I'm fairly new to affiliate advertising and I am quickly running up against keywords that cost ~0.80 per click to rank in top 3. say the program is 'dog biscuits'... should i try to find keywords like 'dog treats' and hope they have a cheaper cpc? or what type of strategies do you guys employ here? or is this just too competitive of an area for me? unfortunately i've been finding that MOST keywords require CPC's of <$0.50 and that isn't looking good for us.... thanks for any advice guys
if you are only selling $20 products, if you are buying $1 clicks, you can only afford to send 20 people before you make a sale. good luck finding that conversion ratio.... so how do you advertise $20 products that require ~100 views before purchase?
$0.80 per click is not a high bid. $10 per click is a high bid. You have to be creative. Look at variations of the actual keyword and parallel markets.
^ lol at $10 is high click so how you convert your $20 program in that market? 2 visitors, ha, good luck anyone dealing with $10 keywords is also dealing with $1000 products. They're not what i'm talking about.
Not true. They may lose money upfront if they know the LTV of their customers. Anyway if you have tight margins (like a lot of affiliates do) you just have to be very efficient (convert at high rate) or it won't work, plain and simple.
Look at the Pay-Per-Action option. In a PPA campaign, you only pay when an action is completed like a sale, newletters sign up, etc. So you could offer $5 for PPA and limit your cost per sale to $5.
Google does: http://services.google.com/payperaction/ I've been using it with some success (some wins, some losses) for some time now.
I've had success running campaigns with Adbrite using banner ads as opposed to text ads. Pretty cheap too. Just make a few nice banners and target the areas you want your ad to run.
This is where research into your industry comes in. If you want to sell products for keywords like "dog biscuits" or even "dog treats". As an affiliate you have to ensure the product you are promoting has a possibility of becoming profitable. Are others selling what you are selling? Or are you selling a cheap knockoff or a product with low payouts? You need to examine the possibility of turning a profit out of 50 - 100 clicks If you have 100 clicks at 0.80 per click you need to be selling a product worth $80 and up in profits per sale just to break even. Most affiliate marketers ROI is 2-1 so theoretically your profit per sale should be $160. Research is key, and selling a product with $2 income per sale is hard, even at 0.05 per click. Pick your products wisely and do your research. Forcast your industry and make sure you know what others are selling and what they are paying CPC before you jump in. I think the biggest upset I always see is mortgage leads. Everyone wants to do them, but as soon as they find out CPC is $5 - $20 per click, their dreams fade quickly. You can't compete with the big guys, which is why affiliate marketing is based on taking advantage of niche opportunities.