So I started Clickbank about 5 days ago. Between then and now, I have lost a few hundred dollars from advertising with Adwords. I'm fine with that though, I'm a gambler so losing money is not a huge concern as long as it isn't my life savings. I'm just curious, out of the successful CB affiliates, how did you do when your first started out? Were you in the hole because of learning the ropes of adwords? Did you start earning money after you refined your keywords? I'm asking because I want to know if it considered a "strategy" of spending a fair amount of money to find out what keywords have the highest CTRs and such. On Adwords, I have been constantly removing keywords that have low CTRs, or are way too expensive and likely don't convert or target the buyer very well. My adwords costs are decreasing everyday because of this, but I think I'm still keeping the good ones. For instance, I had started off promoting the CB Code. Newbie mistake, I admit it. Keywords were like "make money at home", "make money online" and such, and although I got clicks, I didn't get conversions(and lost alot of money). As a newbie though, I think I just wanted to see clicks, haha. Anyways, the original question. Is it normal to be in the hole when you start out?
Yes, I lost close to a grand last year. Thats why I'm focusing more on free methods. However, I do use PPC because I think it has value, but my experiments are lower-cost.
I don't do PPC but my way of thinking is that you may want to start first with free methods, learn the ropes and than you can start ppc again. For example, you will learn how to do proper keyword research, how to choose a product, etc.
I will almost guarantee you 100% that if you don't know the basics of PPC, that Adwords will put you in the hole quicker than anything else. You might as well grab a hand full of money and throw it off a bridge. Adwords is not that hard, but you must learn the basics. There are certain things you can (must) do to increase your CTRs and bring your costs way down. And there are things you must never do unless you want to pay the $10 per click. Adwords is the best tool to find those hidden keyword phrases that can really make you sales. For example, using the broad match Take those results and do a little keyword research and you will be surprised at what you can find. And if you don't have a good list of negative matches, you can take a beating too. Not grouping your keywords right can cost you as well. There is a lot to consider and learn before you should try adwords, but if money is no object, I guess it is possible to pick up on your own. Good luck!! Zeek
I am no expert and still learning, but OK with some maths so will share some things i work on in return for some great help given to me on this forum. (even though it's basic stuff in many ways) In any business you must run at a profit to survive, so Willy nilly throwing a few hundred although it looks like fun will only lead to a fools game. The first thing i look at is the return / payout on a item so for example lets say a payout on a $100 item @ 75% = $75 (to keep it simple) This first tells me i need to make a sale of this item under $75 to make a profit so the very first step is i set $75 as my maximum to spend on that product for its first round of ads, now if i can not make a sale of that product with my $75 then i need to dump the product from my line up / or re evaluate my land pages / text / banner ads / any other options including articles / blogs or other creative i am using before re firing the ads again to see if i can get the system to run in profit. Sounds basic and it is and i suppose the tweaking of the A B C's (ads, banners & creative) is ongoing regardless. OK now you have established the max spend, the next is there are many calcs out there to calc av hits per sale, cost per sale and wide ranging sums but you can eliminate most of them for a more simplistic overview sum that gives the same answer in many ways. First you start with your start balance in this case the $75 , i use this figure as my start money, if i loose it then thats a business loss but lets call it revenue or R and expenses called E, with profit called P and hits called H, the resulting sum would give B or maximum bid amount. so the sum looks like this (R - E) = P / H = B , so the very start would look like this $75 - 0 = $75 / 0 = $75 (max bid) , but as you would already be saying is &75 is stupid for a max bid which is correct so you need to add a IF statement that looks like this If B > .50 then B = .50 / B this in effect places a maximum bid you wish to place on your ads in this example .50 or 50c $75 - 0 = $75 / 0 = $0.50 (max bid) this simple calc can be kept in a excel file, but lets say down the track you have spent ? 12.30 and had say 34 hits then your sum would be updated to $75 - 12.30 = 62.7 / 34 = 1.84 which would round to .50 again as you max bid. moving on lets say spend = 34.50 and hits = 87 then our sums would = (75-34.50) = 40.50 / 87 = .46 M (max bid) for those looking at it in its simplicity the sum calcs that you have had 87 people to make a profit of 40.50 so in effect to remain in a even balance you must have each click at .46 in this example now if you continue without a sale your max bid decreases and will do so to a point where the campaign is not viable, where it means you delete the product from you line up, and take the loss or revamp your ABC's and start again. Because we place the return up front as our start point we only need to make one sale to make a profit, but from here is how do you sustain your business, well to do this you calculate a profit margin before you start so lets say i want to run on 50% profit in this example. I would and lets say the above example i made a sale i would then based on my profit margin take 50% and add that to my R revenue so my sums would now look like this (112.50 - 34.50) = 78 / 87 = .89 (if>) = .50 M so as you can see the system reflects and resets the max bid on that campaign. Now for as long as i keep selling that product (adding 50% to the revenue) my campaign will continue to run and after recouping my initial investment i am now making profit without the worry. if down the track the product dries up the system will auto fade out and i drop the product walking away / keeping my profits. Others may have a better understanding as i mentioned only a new-by here.