Today, I will show you how we used The Wedge Method ( 17x) for a SaaS client who wanted to schedule more demos.
Next, I will break down the process step-by-step. This includes a bonus example that was used by another lead generation company to replicate this conversion optimization technique.
Let’s get started!
Conversion Path Problem Requiring Creative Lead Generation Solution
What did COVID-19 do to your 2020 plans?
He worked for CoachCare, a leader in remote patient monitoring (RPM), and a virtual health solutions provider.
They knew that they would have to embrace digital channels to keep their audience engaged after COVID eliminated in-person events.
Comparable to the pre-pandemic year’s customer preference for digital interactions soared – a trend that is unlikely to change for most companies
CoachCare had to expand and improve its online advertising to continue generating leads.
We hit a roadblock after several wins.
Most people can relate to some of the issues we encountered.
3 (Related) Obstacles Stunting Landing Pages
Unexpected (and sometimes frustrating) results were obtained by a campaign to increase coachCare’s RPM software demo requests.
The conversion rate is 1.01%
Original RPM landing page and thank you page. Includes a ‘Reserve a Demo Now’ CTA and a request form.
And, even worse, this conversion rate was with:
- A very high CPA (>$400)
- There are more qualified leads than just a handful
- A sales closing ratio that doesn’t make sense long-term
To ensure a high return on advertising spend (ROAS), we had to optimize quickly.
We did however identify a few problems.
Obstacle 1. The Service Type
Ironically, the pandemic which initially hampered CoachCare’s ability to operate also made telehealth more important (billions more, according to some experts).
Selling in a B2B or growing industry comes with unique challenges.
This means a longer and more costly sales cycle as well as a flurry of competitors competing for attention to a niche RPM audience.
Our budget was limited, just like so many others. Without pre-existing top funnel traffic, ad campaigns that focused on booking demos failed.
Obstacle 2. The Traffic Source
Keep an eye on the competition. It meant high costs-per-click (CPC), for high-intent Google Adwords Search Keywords.
We chose to go with colder, but less expensive Facebook traffic.
There were some limitations to the new marketing funnel that B2B Facebook ads required. This will be covered in detail in the next section.
Get in the know: Want to learn more about creating profitable B2B Facebook ads? More:
- B2B Facebook Ads: The Complete Guide to Growing Sales in 2021
Obstacle 3. The Offer
Free demos are a common low-funnel offer to SaaS or tech-enabled companies.
A CTA asking users for demos was not enough to engage our Facebook audience.
Sometimes, you may have to pay more for good results.
… or do you?
A solution in disguise!?
Our solution doesn’t require you to change the traffic source or goal (e.g. demos) or create retargeting campaigns.
It worked!
Wedge Results: 17x Conversion uplift
Using our new technique, we multiplied conversions over 17x.
This is not a simple A/B test that you can fudge together to impress.
This is significant data that was collected over four months. If you decide to implement the process yourself, you can feel confident.
This is the last optimized page and thanks you page that was created using the wedge technique.
The demo CTA was converted at 17.56% after 4 months (a huge improvement over 1.01%).
We canceled the original campaign due to The Wedge Deal’s success.
But why is there such a huge improvement?
How Does the Wedge Method Work
The Wedge Method is ultimately a campaign optimization technique. It leads to high-value conversions that are ‘wedged within a low friction conversion path.
This method uses a psychological principle known as the foot-into-the-door phenomenon.
Foot in the door shows that it is possible to increase compliance by getting someone to agree to a small request before asking for a larger one.
The Wedge Method is the same for a conversion channel.
- The first is to click on a landing page with an offer that matches their funnel stage (e.g. free RPM eBook download).
- Then, immediately after these new leads land on the thank you page they see a higher commitment CTA for the target deal (e.g. CoachCare’s primary goal is to demo).
The landing page warms users up to target conversion. The thank you page CTA drives conversions.
The RPM ebook downloads were dramatically increased by matching our lead magnet offer with the right marketing funnel stage.
The wedge technique, which has a lower CPA, increased demo request conversion rates.
We’ve had enough results. Here are the steps to replicate the Wedge Method.
Get in touch: Want to learn more about optimizing landing pages? Learn more
- The Best Course in Landing Page Optimization (Updated)
Optimizing Your Conversion Path with Wedge Offers (A 5-Step Approach)
These are the steps of The Wedge Method.
