The Super Affiliate’s Guide to PPC Marketing

Nick-

Just so I am sure on where you are sending these leads, you are sending them directly to the programs website and not to a site of your own first?

Thanks,
Dave

If you are directing them straight to the ad. How are you tracking conversions?

Thanks,
-Geiger

I do have a question .. about a landing page. using my own domain URL, should I paste the HTML code that NeverBlueAds provides on to my Destination URL ?

or should I forward my Destination URL to the Programs/Lead Website ?

This is what I mean, I have created Two Landing pages
using HTML and Redirect which one should I be using.

Thanks Zac Your help is really appreciated.
Edgar

You don’t touch on quality score in here, and anyone who uses search to send an offer straight to a merchant’s landing page is almost certainly gonna get slapped on QS.

Soooo…are you saying (in #3) not to bother with search and run only on the content network? It’s always been my impression that conversions on the content network suck so bad (and drag down your CTR) that they’re not worth trying for.

Great post, by the way. It’s good to see the masters trying to help the newbies.

Kudos to you. Probably the most valuable post I have read all year - really. I’m sick of reading posts that are just opportunities for people to show off and market themselves to potential clients. Meaty post

Zac,

This is really great post. Great job on putting some quality valuable information out there! Keep up the good work.

Wow. Thanks for this rundown! I’m signing up right now and researching keywords this very second.

Thanks! I have been on Neverblue for a few months but never thought of using it in this way. I have set up a campaign and I’ll post the results on my blog in the next week.

How long would you wait (using your $100/day example) before giving up on a poorly converting campaign? How much would you suggest tweaking the adwords units?

Did you get 3 Leads with it or is it an example? and Dam I never knew content network didnt have QS. Cant wait to start on adwords next week.

Thanks for the tips
Keep up the good work

Hey Zac,

Great article, thanks for the detailed info. Just a couple of questions:

1. With AdWords do you tend to use only broad match, or do you use phrase and exact match as well? Does it make much difference, in your experience, on the content network?

2. Is it, generally, quite easy getting approved for the offer? Obviously with your track record, it’s much easier… but if a newbie comes along and has a site about kitchen sinks will they have problems getting approved for a weight loss programme?

Zac,

Thanks so much for the post. I am the true definition of a newbie. All these terms are familiar to me from 2002, but they were over my head then (still are). Should I just give this a shot or do you think I should start out with something more basic?

Zac! No joke, you totally just posted my niche I was about to use … not cool man.

Nah, just messing with you. Just don’t use the Amazon Diet Zac posted everyone. It sucks.

zack, what would you say about making a write up for an affiliate offer then doing some PPC and directing it to that post page?

Interesting post. It’s great for a start, in the end you will put all these chapter together, and make a new ebook about PPC?

Great article Zac … will put it to the test shortly

Zac,
Suppose if i do it the following way:
1) Select a random product product
2) Blog about that product on my blog & install the affiliate code within that particular post.
4) Put adsense (if I’m not already using it)
3) Buy traffic with Adwords

I think it will benefit me in three ways -

1.First of all I’ll get traffic from my regular readers
2.Secondly if the product is good, it will be purchased, making me some affiliate money
3.Lastly, even if the product is not purchased, the visitor might happen to click on adsense ads, which will in turn atleast make me a few dollars even if the product is not sold.

What do u think?

Thanks for the guide

Zac, I know I wasn’t the first or only to ask you to make a tutorial on this but am definitely glad my post helped get you in the mood to do it. And as you can see already, a ton more people are also happy about it heheh. So thanks so much for taking the time to do this! I really look forward to giving it a shot and documenting my progress (giving you full credit of course!) and can’t wait to see the next installment!

Awesome that Chow even posted about it and that you inspired him to do something like it as well. Nice job ;).

Thanks again, really!

It is all good, but it is very hard to get $0.05 clicks from content networks too. I even running weight loss keyword with $.10 bid on content networks, I have no impression. Maybe my keywords are just too generic.

