Ep 32: Hometown ADvantage Launch Debrief: Five Key Changes I Made & The Results

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on my most recent launch and giving you the real, unfiltered breakdown of what actually worked, what I’m changing next time, and the exact numbers behind an $81K launch.

I walk you through the five biggest changes I made compared to my previous launches, including:

• How I separated organic vs. paid traffic (and why I’ll never go back)
• The private podcast I used to warm up cold leads
• How I’m rethinking thank you pages and email deliverability
• My honest thoughts on doing sales calls for an $1,800 offer
• Why I ditched low-ticket upsells (and how that impacted conversions)

Then we get into the cold, hard data: ad spend, cost per lead, conversion rates, show-up rates, and how many buyers were brand new vs. already on my list.

If you run launches, manage ads for clients, or just want a realistic look at what actually goes into scaling an online offer… this episode is basically a masterclass in itself.

No fluff. No “six-figure in 30 days” nonsense. Just systems, strategy, testing, and a whole lot of “let’s try it and see what happens.”

Want support implementing this stuff in your own business?

Book a call for Done-For-You Ads Management (Retainer):
https://portal.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/public/appointment-scheduler/690422e2baa8d706bfe38dc0/schedule

Book your 7-Day Ready, Set, Launch Intensive:
https://tidycal.com/mp0lnv3/ready-set-launch

