Unveiling the Power of Paid Traffic With Ilana Wechsler

Episode 45 Unveiling the Power of Paid Traffic With Ilana Wechsler
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[00:00:00]

[00:00:00] Introduction: Converting Cold Traffic into Leads
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[00:00:00] Ilana: Can we convert cold search traffic into leads or sales, not trying to get profitable at this point? Can our website do that heavy lifting?

[00:00:11] Ilana: cause the traffic's gonna get in. Wave your magic wand and get in front of your target audience, but getting them to your website then.

[00:00:18] Ilana: Is the next step of all right. Now can I get them to take action?

[00:00:23] Ilana: Can you get them to at least pick up the phone and call you? And if you can't, in my opinion, the answer is not to buy more traffic. The answer is to either fix your offer, fix your website. Then you try again because it's the perfect testing ground.

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[00:00:43] Welcome to the Lean Marketing Podcast
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[00:00:43] Allan: Welcome to the Lean Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Allan Dib. Today I've got Ilana Wechsler and Ilana's an absolute expert when it comes to paid traffic. So, and paid traffic is a challenge for many of us because it is the most expensive part of our marketing, the [00:01:00] media that we buy, the media that we pay for the clicks.

[00:01:03] Allan: So, I asked Ilana to come on and she's. Gracefully done. So Ilana's from teachtraffic.com and she does exactly that. She teaches people how to get paid traffic to your website, to your landing page, to your offer, and she also helps you learn how to do that yourself rather than using an external agency, which is what a lot of people do.

[00:01:25] Meet Ilana Wechsler: Paid Traffic Expert
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[00:01:25] Allan: So Ilana, welcome.

[00:01:27] Ilana: Thank you so much, Alan. It's uh, a pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

[00:01:31] The Journey to Teaching Paid Traffic
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[00:01:31] Allan: Yeah, So, I'd love to know your background. How did you start with teaching people to do paid traffic themselves? Because it's an unusual kind of model. Most people will hire an agency to do that for them. Looks very technical, very hard, all of those sorts of things. Why did you go down the kind of rabbit hole of trying to teach people how to do it themselves rather than just run an agency like most other people in your industry?

[00:01:55] Allan: Do

[00:01:55] Ilana: Yeah, good question. Well, firstly, I. Do still have an agency. [00:02:00] So, I do definitely do still that side of the work. But admittedly, my agency is small and I keep it small intentionally. It's really just to keep my skills up so that I can teach more people. I kind of fell into teaching actually.

[00:02:16] Ilana: I um, I got offered To teach through at Sydney University. Not like through a degree, but they were part of what's called their center for continuing education. they have like a side arm to Sydney University where they teach business owners like short courses, like full day workshops.

[00:02:35] Ilana: And it was really weird. I got a call. One day from someone and she's like, we're wondering if you want to teach at, you know, Sydney university. I didn't even know they had this, these courses, right?

[00:02:47] Ilana: And I was like, oh, look, you know, thanks, but kind of no thanks, right? long story short, I ended up meeting with them and taking it and so it kind of fell in my lap actually to [00:03:00] enter the teaching space and I quite enjoyed it actually.

[00:03:04] Ilana: So I used to run the full day workshops and I did it for a number of years. I think I did it for like. Four or five years. But, Yeah, that's kind of how I fell into it.

[00:03:13] Ilana: And I really found it very rewarding. I still, obviously, as I said, I still have my agency today, but I was doing predominantly agency work back then. And it kind of dawned on me that, you know what, like for a lot of the clients. And I do have, they don't really need me. I mean, some clients, yes, absolutely, they've got big budgets, they've got complicated stuff.

[00:03:33] Ilana: Absolutely. There's a business case for an agency. But for most businesses that, you know, spend $5,000 a month on ads, it's kind of like buying a Ferrari to go buy when you needed to buy your local milk. You know? Then someone doesn't really know how to drive, you know, so you didn't really need an agency.

[00:03:52] Ilana: They just didn't really know what to do. And so. And it wasn't sort of like a financial no brainer for these small businesses to keep hiring [00:04:00] an agency, and so therefore it just made it really kind of unaffordable for them.

