Directory · Building Underway · S1 · Episode 27

S1 · Episode 27

Underway ads at $36 per lead

filmed 5 October 2026 · 8:49

I went through the Underway ad campaigns and the signup dashboard, where cost per lead is running between $3 and $36. 23 people have signed up in the last 30 days, only about eight got into the app, and just one has made their Episode Zero. I've already cut the email code step so people land straight in the app, and now I'm asking whether to strip out buttons and point everyone at that first episode. For now I'm treating it as data collection and keeping the ads running.

Read the transcript

$36 for one lead. Guys, it's a bittersweet moment. I need to shut that door, don't I? It just ruins this picture. Um, I nearly missed a streak. I just remembered, oh God, I gotta do a Underway episode. But guys, it's a bittersweet moment because... Shall I share my screen? Like, it's, like, it's, it's, it's so cool, but it's like so, it's like sad. So I'll tell you what, it's really, really frustrating, but I'm gonna crack it. You know, these are the hurdles you face building a business, right? And we just started this process in terms of getting customers. So anyone would be like happy, like 23 signed up in the last 30 days. The majority of those were in the past however long. Um, s- some of them are not real. But anyway, so started the ads and obviously it's going fairly well. People are hitting the... I've got all of these different landing pages. You know, I think I share, I can probably share this tab instead. Have a look here. Okay, so we've got all of these different ads. Okay, can I show you one, guys? Like I don't even, I'm not, I'm not very... How do I show you this? Oh, it came up then. Okay. All these different ads, okay? This one is the camera or just your voice. Underway Rich, sign up. Ring light on, take four, delete it again. Before, after, phone face down, answer out loud, the episode still gets made. Okay? So real simple. So you've got all of these different ads, right? And obviously it's just putting those out into the market, seeing what sticks, seeing what hits. They're all coming through to the s- same landing page at the minute. And you know, the best one you can see here, I think this is really cool Like three leads from this one. Not a camera day. So people are liking the whole not using a camera. What's this one? Building public without the editing. So three from that as well. And then you can see, you can see the cost per lead. So 17, $26, $3. So that one's doing well, right? 11, 18, 30, 14. So it's just optimizing, right? And this is running ads. This is what it's about. And you've just gotta have some... You, you gotta be prepared to just, like, lose money in, in some ways, right? You could be lifetime value could be there. But anyway, so that's all happening. And you know what? I, it, I say bittersweet because let's share this tab. Like I created this dashboard so I can visualize people coming in and what's going on, and it's like I can see their steps here. And I wanted to make a note here because some of my friends insinuated this, and I don't want people to not sign up, especially people who know me, 'cause I've had a few people reach out who, you know, I, I know and I've coached them or whatever, and they've said how a great idea it is, how it solves a problem. I don't want any of you guys just listening who potentially want to u- I potentially wanna use this. If I know you, I'm gonna give it you for free. Use it. And at the same time, I wanna let everyone know I do not have access in any way to everyone, anyone's backend. I cannot see it. There's massive data laws about this stuff. So anyone who signs up, I do not have access to your accounts. The same way Anyway, it is what it is. So, um, anyway, let's go back into this. Um, 23 signups. Okay, so out of 23 who got signed up, we've only got like eight into the app. It's not very good metrics, is it? And only one of them made their episode zero, like the first one. So in the last 24 hours, we've had three signed up. I'm just gonna... Three signed up, three saw the Today page. So I created this thing so I can track where they got to. So the last three who signed in and signed up and left their email, at the minute, they haven't started the welcome film or watched the welcome film or opened the tour or opened like they haven't done anything. They've all, they've all stopped there. So this is the whole, many, there's many obstacles, right? And, and, and I've gone from a position of, and I think I said this in the last episode, is, you know, making people basically enter their email, and then I was first making them open the email, get a code, come back, enter it, realize that's probably too, there's too much friction there. You gotta make it easy. So what I did now is they enter your email, boom, you're already in the app. You don't have to confirm it, right? You've got like seven days to confirm it, whatever. But now it's like, okay, I'm getting people to get in the app, but it's free, and so you don't really have much... At this point, you don't have much like you've swung a carrot in front of someone, but it's not like they're like, "Oh, this is the best. This is everything I ever need. I'm going to get involved right now." It's more like in the moment. And so they've obviously just left it. They like land on it, they look around, they're like, "Oh, okay Boom, gone. Probably, I would imagine. And so I'm, you know, the, the thoughts that go through my head are, do I need to make it even easier? Do I need to take away some buttons? Do I need to kind of just focus them in on just creating that first episode? I need as many people as possible to create that first episode, and Episode Zero is not you on camera. It's even less fiction. It's speak to the AI co-host, and it's gonna ask you questions. The whole point of this thing is it's so easy for you to do, and that's what Episode Zero is. But at the minute, only one person has done that, you know? So the battle is right now is like, I've gotta figure this out, you know? And a big part of me says it's just data collection at the end of the, the day. Like y- you hope that the 23 people who joined are gonna be 23 people who wanna be involved and get going, but it's also like a habit. Like it... You, you're taking people out of what they do, and you've gotta start something new, and everyone knows when you download an app, quite often you download it and just look at it, yeah, um, and you don't use it. That's what happens. And so for me, I just kind of have to make myself realize and, and keep telling myself this is data collection, AKA this is about I got to have hundreds of people come through this funnel, and it's a trickle-down effect, right? It's like 1,000 people come in, and you're gonna get the majority of people just going, "Yeah," boom, gone. You know? And it's-- Then you're gonna have these people who are more committed. You're gonna have like then a handful have actually get going, and it's a snowball effect. Those people start building up and start having a good feeling about it and talking about it and film it. But one thing it's, it's just not gonna be easy, and you're gonna have to waste money doing it to get that data But it is what it is, isn't it? It literally is what it is. Um, so I also just wanted to show you, I've again switched up the, um, the today page a bit. So I'm gonna share this tab instead here. Um, I've added all these. Like it is just... The reason I'm showing you this, guys, is 'cause I wanna show you how easy it is for you to not have to think about content, and this thing will create it all for you and give you endless things. So, oh look, I've done 33 days straight. So you've got noticed at the top. So I've got six things, right? Let's have a look. Your ads have brought in 10 leads. Look, I can record a moment. A month straight every single day. Episode 50, none have existed before you started. Underway invites new free signups to its swap community. Underway signs new users in instantly. Camera co-host episodes are captioned and open previously. Like all these little things that it's just noticed I've kind of done or, or achieved. Then you've got the thing what I said before is what to film. I got 27 things. At the top is the season one goal, which is get 10 founders actually using Underway past signup. So it's tracking that milestone, right? And then I've got like this, like since your last episode, $40 for one lead. Boom, film it. Six video views, ads rebuilt as website cards. Um, don't even know what that means, but anyway. Then you've got what to... No, what film I did. So you know you've got today's context, all the different things I've done today. Film an episode about these. You've got ask the vault. You've got to do. Actually, I've got to do this. Finish your page. Your series page is missing a line about series. Move your reminder Add your company documents. So anyway, yeah. Interesting. Bye guys. Bye you guys. Let's click stop sharing. Let's click stop

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