[Case Study] Offline Pay-Per-Call Campaign

Elliot305

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I've been doing online call campaigns for about a month now and am getting great results. Decided to try an offline campaign and will make a Case Study out of it for BHW. Not sure how it will convert but I've looked at it from a consumer standpoint and it should perform well. My idea plays on, and elicits people's fears, which hopefully will lead to conversions. Playing on peoples' emotions happens often in marketing and beyond. In fact, today is election day in the US and our fine candidates have done a great job out of making people fear the opposition in hopes of becoming President.

The Concept:
I came across a home security offer in my PPC network and created my offline campaign in the form of a one-page letter. I didn't bother looking at other home improvement type products because I couldn't come up with a good enough story-line to get an immediate reaction. Sure, I could draft a sales letter about HVAC or new window siding and maybe that person would save the letter for when they needed service years down the road, but that doesn't do me any good in the present. I could get lucky too that the person actually needed said service but I'm not gonna waste time on long-shots.

With the home security offer I knew there could be campaigns made that generated responses immediately. This is due to the letter not selling something, but rather warning of something. Although I won't show my exact ad copy, I can explain the premise;

- Recently my home was broken into and there was severe property loss.
- I had an over-the-counter security camera rolling which shows the group of men (6-7) responsible.
- I hired a security firm to investigate the break-in.
- They eventually caught a couple of the guys and found the group had a "hit" list of homes they still wanted to rob.
- There's reason to believe your home may be on this list. Contact the security company immediately to verify if it is and protect your home with a state-of-the-art security system so this never happens to you.
- Image included
izlrgk.jpg


Letter Type and Quantity
Sealed in envelope with red ink and various messages/ad titles. Letter is folded so front is facing out for when person opens. 125-150 letters to be delivered.

2ufxc34.jpg


Deployment Strategy
Delivery will take place a few days from now in my neighborhood within a 3-mile radius. It behooves me to be familiar with the area and to target homeowners who can afford a security system. I live in a more upscale zip-code where crime is minimal but people are still very concerned about criminals coming into the neighborhood. Obviously I won't be going to homes that have home security signs in the yards.

Letters will be placed either at front door or in front of garage door. Most people in the neighborhood go directly into their homes via garage so I'm leaning to place it there. Letters will be dropped off at night in order to avoid any encounters with homeowners.

I usually do 5-6 mile runs so the goal is to carry the letters in a running backpack and have a pre-planned route to go into each smaller neighborhood without retracing steps to exit.

Anticipated Results
I suspect most homeowners will see the letters upon exiting their garage (if placed in driveway) the next morning or night. If placed on door then it'll probably take a little longer. Calls likely will come from cell phones if placed on driveway (while homeowner is driving to work or running an errand) while door placement should yield more landline calls.

I assume 75-85% of the calls will be concerning whether there is really a threat to their home/neighborhood and that's it. Some might be upset that there's this supposed threat out of the blue and will want answers. Maybe 15-25% will call concerning their home, but will also want more info into options on how to secure it. Out of those, I get paid on > 90-second duration calls. Conversion rates for PPC campaigns can be rather high (30-50%). I suspect this will be around 15-20% of all calls.

Based on sending out 125-150 letters, I suspect at least half won't call to begin with (as they can see through the bullshit). Assuming 50 people call, 10 or so people will be interested enough to listen to what the security company has to offer. I suspect I'll get 2 qualified leads (> 90 seconds). Payout is $50+ per lead so around $100.

Scaling
I would never bother with this kind of campaign unless I saw the potential for scaling it out. The offer allows 20 leads a day to start, equaling a little over $1k a day in rev. I'd need to do about 1000 letters a day to hit my cap (which is the goal of course). Supplies are super cheap for this kind of campaign < $50.

No matter how this campaign converts, I'm not gonna bother with personally doing it again. It'll either not do enough rev and I'll ditch it, or it'll convert well enough to make it worth scaling. If that's the case, there's tons of people on Craigslist in need of a job and want fast cash. I'd pay them $100 cash a day to create and deliver all the letters (few hours of work). Considering they're in need of money and this job would be tax-free immediate income, I'm sure I'd get plenty of responses.

Expenses would be supplies and paying people to deliver. Based on my projected 2 conversions for every 125-150 letters, my ROI when scaling should be around 600%, yielding at least $500 a day at 1000 letters delivered. If I can get 3-4 conversion for my test run, ROI will be around 1000%. Hitting different areas will be key of course and making sure the people actually do the job each night.

But yeah, just gonna run my small-scale test first and see what comes from it. Either way, I'll post my results and what direction I'll take this campaign.

Peace
 
Smart angle, love it. Goodluck with this, I'll be following.
 
The picture seems familiar... sure I've seen the video somewhere online but can't remember where.

- There's reason to believe your home may be on this list. Contact the security company immediately to verify if it is

Are you informing the security company beforehand that the homeowners are asking about this? Are they okay with going along with it?
 