[00:04:05] Allan: And so, um, one of the. I guess, and this is something that thought myself in the past, but like, think a common objection would be, whoa, this looks hard. Like you log into Facebook Ads Manager or your Google Ads account or whatever, and there's like a million knobs and dials and options and things like that, and you don't really know.

[00:04:25] Allan: What you're doing. So what's kind of the 80 20 and what is it that your program teaches in terms of how can I do this effectively without kind of losing my shirt on, spending too much on ads and getting the wrong result.

[00:04:40] Effective Strategies for Paid Traffic
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[00:04:40] Ilana: Yeah and that's the thing is most people don't realize that you. Do need assistance in setting it up because Google and Facebook make it seem really, really easy. And you followed all the follow, all the recommended settings or as I call the Google gotchas, right? And suddenly [00:05:00] you melted your credit card 'cause you didn't really understand the implications of what you've actually implemented.

[00:05:07] Ilana: And that's where education really comes into it. and also knowing the power of these. Platforms like the Google ad platform, in my belief is a significantly more powerful ad platform than Facebook. You know, on the Google side of things, you've got search, you've got a display, you've got YouTube, I mean, just those three alone, which there's more to it.

[00:05:30] Ilana: I mean, you have access to basically the entire world, you know? Pretty much. and I mean the YouTube ad, the ad platform is embedded in the Google ad platform, but YouTube. In its own right is a beast of a platform. So many business owners don't realize actually what they have at their fingertips.

[00:05:50] Ilana: And so therefore need education in order to reign those platforms in so that they are aligning the ad platforms with their [00:06:00] ad strategy. And I guess that's what I help people with, not that aspect. Reigning the platform in to match their strategy, but also helping them with strategy. You know, like you, Alan would know, right?

[00:06:13] Ilana: The first question you ask someone who's your target audience, right? And they say, everyone, you say wrong answer, right? So it's okay, let's get clarity on strategy and let's match that strategy to what you wanna do on an ad platform basis. So that's, I guess that's a lot of what I help people with.

[00:06:33] Allan: yeah. I often tell people so, I. If you've got your one page marketing plan filled in, meaning you're clear about your target market, you're clear about your message, you've got a good lead capture, lead nurturing strategy, all of those things set up, you're gonna be your agency's favorite client because everyone comes to the agency and says, yep, everyone's my client.

[00:06:53] Allan: Just make me go viral and get me lots of traffic and return on investment. And a lot of [00:07:00] times that's kind of. The thing that makes the thing fall apart, not the actual technical stuff of running ads and doing the ads, whether you're doing it yourself or whether you've got somebody else doing it.

[00:07:11] Allan: How do you start testing with.

[00:07:14] Allan: somebody who's maybe never run paid ads or maybe they've run them once or twice, had a really bad result. How do we ramp it up and how do we start to kind of do like a minimum viable marketing test to see

[00:07:26] Ilana: Yeah, so there's really generally like. A few different types of people who would come to me. The first might be that they've had an agency who's been running ads for them and they've decided for whatever reason, a, they don't maybe like the agency or they just don't want to keep paying an agency anymore.

[00:07:44] Ilana: They want to bring it in house. That's probably the easiest because then we can kind of, we've got an existing ad account that we can look at and go right. What's been happening here? Hopefully there's been some traction. We've got some data that we can go off. Go, okay. Yep. Either [00:08:00] we pick up where they've left off that we keep going, or we rejig the strategy.

[00:08:06] Ilana: Then you've got people who try to do it themselves for whatever reason it didn't work. Then it's a matter of, okay, stepping back from the ad account and saying. What is it? If you could wave your magic wand, who are you trying to get in front of? And let's rebuild campaigns with doing it this different way.

[00:08:29] Ilana: 'cause many people don't. Like, that's often the struggle is they have an idea of what they want to implement, but then going through the execution of implementing it in the ad account so that it's reflected doesn't translate. And for many businesses starting out. To establish if a minimum viable product paid traffic's gonna be worthwhile.

[00:08:52] Ilana: It can often be a really simple search campaign. So getting in front of people [00:09:00] who are your have bottom of funnel queries, right? So they know exactly what they're looking for. They're just trying to decide who they're gonna buy from. Okay. And see if we can get that profitable. Or converting, at least even if it's unprofitable.

