I got a Lamborghini for a Youtube Ad

We've all seen them. You're watching YouTube, minding your own business, and then out of nowhere, you're bombarded with an ad complete with the Hollywood smile, Lamborghini, and a reason why you should watch them to the end. And so surprised that ads all have one main purpose, and that is to get you to buy what they have to offer. But with the booming popularity of YouTube, the increase of using fast cars and prompts to sell products, have you ever wondered just how much money these ads generate? Have you ever been curious about how much more you can make if you're just driving a Lamborghini?

Well, I found out, and I was honestly surprised with what happened. So let's rewind a little bit. In order to create a successful ad, you first need to have something to sell, and that I got covered. A year ago, I created a program called the Real Estate Agents Academy, which teaches real estate agents how to grow their business and make money. And guess what? Until recently, I had never run ads to sell that program. You have never seen me come up as a 5-second interruption on the auto tunes cat video you're watching. You have never seen me sending you down a click funnel of emails and offers until you purchase. You have never seen me promoting anything outside the organic network of my viewers.

But that left me wondering: was the grass really that much greener on the other side? What would happen if I ran an ad on YouTube to promote my product, and would that increase my sales even more? So what if I had a bright yellow Lamborghini Huracan Spyder? Would that give viewers the extra inspiration to buy my product so they too could eventually get a Lamborghini? Or would it backfire and make me look like someone with a small bank account?

So you know me, I had to test this out firsthand. And you know what? The timing could not have been better. My best friend Anthony had just bought a Lamborghini Huracan in Atlanta, Georgia, so we flew all the way there just to drive it back 2,000 miles all the way to Los Angeles, California. But all the way back, we parked in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and it happened. I made my first ever YouTube ad. Now, my apologies if this seems a little bit cringe-worthy; I definitely could have planned this out a little bit better. But one thing is certain: the ad had the almighty power, the Lamborghini.

And yes, looking back on this, this was not my proudest moment. I get nervous filming in public even though there was no one else around, but you know what? It is what it is. Here's that ad. Enjoy.

"What's up, you guys? It's Graham here. So taking a cross-country trip, and this right now we're in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. But I figured, first of all, I wish you guys a happy holidays. Second of all, what would make the holidays probably a little bit better is if I offered you a discount on my program, the Real Estate Agent Academy. I've had a few hundred people go through this so far with such amazing results. Whether you're a brand new real estate agent or you're already an experienced agent looking to take it to the next level, this will help you out. So for a limited time, I think this is really just for the holidays basically. So just for the holidays, I'm gonna offer a discount. And again, I've had a few hundred people go through this with such amazing results. So click the link. It's gonna be somewhere on the screen, and just click that, enjoy the discount before it expires. And I think I'm out of things to say, but this is Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That just, this is basically nobody here. He says that one car that went by and Anthony standing right there. There's no one here. So anyway, enjoy the program, enjoy the discount, and talk to you soon."

The next day after filming, the ad went live. The ad was set to retarget people who had previously visited the program but never made a purchase. So at least I was retargeting to a fairly warm audience who knows me and knows what I have to offer. But I'm not gonna lie; I was pretty nervous doing this. I was worried people would see me with a yellow Lamborghini selling a product and automatically group me together with every other millionaire get-rich-quick guru on the Internet, and my concerns were not entirely unfounded.

Well, the vast majority of responses were extremely supportive and positive. The few people who spoke against the ad felt very strongly against it, as you're about to see: "Just got one of your cringe commercials. It looks like I have to unsubscribe now, not for this episode but for your recent Lambo ex-Baton Rouge advertisement. Going to have to unsubscribe. Good luck; was fun watching you hustle and grow and then unfortunately become a full-fledged YouTube marketing-based real estate agent program peddler. Damn, just saw your ad and got serious vibes. You see, like one of those get-rich-quick pyramid scheme guys. Now don't know why I lost my trust in you after seeing your ad, Lamborghini, nervous laughter, and selling a useless course." The ad had it all—damned unsubscribed now.

Despite me losing a few subscribers and having an existential crisis that I had just ruined all of my credibility in two days, here are the results that everyone wants to know: how much money I made from running this ad with a Lamborghini in 48 hours. In total, I spent four hundred and eighty-one dollars and forty-eight cents on the YouTube Lamborghini ad that brought me eleven thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine views. And of those people, 22% watched the ad.

In terms of actual sales numbers, though, it was actually fairly impressive: two thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars in gross sales in 48 hours. That left me with a net profit of two thousand four hundred and eighty-eight dollars and 52 cents in two days. But how much of this was actually due to the Lamborghini? Because I had never done this before, and I had no idea whether or not this was actually a good result. I had no choice but to test out another ad two weeks later.

However, this time I took a totally opposite approach. Instead of having a flashy Lamborghini in the background, I was just going to be myself. I'm going to film in my studio, get right to the point. I'm gonna be completely honest with the viewer. I'll tell them exactly what I'm doing, what they'll expect to get, and without any wild claims. Here is that ad.

