S01 Episode 4: Why You Need Paid Ads in Your Mix with Kev Kaye

Kev Kaye, founder of GrowthBOKs.com got into paid advertising when Facebook ads were still new. He saw untapped potential and started applying old methods to new media. In the decade since, Kev’s methods and the industry have both changed. He has sharpened his skills and built a rock solid funnel using paid acquisition, on demand webinars, and his customers’ freedom of choice. He has helped countless other independent creatives optimize their ads and in this episode of DYF Podcast, he gives insight into why you need paid ads in your marketing mix.

• How to use paid ads to get new clients
• How to create on-demand webinars
• How Facebook’s algorithm can work for you
• How to break down the value of a lead
• How to know if paid ads are working

Kev Kaye’s first exposure to a growth engine was in 2008 when his roommate’s dad came to visit them in Florida and described his business as a hair salon marketing consultant. With such a specific niche, he was able to make a killing and showed Kev, with mathematical precision, how he helped salons acquire three to four new clients a week using AdWords, paid advertising, direct response strategies and more. Kev was hooked! He left Florida and the golf business where he’d been working, and moved to Rochester to launch himself, full force, into a career as a freelance marketing consultant. A decade later Kev, has revolutionized the traditional techniques he learned from his roommate’s dad using modern tools. He has seen what paid ads can do, and he knows their limitations. As a result, Kev has developed strategies that he thinks are essential to just about every successful business and he shared some of them with Brennan here.

In his first few years as a paid advertising consultant, Kev worked hard and saw moderate results. The big shift in his business came when he began to think about how to build trust online. He did some academic research and found that “computer mediated communication,” as it is called in the business, is a difficult platform for developing a customer’s trust. “Online, we’re all skeptical,” says Kev. So Kev studied the specific signals that someone needs to get in order to feel they can trust the source enough to transact. Kev thoughtfully integrated the understanding that a surplus of trust is required into his paid ad list and growth engine, which allowed him to drastically improve his conversions.

From Ad to Sales Funnel

With this focus on developing trust, one might wonder why Kev stuck with paid acquisition? Ads cost money and may not immediately foster a trust-rich relationship with customers. To be honest, it didn’t exactly work at first. Kev spotted an opportunity in his friend’s dad’s salon marketing business. Kev thought they should try using Facebook ads which were still new at the time. Kev convinced the man to cut him an affiliate deal on his program in exchange for a few Facebook ads. Luckily, it did work in that Kev made a sale and got him a client, but this initial success was not a recurring phenomenon. Kev knew paid ads could be profitable so he went back to work trying to discern the necessary components between the ad and the sale.

Kev tried several new approaches and eventually landed on his current funnel. In his funnel, Kev’s clients click an ad taking them to a landing page featuring a webinar registration. The challenge is then to get leads to watch the webinar. This requires several behind the scenes systems to ensure they actually show up and consume the content. From there, the call to action is setting up a call to have a conversation about the next steps. In this model, the webinar serves two major purposes. It is a qualifying tool, that also builds trust. It sets the tone, allowing customers to hear and see him, and it helps them become familiar with his outlook on paid marketing. Kev calls the webinar a humanizing exercise since it features many stories explaining how the brand was built and showing who built it.

Another way Kev’s webinars build trust is by delivering useful value to viewers. They introduce four or five ideas that the client can bring to their own marketing. Redirecting the customer’s thought sequence has a two-way bonus in that it also provides the dopamine rush of a new opportunity. That new opportunity is tied to Kev’s solution which inspires a huge amount of trust very quickly. As Brennan points out, this moment is a key point of qualification and filtration. He describes the post-webinar conversation: “if [paid advertising] is something that you're excited about, is this something that you really wanna implement in your business and you're committed to using these pieces we'd love to talk to you. If you're not, we're happy to have shared some really good information with you, but the next step isn't a good fit for you.” The lead leaves with some added knowledge and may come back to the idea at a later d...