One Product PPC Campaign 7 search and beyond

[adrian]

So i'm following cryspers Advice and putting some accountability into action. Put up or shut up so to speak! I can do this just need to do this!

Because of the Advice here I have Flushed the old plan and will post a detailed agenda soon. That and Eymard Page looks so good.

Pick a niche-
The niche I pick is hot so picked one product from it that I know sells. As seen on TV and loads of good reviews. So even if the PPC doesn't work I can go another angle with my pages. It is very popular everywhere except 7 search. I have experience selling it with other methods so know a little on HOW to sell it.

Campaign Goal-
A list of 1000

Current goal-
1 email

Angle-
I have coupons to offer so will push them via email sign up 10 dollars off.
Humor/Blunt

Setup-
Set up 2 landing pages to test
Double opt in coupon code on thank you page
low cash setup save money and I have some skills! (it will look good for 7search)

Total Time Tally
10 hours

Cost-
Domain: 10.00
LP Template 8.00
Email Manager 40.00
7 search 100.00 deposit
Total = 158.00

Abandon Ship-
If 0 emails at 100.00 I'll take the hint. And blame 7search lol.



----------------Old------------------

I very well could burn through some cash but I'm ok with that as long as I learn on the way. As I'm new to 7search I burned about 20 dollars running some test campaigns. Once I got the hang of it, i took a few weeks (have other projects going) to find a niche to dump some cash into. I hear a lot of "7search is Junk", I think it's more finding the offer for the traffic. When you see the same commercial over and over you stop paying attention or tune it out.

How I find a niche - Find an out of the way niche - check the traffic to make sure you can get enough - check the competition I don't want to pay .60 cents a click getting my feet web - Another thing I do is check Google see if it has some competition this mean it should get some conversions. (Check a few of the ads out see what the big dogs are doing.)

So I found a good niche now I'm going to pick one product and own it with narrow exact match keywords. While I would love to see huge profits the goal is to break even with ppc you never know so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Set up
Domain -
2 landing pages I have discount options so I'll do
1 @ 5 dollar off
1 @ 10% off

Clicks should be .06 for top spot
Payout is 18.00
Break even is 1/300

I know it odds are stacked in my favor but I spent the time to find a setup like this. I have almost jumped on a few others but i only bet on a sure thing. This one looks good,

Thoughts? Advice? Wish me Luck?

 

[mutantbull]

Good luck mate .can't wait to see the results.

 

[adrian]

Well this did light my butt on fire. Got a lot done this morning.

Positives:

Got Landing page 90% complete just waiting for text to get edited.
I used a template I got for 8 dollars there are free ones in the dojo that might of worked but this was a good fit for the niche.

Spent 2 dollars on royalty free images and borrowed a pic from the offer page

Went to about 30 pages to get my landing page copy. Took one sentence here and there then spun it. changed durable to heavy duty or "the best product for baking" to "the best baking product" saves time in writing own copy.



Negatives

Tracking- since I'm not in the "network" wheel house I'm having to do a little dance to get my tracking set. it will work out but could be a 2 business day delay. I just set up tracking from the landing page to the offer page. So I can track LP click through that will be enough to start.

Coupons- I was going to use them but can't find where to put them in so figure the customers can't either . I don't want any obstacles between may LP and checkout. So I axed them, would of been nice but have to role with the punches.

I'll get some blanked out landing pages up soon and do the campaign set up next.

 

[crysper]

Awesome! Keep it up.

If you ever have problems with motivation(sometimes it may look harder) you can set yourself very simple and achievable milestions like First $10 in revenue, -20% ROI, break even, first $1 profit, first $20 profit and so on. You need to set few main goals and few things like these.

Why this works? Because is something like an internal gamification technique...it will work on your reward level of your brain, keeping things up and achieving something very fast towards the end goal. There are many studies for this and I've seen journals/follow alongs on other forums that successfully use something like this, but not to full extent.

To give you an example:
[Phase 1] Setting up
M1: Find 10 potential offers/niches
M2: Market and demo research than pick 1
M3: Set up 7search campaign
M4: Set up Lps
M5: Set up tracking
...
[Phase 2]Initial Testing - phase when you are still messing around with the demo, targeting, ad copy, normally before breaking even
M6: Get first 1000 hits
M7: Get first sale
M8: Get 30% LP CTR
M9: Get first 3 sales
M10: Break even
etc...
[Phase 3]Tweaking - phase after breaking even. You set up milestones for this after you finished the previous phase.
M11: Make first 100$
M12: 30% ROI
M13: Make first 100$ profit
etc...
[Phase 4]Scaling

You can think on something like this, it works. You make that all red on the first post and after you achieve them...change color to green and stuff like this
Maybe I'll be thinking on a model or something to follow

 

[adrian]

Thanks crysper for the structure, Hope You don't mind if I use it? And I love the motivation tips! I think I have two issue to over come. The first is the grass is always greener so to speak. I work on one thing get stuck/bored and move on to the next I need to limit myself to 2-3 projects till completion then move on. I came back into internet marketing to do PPC. This will keep me on the PPC track. My next issue (I seen it mentioned on oliver's blog) is when I have had success in the past I take the money and run. I'll make like 3k on a campaign it will have an issue then I just take the money and buy a new TV or something instead of scaling or building a new one. Before it was different because it was my income so budgeting was tough. This time I have a regular job, a ppc budget, and some segmented money goals.

