Highest Advertising ROI Platforms in 2016

I have served as President of Lazy Day Pools for the past 12 years and I have grown the company substantially during that time.  However, I could have done so much more over the past decade if I had known then what I know now regarding advertising ROI.  In order to help other businesses improve their results when it comes to advertising dollars I decided to share my experience and outcomes.  Hopefully this will serve to help other business owners shorten their learning curve and make a lot more profit this year.

I have listed the top three producing advertising platforms below one of which is a new addition to the Lazy Day advertising portfolio and has outperformed all other platforms by a minimum of ten times ROI.  This has been a game changer for us and we are now literally turning away some new customers because we simply can’t keep up with demand.  But before I cover the three best I would like to mention some advertising platforms that have produced horrible ROI and even negative ROI!  I will not spend one dollar on these platforms and I would suggest that you do the same.

Worst Advertising ROI Platforms

Yelp – This was a negative ROI.  I suspect it is because they only make the bad reviews viewable to site visitors but it doesn’t matter.  This was a comlete waste of advertising dollars.  Don’t do it!

Home Advisor – Horrible investment of advertising dollars in 2016.  Back in 2005, this was a great place to advertise.  However, the way the platform is structured forces the same 3 businesses to compete with each other head to head for each and every job that comes through their lead engine.  This leads to slow and painful price wars which means that none of the 3 advertisers makes any profit at all.  Earlier this year they promised to send exclusive leads if I agreed to sign back up.  I did.  They didn’t.  The leads were still being sent to three companies so I cancelled.

Yellow Pages – Their book is worthless for advertising of course.  Everyone knows this already.  Their online advertising is actually pretty effective but it is extremely expensive and not a good choice for businesses whose average sale is less than $500.  This is because you’re advertising in a red ocean of competitors.  We have pulled all YP ads for 2016.

So now that you know the advertising platforms we have turned away from I will cover the best three with the absolute best being presented last.

Best Advertising ROI Platforms

Angie’s List – We have received many good leads from Angie’s List and this platform continues to serve us well.  However, there is one thing that you need to be aware of before advertising on Angie’s List.  The customer’s you get through Angie’s list tend to have a much higher standard for service quality.  This is fine if you are a top performer in your industry.  But if you are not able to consistently perform at high levels you should stay away from this platform.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – This is a big deal and gives a great ROI.  Placing number 1 on the SERP’s for just two or three good keywords will propel your business forward in leaps and bounds.  The problem is that it requires an investment of money and sometimes lots of time!  It is well worth the investment though.  I use a guy in Atlanta that charges $1200 per month and he has produces lots of high profit leads for us every month.  Email our main office if you want his number!

BestLocalBusiness.net – By far the best advertising dollars I have ever spent.  I beefed up my staff early in 2016 and we still aren’t able to keep up this pool season because of all the business leads we are getting from bestlocalbusiness.net.  We are actually referring many of our leads to competitors (quality competitors) just because we can’t meet the increased demand.  The only problem is that your business has to go through an application process to be “accepted”.  This is because they are mass marketing your business as the best in your industry / area and they need to know that you are the best.  We were accepted two days after applying and now have that spot locked up for the next year.  The way they choose “the best” is a trade secret so noone knows the criteria but if you apply and they reject your company you get a full refund so I figured I would give it a shot.  Glad I did!

Hope this information helps you make better advertising decisions!