Step 1: Understand your conversion funnel
Step 2: Find the high-friction areas that cause users to bounce
Step 3: Use a lead magnet for your wedge offer
Step 4: Position your wedge in the conversion path
Step 5: Track target transformations and results
This is the time to pour the tea.
Step #1: Map Your Conversion Funnel
The goal: Find the target conversion in your funnel with the highest value
Have you ever had a pipe burst or corrode?
You can only save yourself for so much time with a little bucket.
You will eventually need to reach the wall and repair the leak at its source.
Before you begin to hammer through drywall, take some time to look at some blueprints.
The blueprint is your conversion funnel for the Wedge Method.
It’s not just a fantasy! It’s likely that your business already has one.
The conversion funnel shows how users interact with your site, from the traffic source through to the final conversion.
A conversion funnel’s purpose is to create enough trust and interest with site visitors so that they buy, sign up, or enter into an offline sales process.
This is the first step. Pay attention to conversions that can drive maximum value for your company, especially BOFU offers.
Convert Your Conversion Funnel Into Conversion Paths
A conversion path is a small piece of your conversion funnel.
Instead of looking at each interaction individually, a conversion pathway focuses on the steps that are required to take a website visitor from one stage to another.
A conversion path is a way to offer content to users in return for some of their information.
Congratulations! This was a pleasant little trip along a conversion path.
Get the freebie!
This principle is the basis of The Wedge Method. The wedge allows users to move across multiple funnel stages, instead of one. This reduces the overall length of the conversion funnel.
Three parts will make up the conversion paths for Wedge Method: landing page, marketing traffic, and conversion .
1: Marketing Traffic
Where is your traffic coming from?
You could use any number of traffic sources, including a link on Google’s search result page, a Reddit post, or a Facebook Ad. It all depends on how you market your business digitally.
The Acquisition report in Google Analytics lets you see which channels are sending the most traffic to the website.
The report is located under Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels > Source/Medium
The acquisition will also report on any purchase, behavior, and conversion data associated with each channel (e.g. paid social, organic search, email, etc.) or source (e.g. facebook.com or google, yahoo).
2: Landing Page
Which countries do you send traffic to?
You should use the phrase “a landing page” if you are a business owner.
Take note of the following:
- Your core offerings
- Landing pages
- Forms, surveys, opt-in boxes, calendar links, and add-to-cart buttons are all on-page elements.
CoachCare’s focus was on the remote patient monitoring landing page and the free demo offer.
Finally, organize your offers according to the conversion funnel stage.
Conversion paths that generate interest through cold ad traffic, for example, should provide awareness-level content (using a tutorial, guide, or checklist).
Do not worry about whether your offer fits the funnel staging. That will be addressed in step 2.
3: Conversion
What can users do to convert these pages?
You should list the macro conversion (your goal/target) and the micro conversions (any conversion that contributes to your target conversion).
Coachcare’s demo form submission was the final digital touchpoint in their conversion funnel. This was the macro conversion.
Other targets include order completion, paid subscription signing-up, download of an app, and a call.
Submitting an email was a micro-conversion.
Next, you should list the follow-up pages for each conversion event. You could use a thank you page, purchase confirmation page, or page that includes a download link to your lead magnet.
#2: Identify Any Friction Killing Your Conversions
The Objective: Determine where users are dropping out of your conversion funnel
You should have already mapped out your conversion funnel, as well as any high-value conversion routes.
The Wedge Method’s second step is to identify which steps in the funnel are interfering with conversions.
High-friction elements on your landing pages, ads, and CTAs are a big problem. These elements can make it difficult for your audience to go from user to customer and vice versa.
Don’t fret. Every new product has its problems. These hiking boots are an example of this:
Ever get a blister? A hotspot is a cause. Ouch.
Your conversion path will undoubtedly include “hotspots” that you didn’t expect.
Use the Wedge Method to find hotspots you can smooth with the Wedge Method
1 – Perform a CRO audit
You must first get a high-level overview of your entire conversion funnel.
A CRO Audit is a web analytics and conversion data collection and organization service that identifies ‘leaks’ in your conversion funnel.
This tool examines your entire conversion process, not just landing pages so that you can understand why visitors leave your site early. Even better? Even better?
Dig in: Follow Kobe Digital’s CRO Audit process with the 39-point CRO Audit guide to 2021.
