Case Studies | Marketing

Kerwin Rae $17 Million Marketing Funnel Analysis

What if you needed to generate an extra $17 million in your business within the next 12 months?

I’d be looking for a proven strategy that is already working.

In 2019, Kerwin Rae said he was on track to generate $17 million from Facebook alone. In just one year.

That doesn’t even include Instagram, SnapChat and YouTube.

Kerwin Rae is a powerhouse of social media in Australia. He may not be as prominent outside of Australia but I’d still rate him as one of the world’s top social media marketers.

If you want to make more money from social media, you have to look at what people like Kerwin Rae are doing to be so successful. It’s a free blueprint for success.

I’ve attended Kerwin Rae’s events and closely analysed his entire marketing funnel. I looked at everything he’s doing to attract qualified leads and ultimately funnel them into his $4999 high ticket program.

Kerwin practices what he preaches. At his Fast Growth Summit, he reveals about 70% of his social media strategy. And unlike many business coaches, Kerwin actually follows the strategy he promotes.

But you still have to connect the dots to understand the remaining 30%. And that’s exactly what I did..

I spent hours studying his Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube, website, email marketing. Finally, I was able to figure out the secrets that make everything work.

Of course, Kerwin Rae does have many years of experience. As well as a large social media following. So even if you replicate his strategy, you probably won’t generate $17 million in sales straight away.

But what if you could do just 10% of what Kerwin has done? That’s still $1.7 million!

Or what if you really stuff up the strategy and do just 1% of what Kerwin has done?

That’s still $170,000!

Would you like to generate an extra $170,000 in sales from social media this year?

In this article, you’re going to learn how you can use video marketing to create an extremely powerful marketing funnel.

I will also cover…

  • The Facebook ads feature he uses that most businesses don’t even know about
  • How to target audiences you never thought you could target with Facebook
  • How he generates 49 million views on Facebook videos
  • Kerwin’s exact Facebook video funnel strategy
  • The powerful psychological trigger that draws people into his content

Who Is Kerwin Rae?

Kerwin Rae is an Australian business coach and entrepreneur. He hosts live training events for business owners throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Kerwin has a huge social media presence with over 1.8 million Facebook followers in 2022 and 300k Instagram followers. This makes him easily the most dominant Australian influencer in the business and entrepreneurship space.

There is no reliable public information about Kerwin’s net worth. But given his success and business revenue I would predict his net worth would be over $10 million.

His events Fast Growth Summit and Nail It And Scale It consistently sell out and attract business owners from all over Australia and NZ.

If you’re in the coaching business yourself or if you want to develop your personal brand, Kerwin Rae is one of the best people in the world you can study.

Kerwin Rae’s Facebook Marketing Strategy

If you’re looking for a proven Facebook marketing strategy, Kerwin Rae has the blueprint for you.

At his NAC presentation in late 2019, Kerwin Rae said he was on track to do $17 million in sales for the year from Facebook alone. And with over 1.8 million followers, he is clearly the most popular Australian influencer in the entrepreneurship space on Facebook.

Video content is at the core of Kerwin’s overall marketing strategy, so I’m going to focus mostly on video throughout this analysis.

Video Content

Video is the most important part of Kerwin’s Facebook content strategy. His videos often generate over 1 million views and are shared by thousands of followers. 

As you can see from the screenshot above, some of his videos have gained over 49 million views.

I carefully analyzed the Kerwin Rae Facebook page to work out why his videos get so many views. There are four key factors that make his videos almost irresistible to his audience.

If you have a business, you can apply all four of these factors in your own business to get a massive increase in video views (which you will soon see how to convert into sales).

Use Captions to Stand Out

The Facebook feed is full of distractions.

If you want people to stop and watch your video, you need to grab their attention quickly.

Kerwin is able to make his videos stand out by using captions. It grabs the users attention and pulls them in to watch the video.

Take this video post in his newsfeed for example…

When users are scrolling through their newsfeed, they are going to see the big caption above the video. You can’t miss it.

And if you have any interest in business and sales, you’re probably going to at least pause for a few seconds.

Another good example I found in my newsfeed is website analytics company Oribi..

oribi

Oribi have a fantastic collection of videos they are running through Facebook ads. These videos include large captions to ensure their videos stand out in the crowded newsfeed.

Despite only having a relatively small follower count on Facebook, Oribi have been able to amass up to 700k views on some of their Facebook videos.

Open Loop Headlines

Secondly, he uses attention-grabbing headlines. Take a look at some of the headlines he uses in his videos and think about why these headlines hook viewers…

  • Why you need to lie to yourself
  • Don’t EVER let your employees get away with this
  • MUST WATCH for every parent
  • STOP screaming at your child

All four headlines have something in common…

They generate curiosity. They create an open loop. Open loops are what Hollywood movies use to draw people into a film. TV shows use them to make people watch the next episode. The world’s best speakers use them.