Back to work-

So I got a little impatient and put one landing page live. My bidding was too low and my ad copy sucked(It sucked for me). So this morning I bumped the bid up to .11 cents and rewrote my copy. I also came up with another spin I can do with the campaign(later). The goals today is to have a second page done and a second ad copy running to split it. I know it might sound weird but this is the fun part, I had a very therapeutic time yesterday working on the landing page at the code level. I should use the wysiwyg editor but code is fun too.


[Phase 1] Setting up
M1: Find 10 potential offers/niches
M2: Market and demo research than pick 1
M3: Set up 7search campaign
M4: Set up Lps
M5: Set up tracking
...
[Phase 2]Initial Testing - phase when you are still messing around with the demo, targeting, ad copy, normally before breaking even
M6: Get first 1000 hits
M7: Get first sale
M8: Get 30% LP CTR
M9: Get first 3 sales
M10: Break even
etc...
[Phase 3]Tweaking - phase after breaking even. You set up milestones for this after you finished the previous phase.
M11: Make first 100$
M12: 30% ROI
M13: Make first 100$ profit
etc...
[Phase 4]Scaling

 

[adrian]

See below - it gave me a thumb.......

 

[adrian]

I blacked out most but it's just a general Idea for some advice. I was thinking of adding an exit pop to it?

 

[adrian]

I'm making my first minor overhaul of my LP As I was reading over it it looks nice but I was selling the "Feature" of the product to much. It needs to changed and sell "benefits". I think this is a big point that needs to be covered as is a common error.

 

[crysper]

Do not oversell it on the intermediate LP, say just what problem it solves...if you dig into features, it's too much in my opinion., keep it simple. I'm saying intermediate because I assume you are directing the visitor to the complete sale page of the product owner...not directly to payment page. Also, if you use tabs, make it just as an alternative navigation, make sure the user can see all the content if scrolls downs.

Regarding the "grass is greener on the other side", I also had this problem and it's quite annoying. I think I had about 5 unfinished project in my college years because of that. However, you can "educate" yourself to keep it going until you reach a certain point before giving up or give yourself a number of days to keep working on it.

For ex, what I used on a software I sold few years ago, I set a goal to reach at least 2000 downloads before giving up. If I would get over 20 sales I will keep it going, if not I will move to something else. Fortunately I got a lot more than that, but that's another story

You can give yourself like 30 days to break even or something like this, and don't give up within that period.

 

[adrian]

Do not oversell it on the intermediate LP, say just what problem it solves...if you dig into features, it's too much in my opinion., keep it simple. I'm saying intermediate because I assume you are directing the visitor to the complete sale page of the product owner...not directly to payment page. Also, if you use tabs, make it just as an alternative navigation, make sure the user can see all the content if scrolls downs.

Regarding the "grass is greener on the other side", I also had this problem and it's quite annoying. I think I had about 5 unfinished project in my college years because of that. However, you can "educate" yourself to keep it going until you reach a certain point before giving up or give yourself a number of days to keep working on it.

For ex, what I used on a software I sold few years ago, I set a goal to reach at least 2000 downloads before giving up. If I would get over 20 sales I will keep it going, if not I will move to something else. Fortunately I got a lot more than that, but that's another story

You can give yourself like 30 days to break even or something like this, and don't give up within that period.

I was actually going straight to checkout page, With Item in cart. 3 clicks from search engine to paypal checkout. But that was a variable I was going to test. The product page has a lot of other stuff for sale which might be an up sell but could be a distraction. The product has a impulse factor to it so I wanted to limit the wandering. I'm probably over thinking it and should keep it simple and let the vendor sell it for me. Aside from the technical stats everything is on the main page. I just hate when I click a link that says x then it sends me to a page with qrstuvwxyz and I have to find x again.

I have 3 projects going right now, one I'm waiting for a logo and goverment stuff and one is just a fun side project. As you know, sometimes your waiting for something or you don't want to do back links at the moment. I have a load of Ideas that I have to fight back everyday.

