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PPC for Business Loan Leads

by Joey Starkey
16 replies
I have done many things online but I have never used PPC for any of it. I have always seen it as a big cash suck.

But I am now promoting Business Loans to Offline Businesses. I am getting a few leads and closing loans. But I need to scale it up.

So I am just looking for suggestions, what would you recommend I have a domain that redirects to a landing page that is supplied to me. Their page looks great with a video and a simple form to get the loan process started.

I am also interested in your opinion on what you think would be the best and most cost effective program. AdWords, Facebook or Linkedin Ads.

Also if anyone know of a really good WSO on this subject or something in the War Room please let me know.
Thanks
#business #leads #loan #ppc
  • Profile picture of the author The Hoose
    I have the exact same question.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Definitely not linkedin... I'm not sure Google or Facebook will even allow your landing page... if its a domain that just forwards to an affiliate type page then the campaign won't be approved.
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    • Profile picture of the author TheBigBee
      I sent you a P.M. May as well share here. Almost 6 years of domain experience here.

      PPC

      There are literally hundreds of negative keywords when you're talking about business loans. Because of this, you'll either lose money or break even during the ramp up period.

      As of right now, traffic coming from premium placed Google ads come out to $100 - $150 per lead IF you're landing page (website) conversion rate is 40%. The average industry conversion rate is right around 25%. I've yet to see ANY company with a monthly budget smaller than $20k. And even the guys running $20k monthly budgets never stretch them out more than 1 week.

      So, you should:
      1. Have the cash to survive the ramp up period.
      2. Beat your competition by using Trada.com to optimize your campaign.
      3. Use Pluralis.com to crowdsource the creation of your landing pages.

      Landing pages are fine in Google PPC. Check out CashPickle.com. They ran that page for months.

      LinkedIn

      LinkedIn is a goldmine for business loan leads if you target the right groups. One of my first industry clients was a guy in the midwest who was using LinkedIn with success before I met him.

      You can purchase lists of existing customers to identify which SIC codes are "hot" or "emerging." In fact, you can do all sorts of data visualization with these customer lists to identify pockets of value.

      Each year, as the industry gets more and more competitive, guys loosen up lending requirements and bring in SIC codes that were previously excluded. Example; if you see that Funder A is now giving money to "Frog Manufacturers" and no one else is, then find a LinkedIn Group related to "Frog Manufacturing."

      Joining LinkedIn Groups - MOSTLY those that ARE NOT relevant to your niche, and consistently posting success stories is another way to draw in organic leads via LinkedIn.

      Beg, plead, scrub floors, do whatever you can to get your clients to leave a quick 15 to 30 second video testimonial and send it to you. Publish on YouTube and title / optimize it for keywords that are relevant to that case. Example; "Small Business Loans California | Success Story."

      Market these video testimonials aggressively. Make sure the video testimonials talk about how great YOU are, not how your company is.

      Later on when you make money you can invest in ranking these videos. So the said "california" video appears up there in SERPS when folks type in "business loans california."


      Other Options:
      1. Devise and develop a strategy whereby 100% of your time and energy is spent poaching off existing customrs. You're an offliner, so simply offer them "commoditized marketing services" to keep them loyal. Ex; SMS.
      2. Roll those profits into a system where you make it easy for "work from homers" to submit you completed applications. You can source them for $50 to $75 each if you execute well. Keep in mind, that a Google lead costs $100 to $150 for the big guys. You can get completed applications for $50 to $100 if you're smart.
      3. Voice mail message marketing. Use CallFire to do voice broadcasting. When the person picks up they hear; "oops wrong number." If it goes to Vmail, leave message. This saves you time and money dealing with "remove me from your list."

      I hope that helps!
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      • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
        Swipe the long running ads of those who are spending big money on Keywords.

        You get their keywords and run SEO campaigns
        for those that are doable.

        There are many dumb advertisers which you can beat with
        top SEO.

        Spyfu let's you see what ads your competitors
        are running along with their keywords.

        Best,
        Ewen
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        • Profile picture of the author TheBigBee
          Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

          Swipe the long running ads of those who are spending big money on Keywords.

          You get their keywords and run SEO campaigns
          for those that are doable.

          There are many dumb advertisers which you can beat with
          top SEO.

          Spyfu let's you see what ads your competitors
          are running along with their keywords.

