Today, I want to talk about a common issue many coaches face: you get leads for your webinars, but only a handful attend.
Have you ever had 100 people sign up for your webinar, but when the day comes, only 2 or 3 people show up? It’s frustrating, right?
So, what’s going wrong here?
The Problem: You’re not reaching the right audience.
Multiple factors could be causing this issue. Let’s first address targeting issues.
Addressing Targeting Issues
Proper targeting is crucial to ensure your webinar promotions reach the right people. If your ads are too broad or not set up correctly, you might attract individuals who aren’t genuinely interested in your content.
- Broad Audience: If you’re targeting everyone, you’re effectively targeting no one. A broad audience can lead to irrelevant sign-ups.
- Incorrect Demographics: Make sure you’re targeting the age group, location, and other demographic factors that match your ideal attendee.
- Interest and Behavior Targeting: Utilize detailed targeting options to focus on people whose interests align with your webinar topic.
By refining your targeting parameters, you increase the chances of reaching people who are more likely to be interested in your webinar.
However, targeting is just one piece of the puzzle. The bigger issue often lies in a message mismatch.
Understanding Message Mismatch
Let me give you an example to illustrate this.
Imagine you’re hosting a webinar on “Advanced Investment Strategies for Seasoned Investors.” But your ads and landing page promote “Getting Started with Investing” or “Investment Basics for Beginners.”
People who see your ad and sign up are beginners eager to learn the fundamentals of investing. When they receive your webinar reminders or read more details, they realize it’s actually for experienced investors.
Why Did They Sign Up but Not Attend?
- Initial Attraction: Your ad promised beginner-friendly content, which appealed to them.
- Realization Before the Webinar: Upon receiving follow-up emails or checking the webinar agenda, they notice the content is too advanced.
- Feeling of Irrelevance: They decide it’s not suitable for their level and choose not to attend.
- This mismatch between your promotional message and the actual content leads to low attendance because of either of the following:
a. Expectations Aren’t Met: They feel misled about what the webinar will cover.
b. Lack of Trust: Inconsistencies make them question the value of attending.
Why Does This Happen?
- Unclear or Misleading Messaging: Your ads and landing pages don’t accurately reflect the true content of your webinar.
- Attracting the Wrong Audience Through Messaging: Even if your targeting is perfect, misleading messages can attract people outside your intended audience.
- Inconsistencies in Communication: Differences between your ads, landing pages, and follow-up emails cause confusion.
How to Fix This Issue
1. Align Your Messaging from the Start
- Ensure that your ads, landing pages, and webinar content are all saying the same thing.
- Be Specific in Your Ads: If your webinar is for seasoned investors, make that clear. Example: “Webinar for Experienced Investors: Master Advanced Investment Strategies.”
- Consistent Language: Use the same terminology and focus across all platforms.
2. Set Clear Expectations
- Make sure potential attendees know exactly what to expect.
- Detailed Descriptions: Provide a clear agenda or list of topics that will be covered.
- Who Should Attend: Explicitly state who will benefit most from the webinar.
3. Enhance Pre-Webinar Communication
- Keep your registrants engaged and informed.
- Confirmation Emails: Reiterate the webinar’s focus and who it’s for.
- Reminder Emails: Highlight key takeaways and how attending will benefit them.
4. Qualify Your Leads
- Add Qualifying Questions: During registration, include questions that help determine if the attendee is a good fit.
- Provide Additional Resources: Share content that prepares them for the webinar, ensuring they know what to expect.
5. Review and Adjust Your Targeting
- Even though messaging is crucial, don’t neglect your targeting.
- Analyze Your Data: Look at who is signing up versus who you want to attract.
- Adjust Accordingly: Refine your targeting parameters based on this analysis.
Conclusion
Getting leads is great, but getting the right leads who will actually attend your webinar is what truly matters.
By addressing both targeting issues and ensuring your messaging is clear, consistent, and aligned with your content, you increase the likelihood of attracting attendees who are genuinely interested and more likely to show up.
Have you experienced this issue? What strategies have you tried to improve your webinar attendance?
Main Campaign vs. A/B Test Campaign
First, you’ll want to split your ads into two campaigns:
- Main Campaign: This is your primary campaign where you allocate 80% of your budget to ads that are already working.It’s your safety net to ensure stable results while you experiment with new ideas.
- A/B Test Campaign: This is where you put 20% of your budget to work, testing new ideas. But, and here’s the trick, you should only change one thing at a time.
You might ask, “What does keeping other variables constant mean?”
Here’s an example: Say you want to test a new image or video (creative).
You’d keep everything else the same—targeting, ad copy, landing page, and headlines—so you can pinpoint what’s actually making the difference.
How Much Should You Spend on A/B Testing?
Now, let’s talk about budgets. Try to keep a minimum budget of Rs 500/day for A/B testing and let the ads run for at least 7 days.
Why 7 days?
Facebook’s algorithm needs time to gather data and optimize your ads during what’s called the learning phase.
“What is the learning phase?” you might ask.
Explaining the Learning Phase
When you first start running ads, Facebook needs time to learn how your ad performs and whom it works best for.
Facebook aims to generate around 50 conversions (or leads) per week to understand and optimize your ad’s performance.
Let’s say your average lead costs around Rs 50/lead (which is typical for free webinars in most coaching niches).
To hit 50 leads/week, you need to spend enough to get about 10 leads per day.
If you’re spending Rs 500/day, that means you’d generate 10 leads per day, which will hit the sweet spot of 50 leads per week.
That’s why 7 days is key—it gives Facebook enough data to properly learn and optimize, making your ads more effective.
What If My Budget Is Lower?
You might be thinking, “What if I can’t afford Rs 500/day for A/B testing?”
That’s totally fine.
If your budget is less than Rs 2,000/day, 20% of that comes down to Rs 400. This will still work for testing.
But if your budget is even smaller—say Rs 1,000/day—don’t worry about creating separate ad sets for testing.
Just include the new ads in your main ad set.
No need to get caught up in extra complexity when the budget is tight.
How Do You Know What to Test?
Let’s tackle another common question: “How do I know which element to test?”
Start with the basics—creatives (images or videos) tend to have the biggest impact on engagement.
Let’s say you’ve been running a campaign with a specific image or video.
You can test by swapping it out for something new.
But remember, only change one thing at a time.
Don’t touch the targeting, ad copy, or landing page while you’re testing a new creative.
Once you’ve got your new creative, let it run for 7 days.
After the test, compare the results. As coaches, we’re mainly optimizing for lead costs.
- If the lead cost is lower, push the ad to your main campaign.
- If the lead cost is higher, pause the ad and start testing a new creative or another element.
The Simplified Process:
Here’s what the process looks like:
- Run the Main Campaign: Allocate 80% of your budget here for steady results.
- A/B Test Campaign: Use 20% of your budget to test one new thing—like a creative.
- Let It Run: Run your test for at least 7 days to give Facebook enough time to learn and optimize.
- Check Results: Compare the performance. If it works, move it to your main campaign. If not, test again.