Is your above Adwords stats for Amazon Diet campaign?

Great tips, Thanks Zac!

Hey Zac, thank you for this great post. I have been planning for months to start doing some PPC, but have been putting it off. This post inspire me to get my first campaign going this weekend.

Thanks!

Chris

Old methods already

Why don’t you respond to emails ? atleast when someone is reasonably pointing to some mistake in your blog ??

Great post for newbies to affiliate marketing and PPC like myself. I can’t wait for my site to start bringing in scores of people and getting clicks. I’m going to start getting more into PPC as time goes on, but for now, I’m trying to get organic traffic.

We’ll see what happens. Thank you for this pearl of wisdom

Excellent article John, your best yet I think. I never made a affiliate campagin, and been meaning to start with affiliate marketing for a while now, but never had the motivation till now. Will try to follow your tips in my first affiliate marketing campagin, that i hope to launch next week. Will keep you update

Wow there is so much information here. Am I curious to know if there is a minimum amount of click throughs that you can pretty much count on. Would you say you can convert at least 1% of the click throughs?

great article.. really nice job

Great article Zac cleared up a lot of things for me.

Just wondering, what would be an acceptable amount of signups from 500-1000 clicks (in terms of percentage)?

Zac, I have some questions about advertising on PPC content networks. When you choose keyword or phrase, for example “weight loss”, do you choose other phrases where this keyword/phrase is already contained (i.e. “weight loss programs”) just because it has lower bid or you need this? Also this question is for advertising on Google SERPs.

When you insert display URL and destination URL, can you put your affiliate URL in destination, but affiliate site’s URL in display URL, i.e. site.com/diet? I saw many times on AdSense ads that it is displayed normal URL of site, but when i click on it, I see that it is affiliate URL.

Do you work with other networks, except NeverblueAds, like Commision Junction, Linkshare, etc, and what are your results with them?

Also, cookies for affiliates are valid for days, weeks, months, what about that?

Hi Zac,
Your article is worth many ebooks out there.
I appreciate you taking time and showing the path for the newbie in the field of PPC.

Vijay

Wonderful guide! I definitely had to write about it on my blog.

http://www.dailywebbers.com/stepping-into-ppc-marketing/

Zac,
Once again - great post. Last week I went through and read your entire blog - so many pearls of wisdom.

One question - have you done any PPC for products on Amazon? I’m doing some now - but not using the content network - wondering what your experience has been.

I signed up with NBA last week and have a couple of links earning money on one of my niche sites - again, thanks for bring them to my attention!

Brian

After reading through a couple times I had a couple question ;).

Keywords, do you suggest a handful of keywords or tens of thousands like some people say? If it is thousands, do you use specific tools to generate good list of keywords? Also, if it is thousands, is it just something you are hoping you throw a ton at the wall and only keep the ones that are accepted at your target price (like 5 cents, for example) and then ignore all the others that are too expensive?

If you are doing the content network and sending them directly to the offer does the landing page context matter too much? I assume it would already be targeted as it is selling the actual product but do you need to focus on making sure your keywords real targeted. And does getting a domain to redirect help at all with the click cost if it contains the keywords?

I think one of the biggest problems I have had in the past is getting keywords for a decent price. But then again, I was always running search and content on the same campaigns so obviously that messed it up some lol.

Again, AWESOME write up and can’t wait to see the next installment! Thanks!

Hi Zac,

Thank you for your post. Basically, I followed your guide and launched a campaign to see how it will do and here is what I got. My stats on Google Adwords are (less than 24 hours):

Ad Group 1: Clicks 3 Impr. 397 CTR 0.75% Avg. CPC $0.05 Cost $0.15 Avg. Pos 4.9

Ad Group 2: Clicks 1 Impr. 538 CTR 0.18% Avg. CPC $0.04 Cost $0.04 Avg. Pos 10.4

On the Neverblue stats it’s actually showing around 50 clicks (no impressions, I’m not sure why) and no conversions.