[00:09:15] Ilana: Can we convert cold search traffic into leads or sales, not trying to get profitable at this point? Just can we convert them? Can our website do that heavy

[00:09:28] Ilana: lifting? cause the traffic's gonna get in. Wave your magic wand and get in front of your target audience, but getting them to your website then.

[00:09:36] Ilana: Is the next step of all right. Now can I get them to take action? And if they can't, as in like, so for example, let's say they are a we were just talking offline about building, right? Maybe they do a pergolas or something. Or some kind of outdoor building, right?

[00:09:55] Ilana: You wanna get in front of people who do you know, home remodeling builder, [00:10:00] get them to your website. Can you get them to at least pick up the phone and call you? And if you can't, in my opinion, the answer is not to buy more traffic. The answer is to either fix your offer, fix your website. Then you try again because it's the perfect testing ground.

[00:10:16] Ilana: you know, you're getting in front of someone who is looking for a home remodeling builder. They've literally gone to Google and typed it in. So you're not wondering is my targeting right? Which is why I don't suggest Facebook ads or anything like that. It's. You've waved your magic wand and you've really slid your business card under the nose of someone at literally the instant that they've typed in exactly what you offer.

[00:10:41] Ilana: Can you get them to take action?

[00:10:43] Allan: Hmm.

[00:10:44] Ilana: Is the MVP test Now? If you can, that's great, and if it's unprofitable, okay, then we take steps to make a profitable if we can, but at least we've gotta get them to convert.

[00:10:56] Allan: And so one of the, biggest kind of complaints I hear from [00:11:00] people who run paid traffic campaigns is, you know, the leads were kind of low value leads or tire kickers or whatever. So we, yes, our agency got us a bunch of leads, but they weren't the right kind.

[00:11:13] Allan: They weren't, you know, motivated. They were like poor quality leads or whatever else. What's That A symptom of?

[00:11:20] Ilana: That could be a symptom of a number of things. It could be a symptom of the wrong types of keywords. They're too top of funnel. They're in browsing mode. They're not quite ready. It could be a symptom of I find I get a lot of spam with. What's called search partners, which are not actually ads on google.com.

[00:11:37] Ilana: It's their partner search. Yeah, it's generally too browsing all the wrong type of keywords. So home remodeling, it might be home remodeling ideas, right? You don't want, I people are looking for ideas or pictures. There's real nuances with language. That people need to really understand like what is the language of, that somebody uses, who's got their [00:12:00] phone in hand, ready to make a call.

[00:12:03] Ilana: you've really gotta transport yourself out of the mind of you as the business owner Like I always say, like paid traffic, particularly search, it's all about the moment somebody's in, they've gone to Google, they're in that moment of either browsing. Or taking action. So classic. I do a lot, help a lot of dentists.

[00:12:24] Ilana: Okay. So somebody who types in dentists near me, like the near me component, has qualified them to like, that's somebody who is phone in hand, ready to book an appointment versus somebody who types in just dentist or Could be what is root canal or, you know, so it's really thinking those high intent keywords.

[00:12:50] Allan: Yeah, so I think com having commercial intent. So someone's like ready to buy versus just browsing, looking, researching or [00:13:00] whatever. And with that is that worthless traffic? You know, people who are maybe browsing or looking or because. They may be browsing or looking today or whatever, but in 30, 60, 90 days, maybe they do have a commercial intent.

[00:13:14] Allan: and especially for higher consideration purchases, like a builder, like a, like someone who does bathroom renovations or whatever else. So is that traffic that's worthless that we don't bother with at the moment, or do we put them into some other kind of lead nurturing funnel or what is your suggestion with that?

[00:13:33] Ilana: I think it depends on the client's budget or the person's budget. If they're prepared to spend money, knowing that their return on that investment is likely to come in 60 to 90 days. Some people aren't prepared to spend that money. I would say I would probably recommend it because particularly building work, if we continue with this example, has a long league cycle.

[00:13:56] Ilana: Generally, so you are going to need to nurture [00:14:00] people generally, and so if you've got a project finishing up, you are gonna need the next one kind of coming along. I would say I just wouldn't pour the same amount of budget towards it than I would to the bottom of funnel type keywords. I probably would wouldn't spend the same per click.