The picture seems familiar... sure I've seen the video somewhere online but can't remember where.



Are you informing the security company beforehand that the homeowners are asking about this? Are they okay with going along with it?

Yeah I grabbed that image from Google and just placed the time/data stamp on it. Not letting the security company know as of yet. One rule I have is to always test things first, then if it converts talk to the network about it (even if that means working out a deal for a lower payout). Back in the day I had a situation where an auto insurance company loved the quality but hated the hassle it brought. They allowed me to run for a couple months, then had me change ad copies but that yielded less leads so they allowed me to run the old stuff again and just trained their staff on how to handle certain "strange" calls. I suspect if my campaign works I'll be having that same convo with this company, but its just business so I'm sure we'll work something out if the staff is annoyed or confused with some of the calls.
 
Interested to see the results.

Maybe after a couple of days, go back when the homeowners are out, and smash their windows. Should help conversions.

I laughed. That is actually a very risky idea, but yet a damn good idea. GO FOR IT OP!
 
Nice! That takes bawls! I have done similar and you get a surprising amount of control this way over a sale. They can't block or ban you either :) Good luck!
 
Maybe after a couple of days, go back when the homeowners are out, and smash their windows. Should help conversions.
Lol! I have a team of crackheads standing by to perform this service for $1 per window.
 
Update
Dropped off about 60 letters a couple hours ago. Was gonna wait till Wed night but wanted to get some results rolling in. Couple of observations before I discuss stats:

(1) Doing this during the day is not very efficient if you're trying to be inconspicuous.
(2) I was pretty surprised by how many homes already had security signs in the yard.
(3) Rocks are needed in order to keep envelopes securely in the driveway (was a windy day).
(4) Areas with newly built homes have a lot less security signs than established neighborhoods.

Point 1: I didn't want to deal with any homeowners so was really careful when approaching homes. Like I said earlier, I won't be doing this method again but the people who do it for me will encounter similar hesitation I'd imagine. On some streets, garages were open or cars were parked in the driveways, so I didn't bother with those. Cars would pass by or people would be walking around so I didn't do any drops during those times either. Nighttime deliveries would be a lot easier, both from a tactical standpoint but also a mental one. I kept worrying about some homeowner chasing me down demanding answers. Like I said, this shit is gonna be outsourced.

Point 2: It took me a lot longer than I thought to do the drops cause so many homes already had signs. Some probably don't have active security systems (or any at all) but I didn't want to waste letters on those homes. Nighttime deliver will be problematic since the signs will be very hard to see. I don't want anyone to be walking around with a flashlight either trying to scan the front perimeters of homes. It seems like nighttime deliveries will be more untargeted and this is something I'll need to figure out how to get passed.

Point 3: I needed to constantly grab rocks from the street landscaping to place on the letters. I didn't feel comfortable taping the letters to garage doors or placing on front doors, so driveway placement was my best option. Anytime someone pulls in or out of their driveway they will see a letter sitting there, so that is good enough for me. Rocks will definitely be needed cause any small gust of wind comes and the letter flies away. Whoever I hire will need to carry rocks with them or scoop up like I did.

Point 4: I went to both established areas and newly built ones and could tell right away newly built had far less signs. Problem with that is I needed to make sure the homes were already moved into rather than just being finished and empty. Half the streets in this neighborhood were finished but the homes looked unoccupied. I don't know what type of neighborhood would be more efficient yet.

Although I wanted to drop-off all letters today (137), I felt doing 60 under during daytime conditions was sufficient to run a test. I was being picky with the homes I chose and didn't want to hit home after home since neighbors usually talk with another and if several homes received the same letter, it would probably be less believable. So I scattered my drops throughout a 5-6 block radius and went into 2 different neighborhoods.

Stats
So a few hours ago I did my drop and have already received 4 phone calls with 2 converting into payable leads. Payout per lead is $56, equaling $112. I am pleasantly surprised to see it converting so quickly and hopefully there will be a couple more conversions within the next day or two. Considering I was expecting just 2 leads for all 137 letters, I'm OK if it stalls out at 2.

30uuxao.jpg


Now that I know the campaign converts for me, I will have a conversation with the network/advertiser on allowing 100 or so leads to judge quality for them. The 2 converted calls had average duration of 5 minutes so I hope that's because they were interested in the offer rather than venting for 5 minutes. From my brief experience with PPC, the companies will normally just hang-up on people dicking them around (in order to avoid paying out the lead unnecessarily).

Once I get campaign approval I'll recruit 2-3 people from Craigslist to do the dirty work. I'll either pay them a flat fee or give them a commission for leads brought in. I like the commission based model cause it should keep them motivated and in check with following a couple protocols I'll have in place for the drop.

Improvements
In noticing how many homes had signs, I'm going to change my sales letter copy to talk about how the "gang's list" was only targeting homes without security systems and that it seems all the other homes in the homeowner's neighborhood with systems weren't targets.
 
