What is the most valuable source of traffic? Hint: It's not Google Ads—it's not paid traffic! Kasim shares what it is and how to build it out for yourself (with a FREE template).

If you've been listening to our episodes, you know we spend well over $150k monthly on YouTube Ads alone. But you know what? We still close more deals off of REFERRALS than any other traffic source.

You read that right. Warm referrals are the most valuable source of traffic and the highest quality lead you can get. They close more easily, spend more, stay longer, and are easier to manage.

But you can't just sit around waiting for them to come rolling in. Building a strong referral program is one of the most important things you can do. And Kasim is here to help, so watch this episode now!

Like this video? Follow Kasim on Twitter for more: https://twitter.com/kasimaslam

Want a weekly summary? Subscribe here: https://sol8.com/newsletter/

Need help with Google Ads? Get your FREE action plan here: https://sol8.com/ap/

0:00 Intro

0:29 The Most Valuable Source of Traffic (It's Not Google Ads)

2:41 FREE template to start your Referral Program

6:15 Need help with Google Ads? Get your FREE action plan here: https://sol8.com/ap/

10:17 Pro-tip to get more referrals

Are you looking to level up your Google Ads game? Join John every Friday at 1:00 PM PT for an all-inclusive deep dive into Google Ads.

Our experts will reveal knowledge bombs, secret strategies, and tips they use to skyrocket businesses through Google Ads. 🔥🔥🔥

Be part of this amazing experience by becoming a member of our channel today. Click the JOIN button, and you'll get exclusive access to additional perks such as Live Q&A member chat.

Join this channel to get access to perks:

 / @solutionseight  

💣 The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads for 2023:   

 • The Ultimate Guid...  

🔥 Get your copy of You vs. Google: The (Very) Unauthorized Guide to Google Ads

on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWSNLNRN

This ULTIMATE GUIDE gives you EVERYTHING you need to know about how to set up, build and optimize your Google Ads Performance Max campaigns: https://sol8.com/performance-max/

🤖🦾🦿 The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads Performance Max for 2022 (Part 1-3):   

 • 🤖 The Ultimate Gu...  

 • 🦾 The Ultimate Gu...  

 • 🦿 The Ultimate Gu...  

Want to learn more about Google Ads Performance Max? Here's the link to all our PMax guide videos:

 • Performance Max  

💰 Have an ad budget that's less than $5,000/month? If so, check out our sister agency, StarterPPC, where you can get Google Ads management for a fraction of the cost!

Visit https://www.starterppc.com for more information. 🚀

💯The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads for Lead Generation:

https://sol8.com/google-ads-lead-gene...

🛒 Everything you need to know about Google Ads for eCommerce:

https://sol8.com/google-ads-for-ecomm...

🧲 The only guide you’ll ever need for Google Ads for YouTube:

https://sol8.com/google-ads-for-youtube/

👉 Do you want to be featured on Daily Google News? Do you have epic value you can offer our audience? You can pitch your idea here: https://sol8.com/pitch/

--------------------------------------------------

👉 Get our latest content every Monday, straight to your inbox. Sign up for our news “Traffic Ahead”: https://sol8.com/newsletter/

--------------------------------------------------

Get the latest updates, expert tips, best practices, and PROVEN Google Ads strategies every single day. Subscribe here:   

 / @solutionseight  

--------------------------------------------------

👉 Want to become a Google Ads expert?

We’ve demystified how Google works, and laid out everything you need to know in Google Ads–from scratch!

Learn how to build, launch and manage high-performing Google Ads campaigns in this Google Ads Course: http://sol8.com/paid-traffic-mastery

--------------------------------------------------

Solutions 8 is a global authority in the Google Ads space and one of the world's leading PPC agencies.

Our YouTube channel is dedicated to sharing our most effective marketing strategies to help you achieve your business goals.

--------------------------------------------------

👉 WOULD LIKE TO SCALE AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS WITH PPC?

Sign up for a FREE Action Plan today: https://bit.ly/sol8-home

🐦 Follow Kasim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kasimaslam

⬇️️ You can find us here ⬇️️:

Website: https://bit.ly/sol8-home

Twitter: https://twitter.com/solutions_8

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/solutions8llc

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/organization...

#googleads #googleadsagency #googleadshelp

I wanna talk to you about your single most valuable source of traffic.

Can you guess, can you guess what it is?

Cuz if you guys Google, you're wrong.

Single most valuable source of traffic.

Drum roll.

I spent $150,000 a month just in YouTube.

Generating leads.

That's where all of our ad spend goes.

By the way, we're actually out of Google search right now.

We're a hundred percent inside of YouTube, and yet even so the single

most powerful source of traffic for us, and to be frank, I think for

every business is warm referrals.

Warm referrals give you the opportunity to sell to somebody

who's already really sold.

if you don't already have a referral program in place, that's what I

wanna talk to you about today.

And you might think to yourself like, oh, I don't know, buddy.

My business isn't really referral based.

I'm telling you.

Some of you might be right.

You know, like if you're heavy e-comm, dog food, whatever, like

maybe, that's not really referral.

It becomes affiliate.

But generally speaking, I think that building referral program is

accessible to most and building strong referral program, to be honest

with you is It's relatively easy.

As a matter of fact, I'm gonna give you a template right here, right

now on this video so you can build out your first referral program.

First thing is don't use fancy software links applications.

It's not an affiliate network that you're building.

A referral program is relationship based.

You are asking people that you have a relationship with to send

you more people just like them, and that's the first thing to get.

to really think about is birds of the feather flock together.

Your best clients hang out with your best prospects.

I promise they're in the same Facebook groups, same masterminds.

They take the same courses, they know the same thought leaders.

it's, every industry is incestuous.

And so if you really like working with somebody, the best way to go

work with more people like them is to ask them, Hey, if I've done

a good job for you, Can you mind?

Can you threw me a bone?

So leveraging the relationships that you have, gives you the

opportunity to get more people like that, but don't make it work.

what I mean by that is don't make it work for them.

Don't make them work in order to send you a referral.

It took me a long time to get out the way that I needed it to make sense.

First thing I'll say is send this out in whatever medium you think

is most appropriate, but also most personal, which I prefer text.

If you're on text message communication basis with somebody, it you know, I

mean, you're kind of buds at that point.

if you have that luxury use text, otherwise email, you know, direct

message, whatever works best.

But here's the template you're gonna say, Hey Copernicus I need your help.

And this, I need your help piece is actually really critical.

You're being honest, you're being upfront, and you're not

making this a veiled request.

I really like this.

It reminds me of that old Benjamin Franklin quote where he talks about

you know, if he moves into a new neighborhood and wants to make

friends, the first thing he does is asks his neighbor for a small favor.

And it's a little counterintuitive cuz you're like, well then

you will the neighbor.

But in a weird twist of fate when somebody helps you there's something about that,

that it ingratiates them to you now they, kind of feel, you've given them

the opportunity to be the hero and.

they feel positively towards you.

So hey, need your help?

Just being up front I'm excited to grow this year.

Who isn't right?

And I want more customers.

Exactly like you.

This is a little honest flattery and that's perfectly fine to employ

because it's absolutely true.

It's like, Hey, you're a rockstar.

And you know, if there's more context here, if there's more specificity

that you can apply, I say do it.

I want more customers exactly like you.

If someone comes to mind that would benefit from, whatever product or

service I happen to be providing, would you send them my way?

I will make sure to roll out the red carpet.

This is critically important too, cuz you have to make sure they know,

look, I'm not gonna phone this in, I'm not gonna make you look bad.

I'm gonna put on my, white gloves and make them feel like a million bucks.

this is the primary objection to referrals by the way, is people feeling like,

gosh, I just, you know, I'm always afraid that it's gonna reflect poorly on me.

If you have a gift that you share or you offer, and this

could be, one time recurring.

A gift card, whatever it is, you can let 'em know about it or can

hold this back as a surprise.

This really depends on the relationship that you have with

your potential referral partner.

I like to be really clear about it though.

I don't wanna tell 'em like, oh yeah, we always share a percentage,

because then if they think 20% and you think 5%, now you've kind

of gone and pissed 'em off later.

if you are going to give them something, you can say, Hey, we

get $500 flat, or we give 10%.

whatever it is that end up offering just be really clear about it

if there's a specific offer and if you're gonna surprise and

then, maybe leave this part out.

But this template's super short, super sweet.

the key to it though is, being really consistent and sending this to them at

the inflection point, the referral gift or commission or payout that's sensitive.

Sometimes, depending on the industry you're in, don't give anything.

I'm trying to think about a good example, like if you're a mortuary, just kidding.

Don't have a referral process if you're a mortuary.

if you have a really high touch, a midwife, it'd be a

really good example of this.

Or a therapist.

Certain personal trainers, to be honest with you.

Anything where it's like really personal.

This is where I'd be careful about the gift because.

You don't want to taint it, so you have to decide whether or not a gift is relevant.

Now the thing about that is you don't wanna withhold either.

So you can decide, is this flat fee, is it a percentage?

Is it, maybe it's a gift basket.

Maybe you don't even tell 'em about it, but you wanna make sure that

you've considered that in some way.

the big piece to this though is your referral program's

not gonna off overnight.

As a matter of fact, most people are gonna respond to that initial

message then nothing's gonna happen.

And you're gonna think, man, I listened to that idiot on YouTube and he got me again.

But you've planted the seed.

And I promise you, if you do this with every single client, you send that message

to every single client that you have.

Over time, what you're gonna do is you're gonna see that, seed starts to take root.

And then, you know, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 months, somebody's like, oh,

hey, know what actually ran into somebody that's interested in.

Working with you would be a really good, fit.

It's a slow burn.

the way to accelerate this, by the way, is to make sure you

capture clients at the right time.

Don't send this text message right when they sign up, obviously.

And I say text message by the way.

And, you know, I mean, everybody wants to scale things with email,

but I like text because it's like, Hey, it's just you and me.

It's just showing me text is super ultra personal.

I think anyway, if somebody texted me, I'm like, we're not buddies.

are you doing?

So make sure that you've established that relationship with them, let's

say, but I'd like to hit people with this message at the inflection point.

for us, let's say it's maybe right when we've proven concept and we're

about to scale up, which is usually 90 days to six months, depending

on the size of the campaign, that's when they're the happiest.

It's actually worked out.

They're not regretting their decision and working with you, and that's

when you come to 'em and you, you get to say, Hey, Joffrey, I'm.

Looking to grow, would love more people just like you.

And you know what's interesting about this approach too is I've gotten not just

referrals out of it, I've gotten speaking gigs podcast interviews, like people are

like, oh yeah, I'd love to help you grow.

I had a buddy put me in his, email blast, which is super cool.

I don't know that we got much out of it, but it, are very

guarded with their email list.

So just to give an example of what it is that ends up being accessible to you, if

and when somebody's really happy about working with you as far as what you pay.

This is up to you.

Chances are your industry's already established it.

So pay attention to the industry norms for agencies.

10% is the deal.

And most agencies pay 10%.

Sometimes it's 10% for the first year.

I don't like putting a cap on it.

It always felt kind of dirty to me.

So 10% recurring.

Now 10% is not small.

By the way.

Agencies are fighting for 20% margins, and so 10% is effectively half of the profit.

So if you can't afford that, it's no big deal.

What I'd like to do if, I can't afford to pay 10%, which we do,

by the way, here's solution date.

If you wanna send us a referral, pay 10% sign up as a referral partner.

I couldn't do 10%, I'd give 'em a flat fee, but I'd make it tax relevant.

You know, like 500 bucks is tax relevant.

It's like, oh.

that's a bill.

That's like not a small amount of money.

So just make sure you're putting something in front of 'em that

doesn't feel like an insult.

It's like, dude, I sent you a client.

What are you doing?

The other piece of this too, and this is a pro tip, is if somebody sends you a

referral, update them on how it's going.

Hey, just wanted to let you know, we were able to, get ahold of Princess Hufflepuff

and she's signed up and she's super happy.

We're at the 60 day mark.

Things are looking really good.

Really appreciate the referral.

That way they know, oh, you're really taking care of people.

And in, an ideal world, princess Hufflepuff comes back to Joffrey

and says, dude, thank you so much.

this is phenomenal.

And that's when the referral train really starts, really starts humming.

Speaking of.

I wanna help you with your Google Ads or somebody you know with your Google Ads.

Minimum ads spend is $10,000 a month.

We do take some people that are sub 10.

We call it our incubator program.

It's not for everybody.

But if you know somebody or you need help with Google Ads we'll give you

a free action plan as long as you're spending $10,000 a month or more.

Go to soly.com/ap.

I'll have one of my strategists who are the smartest Google Adss people

in the whole world, by the way.

Walk through and give you step by step, line by line everything that we

would do in order to improve upon your campaign with the hope that you hire us.

But you don't have to.

You can just take the action plan and run with it which some people

have done, and God bless them.

I wish them well.