The 7 Day "Flywheel" Strategy
Don't Start Here
This is following a series exploring Laurel Portié's paid ads strategy. If you are unfamiliar with the strategy and haven’t seen this post first, we recommend starting here.
If you haven't gone through the initial 7 days with Laurel's Ad Strategy, this section is going to be too much information - it won't help you.
Until you have the first 7 days up and running, don't do this.
So go read "Get Started in the Next 7 Days" first.
Now that you've got your initial ads system up and running, the real work begins.
In the Get Started article, we talked about the concept of "enough." As you get deeper into Laurel Portié's ad strategy, you'll find that "enough" and "MED" are pervasive. This is because we always want to be doing the least possible, taking the least amount of risk, while still getting everything that we want.
Resources are limited. So we must make the most out of every resource we have.
Also recall the concept of 90 Days to Data.
What you’re about to find, in The 7 Day Flywheel, is that this is all about the data.
Yes, we want to know who we're speaking to, we want to figure out the right messaging to connect with them, to get their attention, to lead them into conversation with us, and beyond.
And what's great about this process, is that Laurel presents an understanding of ads that allows us to use the data to answer all of those questions.
There's also another TGA Principle which shows up through The 7 Day Flywheel.
SLOW DOWN.
Laurel will tell the story often, in person and on her live streams, about how she will sometimes have clients who, after setting up the initial flywheel, start having success and they want to punch their foot on the gas and GO fast fast fast.
Inevitably what happens is they go too fast too soon, they break the system, and they call Laurel saying "hey could you just please fix what I broke and put it back the way it was?"
Slow Down.
We live in a world that makes us feel constantly that we have to go faster, go harder. But understand this (and this is another set of TGA principles):
Going fast is to get the result you desire sooner - we talk about that as Collapsing Time.
Before you can Collapse Time, you need to be Certain you are going in the right direction. There's no use going fast if you're headed in the wrong direction.
Before you can be Certain that you are headed in the right direction, you must have Clarity of where you are and where you are going.
That's what the 7 Day Flywheel is going to do.
It's going to help you build that Clarity so that you can establish Certainty, and THEN ... only then, if it's appropriate for your situation, does it make sense to go faster.
Structurally, data-wise this is getting your ads to a point where they are producing a certain amount of results within a certain range. If you get deeper into the program you'll uncover the uniqueness of interpreting those results depending on your scenario.
For now,
Let's get into The 7 Day Flywheel, where we'll uncover that data that you must track in order to gain the Clarity you need to get where you want to go.
To understand this 7 Day Flywheel, we'd like to share an excerpt from her book Super Duper Profitable Ads.1
Laurel’s methodology, program, and book are heavy in Guardian Academy principles that she reinvented and improved specifically for her domain - and has become one of the best advertising programs out there.
THE FINAL STRETCH
I know what you’re thinking, because at this point in the game my students think it too….. “I’m all done, now what?”
Hold on there.
The ecosystem is launched, but now the HARD work begins.
Things are about to get real. This is where students' motivation either goes through the roof or they get frustrated and give up after the first failure.
They get discouraged when their Power Content isn’t getting watched or their Conversion Multipliers aren’t getting comments.
But keep in mind - the process is the shortcut!
And in this case, stumbling and “failing” is the process. As long as you know how to adjust, you’ll never stop making progress.
Remember when I mentioned that 9 out of 10 of my ads fail?
Yeah, that’s not an exaggeration. That is likely what will happen in your case too.
I know, I know, every other “coaching program” out there wants to make it seem super easy to find that winner. But it’s not.
It’s simple, but not easy.
However, it really only takes a few minutes per day to evaluate your content and make adjustments.
When you make adjustments, you’ll use what I call the 7-Day Flywheel System.
The Flywheel allows you to consistently optimize your content in order to maintain very low cost. Now everything will be more profitable!
By the end of this chapter you will have complete clarity on where to look to evaluate your content and you’ll know how to fix it.
The 7-Day Flywheel system gets the losers out as quickly as possible so you can find the winners and put them to work for you.
YOUR FIRST 7-DAY CONTENT FLYWHEEL
Right now, your ecosystem should look like this.
After the initial launch is where a lot of my students like to sit on their hands and just wait. But that’s not how you get paid! Don’t hesitate for a moment!
