The Digital Heroin Trap

What if everything you believe about digital marketing is leading your home service business down a dangerous path? In this eye-opening conversation with digital marketing veteran Jonathan Bannister, we uncover why the constant chase for Google rankings has created a generation of "digital junkies" in the home service industry.

Bannister doesn't hold back as he reveals the uncomfortable truth: digital marketing has made business owners fat and lazy. After a decade helping HVAC, plumbing, and roofing companies navigate the digital landscape, he's witnessed firsthand how the addiction to leads has replaced fundamental business practices like excellent customer service and effective sales processes. His provocative new book title says it all: "F*** Digital Marketing: Why Building a Memorable Brand Matters More Than Rankings."

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Bannister predicts Google's search engine will be "extinct" within 3-5 years, replaced by AI platforms that will fragment the search landscape. This paradigm shift means businesses building their entire strategy on search visibility are constructing their foundation on borrowed space.

Through compelling case studies and tactical advice, Bannister outlines a smarter approach to marketing: becoming omnipresent in your target market through a proper marketing funnel that educates at the top, builds trust in the middle, and only presents offers to already-engaged audiences. His neighborhood-specific strategy for a roofing contractor demonstrates how targeted messaging and multi-channel presence can transform results without relying on Google's unpredictable algorithms.

Whether you're currently frustrated with your marketing results or simply want to future-proof your business against the coming AI revolution, this episode offers a roadmap to build what truly matters – a brand that lives in customers' minds regardless of algorithm changes or platform shifts. It's time to break free from digital heroin and rediscover what genuinely drives sustainable growth.

http://Www.topservdigital.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Digital Marketing Sobriety Journey
• 8:17 Evolution of a Marketing Career
• 19:13 Why Digital Marketing Made Businesses Lazy
• 29:14 The Power of Radio vs Digital Marketing
• 38:10 "Fuck Digital Marketing" Book Introduction
• 46:26 Neighborhood Marketing Success Story
• 56:51 Building a Proper Marketing Funnel
• 1:06:17 Google's Search Extinction and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Corey Berrier: 1:02

Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, Corey Berrier, and I'm here with my man, Jonathan Bannister. What's up, brother? How you doing man? Thank you, good man, good, it's been a long time. We've been trying to get this together for I guess, based on our previous conversation, a couple of years now.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:24

One of us was living a different, high lifestyle, that's right.

Corey Berrier: 1:28

Yeah, so before we, before we started the conversation, I said he said I said, or jonathan said, well, you were on my podcast like a while back, and I said that's funny, I don't remember that. And I said, well, if it was before march 26, 2023, then I was probably high when I was on the podcast. And, sure enough, as you look back on the date, it posted less than a month later and if you know anything about podcasting, usually it dates back to sometimes it's a month or two or three, depending on how many you get stacked up. So, well, congratulations on getting some. Yeah, it was, it's been, it's been, it's been life-changing, depending on how many you get stacked up.

Corey Berrier: 2:05

Well, congratulations on getting so many. Yeah, it's been life-changing. Yeah, it's been life-changing for sure, and I can thank Eric Obrant for that. Back in November before that so 2022, I went to RoofCon and Jeff Boab which I know, you know he was there and said hey, I want you to meet this guy, eric Obr. He was there and said hey, I need, I want you to meet this guy, eric Obrant. I said okay, and so Eric and I started talking.

Corey Berrier: 2:30

Eric's been sober for quite some time 12, 15 years at this point and if you know anything about Eric, he's just going to tell you the way it is. Like he is. No, could care less if he hurts your feelings or not. Very good, dude, don't get me. I don could care less if he hurts your feelings or not. Very good, dude, don't get me. I don't want to paint a picture like he's this nightmare, because he's not, but he's just very forward.

Corey Berrier: 2:54

I was telling him why I didn't want to go back into a 12-step program and he just said, in so many certain words, maybe it's not about you, and he used a few more choice words than that, and so I got back into that 12-step program the next day and I did continue to smoke weed until March, but I had an incident where I almost ran a red light going 70 miles an hour. Two minutes later, same thing happened, and I knew at that moment I didn't need that third warning from God. And so that's what made me make the decision to quit smoking weed and live an honestly honest and truthful life, and it's been life-changing very much. So this is not about me and it's been life changing very much. So this is not about me, so let's skip.

Jonathan Bannister: 3:47

I love seeing the transformation. I loved more than anything waking up this morning Super, Because I'm on Central Time, You're on East Coast Time, so to shoot this, at 7 am I woke up about 545. And when I look at my phone I had a really cool text message on there and it was your whole list of things, your gratitude list. So that's awesome and I'm sure you were probably very grateful for a lot of things in your life once you got sober from alcohol. But you probably just had less clarity in the morning times getting high, going to bed. You weren't waking up at 5 am listing out the things you were grateful for, that's for sure.

Corey Berrier: 4:27

I was waking up earlier than 5, but I was not listing out the things I was grateful for. So I send that list out to. I think I got about 130 people on that list now and I send it out every single morning. And this is why Because, no matter how I wake up, we all have days where we wake up and we're not in the best moods. Usually I do wake up in a pretty good mood because I'm a morning person. But if I don't, I know that I'm going to do that list. And that list it's almost like a hack. It forces me to think about the things that I'm grateful for, because quickly I can think of the things I'm not grateful for, and that's that doesn't set my day up for a positive day. And so that's why I send that gratitude list out, because it's important for me to remember I am grateful that I don't have cancer. I am grateful that I have two legs to walk on. I'm grateful that my mind is clear, I get to go to the gym, I get to do an ice bath, I get to do the things that I get to do, I get to be sober today, and it's just. It's a mindset shift for me that I've always been a very ungrateful person until I don't know. Maybe a year ago, I started doing this gratitude list and what I found is I've just my mindset's really shifted to not a victim mentality and I really it's really embarrassing to admit that, because I hate when people are victims but I was that guy. Why am I not getting this? Why am I not getting that? Why is this person doing that? To me, it's just a bad way to look at things. Yeah, 100%, I love it.

Corey Berrier: 6:15

So, jonathan, tell everybody a little bit about, well, tell everybody about the podcast, and then also you do marketing for the home services, and then we'll get into the biggest thing, which is you've just published a new book. Congratulations, thank you. It's interesting when I tell people and you're going to find this when you tell people that you've published a book, they're like what You've done, what? Like how, what, because most people won't put in the work to publish a book. Yeah, and it's a really cool thing. It does feed the ego a little bit, if I'm being honest, that you publish, I publish a book, you publish a book, but most people look at that as something that they're just they'll never do it. People talk about it all the time, but then they just don't take action. So congratulations on taking action, because most people don't.

Jonathan Bannister: 7:12

I appreciate that. So, yeah, this is. I think this is our 10th year doing digital marketing for the home service industry and this wasn't in my 2015 bingo card to be in to to be a digital marketer. I didn't go to school for that 2014,. I have three kids in under three years old.

