Put your time and attention before money
Hear me out—money is the lifeblood of every business, but if you focus your time and attention on the wrong things, you’ll run out of money sooner rather than later.
If you dedicate your time and attention solely to money, but are on your second marriage and disconnected from your children, you’re going to be pretty miserable, and eventually, this will have a significant impact on your business. Go and ask someone going through a divorce, and they will confirm this.
Guard your time and attention as if your life depended on it. Better data will lead to better outcomes based on the balance of probabilities.
You refuse to take on feedback and are only interested in quick wins
“The magic you are looking for is found in the work you are avoiding.”
It’s human nature to take the path of least resistance, and business is no different. Everyone is looking for the edge—quick wins, hacks, shortcuts, secrets, etc. But what happens when you try all these, and they don’t work?
It all comes back to the product first and removing objections.
Let’s look at PPC from 10,000 feet and strip away the nuances. You run ads at the top of the search results. The customer either buys or does not buy. Your goal is to fall into the former category as often as possible.
A good PPC agency, when conducting their audit, should explain this to you if they think this could be one of the issues when you are setting your expectations.
This is no different from running third-party traffic or sellers who indulge in add-to-carts for an artificial boost, or even the black-hatters that go undetected.
You gain visibility, but that doesn’t guarantee a sale. They get you in the shop window, then it’s up to the customer. When giveaways were all the rage, it often wasn’t a one-and-done deal; it required a constant flow of topping up. The artificial boost gains you visibility, but the customer still has to check out.
If PPC could solve all product objections, it would be logical to assume that no products would fail (price sensitivity and noisy categories are still customer objections because they buy other products over yours).
Preparation aids in setting expectations, and in a world driven by data, how it is used counts.
