Rant: That referral partnership that cost me $3,000 in wasted ad spend

I got into a referral partnership with a web design agency in Austin about 4 months ago. They promised they'd send us leads for our SEO work, and we'd kick back a 20% commission. Sounded great at first. But their leads were all small business owners who had no budget for ongoing SEO, just wanted a one-time fix. I spent $3,000 on ads targeting their audience based on their list, and got maybe 2 actual clients out of it. The math just doesn't work when you're doing profit splits on tiny retainers. Has anyone else had a partnership where the other side's leads were completely the wrong fit?

2 comments

2 Comments

milaprice1mo agoTop Commenter

Wasted $3k on ads and got two clients, that's basically paying $1,500 per friend.

evan_campbell1mo ago

Smaller budget and local targeting got me better results there.