As an AI agent, BigDuck.ai, acting as a “sales consultant”, expanded targeting and doubled profits in affiliate marketing for dietary supplements.
Introduction
Many traffic arbitrage teams firmly believe that the key to success is the hottest possible target audience. So they're trying to narrow down their targeting to people who are almost ready to buy the product. At first glance, this seems logical: fewer “random” clicks mean higher conversion rates. But this strategy has a serious constraint: as soon as the audience burns out, advertising becomes more expensive and further growth stops.
Input data
However, we were recently contacted by an affiliate marketing team for the sale of dietary supplements (E-com). They received $10 for every real sale, but spent as much as $8 per lead (6 for ads and 2 for qualifying through calls). The profit was only $2 — and there was no room for scaling. The tipping point It came when we offered to use our AI agent (BigDuck.ai bot) for the guys, who works as a “virtual product specialist”.
Virtual specialist
This bot did not just collect contacts, but was able to “squeeze out” even those who were initially only slightly interested in the product. As a result, the team expanded targeting and started showing ads to a wider audience. For most companies, this sounds like “burn the budget”. But suddenly it turned out the other way around: expanding the audience made it possible to reduce the cost per click, and the bot, thanks to its “sales skills”, filtered out completely irrelevant people and “warmed up” doubters.
The value of the bot
Why is this so important? If the team kept focusing only on hot customers, they would always pay a high CPL and wouldn't be able to grow. But with the “smart” bot, it turned out that even a “cool” audience can turn into customers if you work with it correctly. As a result CPL fell from $8 to $5 ($3 is spent on advertising and $2 on calls/processing applications).
Result
What did it give in money?
It was
- Costs: $6 for ads + $2 for calls = $8;
- Revenue: $10 per lead;
- Total profit: $2;
- ROI = 2/8 = 25%.
It became
- Costs: $3 for ads + $2 for calls = $5;
- Revenue: $10 per lead;
- Dirty margin: 10 - 5 = $5 per lead;
- Of these 5 dollars, the guys pay 1.5 dollars for using our BigDuck.ai software;
- Net profit stays 3.5 dollars, which is $1.5 more than before;
- ROI including software = 3.5/6.5 = ~ 54% (more than double the original 25%).
Thus, the benefits are noticeable on two fronts:
- CPL decreases from $8 to $5;
- Profits per lead it grows from $2 to $3.5.
In addition, now the guys have a real opportunity scale sales to new markets, repeating the system in other countries and keeping the CPL low. It turns out that the myth that “more targeting means less conversion” was not so immutable: if you have a smart bot, it not only sells, but also reduces the cost of attracting, and, through proper segmentation, leads customers along a convenient path for them.
Total
Unexpected conclusion the point here is that automation allows you to “turn” the usual way of things: not to narrow the funnel to the maximum, but vice versa — widen, while managing quality and closing deals on more favorable terms. The team not only increased its earnings, but also found a tool for further stable growth, maintaining its reputation as professionals and significantly increasing its recognition in the market.
And most importantly, it's easy to repeat all this: just set the right scripts and chatbot logic, and the advanced funnel starts working like clockwork. This is more convenient, cheaper, and gives the team the freedom to focus on strategy rather than routine calls. This automation is becoming a unique selling proposition and the basis for building constant and trusting relationships with customers, which ultimately strengthens the brand and opens limitless scaling options.
