How To Get "Limousine Leads" & Repel "Trailer Park" Leads?

Thousands of Facebook targeting options.. GONE

Over the past five years, Facebook (Meta) has removed thousands of ad-targeting options, with reports indicating that around 5,000 were eliminated in 2018 alone.

Google has removed or restricted several targeting options in recent years, including "Similar Audience Segments," which were phased out by 2023. It is also moving away from third-party cookie-based targeting. 

These changes reflect a shift toward privacy-friendly options like first-party data, optimized targeting, and AI-driven tools.

Meanwhile, companies with high ticket offers struggle to fill their calendar with qualified leads.

Show % is down..

Close % is down…

And CAC is on the rise.

Over the past 10 years, I have talked to thousands of companies and heard things from their team members and even their “advisors,” like...

“Everyone is broke due to inflation.”

“No one wants to buy because of the election.”

“Black Friday (insert any holiday or world event) is making ads harder!”

“People on Facebook don’t have money. Maybe we should try LinkedIn?”

“Female (or whoever) avatars just don’t pick up the phone!”

Then, the new funnel, offer, and whatever else is new and latest is thrown into the mix, making the problem even worse.

Is everyone broke now?

Is the sky falling?

Are my clients just extremely lucky?

Because if you take a look around..

In every industry, people are crushing it on these platforms.

I have clients who close 20-50k deals with leads generated from Facebook while their competitors are trending in the wrong direction.

In my experience advising 100’s businesses on scaling to and past 7 figures..

A core cause of business decline is the wrong focus, solving the wrong problems, and solving problems the wrong way.

This can get quite expensive as the investment in each detour and idea compounds, taking you further away from what once worked.

Do the math on that, and you’ll quickly see how much solving the wrong problems costs your business.

But we’re not just talking about the wrong problems in your business here.

A new funnel or platform won’t solve your lead quality issue.

I’ll tell you why.

We’re going to talk about solving the wrong problems as they pertain to your customers.

This drives too many unqualified, “not a good fit” leads into the business.

There are five ways to target high-quality leads.

Three of them you’ve probably heard of.

The other two are widely unknown except to a private group of 7—and 8-figure entrepreneurs and teams I’ve taught it to.

The first thing to understand is that ad platforms like Meta have far more control over lead quality than traditional targeting.

Meta, for example, has over 52,000 data points on a person.

Long story short, they know who’s a buyer and who is not.

There are also multiple layers to lead quality within a pool of people inside of the audience you’re targeting. 

There’s the level of motivation, timing, income, cash on hand, and ability to get results.

So just because you target something specific, no matter how granular, does not guarantee you’ll get the leads most likely to buy.

It’s also important to note that the type of advertiser or business you’re viewed as is a massive driver of lead quality.

A handful of things trigger the AI to “believe” you deserve lower or higher quality leads.

Here’s the best way I can explain it,

and if you really grasp this, it will be a game changer for your team.

Think about an ad platform like a mall.

What does the mall want?

They want buyers to come to the mall to buy things.

They want the stores to pay their rent.

They want this so that they can make money.

So, there are rules for businesses to abide by to ensure that buyers keep coming to the mall.

If you don’t follow the rules, theoretically, buyers will not want to come back to the mall to spend their money.

They might go somewhere else to spend their money because you “scared” them off.

So you may either get kicked out of the mall as a business, or you may get put in an area where people are not in buying mode.

Think about it like being moved from being by the food court or top clothing stores to being moved to the bathroom or janitorial closet.

People in that area of the mall probably aren’t in a buying state.

But imagine not being able to see the people walking by or even knowing your store moved.

Make sense?

When you don’t do things in a certain way on ad platforms, they throttle your lead quality.

Sometimes your cost won’t even go up, you’ll just see lead quality drop drastically.

Things like..

• People hiding your ad because it’s not very relevant to them

• Low conversions

• Showing the same ads over and over

• Your card declining

• Low engagement

And more dictate this.

The more relevant your ad is to someone the more they will engage, the more conversions you will get, the better you “look” to the AI.

The best way to deal with this is to ensure you’re putting 10-20% of your budget to testing and using the 2 secret targeting methods I’m about to share.

