Affiliate Links in PPC Ads - Ouch!

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

RyanATL

New member
Nov 29, 2006
8
0
0
Atlanta burbs
www.seo-rules.com
I've seen where some people had success promoting affiliate products via a direct link in PPC advertising. For grins, I attempting the same thing very unsuccessfully today.

I target a very successful product that supposedly had a high conversion rate and calculated that I could afford to pay for 40+ clicks and break even. Seemed like a no brainer, right? Well...I've had a total of 86 clicks on the add today and not one sale :-(. Ad is now turned off...

Anyone else had success with that approach?
 


RyanATL said:
I've seen where some people had success promoting affiliate products via a direct link in PPC advertising. For grins, I attempting the same thing very unsuccessfully today.

I target a very successful product that supposedly had a high conversion rate and calculated that I could afford to pay for 40+ clicks and break even. Seemed like a no brainer, right? Well...I've had a total of 86 clicks on the add today and not one sale :-(. Ad is now turned off...

Anyone else had success with that approach?
Click to expand...

It all depends if the link brings the viewer directly to a sign up page or a page where you've got to fill out credit card information, then your not going to get any conversions.

However if the page gives an explanation of the product or service they are going to buy and then they fill out the information, then you'll have much more success with conversions.

If it does have some valuable information before sign up and your still not getting conversions you may require a landing site to better explain the offer and to get the customer/lead more interested and ready to fill out their information.
 
Actually it took them directly to the information page. Possibly my source of traffic...I was using SearchFeed and 7Search (84 clicks from SearchFeed and 2 from 7Search). Had some left over ad money in both accounts.

Probably going to try a long tail PPC campaign from Google and see how traffic from the big G goes.
 
RyanATL said:
Actually it took them directly to the information page. Possibly my source of traffic...I was using SearchFeed and 7Search (84 clicks from SearchFeed and 2 from 7Search). Had some left over ad money in both accounts.

Probably going to try a long tail PPC campaign from Google and see how traffic from the big G goes.
Click to expand...

I tried the 'direct link' route for two weeks (thought I'd give it time) with google and I didn't get any sales either. Maybe it was my ad, maybe it was google clicking on most expensive keywords, maybe it was 'too targeted' as in product keywords,I don't know.But then I'm a noob. Still learning, and thinking arbitrage maybe for me? Just letting you know I feel the pain.:)

(bends over for the proverbial shafting I'm expecting:rolleyes: )
 
Stop dicking around with crap networks if you want to make sales.

99% of your sales will come from the search network of Google, Yahoo and MSN.
 
RyanATL said:
Possibly my source of traffic...I was using SearchFeed and 7Search (84 clicks from SearchFeed and 2 from 7Search). Had some left over ad money in both accounts.
Click to expand...

Yep, that is your main problem right there. Stay away from 2nd and 3rd Tier search engines for affiliate marketing. There is so much click fraud and crappy international traffic it's pointless. Stick to the big-3 engines ONLY.

If you are still having problems after switching to Google/Yahoo/MSN, then it's your keyword selection.
 
pocketrockets said:
Yep, that is your main problem right there. Stay away from 2nd and 3rd Tier search engines for affiliate marketing. There is so much click fraud and crappy international traffic it's pointless. Stick to the big-3 engines ONLY.

If you are still having problems after switching to Google/Yahoo/MSN, then it's your keyword selection.
Click to expand...

I was watching my clicks every few seconds initially on SearchFeed and it was going through the rough (sometimes as much as 10 clicks in a five second interval). So, yes gang, I would say click fraud is a problem with SearchFeed at least.
 
Searchfeed and 7search can produce sales, but at a much higher cpa than the main networks and much lower volume.

Concentrate on them, once you have tweaked the hell out of your 1st tier ppc campaigns and are looking for an extra one or two sales for beer money.
 
I've had the same experience generating leads with 7search and Searchfeed. Searchfeed is garbage! I did manage to generate a few leads using 7search but the CPC was too high and I started to lose money when my conversions suddenly stopped.

I'm going to focus strictly on the big three from now on...
 
I think the general rule of thumb is:
Affiliate marketing:Google, Yahoo, MSN
arbi:2nd and 3rd tier engines and Google content network

For sales you are very targeting specific customers. For arbi you're trying to get more general traffic and hope they click on something. The goals are different.
 
I did the same thing thinking that I was getting a great deal by paying such a low ppc on 7 search for affiliate campaigns. But as most others, I got no sales. Stay with the big 3 and work on longtail keywords.
 
If i bid on keywords that go to a page that has affiliate links, don't i get some kind of penalty from google? Also, has anyone has success sending ads straight to an amazon store?
 
pax said:
If i bid on keywords that go to a page that has affiliate links, don't i get some kind of penalty from google? Also, has anyone has success sending ads straight to an amazon store?
Click to expand...

Straight to Amazon works fine. Better hit product names only, and the more specific the better, since long tail keywords = further in the buying process. If you have a method of quickly setting up keyword tracking, do it. You're only getting 4% until you start reaching bonuses, so you need to be razor-sharp on your keywords.
 
Right, my experience on smaller ppc engines is like this ....
Keep bids low - sales trickle in. Get Greedy - hear the toilet flushing as your balance Whooshes away! So, the smaller engines can provide a few conversions ... just don't get impatient or greedy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom