How To Make Online Ads Profitable In 8 Foolproof Steps

Sunday, August 14, 2022

Insights/Marketing/How To Make Online Ads Profitable In 8 Foolproof Steps

Running ads online can have consistent, profitable, results IF you follow these steps.

Running ads online can be an exhausting and scary process; the inconsistency of results can cause even the the most steadfast of entrepreneurs to have heart palpitations.

If you've ever found yourself glued to your ads account, repeatedly turning your campaigns on and off then this article is for you.

Follow the 8 steps below to illuminate the world of running more profitable online ads.

#1 - Confirm The Clarity Of Your Hook & Offer

"A confused customer is not a customer", Dan Kennedy.

Let's face it, even the best marketers in the world flub this one from time to time. They create an ad or landing page that doesn't clearly communicate the core benefit of what they are offering, and customers don't buy as much because of it. And if the best marketers do this from time to time then others must do it quite often (and they do).

But why does this matter, and why is it first in this list? Well, it's because the clarity of your ad, clarity of your landing page, and clarity of the bridge between the two are the most important aspects of your ads... and they can easily miss the mark.

That's why it is very important to take the time to confirm that the hook and story used on your ads address the core problem or desire that your customers have. Then, your landing page needs to present a solution to that very problem or desire. If there is a disconnect in either one then your conversions can suffer.

So, the first step to making sure that your ads are profitable is to confirm the clarity of your ad and offer. Once it looks good, move on to #2.

#2 - Align To Your Customer's "Attention State"

As is outlined in our article "The 7 Foundational Laws Of Marketing That Every Business Must Follow", the "attention state" of your customer is of utmost importance - especially when spending money on ads.

What this means is that you need to align the messaging in your ads with the state of attention that your customer is in.

If your customer is in a "searcher" state and your ad is creating what's called a pattern-interrupt, you'll find it hard to get clicks and conversions.

Likewise, if your customer is in a "viewer" state and your ad is offering an answer to a question, you'll find it difficult to get results. Aligning to your customer's attention state is of utmost importance.

Think of it this way, if you were scrolling through your social media feed (half-zoned out) and all of a sudden you see a picture of a person in a suit who has peed their pants... you're going to stop scrolling and read. That is what is called a pattern interrupt (the out-of-the-ordinary picture), and it would be perfectly aligned to your attention state as you're scrolling.

The uniqueness of it forces you out of zoned-out land so that you can focus on the story now in front of you. You've been hooked in, which will increase the performance of the ad that was placed in front of you.

This is what you have to do as well. So, if you're not quite sure if you are doing this or not, or just want to learn more about attention states then read "The 7 Foundational Laws Of Marketing That Every Business Must Follow" article.

#3 - Make A Better Offer

If you have both clarity and an ad/landing page combo that aligns to your customer's attention state then the next thing you can do to improve your profitability is to enhance the offer you are making.

While it might seem counter-intuitive to improve your offer and give customers a better deal, it actually works for increasing profitability.

That's because when you make a better offer, more people take it. This lowers your cost per sale and increases your new customer acquisition.

Yes, you do make a lower margin on each sale, and might even go into the negative on the front end, but that is entirely okay. Later in this article, we'll cover some ways that you can recover margins and accelerate growth.

So, take a look at your offer and then see how you can make it better. Don't be afraid of taking a slight loss here, because we'll cover how you can easily make up for it in the coming sections of this article.

If you'd like to learn how professional online marketing experts make offers then check out the One Funnel Away Challenge (only $100). While this challenge goes way beyond making offers, it does include a detailed component of how to make offers that convert.

#4 - Test Your Headlines

One of the easiest ways to improve the performance of your online advertising is to test your headlines.

Headlines have been statistically proven to be one of the most important factors to drive conversions at each stage. By testing the headlines on your ads and landing pages, you can drastically increase the performance of your advertising.

For more information on how to test your headlines like a pro, check out this free training that shows you how to best optimize your headlines (and advertising process overall).

#5 - Add Urgency & Scarcity

One of the most (and least) convenient things about the internet is that what you are looking for is always there. You can bookmark a page and come back to it later when you are more "ready" for it.

The problem with this is that it's all too easy to tag things for later... and never come back to them. People do it all the time. That is, unless they have a reason to act immediately.

By adding urgency and giving a reason to act now, people are more likely to take you up on your offer. Likewise, by adding scarcity and limiting the number of what you are offering, people will perceive that your offer has a higher value.

The greatest part about urgency and scarcity is that it costs nothing to add them in, yet they can have tremendous impacts on your conversion rates.

#6 - Include A One-Click Upsell

A one-click upsell is an easy to add product offered at the time of checkout that allows you to immediately increase the total cart value of the order. If done correctly, a one-click upsell can be the difference maker that makes your advertising profitable.

To illustrate this in a few ways that might be familiar:

  • ​Grocery stores add high-margin items at checkout stands that are easy to add to your cart.
  • ​Fast food chains add high-margin food items at the time of ordering that are easy to say "yes" to.
  • ​Car dealers add high-margin accessories and services at the time of closing that are easy to throw into the contract.

Starting to see a pattern here? Industries of all shapes and sizes use this tactic to give a boost to their sales. They add in last minute offers that appear to be a "good-deal" or "no-brainer" so that people say yes and add it to what they are buying without much thought.

You should do the same.

But not all online shopping carts make it easy to add in one-click upsells. Shopify charges an arm and a leg to enable the feature, and most other platforms don't allow you to do it all. The good news is that the Clickfunnels platform does allow you to add in one-click upsells to any order (and makes it super easy to do so).

#7 - Make An Immediate Offer After The First Sale

As legendary marketer, Dan Kennedy, famously said, "a buyer, is a buyer, is a buyer". What this means is that once a person has shown that they are willing to pull out their card and buy once, they are the MOST likely person to purchase more.

So, why not ask them to buy again before they fully complete their order?

In the digital marketing world, this tactic has been aptly dubbed a "sales funnel" and this free training teaches how to use it the best.

Your current buyers will be the most likely to be your next buyers, so why not ask them to buy again right away?

#8 - Create An Ascension Pathway

Often times, businesses look at their advertising as a zero-sum game - where it is either win or lose. But it's not. Advertising is only a win-win game... if you play it correctly.

That's because advertising allows you to drive traffic faster than any other form of marketing (for the most part). With more traffic, the opportunity to acquire NEW customers comes front and center... and new customers are more important than new sales.

Read that again, because it's important. It is more important to get new customers into your business than it is to get new sales. That's because of every business' good old friend LTV (lifetime value).

A "customer" is a person who buys from your business more than once. Preferably, they buy again, and again, and again in perpetuity. A "sale" is a one-and-done kind of thing, so the long term value of it is next to nil.

In order to increase the profitability of your ads, you have to be acquiring customers. If you're just doing one-and-done sales then you will almost never have profitable ads. The profitability most typically comes after the first sale is completed.

For most businesses, this means that they need to create an ascension pathway for their customers to come in on a "loss leader" offer from an ad, and then ascend up a buying journey where they spend more and more money with the business over time.

Recap & Takeaways

Running ads online doesn't have to be stressful. When you follow the 8 steps outlined in this post, your experience with ads will improve both from a stress and profitability standpoint.

If you'd like to dive deeper into this topic, check out the DotCom Secrets book. It is considered the "bible" of online marketing and is the source of many of the concepts taught here in this article.

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