Ed O’Keefe is the original supplement guy.
I met Ed way back at Traffic & Conversion 2013. The entire room was talking about him, because he was making millions a month selling supplements online.
Practically no one else was doing that back then.
And me? I was just a young up-and-comer with a few ecommerce websites. I was nowhere near the level of this guy.
But that didn’t stop him from talking to me, explaining what he was up to and sharing a little advice.
(Chance encounters like this are why I’m such a strong proponent for attending live events.)
Now Ed runs his own conference called Traffic Mastery Live, where he teaches business owners how to scale their brands with paid traffic.
And wouldn’t you know it, everything came full circle, because this year he asked me to speak.
But I wasn’t about to leave empty handed, so afterward I asked Ed for a second round of advice — this time for you all.
Enjoy this quick dive into how to master paid traffic to grow your business.
It’s the Easiest Business to Scale…
Ed O’Keefe has experimented a lot in his career…
He was an info marketer for years before starting a new gig as a dental marketing consulting.
Then he started asking himself the same questions that every over-scheduled business owner asks: How can I build a business that doesn’t need my time to scale?
That’s when he began looking toward ecommerce and selling physical products.
Unlike live coaching or consulting work, the number of physical products you sell doesn’t depend on how many hours in the day you have…
Which means you can scale the business much easier and reach a far bigger audience than any other type of company.
(It’s the main reason I recommend entrepreneurs start with ecommerce.)
But just because it’s easy to scale, doesn’t mean it’s easy.
You still need to sell a product that’s unique — hopefully something with story and substance, and value to your audience beyond just a physical object.
For example, my skincare company BOOM! isn’t just about selling high-quality skincare. It’s about disrupting the traditional viewpoint on how society treats women over 40.
We did this by positioning ourselves as a pro-age ally in an industry that’s dominated by anti-age messages.
And the majority of my ad spend is on ads that amplify this unique story along with our product catalogue.
Traffic is Not About Doubling Your Click-Through Rate
As Ed says, sometimes the hardest part isn’t finding your product, but getting the world to notice it.
This is especially true if you’re still cutting your teeth on how to run Facebook ads.
One very important distinction Ed points out at Traffic Mastery (and one of the most common errors advertisers make in their campaigns), is they mistake the real goal of why they’re buying traffic in the first place:
Ed says that most people think that buying more traffic is all about buying more clicks or getting a higher click-through rate — but that’s not always the case…
The truth is that paying for more people to see your ads is only valuable when your ads create buyer intent or engage them in a story that interests them in your brand.
If your ads aren’t doing this, then pouring more money into them won’t help you grow, because your audience isn’t engaged.
That’s when you need to do a little more experimenting and find new campaigns that work better for your brand.
Believe me, even if you have to grind it out for six months looking for winners just to master the fundamentals, having a basic understanding of paid traffic is a skill set that every business owner needs.
Because…
The Single Funnel Business is Dead (Whomp, Whomp)
Advertising is a process of trial and error, and I’ve had way more failures than successes.
At Traffic Mastery Live, Ed teaches you that no stable business can be married to any single offer.
Because as good marketers, we should always be searching for new ways of offering our products — exploring new audiences, trying new platforms and crafting new stories.
This is a must if you want to scale your business to high 7 and 8 figures, because I believe the age of relying on one funnel or campaign to launch a $20 million brand is ending.
And this desire for innovation is what draws the traffic industry’s biggest names to Ed’s event year after year.
Remember, Advertising is Like a Diet…
Consistency is key — in both diets and in advertising.
If you think you can diet for 3 days then wait a month and diet again, you’re in for a surprise come summer.
You need to give it a little bit of your attention each day to see the results you want.
I’m talking primarily about consistency of spend and setting a budget to use every day in your business.
This was the main takeaway from Traffic Mastery, because paid traffic just does not make sales if you turn it on and off again a bunch of times.
You must to do it consistently to be effective.
Paid traffic is such an important skill to have as a business owner and entrepreneur, because this is what gets your message out into the world and in front of customers.
And if you’re not a master yet, don’t worry — the more you do it the better you get.
Follow Ed O’Keefe At:
Ed O’Keefe runs these traffic workshops every year, and they’re surprisingly affordable to attend. If you’re interested in learning more, you can follow Ed on Facebook.
He’s an amazing business owner and a really great guy who’s sold tens of millions in physical products over his career.
Video Highlights:
2:00 Ecommerce brands are the easiest businesses to scale
2:30 You need to sell something that is unique
3:30 The one funnel business is a thing of the past
4:45 Consistency is key when it comes to ad spend
5:43 All business owners should master paid traffic
Click Here For Video Transcript
Ed O’Keefe, what a guy. So I remember at Traffic and Conversion Summit 2013 in San Francisco, which is now five and a half years ago, it was my first major speaking gig in the industry. Traffic and Conversion Summit is like the event if you’re an internet marketer, or at least it was back then. Now there’s a whole bunch of events. It’s still, I would argue, you know, one of the bigger conversion conferences in the world.
