[Case Study] Offline Pay-Per-Call Campaign
- Thread starter Elliot305
- Start date
umerjutt00
Elite Member
- Oct 28, 2011
- 4,373
- 2,493
wow. Its looks like you are already getting results and its been few hours only. 
Well their sales team has formatted scripts I'm sure so it's not my place to tell them how to handle the calls. I suspect people will bring up the letter but I don't think their sales team should play along with my campaign's story. They'll probably dismiss it and just stick to the script. I'm only gonna tell the network that I have an offline/ground campaign running. They didn't care to see my online ad copy so I don't believe they'll ask for the offline copy. If questions are raised then I'll move to showing them the campaign and ask for a 50-100 cap to test the overall lead quality.
In my opinion it's better to just run whatever campaign you have until the network or advertiser asks to see it. If there's firm restrictions then I'll avoid breaking those but usually don't worry about getting approval. I'd rather let the lead quality tell the story.
Received 2 more qualified calls today:
1 call lasted almost 10 minutes so it seems there's homeowners that are having serious thoughts (or signing up) for a security system based on my letters. Heading to Vegas for 4-5 days so won't be able to recruit anyone till next week.
Stats so far: 60 total letters sent, 9 total phone calls, 4 qualified = $224 in rev. Expenses were around $10 by doing the drops myself.
1 call lasted almost 10 minutes so it seems there's homeowners that are having serious thoughts (or signing up) for a security system based on my letters. Heading to Vegas for 4-5 days so won't be able to recruit anyone till next week.
Stats so far: 60 total letters sent, 9 total phone calls, 4 qualified = $224 in rev. Expenses were around $10 by doing the drops myself.
Last edited:
Wilson Grant Fisk
Elite Member
- Nov 10, 2012
- 15,677
- 46,846
Don't forget to drop in on UnGagged
test123test
Regular Member
- Jun 25, 2009
- 278
- 102
I used to put fake love letters on cars that forward to a dating offer. I would get sticky notes made in bulk and used cursive type font so the notes look hand written ( kind of lol) . I actually made good $$ doing it but then craigslist came out and I just moved to that.
Recruited 2 people today cause I wanted to get some results in while away. Split-testing with 1 guy doing poorer neighborhoods and the other doing upscale ones. Each guy has 500 letters and depending on how stats look overnight into tomorrow morning I may have them doing drops on the weekend.
I prepaid them 50% cause I didn't want them to feel like I might not pay. Printing for the letters was $120 and prepayment for today was $100. If I get scammed and they toss the letters, whatever. Don't have time worry about people running away for $50. Besides, there was a ton of interest of CL so I can easily get more people (provided they all don't scam me, lol).
The guys are putting flyers on doors rather than leaving in driveway. This may impact my immediate open rate depending on how many people access their front door right away. Stats will probably start coming in tomorrow sometime. I'll need to make a quick decision on if I want them to work the weekend or not.
I prepaid them 50% cause I didn't want them to feel like I might not pay. Printing for the letters was $120 and prepayment for today was $100. If I get scammed and they toss the letters, whatever. Don't have time worry about people running away for $50. Besides, there was a ton of interest of CL so I can easily get more people (provided they all don't scam me, lol).
The guys are putting flyers on doors rather than leaving in driveway. This may impact my immediate open rate depending on how many people access their front door right away. Stats will probably start coming in tomorrow sometime. I'll need to make a quick decision on if I want them to work the weekend or not.
Not gunna lie if I saw that envelope with the red print on it early in the morning I'd think some kind of Zodiac Killer reborn was targeting me.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
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.
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
So 2 days after I recruited 2 guys to do the drops my results are fairly lackluster for the first run. I'm allocating $1k in testing this project so we're gonna do another run with a different approach to the letter. Although I've already proven the first version works well, I think split-testing a shorter version is appropriate. First version was 4 paragraphs and second will be 2, getting straight to the point without telling too much of a story.
