So I'm trying to help companies advertise and get money for it? I don't understand
Videos
Genuinely curious-if you're running a service-based business (consulting, SaaS, agencies, professional services, etc.), are you spending on paid ads (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, etc.)?
I keep coming across case studies and success stories, but almost all of them are from DTC/eCommerce brands-completely different game. Metrics like ROAS and CAC make sense there, but for service businesses, I rarely hear of consistent, profitable returns.
If you’ve tried paid ads:
What platforms worked (if any)?
What was your average cost per lead or client?
Did you see actual conversions, or just traffic?
Trying to understand if there’s a scalable play here, or if most of us are better off focusing on outbound, partnerships, SEO, or content.
Would love to hear real experiences-especially if you’ve cracked it or even if you’ve wasted a bunch of $$ and pivoted.
im having some trouble hand on heart suggesting some services to clients
PMAX
for an ecommerce business, even with low margins - google ads pmax works 10-14x returns are easy
Search Ads (Google Ads)
Also for service businesses - this is a no brainer, the business owner would never scratch this off their list 8-20x returns, this works well for service businesses, as their margins are usually higher
Facebook
This seems really difficult - 3x ROI - I can't suggest this Ecommerce where the margin is 20-30% .. they're barely making back their investment
SEO
This would is the most difficult to suggest - I can be running SEO for months or years, and when seeing the before/after on clicks in Search Console - I see very poor results
Even increasing the clicks by 1000 per month (lets say thats 30 conversions or $3000) doesnt justify the investment, and unlike paid search, those 1000 clicks are 1. not guaranteed 2. don't happen immediately so the ROI in the first year is very bad
Business/Agency reality
For business reasons, i've found a lot of people aren't 100% honest about true Facebook and especially SEO ROI (especially in 2024-2025). I think a lot of agencies will push all channels (charging a fee for each), and hope that the clients isn't too savvy with analytics to be able to work out where the revenue is coming from. And also depending on the client not being able to calculate returns too easily
What are you thoughts? Feel free to DM
Iv been getting sick of my 9-5 and I have came across roi marketing for small businesses. I watched a YouTube video on it but it just told me to go and buy the course. How do I start Roi marketing?
First off, there are free articles all over the internet. This is an information age, you have been institutionalized for an embarrassing number of years at taxpayer expense K-12 ...and you're blowing the scam.
Next, marketing and ROI have a long relationship, it's a love-hate relationship. Whoever that jackass is, he didn't invent anything.
A Refresher on Marketing ROI is all about the metrics. Done right, marketing is about profit and conversions. Done wrong, it's about bullshit metrics and fake it til you make it culture. That's why the internet is the bullshitter's paradise and marketoids will say "It's building the brand" like brain-damaged parrots.
Social Media And The ROI Controversy oddly enough this return on investment thing has gone back a long way.
How do you turn an ad into a meme? Two words: Dilly Dilly. Marketing isn't all memes and rampant unchecked creativity without accountability. Who Knew?
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I’m sorry I’m a noob at this but I found this business model to be very interesting. The only problem is that I’m a total noob at Facebook ads, Google ads, marketing in general. Although I’m trying to learn the bases I still have some questions.
What is the job of a contractor really? They just run the ads for the clients and then nothing more or do they keep track of the analytics and try to improve the reach of the ads.. basically my question is, is it a one time job where they run the ads or is it a continuous job by analyzing all data?
Also I think that to know the basis of the business I’m trying to educate myself on Facebook ads and Google ads. Do you recommend the course given by Google?
Thank you for your time guys 👍🏽
Ad management is an ongoing process. You might be able to gain some success with set-it-and-forget-it campaigns but ultimately you'll want to be digging through the data and optimizing towards results, not only for the client's benefit, but also for your own especially if you are running an ROI focused agency / compensation model.
It could be a one time thing when the ROI is not as good as promised - the agency will get fired. But the business itself should be ongoing with continuously optimization and improving that involve tons of analytics.
Last time I checked in I was at 30ish/month in revenue for my digital marketing agency. Over that time I've gone from being mainly a FB ads agency to moving more into email, TikTok, and general digital strategy. I've done this mainly by being more selective with clients and guaranteeing results. I've also gotten more efficient with onboarding clients, delivering results quickly and setting a strong standard for communication with my clients, even if results are coming about slower than we talked about. Ask me anything, I'm looking for questions, advice and unforeseen roadblocks and to crowdsource some answers for other entrepreneurs. Want to add as much value as possible, as you guys have helped me more than you'll ever know. Here's a link to my last post that did well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/nvujra/ive_run_my_own_digital_marketing_agency_now_for/
I have a few…
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do you have a team?
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how many clients do you have to make 50k
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how long those it took you to be in this position?
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how do you get clients? Outbound or inbound? What’s the strategy
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do you focus on a specific niche/type of company/geography?
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what’s the revenue model? Retainer fee? Revenue share?
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what's the main service you offer
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do you have a physical office?
May be a stupid question but can you really ask an agency to guarantee a ROAS? Seems risky for them.
For example:
Advertising agency retainer: $5,000
Adspend: $5,000
(assuming 4x roas this is 200 sales or $20k in conversion value)
Landed COGS: $8,000
Total costs: $18,000
Total Revenue: $20,000
Total profit: $2,000
Is it normal for me to pay an agency $5k to make me $2k? is a 1.1x ROI after it's all said and done considered good?
Hi, I was wondering if we could get a thread going about where we are spending our money on marketing? Return on that investment? Good experiences, bad experiences?
I'll start
- Google/Bing - Paid Ads - I got crushed. Did not manage the spending well. Huge Loss
- Linkedin - this has been good for me, messaging and calling people
- Emails - this has been effective for me
- Door knocking - believe it or not, I got my first few clients just walking into business parks.
I grabbed a few people with a physical mailer campaign. Basically designed three post cards with the help of a printer. Mailed them out.
Got one response from the first round. Zero from the second. Generated four clients from follow up calls.
No response from third round of post cards. Remember the initial email or mail blast is to soften up clients for the follow up call. It's way more effective than just blasting out emails and then waiting to hear back.
When you say "LinkedIn", do you mean just going through businesses in certain industry verticals in an area by using the free platform to identify prospects, or are you talking about LinkedIn Sales Navigator and sending InMail and all that?
I just started working with an agency 3 weeks ago and I am investing about $1500 a month into their ads with $1300 service fee and I’m projected to get back about $14k this month in profit.
Those are good numbers right? Or shall I look for a different marketing company?
In my current position (social media marketing) I feel paralyzed by ROI. I can’t get much done or use company assets if I can’t prove that we’ll have a great ROI of those efforts. The problem is I feel like I can’t know what ROI I can expect until I start trying and testing things. So I’m in an unproductive circle....
So I’m left doing the mediocre stuff I’m allowed to do, with mediocre impact, without trying the bigger ideas that I feel confident will result in a greater impact.
Thoughts?
Is there a point where you have to ignore ROI and go with your gut?
Looking for answers from folks who have worked at or consulted with brands spending north of $20M and ideally in the $100M+ range annually on paid marketing — not including payroll.
I’ve always used direct marketing KPIs like CPA, ROAS, and general ROI to measure marketing and advertising efforts.
All on a last touch in 30 days model (though we review other models).
This is generally great for brands I’ve worked at doing less than $100M in total revenue.
However, I’m curious what attribution and measurement looks like at much bigger spends.
I cannot imagine that kind of modeling works for things like TV ads, billboards, radio, event sponsorship, or even wider scale digital campaigns where a click isn’t expected for a sale.
Can anyone weigh in — what does the executive team review to see if marketing is performant at that level?
What are the attribution models used and what is the process of presenting those results to the CEO, the board, etc.?
We've had a number of agencies onboarded.. they;re enthusiastic at first, have great plans .. but after sometime they lose interest because they were also not giving us results.. most of them have a 3 months contract that forces us to pay the 3 months regardless of the results.. Am I the only one?
Alright folks I see it posted here all the time let's settle the debate. Please explain in detail about other forms of advertising I would have added more but I ran out of options. If you say word of mouth go into detail about who it started with and how. Thanks in Advance!
Depends on the business. What do you do?
In my experience, with accounting services, the best kind of marketing is word of mouth. To be able to achieve this, you must provide outstanding service, and that is it. Maybe down the line include refferal bonuses to your existing clients, but don't try to shove them down their throats.
If your market is B2B, cold calls are the way to go.
If your market is B2C, Google Business Profile populated with 5* genuine reviews is powerful.
Do not forget organic content either. For example, if your target customer base use Carrier AC, and you get revenue from servicing this type of unit, then time to get writing. Write up answers to the most common questions about Carrier AC units. Then put this content in Q and A format. That can work great! Then do the same for LG, Trane, etc.
I work in house for a food company and I’m a comms team of one with an agency I’m lukewarm about. I’m constantly being pushed to showcase ROI with marketing results and while that’s easier for things like shopper and paid media, it seems impossible with PR and aside from annual brand lift study KPIs I’m not sure how else to showcase to bottom-line driving value PR can bring.
Anyone have any good services or metrics they look at? Thanks!