I remember sort of whispers in the room about this guy, Ed O’Keefe, you know, and he was doing millions a month as a supplement retailer all the way back then and people were talking about him. He was like nice enough to like…I was just a young up and comer. I had a couple e-commerce businesses but I was certainly nowhere near where he was on the ladder of success as a business owner.
He took the time to talk to me, to tell me what he was up to, to share advice, to go to lunch with me. Just the sweetest guy. Has got a very big family. You know, people with big families, he’s a great father, they tend to be cool dudes. And he invited me out to his traffic event. He did an event with a bunch of paid traffic folks. I’m considered a paid traffic guy since I spend millions of dollars a year on paid traffic and I got to speak at his event. It was super fun and we had a bit of a conversation in the hallway that I want to bring you in on, so let’s take a look at me and Ed O’Keefe chatting at his traffic workshop.
This is Ed O’Keefe. I’m Ezra Firestone. You know, you’ve been more successful in business than most people ever get, so, how did you get here? What’s going on?
Ed: I went through the whole phases of infomarketer, then I became like a dental marketing consultant coach.
Ezra: Oh, that’s right. I forgot about that.
Ed: That was my first big thing. And then probably like a lot of people, I started asking the questions of like, I want a business that can scale without me, that could be highly leveragable. And, Ezra, you and I were talking about this, how e-commerce brands or physical products are way more beautiful than, like, coaching business or whatever because…
Ezra: Just on scale, it’s so much easier to run.
Ed: Since then I got my coaching business, we run our seminars. Like we’re here at Traffic Mastery Live.
Ezra: At Traffic Mastery Live.
Ed: We threw this together and it’s kicking ass and it’s amazing.
Ezra: Everyone in the traffic world is here.
Ed: And a lot of great ones, a lot of great people. This is a demonstration of just by being nice to a lot of people over a long period of time, when you ask them to come speak at your event, they show up.
Ezra: In this day and age, you need to sell stuff that is unique, is different. You need something with substance and a story, something beyond just a product or sample.
Ed: Yeah, like we’re here, we’re going to go to Spanx later, Sarah Blakely, right? She had a story and had a mission and wanted to solve a big problem. But sometimes that strong hard thing to do is like, you know, press go on your ads and if Ezra says, “Hey, you should be running four ads per ad set and this is how you run it and this is how you do it,” and you’re sitting there going, “I never run Facebook ads.” Well, I’m going to grind this thing out for six weeks to three months to six months, and figure out a basic level understanding of it because most guys think, “Oh, traffic is to get a higher click-through rate.” Well, not if this doesn’t create buyer intent or value.
Ezra: Not if it’s not telling a story and engaging someone in a conversation, etc.
Ed: Or creating an amazing funnel.
Ezra: I’ve got more failed things than successes.
Ed: Yes. So if you just realize that, then don’t stick on one offer and get so married to one offer. You said it in your presentation, the one funnel business is a thing of the past.
Ezra: Ed O’Keefe, ladies and gentlemen.
Ed: All right, man. You guys are the best.
Let’s give it up for this amazing guy.
Ezra: So there you have it. Ending with a montage of me and music. My editor likes to do these montages of me on stage. I try to battle them but I also thought, hey, listen, I’ve got to show off myself looking cool at some point. Anyways, I will say that one of the things I’ll take away from this event is that everyone was talking about consistency of spend. It’s a thing that I talk about a lot, which is that traffic doesn’t work if you turn it on, turn it off, turn it on, turn it off. It’s like a diet, right? You can’t diet for three days and then diet for three days the next month and have it work. You gotta do it consistently.
Everyone is still really focused on Facebook and Instagram as a means for generating visibility. Some folks are talking about the move over to YouTube, the move over to the Google Display Network. Ed O’Keefe runs these traffic workshops. I think they’re affordable to attend. You follow him @edokeefe. I’ll link under this post and I’ll tag him in this so you can go over and follow his profile because he’s a great guy. He’s a really smart business owner, sold tens of millions of dollars worth of physical products in his career and now brings together high-end physical product and online retailers to, you know, talk about how to do that more effectively through driving traffic.
Really enjoyed the event. Ed, thanks for having me out and I hope to catch it. Thanks, you guys, for watching. I hope you got a little bit of value out of our conversation and one of the things that I will say is like, you know, paid traffic is something that you just have to…it’s a skillset that you want to have a business owner because it ensures your ability to get your product out into the world, and the more you do it, the better you get at it. It’s just like working out. It’s just like brushing your teeth. You’ve got to do it consistently.
Catch up with you on the next one.
