This is for the new guys.
Direct linking on Google is a very popular way to test out offers to see how they convert before you devote the time to building a landing page. The biggest pro of direct linking is that you can setup a campaign very quickly. The biggest con of direct linking is that with Google’s recent updates to their Quality Score algorithms, you will most likely have to pay higher a higher Cost Per Click (CPC) than your competition with landing pages.
Does this mean you should not direct link? Of course not! It just means you should test out what works the best for each campaign. If you have a winner on direct linking, take the extra time once you have things up and running to create a landing page, in most cases, you only have money and conversions to gain by doing this.
Now, on to the messy details. To setup a direct link campaign, you need to grab your affiliate link from your affiliate network. On affiliate.com, it will look something like this: login.tracking101.com/ez/aasldkfjd. This is the link that we are going to be sending traffic to, which is what Google calls the Destination URL. If you need help finding your link at the affiliate network, contact your Affiliate Manager. They like helping people that are actually doing something!
Next, you need to login to your Google AdWords account and start a new campaign. You want to start a New Campaign with Keywords, not Placements.
Be sure to choose the proper country for the offer that you are promoting. Google recently threw a monkey wrench into the works by setting the default countries to “United States and Canada”. A lot of CPA offers will only accept traffic from one or the other, not both. So pick your country and move on.
Creating your first ad will be the next step. An ad consists of a Headline, 2 Description lines, a Display URL, and a Destination URL. Go ahead and create a catchy headline and a descriptive ad containing a call to action, you want to get people to click on your ad now, not next week or next year.
The Display URL is an important step, because in most cases, your affiliate network will not allow you to use the advertiser’s URL. You must have your own domain, even if there is no website on it. So let’s imagine your domain is YourHotDeals.com. You would make this your Display URL, and it’s a good idea to add the keyword onto the end of your domain after a /, like YourHotDeals.com/Acai.
The Destination URL is where you put your affiliate link. This is where we want people to go when they click on your ad. I have filled out an example below:
After you click continue, you will have the opportunity to either create another new ad or choose your Keywords. I would highly recommend creating at least 2 ads, because you always want to be testing new ad copy to get a higher Click Through Rate (CTR). Even if you just change a couple of words in the ad or the headline, it will affect how many people click on your ad.
Next you will choose your Keywords for the ad campaign. Keyword generation and selection is a topic for an entire discussion in itself, so I will just advise you to do your research before hand and have some keywords to get started with before you setup your campaign. Google’s Free Keyword Tool is an excellent place to start.
Once you have chosen your Keywords, you will enter your Daily Budget and CPC bids. Maximum CPC bid and CPC Content bid are two different things, and I would not recommend putting both of them into the same Ad Group. Create a separate Ad Group if you are going to use the Content Network to advertise (again, that’s a topic for another discussion).
All that is left now is to review your campaign, hit Save Campaign and you are up and running! You should start seeing impressions and hopefully some clicks within an hour or two from submitting your campaign. If you aren’t getting any impressions, then your CPC bids are likely too low for the competition. Using the Traffic Estimator while setting your bid can help you get a grip on what it will take to get displayed on the first page of the results.
Congratulations, now you know how to setup a direct linked campaign on Google! The process is similar for Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search, although they are going to have different CPC’s (usually lower) and you won’t have to worry as much about Quality Score.
Now go make some money!
Direct linking on Google is a very popular way to test out offers to see how they convert before you devote the time to building a landing page. The biggest pro of direct linking is that you can setup a campaign very quickly. The biggest con of direct linking is that with Google’s recent updates to their Quality Score algorithms, you will most likely have to pay higher a higher Cost Per Click (CPC) than your competition with landing pages.
Does this mean you should not direct link? Of course not! It just means you should test out what works the best for each campaign. If you have a winner on direct linking, take the extra time once you have things up and running to create a landing page, in most cases, you only have money and conversions to gain by doing this.
Now, on to the messy details. To setup a direct link campaign, you need to grab your affiliate link from your affiliate network. On affiliate.com, it will look something like this: login.tracking101.com/ez/aasldkfjd. This is the link that we are going to be sending traffic to, which is what Google calls the Destination URL. If you need help finding your link at the affiliate network, contact your Affiliate Manager. They like helping people that are actually doing something!
Next, you need to login to your Google AdWords account and start a new campaign. You want to start a New Campaign with Keywords, not Placements.
Be sure to choose the proper country for the offer that you are promoting. Google recently threw a monkey wrench into the works by setting the default countries to “United States and Canada”. A lot of CPA offers will only accept traffic from one or the other, not both. So pick your country and move on.
Creating your first ad will be the next step. An ad consists of a Headline, 2 Description lines, a Display URL, and a Destination URL. Go ahead and create a catchy headline and a descriptive ad containing a call to action, you want to get people to click on your ad now, not next week or next year.
The Display URL is an important step, because in most cases, your affiliate network will not allow you to use the advertiser’s URL. You must have your own domain, even if there is no website on it. So let’s imagine your domain is YourHotDeals.com. You would make this your Display URL, and it’s a good idea to add the keyword onto the end of your domain after a /, like YourHotDeals.com/Acai.
The Destination URL is where you put your affiliate link. This is where we want people to go when they click on your ad. I have filled out an example below:
After you click continue, you will have the opportunity to either create another new ad or choose your Keywords. I would highly recommend creating at least 2 ads, because you always want to be testing new ad copy to get a higher Click Through Rate (CTR). Even if you just change a couple of words in the ad or the headline, it will affect how many people click on your ad.
Next you will choose your Keywords for the ad campaign. Keyword generation and selection is a topic for an entire discussion in itself, so I will just advise you to do your research before hand and have some keywords to get started with before you setup your campaign. Google’s Free Keyword Tool is an excellent place to start.
Once you have chosen your Keywords, you will enter your Daily Budget and CPC bids. Maximum CPC bid and CPC Content bid are two different things, and I would not recommend putting both of them into the same Ad Group. Create a separate Ad Group if you are going to use the Content Network to advertise (again, that’s a topic for another discussion).
All that is left now is to review your campaign, hit Save Campaign and you are up and running! You should start seeing impressions and hopefully some clicks within an hour or two from submitting your campaign. If you aren’t getting any impressions, then your CPC bids are likely too low for the competition. Using the Traffic Estimator while setting your bid can help you get a grip on what it will take to get displayed on the first page of the results.
Congratulations, now you know how to setup a direct linked campaign on Google! The process is similar for Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search, although they are going to have different CPC’s (usually lower) and you won’t have to worry as much about Quality Score.
Now go make some money!
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