This step may seem overwhelming. Consider asking an expert to perform a complete CRO Audit. They are trained to analyze the data and make the best recommendations. Kobe Digital conducts a CRO Audit on behalf of our clients before we start PPC or CRO work.
2 – Fix Basic Errors
If you have major conversion issues, the wedge method will not be as effective.
Get all the delicious insights from your CRO audit!
It is time to focus on the “low-hanging fruits”, such as:
- Traffic from advertising leads to 401 error pages
- Broken buttons or links
- Tracking conversions that have been misapplied
- The unsimple ad, landing, or thank-you page design
- Landing page copy: Grammar and spelling mistakes
- Paying landing pages with paid ad clicks is the cardinal sin.
These opportunities are often high-impact and low-effort.
After fixing the basics, you can use the wedge method to optimize your landing pages simultaneously.
3 – Check Drop-off points
Great! Now you have a clear view of your conversion funnel and can identify basic errors.
You can now narrow down the conversion paths that the wedge method can improve.
You should look for landing pages that have a decent amount of traffic but low conversion rates. These two flags will be followed by a large CPA.
This means that users are stuck on your landing page.
The original conversion path for CoachCare’s RPM landing page was that users clicked on the advertisement but then either left the page (rarely) or submitted the form.
This data indicated problems with the offer or form — users were not ready to demo.
4 – Flag Mismatches between Traffic and the Offer
You should look for conversion paths that require a higher level of commitment from your audience than the CTA or landing page offer.
Compare the offer with:
- The CTA is taken from an ad or traffic source
- Your funnel stage is where you send your traffic
After you had mapped your conversion funnel you listed all of your offers and noted the stage in which they were placed.
The wedge method can be used to convert paths where the offer is more committed than the audiences.
CoachCare offered an original conversion path that included a free 15-minute live demo of RPM software. This was a bottom-of-the-funnel offer (BOFU).
The traffic for the RPM conversion path was, at worst, TOFU/MOFU.
Tip: Convert a Path With a Low-Value Conversion
This is for people who ask too little and don’t get enough.
Find conversion paths that generate lots of engagement, but not revenue-generating behavior.
A conversion path that pushes a mid-funnel offer, for example, generates many email or form submissions.
This is you? Then it might be time to add some more friction to your already hot audience. This is covered in detail in Step 4.
#3: Use a compelling lead magnet to drive your Wedge Offer
The Goal. Adjust your lead magnet to support the target conversion
You should have:
- Conversion path with high friction (due to traffic-offer mismatch on the landing page).
- Conversion of high-value targets that includes a high commitment CTA. (Hint: This is your wedge deal)
We’ll smoothen the transition between your traffic source (e.g. Facebook Ads) to your landing page in Step 3.
1 – Find a Content Offer That Matches the Traffic Temperature
You can substitute your current offer with one that meets the commitment level or funnel stage of your traffic audience.
CoachCare, for example, had an existing campaign offering an in-depth RPM eBook. Users were allowed to access the content for free in exchange for an email.
WARNING: Your target conversion must have a lower commitment than the new lead magnet. If your content offer is not for the same funnel stage or higher commitment, then the wedge method won’t work.
If your goal conversion is to register for a webinar then don’t offer a demo or a free trial of your product.
2 – Design a landing page for a new offer
Conversion-friendly Design. Make sure your landing page copy, headlines, and CTA match your new content offer. We changed the CTA for “book a 15-minute demo” to “Get my free guide right now.”
Deep dive: Access a detailed landing page resource here:
- Create your Lead Generation Landing Page in 24 Hours
3 – Match your Ad campaign and CTA for a new offer
Don’t forget to update your ads to match this lead magnet.
We chose content to promote the same product so the only things that changed in Facebook Ads were the CTA (call to action) and the copy.
#4: Position your Wedge Offer within the Conversion Path
The Goal: To bridge the gap between your lead magnet, and the wedge offer.
You have adjusted your landing page, ads, and content to match the traffic temperature.
Do not stop there! This is why the last step is so important.
CoachCare could have changed its conversion goal to suit a TOFU audience, generating more leads.
However, leads would have a lower conversion rate.
CoachCare would need to continue to run campaigns to get leads to the next stage of each funnel before they can reach their primary goal, which is to request demo requests.
Here’s the solution:
1 – Wedge Your Target Offer On The Thank You Page
We were able to maximize demo conversions by ‘wedging” a high-value offer onto the thank you page.
