When your testing a new campaign, how many clicks do you typically want before you conclude if it's successful or not?
till it becomes unprofitable if profit is $10 and i spend $11, there is something wrong... If profit is $5,000 and I spend $1,000 its going great!
But at what you point do you determine that? Say I need 1 conversion for every 20 clicks to break even, do I only test 20 clicks? I would imagine you would want at least 100 clicks to get an average
I would say if you get 10 conversions in a row, then its fairly stable. Then you can assess if ROI is in line with what you want. If not then manipulate the numbers to get the ROI where you want it Lets assume 20 clicks = 1 conversion currently paying $1.00 per click and profit per item is $30 $20 / $30 = 1.5 ROI. Lets assume your target ROI is 2:1. Then you need to adjust your CPC to $0.75. $30 / 2 = $15.
Isn't a 50% profit ROI a bit high? From what I have read, the average return on investment is around 10-30%
it depends on the niche, but many of my clients have a 5:1 or 10:1 ROI. I have one client that has a 35:1 ROI and my personal affiliate marketing campaigns have a 2:1 ROI In this sense 2:1 ROI means for every $1 invested into marketing $2 is pocketed after all expenses.
That's incredible ROI, but i guess not so many people are having that kind of success. All i ever wanted is a 1/2 or 50%:1 ... Now just only able to break even.
I guess thats what 7 years of experience does for you. I will tell you I didn't have as much success when I first started either. It takes time, which is why it is now more common to outsource SEM management vs trying to do it yourself.
I would say the money spent on a campaign is more important than the number of clicks you got, when determining whether a campaign is profitable or not. It's difficult to say, because it takes time before you optimize a campaign, find relevant keywords, make good ads, etc. The only thing I can say, that you should test a campaign for about 2-3 weeks, before deciding to delete it.