Hello everyone, this be my first post here at WF 
So I started taking a look at PPC about a week ago with the intent of finally getting involved in the industry.
The first thing I noticed is couldn't find an affiliate network that's both "good for newbs" and pays on a better schedule than net 30 (I could work around the net 30 deal, but it would obviously be nice to reinvest any earnings soon after I make them). Anyway I messaged a friend about this and he suggested I market some affiliate software (really a WP plugin) that he put together and he'll pay any earnings upon request. So I actually haven't signed up for any networks, only his own personal affiliate offer.
I don't believe anyone has ppc ads running on google for his software.. so I decided to throw up $100 onto Adwords and started making my first campaign. I got up to the point of needing to do keyword research and creating ad copy.
Keeping in mind user intent I began to look for keywords. The software is a multi-purpose WP plugin that's designed to improve CTR and overall conversion rate by using things like using fake date countdowns, geotargeted ads, exit popups, and roughly a dozen other user-friendly strategic implementations to make wordpress landing pages more effective. Obviously many of the words giving me higher-quality traffic such as "conversion rate optimization" are costing well over $1/click. That's roughly the max amount I feel like spending per click right now anyways in order to collect sufficient data to test each campaign with a $100 budget.
I found one keyword (improve ctr) actually that I'd only have to convert 1% to break even. Though I'm finding difficulty expanding on the general idea of "how to optimize my ads" type search queries. I don't think using individual features as a means to advertise would be very effective (such as using the keyword exit popups) because anyone looking for that one specific thing probably wouldn't care about spending money on the rest of the *irrelevant* features.
My question is from this point how could I train my mind to be able to find more cheap, relevant clicks ($1 or less) and at least get more traffic going to my aff link than with just 'improve ctr' (which is still pretty ambiguous as far as user intent is concerned). Or alternatively, should I wait until my budget will allow for higher CPC words? Even then if I was competing for say.. 'landing page optimization' it might be marginal to market this plugin based on the wide variety of user intent. Is there even much of a target audience that will want to find a ppc wordpress tool via google? The AM community usually shares ideas/techniques/software etc. through respected sites and blogs such as WF or a software review site for AM, as there are so many fraudulent (or ineffective) 'make money' tools out there, no? Maybe I could get my affiliate link up in some relevant forums or social networking sites for a bit of free traffic?
Any advice regarding keyword research for this campaign would help tremendously. I'm almost thinking I should come back to this specific offer with a bigger campaign budget if I get seriously stuck on keyword research. If so, I understand ads4dough is a decent network to join for a beginner. Any other networks you guys could recommend?
I'm extremely anxious to get my first campaign started but at the same time I don't intend to burn through money needlessly (that is to say, I don't have much opportunity to learn from the amount I'm spending).
P.S. If you're looking for a quality WP plugin to improve conversion rates, PM me for the link?
Haha.. jk.. sorta..
So I started taking a look at PPC about a week ago with the intent of finally getting involved in the industry.
The first thing I noticed is couldn't find an affiliate network that's both "good for newbs" and pays on a better schedule than net 30 (I could work around the net 30 deal, but it would obviously be nice to reinvest any earnings soon after I make them). Anyway I messaged a friend about this and he suggested I market some affiliate software (really a WP plugin) that he put together and he'll pay any earnings upon request. So I actually haven't signed up for any networks, only his own personal affiliate offer.
I don't believe anyone has ppc ads running on google for his software.. so I decided to throw up $100 onto Adwords and started making my first campaign. I got up to the point of needing to do keyword research and creating ad copy.
Keeping in mind user intent I began to look for keywords. The software is a multi-purpose WP plugin that's designed to improve CTR and overall conversion rate by using things like using fake date countdowns, geotargeted ads, exit popups, and roughly a dozen other user-friendly strategic implementations to make wordpress landing pages more effective. Obviously many of the words giving me higher-quality traffic such as "conversion rate optimization" are costing well over $1/click. That's roughly the max amount I feel like spending per click right now anyways in order to collect sufficient data to test each campaign with a $100 budget.
I found one keyword (improve ctr) actually that I'd only have to convert 1% to break even. Though I'm finding difficulty expanding on the general idea of "how to optimize my ads" type search queries. I don't think using individual features as a means to advertise would be very effective (such as using the keyword exit popups) because anyone looking for that one specific thing probably wouldn't care about spending money on the rest of the *irrelevant* features.
My question is from this point how could I train my mind to be able to find more cheap, relevant clicks ($1 or less) and at least get more traffic going to my aff link than with just 'improve ctr' (which is still pretty ambiguous as far as user intent is concerned). Or alternatively, should I wait until my budget will allow for higher CPC words? Even then if I was competing for say.. 'landing page optimization' it might be marginal to market this plugin based on the wide variety of user intent. Is there even much of a target audience that will want to find a ppc wordpress tool via google? The AM community usually shares ideas/techniques/software etc. through respected sites and blogs such as WF or a software review site for AM, as there are so many fraudulent (or ineffective) 'make money' tools out there, no? Maybe I could get my affiliate link up in some relevant forums or social networking sites for a bit of free traffic?
Any advice regarding keyword research for this campaign would help tremendously. I'm almost thinking I should come back to this specific offer with a bigger campaign budget if I get seriously stuck on keyword research. If so, I understand ads4dough is a decent network to join for a beginner. Any other networks you guys could recommend?
I'm extremely anxious to get my first campaign started but at the same time I don't intend to burn through money needlessly (that is to say, I don't have much opportunity to learn from the amount I'm spending).
P.S. If you're looking for a quality WP plugin to improve conversion rates, PM me for the link?
Haha.. jk.. sorta..