Jonathan Bannister: 7:40

My wife and I had kids 2012, 13, 14, back to back when she's pregnant with our first. We go to the doctor for the checkup on the baby and the doctor comes back in the room and he was like laughing, he's like you're pregnant and I was like I thought it was like no, you're in the wrong room, like we're here for the checkup of this baby. That's yeah, they're only 11 months apart. So I was like I was sitting there thinking like mathematically, like this isn't right. But I was a police officer then, so I was a cop and I remember when our oldest steering wheel she's standing out in the front yard big and pregnant with baby two and she just she planted a seed that day this was 2013 timeframe and she's like look, they're shooting cops for fun.

Jonathan Bannister: 8:38

It's a little crazy time, woody. She's like I'll have to figure out a way to pull through if something were to happen, like for the kids but but like it's not fair that they don't have a dad, right? So what do you plan on doing? You make no money and now we got baby two on the way. So that was a seed that was planted, because then I was young and dumb and I enjoyed what I'm catching bad guys, and so you fast forward about I don't know. 10, 11 months later, baby two's. Here she's again and I got caught up in local politics and it was like in that time frame you talk about that victim mentality I felt like why is this happening? Like I'm a great police officer, don't get in any trouble. Why is my career being yanked around like some kind of game by the mayor and the chief?

Corey Berrier: 9:26

and and I just was like.

Jonathan Bannister: 9:28

I was angry, I was bitter, but I walked in a doctor's appointment that day and it and I'll never forget I tell the story that it was like two glass doors to go to the doctor's office. You go on the first one and there's like this four foot gap before you go into the next one. It actually goes into the and I was standing in between the two doors because it was cold outside and I called a buddy of mine that I went to high school and grade school with and he was super smart, had made movies to graduate, made a documentary on Hurricane Katrina. He grew up with his family, were we're all artists on the Gulf Coast of Blexie, mississippi, so he just had this very artistic ability. And so I called him and I said, hey, his name's Justin. I said, hey, justin, are you working on anything right now? And he goes. Yeah, matter of fact, he goes. I'm building mobile apps and I was getting ready to call you to see if you'd help me sell them.

Jonathan Bannister: 10:23

I said okay, well, look, I'm at a doctor's appointment and I'm thinking about leaving law enforcement, so I'll give you a call and I'll swing by when I leave here. And so I rode by his house and he showed me these, like just these templated apps. This is 2014. Apps were very new and he showed me that like he could build these apps super quick for small businesses. And I've always been a golfer and a poker player and both of those really helped my career because the golfing I went to every golf course that I knew personally and said, hey, look, if you had one of these apps.

Jonathan Bannister: 10:57

Well, here's what you do We'll create a QR code. It'll sit on your counter. The golf balls that you have for the driving range it's already a fixed cost. Those are paid for. Give everyone a free bucket of balls that they'll scan this and download the app. And now, whenever the weather doesn't cooperate and you don't have the tee sheet as a busy but guess what? It decides not to rain long, you send a push notification out and you say everybody wants to play today. $40 all you can play. I said that's money you would have never had come in and they were like great. So I started selling them like hotcakes.

Jonathan Bannister: 11:29

Then I went around to all the guys I played poker with that are all business owners, and one guy's name was Scott. He owned a famous seafood restaurant on the Gulf Coast where I was from. So I went and saw Scott sold one to Scott. I said hey, look, there's this geofence technology. We'll put a geofence around it. Anybody that has the app downloaded that rides in that geofence. It'll pop up and tell them they can have a free appetizer if they come in. Right. Then he's like I'll take it. And right when I'm about to leave, corey, he goes hey, jonathan, can you help me with our SEO, because our SEO is horrible? And I said you got it, scott, I'll get back to you.

Jonathan Bannister: 12:11

I walked down the little wooden steps of the two or three-story restaurant, I got in my car and I Googled what is SEO? And that's how my career started. I had no clue what SEO was, and so digital marketing was never on the roadmap. It was through unfortunate what I thought was unfortunate situations and the end of the world. Right, because here I was going to jump back in with another police department and that's the life I was going to live. And I'm so thankful that those doors shut and yeah. So we started out as Cornerstone Marketing Solutions for about nine years and just went through a full, major rebrand to TopServe Digital. So we've been TopServe now for 2025.

Jonathan Bannister: 12:47

And it's actually my second book and this is going to be cool to tell you the story, because book one was about four or five years ago. It's called the Ultimate Guide to HVAC Marketing Online. So, yeah, the difference from the first book to the new one that we'll talk about is it really shows my lack of knowledge and digital marketing has been my way of life and put food on the table for my family for the last 10 years. Today, my message is I call it digital heroin and I think business owners home service business owners as well, but all businesses, I think are in worse place today because of digital marketing. Because in the days Corey, when it was the yellow book, radio, tv and billboards, maybe direct mail that's all there was, and so you either had to do those, find the money to invest in those have a pretty good message or, if you couldn't afford to do one of those and you could only have the little tiny yellow book ad.

Jonathan Bannister: 14:03

Then you had to have a great product or service. You had to do good guerrilla marketing. You had to have a great customer service. You had to have a great sales process and digital marketing when it came along, it made people fat and lazy. So I think today, business owners have a half-ass operation, a poor sales process. They don't follow up with leads and their mindset is no, it's either someone elseSA.

Jonathan Bannister: 14:47

Google Maps, tiktok, instagram, facebook. It just keeps going on and on and you'll hear like oh yeah, we tried YouTube. It doesn't work. It's like it's the number two largest search engine in the world. Like don't tell me it doesn't work because there's billions of people with a B that are on it every single day. So I think you're going to see this huge shift take place in the next year or two. The monopoly that Google has had is going away. So within the next three years five at the most Google will be extinct. Google will be something different, whatever it is. They know they own Gemini. So it's not like they're going away, but the search engine will be like the yellow book.

Corey Berrier: 16:12

I believe you're correct, actually, and so I want to ask you and I would imagine you know about this, but if you don't, that's fine, because I don't know exactly how it works. But I noticed Josh Crouch posted the other day about search inside of ChatGPT. That's really where this is going. So how do? All right, so you can't run ads in ChatGPT, not?

Jonathan Bannister: 16:43

yet, not yet.

Corey Berrier: 16:44

We'll see what happens. So how can one get ahead and make sure that when somebody Googles good HVAC podcast, that my podcast and your podcast show up number one and number two?

Jonathan Bannister: 17:02

show up number one and number two. So in my opinion, it's right now. These AI machines are pulling information that's coming from the internet, so it's getting the most relevant, authentic information out there and I think it needs to be in the abundance. You need to have a lot of content out there. We're using one of the AI platforms, now called Perplexity. We're writing articles on Perplexity. We're trying to inject linking, that is, from, let's say, our clients' videos that are on YouTube, linking it into the article. We're trying to get as much information out there as we can.

Jonathan Bannister: 17:41

But here's what I'll tell you cory, I think people don't like, don't need to be sold on. We're. That's what's coming. Is you're going to hear the marketing companies? You're going to start saying, hey, we can get you ranking on chat, tpt, we can get you ranked on this. I think what you need to worry about is your brand and brand equity, and you're not ever like you don't achieve brand equity ranking on top of Google. You never have that's borrowed space, that is not yours and at any time they can go bye, bye.