They pose a question that the viewer must get an answer to. And the viewer will keep watching until they get closure. It’s an incredibly powerful technique.

“Don’t EVER let your employees get away with this.”

That video has over 1.8 million views. People need to know what you should never let your employees get away with. The video thumbnail creates a sense of drama and engages emotion. Making it even harder for viewers to resist.

The word ‘this‘ is one of the most powerful words you can use in headlines and video titles. It instantly evokes curiosity and creates an open loop.

Everyone wants to know what ‘this‘ is.

I give more examples of how powerful the word ‘this’ can be in my article about Jason Capital.

Social Currency

The STOP screaming at your child video also generates curiosity. This video has 24 million views and over 10,000 shares. One of the reasons this video gained so many views and shares is a concept known as social currency.

In his book Contagious, Jonah Berger talks about Social Currency being one of the 6 ingredients that will make content go viral.

Berger explains that people want to share content that makes them look good.

When someone shares Kerwin’s video, it signals to their friends how much they care about kids. Which makes them look good.

In an article about the Huffington Post’s most shared articles, I explain how they use this strategy of social currency to get thousands of readers to share their posts.

Once he gets your attention with his powerful headlines, he needs to make sure you continue watching.

85% of Facebook video views are without sound. Knowing this, Kerwin adds subtitles to all of his videos so viewers can follow the video, even with no sound.

If the subtitles capture your interest, you’re more likely to continue watching the video. Agora Pulse spent $4511 testing videos with vs without subtitles. They discovered that videos with subtitles outperformed those without by 7.41%.

Social Proof

The fourth key factor that makes his videos so irresistible is social proof.

Social proof is one of the six principles of persuasion in the famous book Influence by Robert Cialdini.

People automatically equate popularity with quality. They assume if something has been endorsed by others, it must be good.

You’re more likely to eat at a busy restaurant than a quiet one. You’re more likely to follow a YouTuber with 4 million followers than one with 4000.

Which of the following restaurants would you be more likely to eat at based on their Trip Advisor listings?

social proof
social proof

Most people will choose Positano Risto because it has 1,011 reviews, while Al Capone’s only has 14 reviews.

When people see the huge view counts, likes and shares on Kerwin’s videos, they are programmed to believe the content must be valuable.

It may seem like this would be hard to apply in your own business if you don’t have a big following like Kerwin Rae. But later I’m going to explain a strategy used by Kerwin that will boost your social proof, even if you don’t have a big audience yet.

Share This Image On Your Site

4 Tips For Irresistible Facebook Videos

5 Video Engagement Funnel Strategy

This is the strategy Kerwin uses to convert video views into leads. Then those leads into sales.

He says by following this strategy, he was able to reduce his cost per lead from $32 to $1.65 – $4.65 on average. He explains how the funnel works in his presentation.

I’m going to break it down, with examples of exactly how he does it.

The funnel includes five videos, which are promoted using Facebook ads. If viewers watch each video, they continue to move through the funnel and see more videos.

He uses Facebook’s video views retargeting feature to do this. This feature allows advertisers to show more ads to Facebook users who view a certain percentage of their videos.

Check out this article from WP Promote if you want to learn more about using the video views retargeting feature on Facebook.

For example, if someone watches 50% of the first video in his funnel, he can re-target that user with video two.

This is how he separates the hot prospects from the cold prospects. He knows if someone is watching each video in the funnel, they are likely to be a good prospect to buy his training.

These are not sales videos. They’re educational content videos, just like those he posts on his page organically.

This is how he structures the 5 video funnel..

Video 1

Kerwin explains that the first video in the funnel should be on a broad topic. You want to cast a wide net.

For Kerwin, this will be a broad topic that is related to business and entrepreneurship. It could be something about psychology, motivation, time management, etc..

You can see the ads Kerwin is currently running on Facebook and Instagram here. It doesn’t tell you the order in which he is running the videos in his funnel.

But if you look through the ads, you can probably guess which videos would be shown first.

kerwin rae
kerwin rae facebook

I would guess these two ads above would be at the top of Kerwin’s video funnel. Both are based on fairly broad topics, that would interest a wide group of people.

Kerwin didn’t reveal how he targets this first video during the presentation I attended. But I would guess he is using two targeting strategies:

  1. Retargeting people who view and engage with his organic Facebook content
  2. Lookalike audiences – this feature allows you to target Facebook users who are most similar to your existing audience and customers

Video 2 (And the Psychology)

The second video in Kerwin’s funnel is more business oriented than video 1. He’s starting to filter out the viewers who don’t have a genuine interest in business.