I’m not sure if this is good or not or if it shows anything at all. But what I need to know is why Google Adwords stats are so much different from NeverBlue stats? Also why aren’t impressions reflected on Neverblue stats?

Thank you!

Nice job Zac!

It’s a great tutorial for those getting started and best of all it’s free!

@ EasyRider:

Your stats are showing no impressions (most likely) because you’re direct linking (i.e. have no landing page which would show a hosted impression on the ad); the impression metric you want to focus on here is that provided by Google. With regards to clicks are you sending traffic to these links from anywhere else, might your visitors be checking the page multiple times and/or have you tested the landing page yourself - these will all count as “clicks” on the NB interface; luckily these don’t cost you anything.

Cheers,
Brad

Thank you so very much! It’s about darn time that someone recognizes not every potential marketer has bucks to shell out. I appreciate your time. Blessings.

Lisa

If you are directing them straight to the ad. How are you tracking conversions?

Thanks,

@ izle:

As Zac stated, you can either use SubID tracking, or, even better, have the network place your own pixel on the merchant’s thank you confirmation page.

Between your post and the comments above with your replies all of my questions were answered. Now its just down to research and development.

Keep these type of posts coming and thanks also to the commenters.

I tried this with about 10 different campaigns in different niches. I get 0 impressions with a 5 cent bid. How is it possible for you to get 5 cent bids on highly competitive keywords when I can’t even get impressions on less competitive niches.

@ andrew

There are a couple points to keep in mind. Firstly, you won’t get impressions on competitive keywords with a 5 cent bid: impressions = f(bid,qual.score,CTR). You have to have a competitive bid, high quality score and a good historical CTR - you can build this up with a high bid, then lower that if you want but, you probably want to try targeted long tail keywords rather than highly competitive generic terms.

Excellently packed tips. Will print it out to research in detail.

This is more a guide how to use Adwords for complete newbies.
5 cents clicks, no way.
You showed us only how to spend money on AdWords not how to make money with AdWords.
Pick a real offer and make a real case study.
Sorry two thumbs down for this guide.

Sorry to rain on people’s parade here but this post is so completely general and really doesn’t give much insight into how you actually execute an affiliate marketing campaign. Noobs here that are going to launch a campaign from these instructions had better supplement it with some solid info on keyword research, bid tweaking, tracking at the keyword level and Quality Score.

my $.02

How many keywords on average per campaign do you usually have?

I would like to know how many keywords you put in a content network ad group and do you use exact, phrase and broad matching?

I don’t know why Zac thinks this is super guide, really this is simple PPC-SE guide, no some new tips for low cost traffic and what to promote and make money… Don’t get me wrong Zac but i know for this back in 2003-2003 when somebody show how to make money with Ebay registrations promoting them on Google, making good money…

That’s nice, but can you really make a profit with 5 cents a click max and those highly competitive keywords you chose? I don’t think you can. Prove me wrong though. Can you post screenshots of the profit and ctr,cpc?

You mention not using Landing Pages and directing the ads to the offer itself. So how do you apply for NeverblueAds if you don’t have a site? It seems that they require one for registration.

I agree with most people up there. More like a adwords for dummies there!

Zac:
Excellent article. How do you feel about Commission Junction or Clickbank? PM via eamil is OK.

Hi Zac,

Great article, I was so impressed I gave it an attempt over the weekend and it worked great, I set a small budget just to test the waters and I made $18 in commission from about $3.40 in adwords.

Then today I received this email from google.

Hello,

Inaccurate Display URL: Your Display URL must accurately reflect the
URL of your website and it must be a viable web address that is part of
your ad’s destination domain and include the domain extension.

I did a little further investigation and found this in the Google AdWords Advertising Policies

Google do not allow

Correct me if I’ve misinterpereted your article, but what you describe here is in breach of the adwords guidelines.

Is there any way around this without breaching any rules?

