$5,000 to invest, but not sure where

ambercat

ambercat

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Jun 27, 2009
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I'm new to affiliate marketing. I've posted on here a couple of times and been very appreciative to the feedback I've received.

Here's my situation: I've built a site and have 1 offer on there. I have accounts on Google and MSN. I've received around total of 2300 impressions, but only 18 clicks and no leads (only spent around $46 on an average of $2.56 CPC. Finding the right niche is something I know I have to do on my own. When it comes to money, I have 5K I'm willing to invest in advertising. I know that if done properly I can see a very nice ROI and just build from there. Should I just have super high bids on Google and MSN search? Or do media buys? I don't even know if 5k is enough for me to really go all in and see a ROI. Should I step back an minute and take it slow, or find an offer with a high conversion rate and through a couple thousand into media buys?

Thanks for the input, and if this is supposed to be in the Newbie section, apologies in advance.
 


With 2300 impressions only 18 clicks. Assuming all impressions came from paid advertising then your ad sucks balls.

Look at the ads of your competitors and build a better performing ad. Steal their ad if you can not do it better.
 
Yes. Super high bids with no leads will make you lots of money.

Really, though, the best place to look for advice to start out is the newbie forum - they've got a lot of good advice for bidding, placements, etc...
 
lol. they must suck balls indeed. Thing is, I did steal (ashamed to admit, but maybe not - everyone else is stealing flog sites). I'm also in an extremely saturated market right now.
 
Take it slow. Don't just throw a couple thousand here and there. Test everything and make sure you know your conversion rates and ROI.

I had made ten thousand on a campaign and then blew it on some new sites and campaigns. I figured it was worth spending the money to introduce people to the sites and get some conversations going. Wrong! Every dollar you spend needs to be aimed at making a profit in the near term.
 
It's pretty simple, start slow and don't spend much until you find something with a positive ROI. Depending on how smart/lucky you are you are going to burn through a portion of that 5k without ever having a positive ROI. You should not think of it as "I have 5k I'm willing to spend on advertising" it should be "I have 5k I'm willing to loose searching for a campaign with a positive ROI." Once you find that campaign you should be willing and eager to spend every dollar you have/can on it.
 
Also, think about what you want to build or search for with the money. Do you want to use the money searching for a PPC camapaign that might convert for three weeks or do you want to use the money to build a quality website that will build a growing list of customers, leads, and sales?
 
ambercat said:
lol. they must suck balls indeed. Thing is, I did steal (ashamed to admit, but maybe not - everyone else is stealing flog sites). I'm also in an extremely saturated market right now.
Click to expand...

The more saturated the market the more number of visitors are potentially available for you to attract. You need to be regular on your stie. Since your selling your own products give them free vouchers. For example give me $20 credit which they can use the next time they buy something from your site.
 
I think the best advice I can give is start slow and test... We have some affiliates converting at 1:2400 (or worse) and some affiliates converting at better than 1:200. Same site, same banners... Different traffic. You couldn't afford to buy clicks at 1:2400, but you can make great money at 1:200. You won't know until you test.

Building assests, seo, blogs, etc. is always a good idea.
 
Use $1,500 to build up, test, and optimize your campaign.

At this point you will probably only have around $4,000 left. Now figure out what all of your mistakes were, avoid them, and try again.
 
Lots of market research is needed.

Take around $500 of your budget that you're prepared to lose completely and test 8-10 different offers in different places. Test search, and content networks in different campaigns. With that $500 you'll quickly see where the most potential lies. Don't waste time creating perfect landing pages, just get something up and see if you can get the clicks. Any conversions are a bonus. Start with offers with low payouts so you can see quickly and cheaply if you can profit from an offer.

Also talk to your affiliate managers.

When you find which 2-3 niches you want to focus on, spend ages analysing the competition. Don't copy landing pages obviously but spend a long time working out how their sites work.

You also might consider joining ppccoach ($50 a month) and learning zip submits... It used to be free, think you have to pay now, but I also benefited from the black ink project. $5000 isnt nearly enough to be competing in niches where you're paying more than $2 per click without some more experience.
 
I wouldn't do super high bids on Yahoo, MSN or Google--It won't pay off. Also, I would work on getting your bids lower for PPC and more targeted. I would also write some new ads, that would include dynamic text--keywords. If you do that in the title & yoru site is relevent, your CTR should improve. Perhaps MSN or Google would be willing to help you with your campaigns. MSN is very good to work with.

I would infest your 5k into SEO link building, article submission, etc. as well as PPC. Make sure your website is easy to navigate & has the necessary information.
 
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