The Internet Marketing Fastlane

[eliquid]

I do a ton of PPC, especially in Adwords and Facebook.

Most of the clicks I deal with are $67+ a click and have a CPA of $400-$1200+. The daily budgets can be insane. I work in some tough, expensive verticals.

Trust me, I would die to pay $1 for a click.​

Don't look at it like, "I spent $100, made 1 $30 sale, and lost $70".

Look at it like, "Damn this niche/kw has proven buyers, now I just need to tweak to break even or slightly lose upfront".

You are forgetting how insanely valuable having an "audience" is. Weither they are in your email marketing list, a follower on your Instagram, or put into a remarketing/custom audience list on Facebook.​

 

[Industrypariah]

Except that a lot of big companies run negative just to keep others out and the clueless media people - of which there for sure are fewer now - also factor in things like 'exposure' and 'eyeballs'. For big companies, they could very well be considering the branding effect of Google Adwords. Besides, even if someone is able to make a small profit, this could be due to economics of scale. A small profit which only makes sense if you have huge volume.

I am not saying this is the case and I don't really do ppc, but it seems to me like Adwords is tough for the small advertiser.

LOL look at this idiot.

Pro tip for Blackman: Don't listen to this dumb piece of shit.

Listen to the people on here with plenty of experience with PPC. There's a ton of them posting in this thread, so you really lucked out and should ask them follow up questions if you have any.

 

[Blackman]

Appreciate all the feedback guys - thanks for that.

Eliquid makes a good point re CPC. I think since I'm coming from the days when I could pay $0.05 and get shit load of traffic, so paying $1/click now sounds expensive to me, while in bigger markets that's fuck all.

So yeah, the only way forward with my current product would be to develop the backend and find an alternative traffic generation method while sticking with relevant demographics.

Although to be honest, lately I'm shifting my focus from owning an offer to having a content system, so I've been doing research on how to develop/run a big content resource - just need to put it all together and make a move.

 

[d_diggler]

Except that a lot of big companies run negative just to keep others out and the clueless media people - of which there for sure are fewer now - also factor in things like 'exposure' and 'eyeballs'. For big companies, they could very well be considering the branding effect of Google Adwords. Besides, even if someone is able to make a small profit, this could be due to economics of scale. A small profit which only makes sense if you have huge volume.

I am not saying this is the case and I don't really do ppc, but it seems to me like Adwords is tough for the small advertiser.

LOL look at this idiot.

Pro tip for Blackman: Don't listen to this dumb piece of shit.

Listen to the people on here with plenty of experience with PPC. There's a ton of them posting in this thread, so you really lucked out and should ask them follow up questions if you have any.

He may indeed be an idiot but there are many industries running negative acquisition costs on PPC based on market share or lifetime customer value models.

There are also areas where the big players can't afford not to be seen and so will loss lead on it. It's arguable this is indeed brand spend.

You only need to look at something like car insurance in the UK to see this. It's well documented that companies in this industry have been and continue to spend quite large multipliers over what the initial sale is worth based on a lifetime value model.

This though tends to be where the protagonists are savvy online companies with large sophisticated teams and models. There are plenty of areas where the CPCs are eye watering but the companies involved have no real online marketing expertise and with the right offer you can easily compete.

 

[bluechinagroup]

Although to be honest, lately I'm shifting my focus from owning an offer to having a content system, so I've been doing research on how to develop/run a big content resource - just need to put it all together and make a move.

Speaking from personally experience, nothing beats owning a profitable offer.

 

[bluechinagroup]

He may indeed be an idiot but there are many industries running negative acquisition costs on PPC based on market share or lifetime customer value models.

There are also areas where the big players can't afford not to be seen and so will loss lead on it. It's arguable this is indeed brand spend.

You only need to look at something like car insurance in the UK to see this. It's well documented that companies in this industry have been and continue to spend quite large multipliers over what the initial sale is worth based on a lifetime value model.

Yeah but everyone on here (except Rusvik) was talking about lifetime customer value. That is what LTV of the customer means. I don't think anyone here disagrees with your statement.

This does screw over affiliates wanting to run Adwords, but we were talking about offer owners doing Adwords rather than affiliates.

 

[dodgy]

Great thread. Good to see some of the old timers still about. I pop in once a year or two and in the serious threads like this one, the themes and principles discussed never seem to change. Love this joint!