[00:14:17] Ilana: You wouldn't wanna pay top dollar for that kind of traffic, cheaper traffic. That exchange for an email address so that you can then nurture them. I would say then you would see the return on investment. But generally the higher buyer intent, or as you say, commercial queries are more expensive for the, for those reasons, they're more valuable to people, and so therefore the return on investment is sooner.

[00:14:45] Ilana: So the mistake people make is they bid the same for all the different types of keywords, and so therefore, they. Get a cashflow issue. ' so it's all very well to say, oh, lead's worth $20,000 for me, 'cause they're building. But if it takes you two [00:15:00] years to realize that, that's not, that's not gonna work.

[00:15:02] Ilana: And so it's very easy for marketers to say that,

[00:15:06] Allan: Yeah.

[00:15:06] Allan: for sure. The other thing I, I was talking to someone the other day and they were telling me that, you know, a lot of their form fill outs and things like that happen at like 9:00 PM or whatever, when their office is typically closed, and then by the time they call them back in the morning, they can't reach them or the person's at work or whatever.

[00:15:23] Allan: And so I think speed to lead is an incredibly important concept here where. Ideally you want to get, make a phone call to them within five minutes of them submitting a form or whatever else. And so if you need to staff that with maybe people, if you know that a lot of your form fields are gonna come in the evening and things like that have something in place where you can call them on the phone.

[00:15:47] Allan: Get them on the phone really quickly, Because I think of it as, you know, that's probably when they're hottest. Then they're gonna get distracted, then they're gonna open a browser window, then they're gonna get on with something else. Then their kid is sick then [00:16:00] whatever. Right. so especially for high commercial intent keywords and things like that where someone's clicked, maybe filled out a form or whatever connecting with that lead as quickly as possible before they get distracted or lose interest or whatever else.

[00:16:15] Allan: I mean, when I think of my own buying behavior you know, if I ring and someone doesn't answer the phone, pretty rare that I'll even bother leaving a message. I'm, I'll just go on to the next guy or whatever. So, thinking about like buy a behavior and how you can kind of respond to leads that come in a timely manner and make sure that they're being responded too fast.

[00:16:37] Ilana: That's a really good point because most people will send out a bunch of inquiries to all different businesses, and so you're absolutely right. The person who returns that call first generally gets first dibs at it.

[00:16:52] Allan: Yeah,

[00:16:53] Allan: I agree.

[00:16:53] Google vs. Meta: Choosing the Right Platform
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[00:16:53] Allan: Talk a little bit about use case for Facebook. And when we say Facebook, we mean Meta, which [00:17:00] encompasses Instagram and obviously Facebook platforms. I think now WhatsApp to some extent. So use cases for that versus Google Ads. So when would I use one platform versus another strengths and weaknesses of each platform and just helping us understand some of that.

[00:17:18] Ilana: absolutely. Okay, so obviously Facebook and Instagram is very visual, so. If you have a product, particularly maybe like a clothing type or apparel, that can work very well on Meta ' cause of the visual component. You can see people wearing it. You can have carousel ads. not to say that wouldn't work on Google.

[00:17:38] Ilana: Absolutely. You can do Google shopping ads. But yeah, definitely things which are visual, I would say would is on Meta it also works for like promoting events. So if you're trying to get awareness, if you're trying to really force your way into your target audience, if they're not necessarily aware it exists, so.[00:18:00]

[00:18:00] Ilana: Classic example a client actually we're helping right now, they've got a cake show, right? So a lot of people aren't aware of the cake show. So whilst we are running Google ads for people who are searching for it and information about it we've gotta get the awareness out there. So we are predominantly spending the most of the budget on Meta targeting the right audience.

[00:18:22] Ilana: And then. We are actually retargeting them on Google as well. So we're using that as a way to push in front of our target audience. Meta is also good for items that are cheaper. So Google traffic is more expensive, and it can rule out a lot of.

[00:18:39] Ilana: Businesses that sell low ticket stuff because the cost per clicks are higher and it can often be more viable for cheaper traffic. It doesn't convert as higher on Meta, but if the numbers work out, it can make it viable like I want, once had someone come to me, they sold like $10 items.