Jonathan Bannister: 18:18

Yes, ok, so, but that's what the digital heroin has been. Is that it's made people, the google and facebook and these big tech companies. They're the drug dealers. They're making it, they're selling it, they're controlling the price right. And so the marketing companies are the dealers, right, like we're the sub distributors of it right. We have no control. We have to go to our boss, google, the drug maker, and say how much is this going to cost? Because we're going to go resell it on the market. And so it's taken me a few years to meet the right people that have taught me about branding and advertising, because look, I'll tell you one of the main guys is Brian Shute with Wizard Vats.

Corey Berrier: 19:02

Love him.

Jonathan Bannister: 19:03

One of my clients decided to use him about three or four years ago and I remember the client, who's a personal friend of mine now. He called me and he goes hey, we're talking to this company called Wizard Vads. I didn't know who they were, so all I heard was something ads and I said, oh, I'm about to lose some of my client's business to an ads company. He goes I want you to be part of the conversation. And then when we did the call afterwards, he called me.

Jonathan Bannister: 19:30

He goes a couple of days later he goes OK, we're going to move forward with them and we're going to be doing about twenty five or thirty thousand dollars in radio. And I remember I told that client. I was like, have you lost your fucking mind? Yeah, because on. Yeah, because that's the way I thought. I said you have no way to track that. I said but if you gave me $30,000, I'll put it in YouTube or TikTok or Instagram and I'll be able to show you exactly what you made. I'm like are you crazy?

Jonathan Bannister: 19:56

And today, the new book we'll talk about it's called Fuck Digital Marketing, and the subtitle of it is why building a memorable brand matters more than rankings, because, at the end of the day, you have to stop going to the 8% or 10% of the market that may be in the space to need whatever you're selling. It's so small and there's so much competition. So, yeah, you need to try to be there for those people, but stop obsessing over that has to be what feeds your whole entire revenue for the year, or else no. Position yourself that if they're a homeowner, it's not a matter of. If it's when they need a new roof, a new water heater, a new air condition system, when you are the only company that pops in their brain because you've already bought that space in their mind, but that goes back to the days of radio TV billboards, and digital marketing now has gotten people sold on this. You don't need that stuff. It's not trackable. You need this new lead generation tool.

Corey Berrier: 21:03

Well, okay, so let me. So you just made me think, because if somebody said to me, until you just said that they're going to do $30,000 in radio ads, my first thought would be have you lost your mind? But now you said that here's how you, so you know how many times that ad's being sent out, what time it's being sent out. Don't get me wrong. Radio stations can definitely play your stuff at 2 o'clock in the morning if you don't know how to leverage all the free stuff and whatnot. But you really have a strong point with the radio ads, even though I don't listen to radio and I don't either. But that doesn't mean the whole market doesn't.

Jonathan Bannister: 21:45

Well, this was my argument one time with Ryan Shute. I was like I haven't listened to radio since 2008.

Corey Berrier: 21:52

Yeah.

Jonathan Bannister: 21:53

I've had XM radio and now I've got Amazon Music. I said I never turn the radio on. He goes. I understand that he goes. It's the only marketing medium that is in every single vehicle in the country. Every car that's made it's got radio on it. And I was like huh. And one time I can remember this was just this past year, maybe yeah, it was, I think February I was down at Wizard of Ads. I've now been invited down there twice. I'm the only digital marketing company that's been invited on property to sit with client interaction meetings. And when I leave there, ryan and I had this back and forth debate over radio. When I leave there, my Uber picks me up at the Wizard of Ads Academy and as I'm leaving, this Uber driver's got his radio on. And in my mind I'm going like hey, he's just dude's poor, he doesn't have XM radio. And then the dude starts going oh man, I love this commercial.

Jonathan Bannister: 22:50

Matter of fact their office is right here. Yeah, they come on every day about this time and this company. He knew every company, every ad, so he was completely indoctrinated with those companies. And I'm going to tell you, I was watching that Uber driver in his brain and I was like, when this dude has a problem with any of these companies, that's the only company this guy's calling, because it's embedded?

Jonathan Bannister: 23:13

Yes, it's embedded. And so here's what Ryan taught me was when you have an offer and you jump out on Facebook or whatever with your finance, offer payments as low as $89 a month on this new system, he said it hits the front part of the brain. It's short term memory. So if you don't, if that person that sees that doesn't need that offer, right then and there it's gone. Yeah, it's gone.

Jonathan Bannister: 23:47

Yeah, if two days later that company needed a new air condition because theirs went out, they more than likely would not remember the name of the company, okay, but whenever you touch them over and over, then it moves to the rear part of the brain, which is long-term memory, sure, and so the number Corey has always been six to seven touches Right that number today. There was a study done in Stanford University a couple years ago. That number today is 16 to 18.

Corey Berrier: 24:12

Oh my God, I thought it was nine to 11.

Jonathan Bannister: 24:14

Wow, because, look, we can get girlfriends if you swipe, right? Yeah, that's right. You can just get on TikTok and just go boom. Youtube shorts. I watch my kids just like one video. Dad, look at this one, look at this one. I'm like, holy shit, the attention span is so short today. Yeah, and they say that you have three seconds on your video ads to grab their attention. Three fucking seconds, that's crazy.

Jonathan Bannister: 24:37

Yeah, what can you say in three seconds? You literally got to like rip your shirt off and be naked. Got to like rip your shirt off and be naked and it can't be you or I doing it, because that will just like really not go well. So it's like it's getting harder and harder. So, what it is, you've got to have more touches.

Jonathan Bannister: 24:54

So I tell my clients now I go, look what's your service area. You're like, oh, pretty much the portland metroplex or something cool. I We'll do some research, we'll use AI. I want to know how many homes and how many homeowners that are occupied, not rented. And then I'll get a number and let's say it's 1.5 million homes or something. I'll go. Let's do 1.5 million times 16 to 18 touches.

Jonathan Bannister: 25:20

You don't have the pockets deep enough to touch these people. So today my message to everyone is get your audience, make it small, make it tight, get your perfect avatar, find out who it is. You could literally take, export out your Service, titan, housecall, pro, whatever you use. Take your last 12 months of paid invoices, run it through ChatGPT and say take all of these invoices and give me my perfect avatar customer, because it knows who lives at that address and that name of that person you put in there and it may say like, oh, it's a white female between 26 and 38 that lives in a home that's worth X, y and Z. Get that and then go find more of that person and hit them as much as you possibly can.

Corey Berrier: 26:09

You're right. That's tremendous value People that are listening that he just gave you the framework of exactly how to find the person, the exact person that's buying your product.

Jonathan Bannister: 26:23

We were talking about roofing with you before we got on here. So this was I think it was November, so about six months ago. I'm down in Houston client of mine roofer in Sugarland, texas. We're shooting video content because at TopServe we have changed. We won't work with you unless we shoot video content.

Jonathan Bannister: 26:45

So I almost tell people I don't want to confuse them we're almost like a video agency first that does uses video to run your digital, Because I now know if you don't have any brand recognition, digital is like it is such a coin flip whether it's going to work or not. I've seen the most perfect digital results. Right. So there's four pieces of real estate today. On Google, you got LSA, PPC, Google Maps, organic SEO. I've seen clients of ours have a place on page one on all four places and still my phone's not ringing, and that was one of the reasons I wrote the book. Obviously, it was 10 years of frustration of us being held hostage to the drug dealer, drug manufacturer, as well, because we can't control.

Jonathan Bannister: 27:35

One day we wake up and all of a sudden you don't have the same targeting parameters on Facebook or Google that you once did.

Jonathan Bannister: 27:41

Well, it's like well, that's fucked up because Google and Facebook selling all of your data out the back door. They have all the data and targeting in the world, but we can't use it Like. It just seems so unfair. They have all the data and targeting in the world, but we can't use it Like it just seems so unfair. Why can't you exclude certain races of people? If you want to, it's your marketing dollars. If you feel that something's not your target person, then I don't want to market to them. You can go buy that data on the open market. But it's Google selling some of this shit to me, but Google goes yeah, for privacy reasons, we're not going to, we're going to take this targeting away from you and it's like that's such bullshit, so, anyways.

Jonathan Bannister: 28:17

So I'm with the roofer and we're in this. I didn't know it was a master development, this big, huge development, and we've got them here in Dallas as well. So I was familiar with them. But because I didn't know the area, over a three day span we went to four different homes to get testimonials and I kept. I looked around, cause it was different days, and I was like. I asked the owner. I said are we in the same neighborhood? We were two days ago and he goes. Yeah, I was like, huh, was this the same when we were the other day? He goes, yeah, he goes. And this is where I live. I live in this neighborhood. I was like, well, how big is this neighborhood? He goes. I think there's like 6 000 homes total. It's like got sub developments like the lake, so that's all these different builders and stuff building, and he goes. Yeah, we've probably done about 150 roofs in this whole neighborhood and I was like, why don't you just own this neighborhood? Yeah, and he goes. What you're thinking?

Corey Berrier: 29:08

there I was like you've done 150 roofs.

Jonathan Bannister: 29:11

You need to tell that story to every person in this neighborhood and let all these neighbors that you've done go and sell it for you. Basically, he goes what are you thinking? I said, well, here's what I'm thinking, here's what we're going to do. We're going to create a direct mail card. On that direct mail card I'd made my video guys, go stick him in his front yard right now, but I wanted the street sign to be visible of where he lives and I wanted all of the landscaping that people could tell that's the neighborhood we were in. And so he stood there. We gave him the script to say who he was, how long he's lived in the neighborhood like 18 years and that I'm your neighbor. We've done over 150 homes and below here, this is three of your neighbors and their story, and so on the direct mail card, it was a QR code with the owner's story, three of the testimonials.

Jonathan Bannister: 29:58

And then I said we're going to run this direct mail card every single month. But here's what we're going to do. We're going to do addressable geofencing and he's like what's that? I said we're going to tap into every home in this neighborhood. We're going to tap into their internet and to their cell phones, because we now know that this neighborhood is your perfect customer. And so then we started running all of our video ads on. If they had connected TV, on the Roku Hulu, whatever If they searched Wall Street Journal or ESPN, we were on their display ads. And then Facebook and Instagram. But instead of doing a radius of a zip code or a city of all of Sugar Land, no, we just wanted to target every home in that neighborhood and I said we're going to hit them four times a day and if a storm comes through and there's hail, we're going to turn the frequency up to eight times a day. It's completely changed his business, no question about it, because now, when anyone has so, what it's also done is the canvassing team, the door knockers.

Jonathan Bannister: 31:02

Well, we created video content that said hey, we're such and such, and this is my crew, and we're going to be in the neighborhood this whole entire month. Here's who we are, here's what we're going to come talk to you about. We're licensed, we're insured. Here's our process. So now they've educated these people, so they're much warmer when they open the door to talk to them, right? So there's strategies and it's like well, you know that approach. You're looking at about a dollar a roof per month. Right, so you want to do 20,000 homes? You're looking at about $20,000. But here's what I'm going to tell you Like, why spend $20,000 on Google PPC? And you're targeting this large area and you're playing this game of clicks and conversions and Google yanking up the price depending on demand. It's like go earn those customers, indoctrinate them so much that they trust you, they know you, they like you and when they have a problem and they will have a problem they own a home. If you're a garage door company, they got a garage door.

Jonathan Bannister: 32:05

They own a home. There's a water heater in there, whether it's tank or tankless, just educate them and show them what you do. Heater in there, whether it's tank or tankless, just educate them and show them what you do. Let them hear from your other customers how happy you are. But people have, and I'll tell you, the older business owners get it. Some may have eventually had family members, kids, younger, that said pops, let's get off of this TV radio billboard shit, let's get into the digital world. But the newer business owners that are, I would say, in their 40s, maybe even 50s, been in business 20 years or so-ish. They didn't play that TV radio game because just starting out it was too expensive. So they've only been on digital and they've been hooked on the digital heroin. And it's so hard for them to get off, corey, because when you start saying like let's get 10,000 over here to your brand pop in the middle of the funnel, I just, I don't have it, jonathan. And if I turn off that platform, they start like I got to get the leads or I just and I'm going like man, you're a junkie, yeah, like man, you're a junkie, yeah. So yeah, like our message has changed, because I'm going to tell you when it is a sad thing to see when you get like, when a digital marketing company does get good results and there's good companies out there. Josh is a great example and I guarantee you Josh would say the same thing that he's gotten amazing results for someone before and it still wasn't good enough. Right, like, and that's frustrating because it's like what are you talking about?

Jonathan Bannister: 33:40

But here I remember one of my clients yesterday. We're on a call and we have this business coach on there and he wanted to. I don't know what he was trying to prove, but he said, jonathan, go to incognito window. And he said put plumber in St petersburg into the search. I said, okay, so I put it in there. I go to incognito and my client comes up. There was three lsas. My client was in the third spot of lsa. And then in google maps, my client was in the third spot of google maps. I said, okay, what's your point? And he was like oh, oh, okay. I said here, let me tell you something. I said you see, the company that's in first and second. I said one's called Cornerstone, one's called the GOAT. I said they're a hundred times stronger brand than you are. Do you disagree and he goes no, I agree, I said so.

Jonathan Bannister: 34:27

Think about that. You have to think about how the human brain works. So in the book I talk about Corey, there's three levels of brand equity. Right, you've got low, medium and high. Low brand equity. Today you can touch them no times, or maybe two or three times, because two or three touches in today's time is pretty much nothing anyways. So if you have super low brand equity and someone has a fight or flight moment, water heater burst, it's 112 degrees outside, their air condition's not working, so their house is already like 84 degrees when they woke up. If they go to Google or chat, gpt or perplexity or whatever they go Gemini, and they start searching, you've already lost Because they're getting ready to go to the Wild West or whatever pops up on the screen. So in today's day, google.

