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“ActiveRevenue”/  “CPA

My Journey to $200.00 /day Bing PPC

RyanH

RyanH

Active Member
K, so I know I need to make this follow along to get advice/tips etc. from all of the legends that have paved a way for the rookies out there like me to make a come up. Also, this will serve to help those that come after me. I hope we can benefit from each other.

Vertical: Loans
Traffic Source: Bing PPC
Initial Test Budget: $30.00/ day. (Will scale from there after a few days waiting for the data I'm buying to become statistically significant.)
Tracker: CPVLabs (VPS #1)
Landing Page(s): Instabuilder 2.0 (VPS #2)
CPA Network: MaxBounty (Will split test additional networks later)
Starting Budget: $700.00

_______________________________________________________________________________________
​
My methodology: Test hard. Test fast. Test with multiple variables and wait for the data to become significant.

1. I'm testing 7 ad variations
2. I'm testing direct linking vs. 1 landing page (50/50)
3. I'm testing 4 offers (If the offer sucks, no amount of optimization will get your conversions pouring in)

_______________________________________________________________________________________
​
Additional Notes:

*For my lander, I've deployed a small survey (micro commitments) that lead to a click through button that rotates through the 4 offers. Using a hero shot, and pre-selling the offer's w/in the questions

*Spied on the keywords, ad copy etc. of my competitors. Haven't done much with their keywords but did utilize their ad titles. Again, waiting for the 500+ keywords I'm bidding on to give me back some data as to what's working.

I come from the school of B.A.M (by any means) so there's nothing I won't do to get the results I want.

I'll update in a few days.
 
!Update! - 1​

Alright! Things have been going great! I know this is overdue but I wanted more to share with you guys than what I currently have. This’ll have to do for now. :)

Let’s first review the beginning of this journey and bring you all up to speed as to where I am now..

RyanH said:
K, so I know I need to make this follow along to get advice/tips etc. from all of the legends that have paved a way for the rookies out there like me to make a come up. Also, this will serve to help those that come after me. I hope we can benefit from each other.


1. Vertical: Loans

2. Traffic Source: Bing PPC

3. Initial Test Budget: $30.00/ day. (Will scale from there after a few days waiting for the data I'm buying to become statistically significant.)

4. Tracker: CPVLabs (VPS #1)

5. Landing Page(s): Instabuilder 2.0 (VPS #2)

6. CPA Network: MaxBounty (Will split test additional networks later)

7. Starting Budget: $700.00


_______________________________________________________________________________________


My methodology: Test hard. Test fast. Test with multiple variables and wait for the data to become significant.


8. I'm testing 7 ad variations

9. I'm testing direct linking vs. 1 landing page (50/50)

10. I'm testing 4 offers (If the offer sucks, no amount of optimization will get your conversions pouring in)


_______________________________________________________________________________________


Additional Notes:


*For my lander, I've deployed a small survey (micro commitments) that lead to a click through button that rotates through the 4 offers. Using a hero shot, and pre-selling the offer's w/in the questions


*Spied on the keywords, ad copy etc. of my competitors. Haven't done much with their keywords but did utilize their ad titles. Again, waiting for the 500+ keywords I'm bidding on to give me back some data as to what's working.


I come from the school of B.A.M (by any means) so there's nothing I won't do to get the results I want.


I'll update in a few days.
Click to expand...


  1. THE VERTICAL: So my initial vertical was “loans”. After thorough research, I opted to break my one rule (that’s to not hop traffic sources and verticals after selecting one until that one has been mastered) by switching to the health vertical.

    Why? Simple really. I really shouldn’t have gone into loans to begin with considering my long term goals, but the data I paid for was awesome! Got my ass kicked on Bing a little bit…and it felt great! :affiliatefix: I initially intended on monetizing a list on the backend with this vertical down the line but as I found out, not all verticals are appropriate for list building. Think about it. Would people rather subscribe to a list about best ways to take care of their furry friends or a list about collecting and taking out more loans? I’m not saying it can’t be done, but people generally aren’t looking forward to opening emails about loans.

