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One of the biggest problems here is that $150 is far too small an amount to test Adwords for a b2b situation (generally, low conversion / high value per custome

One of the biggest problems here is that $150 is far too small an amount to test Adwords for a b2b situation (generally, low conversion / high value per customer.) If he's figuring on a $50 or so cost of acquisition when optimized, he's going to need to budget at least $1,000 or more (that's just _20_ conversions) to even start figuring out if Adwords will work for him. Cold calling makes sense, but he's comparing apples to oranges in saying he didn't get sales via adwords but he's getting leads via calling. He's spending an order of magnitude more at any reasonable conversion of time to money, and he doesn't know yet if these cold calls are going to convert, either. It's just that it's "cheaper" to do because he's not paying himself to do it, whereas AdWords is cash out of pocket (a valid issue but not one he's making.) If he tested Adwords and found a formula that worked to create conversions, he'd have a scalable solution. Even if he gets great at cold-calling, it's unlikely he'll have a scalable solution unless he intends to hire a raft of salespeople (who will probably not be as good as he is as selling the product, and who have to be paid.) It's entirely possible this is simply not a product that will do well on SEM, because people aren't actually out there searching for it, while potential leads are relatively easy to obtain and call. That's true of a lot of middleware products. But it might also just mean you haven't figured out what your target users are out there searching for (i.e. maybe not "Deer Management Software", but instead things like "Hunting Rifles.")

rgraham 15y ago
These are all good, valid points. For my specific situation spending $1000 to get 20 conversions didn't make mathematical sense. I spent several hours cold calling to get my first 10-15 conversions and if I paid myself for that activity it would certainly be far from 'free', but you are missing the main point of the calls. Personal attention creates relationships. These people talk to each other. Relationships matter to them. Those calls paid dividends beyond individual conversion. Besides that, there isn't a way to create an AdWords formula for every product X and market Y.
- tomkarlo 15y ago
  That's true, but it's not mutually exclusive. Lots of businesses use Adwords to generate leads that are then pursued using phone sales, and it also means you're no longer making "cold calls", because you're calling in response to a request. Adwords doesn't always have to funnel directly into a checkout. I'm also not sure how you're defining "conversions." Do you mean people being willing to meet with you, or are you saying you had 10-15 sales from the cold calling (cash in bank account.)?
  - rgraham 15y ago
    I agree with your first point. I left it out in implicit agreement. In the article I am talking about meetings...essentially just warm lead generation. I called it conversion because that was the goal I was attempting to convert them to. I don't think cold calling can be as effective for instant sales as AdWords because with AdWords you are targeting people searching for a solution to a problem (you already know this). I still don't have a system that can tie networking efforts to later sales (cash in bank), but maybe someday I'll pursue it.
    - tomkarlo 15y ago
      Having done a /lot/ of cold calling in the past (sometimes up to 200 in a day), I'd warn that you can't tell how effective any system is until you actually have people breaking open their wallet or writing a check. Folks will take a meeting just to be polite. There's a saying in cold calling: you haven't really started selling until they say "no". Everything up to that is small talk.

rgraham 15y ago

These are all good, valid points. For my specific situation spending $1000 to get 20 conversions didn't make mathematical sense. I spent several hours cold calling to get my first 10-15 conversions and if I paid myself for that activity it would certainly be far from 'free', but you are missing the main point of the calls. Personal attention creates relationships. These people talk to each other. Relationships matter to them. Those calls paid dividends beyond individual conversion. Besides that, there isn't a way to create an AdWords formula for every product X and market Y.

tomkarlo 15y ago
That's true, but it's not mutually exclusive. Lots of businesses use Adwords to generate leads that are then pursued using phone sales, and it also means you're no longer making "cold calls", because you're calling in response to a request. Adwords doesn't always have to funnel directly into a checkout. I'm also not sure how you're defining "conversions." Do you mean people being willing to meet with you, or are you saying you had 10-15 sales from the cold calling (cash in bank account.)?
- rgraham 15y ago
  I agree with your first point. I left it out in implicit agreement. In the article I am talking about meetings...essentially just warm lead generation. I called it conversion because that was the goal I was attempting to convert them to. I don't think cold calling can be as effective for instant sales as AdWords because with AdWords you are targeting people searching for a solution to a problem (you already know this). I still don't have a system that can tie networking efforts to later sales (cash in bank), but maybe someday I'll pursue it.
  - tomkarlo 15y ago
    Having done a /lot/ of cold calling in the past (sometimes up to 200 in a day), I'd warn that you can't tell how effective any system is until you actually have people breaking open their wallet or writing a check. Folks will take a meeting just to be polite. There's a saying in cold calling: you haven't really started selling until they say "no". Everything up to that is small talk.