Based on the ads he is currently running, I would guess the following videos would be second in his funnel..

The first ad “Business is Like A Video Game” is more business specific than the first ad. But it’s still fairly broad and will appeal to a wide range of people.

The second ad “1 SIMPLE hack for using STORIES” will attract the attention of anyone wanting to use social media in their business.

Kerwin Rae runs a $47 event in all major cities throughout Australia and NZ called The Fast Growth Summit. His five video funnel is designed to get people into this event.

The Fast Growth Summit focuses almost entirely on social media marketing. He knows if someone watches this video, there is a very high chance they would be interested in attending the Fast Growth Summit.

And did you notice the clever headline?

1 Simple Hack” appeals to people’s desire for ease and shortcuts.

Knowing that people have watched this video also gives Kerwin extremely valuable information about those people.

He knows they are attracted by the prospect of shortcuts, ease, and convenience.

With that knowledge, he can continue to appeal to this desire further down the funnel. And he knows it will work because the audience has already responded positively to it.

See how he appeals to this desire for shortcuts again on his Fast Growth Summit landing page…

Those two phrases I’ve highlighted are direct appeals to people’s desire for shortcuts, hacks, simplicity, etc..

If someone has already shown interest in the one simple hack for stories, you can bet they will be interested in the exact step by step blueprint for sky-rocketing their sales.

P.S. This desire for shortcuts and ease is one of the most powerful human desires you can appeal to in your marketing. If you want to learn more about it, read my article about Russell Brunson. I explain in detail how he appealed to this desire to generate $3.2 million in sales from ONE single presentation.

I also explain how you can appeal to people’s desire for ease in my comprehensive guide to marketing psychology.

Videos 3-5

The final three videos in the funnel each become more business specific. He’s qualifying the audience to find those who are most serious about business.

I suspect videos 3-5 in Kerwin’s funnel look like this…

VIDEO 3

This is getting more specific than videos 1 & 2. It will weed out those who aren’t in his ideal audience. And if someone watches this video, it tells him they have a genuine interest in marketing.

That makes them an ideal prospect for his Fast Growth Summit event.

By this stage of the funnel he has narrowed down the audience to those who have an interest in business, are likely to have their own business and want to learn more about marketing.

But he still doesn’t know what stage of business they are in. They could be seasoned entrepreneurs running established businesses.

They might be small business or start-up founders. Or maybe they’re just dabbling with the idea of going into business on their own.

Knowing which stage of business his viewers are in will allow him to segment the audience and position his message and offer in a way that is relevant.

Which leads us to video 4…

VIDEO 4

Kerwin is targeting two different groups of people: established business owners and new business owners/people considering starting a business.

This is not something he discussed in the presentation I attended. I could be wrong about this.

But I suspect Kerwin would deliver two videos to those in the audience who make it past video three.

One directed towards established business owners…

And one for new business owners, or those who are considering getting into business…

The new business owner probably isn’t going to watch the video about employees. But they will watch the second video.

The established business owner probably won’t watch the video for new business owners. But they will watch the video about what to do with employees.

Based on who watches these videos, he can now segment his audience based on what stage of business they are in.

It’s an important lesson to learn about targetting. Facebook advertising does offer countless targeting options. However, sometimes the targeting option you want may not be offered by Facebook.

There is no way to specifically target established business owners or new business owners using Facebook’s built-in targeting options.

But you can call-out your target audience in your video content.

For example, if you were a natural health company wanting to target people with diabetes. There is no targeting option in the Facebook ads manager for diabetes.

But you could run a video ad like this…

You would then create a custom audience of people who view at least 25% – 50% of this video.

If they have viewed at least 50% of that video, you know there is a very good chance they either have diabetes themselves or someone close to them has diabetes.

VIDEO 5

By the end of the five video funnel, you want to collect the user’s contact details.

For Kerwin, the Fast Growth Summit is an ideal offer he can use to collect user’s details. At the time of writing, Kerwin has just concluded his first Fast Growth Summit tour of 2020.

So he is no longer running ads to promote it. But I did manage to check his ads on the day of his final event in Christchurch, NZ and he was still running this ad…

This ad would most likely have been shown to people who had gone through the rest of the 5 video funnel.

I also have a feeling that he would funnel his established business owner audience into a different offer. I have attended Fast Growth Summit twice and it is definitely geared more towards those in the earlier stages of business.