 

[LazyChris]

In my opinion the fastest way to wealth online right now is creating a niche viral site that can go viral on FB and build you an email list/social following.

 

[Ronnie55]

I do a ton of PPC, especially in Adwords and Facebook.

Most of the clicks I deal with are $67+ a click and have a CPA of $400-$1200+. The daily budgets can be insane. I work in some tough, expensive verticals.

Trust me, I would die to pay $1 for a click.​

Don't look at it like, "I spent $100, made 1 $30 sale, and lost $70".

Look at it like, "Damn this niche/kw has proven buyers, now I just need to tweak to break even or slightly lose upfront".

You are forgetting how insanely valuable having an "audience" is. Weither they are in your email marketing list, a follower on your Instagram, or put into a remarketing/custom audience list on Facebook.​

Nice advice.

I was talking to a friend about this recently. If you spend $1000 on traffic and make $900 in affiliate sales, but captured some emails, you didn't lose money or waste money. You essentially got X amount of email signups for $100.

And you learned about your niche and what your buyers like, what they respond to, what they do not respond to. It only gets easier from there

 

[Vadym]

Nice advice.

I was talking to a friend about this recently. If you spend $1000 on traffic and make $900 in affiliate sales, but captured some emails, you didn't lose money or waste money. You essentially got X amount of email signups for $100.

And you learned about your niche and what your buyers like, what they respond to, what they do not respond to. It only gets easier from there

Moar people should get used to email marketing being a regular thing. It ain't just for shitty MMO/diet salesfunnels anymore.

 

[andrewkar]

Keep thinking about building a list via a squeeze page in a weight loss niche, offering a report and then promote various products after a few warm-up emails, but traffic is always an issue - do it the paid way, then I struggle to see how even long-term revenue would cover current advertising expenses. And the free way, you'll have to build up some mega content site, before you can start generating any decent amount of leads.

Like offering report? (PDF or video report as a bribe?)

That might be your first problem. Once someone more experienced and clever than myself told me that in order to be successful in that niche (it was dating) you can't be like everyone else out there.

They've seen this already, they know reports and all this stuff, nothing new or exciting in it, boring. For start without followers in place it won't end up well (unless you have strong recognition outside online world, like in TV for example that you can actually use).

You probably need to figure out a better way to get them hooked.

Also, I don't agree with statement that you would have to build "mega content" website. It's enough to get there just one piece of content that is worth their attention, people will distribute it for you and it will grow faster than expected.

Create a physical product. it's a digital world but often the simplest, offline tools and products can be really well-received from what I've seen. Would market it online though, ecommerce, affiliates, etc.

That's spot on IMO. Plus you can charge higher rates, make it more exclusive and limit refunds (depending on platform you are using).

It's the same story with pretty much any CB product out there, unless we're talking about some MMO stuff or weight loss offers with outrageous claims, which may convert well initially, but then you get flooded with refunds.

Again it depends on a way product was delivered, and most importantly on your after-sale service. This problem is as old as marketing itself, especially in online world and in certain niches.

Some people are out there just to get your product and ask for refund after getting it, not much you can do about that. But most of them will ask for the refund ONLY if you've failed to deliver good after-sale service (that doesn't mean giving them more stuff for free).

Point of sale is just a moment they are giving you their money, but the SALE itself is a process, it actually never ends (as long as you want them to buy from you).

As for "affiliates challenge", CCarter said it all.

 

[Blackman]

They've seen this already, they know reports and all this stuff, nothing new or exciting in it, boring. For start without followers in place it won't end up well (unless you have strong recognition outside online world, like in TV for example that you can actually use).

I prefer to watch what people actually do, rather than listen to what they say. You'll be surprised how often those who teach certain things don't follow their advice themselves.

Giving out something for free, i.e. a report, an ebook, free stuff, to get people hooked onto your list is THE primary method of what all top list builders do. Look up any big names in any niche and then see how they do it...

 

[andrewkar]

I prefer to watch what people actually do, rather than listen to what they say. You'll be surprised how often those who teach certain things don't follow their advice themselves.

Giving out something for free, i.e. a report, an ebook, free stuff, to get people hooked onto your list is THE primary method of what all top list builders do. Look up any big names in any niche and then see how they do it...

Agreed 100%. I'm not saying giving away report is not working at all, sure it works but, what if you could do better than that?

You CR would be better also.

I'm talking about report like PDF file here (just text and images), that's old and boring. Yeah, it still is working but why to use it if there are better things? Like free video tutorial/report for example?