Transcript

0:00

It is January 24th when I'm recording this and I literally cannot believe, I know everyone says this, but I cannot believe January's almost over. I saw a lot of people online talking about how they were taking January really slow, and like they'd get into the new year things maybe come February That could not be, and was not me. Let me tell you. I told my team I am buying them like a hundred dollars coffee shop gift cards when January's over because we pushed it, we were in a sprint for sure. But the great part about that is that's not how February's gonna look, so I'm so excited because today I'm doing another one of my launch debriefs. I don't know how many of these I've done before. I think it was possibly maybe just one other one my last launch, and then I probably did one that debriefed my first three launches before that. So if you scroll back, you can probably find my other ones and you'll probably hear some major growth over that span of time. But I wanna set up this episode in two different parts. So I'm gonna start with the five big things I did are changes I made to this launch versus other ones. And what I think about them and what I think about how they went. If you do launches or you do marketing for people. Or you run ads. This is gonna give you so many good ideas for your clients. Like I am really pulling back the curtain here. Let me tell you, if you've been around for any span of time, you know that I just don't believe in competition, honestly. No one can be me, okay? And I can't be you. So I don't hold back. I like to spill it all. But anyways, I'm gonna start with that and then I'm gonna go into the cold hard numbers'cause I don't wanna bore you with like ad spend, cost per lead, all of that if you're not a numbers person. Let's start with this juicy stuff first, and I'm just gonna dive right in. Five things. I did this launch and my unfiltered thoughts on them. First thing I separated out very intentionally organic and add traffic to my webinar Opt-in. So this is something that I always have done for clients, especially because I've had so many clients that have really big followings. So we would run ads to a webinar, whether it's live prerecorded or to a freebie even. And we always would separate out organic and ad traffic. That's so that we can have accurate tracking on how the ads are doing. Because Ad Manager is supposed to track like your numbers and your leads for you, but it's almost never actually correct, so we can use it as a jumping off point. So we can use Ads Manager as a jumping off point, but to get the real numbers we need to use. Something else like the amount of opt-ins coming into Kit. So basically what this looks like is I have two landing pages. One I send all organic traffic to. So if I'm sending an email promoting the landing, I wouldn't promote the landing page promoting the webinar. They get the organic landing page link, and then when I'm running ads. I put the ads landing page link. Each of those landing pages look exactly the same, but the forms on them are different. Like we've embedded different forms. So I have an organic form and an ads form. That way each day I can go in and check how many people opted into the ads form yesterday and how many people opted in. To the organic form yesterday. Like I said, I did this for clients all the time, but I never did it for myself because the extra work, oh, I couldn't be bothered with the extra work at the time. The good news is I have people setting this up for me now, so freaking nice. Oh my gosh. cause it also means if I'm using ManyChat, I need two different ManyChat triggers. There's a lot of steps that goes into this. Also, I just did not have enough organic traffic to make it feel worth it to go through all these steps, right? Like I could pretty much bet that 90 to 95% of my leads were coming from ads. But I'm at a point now where I have more followers, more people on my email list that. I'm going to get more organic opt-ins than ever before, so I figured it was worth it to make sure that my ad stats are correct, especially at the amount I'm spending. I am so happy I did this because it's all systematized now, and I have everything that needs to be done after a launch to just switch everything out for the next launch, ready to go. So that my virtual assistant can turn everything over from one launch to the next by creating a new form, creating new tags, making sure the automations are still all golden every single time. It's a repeatable system. Just took a little front end work to get there. Okay, so that's the first thing. The second thing I did this launch, which I loved, was I set up a private podcast as a free surprise gift after opting in to the webinar. So what happened is someone sees my ad or my email or my post, they opt in, they hit the thank you page, and I said, Hey. I'm so excited to have you. Here's a little taste to get you started, so you don't have to wait till the workshop to hear what it takes to run ads for your local business. And then I also put a link to it in the delivery email or the confirmation email when someone opted in like you're in. Here's a free gift with a cute little present emoji. I think this. Was really helpful in my conversion rate because people got to listen to me for, it was five episodes that were probably 15 to 20 minutes long each, and of course I talked about my program in the last episode of the podcast. So they got to hear all about it before they even came to the workshop. Now for next time, I would love to rerecord and be a little bit more strategic with my topics. Honestly, this was an idea like the day before I launched my ads for the workshop and I already had some content I could use, so I didn't record a whole new private podcast. I took content that I already had. I put it together and I had some tech issues with it too. I bought a private podcast software and I had quite a few people who struggled to listen and like I had some episodes disappear halfway through, like there was some tech issues, which is just bound to happen, right? I don't stress over that stuff. I just think, okay, what can we do next time? Loved the idea, but let's. Make it better. So I think honestly, I might test just using a private, or what is it called? Unlisted YouTube playlist. I think that might be the best way, or maybe I'll give the option because I know that the software that I used allows you to get the podcast into Apple. But for non iPhone users, the options were funky. So I'm gonna get a little more strategic with the topics of the individual episodes. I'm gonna record that and then I'm gonna make it more accessible. Which leads me directly