[00:18:58] Ilana: I'm like, [00:19:00] that's if you have like $1 clicks on Google, which is unlikely, you're expecting it. a 10% conversion rate, whatever. You're just gonna lose money here unless you have a backend. I guess things that are really visual work really well, but you know, it doesn't have the level of intent that Google has.

[00:19:16] Ilana: And obviously I'm just talking about search in terms of intent factor. But the Google ad platform does obviously encompass display, which is banners on other people's websites. So think for your US listeners, New York Times, LA Times. Australian, you know, all the main news channels. eBay, you know, it's over, literally over 2 million websites.

[00:19:39] Ilana: So you can kind of emulate what you do on Meta with the Google Display Network, interruption marketing, and then you've got YouTube. So you, the most common type of YouTube ad is the Instream ad, which is the ad that comes up before the video you're gonna watch. And So those types of businesses, probably would be similar to a Meta type of [00:20:00] ad business case.

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[00:20:01] The Future of Paid Traffic and AI
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[00:20:01] Allan: how are you affected if anything, or how are people who are advertising on Google affected now with ai especially like, for example, Google giving the answer at the top often and you don't even have to scroll. The other thing is, I dunno I kind of think of it as kind of the.

[00:20:19] Allan: instutification of Google, like it's full of like you search for a recipe, it's all these spammy sites, or you search for some information. It's just, it's become. A pretty crappy experience, especially organic Google. And now more and more I'm going to my large language model, whether it's ChatGPT or Claude or whatever else to get information.

[00:20:39] Allan: And mostly what I'm using Google for now is to find a phone number or something like that. And that's about it because just the experience just become so bad because of all the spam and all the ads and all of the other stuff. Are you seeing that impact some of the way that ads are performing on Google at the moment.

[00:20:59] Ilana: I haven't [00:21:00] as yet. That doesn't mean that I don't think it will. I do think it will. I think this is a really changing time. particularly search like it's their golden goose that, you know, you look at the, their revenue that they generate from search every year, it keeps increasing. Maybe this is the first year it doesn't.

[00:21:20] Ilana: I do think, like you and I, you know, we are pretty tech savvy people and so we are early adopters with ai and I think for most people. They're just not, I've got lots of friends and family who aren't in this world that we're in, and they barely use it, but that will change 100%. Like I'm, I think the writing is on the wall.

[00:21:47] Ilana: Absolutely. The question is how long and when it happens and how Google responds. I don't think Google's gonna go down without a fight because it is their golden goose, particularly [00:22:00] search. But it is definitely like a changing time. I do think though, that paid traffic has always changed and evolved.

[00:22:09] Ilana: That's personally, actually what I love about it is that it doesn't really get boring because it's always evolving. And I think if. Search goes away or declines in its current form, something else will kind of crop up. At the end of the day, how we research online and how we engage online is evolving and changing and there will always be a place for paid traffic, and it's an interesting time. So, yeah, I'm like you. I use chat GPT all the time. I think it's brilliant and just gets better and I'm excited for the future.

[00:22:45] Allan: who knows, in a year or so, you might be running chat GPT ads, you know? So,

[00:22:50] Ilana: of my, yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't be surprised. Why wouldn't they? as I said, you look at those, the revenue charts for search, I mean, those numbers are [00:23:00] insane. as an advertiser who, and I audit people's ad accounts inside teach traffic, so I have a very wide snapshot for people's ad accounts.

[00:23:11] Ilana: I have access to hundreds of ad accounts, and I see what people spend per click. It's exorbitant. I mean, you put it this way, you don't want to be a plumber. Particularly in America, it's like a hundred dollars for a click. that's not a lead, that's just a click. So

[00:23:33] Ilana: yeah,

[00:23:33] Ilana: I mean, it would be a no brainer for chat GPT to have some kind of ad platform on it.

[00:23:38] Allan: Yeah. I agree. How are you thinking about attribution? Because there are multiple different models and it's become a little bit more challenging because then now some of the privacy stuff has been wound back a little bit. And you know, for example, if someone clicked on an ad, then maybe they saw a retargeting ad and then maybe they went into an email sequence or [00:24:00] whatever.

[00:24:00] Allan: How are you. working with and tracking attribution in that case? Where is it kind of last click, first click? Is it a combination of both? And what tools are you using to help you with that?

