Am I on the right track here?

I think it sounds like you are on the right track

FB will certainly get you some good subs but it will cost a little more than other methods. However it's always beneficial to build quality over quantity.

Your cost per conversion is similar to mine but I have been able to get this below $1 at times but you need to really work on the targeting and the ad

You could try some good quality solo ads and maybe get some clickbanking partners to help build up some more traffic. Also offer some bonus links to PPL partners to help claw back the costs of the ads?

Do you have your own product to also build a buyers list alongside your freebie list? This is a pretty crucial step.

Oh also check out Jon loomer for facebook advice, his stuff is really great..

I appreciate that your list-size is still small, but this is alarming: why have 4% of your subscribers already unsubscribed??

Something is seriously wrong, James.

You're paying for traffic, opting people in, sending them email, and three-quarters of your own subscribers aren't even willing/able to open an email from you?

So something has gone very wrong with at least one of the fundamentals of email marketing, somewhere.

Realistically, it isn't possible for anyone here to know what's gone wrong, without looking at everything you're doing.

I urge you, though, on no account to listen to people who may tell you that "a 25% open-rate isn't too bad". (I know nobody's said that, yet, but if the thread continues for long enough, someone almost certainly will! ): http://www.warriorforum.com/email-ma...ml#post8661178

Here's a list of common possibilities, which may include "what's going wrong", when people are opting in but not opening your emails (and some suggestions for finding some information about correcting problems).

(i) Might it be that whatever you're giving people in exchange for their email addresses might not be serving one or more of the essential purposes mentioned here? That could certainly cause an open-rate as low as this, with some traffic demographics.

(ii) Is it possible they're not receiving your emails in their inboxes? Are many bouncing? Are you using a proper, professional autoresponder rather than a free one? Are you giving people clear instructions, in both words and pictures, on your thank-you page, about how to make sure they receive your emails in their inboxes?

(iii) Are you giving them the "sign-up incentive" without first verifying that they can receive, open and read your email?

(iv) Are you possibly failing to set their expectations appropriately before/while they opt in? Are they - in their own minds - signing up for one thing and perhaps getting something different?

(v) Are you hitting them with an offer too quickly (some people even do this immediately, by redirecting their subscribers to an offer as soon as they've submitted their email address!! It's madness, because the occasional sales made that way are only to people who would have bought a week later anyway, so there's no real gain - but it can certainly discourage large numbers of people from opening your emails, and it would therefore be naive not even to wonder whether this might be the problem, here).

(vi) Are you sending daily email, when people weren't expecting/wanting that (this can also cause some awfully low open-rates)?

(vii) Are you somehow failing to set their expectations, or inadvertently misleading them in some way about what they're signing up for, or what they're going to receive?

(viii) Are you sending "offers"/"promotions" nearly every time you send email? (That will certainly put most people off, pretty quickly!).

(ix) In addition to the two threads linked to above, does any of the following four posts/threads help you (there are a lot of suggestions, among these, for "doing email marketing well and making it work)? ...

What are the essential things to know about list building?

Lists: How Long to Presell - Averages

Website or squeeze page

Autoresponders vs. Broadcasts

Sorry that it's really difficult to be any more specific than just offering "general suggestions", without actually seeing what's going on.

It may be that the answer, here, is either something more simple than any of the above suggestions, or even something more complicated. In reality, it's often "a combination of things", rather than "just one issue". Please appreciate that it's with absolutely no criticism at all that I mention that a 25% open-rate, for many of us, would be a disaster, and that something has - almost certainly - gone seriously wrong here.

Good luck!

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You need to be doing retargeting. The majority of people will simply not convert on first approach. The typical person needs exposure 7 times before they act, but when they do they will be committed. In my experience these subscribers have a high lifetime value.