Hi everyone,
I’m currently exploring affiliate marketing and wanted to share my first steps, test setup, and a few questions to get some feedback from the community. I’ve been working in performance marketing for about 6–7 years, mainly with Google Ads and Meta Ads, and also have experience with SEO and organic growth. Right now, I’m working full-time in a marketing company, but I have enough free time after work, so I’ve decided to invest it into learning affiliate marketing as a side project and potential new income stream.
Over the past 1.5 months, I’ve been diving deep into ClickBank — it’s the first affiliate network I started with.
I’ve already launched my first campaigns, beginning with branded search. I thought it would be an easy entry point (in my usual niches, brand search converts at 30–40%), but I quickly realized that in affiliate offers — especially digital info products — it works differently. I got no conversions, and it seems that many users search for these brand names mainly to research or validate the products, not to buy right away. So this approach doesn’t seem as effective here as it is in traditional white hat marketing.
I’ve also started testing Facebook Ads, figured out how to work with accounts, create bridge pages, use spy tools, and learned the main tools to run campaigns properly.
Recently, I launched a campaign promoting an audio meditation product (digital info offer) priced under $50.
I’m running it for 5 days with a $20 daily budget, using CBO with Lookalike and Broad (Advantage+) audiences, and 3–4 ads per ad set.
I’ll analyze the results after the 5-day test and share insights.
My current monthly test budget is around $500–600, and my main goal is to learn, test, and gain experience, even if it means breaking even or taking small losses at the beginning.
I understand that ClickBank can be a bit tricky, especially with digital info products, but I’m ready to experiment and adapt my approach.
I’d really appreciate your advice on a few questions:
I’m currently exploring affiliate marketing and wanted to share my first steps, test setup, and a few questions to get some feedback from the community. I’ve been working in performance marketing for about 6–7 years, mainly with Google Ads and Meta Ads, and also have experience with SEO and organic growth. Right now, I’m working full-time in a marketing company, but I have enough free time after work, so I’ve decided to invest it into learning affiliate marketing as a side project and potential new income stream.
Over the past 1.5 months, I’ve been diving deep into ClickBank — it’s the first affiliate network I started with.
I’ve already launched my first campaigns, beginning with branded search. I thought it would be an easy entry point (in my usual niches, brand search converts at 30–40%), but I quickly realized that in affiliate offers — especially digital info products — it works differently. I got no conversions, and it seems that many users search for these brand names mainly to research or validate the products, not to buy right away. So this approach doesn’t seem as effective here as it is in traditional white hat marketing.
I’ve also started testing Facebook Ads, figured out how to work with accounts, create bridge pages, use spy tools, and learned the main tools to run campaigns properly.
Recently, I launched a campaign promoting an audio meditation product (digital info offer) priced under $50.
I’m running it for 5 days with a $20 daily budget, using CBO with Lookalike and Broad (Advantage+) audiences, and 3–4 ads per ad set.
I’ll analyze the results after the 5-day test and share insights.
My current monthly test budget is around $500–600, and my main goal is to learn, test, and gain experience, even if it means breaking even or taking small losses at the beginning.
I understand that ClickBank can be a bit tricky, especially with digital info products, but I’m ready to experiment and adapt my approach.
I’d really appreciate your advice on a few questions:
- With a $500–600 monthly budget, is it realistic to start with paid traffic for US or English-speaking GEOs?
- Would you recommend focusing on digital products (info offers), or should I explore other verticals?
- Are there beginner-friendly affiliate networks that might fit my skills and budget better than ClickBank?
- With this budget, which would be more effective to focus on — Google Ads or Facebook Ads (since I have strong experience in both)?
