[JayBallentine]

As most of you know Yellowstone has a massive marketing budget...I look at Google somewhat like an auction where you bid on clicks and the highest bidder wins the top spot. When we started marketing 5 years ago the cost for the top spot on Google was maybe $5 per click, as of about 2 months ago the cost has tripled to close to $15 per click. As the cost continued to grow we would raise our bids by $.50 per click...out of left field one of the companies mentioned in this thread jumped from $15.50 a click to $20.00 per click. How can someone like me who is simply here to make money compete with someone who's entire model is designed to lose money.

I think the answer to this lies in balancing spending money on what makes you leads right now, vs. experimenting with some stuff. I would strongly encourage you to try direct mail. Starting with 300 pieces at a time until you perfect things is a great way to get going. Your position is "unique" in the sense that you will take a look at any deal. A lot of other guys are confined to a certain set of SIC codes which diminish the response rate.

Also, one thing that is certainly going on is that folks are landing on your sites, going to the next, and then doing business with the third guy. You just paid for a click to "warm them up" to do business with the next guy. Everyone is experiencing this in PPC, though no one knows to what extent. Only 2% of people buy from the first Google ad they click on. In this industry I wouldn't be surprised if it is more because these merchant shop, shop, shop.

In my humble opinion, incorporating marketing automation, tools that exist now, will take you to the next level. In fact, this is not even my opinion, this is fact. There's math / studies to back this up.

There's only ONE big dog lender that I know of who ensures all leads are contacted within 5 minutes no matter what, and they're winning. BIG.