Key Points About The 5 Video Funnel

  • Kerwin builds trust and credibility first and then asks for the sale. Nobody wants to be sold to by someone they don’t know on Facebook.
  • He takes advantage of the low cost of Facebook video views. Facebook loves to reward quality video content with a very low cost per view. Some people report costs of around $0.01 per view or less.
  • It’s a low risk strategy because he already knows the videos are going to perform well. The videos in his funnel are the same videos that he already posted organically and performed well.
  • It increases social proof. The advertising allows him to reach a much larger audience than he would otherwise. That translates to more views, likes and shares. With video views being so cheap, anyone can use advertising to generate more social proof.
  • It allows him to learn more about his audience and segment the audience into different categories.
  • It triggers the mere-exposure effect. The more a person is exposed to a brand, the more comfortable they will be engaging with that brand or buying from them.

And that’s only one part of his funnel. Once people have attended the Fast Growth Summit, they are entered into a new Facebook funnel designed to get them into his $4999 Nail It and Scale It (NISI) program.

Following the Fast Growth Summit, I saw he was running two different ads targeted to people who attended the event. One prompted attendees to register for the NISI program, with a $1000 discount code.

The second ad invited attendees to schedule a free consultation call with his team. Of course, the consultation call is really just a sales call to get people to register for NISI.

To do this, he would have created a custom audience of Fast Growth Summit attendees and excluded those who registered for NISI on the night of the event.

What if You Don’t Have Video Content?

Kerwin Rae has the luxury of having a camera crew and content production specialists working with him. He’s also experienced and comfortable being on camera.

You may not have the video content that Kerwin has. Or perhaps you’re camera shy.

Fortunately, this doesn’t have to stop you from leveraging this video marketing strategy.

You can still use a video creation tool like promo.com to create engaging videos to use on Facebook and other social media channels.

They have pre-built video templates, meaning there is no need to get on camera or film anything yourself. And it’s simple to add your own captions without any video editing knowledge.

Once you’ve created these videos, you can easily re-purpose them on other platforms including YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Kerwin Rae Instagram Strategy

At the end of 2019, Kerwin stated he was generating $50,000 – $80,000 per month from Instagram alone.

This is still far behind his sales from Facebook. But most people would be thrilled to make even $50,000 every month from Instagram.

As of April 2022, Kerwin Rae has over 300k Instagram followers.

Content Strategy

Kerwin’s Instagram content contains mostly a mixture of video content and quotes. His Instagram feed looks very similar to that of Gary Vaynerchuk in terms of content.

A few noteworthy points about his content…

  • Routinely posts 2-3 times per day
  • Includes 2-3 hashtags in the description of most posts
  • Uses large captions and subtitles on his videos to grab people’s attention
  • When promoting Fast Growth Summit, he would include a link to the registration page in some posts
  • Engages with comments on his posts
  • Uses IGTV for long-form video content

INSTAGRAM STORIES

Over 400 million people are using Instagram stories every day. They have become one of Instagram’s most popular content types.

Kerwin Rae is very active on Instagram stories and uses them to engage followers and cross-promote his content on other channels.

With over 10,000 followers, he has access to the Instagram swipe-up link feature. If you follow him on Instagram, you will see him use this feature regularly in his stories.

In the example above, he uses the swipe up link to drive users to his YouTube channel to see an interview with Brian Tracy.

In other stories, he will use the swipe up link to drive users to his website and landing pages.

Summary

I was originally intending on covering every facet of Kerwin Rae’s marketing funnel in this post. The social media, the advertising, email marketing, website and the Fast Growth Summit presentation.

But I think that would be too overwhelming for one single article.

Kerwin’s biggest strength in his marketing is his Facebook strategy. It’s one of the most effective Facebook marketing strategies I have seen from anyone in the world.

And I’ve given you everything you need to replicate the strategy in your own business. Even the stuff that Kerwin doesn’t want to tell you at his Fast Growth Summit event.

Kerwin’s success demonstrates the power of video marketing. In 2020, video views are still extremely cheap on Facebook and other platforms. And with a tool like Promo, you can quickly get your own Facebook video funnel running and generate leads.

His presentation at the Fast Growth Formula is also on a world-class level. I spent a few hours analysing this presentation to figure out what made it so persuasive.

I wanted to know how he got so many people to race to the back of the room to register for Nail It And Scale It.

I may do another article, with a full analysis of that presentation as well. If you would like to see that article, subscribe to my email newsletter so I can let you know if I write it.

You can learn more about Kerwin Rae and find his social media channels on his official website.

P.S. If you would like to see another analysis of a world-class marketing influencer, you need to see my post about Alex Becker. Becker is one of the world’s best-known marketing influencers and in this post, I break down his exact webinar strategy.

Similar Posts

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *