PPC

Making Money Online With Affiliate Marketing: Where to Start and How to Do It

November 12, 2020 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

Affiliate marketing is the process of connecting a buyer with a seller. This is something you are able to do even while you sleep. An online retailer will pay you a commission of money based on sales that are made through traffic through their website. Instead of just displaying an ad on your website for the company, you embed a link to the product in your recommendations and content as well. Many online companies that sell clothing or domain services use affiliate marketing programs.

There are several types of affiliate marketing

Pay Per Click (PPC)- You are able to make money based on the number of clicks. Viewers are directed to an advertisers website through your website from an affiliate link.

Pay Per Sale (PPS)- You are able to make money based on the actual buy completed and then you’re paid a percentage of the sale.

Pay Per Lead (PPL)- You are able to make money when the online visitor gives out their email on the advertiser’s website through your affiliate link.

The basics of affiliate marketing:

Creating a website and choosing your affiliate product to promote-

There are many options to build a website like Weebly and WordPress. Both allow you to create a customizable professional web page fast and for free. Choosing products to promote is simple and easy, you need to choose products that relate to your website content. A good way to do this is to join an affiliate network. An affiliate network is a business that connects online retailers to affiliate marketers. Then both parties can make money from sales. There are several affiliate networks to choose from. Some popular ones include ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, FlexOffers, and Amazon Associates.

Recommendation through your content-

You recommend a product, service, or company through your website or email list with an embedded link to the product. Your viewers will click on that. It will take them to the product page, they will buy the product, and that is how you will get your commission. You have now directed the sale towards the online retailer.

Something important to remember is to make sure they are a popular brand or a well respected company. Digital products and services often have the highest commission rates. They do not require shipping costs or any form of inventory.

Find the right product to advertise-

The quality of the product you are advertising is just as important as the quality of your website and content you are putting out. If a customer finds themself unhappy with the product they purchased, they mind find themself discouraged to visit your site again. They may not take your recommendation for a product into consideration again. Focus on choosing a product that comes from a good, credible company with great customer service.

Create content that reaches you target audience and generates the affiliate revenue that you need-

The target audience that you are trying to reach are the people who want to buy products but may be having a hard time choosing a product. They want a product that is going to meet their needs and may not be sure if a product is worth the buy. By being the affiliate marketer, you now take on the job of helping your target audience find out which product is right for them. Lead them to the product website so that they can complete their buy and you can earn your commission. This means that the content you are putting out should be using the keywords that your viewers are typing into their google search bar to find the product that they want to buy. Then they will make their purchase. These types of keywords are called investigational intent keywords.

Promoting the products in your content to your target audience-

You’re going to need to find topics that relate to the problems your audience is facing, for example, if you’re trying to gain an affiliate commission from a facial moisturizer brand, you’ll need to talk about how this product can help your audience’s skin. The way you insert your links into your content will also depend on the type of content you are putting out. If you’re doing a product review it would make more sense to focus on the one main product. If you’re making a list of products to help solve your target audience's problem, you could insert more links for a higher chance at gaining sales.

The goal will be to place your links appropriately and strategically in your content. Don’t insert a link if it doesn’t fit into your content. Something to remember is that not everyone out there is going to always read through your whole article or website post. That being said, putting your affiliate links early on in your content is smart. This is an effective way to make sure people will see your links and click on them.

Turning your viewers into customers-

The traffic coming through your website is important because you can also earn commission from people clicking on links through your content. The revenue you get will depend on the traffic you’re sending over to the product page. Another great way to do this in addition to embedding the links into your content is to create pop up ads. Whether you like the sound of it or not, the pop up ads wouldn’t exist on so many of the websites people visit if they didn’t draw in sales. When it comes to a pop up ad, it’s good to try to target your viewer at just the right time. Typically the best time being right before a viewer is about to leave your website.

Advance your existing website traffic for more sales revenue-

Figure out what your most viewed content is and focus it for affiliate marketing promotions. Another way to do this is through email marketing. When a viewer clicks on your website for the first time, have a pop up that asks them for their name and email address before continuing to the next page. This way, you have a whole list of customers who you can communicate your content directly to. Your emails about your content will land inside of their inboxes, they will click them, and be taken directly to your website. This is where you are promoting the product. In order to keep your audience interested sending out emails at least once a week is a great way to keep them both updated and thinking about your content.