  2. THE TRAFFIC SOURCE: Bing PPC. Not hopping traffic sources… au contraire, I am learning how to make Bing my bitch :). I admit though, I’ve learned a lot. I went in not knowing about the Bing traffic source or its audience really. I figured the data would tell me that. Turns out, Microsoft has their demographics laid out in the courses if you look for it. For those that don’t want to look it up manually -> Bing mostly caters to middle class – affluent, college educated women between the ages of 35 – 44. Debt loans? Not looking so good. There’s an audience for loans for sure, but I’m not interested in “dabbling with Bing”, I’m obsessed with “mastering the traffic source” and to do so, I first must understand it thoroughly. This is done through learning via reading/vids, and learning via experimentation.

    I’ve been spending 5+hours a day studying my Bing manual/ note taking during Bing tutorial videos/webcasts -> Getting Started with Bing Ads - YouTube . I downloaded all the pages from Bings Courses and made a 75 page manual out of it after reading every page. Then, I began researching pitfalls others have fallen into re: Bing. Mostly on this forum so as to avoid them. Most of the pitfalls people encountered could have been avoided if they went through the coursework.

  3. THE DAILY SPEND: My daily spending budget -> $30.00 even daily spend is fine actually. For initial testing purposes.

  4. THE TRACKER: CPVLabs -> Fucking awesome tracker. Via the &query={QueryString} parameter, I was able to see the crazy shit people were typing out that would trigger my ad. You can get seed keyword ideas, ad group ideas or campaign level ideas from this data. Are you finding any common themes or consistent patterns in user search queries that you have/had a blind eye to?

  5. THE LANDING PAGE SOFTWARE: Instabuilder 2.0 -> Great. Nothing really to report about the plugin other than it’s really amazing and great for micro commitment building etc.

  6. THE CPA NETWORK: Maxbounty is pretty solid. But I do want to test other networks in the near future (Adsimilis, Peerfly)

  7. THE BUDGET: Alright, so let’s dig into this a bit. This is very important and key for anyone reading this. I GOT GREEDY! You heard it here first! xD

    How: I chose 4 high paying offers to run with for my initial run. Not 1, but 4. Not to mention I tested a lander sending ½ the traffic to the lander and the other ½ to be split equally amongst all 4 offers (direct linking, mind you). The lowest paying offer was $40.00, the highest being $70.00.

    Why was this wrong? To test an offer, you generally need to spend about 3 – 5x payout PER offer (some say 10x) before scrapping it. So, remember, I was sending 50% of the traffic to a landing page which means each offer was directly getting about 12.5% of the remaining 50% of the clicks. Now, nothing is wrong with this method IF you have a higher daily spend ($100+ a day at the least I would think) and overall budget, otherwise you’re getting data way too damn slow. So if my initial budget was $700.00, I would have blown through my entire budget and had to add in an extra $200+ (5x the offers) just to test direct linking the offers. So I'd need a minimum of a $900.00 as a testing budget for those 4 offers.

  8. THE ADS: I started with 7 ads…which is fine. You’re not paying for impressions, you’re paying for clicks…so this isn’t costly. Actually, you need to see what’s working and kill off the under performers once you’ve collected enough data.

  9. THE LANDING PAGE + DIRECT LINKING: After two days, I scrapped my landing page because it was eating away at the fast data I was after. I wholeheartedly believe in using landers, but when initially testing to see if an offer converts…I’m going to keep using the method (for now anyway) of throwing shit at the offers directly until the data shows conversions. After which, I'll introduce a lander and optimize and split test from there.

  10. THE OFFERS: See #7. So yeah, I got greedy.

  11. THE DATA: See attached image. $50.00 out of pocket for this education. Bing footed the bill for the other $50.00 (Bing coupon). Total Spend $100.00
33mpxrs.jpg


What: The most important metric is your conversion rate. I didn’t get a single conversion during my 4 day campaign. So this data from Bing you see above was made despite my complete and utter ignorance of how to use the network optimally. If I wanted to proceed with this vertical, I could have chopped all my low performing keywords and increased my bids on these two keywords alone by going deep after having started off wide. This is the power of collecting data. It's like what @servandosilva said in a post I read once -> (paraphrasing: Screw everything else, what's the data telling you).

Why: My initial strategy was to copy the keywords of my competitors and place them in my ad groups. This may be okay but as you can see, some of the keywords aren’t very relevant (note: online bank). This is okay because in the beginning, you’re just collecting data. Go wide, then go deep. You also want to ruthlessly chomp down on your ill performing, irrelevant keywords. They can eat your budget and lower your overall quality score.