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When are you going to update this thread with the results?
He just did.

Update
Dropped off about 60 letters a couple hours ago. Was gonna wait till Wed night but wanted to get some results rolling in. Couple of observations before I discuss stats:

(1) Doing this during the day is not very efficient if you're trying to be inconspicuous.
(2) I was pretty surprised by how many homes already had security signs in the yard.
(3) Rocks are needed in order to keep envelopes securely in the driveway (was a windy day).
(4) Areas with newly built homes have a lot less security signs than established neighborhoods.

Point 1: I didn't want to deal with any homeowners so was really careful when approaching homes. Like I said earlier, I won't be doing this method again but the people who do it for me will encounter similar hesitation I'd imagine. On some streets, garages were open or cars were parked in the driveways, so I didn't bother with those. Cars would pass by or people would be walking around so I didn't do any drops during those times either. Nighttime deliveries would be a lot easier, both from a tactical standpoint but also a mental one. I kept worrying about some homeowner chasing me down demanding answers. Like I said, this shit is gonna be outsourced.

Point 2: It took me a lot longer than I thought to do the drops cause so many homes already had signs. Some probably don't have active security systems (or any at all) but I didn't want to waste letters on those homes. Nighttime deliver will be problematic since the signs will be very hard to see. I don't want anyone to be walking around with a flashlight either trying to scan the front perimeters of homes. It seems like nighttime deliveries will be more untargeted and this is something I'll need to figure out how to get passed that issue.

Point 3: I needed to constantly grab rocks from the street landscaping to place on the letters. I didn't feel comfortable taping the letters to garage doors or placing on front doors, so driveway placement was my best option. Anytime someone pulls in or out of their driveway they will see a letter sitting there, so that is good enough for me. Rocks will definitely be needed cause any small gust of wind comes and the letter flies away. Whoever I hire will need to carry rocks with them or scoop up like I did.

Point 4: I went to both established areas and newly built ones and could tell right away newly built had far less signs. Problem with that is I needed to make sure the homes were already moved into rather than just being finished and empty. Half the streets in this neighborhood were finished but the homes looked unoccupied. I don't know what type of neighborhood would be more efficient yet.

Although I wanted to drop-off all letters today (137), I felt doing 60 under during daytime conditions was sufficient to run a test. I was being picky with the homes I chose and didn't want to hit home after home since neighbors usually talk with another and if several homes received the same letter, it would probably be less believable. So I scattered my drops throughout a 5-6 block radius and went into 2 different neighborhoods.

Stats
So a few hours ago I did my drop and have already received 4 phone calls with 2 converting into payable leads. Payout per lead is $56, equaling $112. I am pleasantly surprised to see it converting so quickly and hopefully there will be a couple more conversions within the next day or two. Considering I was expecting just 2 leads for all 137 letters, I'm OK if it stalls out at 2.

21e1fyr.jpg


Now that I know the campaign converts for me, I will have a conversation with the network/advertiser on allowing 100 or so leads to judge quality for them. The 2 converted calls had average duration of 5 minutes so I hope that's because they were interested in the offer rather than venting for 5 minutes. From my brief experience with PPC, the companies will normally just hang-up on people dicking them around (in order to avoid paying out the lead unnecessarily).

Once I get campaign approval I'll recruit 2-3 people from Craigslist to do the dirty work. I'll either pay them a flat fee or give them a commission for leads brought in. I like the commission based model cause it should keep them motivated and in check with following a couple protocols I'll have in place for the drop.

Improvements
In noticing how many homes had signs, I'm going to change my sales letter copy to talk about how the "gang's list" was only targeting homes without security systems and that it seems all the other homes in the homeowner's neighborhood with systems weren't targets.

Wasn't expecting an update so early. Nice job. You've gotten the 2 leads with half the letters you expected would yield you that amount. And possibly more over the week I suppose.

I kept worrying about some homeowner chasing me down demanding answers. Like I said, this shit is gonna be outsourced.

Hahaha, that made me laugh. I think a homeowner catching you at night would be worse than at daytime, and possibly would even spread in that neighborhood, people might think it's a ploy by the thieves themselves, causing that area to become 'bad', although there's a much lower chance of the former happening. But like you said, shit has to be outsourced.

He just did.

Talk about creative methods! Nice man.
Beat me to it, now I look like a spammer LOL.
 
do you have a plan for the advertiser on how they can approach these leads and turn them to sales or are you going to let the advertiser worry about that issue? im asking because im pretty sure i can also generate a lot of these types of leads but if they dont turn to sales itd be a waste of time for all parties. thanks for the case study update and glad youre already getting some results!
 
I have same question how advertiser converting them ? Dont these people ask advertiser if advertiser drop letter in their garage or house ? Hope you understand what i am trying to say.
 
Great Stuff mate, waiting to see further results.
Bookmarked!
 
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