I do appreciate the help and feedback! I'm doing a lot of thinking out loud to make it more of a community learning process. When it's done we can clean it up and put it in the dojo. In more of a how to manner, if you can make 1 dollar on 7search you can make 10k on it, Might not be the most efficient ways but it's possible. You need to sell to the traffic you get.

 

[djcrunk]

Two questions:

How are you gonna do the tracking?
What are you gonna do with data once you gather it?

I believe you really need to have this in check before running anything on 7search. I don't know maybe you do already and that is great. Cause their traffic is known for not having the highest of quality/volume out there (aka probably not the best for actual sales offers), but yeah newbe friendly and cheap. So blocking the non converting keywords and specially the money sucking publishers (click hoarders, no conversions aka "where's the beef?") is top priority there, and might very well take you from profits desert to ROI bonanza.

Also personally I like to run offers direct linking first (yeah not recomended for cps), see if there is any potential there before investing time and money in domains, landers and stuff, and ask if people out there are actually making epc=money on it (affiliate managers are great for this... or they should at least). Cause offers are like stocks really, you have the great ones, hoarded by guys like Warren Buffet, and the "dogs", you know, the ones Gordon Gekko spits on. And even when you could make some money on "penny stocks" (everything is possible), you might not wanna break your bank on those.

Still the approach you're taking is very professional and you gonna learn a lot from it. Doing niche/traffic source research, your own coding, prepping landers and domains, is all part of the game you gotta dominate till you can do it eyes closed, with a hand tied to your back, so kudos for getting hands on with it. One of the first things I like to do before even using a traffic source is doing my homework of where's the volume (countries, verticals, biggest publishers). See what other people are saying from it, specially the big players.

Also for doing actual sales, I'd much rather build a list (which is an asset you will rip the rewards over and over later on and can monetize in plenty of ways, is like internet real state). And I believe rotating offers first is more important than rotating landers and split testing creatives for "the unknown".

Sun Tzu said it best:
"If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."

Good luck and great profits with any future endevours. Peace.

 

[adrian]

Thanks djcrunk, I feel like everyone is helping me get rich. lol

On the Tracking I have prosper running on another site I am routing it through and since I have it on my domain I can get stats there too. I also have analytic on it. It's a great point and is one of my favorite things is stats. Sometimes I'm that guy that sits and pushes refresh on the numbers. The testing I was running some straight to offer with prosper. Make sure everything was functioning here before I blabbed here.

What are you gonna do with data once you gather it? I'll most likely come back here and say 7search traffic sucks.

While didn't run straight to offer I have made money off it over and over back in the day. I got a check in the mail a few months back for stuff I did 8 years ago. I'm still in the traffic level phase. I do have other options on the offer so it's food for thought. But i'm 100% it's going to a black hole and it has converted in the past.

I do think your on to something with the list, why pitch one when I can pitch it over and over. And this would work with coupon discount codes. In my race to the finish I missed the starting gun. I had the idea with other campaign I was going to run but the vendor turned out to be Crap. But a list is a great Idea then I can keep this thread going for eternity.

The advice is appreciated. And will implement the list idea.

 

[crysper]

Two questions:

How are you gonna do the tracking?
What are you gonna do with data once you gather it?

I believe you really need to have this in check before running anything on 7search. I don't know maybe you do already and that is great. Cause their traffic is known for not having the highest of quality/volume out there (aka probably not the best for actual sales offers), but yeah newbe friendly and cheap. So blocking the non converting keywords and specially the money sucking publishers (click hoarders, no conversions aka "where's the beef?") is top priority there, and might very well take you from profits desert to ROI bonanza.

Also personally I like to run offers direct linking first (yeah not recomended for cps), see if there is any potential there before investing time and money in domains, landers and stuff, and ask if people out there are actually making epc=money on it (affiliate managers are great for this... or they should at least). Cause offers are like stocks really, you have the great ones, hoarded by guys like Warren Buffet, and the "dogs", you know, the ones Gordon Gekko spits on. And even when you could make some money on "penny stocks" (everything is possible), you might not wanna break your bank on those.

Still the approach you're taking is very professional and you gonna learn a lot from it. Doing niche/traffic source research, your own coding, prepping landers and domains, is all part of the game you gotta dominate till you can do it eyes closed, with a hand tied to your back, so kudos for getting hands on with it. One of the first things I like to do before even using a traffic source is doing my homework of where's the volume (countries, verticals, biggest publishers). See what other people are saying from it, specially the big players.

Also for doing actual sales, I'd much rather build a list (which is an asset you will rip the rewards over and over later on and can monetize in plenty of ways, is like internet real state). And I believe rotating offers first is more important than rotating landers and split testing creatives for "the unknown".

Sun Tzu said it best:
"If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."

Good luck and great profits with any future endevours. Peace.

Very good advice!

Creating a list is extremely valuable, you should have this on your mind all the time, especially for product sales.