Thanks,
Pete

I would like to make the same question made by Mike:
” You mention not using Landing Pages and directing the ads to the offer itself. So how do you apply for NeverblueAds if you don’t have a site? It seems that they require one for registration.”

Super guide, Zac! It has kick started me into trying out some
PPC campaigns. So far, I’ve gotten a couple of pay per lead conversions, however I’m operating at a loss. I’m trying to tweak the keywords to do better. Thanks again!

Zac,

I’m new to this affilaite markeitng but I’m wide open to learning. First, I would like to thank you for sharing this information as I’m a strong believer in sharing information rather than charging to be able to succeed.

When I started to sign up as an affilaite for NeverBlueAds, it asked for a website. I’m not sure why I would need one if I’m promoting an affilate program. Can you explain? Are they talking about a landing page?

Hey Zac,

How did you do the keyword grouping for content network in google?

do you put them in small, relevan & tightly keywords in 1 adgroup? (around 5-25 keywords in each adgroups) or you just put 1000 keywords into 1 adgroup?

Thanks
herman

Hi Zac,

Do you use any tracking program to track which keywords convert and which not?

I know there are many tracking program out there, but they only track for search network, not the content network.

Thanks,
Herman

Love your site Zac, I am not that impressed easily, you get right to the point, no fluff,filler etc.. Also when are you going to release your ebook, and if I have missed where to get it, let me know where, thanks!

Zac,

In your opinion, how soon should you start a campaign that is seasonal? Such as Tax season.

Zac, You the man! Just signed up with NeverblueAds under you. Great post.

lytech

Ok Zac,

So I just first turn at ppc marketing! I was “disallowed” within five days. But I accidentally made $88.50 in 5 days with online affiliate marketing.

if your new to the internet .. this is the best article to read first

Man, you’re great!, I do thank you so much for this guide, you’ve taught me much more than I was expecting. Thank you sir!

Great article there … good read!

Darin

Great article. I will definitely try to apply all these steps.

I have just learnt new ways to do old things from this blog post. I am glad I followed the link.

Thanks for making tough things easy through your blog posts.

Hey Zac, thanks for that amazing tutorial - for free. I wasn’t aware of the fact that with Adwords you HAVE to HAVE a landing page if you are using Google search, are Yahoo and Adcenter the same way?

These are probably the most detailed instructions I have ever seen. I’m going to have to come back and set aside an entire day to do this!

Great post, first I’ve read on your blog, made me want to read more. I’m new to these things and this gave me a kick start. Thanks!

It’s the first time I hear about pixel tracking, thanks.

That’s right stick with the BIG 3!

My PPC experience with 2nd/3rd tier engines is not good. Some of them I lost only money, but most of them I was able to make break even. For sure, I wasn’t profitable with them. Maybe I gave up on hem too fast and decided to quick to do ONLY Google Adwords, YSM & MSN Adcenter!

Till today, I still think that those low quality search engines can be (very) profitable for people doing arbitrage only!

hi zach i was reading your article about ppc marketing and would like to try it. ive been looking up work at home plans for years and gone through a bunch of scams. im an affiliate for some sites now and worked for west (work at home agent ). i have a few questions about ppc marketing. what is the initial startup cost before making any money? like in your example on adwords your daily budget is $100. does that mean you pay them $100. a day up front? thank you in advance for your help……

Hi Zac, thanks for the great articles… I decided to give it a shot and got an account on NeverblueAds, made a pick, went to GoDaddy and grabbed a domain, then went to Google Adwords… Come to find out however, Google Adwords does not allow the display and the destination URL to have a different domain… I was completely blown away, that leaves for no way what-so-ever for a guy to advertise, because no matter if use the link that NeverBlueAds give you or have your own redirected domain with that URL in it, it is still different than the ultimate destination URL… I even had the chat transcript emailed to me in case you’d like to see it.

Your article is generally good but there is a flaw in the system.

