There are so many different ways to get traffic. Honestly, it’s all a little exhausting sometimes. What’s the right and wrong way to do it?
I’ll save you some strife and aggravation right now—there’s no “right” way to get traffic. It’s most often beneficial to have several methods of driving traffic at one time.
With that said, there’s one form of traffic generation I see small business owners skipping over and over again. It’s almost as if they’re scared of it. That’s a real shame, because it’s one of the best ways to get in there fast and start earning fast.
I’m talking about paid traffic. You can pay for ads, banners, and things of that nature. You can pay for ads on sites like Google Adwords, Facebook, and more. You can buy banners on popular forums. You can pay for integrated or sponsored ads on sites like Twitter. You can join ad networks to become featured on highly related sites on the web.
Why Do People Stay Away From Paid Ads?
Before we talk about the benefits that can come along with paying for ads, let’s talk about some of the things that tend to scare people and keep them away from paid ads.
People often think paid ads are expensive or totally out of their price range. They might feel like paying for ads is for other people—for bigger businesses or those who’ve been more successful.
The truth is that you can run successful paid ads for as little as a few dollars a day. That’s in your budget, right?
And once you start to earn some with very small budget ads, you can pour some of your profits into running more ads. That can help you very quickly scale your business up.
Others stay away from paid ads because they get it into their mind that it’s somehow better or more effective to focus on free ads. Why pay for ads when you can advertise for free?
There’s some logic to that thinking, but you’re really missing the boat if you think that free ads can ever totally replace paid ads or that you should focus on one without the other.
Free ads can be effective. Paid ads can be effective. In combination, they’re unstoppable.
There’s also an element of fear that can appear when people who are new to this consider whether they want to pay for ads or not.
Are you going to lose all your money? Will the paid ads really pay off?
If you’re smart about it, you won’t lose your money—you’ll earn money. Paid ads can really pay off for you.
Don’t fear paid ads. Take that first step and get started paying for ads so you can start to see results right away and you can start earning more and having a better reach in your business.
It’s Best to Build Your List With Paid Ads
Building your list should be at the top of your priorities at all times. The same holds true for paid ads. Some people get started with paid ads and drive all of their traffic straight to their sales page. That’s effective and best in certain situations. But I’d say most of the time, it’s best to drive your paid ads to a squeeze page or opt-in form of some kind so you can build your list.
Think about the reasoning here. If you pay for an ad and send someone to a sales page, they may or may not buy. If they click away and don’t buy, you’ve lost them forever.
Consider that not everyone will be ready to buy on first contact. When you pay for ads, it’s often going to be the first time someone hears of you or your product. Your conversions won’t be as high as they would be if you were marketing to those who’ve had a chance to get to know you.
If you send people to a squeeze page first where you’re giving something away, you’ll get many, many more people on your list than you would if you were relying on a sales page where people would have to pull out their credit card to buy something before getting on your email list.
Give people something free. Link to this page from your ad. Once they’ve opted in, you can then present your sales page. You can also market to them via email.
This is really the missing piece for many marketers who struggle with paid ads. If you get people on your list you’ll have a real asset of customers instead of just the chance of a one-off sale.
Start Small and Build Your Way Up From There
You don’t have to start advertising with a budget into the hundreds or thousands. You can start out with a budget of just $5 a day or so.
One of the easiest ad types to get started with is Facebook. Facebook allows you to run extremely targeted ads. You can restrict your budget as low as you want. The better your ads do, the less you’ll pay per click.
Once you start earning with a small budget, you can roll some of your profits back into your business and move your ad budget up and up. This gives you a chance to start earning and start seeing success before you really commit to this in increasing amounts.
Finding Your Own Paid Ad Opportunities
In addition to the typical ads Internet marketers tend to buy, you can also find your own paid opportunities. You can save yourself money this way and really stand out because next to no one is doing this.
There are plenty of blogs, websites, and forums out there that aren’t really running any ads to speak of. There are plenty of highly trafficked sites whose owners aren’t running ads because they aren’t sure how to get into it and just have never done it. Or, it could be that they only run ads manually on a case by case basis. That’s great for you.
You can find websites, blogs, and more that are very closely related to your business or product. See if these people are running ads already. Maybe they are even advertising low-cost ad space. Contact them and see what kind of deal you can work up about your ad.
You can even contact them if they don’t currently have ads up. Work out some kind of deal so your site, product, or squeeze page can be featured or linked to.
There are plenty of opportunities out there if you’re willing to do a little digging. This is the perfect method for those who are a little hesitant to get started with paid ads.
Paid Ads Tell You What You Need To Know Right Away
Free traffic can be great. It’s well worth putting your efforts into free advertising. But, it’s usually even more worth it if you’ve already done some testing and have started earning with paid ads.
You could be up and running with a paid ad in the next few minutes. You could be seeing clicks and conversions within the hour. That means you can start making money with paid ads, today. You can start building your list with paid ads, today.
Compare that to free advertising. With a few exceptions, it usually takes a long time for free ads to pay off, if they ever do. You might have a poorly converting sales page or squeeze page… but you won’t find that out until that free traffic finally finds your pages. That can take days, weeks, or months. Or, that page might be converting really, really well… but you won’t know that you should pour even more of your efforts into getting more traffic to that page until that free traffic (articles, etc.) finally pay off.
Paid ads tell you what you need to know right away. Free ads take longer.
Use paid ads to test how your pages are converting. Use that knowledge to earn more in your business with both free and paid ads.
Paid Ads Are Worth It
Paid ads are worth it even if you’re new to this. They can give you fast information about conversions and sales. They can help you figure out if you should pour more money, effort, and time into getting even more traffic to the page if it’s doing well.
Paid ads don’t have to be as expensive as you might think. You can get started with a very low budget. You can work your way up from there.
If you want to earn more in your business, paid ads are a great way to do that. Don’t fear paid ads—use them to your advantage.
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