How to Use Google Ads to Acquire New Customers for Your Business – In Just 7 Minutes with John Horn

Resources/Links:

• Click here for your FREE advertising evaluation: https://stubgroup.com/

Summary

Are you spending money on ads, but they seem to be not working?

Do you feel like wasting ad dollars but don’t know how to fix it?

How are you tracking your ads, or maybe, have you been tracking them?

John Horn is a Managing Partner at StubGroup, a Premier Google Partner ranked in the top 1% of all Google Partners worldwide. John has taught digital marketing to 85,000+ students online.

In this episode, John Horn shares how you can truly turn ads to generate business revenues. He recommends tracking your ads so you can measure success and make decisions based on accurate data. And side by side with that, he shares key considerations on how you can find ad agencies or people to help you manage your marketing to achieve your business objectives.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:14 – John’s ideal client: “They’re small to medium-sized businesses who are looking to engage with customers online to sell their products or services. It could be anything from e-commerce companies to local services, like a plumber, foundation, repair, even business fitness prospecting online.
• 01:44 – The problem he helps clients solve: “Either they’re currently running advertising, and they’re just not satisfied with the ROI they’re getting. They can get better performance, or they’re new to it. Maybe they’re a startup, and they need to start advertising, or they’re an established business, but they haven’t gotten into this digital world yet.”
• 02:33 – Symptoms of the problem he is solving: “I’d say, usually, the numbers just aren’t working for them. They’re spending money every week, every month in advertising, and they’re just not seeing those ad dollars come back, right at the bottom line, and they want those ad dollars to work.”
• 03:28 – Common mistakes clients make before consulting John: “I’d say one of the biggest ones that I see constantly, and sometimes businesses realize it’s a mistake, sometimes they don’t until we help them understand that, but it’s that lack of tracking the success or failure of their campaigns, what we call in the space, conversion tracking.”
• 05:31 – John’s one Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Ask whoever’s in charge of it, what are you tracking? How are you tracking? If you’re a business owner, marketing manager, or decision-maker, grasp what it is that your business is measuring as success and how that happens and make sure it’s working properly. So, you’re making the right decisions based upon truly accurate data.”
• 06:17 – John’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): For FREE advertising evaluation. Click here: https://stubgroup.com/
• 07:15 – Q: How or what should I think through when choosing an agency or an employee to work with to manage my marketing? A: Two things, number one is credibility. Look online. Do they have reviews? Are those reviews recent? Are they positive? Do they have case studies about specific results driven for specific clients? Secondly, when you’re speaking with their salespeople, do their salespeople really get your business? And are they asking you questions about your unique pain points and your unique goals? Or are they just using a sales script?

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“If you're a business owner, marketing manager, decision-maker, grasp what it is that your business is measuring as success and how that happens, and make sure it's working properly.” -John Horn Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:09
Greetings everyone; a warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. My name is Tom Poland beaming out from little Castaways Beach in Queensland, Australia, joined today by John Horn. John, Good day, Sir, very warm welcome. Whereabouts are you based?

John Horn 0:24
I am in a hot and sunny South Texas.

Tom Poland 0:26
South Texas. Yeah, that just sounds hot even saying it, near the border somewhere?

John Horn 0:33
Typically, in Fort Worth, actually right now traveling.

Tom Poland 0:35
But for those of you who don’t know, John is a managing partner at Stub Group, a premier Google partner ranked in the top 1% of all Google partners worldwide, of which there are many. So, it’s a pretty impressive and elite group. John has taught digital marketing to more than 85,000 students online, which is also pretty impressive; leads us nicely John to this subject or the title of today’s interview, ‘How to Use Google Ads to Acquire New Customers for Your Business.’ We’d all love to do that. John, our time starts now. Sir, question number one, who is your ideal client?

John Horn 1:14
They’re small to medium-sized businesses that are looking to engage with customers online to sell their products or services. It could be anything from eCommerce companies to local services, like a plumber, foundation, repair, even business fitness prospecting online.

Tom Poland 1:28
Physical products, as well as service providers by the sound of it.

John Horn 1:32
Exactly.

Tom Poland 1:32
Perfect. You want to sell stuff online; then you’re probably going to be one of John Horn’s ideal clients. Question number two, let’s talk about… six and a half minutes left, the problem you solve for these folks?

John Horn 1:44
Yeah, I’d say most businesses reaching out to us have one of two problems, either they’re currently running advertising, and they’re just not satisfied with the ROI they’re getting. They can get better performance, or they’re new to it. Maybe they’re a startup and need to start advertising or an established business, but they haven’t gotten into this digital world yet. And so, they’re looking for some expert to guide them into digital waters. That’s where we come in.

Tom Poland 2:07
Right. Do some people tell you that they feel like they’re the world’s best-kept secret? You know, they’ve got the cloak of invisibility all on; people just can’t find them?

John Horn 2:16
Every single one.

Tom Poland 2:18
Okay, thank you, Sir. Six minutes left. Tell us about some of the typical symptoms people experienced who, I mean, invisibility might be one of them. What else are folks saying to you, when they become a client of yours that this is how they knew they needed your services?