@adrian: so you wanted to sell directly? Hmm...I don't think that will work on that price with 7search traffic, Normally the LP of the owner is tweaked, split tested, but of course, depends the type of people you are sending there. You may try it though, but you need to have a pretty good sales page... it's a CB product?

 

[adrian]

Thanks So much for the Wisdom.

Ok so I will shift the focus from sales to list. This will allow me to use some coupon and exclusive type adcopy to get more clicks. And with the list I might get some repeat customers.

I'm going to let the campaign run for now to get some data while I adjust the pages, I have 10 keywords in my bundle right now, I want to get some stats so I know which to focus on.

I'm going to lose to start but I'll keep everything in front of me, take advice and adjust. It's much more fun in a brainstorm format then doing it myself.

It's more work but "pimping aint easy".

 

[adrian]

So i cleaned up the first post because eymards looked so good so had to up my game, still has my crappy style but its fun.

I took the advice and went the email route. Took a little work but got everything setup and rolling. Its early but I'm optimistic.

My ad copy is good on one to get click 2@ 71 impressions. The other has no click and 146 impressions.

I only mention now as the 71 impressions is high bid and the 146 is 2 cent bids Anyone know if they have tiers. I thought high bid first page, low bid 3rd+ page maybe they rank the sites the ads show on?

 

[adrian]

A quick update!

This Campaign is going to simmer on the back burner. I have 8 clicks in 4 days. For the sake of community should I leave it to simmer or go for a broad match keyword?If I go for a broader work it would no longer be one product. So for the sake of this thread i'm just going to leave it till I get enough data to take it the right direction. So when it sinks done the list It not abandon just simmering.

 

[djcrunk]

8 clicks in 4 days... what the hell lol. Isn't there any volume in the keywords/niche you're going for on 7search? Cause that would really suck, even if you bid high and "lose money" or buy data at the begining (which is normal), if the volume won't be there to optimize and make it profitable, then what is the point anyway. I'd rather give my credit card to the gf to buy anything she wants (hellz no).

That's why I recommend to pick a traffic source first, study the in-outs of it the most you can (major countries, publishers, keywords, verticals, what is people running there, "where's the beef?"), then pick offers to try it on. You'll have an easier time figuring out offers to run on a certain traffic source than the other way around. Match the traffic to the offers and not viceversa. Still mad props for grabbing the bull by the horns.

Also have you thought about mobile traffic? Lead gen on mobile is a highly unexplored unsaturated field right now. Even the "big guys" and corporate money are behind on this area, which means oppotunity. Like when they said there was no way people would input their data or heaven forbid, buy stuff on the internet using computers from home. Same goes for mobile now, while you see countries in Africa using their cellphones as wallets on the regular already, and smartphones selling like cookies in APAC region.

Now mobile is kind of a different beast... specially when it comes to tracking and optimization, but that's what makes it exciting and highers the bar a bit (which I believe is actually a good thing). You gotta know what you're doing, moreso than in "desktop marketing". Adult mobile is kind of wild west right now, just ask around, with ad networks still catching on about what the hell to do with it, and failing miserable short when it comes to decent targeting options.

So good luck with this project or any other you run on 7search or other sources, and if you wanna talk shop about mobile traffic, always glad to give a hand with it. Just sign to my got damn email list already! J/K

 

[adrian]

Sure Djcrunk pm me your list signup, I like learning from the best. I won't buy anything! But i'm all for stealing Ideas if you have any good ones. On the mobile I might migrate that way when I get this settled. I love Adult stuff and keep getting sucked into it. Adult is always been gravy for me.... I think I should clean my act up then a check comes in. Actually this campaign is borderline but thats all I can say about that. Actually now that I moved this up I'm going to hit thehun and richards realm with some adult stuff. But have to do in adult section. This one felt unfinished, I was doing it with my asshat on (speaking of asshat I can pm you the link for my asshat club list if you want Djcrunk?) I was going to put a plug disclosure on it but it felt inappropriate.

I almost took some guru advice and bought a front page ad spot on MSN for testing, But figured it would be better to scale up as recommended on Affiliate fix Affiliate Marketing Resource

My Niche has plenty of traffic I just have to get it, it was more I over targeted and was being a little chickensh*t. So I re-targeted my landing page for the High volume Keyword, Also on the redo I made it a little more generic so I can move to more words with less work if needed. Here is my made over landing page. A little oversale, I'll split test a couple of landing pages after I get traffic nailed down. But I'm open to constructive criticism

I bid on the 3rd spot for the more active keywords but made loud keyword specific ad copy that used every digit. I added an exit pop it goes to second offer for those that don't jive with the LP..... like if your looking at speakers and the pop is for carver speakers . Note it does not have the exit pop gear on the page. lol