If the second version yields low returns then I have 3 scenarios on why this isn't working full-scale. I've listed them in order of likelihood:
Reason 1 (Targeting, Uniqueness and Personalization): My ROI was based on being specific on what homes to target. I went to homes without security signs and made sure that I spaced my drops several houses apart so a homeowner won't see their neighbors with the same letters. Also, my drops used envelopes and included writing a title on the front.
My guys are simply dropping off the letters cause it would be very time-consuming to stuff 500 letters into envelopes and write a descriptive title on each. It took me about an hour to prep 100 so you can figure doing 500 would be a good 5-hour job (not factoring-in breaks). Since my guys have 500 letters to deliver, they aren't being picky like I was and just blanketing the entire neighborhood with them (including homes with security systems already). It's just not feasible for them to do what I did with 500 letters. This leads to problems with any homeowner just looking at their neighbors and seeing through this marketing tactic. I wouldn't believe it if I saw every home on my block with the letter.
The above is the main reason why I think the campaign isn't performing well full-scale.
Reason 2: (False-Positive)
It could very well be that I was lucky on my 60-letter drop and once more data came in the numbers evened out.
Reason 3: (Letter Placement)
My drop involved placing on the homeowners' driveway while my guys are delivering the letters on door handles, door screens or in the garage door crease/seam. I don't think one placement is more important than another but perhaps certain placements look more spammy. I just don't have enough data to know.
Reason 4: (Getting Scammed)
I doubt this is happening but there's a chance the guys are only doing a minimal amount of work and just tossing the letters. I've met them and they seemed like normal hard-working guys, but just down on their luck and need some quick cash. They know there's good money coming their way if it's converting for me so I don't know why they'd do this. Again, I doubt it's happening but you never know.
New Test
I have them doing another drop for me today with the new letter. I prepaid them in full yesterday and they were supposed to work yesterday but both didn't. That's a relief in a sense cause I had no stats and wondered what was up. I don't mind prepaying them but feel in general once a person gets the cash upfront, the work is more burdensome and an annoyance out of their day, etc. I hope that's not the case with them.
Results Thus Far
My Test = 60 Letters - $25 in Expenses - $224 Revenue
Workers' First Run = 1000 Letters - $330 in Expenses - $168 Revenue
Workers' Second Run = 1000 Letters - $330 in Expenses - Return Not Yet Known
If this campaign doesn't work on the second run then I'll switch them to a car insurance PPC offer as I have a good idea on converting it (dropping letters again).
If the second version yields low returns then I have 3 scenarios on why this isn't working full-scale. I've listed them in order of likelihood:
Reason 1 (Targeting, Uniqueness and Personalization): My ROI was based on being specific on what homes to target. I went to homes without security signs and made sure that I spaced my drops several houses apart so a homeowner won't see their neighbors with the same letters. Also, my drops used envelopes and included writing a title on the front.
My guys are simply dropping off the letters cause it would be very time-consuming to stuff 500 letters into envelopes and write a descriptive title on each. It took me about an hour to prep 100 so you can figure doing 500 would be a good 5-hour job (not factoring-in breaks). Since my guys have 500 letters to deliver, they aren't being picky like I was and just blanketing the entire neighborhood with them (including homes with security systems already). It's just not feasible for them to do what I did with 500 letters. This leads to problems with any homeowner just looking at their neighbors and seeing through this marketing tactic. I wouldn't believe it if I saw every home on my block with the letter.
The above is the main reason why I think the campaign isn't performing well full-scale.
Reason 2: (False-Positive)
It could very well be that I was lucky on my 60-letter drop and once more data came in the numbers evened out.
Reason 3: (Letter Placement)
My drop involved placing on the homeowners' driveway while my guys are delivering the letters on door handles, door screens or in the garage door crease/seam. I don't think one placement is more important than another but perhaps certain placements look more spammy. I just don't have enough data to know.
Reason 4: (Getting Scammed)
I doubt this is happening but there's a chance the guys are only doing a minimal amount of work and just tossing the letters. I've met them and they seemed like normal hard-working guys, but just down on their luck and need some quick cash. They know there's good money coming their way if it's converting for me so I don't know why they'd do this. Again, I doubt it's happening but you never know.
