Frequently Asked Questions

During the week (in-between coaching calls) I'm glued to my Mac Book, tinkering away with an array of different software solutions, building robust business websites, designing complex sales funnels and generating leads online. At weekends I'm a full on family man with six kids (and no that's not a typo) who enjoys cooking, cinema and the great outdoors!

I love my work in technology almost as much as I love my life outside of IT!

Pay Per Lead or Cost Per Lead (PPL) are fundamentally the same marketing models, a form of partnership between an advertiser and a business owner where fees are calculated solely on the amount of leads delivered. 

CPC and CPL are both payment models used in digital marketing, however, they are quite different is an much as CPC charges every time a user clicks on your advert regardless of whether or not they complete an action thereafter, whereas CPL is only charged when enough clicks have been served to generate a qualified lead.

A qualified lead is an enquiry that has been made, by a user, that has shown genuine interest in your products or services. A qualified lead will typically include name, email and phone number but can include a wide variety of additional data such as product types, cost expectations, delivery timeframe, etc. 

Driving traffic to your landing page via Google CPC (or any other network) is really just a very small part of a much bigger picture. It is not uncommon for inexperienced users to pay upwards of £3 per click so it’s easy to see how quickly even the healthiest of budget can get depleted. Moreover, there are many other factors to consider when building out a successful campaign, all of which will affect the CPC. These typically include a quality score (how relevant your ad copy is), your keyword match types (broad, exact or phrase) plus your overall bid strategy, namely where you would ideally like your ad to be positioned. 

CPL campaigns deliver a better price-performance ratio compared to standard CPC as advertisers only pay for successful leads. With CPC companies pay for clicks without any guarantee on return so whilst CPC can generate plenty of website visitors, many of these will not take any further action, which in turn results in lost opportunities.

Cost Per Lead is the total cost of generating a single lead, as opposed to Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) which is the total cost of generating a new paying customer.

Obviously, the cost of a lead varies across industries and is directly linked to the amount of time and money it takes to capture the lead, however, calculating the estimated lead cost is done like this; 

I focus on the activities that I know need to be done. I start each day with the hardest task and work back from there, allocating my time into periods of 2-3 hourly blocks (wherever possible) and then I repeat this productivity process 2-3 times a day for maximum effect.

I remind myself of the 80/20 rule (Pareto’s Law) and ensure each of my goals are SMARTER, meaning they are Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Relevant, Time Bound, Emotional & Rewarding...and I share this same methodology with everyone I work with, regardless of whether they're a one man band or a multi-million pound organisation. 

I'm a Google Certified Digital Marketing Consultant, providing my clients with resources, advice, and planning to digitally transform their businesses, creating first class user experiences that drive engagement, increase productivity and improve performance.

Having been in business for myself since 1999, and with eight different ventures under my belt since, one might say "I've been there, done that and bought the T-Shirt". I choose to work as a Small Business Coach because I want to help others avoid the pitfalls, fast track their success and ultimately help them turn their dreams into reality. 

I've been online since 1999 and over the past 20 years have founded, grown and exited eight different businesses. 

Since 2004 I've worked primarily as an Independant Consultant, sharing my knowledge and experience with high-growth business owners, advising in the areas of strategy, sales and marketing. In 2016, I set up my Digital Agency, whilst at the same time I personally built and launched TOBIE (The Online Business Information Exchange), which has since evolved into the platform for my Small Business Coaching services. 

I've got a load of great recommendations so by all means check me out before handing over any of your hard earned cash. 

I started my professional career in Telecoms as a Sales Consultant back in 1992, moved into Sales Management in 1997 (after closing £1m in a month) then started my own Telecoms Company in 1999. In 2002 I moved my attention online and did my first multiple six figure launch with FOCAS (Free Online Communications Advisory Service), a company that was recognised by PwC as having extraordinary potential, nominated by the CNA (Comms National Awards) for rapid market growth & contribution and later sold under license to BPL Media.

We can jump on a quick call. Typically, we will both know within the first 10 minutes whether or not we're a good fit for each other. If we are, we will agree on what the best next steps are by the end of the conversation and take matters from there.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

As a Small Business Coach I work with people that are literally just starting out in business, and/or with small business owners that are a few years in but are failing to achieve their goals, for whatever reason. Much of my coaching services are on-demand, automated or scheduled well in advance so I can serve hundreds of different people at the same time. In contrast, as a Digital Marketing Consultant, I only ever work with a handful of clients at once, and never within the same niche or sector. My clients range from established SME's, typically with turnovers of £1m-£3m, all the way through to large multi-national enterprise clients with hundreds of millions in revenue.

As a Digital Marketing Consultant I charge an hourly rate if you only need me for a quick fix, a day rate if you'd like me to run a workshop or deliver some training, and then ongoing on either a performance basis and/or a fixed project cost depending on the size and complexity of the project. For my Small Business Coaching clients I provide an Online Business Framework in the form of a digital product, alongside a free Facebook Group and weekly Group Coaching Calls.

Measurable ones.

Every client I work with is different so the first thing we do is get clear on what success looks like, for you. There will be plenty of little wins along the way but it's the end game that matters the most so we'll work inside a collaborate workspace that gives us both an easy to track our tasks and get things done, plus a SMARTER way of measuring  success.