into the third thing that I want to change, and that is the structure of my opt-in thank you page. So a lot of people don't realize the very valuable real estate that they have in the thank you page of someone opting in. So if your opt-in right now is set up where just a little. Blurb pops up where it's like, thanks for opting in. Go check your email. Let's get that changed right now. Because especially with ads, you are getting totally cold, brand new people opting into your stuff, and then you've got them on a page that you can lead them even into another step. So a lot of times my recommendation is make, if you want more people to follow you on Instagram, make sure that you have that right there at the top of your thank you page. Hey, so excited to have you in my free training or whatever it is you're promoting. If you want even more free content from me or you wanna stay connected, make sure you're following me on Instagram. Here's a link or a button to go. Another one I've done for clients is come join my free Facebook group. Now, in my case, I'm gonna make sure that they're getting the private podcast on that page. This round, I included a survey. Where people could talk to me about what their niche is and what problems they're having with ads, which was really helpful for some of my messaging and made it so that I could address individual people's struggles on the workshop. But I don't know if it's the way I want to use that valuable real estate going forward. So I do think I'm gonna ditch the survey for now. Maybe I can put it in an email instead. And really focus on getting people to the Secret podcast. The other thing I wanna make sure I'm doing is trying to get people to go back and check their emails and make sure they're getting the confirmation because I had quite a few issues with deliverability this round, and it's really hard to say if it was something with the email software or if it was just the pure volume of people that I'm getting in, more people, more problems kind of thing. But I had quite a few people like reaching out after the webinar and asking for the link or saying they never got the link or saying they never got the replay and like these are all things that went out to everyone. And it says it was delivered in my email system. So something I'm considering, if you are a systems person or a marketing person, I'd be curious your thoughts on this. And I'm gonna bring this to my team too soon. So if you're my team, this is me bringing it to you. Now I'm actually considering on the thank you page saying, Hey. Here's a link to a secret podcast, but I actually have another gift for you, but you have to go back and find the email I just sent you and respond back to it. And if you respond back to it, I'll send you another gift. I don't know what that gift's gonna be yet, but I do know that people responding to your emails is really good for deliverability and we'll make it so that my emails won't go to junk or spam or what have you. But I am a little nervous about the volume for my lovely, amazing virtual assistant who manages my inbox. I am thinking if we just have a template to respond back with a link to whatever this magical, amazing, free gift's gonna be, it shouldn't be too bad. But I'm not a hundred percent sold on this yet, but the more I'm talking about it right now, like I have it written in my launch debrief doc that I do every single time after launch, and I wasn't sure about it, but now I'm talking through it right now. Right here with you. And of course I'm like, yeah, we just gotta try it, see if it works. Pardon my French, but I'm all about, fuck around and find out. That's how I've gotten here. All right. Moving on to thing number four that I did this launch and my thoughts about it, sales calls. Okay, so against the better judgment of a lot of my business coaches, this is actually my second time hosting sales calls during the car open period, even though the cost of my program is$1,800. During the promotion, a lot of people say that sales calls are for quote unquote high ticket offers usually around$5,000 or more. For example, my done for you services, of course warrant a sales call. They cost$2,500 a month and require a four month minimum. It's a$10,000 investment altogether. But this just comes back to knowing your audience and building trust, right? So I figure why not. Let someone get on the phone with me one-to-one for 10 to 15 minutes to see that I am a real human that really cares about them and can help them. Or maybe you know, the opposite and let's figure that out together before you waste your money. The only problem I'm bumping up against now is the volume of people and leads that I'm getting into my launches and the amount of time it would take me to sit down with every single person that wants to talk to me. So what I did is I opened up, I believe it was like 14 or 15. Call spots for the day after the workshop, and then I offered up some more like the week later too. So those 14 spots that I opened up for the next day were taken before the webinar was even over So anyone who couldn't come live like did not get an opportunity. To chat with me and then I was on calls back to back, so on and so forth for a full day, which I actually did not mind. I love talking with my people. I love helping my people. I don't mind putting the time in to do that. It's just strategizing on the best way to do that going forward. I think that what's going to end up happening going forward is that I will still offer these calls, but I will not offer any until after the fast action bonus period is over because that fast action bonus I tell you, it's good. It's really good, and people really want it because it's so good. So everyone wanted to talk before that was over, which I totally understand. But I think what's gonna have to happen is if you really want that, you gotta buy without the call. We can talk through email and DM as much as you want, but I just am not gonna be able to talk to everybody that wants to buy. Before that time, I ended up having like 35 people buy the fast action bonus during the fast action bonus period this round. So I imagine trying to fit in 35 or even more.'cause not every single person is gonna convert into a sale, which is totally fine too over a two day period. It's just not possible. So I think the call will be better suited to more like fence sitters and people who really aren't sure, and aren't enticed, so to speak, by the fast action bonus, they really need more clarity. So I think that's where the direction of the sales calls is going. All right, last thing I did this launch that was different from any other launch is that I did not. Put