Engaging your viewers with live webinars-

Another way to get people hooked and interested on your website and content so that you generate more traffic that will lead to more sales, is live webinars. Allowing your audience to see or hear about the product you are promoting instead of just having them read about it will get them hooked. Promoting your webinar on your social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well as sending out email reminders is the best way to bring your viewers in. Hosting a webinar is an excellent and easy way to stream live to your viewers. By hosting a webinar you are able to present your product’s elements. You can show different ways a product can be used while also talking about it’s pro’s and con’s to help your viewers get the most out of it. Make sure at the end of your webinar you remember to point to your affiliate link to direct them to the product that you just spent the time talking about.

Don’t be discouraged when first starting out-

One major thing to keep in mind when starting out in affiliate marketing is that patience is your biggest key. In the beginning it’s very typical to start out with slow website traffic and slow commission. Over time your website will have traffic, customers will click your pages, buy a product and you will have money. This doesn't just happen overnight. Don’t expect to generate hundreds of clicks immediately or to be able to quit your job the day after you start. If you are patient enough, you will make money through affiliate marketing. Focus on making that very first sale. As your site grows, your email list will too. Don’t forget to set new goals for yourself and to continue to play around with the different types of ways to gain traffic.

Affiliate income is not always consistent. Income will be less monthly and more annual from affiliate marketing. A dedicated affiliate can make anywhere between $10,000 to $1,500,000 a year, depending on the amount of effort and dedication you are willing to put into it. Saying it all might seem easy but be patient until you start generating more page traffic. The more work put into it, the faster you will be on your way to earning money while you are asleep in your bed.

Would you like to find another easy, profitable way to still earn money from home and bring in a much more solid income? If you answered yes to that question, I recommend you watch this free video which will walk you through our #1 recommended way to earn money from the comfort of your home.

Worth Every Dollar: 13 Expert Tips for Effective PPC Campaign Management

November 2, 2020 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

How would you define a successful PPC campaign? Do you measure success in the number of clicks your ad gets? Or, would you say it’s in the number conversions?

Well, the answer might surprise you. It all ultimately boils down to your PPC marketing ROI. That’s the bottom line.

If you want to grow your business you have to strike the perfect balance between what it costs to acquire new customers vs. how much business that customer brings in. That’s why effective PPC campaign management is so important.

You need to establish what kind of ROI you want from your PPC campaign. On average, businesses spend $116 million on PPC campaigns each year. The real question is, how much are these businesses actually recouping from their campaigns?

This article compiles 13 expert affiliate marketing tips for effective pay per click campaign management. Read on.

1. Research on Keywords

Every successful PPC strategy begins with a brainstorming session. At the heart of it lies choosing the right keywords that target the right audience. Getting the best keyword is a 3 step process:

First, you need to build a seed list. Use your knowledge of your customers, industry, and experience to come up with some words off the top of your head.

If you’re currently running a marketing campaign, that’s even better. You’re better placed to build a seed list.

Next, you’ll have to apply some research tools. These will help you understand what words and techniques your competition is using. You can also use keyword planners to either expand or water down your seed list.

The third step is the refinement phase. This is the most important part of the 3-step process. You’ll have to keep refining your list both at the initial stage and throughout the duration of your PPC campaigns.

You might find that some keywords are more effective than others, or others might be more appropriate for an entirely different campaign altogether. Don’t weed them out completely though. If you find that you won’t need them in this campaign, move them to a different ad group for the future.

2. Formulate Your Campaign Keywords

An SEO keyword is a phrase of 3 to 6 words that users use to run searches on search engines. As a rule of thumb, you should never use a one-word keyword. The competition for that would be too high which would make it impossible for you to make a decent ROI.

Long-tail keywords have since replaced them. The idea here is for your keyword to generate a decent amount of traffic to your site without being too competitive. Ensure you align your keywords to what your customers’ goals are.

3. Structure and Organize Your PPC Keywords

Now that you know which keywords you want to target you need to structure and organized them further. Put them into more targeted groups that are related to each other.

The best way to measure the performance of your keywords during the duration of your ad campaign is to make them very specific for every group you’re targeting. Bear in mind that search intent normally changes form very broad keywords to very specific long-tail search terms.

4. Add Negative Keywords to Your PPC Campaign

As you put manage your campaign the question you should always have at the back of your mind is: What is the search intent here? Search intent is everything!

A keyword may appear attractive based on the search volume it generates and even based on the CPC. But, it may not be ideal for your PPC campaign.

