What’s the saying… I think something like…
“The things that come out of the mouths of babes.”
Last night, my older daughter Sami (12) blurted something out during a round of glow in the dark mini-golf that sooo nails a mistake lots of marketers make when looking at their marketing metrics.
It was me, Samantha, my younger daughter, Gabriella, and a buddy of mine with his three kids.
We were at some place called Shipwrecks – an indoor, blacklight mini-golf and arcade joint in Lake Park, Florida.
We were on hole 13 which had the typical windmill obstacle smack dab in the middle of the green.
And one after another, all the kids hit the ball… and… WHACK… they’d hit one of the blades on the windmill leaving the ball on the wrong side of the green.
That’s when Sami said it…
“You guys are all aiming for the windmill. You should be aiming for the hole.”
She was so right. They were focusing on the wrong thing. And not looking at the real goal.
This is the same thing lots of marketers do with their marketing metrics.
For instance, many marketers get caught up in the conversion rate of their squeeze page… simply looking at what percentage of visitors to that page opt-in.
When, instead, they should be looking at the EPC (earnings per click) on those visitors.
In the overall scheme of things, conversion rate on your squeeze page doesn’t tell us anything significant.
It’s possible to have a killer conversion rate on your squeeze page – upwards of 50% – and still be losing money on every lead you get.
At the same time, you could have an average, or even below average conversion rate on your squeeze page, and still be making a killing on every lead.
Fact is: what’s more important than conversion rate on your squeeze page is knowing how much you paid per lead versus how much you earned per lead.
I’d take a low conversion rate on one of my squeeze pages with a high EPC over a high conversion rate on the squeeze page with a low EPC any day of the week.
As should you.
That’s the real goal.
That’s what you should be looking at.
Not the windmill.
