The other day I spoke about how I am going to enter into the PPC game once more. With a lot of advice received from Affiliate Summit West and the fear of my big lost in January, I decided to go ahead and tackle this one more time. So I talked to several of my affiliate managers from several other networks and each advise me the best campaigns to promote via direct linking. I did direct linking because I wanted to see some results fast, if you see positive results you are more enthusiastic about continuing to progress.
So I promoted 2 campaigns on March 10th 2008 and I actually stopped one campaign because it was not converting at all after $50 of spending. But one campaign showed great potential, high CTR, high EPC, and it was converting! It converted in almost 3 hours and I was getting at least 23% ROI, not bad I think. This should soon replace my $50 that I spent on another campaign and over the next couple days should be a good return. So I will be talking about something's that I have done to have this nice return.
Talk to your Affiliate Managers
I emailed all my affiliate managers and asked them what was the best campaign to promote at this time was. I also ask them to provide popular campaigns that were converting fast with high EPCs. Now the problem with EPC data is you have affiliate marketers that are beginners and the guru affiliate marketers, all their data is mixed and you get an average EPC. This will be the next topic. But talk to your affiliate managers they know what is converting and they know how to optimize it real quick to give you the best fast results.
Failure to communicate with your AM (affiliate manager) can prove to be a poor judgment on your part, your AM is your friend and helper, especially if you are going to make the company money. Ask them for data and ask them for what is popular and how it is converting.
Call them up or talk to them on IM - they are there to help you and even provide you more money if another network is matching their creative. Discuss with them what you can do and how to apply specific tricks and tactics. Also most importantly they are your friend so 'off-talk' with them once and a while.
Figure out what the EPC is on a specific creative or campaign
Earnings Per Click, how much profit is made from each click from a paid ad. So how much is an ad costing per click or per visit. This is important because you want to see the affiliate network's EPC and on a creative basis or the whole campaign itself. This has a drawback and you will need to speak to your affiliate manager to get good data. There are new affiliate marketers and guru affiliate marketers which contribute to the EPC - so the average may not be what you want it to be. The EPC can be real low or real high.
What I asked my AM is to provide me the EPC of their top affiliate marketers and lowest affiliate marketers, this gives me a ballpark range. This also gives me a good idea of what I should be bidding on a keyword.
Create Multiple Ad Variations
I always create multiple ad variations max of 5 and a minimum of 3. This can tell me what my ad copy skills are and which ad is getting more clicks. I can alter the ad if need be and remove the less clickable ads. The way I came up with my ad copy is simply copying others, I mean why invent the wheel again. So I just do a Google search on my most popular word and copy someone else's ad with some adjustment if need be.
Creating multiple ads shows you which header is more valuable to person more so than another. Having multiple ads will give you more of an advantage and more data to figure out what is working and what isn't
Track your Results!
I use Tracking202 - this is one of the best tracking software out there and it proves to be the best out! I use to track everything via excel and it was time consuming. I did have an issue with my stats but their customer support is very helpful and my stats were up in no time. Once my stats were up I was able to see popular keywords, my net income, lead rate, etc. Here is a snap shot of my success. Click image to view bigger. Here are results after 2 hours of throwing up some ads - I was just looking to test 5 ad variations. In the end I found 3 ads that were working great!
So after some painful moments from the beginning of this year I have learned to just take another dive into PPC marketing. Words from John Hasson and other marketers I met at ASW and online have encourage me to make it and with good return I found myself doing real well and I will continue to get and earn more. I just need to add more campaigns to receive more net income. So I will be putting up my stories on my blog and my tactics that I am currently using, whether it is failed tactics or useful tricks!