an upsell on that thank you page I was talking about from the webinar opt-in. So every launch before this, I have actually sold something low ticket. On that thank you page, sometimes it's a mini course. It's been like a guide. It's been like a personalized audit, and I would do that for a couple reasons. One, there was that same idea of the private podcast, so it helps warm people up to me before the card open period. Two to recoup some ad spend before we even hit card open period. And then three, this is actually like a technical ads thing, but basically there's two different types of ads you can run during a launch warmup. You can run lead ads or you can run sales slash purchase ads and. A lot of people believe, and actually I've witnessed in my own experience, that running those purchase ads gets you in front of a higher converting audience because it's just people. Facebook can just tell who's more in the buying mode, who is really ready to pay to solve this problem? And when you run purchase ads, you can target those people versus when you run lead ads, you might get a bit of a wider pool, but you really cannot run these sales or purchase ads unless you're actually selling something because you gotta sell something to tell Facebook if the ad is working or not. So that was the other reason I would run those. I would run the purchase ads with actually the goal being to get leads, but I would put this purchase on the backend. For my purchase ads to be able to optimize, like I said, an in the weeds ads techie thing, but a huge reason of doing it. So I decided to just not do that this time because I realized that it was really muddying the waters. Of my audience and their feelings around wanting to purchase something bigger. Because what happens is a lot of times someone will buy something low ticket because it's a no-brainer. They may consume the material, but also they may not. And then they get another offer put in front of them. Hometown advantage and they think to themselves, I didn't act on that$37 thing I bought yet, so I should probably not buy this till I do that, right? It's less about trusting me and more about having a self trust issue. And I don't wanna instill a self-trust issue in my potential buyers. Okay? You shouldn't wanna do that either. I want my people to trust themselves to make the most of their investment. So I didn't do that this time and. I credit that as being part of what raised my conversion rate. We're gonna talk conversion rates. Again, this isn't in my list, but the bigger thing that credit my higher conversion rate to is the webinar changes. I did. I completely changed up the delivery of my workshop and I think. I think that's, that was the nail on the head. Okay. So those are the five big things that I changed or did, or that I reflected on. Excuse me. Let's talk numbers. My gosh, my kids are downstairs with their grandma like screaming their head off, like happy screaming, which is great, but I'm so curious if that's gonna be heard on this after is what? It's okay. Numbers time,$1,800. Pay in full,$450 a month for four months. That's the price point. Halfway through the launch, I also offer a six month payment plan.$300 times six, total sales, 45. Holy shit. Paying full sales. I got six 30. Were four month payment plans and nine were six month payment plans. Total revenue came out to$81,000, and my total ad spend came out to$16,000. So my profit after ad spend was around$65,000, which came out to almost a five x return on ad spend. Okay. Of that$16,000 ad spend, I spent 14,400 of it. On lead generation ads, I pretty much used all lead generating ads and none of those sales ads that I talked about because I tried and since I didn't have a purchase on the other side, those did not take off. And then I spent a little under a thousand in retargeting. Retargeting ads. Good Lord. During the car open period and I spent a little under 700 for nurture ads. If you dunno what those are, you should listen to the last episode'cause I talked a little bit about those. I ended up with just over 1500 leads from ads and 183 organic leads. My cost per lead was$9 and 28 cents higher than any of my past launches. But I also talked about this, but like I talked about in the beginning, I, I have never separated out my organic and ad traffic, so I was counting all my leads in my cost per lead and that. Could have made my lead cost skew lower than it actually was. I like, I just had higher lead costs this time. And separating it out made it more accurate than before. Ultimately, my lead to sale conversion rate was 2.6%. This is what so many people don't get. I do all of this just for 2% of the people to buy, and boy is it worth it. Actually, in this case, 2.6%. This is my highest conversion rate I've ever had. I have all my debriefs pulled up because I have just one Google Doc for all of them. And then I started a new tab for each launch. So in September, which was my launch, before this, my conversion rate was 2.1%. And then in June, my conversion rate. Was 1.85% ouch. And then my conversion rate before that was 2.4%, and then before that 2.2%. So it is crazy. A 0.1, 0.2 0.3 percentage change can make a huge difference. I am striving to hit that 3% conversion rate someday. The only problem is the more volume you get, the harder it is to achieve that same conversion rate that you've achieved before. But man, that would be the dream to increase volume and increase to a 3% conversion rate. I'd be hitting my a hundred K launch in no time. Okay. Some webinar show up stats, 5.2% of people who opted in showed up live. I had 336 people on live. So that's interesting. And then as far as the breakdown of the 45 sales I made, how many people came from these lead generation ads that I just ran for the weeks leading up to the launch versus how many people were already on my list? I went through every single person that bought and went back and checked. When they joined my list out of the 45, I had four people that I could not track back, so I have no idea. But I had 14 people that were already on my list. They joined in the summer or the beginning of the year. They joined in a different, one of my launches or a different, one of my ad promotions. And then I had 27 out of the 41 that I could count that were brand new, cold to me until this launch. Which is huge. Such a good indicator of a darn good offer. Okay, that's the breakdown for you. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope that you can even just take one small thing from this. And get your own wheels. Turn in for your own marketing, your own launches, and I cannot wait to be here in a couple months doing the next one. Bye.