I can’t stress this enough: Don’t post an ad and then sit on your ass and wait a month!
I’m not trying to be mean here. I just know that if you take that route, you won’t find the results you’re looking for, and I want you to succeed!
The first thing to optimize is your Tier 1 content that goes to cold traffic. This is the Top of Funnel (TOF).
We want to bring in those invisible leads as fast as possible.
To do that, you’ve gotta start putting out new content.
Here’s an example step-by-step of what your first 7-day Content Flywheel looks like in action.
Day 1: Check power content metrics, kill any that aren’t working
Day 2: Check conversion multiplier metrics, kill any that aren’t working
Day 3: Produce a new power content video and launch it to cold traffic
Day 4: Produce a new conversion multiplier video and launch it to cold traffic
Day 5: Produce a new power content video and launch it to cold traffic
Day 6: Produce a new conversion multiplier video and launch it to cold traffic
Day 7: Produce a new power content video and launch it to cold traffic
Here is a snapshot of me doing the process for those of you who are visual like me.
IMPORTANT - Repeat this Flywheel every 7 days until I have 3 power content videos producing invisible leads for under $1 and you have at least 1,000 people on your Invisible List.
I’m also checking that my conversion multipliers are collectively bringing in at least 100 messenger conversations of the right people each week.
At the end of the chapter I’ll give you an on-going checklist that you can use after you’ve built your Invisible List over 1,000 members.
Next up, I need to show you how to know if your ads are hitting the mark, or as we call them in the marketing world… Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
IS YOUR CONTENT WORKING?
The three KPIs we track for TOF, to make sure we’re putting out the right video content to attract our ideal clients are:
HOOK RATE - this measures the % of people who are stopping the scroll
HOLD RATE - this measures the % of people who watch at least 15 seconds of your content
COST PER Video View - this measures how many people viewed a certain % of your video.
Getting both of these KPIs involves a little math but I think you can handle it.
Hook Rate = 3 second video views divided by the number of impressions. You’ll want to keep this above 40%.
Hold Rate - 15 second video views divided by the number of impressions. If you get at least 8%-10% here, you are in good shape.
Cost per video view (Power Content) = total ad spend divided by number of 25% video views. You want to keep the cost below $1 for a 25% video view.
Cost per video view (Conversion Multiplier) = total ad spend divided by number of 95% video views. You want to keep the cost below $1 for a 95% video view.
Take a look at this screenshot of some Power Content from my ads manager:
See those Hook Rates? Over 40%.
Now look at the cost per 25% view. Less than $1.
That means, these ads are performing at the rate they should be.
When an ad performs as it should, we keep it running because it is building our invisible list in a hyper cost-effective way. Remember, the invisible list from Chapter 3? Tracking KPI’s and adjusting is the method to ensure that your invisible list is growing.
Remember, these KPI’s are for measuring your Power Content and Conversion Multipliers that you are delivering to a cold audience. They are for your Top Of Funnel.
Let’s break each one of these and talk about how to improve each metric if they are not performing.
Grab an over-the-shoulder view of how to set these custom metrics up in ads manager here: www.adswithlaurel.com/metricsetup
IMPROVING HOOK RATE
If your Hook Rate is less than 40%, there are two primary culprits.
One is that your audience is off. This is rarely the case, but it’s where most people focus their energy. Instead, the more likely culprit is that your hook isn’t specific enough. It’s too vague, so your audience ignores it and moves on.
It almost always comes down to the hook!
The hook needs to be clear on WHO the content is for and WHY they would want to watch the video. It needs to be a “dog whistle.”
For real, like bleeding ears kinda dog whistle. Don’t be subtle.
Let’s pretend that I take everyone who buys my book to Disneyland for a bonus trip. (I’m so fun, right?)
And as soon as all of us walk through the gate, you all take off to different sides of the park.
Some of you run off to Space Mountain…
Some of you run off to Thunder Railroad…
Some of you run to Cinderella’s Castle…
But you guys all forgot your Genie Passes that get you to the front of the line for any ride!
So I SHOUT AS LOUD AS I CAN…
“HEY… FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO BOUGHT SUPER DUPER PROFITABLE ADS FROM LAUREL, I HAVE YOUR GENIE PASSES!”
You guys will all immediately come to a halt, turn around and then immediately run back to grab those passes, right?
Well, most of you would?