[00:24:11] Ilana: So Google have adopted what's called their data driven attribution, which factors in. All those different data points, and I really genuinely feel it has to, these days we are on multiple platforms and it should be a data-driven attribution.

[00:24:30] Ilana: yeah.

[00:24:30] Ilana: But it's not perfect and I think no model is perfect. At the end of the day. There is a, definitely a gray area for some businesses, a lot more than others, unfortunately. You know, there are ways that you can sort of, have hidden fields, particularly for lead magnets that says their first user source.

[00:24:50] Ilana: And so then at least they're tagged in your email marketing system as they've come from this particular traffic source and you can watch the lead flow that way. But yeah, [00:25:00] for some businesses that have a longer sales cycle, it is grayer than others. Unfortunately there's kind of, there's no perfect.

[00:25:09] Ilana: Model out there, and you're never gonna know exactly. I know myself as a user. I'm on multiple platforms and I see things that jogs my memory. I then go and do on a different platform and do something else. , it's kind of the way it works, unfortunately.

[00:25:22] Allan: How are you working with the combination of paid and organic traffic? So, and especially on like Meta or other platforms where, you've got the option of doing paid traffic, you've got the option of doing organic, Well, even on Google. I mean, you could do search engine, optimized traffic, blog posts, all of that sort of thing.

[00:25:42] Allan: Versus paid. And then how do they. You know, help or harm each other, or how do you work with them? Hand in hand?

[00:25:49] Ilana: I only do the paid side of things. But in terms of how they integrate together. People have theories that they say, you know what, as soon as I started [00:26:00] paid my, it's too suspicious, my organic rankings went up. So, and a number of people have said this to me, even though Google denied it's got anything to do with it, and they've saw me vice versa.

[00:26:11] Ilana: I was doing paid, I stopped and my rankings dropped. Have no proof of it at all, but I've been told by too many people for me to not kind of think there's gotta be some kind of link unproven. They've always denied it. But I'm a big believer on looking at the overall traffic as a whole. So we'll always look at Google Analytics and see all the different traffic sources.

[00:26:37] Ilana: I'm a big proponent of a retargeting campaign, which will capture your organic traffic. Onto the paid platforms to bring 'em back both Google and on Meta. And that's a way, a good way of getting, leveraging your organic traffic that you're getting. It's low budget stuff. It doesn't cost a lot to do a retargeting campaign for your existing traffic.

[00:26:59] Ilana: And I [00:27:00] am also a fan of leveraging. Traction on one platform onto another. For example, I personally do a lot on YouTube, and so I have created, and I tell people to do this what's called, you know, engagement audiences of people who've watched my videos, even if they haven't gone to my website, the mere fact that they have watched, any of my videos and a view is considered 30-seconds They're in a retargeting audience. And then if that audience is Google searching something related to my products or services, then my ad will show, but only for those people who've watched one of my videos. And so that's a good way of. Getting what traction I have organically on YouTube.

[00:27:44] Ilana: I'm not running ads for my channel at all. It's all organic and it's really low budget stuff. And the same you could do on Facebook. If you put a lot of videos on Facebook, you can create engagement audiences of that and then retarget on Facebook. My YouTube audience. I can't use [00:28:00] on Meta though.

[00:28:01] Ilana: And vice versa, can only do it. I've gotta get them to my website first, and then I can retarget for both. But it's a good way of leveraging

[00:28:12] Allan: If you've got an organic post or a reel or something that's really popped off and done well organically what would you do from a paid perspective to kind of either leverage that or boost that? Or what?

[00:28:23] Ilana: So the same thing, I would create an engagement audience on Meta. For the people who've watched a portion of that video that you deem them to kind of know you to some degree, you could only retarget them on that platform. I'd probably put in a really, something pretty enticing for them, some kind of lead magnet that based on what they've watched would be relevant.

[00:28:44] Ilana: So it's related just to get them to my website. You could even send them to a blog post. You're just trying to get them to your website. Then you can retarget them and hopefully get their email, et cetera. That's what I would do to just like I do on YouTube, the same thing.

[00:28:59] Allan: [00:29:00] And do you use The platform sort of native, functionality to capture email addresses you know how it has those prefilled in email addresses and or even phone numbers sometimes, or do you always send people out to an external landing page?

