Minimum worthwhile monthly PPC spend for beginner?

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rmbarnes

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Apr 8, 2010
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So I've decided to take the plunge into affiliate marketing.

I want to use PPC advertising, but don't have all that much cash at the moment. What's the smallest monthly spend where by I can see enough results to see where I'm going wrong, and try out a few different affiliate offers?

I was thinking maybe $200/month?
 


A month is a fucking long time when you're dealing with paid traffic. Just do this: set aside a budget for you to spend with no timeline in mind - but results in mind. So I'm assuming you got $200. How can you make this $200 give you best results? Use some of it to buy coupons. Goto B/S/T and spend $7 to get like a 50 EUR coupon or whatever the going rate is. Now you got $250. If you can get VCC's easily, do that a few more time.

Now get out there and get crackin.
 
I agree with Juntao - getting coupons will be your best bet for starting out. Try some second tier networks with coupons that require no or little minimum deposit to activate it. e.g. You can get Miva Coupons for a free $50 with a $5 deposit from what I recall.

With Google being such a cunt lately I'd recommend you start with Yahoo, Bing, Miva or 7Search (on the latter two you'll need broader keywords if you want to receive any decent traffic).

If you're on a small budget I suggest you choose offers with payouts of $10 or less.

IMO pick 3 niches - set aside a budget of $70ish for each, assuming your offer payout is say $3, this will give you more than enough data to find a few profitable keywords and ideally find at least one profitable campaign (after weeding out the shit keywords).

Rotate at least 3 offers right off the bat, along with landing pages (and try direct linking) and ad variations, and find the winners.

Make sure you have Prosper202 or some form of tracking set up, along with some split tests (Google Website Optimizer is free).

Good luck!
 
Cupid, do you say choose offers that are $10 or less because they require less and are easier to convert?
 
It's impossible to accurately answer your original question without knowing what you plan to promote, because click costs are always relative to the payouts available and the level of existing online competition.

If you're looking to sell a high payout item, such as finance leads, then $200 is not going to go very far. If it's much more niche with lower payouts, then it may be worth it.

My own rule of thumb is that you need at least 100 clicks per keyword to establish whether or not something is going to convert. You also probably need a minimum of 100 keywords to find the few "golden nuggets" that will make you money. A little maths will tell you that unless you can get clicks at 2-4 cents, which in most industries is unlikely, then you need a bigger budget.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks guys, this information was great.

I'm going to look for networks which offer vouchers, and set a few campaigns up for low payout offers.

PS I'm loving the nickname, Cupid.
 
2 further points just occurred to me on this subject..

1) I disagree completely with those others who have recommended starting with Yahoo/Bing/other useless PPC networks. Start with Google. It is more expensive, but you get traffic very quickly from which you can make decisions. Once you have a working campaign on Google, by all means transfer the performing kws to Y and Bing, but not anywhere else.

2) We provide free help and advice on PPC marketing, including one on one help from a proven expert super affiliate who will be happy to review your campaigns BEFORE you make all the silly newbie mistakes. Feel free to come on down.
 
If you are using Google do not buy coupons to save money. I am fairly sure this is what got me banned from adwords for life. There's no way of knowing for sure as they don't tell you jack, but it's the most likely in my mind.
 
evilgenius said:
Cupid, do you say choose offers that are $10 or less because they require less and are easier to convert?
Click to expand...

I say this because they require less money to test.

For each keyword I like to test with 2 - 3 times the offer payout. So if you choose an offer with a payout of $100 it's gonna cost a lot of money to gather enough data to get going.

So if you're on a limited budget go for an offer with a low payout so gathering conversion data isn't gonna break the bank. It's pretty uncommon to find a campaign that has a positive ROI off the bat, so don't be afraid to lose a bit when you start off - so long as you do get some conversion data.

Cheers
 
We can easily get started even with $0. But since you have $200, that is a very good investment to start with. Try different things and you will succeed.
 
CraZy_PiXeL said:
How do you use PPC with $0 ? :updown:
Click to expand...

Oops. I am sorry. I was referring some free advertising methods. Well, you can start with $50 in PPC. Start with low traffic keyword and try to learn more and then invest much on this.

It is a good game and if you master well, you can earn tonns.
 
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