New Test
I have them doing another drop for me today with the new letter. I prepaid them in full yesterday and they were supposed to work yesterday but both didn't. That's a relief in a sense cause I had no stats and wondered what was up. I don't mind prepaying them but feel in general once a person gets the cash upfront, the work is more burdensome and an annoyance out of their day, etc. I hope that's not the case with them.
Results Thus Far
My Test = 60 Letters - $25 in Expenses - $224 Revenue
Workers' First Run = 1000 Letters - $330 in Expenses - $168 Revenue
Workers' Second Run = 1000 Letters - $330 in Expenses - Return Not Yet Known
If this campaign doesn't work on the second run then I'll switch them to a car insurance PPC offer as I have a good idea on converting it (dropping letters again).
Bobtx85
Registered Member
- May 30, 2016
- 90
- 22
Just curious but have you looked into how much a distribution service would cost? I really have no idea if you could get into one for the costs you're talking about but maybe some services offer lower volume plans? I think the main thing they might be able to do is reduce the risk of your Reason# 4 (Getting Scammed). Who knows, they also might be able to give some good advice for ad copy or neighborhoods- it would be in their best interest for you to be successful.
Wilson Grant Fisk
Elite Member
- Nov 10, 2012
- 15,677
- 46,846
Actually that might be worth a try. OP if there is a local paper for your area that gets delivered door to door it might be worth finding out how much it would cost to have a flyer/insert distributed. The only difference will be it won't have the same level of impact as the hand delivered letters.
Yeah I did get some pricing from a company. For volume of 500-5000 its .18 cents a letter, so my cost would be $90 for 500 letters (saving me $10). I showed my workers this so they know they're getting well compensated since it's $90 paid to the company and the employees of that company probably only get $40-$50 of it.
Will provide another update in a day or two with a final analysis of the home security campaign, why 1 worker is probably scamming me (funny story) and the transition into the car insurance campaign.
Workinator
Newbie
- Apr 5, 2016
- 23
- 3
You could ask them which neighbourhoods they did go to and then you can call some houses in that area with this pitch; "Hi, my name is XX and im calling from XX, my only question is: Did you recive the letter from XX today?"
If you call a few houses and they tell you no then you have probably get scammed.
If you call a few houses and they tell you no then you have probably get scammed.
MrE
Senior Member
- Sep 16, 2008
- 852
- 3,286
I like the creative "concerned fellow neighbour" angle and no doubt the personalized style of lettering results in much greater response than commercial junk mail.
Buy a few different 800 lines forwarding to the main # to split test ad copy/delivery people so you can see exactly what's working well & if anyone is trying to cheat you.
I'll be interested to see how the call centre reacts to this type of promotion once you start generating more leads and they're seeing lots of notes of home burglary threats. I would guess as long as they're turning a profit they won't care as some of these snake pay-per-call campaigns allow "ANY" generation techniques.
One other concern is because of the "veiled threat" some of these home owners contact police, I think there might be ways to balance the element of fear without directly threatening the home owner which will result in less headaches.
Buy a few different 800 lines forwarding to the main # to split test ad copy/delivery people so you can see exactly what's working well & if anyone is trying to cheat you.
I'll be interested to see how the call centre reacts to this type of promotion once you start generating more leads and they're seeing lots of notes of home burglary threats. I would guess as long as they're turning a profit they won't care as some of these snake pay-per-call campaigns allow "ANY" generation techniques.
One other concern is because of the "veiled threat" some of these home owners contact police, I think there might be ways to balance the element of fear without directly threatening the home owner which will result in less headaches.
Yeah I have specific numbers for each worker and each version of the letter. I've received enough data from 1 worker to know he's not doing the job and trying to take advantage (more on that later). Yes, it's a fine line and I could be stepping over it by directly implying a specific homeowner's house is in danger. The second version of my letter was more broad, talking about general risks in the neighborhood rather than direct, etc.