Some of you will ignore me and just keep going… and we will get some “Looky Loos” who will also turn around, but MOST of my people will come running to me.
THAT is how strong your hook should be.
Sure, you’ll attract some who aren’t your audience, but for the most part, you’ll attract the peeps who are your tribe.
With content, a lot of experts tend to stay too broad in their hook.
For example:
“Coaches and consultants who have an ad problem.”
That’s not very specific, is it?
But what if I said, “Coaches who want to book more calls, don’t use THIS ad strategy.”
See the difference?
I bet a lot of my ideal clients turn around and watch that video (by the way that is by far my most successful hook I’ve ever used).
As much as we want people to watch our video, we also want to make sure it’s the RIGHT people.
If your hook rate is under 40%, take a look at your hook!
Adjust your hook to be more specific and don’t forget that dog whistle shout-out!
IMPROVING HOLD RATE
I want all videos to hit at least 8-10% hold rate. The way to measure this is to divide your 15 second video views (thruplays) by the amount of impressions.
So if I have 1,000 impressions and 57 people have watched my video for at least 15 seconds, we will do the following math.
57/1,000 = .057 X 100 = 5.7%
If your hold rate is less than 8%, one, two, or all of the following is likely the case.
You introduced yourself too much
The promise of value wasn’t strong
You try to solve too big of a problem within one piece of content (this one is also related to cost per video view)
Experts love to toot their own horn, but some of us like to do it a little too much. When you introduce yourself, it should be 2-3 sentences max in these content pieces. With cold traffic, we can’t leave it out completely, because then they won’t know who we are! But it’s gotta be short and sweet to keep their attention.
The humble brag is a little nuance that people miss, but it’s some of the most important lines in the process. If you’ve already forgotten what this is, go back a few chapters and work on it.
Here’s my favorite example from one of my videos (hehe, that was a humble brag about my humble brag).
“My name is Laurel Portié, the owner of adcoachingfor7.com where I have now taught over 10,000 business owners how to launch simple $5 ads to grow their business.”
Notice, I worked in a lot of important things into that one single sentence.
1. My name
2. My vanity URL
3. Social Proof
4. My specialty
The second issue with hold rate is that the promise of value isn’t strong enough or not present at all.
This was a little trick I learned in television while promoting the 11pm news. If I told my audience that in the next 3 minutes they would learn XYZ, I could hold them through that commercial break.
The promise of value plays an equally important role in our content, ESPECIALLY to cold traffic. Someone might not sit through a video no matter how short it is if they don’t know you. That’s why it’s important that we hook them by telling them “In the next 60 seconds you’ll learn X” or “In the next 3 minutes i’ll show you X.”
The third issue is when you try to solve too big of a problem with a single piece of content. I see this all the time. My students want to promote things like “How to go from zero to 6 figures in 90 days” or “How to lose 30 pounds over the next 3 months.”
While those are specific solutions people are looking for… we want to help them get over a single hurdle this week.
When you are dealing with cold traffic, you have to assume that they are also seeing other ads and messages from other sources. If your big promise sounds the same as everyone else’s, you’re more likely to get ignored.
Instead of helping someone go from “zero to 6 figures in 90 days”... break down a small problem in their client acquisition system that they can solve as fast as possible.
For example, you could say “Send this 1 email today to book 2-10 appointments on your calendar this week.”
Pause here. Can you tell the difference?!
Can you feel the difference?
Notice how concrete that is. I’m talking about one e-mail. Then a specific number of new appointments. It’s so much more powerful as a single piece of content than making larger than life claims that people have heard 100 times before.
When you frame your hooks this way, you immediately stand out above the noise.
Here’s another good example, “My clients ate only these 8 foods and lost on average 5 pounds this week.”
Compare that to “lose 30 pounds in 3 weeks” and it’s clear why it’s the winner. It’s clear, specific, and aims at a quick win in a short time frame rather than solving everything all at once.
Once you get your Hook Rate and Hold Rate up to standard, it’s time to turn your attention to the most important variable: Cost per video view.
IMPROVING COST PER VIDEO VIEW
At the the Top of your Funnel (TOF) you will have both Power Content videos and Conversion Multipliers. For this KPI, we calculate each metric separately.
For TOF Power Content, the goal is $1 or less per 25% view. The way to measure this is to divide the cost of the total adspend by the number of 25% video views.