Jonathan Bannister: 35:19

So the example we showed my client if someone typed in Plummer St Petersburg, if, when they saw that results, I said if there's two brands right there with you that are super strong, that are spending a lot of money on TV and billboards, the human brain is going to go to what's familiar, right. So they went there and typed in Plumber St Pete because they didn't have any brand commitment to anyone. So if they look, they go. I don't know, I need somebody. Good, oh, I think I've seen their TV or I've seen their commercial. Okay, and that's where they're going to go. I said that's the way it works, right.

Jonathan Bannister: 35:57

But the second level, brand equity, the medium level, you've touched them, I believe, five to seven times, which used to be the magic number, right? And so if you've done that, they may know who you are, they may be looking for you, but they can't remember the name of your company. Again, they're going to go Plummer, near me, plummer, st Petersburg, and then they're hoping to see your name or your logo or your colors, because if they see it, they're going to know it and they're going to click on it. Then the highest level I call it the McDonald's effect, the Chick-fil-A effect, the Starbucks effect, that is, they're searching for you directly and so your direct search goes up is what you want, because you want people looking for you and only you, okay, and so when I say the McDonald's or Chick-fil-A or Starbucks, you can take almost any kid, and we're the fattest nation in the country of the world, I believe. So it's not a cool thing, but I think you could take any kid in a car seat six years, five years old, younger If they can talk and you ride past a McDonald's or Chick-fil-A, they know what that place has and there's not a hamburger, a french fry or a chicken nugget on any of those signs. That's branding. That's powerful In Starbucks okay, that's branding that's powerful in starbucks.

Jonathan Bannister: 37:17

You take a seven-year-old to a 13-year-old who's never had a sip of coffee and all you have is that little weird woman. Whatever that logo is, there's no coffee cup on there. But they know that place is coffee. That's branding. So I tell people you got to become the chip filet of your market for the home service world and you do that by touching people, by making them feel an emotion and showing them who you are, but not with an offer and price tag. You spend money and invest into that person before they need you. That's how you have a successful business. But unfortunately people are hooked on the heroin and they can't get off of it. Dude.

Corey Berrier: 37:51

Yeah, well, and this is why people don't trust digital marketers, because it is a, it's a crap shoot. Unless you're honest with people and say, like what you just said, they think, well, I'm just going to invest this money and leads are going to come in. And then, to the fat and lazy side of it, they think, well, I don't need to follow up because I've got my Google ads running, I'm just going to keep getting people. Well, when that thing cuts off or something changes, the algorithm changes, the prices change and you can't afford it, or whatever the case may be, whatever's out of your control. You got all these people.

Corey Berrier: 38:26

Just talking to a guy yesterday, he's got a quarter of a million dollars a month sitting in unclosed deals and I'm like you've already paid for those people. Don't spend another dime in marketing until you utilize the people that are in your funnel. Oh well, maybe they're two or three months old, it doesn't matter, because there's a chance, good chance, I've proven this. It doesn't matter because there's a chance, good chance I've proven this that you can go back to people that are two, three, four, five months ago and they just didn't make a decision and it wasn't like they were waiting on your call, but you're the only one that called them, so now they've got an opportunity to move forward on something that they knew they needed to move forward on five months ago, but they just didn't make a decision, for whatever reason there's money sitting there.

Jonathan Bannister: 39:19

Here's what I want to tell you. I am mind blown because, look, our approach, and this has been this way for a couple of years now. I've built out this custom marketing spin sheet and so when we work with you, I want to know what your average service ticket is, your average replacement is. I want to know what your cost of goods solds are. I want to know what your overhead expenses are, and I'm going to map out January through December of how we're going to get to that revenue goal you want, because here's what I'm going to tell you. Most companies, if you ask them hey, what'd you do in revenue 2024? We did 6.2. Cool. What'd you want to do in 2025? 8.2. It's like some weird round number. It's like where'd you come up with that? Was it just like it felt?

Jonathan Bannister: 40:05

good Is there a purpose behind it, because I'll start diving in and go, well, look, okay, well, let's see, because that 6.2 is not coming back in the door, guaranteed, so we got to make that. We got to make that come back plus two more million. And then when we start getting to like June, july, august, september, the months where the demand's going to be there and I start going okay, well, how many service calls y'all run a day? Cool, how many install crews? And then I start running a number as I'm going. So when do you plan on start hiring the staff? Because you don't have the capacity to be able to do this to begin with. So stop saying you just want to do this number. Now there's other ways to get to besides marketing. I said, ok, your average install is twelve thousand eight hundred. Let's get that up to fifteen thousand. Your average service got at $427,000. First off, I guarantee you're losing money on $427,000 because it's like they only factor in what they think it's costing to take that truck out of the yard, what they think.

Corey Berrier: 41:00

You said something real important right there.

Jonathan Bannister: 41:02

What they think. Yep, because they never the ones that really had their shit together obviously know that number, but most don't and I'm going well you do realize that the average cost per acquisition on a new customer right now, lsa it's around 350, ppc it's over 400. So if you factor, that into the number.

Jonathan Bannister: 41:23

Don't tell me what it costs to get the lead, because if you think every lead is a customer, that's bullshit. What does it take to get a transaction take place? So when it costs for acquisition, you're looking at around 350 to 400, on top of what your overhead expenses are for fuel, the tires, the insurance, that technician to go out there. So this $427 average ticket you're losing your ass on.

Jonathan Bannister: 41:45

Yeah, that's right, and that would be a zero ticket, because I would open up their eyes to what you were saying, all those open estimates they have? Yeah, I agree, I agree. I'll hear people go well, yeah, man, the girls are the girl Like my staff has nothing to do, like I got to get them something to do, and I'm like, well, why don't they call, why don't you have them call these open estimates? Oh, they're real busy. Wait'm like. Well, wait a minute. You just said you were dead and they didn't have anything to do and I just gave them something to do.

Jonathan Bannister: 42:18

Yeah, man, I'm telling you, but this I feel like digital marketing has made people lazy. It's given people excuses. They get to blame it on Facebook, blame it on Google, blame it on the marketing company, blame it on Google, blame it on the marketing company. And look, every marketing company is not perfect. We have failed and every time we've failed, I've learned and we've grown from it. But that's also why, today, I turn so many people away.

Jonathan Bannister: 42:39

Because if you're not willing to invest in us coming out and shooting video, and then, when I run the numbers and you give me your two or three zip codes you want to focus on, I'm going to tell you how many homes, how many are occupied, how many are in your target range and how much it's going to cost to touch them five or six times a month, the whole area, top of funnel, just brand awareness.

Jonathan Bannister: 43:04

If you're not willing to spend that, we're not going to work together. Because we're not just going to go get great digital marketing. That's still not going to work together. Because we're not just going to go get great digital marketing that's still not going to work. Because you come up in the second spot of Google Maps and you're smashed in between the one and three spot who have a stronger brand equity to you and they're going to out click you every single time. I'm just not going to do it anymore and I'm at that place where I can and I know it's in the best interest of our clients. So it's like you're either going to do it and you're going to be willing to invest in it, or we're not going to we're not going to hang out together, period.

