
Net profit/loss: -$8,41
Current campaigns: 8
Not that much, just some calls yesterday. Waiting to get the pest control campaign back live of pausing during USA holidays. Looking forward because it made me a couple us dollars on the first day. Going to build tonight a new car selling campaign.
-- EDIT 1'st december 22:00 local time.
Campaign live for only 30 mins and the conversions are coming in. (=
1-12-2014
Spend for the day: $63,63
Revenue: $46.78
Net profit/loss: -$16,85
Current campaigns: 9
The pest control campaign had an ROI of 100% yesterday. Lost money because of other campaigns. Expanded the daily spend of the pest control campaign to get data in faster.
Build the new car selling campaign aswell, first data is getting in.
Actions this week:
Build two new campaigns, going to research them tonight.
Thanks for sharing all this great info.
It's awesome to see both the "wins" and "losses" on your pay per call journey.
If there's anything I can do to help, let me know. I'm on Skype - RingPartnerMike
Cheers!
2-12-2014
Spend for the day: $101,48
Revenue: $44.64
Net profit/loss: -$56,84
Current campaigns: 9
Spend was so high because I scaled the pest control that was going good. But, guess what. I was bidding broad on terms like "miami". I forgot to add the pest control to the keyword. So, thats the reason it was going hard. I changed all the bad keywords and added stuff like pest control, pestcontrol etc. Why did I change it? Because i'm sure i was not sending the right traffic, so it doesn't take long before i got kicked of the offer. I think the volume will go down, so i'm going to scale it more broad with terms like lawn care + geo etc. I think this is a campaign that can work out pretty good.
The car selling campaign was a great move. The campaign started yesterday and made me an ROI of 64.3%. Pretty good IMO for the first day. Didn't happen me before (except the pest control campaign). Remarkable point: Changed the structered settlement campaign to a 'sell your car' LP and all the conversions I got where from people that called from my website. So, LP does matter sometimes when you do Pay Per Call. Note: Got a good feeling about this campaign!
Researched a new offer yesterday. I ended up with a curtain / blinds campaign. It has a ton of traffic and national coverage. Still 1 campaign to research.
To do 4'th december:
On every thursday i go through all my stats. Thursday is the day that I skip client work and focus on my own Pay Per Call campaigns. All the other work for Pay Per Call is during the evenings, so i'm looking forward to tomorrow to dive into my stats and optimize some campaigns that give me the negative ROI.
3-12-2014
Spend for the day: $54,90
Revenue: $35
Net profit/loss: -$19,90
Current campaigns: 9
The 35 dollar is all coming from the car selling campaign. Scaled the campaign with 100%. During the evening I prepared the blinds campaign and talked with my AM to ask for new upcoming campaigns.
4-12-2014
Spend for the day: $103,87
Revenue: $105
Net profit/loss: $1,13
Current campaigns: 8
Green numbers! I did kill to campaigns that didn't perform well. I jumped day into the stats and went more broad on campaigns that were performing oke. Beside that I finished my blind campaigns and its getting data in. Looks promising.
Sidenote: The 100% scale of the car selling campaign was a good one. Ended up with 95.1% ROI. So i'm going to scale it everyday with 100% to get those dollars in!
5-12-2014
Spend for the day: $115,97
Revenue: $84
Net profit/loss: -$31.97
Current campaigns: 8
This was the first day of scaling the car selling campaign up to $100 a day. Didn't end up that well. Spend $91 and got $84 in conversions. Still cheap data tough.
Other note: Payout dropped from $5 to $4. Asked the advertiser why but didn't get any reply yet. Going to talk with them and ask for more details and checking if I can send more traffic i can get back on the old payout.
To do this week:
Research two new offers and launch them. Did a little research this weekend and got 1 potential campaign. Its a storage locker campaign.
Nice progress - as you said it looks like you're getting reasonably cheap data and that in itself is quite motivating!
8-12-2014
Spend for the day: $118,38
Revenue: $163,50
Net profit/loss: $45,12
Current campaigns: 8
9-12-2014
Spend for the day: $185,75
Revenue: $190,88
Net profit/loss: $5,13
Current campaigns: 9
Again, green numbers! Looking good. My car selling campaign is going pretty good, still getting cheap data in. My overall conversion rate is 50% and getting a lot of conversions. Talked with my AM and the traffic is good, so no worries. My current daily budget for that campaign is €175 and its still not at his max of traffic. Looking really promising!
Build the storage locker campaign last two nights and there is some traffic coming in. Had a few calls and some conversions already. Looking forward to the first real day of traffic for this campaign.
To Do 10'th and 11'th
The 11'th is my AM day. I'm going to dive in all the stats and going to optimize the car selling campaign as far as possible. Going to build a new campaign aswel, not sure which one. Love the 'niche' campaigns because the traffic is cheap and there are alot of 'angles'.
First of all, sorry for the late stats! Was pretty busy. Moving to a new office & client stuff but have finally some spare time!
10-12-2014
Spend for the day: $198,69
Revenue: $215,38
Net profit/loss: $16,69
Current campaigns: 8
11-12-2014
Spend for the day: $236,85
Revenue: $228
Net profit/loss: -$8,85
Current campaigns: 6
12-12-2014
Spend for the day: $298,68
Revenue: $292
Net profit/loss: -$6,68
Current campaigns: 6
One green day, still getting 'cheap data' in. This week i'm going to cut a lot and keep the most converting ones. Did give the high traffic ad groups specific numbers so I can check which ones are the best.
On the 11'th I expanded and optimized my car selling campaign. I expanded the campaign with a GEO appoarch and a new set of keywords. Ones that i've found out by doing research on a competitor. Beside that i've build a 'house selling' campaign and did quit a few campaigns that didn't end up with any converting calls.
Mikeyboy!
Any updates on this?
Hey Mikey! What ended up happening with all this??? I still see you posting in the PPCall section a bit so I'm assuming things went well?
One of my favorite little follow alongs btw -- thanks!
Hi Mikeyboy,
Great followalong, I read the entire thread. Wondering what happened at the end? What is happening now? Did you manage to make this successful?
Iam planning to start Pay per call, so learning from your follow along.
Thanks
This is what happened. Killed most of the campaigns that i've talked about in the follow along. Kept building new ones, a few campaigns a week. During STM London (with a hangover) i didn't stop. 1 week after STM i've found a golden nugget. Made around €1,5k a day for a few weeks (800 conversion calls a day). Had to stop the campaign because it was scheduled to pause.
Now: still launching campaigns and keep launching them.
Home > Pay Per Call >