John Horn 2:33
Yeah, I’d say usually, the numbers just aren’t working for them. They’re spending money every week, every month in advertising, and they’re just not seeing those ad dollars come back, right at the bottom line, and they want those ad dollars to work. And sometimes that’s the most common. Sometimes the problem is, hey, we think our campaigns are okay. But whoever we’re working with to manage them, whether it’s an agency or an in-house employee, there’s just no confidence that they’re necessarily communicating well, or doing the best job they could, or really grasping the business model fully.

Tom Poland 3:04
So, okay, so it could be that they just aren’t flat out, they know that they aren’t getting a return on investment, or there’s a bit of a mystery around, gee, maybe we could be doing better. We don’t know because we’re not getting the data back.

John Horn 3:13
Exactly.

Tom Poland 3:13
Okay. Thanks for that. So, question four. And we got five minutes left. Some of the common mistakes that new clients tell you that they made, you know, where they were leaving money on the table. What are some of those mistakes, so we can say people have suffered from the same fate?

John Horn 3:28
I’d say one of the biggest ones that I see constantly, and sometimes businesses realize it’s a mistake, sometimes they don’t until we help them understand that, but it’s that lack of tracking the success or failure of their campaigns, what we call in the space, conversion tracking, which is, being able to tie back whatever action on their website they want people to take after clicking through an ad, maybe that’s an order that they want people to play online filling out a form, a chat, even a phone call. So many businesses throw their ad spend at the wall, kind of like spaghetti, see what sticks. They don’t even watch to see what sticks. They don’t know what works or what doesn’t.

Tom Poland 4:05
Right. Yeah. So, in the absence of tracking the results in that call to action, they’ve got no context to figure out whether the vacuum is running everything.

John Horn 4:13
Exactly. Or what’s, you know, what part of what they’re spending on is working and what is the waste that they can cut?

Tom Poland 4:19
Right. Okay, any other common mistakes before we get to question five because time is on your side at the moment?

John Horn 4:25
Yeah, I’d say another thing I see all the time is a lack; it is just kind of where trust comes in – whether working with an in-house employee or another agency, lacking the trust of giving them the time they need to derive results. A lot of businesses expect miracles; they say, ‘Hey, we paid you, you know, where’s our $100,000 of revenue this month,’ and whoever they’re working with, you have to realize that as with all marketing, it’s a process. You’ve got to track that data, but then you also have to leverage that data to make decisions to double down on what’s working well to cut back on what’s not working well and to create a trajectory of performance that’s going in the right direction, but you also have to have the patience to let the market allow that to happen.

Tom Poland 5:11
Process, patience, and also something of a partnership in examining the data together and making decisions. That’s a great reality check for a lot of us. Thank you, Sir. Two and a half minutes left. Question five, one valuable free action, could be like a lack of a top tip, that’s not going to solve the whole problem of folks, but it might take them a step in the right direction.

John Horn 5:31
Really just goes back to what I was talking about with tracking. If you don’t have conversion tracking, set it up. If you do, and you think you do, ask whoever’s in charge of it; what are you tracking? How are you tracking? Really, if you’re a business owner, marketing manager, decision-maker, grasp what it is that your business is measuring as success and how that happens and make sure it’s working properly. So, you’re making the right decisions based upon truly accurate data.

Tom Poland 5:55
And I guess folks have to track the metrics and every single step of that whole process to figure out which part is not working as well.

John Horn 6:03
Exactly.

Tom Poland 6:04
All right. Thank you, Sir. Two minutes left. Question number six, one valuable free resource, we could direct folks to a landing page somewhere where people can find out more about your services, maybe dive a bit deeper?

John Horn 6:17
Yeah, absolutely. Well, our website, stubgroup.com, is a great place to start. And one thing that we typically do when we’re talking with a business interested in help or just having problems in this space is we’ll do what we call a free advertising evaluation. So, if you are running Google or Facebook, or any pay-per-click advertising, we’d be happy to jump into your account for free, with no obligations. We’ll put together an evaluation of the good, the bad, and the ugly of what we see going on. And you can run with that, make things better, or hire us to do it on your behalf.

Tom Poland 6:46
Got nothing to lose, right? It’s free, folks it’s stubgroup, S T U B, B for bill, group dot com. Nice and simple. Go there, have a look at that; there’s actually quite a lot there. There’s the whole model of hire-now-create-customers-ready-to-go revenue. There are models there; you can have a look at more. There’s a blog there, which is very interesting. And there’s also a free appraisal opportunity. Got nothing to lose, go get it. Fifty seconds left. John, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

John Horn 7:15
And I see a lot of businesses online asking the question, how or what should I think through when choosing an agency or an employee to work with to manage my marketing?

Tom Poland 7:23
Great question.

John Horn 7:24
And two things that I like to say there when I’m asked that question; number one is credibility. Look online? Do they have reviews? Are those reviews recent? Are they positive? Do they have case studies about specific results driven for specific clients? There’s a lot you can figure out about an agency just by looking at their credibility. And then secondly, when you’re speaking with their salespeople, do their salespeople really get your business? And are they asking you questions about your unique pain points and your unique goals? Or are they just using a sales script? And you know, the sales script is a red flag, business questions, good things.

Tom Poland 7:58
Perfect. John Horn, thank you so much for your insights.

John Horn 8:01
Thank you.

Tom Poland 07:23
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.