Traffic Talk: Part 1
Some time ago, my mentor exposed me to a saying which I’ve become quite fond of:
Framework before work.
It means: once you have precise focus on the few things that matter most — when it comes to achieving your goal — then, you can create a Framework to help structure, and therefore streamline, the work necessary to achieve the goal.
For our purposes, a framework is like idea scaffolding — a tested structure we can use to shorten and simplify our build process.
(By the way, the actual definition of Framework is: a structure underlying a system, concept, or text.)
We use them in the same way we use mental models and first principles.
In practice, the framework becomes a mechanism for focusing on the few things that matter most when trying to produce important results within any given topic.
Ideally, good frameworks provide just enough guidance to be broadly useful, without adding restriction that inhibit one’s creativity.
In my experience, taking the time to identify (or create) and validate our frameworks and mental models can be incredibly beneficial.
If you come from the programming world, you understand a framework as foundation you can build software on. It is a packaged set of tested tools which reduce your errors and save your time.
Like the foundation you will build your castle on.
In this series, we lay our foundation through two frameworks for paid traffic. I’ll share one now, and the other in a later section.
Take a look at the graphic below:
Way back, when my mentor first shared this diagram with me, he told me:
“David, over the years, we’ve come to recognize that all online traffic — paid or organic — fits into one of three (and only three) categories. We’ve yet to find an exception to this.”
Those three categories are the tiers in the pyramid above. Here’s the overview:
Top-Tier
People searching for you, specifically.
This generally means paid / organic search (primarily Google, Bing, & YouTube.)
At this tier we see lower overall volume, with ultra-high quality.
Middle-Tier
People searching for what you have to offer.
This tier offers higher volume and varying quality, depending on search terms, and the precision and skill of their use.
To reach people here, the use of paid, and organic search is key — and Search is (usually) a highly competitive environment.
Bottom-Tier
People who, if they knew you or what you have to offer exits, might be interested.
In this bottom tier we see Facebook ads, Google Display Network, YouTube, LinkedIn, affiliate emails, etc.
The bottom-tier offers us enormous potential for our volume of traffic but, low overall quality.
So, what does this mean?
As with everything here, the answer to that question lies in the nuance.
It is profoundly important to recognize the motivation of each tier. That’s where the magic is.
The top / middle tiers are all about active intent.
When someone searches (using Google or any other search engine), we say they have active intent — meaning, they’re looking for something specific. (usually to solve a problem, find an answer, or learn a known solution). Generally, this takes two forms:
- They search for us specifically
- They search for what we have to offer
First, searching for us can mean they look us up by our name, by the name of a product we’ve created, or by the name of our business.
As you might have guessed, Organic search drives most of this traffic — however, paid search also plays a role if your competitors bid on your branded keyword phrases.
Yes, people do that.
Yes, I know it sucks.
As they say, don’t hate the player, hate the game.
This type of traffic (specific-searches) is generally the lowest volume and highest quality. Yet, as long as your website is well-built, you will show up when someone searches for you — making this the easiest type of traffic to acquire.
After all, Google wouldn’t exist at the level it does today if people couldn’t find you when they searched for you.
Second, there are people searching for what you have to offer. The key distinction here is that the searches aren’t specific to you (or your product or service) instead, you provide a solution that matches the intent of their search.
This second category of traffic is generally high quality and often high volume — a combination which can make markets very competitive — but, this shouldn’t discourage you. Competition is not necessarily a sign of a crowded market, in fact, in most cases, competition is good!
When there’s competition that usually means there’s an active market, and money to be made.
Finally, in the bottom tier, the prospect might like what we have to offer (and buy it) when they see it, but they are not out looking for it directly.
This third category of traffic does not have active intent — they’re not looking. Instead, because of some combination of traits, they might have passive potential interest.
Meaning they might like it (and buy it) when they see it, but they’re not out looking for us, or anything we offer. It is a passive process for them.
For example, I’ve been a customer of Karst Stone Paper for years, but I would’ve never thought to search for their product. I didn’t even know humans could make paper from rocks!
Yet, one day, I stumbled on the story of the company (awareness), learned about the environmental impact of their mission (interest), and eventually decided to try their product (action). I’ve been a customer ever since.
The important thing to note is that I wasn’t out looking for them, I had passive potential interest.
There was no guarantee I’d buy, or even care.
We have to recognize something important: yes, this bottom-tier category of traffic is the largest audience by far… it is also the lowest quality.
That fact will matter later.
Here’s the assignment for this section: identify how you currently obtain traffic from each tier.
For example:
- Tier 1: Organic search & SEO
- Tier 2: Paid Ads & SEM
- Tier 3: Facebook & YouTube
For bonus points — using Google Analytics or a similar tool — identify the relative volume and quality of traffic. Ask yourself the following:
- What percentage of your overall traffic comes from each type of traffic?
- What is the cost to acquire this traffic?
- How much revenue does it generate? (If you don’t have revenue data yet, you can pick another meaningful metric, like lead volume.)
In the next section we are going to talk about why casting a wide net is a losing game (and a much better way to think about paid traffic).
Proceed when you’ve finished the assignment.