The Unofficial DP Winter '06 Affiliate Noob's Challenge thread

I picked the Amazon book in adgroup1 because
-I am very familiar with the subject and the Internet community surrounding it.
-Bid prices are low.

Since I am so familiar with the subject it is removing what might be another unknown. I do want to stay concerned with making it as profitable as it can be even if it is negative i.e. -50% is better than -500%

The second product I am slightly familiar with. It was something my father mentioned to me when I last went to visit him. It is a bigger ticket item for sure though. It has far more potential but greater unknowns. The web site for this product looks really good.

I see my 2 picks as really different. So hopefully I will be learning twice as much

 

Im selling software...

$3 commission though, not very much. Even if I get quite a few orders a day I wont be making much...

but it has boosted my confidence...

Pete

 

Hm...$50 spent no second sale...Damn.

Pete

 

Date Imp/Clicks/CTR/CPC/Cost/Avg Pos

Adgroup 1: Amazon Item "WS" cost $17
1/15 79/1/1.3%/$0.04/$0.04/8.2
1/16 89/0/0.0%/$0.00/$0.00/8.7
1/17 161/1/0.6%/$0.14/$0.14/7.3

AG1: Added a few keyworks. Tweeked specific CPC for the more promising keywords. Need to do more keyword work. Need to figure out who would be my buyers and what would they be searching for.

AdGroup 2: Physical Item "10" cost varies
1/15 60/2/3.3%/$0.38/$0.77/38.2
1/16 106/0/0.0%/$0.00/$0.00/33.2
1/17 91/2/2.1%/$0.48/$0.95/31.9

AG2: Raised CPC across the board. Observing.

 

Ok I found a good keyword lots of searches per day. My plan was to setup and ad to advertise to these people but I would not be using the KW in my ad text.

I checked google only one other ad for this kw and overture only has 2.

Googles estimator told me I could get position 3 or 4 on the page for only .08/click.

You Bewdy I thought. Set up the campaigen with a single keyword and google tells me I need to increase the bid to $6.46!!!!

Anyone know what I have missed?

Thanks

 

What a blowout of a day! I keep adjusting ad copy and bids, and costs always go up after a day or so.

Today, this evening, actually, I had 102 of my 108 keywords go above my limit, some by a few thousand percent.

My ad copy became more and more price specific over the course of the last week.

Ultimately, I think I made a poor choice of products. Expensive is good, but I think I need to pick an easier sell than a coffee-table book of fine art.

I've just paused my campaign while I hunt for a new product.

Since I'm not returning to this product, I'll put my cards on the table:
the book was Dali by Dawn Ades.

A quick history of my ad copy, (some ran simultaneously):

First:
"Dali" by Dawn Ades
The beautiful, complete, compelling
tribute to the spanish Dada master
www . Amazon . com

Next:
Dali on your Coffee Table
Lovely. Disturbing. Whimsical. Mad.
Definitively surreal. 37% Markdown.
www . Amazon . com

Next:
"Dali" by Dawn Ades
A beautiful, complete & compelling
collection by Spain's Dada master
www . Amazon . com

Final:
Buy "Dali" by Dawn Ades
Now only $47.25 - a 37% savings.
Shipping options available!
www . Amazon . com

I went back and forth over "more creative" VS trying to find copy that would convert.

I'll be back with more after I get a new product. In the mean time, anyone want to take a stab at a post-mortem of my campaign?

 

Gee I want to buy it How expensive were your KW? I'm trying to stick under .10. Im also keeping away from low profit margins atm I am trying to flog a few CB products still no luck so far.

 

I don't know why that would be, but I do know that Google's traffic estimator is junk. It has never helped me - and not for a lack of trying.

 

If you want to spend money, why not try to promote my niche market, embroidery designs! I'll even give you my adword stats and tell you what's converting well...

http://www.clixgalore.com/AffSelectProgram.aspx?AdvProgID=2969

 

Adgroup 1: Amazon Item "WS" cost $17 - got a sale.

Amazon shows an order but not the payment yet (usually takes a day or 3). Anyway I expect the commission to be about $1.25. Although this is nice, I need more data before I can proclaim personal victory (self competition).

 

Ok I'll give it a shot.

I think your ads are trying to sell the book too much. Good for CTR but not for sales. Your 25+35+35 characters of ad space are not going to seal the deal. So I would think that you will get clickers who are browsing rather than looking to buy.

I like these ads the most:

The first is good since you are telling me that I am going to get a deal. The second is better because it tells me its a good deal and how much it will cost me.

Someone told me that when writing a PPC ad make sure the surfer knows exactly what they are clicking through to. For instance if the person seeing the ad would never spend $47 on a book then you have saved the cost of that useless click.

Anyway feel free to disagree.

I would pick something that people "need" (like a certification exam study guide) rather than something that "might be nice".

 

This is a very interesting thread. Please keep posting your results.
I have a question though. Is it within adwords TOS to directly link to the affilliate page ? I did some reading about this a couple of weeks ago and there was a clause in the TOS that stated that only 1 ad per site with the same keywords is allowed.

thanks and good luck to you all !

 

You can doo that if say on add that is affiliate

 

Ive paused my campaign too, im looking for a new product.
$60 spent, $3 made, no point.

Im gonna try something expensive this time...

 

Alex, I agree. It was after reading Shoemoney's advice in another thread that I decided to add pricing info.

I also agree that a "gotta-have" is a better choice than something like a coffee-table book (although people do buy them, but I guess it takes a more specialized and experianced marketer than I to capitalize on that!)

 

It could make for a nice website or landing page - say coffee-table-books.com or something But maybe not so good for PPC. Your initial ads sounded intriguing i.e. I would click through to check it out, but not to buy. A curiosity click I guess you might say.

 

2 different issues here.

1) AdWords ToS "1 ad per site per keyword"

2) Affiliate Programs ToS "can't do this or that."

For number 1, it means Google is only going to show 1 ad pointed to amazon.com for specific keyword X at a time. This keep the ads for a specific keyword more diverse.

For number 2, it is up to the affiliate programs details. If they say you cannot directly link a PPC ad to their pages, then that is their rule.

 

Then buy a domain of your own and redirect from there...

 

This answer solves both problems if used as a landing page. Your ad needs to say what domain the surfer will actually end up at by clicking. The "1 ad per domain per kw" is tied to the display domain.

 

After about 20 campaigns and $70AUD I finally made a sale! $17.32USD just appeared in my CB account this morning. Now if I could only work out what the hell it was I sold..... this might work
For some reason I thought the product name or something like that would appear in CB... I'll have to investigate to see how I find out where the sale came from. When I have this I'll post my campaign costs