One of the highly effective issues about generative AI is how rapidly you possibly can flip concepts into actuality. After watching a video from my pal Shawn Kanungo, I used to be impressed to create a collection of interactive advertising and marketing calculators designed to assist entrepreneurs rapidly calculate widespread marketing campaign metrics. Assume Bankrate mortgage calculators, however for entrepreneurs.
Hold studying to learn the way I used a mixture of spreadsheets and generative AI to create totally functioning calculators. On this article, I’ll stroll you thru making a Lead Gen Calculator for SaaS entrepreneurs.
Earlier than we bounce in, it’s price noting that my background is in graphic design and advertising and marketing technique. I’m not a coder.
Creating the bottom advertising and marketing calculators
I began by constructing the calculators in a spreadsheet, simply to verify the mathematics labored as a great ol’ sanity verify. As soon as the calculators have been working, I pasted one into ChatGPT-4.0 mini to construct the baseline code. It’s price noting that I fairly actually pasted within the rows and columns. Yea… actually.
That’s when the actual enjoyable began.
Right here’s the a part of the spreadsheet for the lead gen calculator that I constructed to verify the mathematics labored appropriately and to get the formulation:
Dig deeper: Tips on how to use ChatGPT to simulate martech instruments and advertising and marketing technique
Tips on how to discuss to builders who aren’t human
It’s price saying that this train was not a single, easy immediate like, “Create a calculator.” I actually needed to lean into coaxing ChatGPT to get what I wished. I bumped into various lifeless ends, token limits and many confusion. And sure, I may have executed this in Claude, which apparently is healthier at this type of factor, however right here we’re.
Right here’s one instance: I needed to study to offer the AI sufficient context and knowledge to get what I wished. When ChatGPT wasn’t giving me what I wished, I discovered myself chatting again with replies like this:
The purpose of this train is to create a easy PLG calculator designed for entrepreneurs to get a way of how one can scale up their advertising and marketing efforts. Let’s begin once more recent and suppose by the advertising and marketing components and never fear about month-to-month churn charges or getting deep into retention since that is about advertising and marketing and driving trials.
I discovered chatting with the AI on this method each progressed the standard of the responses I used to be getting and compelled me to make clear my considering, exactly as I might with a human developer.
The AI offered stable suggestions, and thus started and continued my dance, backwards and forwards on necessities and coding, with every model giving me a couple of steps ahead earlier than retreating repeatedly.
At one level, the mathematics stopped mathing, and so, utilizing my spreadsheet as a reference, I used to be in a position to get the AI again on monitor:
Clarify to me how if the churn price is 100% why doesn’t this go to 0?
The AI understood and glued the mathematics drawback, although I’m uncertain precisely why it made the error within the first place. Oh, foolish LLM.
It’s vital to do not forget that chatbots have token limits, which is successfully how a lot the chatbot can keep in mind about your given dialog. An oversimplification: You may inform once you hit token limits once you really feel that the bot is now not listening to you or can’t recall issues from earlier in your chat.
For me, the way in which round this was to start out a recent chat to reset the token limits. I’d paste the most recent working code and ask the bot for extra modifications and code checks.
By speedy iteration, testing and tons of trial and error, the calculator labored completely.
Sooner, higher, smarter LLM fashions enhance the code base
As I used to be finalizing and getting ready touchdown pages for every calculator, OpenAI launched the 01-preview mannequin, which gave me an concept. In a brand new chat window, I prompted:
Good morning! I had a unique mannequin create this code for a lead era calculator. I’d such as you to carry out the next duties: 1. assessment the code and enhance it. 2. recommend any enhancements that might make it simpler to make use of, or extra helpful for entrepreneurs to do every step individually, pausing between steps and giving me your responses and asking whether it is okay to proceed.
The brand new mannequin recommended enhancements equivalent to higher error dealing with, code cleanup, verifying logic and design tweaks. It’s an immediate improve.
What’s thrilling right here isn’t simply the calculators — it’s the potential for mass customization, personalization and integration throughout different instruments. We’re simply scratching the floor of what’s potential.
For instance, ChatGPT recommended including state of affairs choices, multilingual assist, permitting customers to export knowledge instantly from fashionable CRM programs like Salesforce or HubSpot, an built-in suggestions mechanism and my favourite: dynamic charting with chart.js or Google Charts. I’ll depart these concepts within the backlog for now, so I can not less than get the preliminary variations dwell so that you can play with!
All in all, over about two weeks, this mission took me someplace between 5 and 6 hours complete. That features creating the preliminary spreadsheets, messing with prompts attempting completely different configurations and in the end taking the time to create the ultimate variations.
3-2-1… let’s calculate!
This train pushed me to determine how one can create working code and to suppose by completely different use circumstances that entrepreneurs would possibly discover helpful. Inside testing helped me deliver further context and assets to every touchdown web page and, lastly, the arrogance to launch!
Listed here are the 4 preliminary calculators we created and hyperlinks:
The Lead Gen Calculator is designed to assist SaaS entrepreneurs simulate the ROI of lead era campaigns by calculating prices, conversions and potential income. By coming into variables just like the variety of leads, conversion charges and gross sales metrics, you’ll get immediate suggestions. Strive completely different combos to simulate the effectiveness of a given advertising and marketing tactic.
The CPM Calculator helps you maximize your advert budgets by estimating impressions, clicks and value per click on based mostly on funds, channel and click-through price (CTR). It’s a fast, important simulator for planning and optimizing advert campaigns to make sure you get essentially the most out of each greenback spent.
The PLG Calculator is a strategic simulator so that you can estimate the affect of your product-led progress (PLG) initiatives. By coming into key metrics like customers, conversion charges and churn price, this calculator will give you consumer progress projections, income and total enterprise affect.
The Return on Advert Spend (ROAS) Calculator helps you rapidly consider the effectiveness of your advert campaigns by calculating the ratio of income generated to the quantity spent on promoting. With default values pre-set, this software lets you effortlessly modify inputs and immediately see the outcomes, making it simpler to optimize your advertising and marketing efforts.