"What's up you guys? It's Graham here. So really quick, yes, what you're seeing is true. I'm testing out YouTube ads for an upcoming video idea, and the reason you're seeing this right now is because you've been retargeted through pixel when you clicked on my program, the Real Estate Agent Academy. Chances are you're seeing this because you didn't buy it. But here's the good news though: is that by giving this ad a chance and by sitting through all like 15 seconds of it so far without clicking out, I'm going to be giving you $200 off my program if you decide to buy it by clicking the link here, or it's here, it's one of these. And that's all there is to it. There's no hidden agenda here; just $200 off if you decide to buy it. And this is only available with this ad, so you won't be able to get it otherwise. It's just if you click on one of these buttons. And the reason I'm doing this is to be able to analyze YouTube ads firsthand to see what's effective and what is not effective. I won't tell you much more than that until I finish the experiment because I have some more testing to do. But like I said, if you're still interested in the program, enjoy $200 off; you may as well. If you've been interested, just take the discount, and if not, no worries at all. Happy New Year's; wish you all the best and enjoy the video that I interrupted you on. Thanks."

Now just like with the first ad, I was extremely nervous for this to go live. I was concerned that running two ads within the same month would put me in the same category as the shirtless real estate guy who wants to teach you how to flip homes in your spare time. If you haven't seen that ad yet, consider yourself lucky. But surprisingly, when the ad went live, I didn't get a single complaint. Nothing. In fact, very few people even mentioned it.

So did it end up doing well even if no one was talking about it? Yes, yes it did. So well, in fact, that I didn't even believe the numbers until I reviewed them a month later. I spent just sixty-six dollars and ninety-nine cents running the second ad for 24 hours because I decided to go with a low budget mostly because I was concerned more people would get angry and unsubscribe. The video only reached twenty-six hundred and sixty views. Of those twenty-six hundred and sixty views, thirty percent of people watched the ad. That was thirty-six percent higher than the ad with the yellow Lamborghini.

But here's where the surprising results came in: even though I only spent sixty-six dollars and ninety-nine cents and that video only got twenty-six hundred and sixty views, that ad generated two thousand three hundred and seventy-six dollars in total sales in 24 hours for a net profit of two thousand three hundred and nine dollars and one cent. Let me break this down a little bit further just to show you how incredible that result is. With the Lamborghini ad, each view I received made a net profit of 21 cents. This means for every one dollar I spent in ads with a Lamborghini, I made six dollars back. That is a 600 percent ROI, which sounds really impressive until you hear this: with the non-Lamborghini ad, each view I received made a net profit of 86 cents. This means for every $1 I spent with ads without a Lamborghini, I made $35 back. That is a 3500 percent ROI.

Now, if you think the ad testing is done, the video is over, you would be wrong. The test isn't complete because there was one flaw with these ads that I soon realized. Even though these sales numbers are impressive, in the ad, I discounted my program by $200 to give an incentive to make the sale, which works out to be nearly forty percent off. And at that price, I felt like it would just naturally sell itself even without running an ad. I almost thought I was underselling the program's real worth, and by doing so, I was undermining the long-term value of the program.

So I had to compare this with one more test: how much would I sell by offering $200 off without spending a single dollar on advertising? Well, look no further than Instagram. I created a funny, light-hearted, somewhat joking swipe-up Instagram story that discounted the program by $200. And at that time, I had about twenty-two thousand followers on Instagram, and my stories garnered about four to six thousand views on average. That story went something like this: "My garage just got this new T-Rex skull. Here you could barely see it there in it. I am actually in my garage, though. If you guys are interested, now $200 off my program, the Real Estate Agent Academy. All you got to do to get that is just swipe up, and enjoy the discount."

Now for the moment you've been waiting for: how effective was a quick-to-the-point swipe-up story on Instagram discounting a program $200 compared to an ad on YouTube offering the exact same discount or an ad on YouTube with a flashy yellow Lamborghini in the background? The Instagram numbers were unbelievable. I spent zero dollars in ad revenue; I didn't push it down anyone's throat. I only offered it to the people who support me the most and have a genuine interest in working as a real estate agent.

And in 24 hours with zero dollars ad spent, that swipe-up Instagram story generated six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one dollars in sales—all organically. Here's what I realized from doing all of this: we've become so numb to traditional advertising to the point where we instinctually distrust anyone trying to sell us something, especially if they are not entirely upfront about their intention.

And the techniques I thought would generate more revenue, like using a bright yellow Lamborghini, actually just made things worse. By using the Lamborghini, I was quickly thrown to the side and categorized as someone who had to lead with an exotic car because the quality of their content wasn't good enough to stand on its own. And this makes perfect sense because the Lamborghini isn't me; that's not my style and that's not the image I embody. I was using someone else's sales techniques and expecting it to work just as well for myself because I saw everyone else doing it.

But I soon realized that this is not a shortcut; this is just a dead end. And it was through this experience that I realized the best way to sell a product isn't through fancy advertisements, it isn't through expensive cars, and it isn't through designer prompts. Instead, it's by building an organic audience from the foundation of trust, value, honesty, and total transparency. And once that happens, products and services sell themselves.