          Best,
          Ewen
          Helpful advice but none of this is applicable to this vertical particularly. Guys invest HEAVILY in SEO, and even more in NEGATIVE SEO. Don't do SEO if it is not video SEO.
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          • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
            Originally Posted by TheBigBee View Post

            Helpful advice but none of this is applicable to this vertical particularly. Guys invest HEAVILY in SEO, and even more in NEGATIVE SEO. Don't do SEO if it is not video SEO.
            A client is no.1 for a keyword that Google recommends
            $97 for a click.

            Has lots of others at no.1.

            Domain is 3 months old.

            No videos.

            Best,
            Ewen
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            • Profile picture of the author TheBigBee
              Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

              A client is no.1 for a keyword that Google recommends
              $97 for a click.

              Has lots of others at no.1.

              Domain is 3 months old.

              No videos.

              Best,
              Ewen
              Ewen,

              In this industry, this vertical, the instant you take your client to #1, his competitors will negative SEO him right on out. I saw this happen to 6 lenders last year.

              I have been asked to help with SEO from folks within this vertical, and I flat out refuse 100% of the time because the risks are so great.

              Potential clients have offered to pay me to help them "do negative SEO." Non starter for me.

              Clients with larger budgets are focused on getting targeted traffic without SEO or PPC.

              The gentleman is starting out and wants a way to be able to start getting leads quickly and affordably.

              The gentleman can use his 3 current success stories as a tool to get more via LinkedIn.

              The gentleman can purchase list of EXISTING BONA FIDE customers (NOT prospects) to "work his magic."

              This way the gentleman doesn't have to worry about the larger funding companies who are at war "negative SEO'ing him" to the ground.

              I only speak from my experience. I am in the trenches every single day with these folks.
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              • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
                Originally Posted by TheBigBee View Post

                Ewen,

                In this industry, this vertical, the instant you take your client to #1, his competitors will negative SEO him right on out. I saw this happen to 6 lenders last year.

                I only speak from my experience. I am in the trenches every single day with these folks.
                what have you done to verify it was negative SEO?

                Best,
                Ewen
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                • Profile picture of the author TheBigBee
                  Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

                  what have you done to verify it was negative SEO?

                  Best,
                  Ewen
                  The nature of the beast. Insiders discuss this all the time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
    I agree with TheBigBee in regards to not walking into seo battles in brutal niches without a samurai at your side :-) and a wallet that is bulging as your main source of leads so probably not the way to go for someone just starting out.

    I get those calls for niches like this and even in less competitive niches than this and if they don't have 10k+ per month for the servers, ip's, virtual assistants, content creators etc.. I just laugh and so nope.

    That is not to say there is not a huge amount of money to make in ANY niche with seo these days. I have done it and do it BUT the newbies getting in just have no idea what will be involved and generally don't have the stomach for it. I can tell you that it gets soooo dirty you cannot imagine. I can also tell you that many of the guys playing real dirty that SHOULD be being penalized by some big search engines that will go unnamed very mysteriously often do NOT get penalized thanks to their 50k+ monthly ppc spends. Anyone that says there is no correlation between natural ranks and throwing big money at ppc in big numbers is kidding themselves.

    Having said all that if I was recommending SEO I would say hit video hard and if you can get yourself or build an authority website that is extremely hard to harm with negative seo.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
    Also just to qualify my statements above one of my clients was doing $60,000/month in ppc and about $20,000 in content building/seo. This was to dominate a brutal niche in Canada. He tried to apply the same budgets in the USA and it was like a lamb to slaughter for the first bit due just how much more aggressive the nastiness was.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Hoose
    What would that fastest way for business loan leads with a $100 budget be?
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    • Profile picture of the author TheBigBee
      Originally Posted by The Hoose View Post

      What would that fastest way for business loan leads with a $100 budget be?
      This is not a serious question right?
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  • Profile picture of the author Joey Starkey
    Lots of good information here. I had just about forgot about this thread but it looks like a few Warriors found it a few months after I posted it.

    I appreciate the info and am taking action now.
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  • Profile picture of the author bones46
    You are looking at this all wrong. Instead of wondering about this method of marketing or that method, you should be asking yourself where your customer are and then put a solid message in front of them.

    If you are promoting offline businesses - then you need to think of an offline way to market to them. The key here is this: If your potential customers are online - then PPC may work. if they are not, then it won't work.

    You might find that other, more traditional or old school ways will work better. But, it all comes down to where your customers are and what they are looking at.
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    • Profile picture of the author wayne702
      If anyone is still interested in Business Loan leads were generating up to 1000 a week via Radio and TV spots...let me know if you need more info. Sorry for the reply about leads...just wanted to give the info.

      Wayne AT mcaleadmedia.com
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