This is a way of shortening the marketing funnel’.
If you are looking for a first lead magnet, don’t forget the link.
2 – Combine The Offer into The Conversion Path
Your leads aren’t stupid. This means that you can’t expect them to convert on your offer because it’s on the thank-you page.
Position the offer so that it fits the rest of your user journey.
Imagine that I created a countdown to promote a wedge deal (a discount) and added it to the thank you page. The thank-you page would feel completely out of tune with the landing page messaging “Get peace of Mind”
Take a look at your landing page, ads, and messaging. What are the relationships between all of these elements and your wedge offer? It should all fit together.
CoachCare’s wedge offering was positioned by us focusing on the ways demos could personalize their RPM startup process.
Users were encouraged by a scarcity message to sign up immediately for expert appointments.
Finally, you should add a few elements to your thank you page and landing page that will help you qualify leads. Here are some forms that can help.
The form was easy to fill out on Coachcare’s landing pages. It was still geared towards clinics that have existing patients and are interested in increasing their RPM.
#5: Track your Performance
The Goal: Keep a clear picture of your CRO’s work.
This is a case study so I will save the details for an in-depth article.
These are my only notes.
- Focus on ROAS & CP
Do not worry about vanity metrics. Instead, focus on the return to your business.
CPA Calculation
CPA and ROAS are the main metrics we like to pay attention to. These two metrics are the key to understanding performance. They consider lead qualification before calculating the value.
- It’s easy: search for conversion paths.
Are you looking for a Wedge Method job? Most cases will have a high friction offer that indicates you are testing.
Start by optimizing one funnel for the trial. Compare the Wedge Method conversion results to your current funnel.
- Commit CRO if is not yet in use
Problems like the one that we solved using the Wedge Method require knowledge and control, from the first click to the final sale.
Kobe Digital provides CRO work and PPC to our clients so that we can tackle the entire conversion funnel.
What are the first steps? Get a CRO audit and set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics. This will save you time and headaches down the line.
These pages can be further refined and measured later. Miami digital marketing is worth every penny spent on CRO.
Get in the water: New to CO? More information available
- What is CRO? What is CRO? And Why is it Important for Growing Your Business Online?
Bonus: The Wedge Method to Increase Digital Course Sales
This example will show you how the wedge method can be used with another type of business.
Let me show you how I applied the Wedge Method for another client, Audible Genius.
Audible Genius offers a virtual product, Building blocks. This is a course in music theory and composition for DAW-based music makers.
We used the Wedge method successfully to increase our purchase requests.
What is the conversion rate? 39.73%
We used the same Wedge Method steps for it:
1. Conversion Flow
Audible Genius originally asked us to create landing pages and ads to increase sign-ups for their 3-day trial.
The conversion path consisted of Facebook ads with a mid-funnel CTA and a landing page + a 3-day trial offer.
2. Friction
Free trials are a fantastic mid-funnel deal, but we were curious how much we would spend retargeting users who were already interested in Audible Genius’ complete package.
We believed we could reduce their conversion funnel with the Wedge Method.
3. Lead Magnet
The trial period was three days and it proved to be a great lead magnet.
We talked with the client to design a new path for optimizing for a higher-value goal. Their complete course.
It is possible to also test the wedge before wasting advertising spend on low-funnel direct offers.
4. Wedge Position
We placed our wedge offer below the thank-you page message, instead of placing a “Buy Now!” CTA. A button that contains the CTA “Extend your Access.”
A countdown timer was also added above the button, with the text “Your trial will expire in 72 hours.”
Sign Up – Email Link To Trial – End Of 3-Day Trial Countdown + Extend your Acces CTA
While the timer gave urgency to the offer, it was consistent with the conversion pathway. The lead magnet was valid until a certain date.
5. Tracking
Audible Genius saw the Wedge Method work and learned something: It can be applied to existing low-friction transformation paths.
To get more from leads that were generated in the earlier stages of your conversion funnel, test the wedge method if you have more value.
Takeaways
The Wedge Method is a great option if you are having difficulty with a PPC funnel, or trying to convert on a high-friction offer.
Our clients saw amazing results (17x conversion increase!) But seriously, don’t believe everything that you hear!
Evidence-based testing should be tailored to your company.
You can either test it yourself or shout and we’ll optimize the landing pages for your benefit.