So if I spent $5/day for 7 days on one ad, that’s $35 total for that time period. And let’s say during that time period, I had 42 people who viewed at least 25% of that video. The equation would look like this…
$35/42 = $.83/video view.
For your Conversion Multipliers, the math is the same, except we only consider those who watch at least 95% of the video because they are so much shorter.
So if I spent $5/day for 7 days and had 42 people who watched at least 95% of that Conversion Multiplier, then I would get the same metric. 83 cents per video view.
In both examples, our hypothetical video hits the KPI we want, so we keep it.
MAKING ADJUSTMENTS
These are by far the HARDEST metric to hit. Whether your video is 60 seconds or 3 minutes, getting people to watch for an entire minute is challenging, especially cold traffic.
If you’re not getting under $1 per video view, there are 3 likely causes:
You took too long to get the point
You didn’t deliver on your promise
The content fell short
Let’s break these down a bit.
You’ll notice that the first issue is closely related to Hook Rate and Hold Rate performance. If you take too long to get to the point, even if someone happens to watch beyond 15 seconds, it’s unlikely they will stick around for the whole thing.
So even if your Hook Rate and Hold Rate are on target, this is still your best first level of intervention. Your introduction should be a really tight script that you can confidently recite on the spot.
Write out your introduction and remove anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.
Second, you have to evaluate if you delivered on your promise. If you promise to give someone the one tactic to help them get xyz in the next week, you have to ask yourself: “did I actually clearly explain that one tactic and give them an action step?” OR, you might evaluate whether or not you clearly explained how they can get the value bomb that helps them activate that one tactic.
This one is usually pretty easy to self-diagnose if you are brutally honest with yourself. If your KPI’s aren’t on track, review your video content and do not be kind to yourself.
Finally, the content might just be falling short. This means that for some reason the message isn’t resonating with your audience.
More often than not, you are offering something that your audience simply isn’t interested in.
I’ll give you another fitness niche example here. Let’s say you want to target people who want to lose weight. But then you publish a piece of Power Content that explains proper form for the barbell deadlift.
Think about it. Most exercises who just want to lose weight couldn’t care less about the nuances of deadlift technique. And most folks who want to improve specifically deadlift technique probably aren’t too concerned with weight loss.
So you have to ask yourself: Does my educational content align with what my audience feels to be their most immediate need?
This one can be tricky to diagnose, but when you slow down and put yourself in your prospect’s shoes, it’s likely you’ll find an immediate need around which you can create content.
SWIPE MY PERSONAL METRICS SHEET BELOW
Below is the sheet that I personally used EVERY week until EVERY Power Content video was hitting video view KPIs. It also helped me ensure that my Conversion Multipliers were bringing in at least 100 messenger conversations.
You can grab a PDF of this graphic at www.adswithlaurel.com/metrics
TGA Principles Applied
Understanding the value of gaining Clarity - of where you are and where you are going - may be one of the most useful perspectives to adopt.
Most people are entering paid ads because they want to scale fast and grow and make a lot of money.
Few people enter paid ads because they see it as a process for gaining Clarity.
But if you recall, there's no use going fast if you aren't certain of the direction you're headed, and you can't be certain of the direction you're headed if you don't have Clarity.
And therefore ...
There's no more valuable approach to paid ads and growing a business than the process Laurel teachers in Ad Coaching for $7, Lean on Laurel, and The Success Circle.
If you're following along with the free content here, building out your ads, and you have questions, the best place for you to ask those questions and get answers for yourself is to join Ad Coaching for $77, and get into the weekly Q&A that Laurel runs.
Laurel Portié is a Guardian and has been a student of our founder for the last five years. Recently, they did a free training condensing everything Laurel has learned and implemented into five days. All five days are available for free here:
live to learn. give to earn.
The TGA “Out Of Print” Business Development Books and Letters are available by clicking here for Guardian Academy paid subs. A lot of marketers try and resell this stuff, just get it here.
The pre-req or “Starter/Self Stay Guide” to understand marketing and sales through the lens of TGA principles can be found right here.
Social Media: Check the Guardian Academy Instagram for aesthetically pleasing stuff and exclusive video clips. Twitter (Or X) for more frequent updates and insights.
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The Keys to Winning the Long Game (Slow Down)