The intent of certain keywords may end up being quite different from what you want. Take for instance someone searches using the keyword “Chevrolet truck parts diagram”. This indicates that the user has a general interest in learning about the parts of the vehicle.

This keyword has a low level of intent. If someone searched instead for “Chevrolet Silverado seat covers” that is referred to as a high-intent keyword since the visitor is very specific and knows exactly what they’re looking for.

That way you avoid getting immediate bounces that don’t convert, or, impressions that don’t result in any clicks. Prevent this from plaguing your campaign by, flagging keywords that target the wrong audience as “negative keywords”.

5. PPC Campaign Management: Have a Budget for Your Ads

First, you should know that the average CPC varies based on industry. Before settling on the keywords you’ll use for your campaign, you need to determine if you can afford to advertise for that keyword.

That’s why it’s super important that your audience is searching for your target keywords, and that you know what the intent behind the search is. Ultimately you’ll need them to click on your ad and buy what you’re selling.

6. A Little Competitive Research Never Hurt Anyone

By the time you’re running a PPC campaign, you should already be acquainted with who your competition is and what they’re doing. If they’re running PPC campaigns as well you need to strip them down and see what keywords they’re targeting.

Your competition isn't only limited to businesses that are selling similar products to yours. Use Google Adwords to provide you with Auction Insights to see if there are unrelated domains bidding for the same keywords you are. If so you might want to consider using different keywords to reach your audience.

7. Create an Awesome Ad Copy

Once you have your keywords in the bag you need to come up with some killer ads. The time you spend doing this will make or break your ROI.

The words you choose to use in your ad copy need to highly target your audience. It’s the only way they’ll pay attention to your ad, click on it and eventually convert.

You need to make the ad personal. It needs to offer a solution to their specific problem.

Play to your audiences’ needs and interests. Understanding their psychology makes all the difference.

8. Create a Compelling Call-To-Action

Don’t be afraid to use actionable keywords like “Get” and “Now”. When coming up with a powerful call-to-action, you need to pay close attention to the specific action you want your visitor to do.

Do you want them to “Buy”, “Shop”, “Try”, or “Learn” something? Using the right CTA will do wonders for your conversion rate.

9. Use Ad Extensions to Enhance Your PPC Campaign

Ad extensions make your ads more attention-grabbing. It’s a direct way to interact with your audience.

However, it all depends on what the goal of your ads is in the first place. Some extensions you can use include: Sitelink extensions and call extensions.

10. Spruce up Your Landing Page

Sending traffic to your homepage is a rookie mistake in internet marketing. The page your visitors get sent to when they click on your ad needs to be relevant to the actual ad.

It has to meet the needs, intent, and interest of the visitor. Otherwise, they’ll get out of there faster than a bat out of hell. Your ad and your landing page need to create a seamless experience that ultimately leads to the conversion of that visitor.

11. Optimize for Mobile Platforms

In today’s world, people are always checking their smartphones. Therefore, you have to optimize your PPC campaign for mobile viewing.

Ensure that the ad is short, concise and clearly written. Your website’s landing pages also need to be mobile friendly. Try not to send your mobile visitors to a page that’s designed for desktop leads.

12. Your Quality Score Matters

As you review and optimize your campaigns, your Quality Score should be the focal point of the entire process. It basically measures how relevant your ads are in relation to your keywords and landing pages.

Google looks at the Expected CTR, the Ad Relevancy and your visitors’ Landing Page experience to come up with the score. The higher your Quality Score is, the lower the overall CPC.

13. Review, Rinse, and Repeat

Keep track of your PPC campaign data, review it regularly and pivot as much as you need to. As you run your campaign and the real data flows in, you’ll have to make some edits.

Your Quality Score will shift constantly. You’ll find CPCs going up and keywords changing as well.

You might even find that you’re getting massive amounts of clicks but no conversions. That’s a sign that you’re attracting the wrong audience. It means you have to go back to the drawing board and make some changes.

Experiment with different ad copy, landing pages, and modified keywords. Eventually, you’ll start getting the reaction you want from your audience.

The Parting Shot

PPC campaign management never ends. You have to continuously monitor your ads and use that data to tweak certain aspects of your campaign to improve conversions. Remember, it’s all about maximizing your ROI, so it’s important to make sure that your PPC campaign targets the right audience for your business.

Did you enjoy this article about PPC campaigns? Check out this free webclass that will teach you the skills you need to run a successful business, including how to make multiple high-ticket affiliate commissions each month marketing valuable products people already want to buy.

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