To use the keyword ‘weight loss’, your default bid of 5 cents will result in your ads not getting activated. At the time of my last check, you need an initial bid of $10 to activate a compertitive term like weight loss

This is one of the best blog posts I have ever read ! This will be bookmarked !

wow, thats a complete article on PPC.
Is affiliate marketing all about PPC ?
Can a site earn huge from natural traffic ?

Zac,
I’m a little confused about the URL for the adwords campaign. From what I think I’ve read on adwords, linking directly to the company’s page is not allowed. Does this include the company page with your referral ID included? Does this mean only your own domain along with your own landing page is acceptable for an adwords PPC campaign?
Also, as of now I’m only a Commsion Junction member and am having a hard time finding the right link or URL that I would need to place in the blank for the URL on the adwords form. I am uncertain about where to direct a campaign without my own landing page. I have applied under your link for NeverBlueAds.

I tend to agree with one of the above comments. There are keywords that are just too competitive to trigger ads at 5 cents

Please comment on this

Thanks for the great step by step instructions on ppc marketing. it gives everyone a chance to do well in this type of market. Google adwords is one of the best ways to promote either affiliate products or your own.

really great info, making good use of it, thanks a lot

nice to read your post and its really boost me up, big brother please help me by replying this post, replying is the biggest support to me . i had recently join Neverblue ads . but i m not successfull in it. any good tips for me . i m from india . please tell me how can i make atleast 500 to 1000$ monthly this is enough for me. please help me. what is pixel tracking i saw it on NeverBlue Ads but i can’t understand .and second thing is that when we use adwords for promoting our sales, can we also recieve EPC money. hmm and when we creating a search compaign it ask for url, what url should me entered, the url fthrough which we registered? because when we use adword it display ads over the internet

hope for reply soon

thanks for your site
your faithfully
aryangarg

ourpcgame@Yahoo.com

Zac

Thanks for all the information, I am new and you inspire me to suceed. Im new to the United Estates from Cuba and want to be sucessful in this country. I work real hard and want to do something different to support my family .

I want to start to affiliate market can u please help me…..

Thankyou
Ernesto

I just started with the ppc stuff and came across your blog. It was simply awesome.

I do have a query, You said :

“To get listed on Google’s main search, you will need to create your own landing page and have your own hosted site and worry about quality score rankings, which will effect your bid pricing.”

I dont understand why I need to create my own landing page to get listed on google’s main page. Can’t I just give the display url of the merchant’s site I am campaigning for and the product page as destination url. Why it is only possible on content network?

cheers

John,

I always had terrible conversion rate with NBA….but I’ve seen many marketer recommending it… when it comes to CPA offers ClickBooth is my best choice.

Nevertheless, I don’t promote zip and email submit offers…
Thanks for your PPC guide…late reading

It’s great valuable information. Do you think is a good idea if you can run your campaign and show the campaign result?

To your success
Bryan Hee

Good piece of info.

Yes a lot valuable info.

So simple and yet so true. Wonderful guide here.

Ever think about putting together a small winning campaign and documenting it from start to finish?

First of all, I enjoy your work and unfrontness-it’s refreshing to see.

Zac, I did have a question to do with neverblu and the direct url that you mention. The paid search creative is no longer an option. So how would I go about getting that url in order to carry out a ppc campaign and sending buyers to it?

Thanks,
RB

Very nice guide
but i have a question “how to make landing pages?”
“can i use direct affiliate link or domain redirect on google? “

Thanks for this very nice guide on ppc marketing.. Nice information.

AND…..what makes you any different “supposed” super.affiliate ???”

You can say anything you want, and nobody is any the wiser,

annnnnnd,

Neither are you for that matter ???

Thx for this article. One of many that I read before I start on my journey

Your blog is like a treasure island, this post alone worth $97 or more.

I used to use the technique of sending people directly to the advertiser but that doesn’t work anymore with adwords since the destination and display url need to match.

Wow, really nice article! Keep up the good work Zac, I’m really new about affiliate marketing especially about ppc marketing.

