Extremely Discouraged - Losing Money on PPC

[diglet]

Just joined the forum and hope that I can give some advice on PPC.

The most important point is that whatever you do you have to have some way of tracking your spend. If it is not your own product that you are promoting it really means having to pay out for a good keyword tracker. Even then you have to spend money to find out what works and what doesn't.

What is does mean is that any keywords that are not working for you, you can ditch and just keep the words / phrases that convert.

I use xconversions.com software and this shows me the sales I get from each keyword, it is a bit pricey but worth every penny.

Also, for anyone starting out in PPC dont put all your eggs in one basket, do the sensibly thing and bid on the keyword / phrases which bring sales. Then when you have earned some commissions you can use that money to be a bit more adventurous.

Here is what I mean:

Poor Keywords

Affiliate Program
Super Affiliate


Good Keywords

Affiliate Project X
Site Sell
Ken Envoy
Buy Affiliate Project X

If your keyword is too general you will lose a lot of money. If it is very specific i.e. a products name or author then you can make a lot of money.

What do you think the state of mind is of someone who searchers for:

"Buy Affiliate Project X"

Are they going to buy the product?

What about someone who searchers for:

Super Affiliate

Are they in a mood to buy?

Yes, you might not get many sales as the number of people that search for product names is considerably less than searches on more generic terms but you will not lose a lot of money and be discouraged.

I run many PPC campaigns and regular only spend $20-$30 and make $250 and that is because I only ever bid on product names and authors names.

This might not seem like a lot of money however when you are only bidding on 2 or 3 keywords per campaign, how easy would it be to set-up and manage 20, 50 or 100 ? Very Easy.

Please dont gloss over this piece of advice and forget about it. I have been on the internet for over 10 years and have spent thousands of pounds on this stuff.

By the way, anyone with a decent budget that really wants to make a go of PPC, I recommend that they should really read these guides:

Affiliate Project X
Day Job Killer
Adwords Miracle

If you can only afford one of them I suggest you go for Adwords Miracle. By the way, I do not know the owner of these products. I have bought many adwords products and these are by far the best around.

You can find the websites by searching for them on Google and when you do this, have a look at the adwords. Its not a coincidence that there are a lot of ads.

Hope that helps a little

Mark

 

[AffiliateGuild]

keywords

Hmm, I ran your keyword clusters through Google to see how your suggestions ranked ...

Buy Affiliate Project X - no one's searching for it and no one is buying the keywords. So how effective is it to spend time on it?

Affiliate Project X - same results as above

Site Sell - big competition for the keywords, but mixed results on people actually searching for it ... but a better keyword set than those above.

Ken Envoy - fair amount of advertiser competition, but very low searches.


While would agree with you on finding more targeted keywords, I don't think
I'd recommend the ones you do.

I think it's important to do your research on the keywords to find the best results and the best value for your investment ... not necessarily just promote what an affiliate program tells you to promote.

Thanks for sharing your article. It was very thought provoking.

 

[diglet]

I dont take much notice of keyword tools or adword tools as they are not accurate. I run ad campaigns for all the good keywords quoted and get an excellent return.

As far as Affiliate Project X goes I do get over 200 clicks per month on that term alone.

Also, the Site Sell keyword is very very profitable even if you pay for number 1 spot (subject to quality score). Ken Envoy who runs the Site Sell program also pays annual renewal commissions on these products, so you also make commission again in 12 months time.

I gave the keywords just as examples, however every "good keyword" I quoted is very profitable.

What you also have to understand is that a product name or authors name may convert as good as 1 in 10 and I am not looking for big numbers.

If I can get 10-20 clicks per month per keyword and only get 1 sale for say $50 I am very happy. Usually I will of only spent $2-$4 on ads and have a huge profit.

What I am actually talking about is running hundreds of similar campaigns. As an example, if you are only selling 1 product per month per campaign and making $40 profit, if you run 100 campaigns you are making $4000 profit, 200 campaigns $8000 profit.

Anyone who wants to go down this route can easily setup 15-20 campaigns a day if not more. Its not like you have to do much keyword research. If you use a product name and dont get any clicks it has cost you nothing.

