I am looking to promote a $1.10 zip submit offer, so I first tried sending users directly to the affiliate page - and I got a 1/10 quality score for the keywords. OK. Next, I set up a landing page with some decent info, and a big link in the middle to the affiliate page, for a FEW MINUTES adwords gave me a good score, and a few thousand impressions, then IMMEDIATELY reduced the quality score to 3/10 or 4/10. I went back to the landing page and optimized the content so it wouldn't look so much like a duplicate from wikipedia, and set the link as <h2>. NO CHANGE. Is is possible to get a decent quality score with this link on my page? What am I supposed to do, bury it 4 pages in and get no conversions? Advice please! Thanks, Crispin
I wouldn't recommend doing email/zip submits on Adwords. They ban for it. If you do decide to do it, use the content network, not the search network and pay 0.15 a click. Google has an insanely refined and targeted type of affiliate Adwords customer they want and most CPA marketers struggle to fit the bill. Don't forget too that your QS can be affected by the failures of other advertisers to use the keyword you've selected effectively. More often than not, QS is something that needs to be worked at. CTR is the most effective way to raise your QS because it tells Google that you're able to connect your ad to your targets. Not only this, but Google monitors how fast visitors leave your page. If you're user leaves quick, or doesn't click through to the offer, they'll destroy your QS. They have this shit down to a science. They force you to learn by trial and error, then ban you for doing so. It's like working with a Nazi schoolmaster. Good luck.
Well hell, it seems like everything that I try stopped working a while ago... How can anyone promote a zip (or really any affiliate) offer now with adsense penalty, and search engine penalty? I have high quality sites running adsense, and they make several hundred per month recently, but multiplying that (i.e. to make a 'living') ain't easy. Most of the great ideas that I come up with have been thought of by 100 people already.
Can you tell me more about the Adsense penalty? I heard another round of affiliate bans went out recently about this. Are they trying to edge out email/zip submits or are they simply banning people? I made a post to Bindu and Sarah (the "Adwords Pros") asking for clarification on this whole thing. I personally feel that the difficulty of Adwords is understated by Google and misunderstood by the users. It seems nearly impossible to get any kind of clarification on this stuff until it's too late.
Well, the difficult seems to be that as soon as they realised that I was directing users to the zip submit, that they gave me a 4/10 quality score.
Yeah - I went through the same thing a few weeks ago. It's a major pain in the ass. Try it on yahoo - I have a zip submit offer running there and it's not running into issues.
Yea, doing the same thing here Yahoo and getting clicks. Not converting, but that's a different story! Good luck.
What's the trends poll method? Also, does Yahoo allow you to direct straight to the affiliate page, or should you use a bridge? Cheers
I've direct linked a few offers from Yahoo. They seem to be pretty lax with affiliate marketers, although following Google's example that may change soon. I used to direct link pretty often but try to avoid it now to keep my traffic sources hidden. Also, I've learned that taking the time to do a good landing page can really pay off. Most CPA landing pages are terrible and don't sell your visitors well, and can cost you in CTR and clicks. The trends poll method is pretty cool. The way I understand it is that you go to google trends and see what the hot trends are for the day and the week. Then, set up a poll on your blog or website about the trend and write an article about the trend offering your visitors a free gift card CPA offer for completing the poll. Once the poll is taken, take your visitor to the page to opt-in. Make sure you post the article in one of the better databases like GOArticles that publishes quickly so you can maximize on the trend before it dies. It's a fast and inexpensive way to tap into trend traffic. You have to be quick about it though.
One thing I forgot to mention. Don't even think of using Adwords to link to a poll. G will slap your face hard. Use articles.