THE STRATEGY: Moving Forward​

I’ll test 1 – 2 “low paying” ($10 - $30) offers in the health niche, direct linking (may copy my competition's landers and change this strategy though. Depends on round 2 of data collection, really). Also, I'm bidding low and slowly increasing my bids for better impressions. I'm not sacrificing initial ROI for quality clicks at this juncture. I know that sacrificing short term ROI (bidding high then slowly dropping bids) in the beginning stages is a strategy that works for some so I may play with that as a variable in the future.

I love the fact that there are so many moving cogs that you can invariably switch around until the machine is running at an optimal level!

Armed with knowledge of how to run Bing reports, cut keywords, increase bids on high performing keywords and a shit ton else…I’ll be launching another campaign in the health vertical with new, low paying offers (possibly in multiple GEO’s to test which GEO converts best) and, I will keep you all posted. ;)

____________________________________________________________​

Bing Courses I'm taking:

Book(s) I'm reading (not my affiliate link):
 
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!Update! - 2​

@CaramelRocks and I were/are having such an incredible private conversation, that I felt I needed to share this brief excerpt from yesterday with you guys since it's relevant to my journey.

CaramelRocks said:
I've heard that media buying is really tough. Based on your experience with buy sell ads and sitescout, what would you mainly have done differently if you used those platforms again?

Have you started the health offer campaigns on Bing ads?
Click to expand...

Media buying is very tough. I lost my shirt, shoes, skinned my knees, broke my arms, dislodged my kneecaps and had a concussion with media buying!

But I'm going to jump back in it (maybe with Bing content network) at a later time. I just...don't like losing. Not to mention, super affiliate John Crestani (he makes $5,000,000+ per year) punched me in my fucking face (metaphorically speaking) about a month ago, but he really put things in perspective for me...

25k7clf.jpg


So yeah...I plan on going back and conquering media buying in the future. This is something I just have to do...not because I want to make money in it, but because...I just have to do it now. It's personal.

Before I answer your question about the health vertical, I want to give you a little backstory about me.

I'm 29 approaching 30 next January. I've been wanting six and seven figure monthly checks ever since I was 17...but things didn't "click" for me until I realized I'm about to hit 30 and have been basically making repeat resolutions each year. I had a break down and promised myself success in 2017 or I don't want to live to see 2018.

So with that being said, I've never been in shape in my life. January 7th, I started a 90 day diet plan and 7 days a week brutal exercise regiment that now has given me six pack abs, and an all around chiseled frame. I've never looked this good in my life. What clicked?

Les Brown (motivational speaker) says there are 3 types of people in this world.

  1. Winners
  2. Losers
  3. Winners who've not yet discovered how to win yet.
I consider myself the third person. If someone is making something work, then you can too...you just need to figure out how they did it and execute similar actions.

Before Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile, it was commonly believed that it was humanly impossible to do so...so it had never been done prior to him. After the world saw him do it, tens of thousands have gone on to do the same thing...including high school kids.

If it's possible, I'll figure it out. If there's a chance...I'll figure it out. That's my line of thinking these days.

Sorry for that entire spill but I've learned and done so many things over the last few months that have scared the shit out of me...but that's what gets my dick hard, you know? Extreme growth.

That being said, YES, I still want to enter into the health vertical but I haven't done so yet. Why? Because I paid $50.00 for useful data during my loans test run that spanned 4 days that I am going to do...what with exactly? Nothing? Really? Just getting experience? Hm. Ok. That really bothered me. Even though it's not optimal to build a list from the loan vertical, I can construct click through landers and optimize the landers based on data after I see which offer converts better first.

So...I did just that. I just...really hate walking away from something for lack of effort. So I couldn't do it. I'm going to run with the health vertical but continue with loans on the side. Just because...now it's personal too. ;)

So what did I do? I ran all the fucking reports in Bing from my 4 day test run and looked at genders, ages, states, devices, poor keywords, best keywords, best ads etc. and took all the best data and ran a "Phrase match" campaign (going deep now that I've already gone wide) and increased my bids to compete. I'm eyeing things very closely but this is where things are as of this writing...

2njfrk4.jpg


In my initial 4 day test run I had a 0.30 average CTR. As it stands now, it's 4.12 percent.

I chopped 2 offers and instead am running with the remaining 2 offers (started with 4).