Amazing ppc guide for affiliate. This guide alone is worth more than many ebook on the same topic.

Thanks zac.

great info here. there are THOUSANDS of ebooks being sold right now for $37 that teach this exact thing and you did it all in a single blog post - kudos!

Great guide! I will have to try this in the next couple of weeks, thanks!

good

Great tutorial, gonna try it soon.

Great stuff …I did this with my free xbox campagn, however, I got conversions, but no one signed up for the ads Better luck next time for me !!

This post is really helpful!

Good article. You have covered A2Z of PPC. thank you

Really great post Z. I am going to start my first campaign with Azoogle next week. I have only been using CJ and Clickbank and Amazon when I do affiliate marketing until now. I will then try Neverblue and MarketLeverage. Yeah, I want to play with some affiliate “niche” marketing over the holidays. Thanks for the info.

As per your tip no#4 to make PPC campaign succeed, can we still do redirect by using our own domain. I thought that’s not allowed by Google Adwrods..

This is a great primer for us looking for guidance on our first PPC effort. Zac thanks for posting this. I want tot try PPC but I am afarid to lose money I cant afford to lose.

Great tip Zac, will try it shortly. Thanks.

not possible… i am ready to buy million clicks from US @ 5 cents per click .. any niche..

Sam

Can anyone explain the Google URL rules? Apparently you can’t direct your ad right to the offer? I’d appreciate if someone would elaborate on this…

I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future. Thank you

This is a damn very good post…

This is a very useful and good post,and you’re right about other “experts” that promise a fortune from scratch with a expensive crap of ebook.

YfV354 yfvrdyxasazn, [url=http://sztfiiobbmew.com/]sztfiiobbmew[/url], [link=http://cbavoslrstmv.com/]cbavoslrstmv[/link], http://rnggzagdiflq.com/

Nice job Zac, among all that scams and traffic different formulas, you are completly right PPC is one of the best and proven methods to not only make money but to make living from CPA marketing. You have really good pice of content on your blog.

If you want guys see other posts about CPA marketing hit me on my blog.

Michael’s last blog post..How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes

Awesome Post.The Use of Images and Step by Step guide make it easy to read and understand. I really learned a lot from it.

Thanks Zac for providing such a comprehensive guide on pay per click Marketing, the Super Affiliate way!

Running a keyword-targeted campaign has always been more profitable for me rather than the Content network.

The secret key to ppc marketing is finding a channel that works for your business model. I would go for AdWords although I have tried and tested AdCenter as well.

What I really like about AdWords is its simplicity. Also, it provides unique tools each of which can be considered as a mine gold for super affiliates.

I am the big fan of advertising to landing pages rather than direct linking. I would prefer to show my own domain name as the Display URL, because it looks more professional. On top of that, it serves for branding, too. Finally, I would have more options to pre-sell the offer and convince the visitor.

Again, thanks for this tutorial which can help a lot of beginners get started in PPC. But, everyone should be careful, start with a low budget and test the market before taking huge steps.

Cheers!

Hooshmand

Hooshmand Moslemi’s last blog post..Niche Review Templates

I don’t know if PPC really works.

Wow Zac, that is quite the useful information - thanks for sharing such good stuff free of charge.

Very usefull information that you have here. Thank you for that. For me when it comes to writing a campaign, the hardest parts is finding the relevant keywords. Do you guys use keyword research tools such as semrush.com, spyfoo.com, or ispionage.com. Would appreciate if someone can tell me the advantages of using such tools in comparison with the standard Google’s Keyword Tool. Btw I was on the phone with ispionage’s support they told me that now they have an integrated keyword research-campaign builder. They say this suite will allow us to perform keyword research, and launch a campaign in Yahoo, google, and MSN seamlessly. What do you guys think?

Hi Zac, thanks for your generosity in giving these tips. This is very helpful. Wish you all the best.

Good article. You have covered A2Z of PPC. thank you