Corey Berrier: 43:42

Yeah, I think that's a very noble approach and one that I don't hear super often.

Jonathan Bannister: 43:46

So the book, right. And so this is the. This is just the I don't know what they call it the proof, right. So? So this is just the I don't know what do they call it. The proof, right. So it's not for resale. I'm going through it. You get to see the manuscript. I've had now for a few weeks, made changes on manuscript, but the publishing company is like, hey, the last step is let's get you a copy, it's easier to read. See the format and then. So now I'm going through it. I leave tomorrow yeah, tomorrow going vacation, so going on a cruise. So I'm gonna take it and mark it up and have it ready. But look, it's called fuck.

Jonathan Bannister: 44:19

Digital marketing, while building a memorable brand, matters more than rankings and I just I want people to know that your brand can't be taken away from you. But your brand is also not your truck wrap, it's not your logo, it's not your mascot. That is a part of your brand, but it's not your brand. Your brand is what people feel about you when you leave their home. What do people feel about you when they refer you to someone else? That thought, that feeling, that emotion they have, that your guys were amazing. They are so kind, they respect your home. Y'all are early, you call and you tell them these sweet, amazing things. You send them a box of cookies, whatever it is. That's your brand and I'm telling you, if people don't start focusing and worrying about their brand and acquiring brand equity in their future customers' minds today, because Google is going away, it is going away. I want everyone to know it's going away.

Jonathan Bannister: 45:23

There was a time that people would have never thought the phone book was going away Before the internet got here and you were to say the phone book's dead. In five years People have been like you're nuts. Then there was a time that you and I were using the phone book to start bonfires because they were still dropping them off of our front doorstep. But the older people were still using the phone book. I did a webinar a couple of days ago with Crystal Williams from Lemon Seed Marketing and she tells me she's in a little small country town called Lufkin, texas. She says they still have ads running in the phone book. My mind literally went boom. I was like y'all still have a phone book. She goes yeah, and there's still some people that use it. I said I didn't even know they literally existed or printed anymore.

Corey Berrier: 46:10

Yeah me either.

Jonathan Bannister: 46:10

That was crazy. So the Google search engine, or let's just say search engines in general, there will be some people that refuse, like my mom and dad would be one of them. If they're still alive in five years, they will not be on ChatGPT Right. Over the last three or four years, they just got used to using Google. So there are going to be some people, but the search volume and the traffic will be so limited and small and I'm going to tell you, google is still going to try to squeeze every dime out of you, so the price is just going to go up for a lower quality lead and less traffic to try to get it.

Jonathan Bannister: 46:53

So I want people to stop thinking because Google was a monopoly. They had everything wrapped up and so where now there's going to be options? There could be 200 different AI platforms in the next couple of years. So the strategy you don't need to take the strategy of you asked earlier, like how do people start focusing on trying to make sure they reign? They need to invest some, but a small amount, because I don't think there's going to be a perfect formula, like what we're doing by using perplexity and writing our own articles and injecting our own links and stuff into it to try to tie back to our clients. It's helping, it's going to make an impact, but I don't want to try to rank on 200 different platforms. That's crazy.

Corey Berrier: 47:41

Yeah.

Jonathan Bannister: 47:41

And you're going to have limited market share using different ones, because chat GPT may be a bigger one, but there's so many. Chat GPT is expensiveT is expensive for the founder, the company OpenAI. The amount of energy that they're using to control the platform, it's astronomical. But there's other ones that are doing it at a fraction of the cost. So I don't know what's going to happen to ChatGPT in the future. I don't know if it's sustainable, to your point. So then you've got Gemini. It's in my phone, in my new Android phone. Gemini is built into my phone. All I do is hold the little button, like other people use Siri and Alexa. Well, I have Gemini built into the phone, but the market, the share, is going to be spread between different ones.

Jonathan Bannister: 48:35

So now I'm saying this is your opportunity to get off of the digital heroin and start buying space, brand equity, space in your future customers' minds.

Jonathan Bannister: 48:46

Get back into the days of TV, radio, billboards.

Jonathan Bannister: 48:51

And I'm not saying you got to do those platforms. What I'm saying is you've got to get into the mindset that if you're going to use Facebook, instagram, tiktok, youtube, use it the way that you should, which is educate and be informative at the top of the funnel, right. So for everybody out there that doesn't know, like, think of a funnel as like a real oil funnel for your car, right, the shape of it? It's skinny and it gets wide. So the top of the funnel in marketing it's going to be your wildest audience that has no idea who you are. So when people they try to flip the funnel and they try to put their offer at the top of the funnel and so they're trying to sell someone this $15,000 air conditioning system on Facebook that doesn't know you, like you, trust you and oh, by the way, they didn't fucking need you to begin with they were looking at their grandkids eating dinner last night, or cat videos, and then you're going to try to pop this amazing offer in front of them.

Corey Berrier: 49:51

it doesn't work yes, so the video stuff that you're talking about is the thought behind that. Well, so is it safe to assume you put them on youtube? Of course, of course, because then the search engine picks it up. And it's as crazy as this is going to sound to you and to me to think that people don't understand that when you're putting stuff on YouTube, you're also putting it on Google.

Jonathan Bannister: 50:16

Because Google owns it. That's right, and it's the second largest search engine today in which YouTube is actually going to eventually be the number one search engine. Because it's less and less people use Google search. They'll still like.

Corey Berrier: 50:32

People want the videos right and video is not going away. The next thing past.

Jonathan Bannister: 50:37

Video is going to be virtual reality and I think we're still a little ways away from everyone walking around with their crazy headgear and arm things and being in this different reality. Video is not going away. And so, like, yeah, for the last year and a half we've been shooting video content and we're actually the most important pages on a website is your service pages, right? So whatever you do you do AC repair, you do roofing replacement, whatever so we've actually been shooting video content to help support those pages. Meaning, if you go to one of my clients' websites, Dylan Rucker he owns All Heart Heating and Cooling and Plumbing out of Lancaster, California you go to his website. It's called callallheartcom. Dylan, Dylan, I know Dylan, Do you? Yeah, Dylan's a-.

Corey Berrier: 51:26

Long story. We can't get into it on here, but it's absolutely no deal.

Jonathan Bannister: 51:32

Okay. Yeah so him and I started out. I had no idea who he was.

Corey Berrier: 51:36

We were Facebook friends.

Jonathan Bannister: 51:37

I got a lot of those that I don't know, and it was during political season of 2020. And I was frustrated with COVID and the politician, so I was very vocal. And this dude kept engaging with my posts, liking them or heartening them, and so one day I didn't know who he was. So one day I looked him up and on a map where he is in Lancaster but on a big, oversized map it looks like it's in the backyard of Los Angeles.

Corey Berrier: 52:06

Like it looks like it's this far away because there's a hill, there's a mountain that goes up from Los Angeles up to the desert Well.