Mark

 

[skjes]

To succeed in affiliate marketing, one must not give up too easily. Ask any internet guru they will tell you the same thing, that you must be willing to work hard (and that means long hours too, especially in the beginning) and have the right attitude and tools to succeed. Learn up - there are many well written materials out there which are Free! Don't be afraid to sign up as a subscriber & I think one can get quite useful information that can help you greatly in your affiliate business. For PPC, there are many books available - one of them Google Adwords Made Easy by Brad Callen is a good start.

Cheers
SkJes

 

[erniec]

I think every affiliate marketer has lost money on PPC in the beginning! It is, as most here will tell you, a learning game. I started by finding an affiliate product I could sell, with a low CPC, until I got better. As someone else mentioned, you should get 100-200 clicks before you can make a good evaluation. I'm sure you will do well eventually.

Good Luck
Ernie

 

[Axaflaxar]

Payper Click

IT can be a little tricky and intimidateing. I lost money on it at first. Like I said I basically stick to writing articles and that works for me. I found a great place that will help you monetize your website, write articles, all that good stuff if you are interested let me know

 

[skjes]

Hi Axaflaxar

Please share with us the great place!

Thanks

IT can be a little tricky and intimidateing. I lost money on it at first. Like I said I basically stick to writing articles and that works for me. I found a great place that will help you monetize your website, write articles, all that good stuff if you are interested let me know

 

[Axaflaxar]

Good Place to Monetize Site

Well The Place is called MPAM. Prosperity with Integrity. They have been going Since 2001. I think they get like 10,000 hits a day and everyone involved in the site somehow benefits from those hits. I think it is from all the articles about all the different niches. I am new so I am not quite sure. There are several sections to the site. One is Income streams whereyou can write articles for 5 bucks a piece and submit one a day. They will allow you to monetize youe site in 20 steps. They walk you through it by hand and have forums to help. It is like Wealthy affiliate. I don't use Wealthy affiliate because they don't have the money making streams like MPAM. Plus MPAM has been around since 2001. You can buy shares inthe co-op and benefit from the co.s success each month. You also make money one referrals. It is Nice and I have been doing well With it. I have been writing articles so far and I am on step 5 of the 20steps course. they have a 20 steps plus course and a driving traffic to your sites course. There is a lot to it so check it out. Here is the thing..if you aren't willing to work you make nothing. If you do the work you will. That is what this site is about.

Hi Axaflaxar

Please share with us the great place!

Thanks

 

[Bandit09]

Wow! I haven't checked this thread in a few days and now it's got three pages! I've gone through and read every single post, and I just wanted to thank everyone for sharing their advice/wisdom.

Please know that you all have helped me, and I'm sure any other newbie like me that reads this thread will indeed learn something from it.

I've recently gotten into the CPA game. It's not bad, the profits aren't too high, but you can't expect them to be when you get paid just for having someone enter their e-mail or zipcode. They convert a little better, though. After all, it is free to enter an e-mail address The money can add up though, I've found you just have to know where to put your affiliate links. Keywords for the affiliate offers on CPA programs are VERY competitive, so I think I'm going to try bum marketing like everyone suggested.

Again, thank you everyone that has posted here. I will try to check back more often and update everyone on my progress.

Thank you!

--Bandit

 

[tschirmer]

I know what you mean, i lost $400 to pay per click, no return. HOWEVER i did learn. you don't want traffic to your site, you want buyers. if your optimising your ppc and you get an infux of traffic it might not be beneficial (as i found out). look up as many thingas as you can on the subject (study) before going into it.

 

[MrCat]

I know what you mean, i lost $400 to pay per click, no return. HOWEVER i did learn. you don't want traffic to your site, you want buyers. if your optimising your ppc and you get an infux of traffic it might not be beneficial (as i found out). look up as many thingas as you can on the subject (study) before going into it.

Knowledge on how the systems works is very important. Others make the mistake of just jumping on PPC campaigns just so they heard a lot of fuzz on how successful some people have been.

PPC providers shouldn't just be out to make sales but rather inform their clients, especially the new ones, how the system works.

 

[aliecia]

PPC can be Very expensive!

Hi Bandit90, PPC can sometimes get out of control and become very expensive. Unless you know how to creat ads that will be targeted at your specific ninch, you can end up spending alot and getting nothing in return. Why don't you try a less expensive approach to marketing your products.

 

[mcmario]

hi

we will teach you how to do this

 

[Jean59]

I went through a lot of trial and error before I got the hang of this. I still am not great but I am not losing money anymore. Patience!