E99 Become a Lead-Gen God with AJ Wilcox
AJ Wilcox is a LinkedIn Ads pro who founded B2Linked.com in 2014. A LinkedIn Ads-specific ad agency. As official LinkedIn partners, B2Linked manages among the world’s most sophisticated advertising accounts worldwide.
The Biz4GoodShow
#Begooddogood #Biz4goodshow #Goodagainstthenoise
About the Show
Ladies and gentlemen… Welcome to the Biz4GoodShow, introducing your hosts Bobby Glen James & the… Ryan Pilkington. We are two fun adventurous entrepreneurs sharing the experiences of the “real” secret to business success. Where we highlight misfits outcasts and renegades for the being good and doing good movement. We spotlight people that are changing the world by having integrity and honesty and creating an environment of connection, thus showing the true seeker to success and creating a life of greater impact. There is so much bad noise in the world. Let’s fight against the noise by spreading the GOOD AGAINST THE NOISE! So come on board and create your own Biz4Good Life. #GoodAgainstTheNoise #BeGoodDoGood #Biz4GoodShow
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Who Is AJ Wilcox?
AJ Wilcox is a longtime digital marketer who fell in love with the LinkedIn ads platform in 2011. He founded B2Linked.com in 2014, which specializes in LinkedIn ad accounts, management training and consulting. As official LinkedIn partners, B2Linked manages among the world’s most sophisticated advertising accounts worldwide. Since then, he has managed hundreds of accounts and combined 110 million dollars in ads spent. He has worked directly with several of LinkedIn’s TOP 10 accounts. AJ’s entrepreneur journey is deeply rooted in his faith, after he was fired from his last job. He was offered multiple job opportunities and AJ prayed to God seeking advisement. The answer was to turn down all his job offerings and start his own business. Since then, AJ has never looked back.
“Getting fired was the best thing that had ever happened to me, after my wife and kids.”
Find AJ on: Facebook, B2Linked, LinkedIn, Twitter
Episode Discovery
- Google Challenge with Word Stream
- Vendor Relationship Vs. a Partnership
- Turn your million dollar idea,
into a million dollar BUSINESS! –Builderall - Become a “Builderall” affiliate. Read Here
- How to be a lead-gen god?
- Biz4Good Tip!
- What does Biz4Good mean to you?
- Action Item
- Operation Underground Railroad
- Utah DMC
Quotes From the Show
- “We thought being good in business was a no brainer, but we slowly realized we have a responsibility to shout from the rooftops because it’s not a no-brainer. There are a lot of businesses out there that do not focus on all the good they can do, and they are missing out.” -Bobby Glen James
- “When you care about the people you do stuff for, you gain loyal fans.” -Bobby Glen James
- “Care about your employees, like them, love them, and respect them. Managers would knock it out of the ballpark, if they knew how to manage correctly and cared.” -AJ Wilcox
- “We think Biz4Good is just the way that we are, but there are a lot of people that did not get the memo.” -AJ Wilcox
Google Challenge
Search: (How to became a lead-gen god?) Click the 3rd page and discover the chosen site (Word Stream).
Leads vs. Engagement
“Using Twitter ads for lead generation is all about strategy. Those “needy teenager” ads you see are based on the metric of high engagement. They’re asking for attention because the more attention they get, the more successful they are considered. These ads could drive tons of user interaction and be a great tool for solidifying brand awareness.”
AJ: Twitter is very difficult to use for lead generation, especially in Business to Business (B2B) because it was not built for it. Twitter was built for engagement around what is interesting to people right now. That is why they do so great in the media. I feel like this article was something Word Stream probably wrote because they needed an article on the matter, not necessarily because Twitter is amazing for this. #ShreddingGoogle
How Twitter Ads Work
In order to better explain the strategies I’m going to recommend, I’ll briefly cover how Twitter’s ad platform works.
AJ: Twitter ad platforms can be worth using, definitely in Business to Consumer (B2C), it does great. I play mainly in B2B, where twitter just does not have the right data for it, or enough volume. Twitter works well in B2C where they know what you are talking about.
Bobby: Is this the same thing with Instagram?
AJ: Instagram is owned by Facebook so when you are advertising on Instagram you can use whatever Facebook is using. It does have a few targeting facets like job title and company size. You can use Instagram for B2B, but it is not fantastic.
Twitter Ads for Lead Gen: Targeting and Pricing
In order to implement a successful lead gen campaign on Twitter, the two key elements you will want to put a great deal of focus on are the targeting and subsequent pricing.