There are five ways to target, but most businesses only use 1-3.

The two most effective ways rarely get used.

Here’s the most common 3:

1. Interest or look alike targeting

As described previously, there is no guarantee that your ads will be shown to the highest-intent pool of people within that audience.

2. Custom list targeting

You can purchase a list of people but there’s no telling if they’re high intent buyers as of today, right now.

It also wouldn’t be a dynamic list, so it doesn’t change as behavior in the people change.

Nobody is removed or added.

The list may also be too small to scale and too expensive to serve ads to.

Just because they’re on the list doesn’t mean they’re online.

Retargeting lists are dynamic and high-intent depending on where they’re at in your funnel, but they came from cold ads.

So it still doesn’t solve the quality issue or control it.

3. “Call Out” targeting

This is used simply by stating who you’re targeting in the hook.

It can be helpful, but it doesn’t stand out.

It’s not unique.

There are 1,000’s of ads out there doing this.

It can definitely help, though.

Two other ways are the MOST effective I’ve ever used for targeting.

These are the most powerful ways to target high-intent, high-quality buyers on any ad platform—or offline, for that matter.

4.  Speak to a problem ONLY your ideal prospect has

Here’s an example..

Back in 2015, I sold personal training for a 13-year-old gym.

One of the very first things I wanted to help them do was sell bigger packages at a higher price so that the trainers could make more per session and the equipment could be updated.

I also wanted to help turn the PT department around and make a lot more money.

They used a “free pt session” promo to get leads.

The moment our VP brought up this promo, everyone groaned.

I didn’t understand why because I had to generate my own leads at most of my previous sales jobs.

I thought, “This is great. I can just sit here, and the leads will come to me!”

I quickly found that most of these people showed up during the day because they had no job or worked part-time and wanted to lose weight.

They were usually people on the lowest membership package (10 dollars a month) or in a trial period.

So our sales reps wasted all day with these people, giving them three free PT sessions and closing almost none.

Here’s how I solved it..

I asked, “Who is our ideal customer, and what problem do they have that our unideal prospect doesn’t relate to?”

I grabbed all of the questionnaires that were filled out by prospects before their consultation who recently closed.

I looked at all of their pain points, problems, and goals.

Then, I took myself through their average day with all of their struggles.

Someone who is an executive, a manager, or business owner doesn’t want “free sessions” so they can “lose weight.”

What I found was they had NO time, energy, or motivation.

They were busy!

So I changed the name of the offer to the “5-Day Motivator”

3 Personal Training sessions over 5 days to show them how our clients got in the best shape of their life in just 30 min, 3-4 days a week, even though they sat at a desk all day, worked long hours, and had trouble with food because they were so busy.

I used 5 days instead of 3 to make the offer more valuable (3 sessions over 5 days).

I wrote an email describing this person's unique problems in a way that someone who couldn’t even buy wouldn’t relate to.

The results were insane.

90-something leads in the first 24 hours, and they kept on coming.

Record-breaking sales, with most of them buying in the first session.

They used that same email over and over years after I left that job to start my own business.

There is a bit more to the formula that I share with private clients, but solving a higher quality problem alone can drastically change your ad results.

This is the number one thing I have my teams and client teams do right out of the gate to increase lead quality.

5. Tell AI who you’re looking for

This concept piggybacks off of #4.

The platform AI is like a genie.

If you get 1 wish, and tell a genie you want more money..

Well, he might say “here’s a dollar, now get lost.”

Be very descriptive in your copy and images as to who you’re after.

Your copy and your creative are communicating to the AI what exactly you are offering.

So make sure it’s something your customer wants. 

It’s called a Buyer ID.

There’s the unique problem.. But then there’s also the unique Identifying Desire.

For example, if you sell nail polish, a picture of a girl on a date with her hand out showing her pretty, shiny nails might help.

Or a picture of nail polish.

If you help executive women lose weight, you might show them a picture of a happy, in-shape woman dressed in expensive workout gear or a high-end piece of clothing that shows her physique.

The creatives and language used tell the platform exactly who your offer and ad would be most relevant to.

Change the quality of problems you solve and you’ll not only change your life..

But you will impact and change millions of lives.

Keep shining your light.

-Lance C. Greenberg