What Kind Of ROI should I expect?

I know that there isn't a fast, hard answer to this question, and the answers will be varied, but here goes anyway.

What kind of ROI should I expect from doing affliliate sales? Can I expect to keep a set ratio, say 300% ($3 made for $1 invested)? Is there a breakpoint where you have to say, "I'm not making enough in this to keep going with it? Should I expect a smaller multiple in a competitive market? Of do I just need to be smarter in my promo tactics?

I've started my first campaigns on Adwords:

1. A test ad Adgroup, running a A/B headline test, (started this morning)
2. A mass keyword test with one ad, and about 9,000 keywords from Wordtracker,( 2 days in)
3. Another test, based on strictly Google/ Overture keywords, and variations in broad, exact, and phrase searches. (1 day in)

I've gotten about 2,500 impressions and 1 click across all 3 tests. I didn't want to come out wallets blazing without getting a feel for what's going on. But now, I'm starting to think that my .05 to .10 a click isn't going to bring me traffic anytime soon, even with 9000 keywords.

Comments, please.

 

You need to get a conversion rate for the website you are promoting (which means testing) in order to get a meaningful CPA. Then you can move forward with regards to your question.

There are a lot of variables with expecting a certain ROI for a program. Perhaps a little too broad to give a meaningful answer.

As an affiliate I have had campaigns return 10% and 1000% and everything in between - sorry

 

Once you get it to break even, it's great starting point; anyway, meaningful roi can be 5% if it is on 1'000'000 onvested then 50k for a person is nice return;

however, marketing and ROI neevr ends at first sale, keep in mind how and where you can have your visitors retain and buy again and again; very good example is hosting, where one customer can stayu for years paying 30$/mo bill all the time;

or another way is selling high ticket items where roi is really huge; and why not to use SEO (search engine optimization) to increase ROI compared to spendings; I know many ppl that does both and have great 50% deacrease in costs and increase in earnings;