Jonathan Bannister: 52:13

I didn't know, I didn't know that area, and so I messaged him and I said hey, I don't know if you're trolling me, but it looks like you're in Los Angeles and so you're either a unicorn or you're trolling me. That's what I said to him. He thought that was the funniest thing. And he was like dude trolling me. That's what I said to him. He thought that was the funniest thing.

Corey Berrier: 52:33

And he was like dude where I live.

Jonathan Bannister: 52:35

It ain't Los Angeles, right. He goes. We're a million miles away. It just doesn't look like it. And so eventually I got his business and we've turned into really good friends. The last two years my family has gone out to Arizona. He's got a lake house, we go out on the boat, my kids go tubing and stuff. Like we've become really close friends. But it started out I had no idea who he was and but if you go, to his website, callallheartcom.

Jonathan Bannister: 52:56

You go to the AC repair page. You're going to see about six videos on that AC repair page. It's like five signs your air condition needs repair. Can you just change out the coil? Like their YouTube video is embedded into that page Testimonials what to expect when you work with All Heart. They're all YouTube videos. So guess what? Google is loving and supporting us because we're coming as the expert. Google changed the algorithm a couple years ago to EEAT Experience authority trustworthiness and EE Experience expertise authority trustworthiness. So we're giving them all those signals by saying here's who we are and why we think we're the best and why we're the expert. We're showing our authority because we're putting videos out there, words on a page.

Corey Berrier: 53:48

Look, people have been saying don't use AI written content. Well, man, we've been testing out there.

Jonathan Bannister: 53:50

Words on a page Look people have been saying don't use AI written content. Well, man, we've been testing this out for a couple of years and, Corey, what we've found is we've got content out there written by a professional copywriter compared to AI, and the AI stuff ranks better. And I'm going why is that? That shouldn't be that way. That should be detected as AI and getting slapped on the hand and penalized.

Corey Berrier: 54:13

I don't know, I don't have the perfect answer. Nobody Because guess what?

Jonathan Bannister: 54:16

They're the drug manufacturer. They're back there creating the drug. They don't let us in. All they do is give us the drug to go push and sell. So people want to say they know, we know that this isn't going to work. You don't know shit because you don't work at Google. You're not one of the founders. But what I can tell you is that YouTube is the second largest search engine. Get videos on there, inject those videos into your website and it will help you. Here's another little trick I'll give everybody. Underneath Google Maps there's a section that's called People Also Ask you want to know a little hack. Go to that. Put in AC Repair, dallas or wherever you're at, whatever Garage Doors, minnesota, whatever you do, you go, type that in, go underneath Google Maps and you will see questions from different locations that people are asking questions about your service in your area.

Corey Berrier: 55:09

Now think about it If.

Jonathan Bannister: 55:10

Google puts this here. They feel that's important. Why don't you go answer those questions, Can?

Corey Berrier: 55:16

you.

Jonathan Bannister: 55:17

So you can answer the questions Not from.

Corey Berrier: 55:19

There.

Jonathan Bannister: 55:21

Go and turn it into a video.

Corey Berrier: 55:23

Oh, of course, why does?

Jonathan Bannister: 55:25

being placed in an air condition in Spokane, Washington cost so much. Well, hi, I'm Jonathan Bannister with ABC in Air, and sometimes we see people ask why it costs so much to replace an air-conditioned system in Spokane. So I want to let you know why that is and what's been going on with the equipment and the manufacturers what our philosophy is here, how we price things.

Jonathan Bannister: 55:50

You may be able to find it cheaper. They don't measure your ducking and whatever you get to be the expert, but what you do is you take that and you now link that into your Google business profile, get it on your website, turn it into a. You upload that video and ask ChatGPT to write a blog. Now you got a blog with the YouTube embed on your website. You just got to reverse engineer and hack some of these things and go. What would be the best way for Google to see us as an expert or the authority, instead of just putting words on a page of some bullshit article?

Corey Berrier: 56:25

And guess what they're not going to put? They're always going to put the most commonly asked questions under that section. They are Dude. That's worth any amount of money, just that piece of information right there.

Jonathan Bannister: 56:42

So here's how a funnel should work. Top of funnel people don't know you, you're just trying to get out there with a message. So here's how we build a funnel and how it should work. We ask our client hey, what do you want to sell At the end of the day? What is this thing that you're trying to produce? Oh, it's replace someone's garage door. It's replace a new roof, it's sell a generator.

Jonathan Bannister: 57:04

Okay, but does it make sense to only run that ad as this price? Because you're playing this Russian roulette lottery where you're just hoping that you get in front of enough people and that the stars all align and that you find a magic person that happens to need a new garage door at that minute and your video is captivating enough, or your price is so great that they click on it, or what you do is that's the bottom of the funnel. The bottom of the funnel is where you put the offer. But if you start at the top, the right way, what you do is you educate. So let's take a generator. If I wanted to run an offer for a client for a new generator, a Generac generator, we're talking $10,000 to ten to fifteen thousand dollars, depending on which market. So what you do is you create video content educating people on a generator, why they need it, why it could save their family, what it does, right, you educate and then you build trust that way, because you're showing people like the video, the caption that's out there, right, like what you're.

Jonathan Bannister: 58:21

What to get their attention is five signs a generator can save your family this winter, or whatever. Someone clicks on it and it's like hey, it's Jonathan Bannister here with such and such electric company and I just want to talk to you today about what a generator is and how these five things alone can make sure this winter can keep your family safe. Blah, blah, blah. I don't know what all they are, but guess what? All my clients that are electricians. They know that shit like the back of their hand. So tell those stories, get it out there Now, spend money, go to your target audience and educate them. But here's what you do. You go okay, anybody that watched 40% or more of that video, that's our. We're interested in those people. The platforms will tell you, and so then you go anybody that watched more than 40%.

Jonathan Bannister: 59:11

We want to retarget them and push them down to our next level, which is called middle of the funnel. Middle of the funnel is where we want to build trust and credibility. So then we take those people that watch 40% and we now want to show them testimonials from past customers that worked with that electrical company and we want to show them what we call our story brand video, which is like a digital business card. It's the emotional video of we've been in business 30 years. This is my wife and kids and I'm a combat vet. Whatever your story is, you need to tell that story because that makes you human. That doesn't make you a PE group or the Walmart of the industry. You're now letting them see your wife and kids and your dogs and cats and you're saying, hey, I love this community and this is why we're here, but you need to tell that story. But you can run that video 24-7, 365.

Jonathan Bannister: 59:59

That could be almost top of the funnel as well if you want, but in the middle of the funnel you want to build trust and credibility. Let them hear from two or three of your past customers about how great the experience was and then you go okay, now the people who've been invested in the top and the middle videos. We want to push them to the bottom. That's a new audience. Those people have now been educated, indoctrinated, whatever you want to say.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:00:23

But now the small little group that you have at the bottom, that's the people you want to put an offer in front of right, because now they know you, they have some connection towards you. So if you put a $500 off a new Generac generator ad in front of those people, you're going to have a much better success rate of closing that deal. But if you just run it to a whole zip code of people and say here's a coupon, $500 off man, the message has to be so good and you got that three seconds and you better. You literally better. Like have a bomb exploding on a Generac generator or something, something that gets their attention. It's weird.