[00:29:12] Ilana: I'm not a massive fan of them. I found it gets a lot of spam personally, number one, and number two, I find people, I mean, no judgment, but I find it pretty astounding. Don't really realize when they're putting in their name and email. So we when the lead ads first came out, I had a personal trainer client.

[00:29:31] Ilana: This is a long time ago though, but, we got all excited because, oh, this is perfect, right? Pre-fills, low barrier. so we did the form, you know, and the offer was a free personal training session. Awesome. And this guy was super responsive. As soon as the lead came in, like he said, you gotta, you know, return these calls hot within half an hour.

[00:29:52] Ilana: He was returning these calls and he said like one after the other. Everyone was like, how'd you get my number? Well, I never signed up for this, [00:30:00] you know, they were all defensive, very straight away and he's like, nah, mate, I didn't sign up for this. I was just liking the post. It's like, well, no, you actually submitted your detail.

[00:30:13] Ilana: I, I found it astounding, and I've asked other people in the industry, you know, like, have you found. You just don't get the same quality or people don't seem to realize what they're signing up for or that they are signing up. Which I don't know, I find pretty amazing. I thought it's pretty obvious, but it's not.

[00:30:29] Ilana: So try it for your own business, I guess. But I personally never had any luck with it and don't do it anymore.

[00:30:38] Allan: Yeah. Fair enough. Do you do anything on TikTok or in terms of ads or,

[00:30:44] Ilana: I don't. But heap heaps of people do. I personally am not on the platform. To be honest, Google Ads is my bread and butter. I've done a lot on Meta, less and less so these days, just 'cause I find it a very clunky [00:31:00] platform. I find the ad. banning of accounts just quite infuriating.

[00:31:05] Ilana: It's, it will be a matter of when, not if your ad account will get banned, just the whole ad approval process. Like, even though you're hiding by the rules, you know, I find their support terrible. I'm just not a massive fan. Personally. Probably shouldn't be saying that, but that's the truth. So Google

[00:31:20] Allan: do you think that is? Like, I mean, They're like banning accounts left, right, and center, and even people who are not doing anything weird or whatever, is.

[00:31:27] Allan: it just their algorithm sucks at trying to pick up who's doing the wrong stuff or whatever, or what's going on there?

[00:31:33] Ilana: I have absolutely no idea. And you would think a company of that size would have better support,

[00:31:40] Ilana: a more robust ad platform, but it is terrible. like I have heard horror stories of people. Who had their ad their account hacked and someone launched campaigns in their ad account on the client's credit card.[00:32:00]

[00:32:00] Ilana: Right. and then they locked them outta the account. So then spam ads are running on. The person's credit card, they can't get into cancel, they can't get anyone on the phone. It's a bit of a basket case and I don't, I do not understand why. 'cause as I said, my bread and butter is Google.

[00:32:17] Ilana: You can actually get someone on the phone very easily from Google. Like their support is actually pretty good. They've got a ticketing system, which is good. It's more robust,

[00:32:27] Allan: Okay. Fair enough.

[00:32:29] Conclusion and Final Thoughts
---

[00:32:29] Allan: Well, Ilana, thank you very much. Is there anything I haven't asked you that I should have asked you?

[00:32:34] Ilana: I think for people who might be listening to this, who are curious. About paid and what it could do for their business. I think people don't realize just how powerful paid traffic is. It is can be transformative for a lot of businesses actually when you do it right. But it's.

[00:32:53] Ilana: not does require a little bit of effort. So if you are willing to put in that effort, and I don't want to kind of [00:33:00] sugarcoat it, it's it is a bit of effort, but I feel that the rewards are more than justified for that effort. the rewards are paid off. If you set it up right from the beginning and once you get the strategy right.

[00:33:15] Ilana: Then it can actually be way less work down the track.

[00:33:19] Allan: Perfect. Well with that, Thank you.

[00:33:21] Allan: Ilana. So you're at teach traffic.com and of course we'll link to that in the show notes. Really appreciate your time and expertise. Always a pleasure to speak with you.

[00:33:30] Ilana: Thank you so much, Alan.

[00:33:31] ​

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