AJ: That is actually good advice. I would add: Word Stream is talking about key word targeting and handle targeting. The most important part in key word targeting is a hashtag (#). I like to use Twitter ads by targeting those who attended an event who used the #. This helps you display ads that are related to the subject matter from the conference or event.
How Engagement Relates to Cost
If you are new to this process, you might be thinking, “Why don’t I just select as many handles related to my audience as possible?” Here’s why: That’s a very easy way to burn through your budget really quickly and have very few conversions.
AJ: When people try to define their audience they look on the outer fringes like, “How can I build an audience where every possible person interested can appear as a customer?” We tend to shoot for the stars, but we realize there may be a lot of potential customers on the outer fringes. We must dive straight for the core. The heavy middle, where you know these will be the exact customers for you. I agree with the above advice.
Turn your million dollar idea,
into a million dollar BUSINESS!
Builderall helps entrepreneurs and businesses who want to quickly bring their ideas to life with the most complete digital online business builder and marketing platform on the web.
“Builderall, the best digital marketing tool that we could find. We are always talking about sale tunnels, websites, emailers, phone apps and all that jazz. There are a variety of tools out there, but we use one. BUILDERALL!” -Bobby glen James & Ryan Pilkington
Episode Notes: Become a Lead-Gen God
When AJ was in second grade his hormones started kicking in and he began to start oohing and ahhing at women. His aunt took him to a waterpark in California. AJ began to notice how attractive the lifeguard was. He went down a waterslide slide that recommended using a mat. AJ thought he was too cool to use a mat so he slid down without one. Little did young AJ know… by the time he reached the bottom everything seemed normal, until all eyes were locked on AJ and whispers and laughs stared to commence. AJ looked straight at the attractive lifeguard as she too was laughing. AJ looked down… the slide had tore the back of his swim suit off. AJ is still recovering to this day.
AJ has been a digital marketer for 12 years and began his LinkedIn discovery and passion when he was 6 years into Digital marketing. AJ jumped right in, figured out how to work the LinkdIn system. He became a fanatic and it eventually became LinkedIn’s largest spending account world wide. Then he got fired, and had to tell his pregnant his wife and 3 kids that he lost his job. He went out and got four job offers, two of the jobs would have put him in the 6 figures. He prayed on each job and something told him to turn all four down.
That’s when AJ realized he wanted to startup his own business. He had never managed his own business and he did not want to become a “Richard,” (FYI- Jerk). When you don’t have management experience you have to figure out how to be a boss. When AJ had to hire his first employee he did not have a management philosophy, so he improvised by stating, “just don’t be a jerk.” AJ admits he is definitely not the best boss in the world, but it worked.
“Give your employees the experience you wished you had.” -AJ Wilcox
How to be a Lead-Get God?
AJ: I would break it into Business to Business (B2B) vs Business to Consumer (B2C). If you are B2B LinkedIn ads make a ton of sense, but because they are pretty expensive it means you need to have a pretty large lifetime value to make it worth while. If your lifetime value customer is not over 15 grand, then Facebook is probably the best place to go. If you are in B2C, your product probably costs a lot less than these B2B deals. You can pretty much use anything out there that has not priced themselves out for you. If Google ads are too expensive, try Bing. If Bing ads are too expensive, you will have to stay social. Take a look at Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. You may find what you are looking for there.
Biz4Good Tip!
AJ: Search channels, do really well at capturing the interest and intent, right then. All google needs is 3% of the ad clicks that take place on a page in order to capture data. If you don’t want to cost the click, don’t click, unless it really interests or benefits you.
What does Biz4Good Mean to you?
“Make the word a better place and just don’t be a “Richard.” -AJ Wilcox
Action Item: Better Your Business and Life
You will become very successful once you have a niche. The saying, “The riches are in the niches” is absolutely true. I had skills in SBO and Facebook ads so if I were to have started a business around that I may not be where I ham today. Because I had a niche no one else managed, and one that I would be known for, the LinkedIn Guy. I made it to where I am today.
If you are an entrepreneur, don’t feel bad about going to work for someone else, because you are getting paid to be trained in something. Your job is to go out and find the one thing that you can be the very best at in the world. And monetize it!
-AJ Wilcox
Join and Support
AJ Wilcox is a big advocate for the cause Operation Underground Railroad: Freeing children from sex slavery.
This is happening right now and it is affecting children!
He is also on the Utah Digital Marketing Collective (DMC) Board. A non-profit. If you are working in digital marketing and hoping to gain more experience, connections, and knowledge, join the DMC. You don’t want to fall behind. Go out and connect with others. UtahDMC.org.
Signing off: Everybody! #BeGoodDoGood, #BeGoodDoGood, #BeGoodDoGood….. For more info, listen below.
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