Corey Berrier: 1:01:00

Yeah, but you're right, you're absolutely right, and this is really intentional, focused marketing. What you're talking about here, this is a framework, this is a process that you follow, that it has to work the way you've just described it, even from. I know a little bit about marketing clearly not as much as you but what you've explained today is an exact formula of how you get to that ideal customer that's willing to pay you money. You get to that ideal customer that's willing to pay you money.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:01:33

But it's the smart way that everyone should be doing their marketing. But it's a mindset shift. We have to and I'm not saying everybody should go out there and turn off their Yelp and their Google PPC and their LSA. What I'm telling you is that if you can't be honest with yourself and see that the lead quality and the cost has continued to go up year after year, everyone's going to say yeah, absolutely, it has All right Google.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:02:00

You can look at click costs for AC repair 10 years ago. Compared to now, it's a 20 or 30 X more expensive. Facebook ads when they first came out, you could get Facebook leads for $5 to $8. Today it's $58 or higher $70. Lsa when LSA it used to be called Google Guaranteed when it first came out. When that came out in 2016, 2017, it was $25 flat fee and every lead was a guaranteed job. Today it's on a sliding scale. You have to say I'm willing to spend $100 a lead and you have no control of how many you can get. And guess what? You used to be able to dispute them. Google took that away. Well, why did they take that away? Why wouldn't you be able to dispute a shitty lead that came in. But here's what happened About seven or eight months ago, google changed the way that they put out LSA ads.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:02:59

So Google knows the intent of that search. They've been doing it way too long. So if someone types in emergency AC repair, they know that person needs a contractor. So everything on that page should be get a contractor there. But if someone types in how much does or why does replacing an AC unit cost so much, that is someone that's trying to get information and they're at a completely different stage. They're at the research stage. They may not even want a contractor. They're maybe writing a fucking term paper for all. We know the stuff that should be. There should be blogs and informative content, but now Google started putting LSA on those pages as well.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:03:51

So think about it, if it's at the very top and someone puts in a question where they're trying to get information. If some people are going to click and just call that number and they're going to ask a question to that person, and so now they're getting charged for it and Google doesn't allow you to dispute it. Google decides what they're going to dispute. I, my God, I'm telling you, I honestly believe I will never be convinced otherwise. Google has been able to see the last couple years and knew what was coming. And so search is going down. They're losing real estate from businesses and from users, and so they have to figure out a way to continue to keep their stockholders happy. And so they're jacking the price up on everything. And so you just hear the contractors like LSA sucks now. It used to be good. And don't blame your marketing company. They're not the drug dealer, they're just the one that's reselling the product.

Corey Berrier: 1:04:46

Yeah, that's right. Not the manufacturer but the drug dealer, that's right. Yeah, I mean it's right. Not the manufacturer but the drug dealer, that's right. Yeah, I mean it's really. They do have a monopoly on this situation. They do, yeah, they sure do. Jonathan, this has been very informative, Like if people don't listen to what you're saying. You've laid it out there in a way that is very easy to understand and a process and a formula that can get you the results that you're looking for. So where can people find you if they want to talk to you about marketing, and then we'll also? Will the book be in that same, on that same site?

Jonathan Bannister: 1:05:26

Yeah, so our digital marketing site is top served. Digitalcom. T, o, p, s E R V. They can. The book will be out in a couple of weeks. I don't know when. You'll air this, but yeah, there'll be a link on the website to find the book. The podcast is home service hustle there. There'll be a link to the book there. But, yeah, this the book.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:05:48

I've put 10 years of stories, contractors stories some I had to leave names out, some cause I'm telling their horror story. Like you get that text that I wake up to your text this morning. It was great. It's things you're grateful for. But I've woken up to other texts that say it's 12 degrees outside and my phone's not ringing up to other techs and say it's 12 degrees outside and my phone's not ringing. Man, I hate that Because I truly care about these clients of mine, and so I've got to say in that success to me is turning clients into friends, and I've done it with several right, like Dylan, like I told you, like he was nothing more than a Facebook stranger.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:06:26

And we're already planning our September trip to Arizona and my wife and I are actually going to buy a house out there in the Bulls Head Lake Havasu area because she's falling in love with the Colorado River and feels that it rejuvenates her soul by getting in that river. But that's because of this friendship that I've struck up with Dylan. But in order to turn clients into friends, you got to go through the good, bad and ugly and you got to care and you got to hear them when something's not working. And so when he told me that time I'm going to spend $30,000 on radio and I said, have you lost your mind? I meant that. But he's now part of my journey and letting me meet Ryan Shute and letting me meet these people that know a whole lot more than me.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:07:12

They're probably looking at like digital marketing companies, as these weirdos for years, because they knew that it's just a, it's just a phase, it's just a trend. You need to be on digital, but you can't be hooked on digital. It can't be your only avenue that you're focusing on, but so many people have because that's the only thing they thought really existed and they've been sold that TV, radio and billboards, direct mail, don't work anymore and it's like well, people still have mailboxes, bill radios and cars. Now here's the word I want to give everybody omnipresent yes.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:07:50

So you got to be omnipresent, because you and I don't listen to the radio, right?

Jonathan Bannister: 1:07:54

I don't have cable television. I haven't had cable television since 2018. And for me, I used to have a satellite through Dish or one of them. And so what happened there was I needed to get, I was getting a second line of internet. I wanted two different internet companies just in case anything ever went down. I had a backup. Well, when the new internet company come to put the internet in, they said, hey, we need the coax cable and you're currently have it hooked up to your dish network or whatever. And I was like, okay, well, shut it down. I've got a backup internet streaming TV. And I said, I guess I'll just use that. And so since 2018, I cut the cord and I've not had any kind of cable or satellite TV.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:08:38

So, for me, if people do radio or they do cable TV guess what they're not going to hit me, but they may hit my neighbor. But if they were to run connected OTT connected TV, or they were to run on satellite or whatever it's called satellite radio, then they may hit me. So you've got to be omnipresent. And it can be overwhelming and it can be like I don't have the budget to afford all that. I understand that. And it can be like I don't have the budget to afford all that. I understand that.

Jonathan Bannister: 1:09:35

But you can5,000 will get you a lot of impressions right, probably close to a half a million impressions on Facebook, instagram, tiktok, youtube, because an impression's an eyeball right. You're just trying to get someone to see your video or something. You're not asking the platform to send you a lead. Lead generation is a different strategy, different approach, a different cost. If you're just trying to touch the people, you can touch a lot of people a lot of times for a small amount of money, but you can't expect the instant return on investment. If you do radio, tv or billboards, you don't expect a return on investment immediately. So don't expect the same thing on digital when you're looking at top of funnel just trying to touch people. But you have to shift your mindset to that way.

Corey Berrier: 1:10:16

Yeah, I agree, my man. This has been a great conversation. I appreciate you. Thank you for dropping all the knowledge that you did Very impressed, Thank you, I appreciate it. I appreciate you having me dude. You got it my friend.