I also chopped over 560+ keywords and just increased bids on my high performing remaining 11 keywords. I also learned how to better use the dynamic keyword insertions. As it stands as of this writing, it's currently my best performing ad.

I estimate that sufficient testing (waiting on some conversions) will cost me about $600.00.

Some variables I'm entertaining -> Landers and Remarketing (solves the problem of people not converting on first visit...which is an advertising norm...hence why commercials run so many times before being deemed effective/ineffective.)

______________________________________________________________

I sent this message to Caramel yesterday morning. Now, my CTR is still around 4.12% and I've managed to drop my bid to about $1.15. I'm still looking for that bid sweet spot where I can get quality and quantity.

I noticed my impressions were still high as it got later at night (like 8 or 9 pm) but clicks drastically decreased. So I set up an ad schedule to run from 6 am to 9 pm to hone in on the optimal time I should show my ads.

That said, I'm paying very very close attention to the impressions vs. clicks graph. I noticed a 4 pm spike in clicks (legitimate clicks...I checked in the reports) yesterday that I want to keep tabs on. So, I'm looking for a somewhat consistent time frame and trend now.
 
Last edited:
!Update! - 3

9s5r1e.jpg

So yeah. Got my first conversion today after uber optimizing my campaign. What all did I do?

  1. After throwing shit at the wall to see what was working for a few days, I then went deep (started broad then shifted gears into phrase match)
  2. Direct linked two offers
  3. Optimized genders
  4. Devices
  5. Ages
  6. Keywords
  7. Ads
  8. Bids
  9. Ad flight times
  10. Also been aggressively playing with bid strategy
  11. I also called my AM to get further insights, tips, advice on the offers I was promoting along with direct linking vs. presell page intel as it relates to the loans vertical
  12. I also called the companies who the offers belong to so that I might speak with their marketing departments (or the offer owner him/herself) to gather further intelligence and insights that could help me with my campaign. They want you to succeed more than you know.

If you didn't grasp the magnitude of the importance of 1 - 11, particularly 10 and 11, go back and read it again.

____________________________________________________________________
Stats to date:

Spend
$342.00
Revenue:
$44.00
Profit/Loss:
-$298.00

Ready for the bad news?
____________________________________________________________________


28s1wf5.jpg

​
Sooooo...Bing stopped delivering my ads shortly after my conversion (didn't realize this until a few hours later). My delivery status for my ads changed from "Eligible" to "Approved limited". Upon further investigation, I found out it was because I was direct linking the offers in my ads. So my "Display URL didn't match my LP URL." So yeah, Bing slapped me. If you're reading this and are considering running with Bing -> DO NOT. I repeat...DO NOT DIRECT LINK EVEN IF IT'S FOR INITIAL OFFER TESTING PURPOSES!!!

I took a few seconds out and thought to myself..."Damn...this sucks...I wasn't done testing the offers yet." But in all actuality, I was...I just didn't realize it at the time.

Want to know something else? I had planned on introducing a lander on Monday morning (4 days from now) so it wasn't that bad.

Want to know something else? I'M GLAD BING DID THIS!!! I fucking love it! Super elated over here. :D Why? The picture above is a misnomer really...just for giggles...but in all actuality, I'm learning. every. step. of. the. way. Books, articles and web pages are great to learn affiliate marketing from but the best teachers are and always will be -> setbacks & failure. Most people seek to avoid such things. I was told early on if you want to succeed at something. Fail at it. If you want to succeed faster, fail twice as fast. I feel bad for people who fear Professor Failure and Professor Setback. To me, these teachers whisper in my ear "Look in another direction" or "Try harder" or "There's something you're not looking at." etc.

THE STRATEGY: Moving Forward
​
I will aggressively build a simple lander (now that I've discussed strategy with my AM) that presells the offer. It gets better though. Now I get to utilize remarketing tactics!!! I couldn't before since I was direct linking but now that I've officially gone down to one offer (as of this post) and need a lander to continue, I will aggressively be shooting all my traffic at my lander and deploy a Bing UET (Universal Event Tracking) tag onto my lander to remarket to interested visitors.

My AM congratulated me on my first conversion, it's exciting...tasting a small morsel of the good life one keeps reading about. I went from being severely interested to being severely addicted to this game after seeing that conversion. Shit just got real.


As always, will keep you all posted!

"Live each and every day as if it's your last because one day, you'll most certainly be right." - Steve Jobs
​
 
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