Brought to you by Thrive Revenue. We help businesses grow faster.
Hello friend,
We're seeing the cost of finding new customers runaway across every business we work with.
Three factors are driving this inflation:
First, people are chatting with AI more and doing fewer searches. You're doing it, and so is everyone else.
Second, fewer people are coming from searches. AI overviews on search result pages give answers without the need for a click.
Third, Google has updated its algorithm to favor large websites. They did it because people were adding terms like "reddit" to the end of their searches.
Many businesses search traffic is down 30 to 50 percent over the last year. Few companies can survive the drop in revenue.
So companies spend more on ads, driving up prices. The cost to acquire a customer can easily rise 50 percent in a year.
None of this is going to reverse. You need a new plan.
Here are some questions to help you navigate this new reality:
Can you afford to lose a double-digit percentage of your profit margin?
Do you have the pricing power to keep your profit margin?
How can you increase your customer lifetime value to offset higher costs?
What can your website provide that will still be of value to searchers?
How can you build assets insulated from changes in AI and search?
What should your website focus on if paid traffic becomes your main source?
Do you double down on paid ads or diversify to other traffic sources?
That’s newsletter #4, hope you liked it.
Cheers,
Will Pate
PS: Reply to this email with your top growth challenge and I’ll answer it next week.
PPS: Forward this email to one person you think it might help.