Video vs regular PDF report?

Where you can better hook them? In my opinion in Video (and not only in my opinion, this is what BIG boys do this days).

Or even better, creating bribe that shows them how to locate girls that want to fuck (here and now!) who live in their area? (this is old as well but it's much better)

What I mean is that being a bit different than everyone else out there might significantly improve your ROI.

 

[Vadym]

I prefer to watch what people actually do, rather than listen to what they say. You'll be surprised how often those who teach certain things don't follow their advice themselves.

Giving out something for free, i.e. a report, an ebook, free stuff, to get people hooked onto your list is THE primary method of what all top list builders do. Look up any big names in any niche and then see how they do it...

No - it's really not, lol. You're obviously one of the listeners, not watchers.

It's not 2007, e-garbage is e-garbage because everyone can google whatever you're offering and it'll literally be there for them in a compiled, neat source - because it's not 2007 and your whole "well the googles is messy and i am offering you nice awesome info you dont have to googles 30mins for" mindset is as outdated as offering freebie seekers that are so stupid they can't Google for this information, and hope you'll be the one to relieve them of their cash.

Here's a protip "smart people" won't share with you. This is very basic, but so applicable to millions of niches that it can't die as a concept + putting spins on it is easy for better conversion. I know it'll fly over your head and you'll rant about something irrelevant, but I'm sure it'll help someone else reading this. Since MikeAus has his casestudy public - I figure using it as a conceptual example is cool.

You take your niche crowd, you find cheap, almost free-level shit - and you offer it as a freebie out of a whatever stupid story/promotion/any decent angle you can spin up. So for MikeAus - since he has his Harry Potter store - if he was looking for cheap CUSTOMER lead gen, he could take some harry potter necklace/keychain/mass appeal trinket for $.50-$1.00 - and create a product page offering it FREE - out of the goodness of his heart in some angle form. The better the angle is - the more the MAIN fact that he's charging $2.95 shipping for this freebie becomes a very minor detail - that you wouldn't have noticed unless I mentioned it - and have been calling him "dumb becuz hes spending monies on gaiz who want free stufz".

But that $2.95 allows him to:
a. cover cost of the MUCH MORE VALUABLE FREEBIE than your piece of shit ebook.
b. have $2 for Instagram/FB ad lead gen to get another 1-2 converts.
c. he's not getting Indians opting in for your free crap because they optin to free everything - every "optin" is not only a buyer email of a person showed they have strong interest in harry potter, enough to get a "free" keychain, but that they have a CC they're will to pull out and use, cuz they just did to pay the shipping.


Like I said - this is basic FREE+shipping, if you spin a basic angle on it - you can clean up pretty hard in tons of niches while building a big email list of people who'll buy this crap. Hell, even if your only retort is - "yah but they only spent $3, thats not a rael buyer" - a volume growth of this list x offering them the exact same free+shipping offer on other niche trinkets which can be found by the 1000s twice a month - some great cash each time, with the ad costs of having to acquire them now saved = X more return after their initial "buyer optin".

Hope I blew your mind, Blackman. If this didn't register, there's still no hope for you after 8 or so years. At least someone else might enjoy this and give it a run.

 

[andrewkar]

Hmm... some gold in here but, it depends on stuff one is selling. And even if primary market is US/UE still it's easy to monetize "Indians" by offering them info products. The key is in sales funnel setup.

Customer is customer, whatever his purchasing capacity is, it's still a customer that might want to buy something, even if it is just labeled as info product.

 

[Vadym]

^
Did you just copy that out of some guru blog? Full of solid information, thanks for your observations. Come back when you've actually sold to indians instead of speculation.

 

[andrewkar]

^
Did you just copy that out of some guru blog? Full of solid information, thanks for your observations. Come back when you've actually sold to indians instead of speculation.

There is always some problem or challenge (I prefer to call it challenge, yes after those pesky "gurus"...). If you fucked it up with "Indians" it only means that your after-sale service (or funnel!) wasn't good enough to keep them long enough... Do you understand what I'm saying?

Sure, I'm aware of cons and all that thing... Most people out there you can monetize.

Of course, if you are talking about selling $50 info-products then I don't know, not my hobby.

 

[goindeep]

The marketplace battleground has dramatically shifted from traditional channels to digital channels. Brands have to catch up and adapt to the trend, which explains why monies have been put up for internet ads.