1. Setting up tightly targeted adgroups
2. Having effective Google ads that have the keyword in the headline, benefit in the description, & a strong call to action
3. A landing page that converts

then you’re set, and ready to make windfall profits in your niche.

Right?

Wrong!

There’s one very common mistake that stops a lot of affiliates dead in their tracks.

I’ve helped and coached a lot of affiliates and I’ve seen this mistake come up again and again, and chances are you’re probably doing it too. I know I made this very mistake all the time when I got started.

Before I explain exactly what this often fatal mistake is that so many newbie ppc affiliates make, let me lay the ground work…

I want you to think hard about this statement:

When you first launch your campaign, the breadth of your keyword list is MUCH more important than the depth.

What in the world do I mean by that?

A broad keyword list is one that has lots of related and lateral keywords, and not just variations of one root keyword.

Here’s a simple example of a list of keywords that has breadth :

delete adware
delete backdoor
delete browser hijacker
delete cookie
delete Dialer
delete keylogger
delete malware
delete spyware
delete toolbar
delete trojan
delete w32
delete worm
destroy adware
destroy backdoor
destroy browser hijacker
destroy cookie
destroy Dialer
destroy keylogger
destroy malware
destroy spyware
destroy toolbar
destroy trojan
destroy w32
destroy worm
find adware
find backdoor
find browser hijacker
find cookie
find Dialer
find keylogger
find malware
find spyware
find toolbar
find trojan
find w32
find worm
remove adware
remove backdoor
remove browser hijacker
remove cookie
remove Dialer
remove keylogger
remove malware
remove spyware
remove toolbar
remove trojan
remove w32
remove worm
Now you can see these (trojan, worm, w32, etc) are all different types of spyware.

Now here’s an example of another keyword list that has depth:

anti spyware
anti spyware free
anti spyware software
antivirus spyware
best free spyware remover
best spyware
download free spyware
download spyware blaster
free anti spyware
free kazaa spyware remover
free removal of spyware
free spyware download
free spyware downloads
free spyware protection
free spyware removal
free spyware removal programs
free spyware removal software
free spyware remover
free spyware scan
mcafee anti spyware
microsoft anti spyware
remove spyware
spyware blaster
spyware blocker
spyware cleaner
spyware detector
spyware doctor
spyware download
spyware programs
spyware protection
spyware removal
spyware remover
spyware scan
spyware software
spyware terminator
spyware virus protection
totally free spyware removal

You can see that the above terms are related to removing or detecting spyware. And all the above keywords have the root word ‘spyware’ in them. This is a keyword list with depth.

Now if you want a lot of depth you can dig up long tails, but I’ll get in a later post!

So what’s the fatal error that a lot of ppc affiliates are making, even if they have a excellent keyword list, that is one with both breadth and depth??

Most affiliate focus on going deep (deep means : launching one root keyword with lots of variations, such as the second spyware list) FIRST, before going wide ( wide means: launching broad keywords, ie the first keyword list).

Here’s problem with going deep first:

TOO NARROW A FOCUS ON THE MOST COMPETITIVE KEYWORDS

Most affiliates find every freaking variation and combination with spyware (or whatever the main keyword for that market is) in it until their blue in the face, setup their Google campaign, and launch.

Then they’re surprised when they hardly get any traffic bidding 0.20 (spyware is a high cost per click keyword), and their conversions suck since every affiliate is also bidding on spyware.

Frustrated they pause their campaign after a few weeks and move onto something else, without even attempting to try a bidding on : trojan, w32, etc, etc, or any of the other broader keywords.

They figure if spyware keywords don’t convert for them, it’s hopeless! Besides they lost $500 on the campaign, and don’t want to mess with it anymore.

Sound Familiar?

MISSING OUT ON THE MOST THE TRAFFIC & PROFITABLE NICHES

Even if you managed to get the spyware keywords to convert, with a sharp professional looking review site that compares every possible benefit and feature of 3 different spyware removers, you’re still may be missing out on the most profitable niches in the market.

What’s worse, in many markets a broad keyword list will deliver WAY more traffic than a deep one that focus on the main most competitive keyword.

This is why it’s so important to go wide FIRST before you go deep, it will assure that you get the maximum amount of traffic and allow you to identify the most profitable sub niches in the market you’re in.

Once you go wide and see which sub niche of keywords (malware, keylogger, worm ,etc) are producing the most traffic and conversions then focus in on those keywords and start going deep.

So if you find (just an example), that trojan keywords are getting a lot of traffic at a bid price where your Cost/Conv is low, then focus in and start going deep. That is, start finding as many variations and combinations of trojan keywords that you can find.

By doing this you’re now employing the 20/80 principle and focusing your energy where you’re getting the highest return.

So here’s EXACTLY what you need to do when launching your affiliate offer:

1. Go wide, as wide as you can to, spend some time identify every related and lateral keyword in your market.
2. Once you launch this broad set of keywords, your campaign will be getting traffic from all the major sub niches in your market. Tip: To get a good Google QS (Quality score) you may want to setup a separate page for each sub niche (ie a page for trojan, a page for w32, a page for browser hijacker etc)
3. Let your campaign run and identify the sub niches where you’re getting the majority of traffic and sales. Focus in on those top sub niches and go deep.

This is how you build a ppc affiliate campaign with a solid foundation that will bring in profits for months, even years to come!

In particular when it comes to keyword research, they’ll go into a market like dog training. They’ll start by brain storming some possibilities :

dog training

train dog

dog behavior

dog obedience

and maybe a few more

They most likely got these right from the sales letter of the dog training ebook. Then they’ll put these into a keyword tool like wordtracker, and finally throw the results into separate adgroups. After running the campaigns for a few days they’ll discover that the keywords are too expensive and bid them down to the second page.

After optimizing the campaign for 3 months, they’ll think : “Damn! What am I doing wrong, I making 5 sales a day, with 50% ROI. How are these super affiliates making 50 sales a day with 100% ROI?!?”

Well here’s a tip, if you follow the same cookbook recipe to keyword research as everyone else then you’re going to face fierce competition and low profit margins (if any at all).

If you want to be a super affiliate you have to think outside of the box, especially when it comes to keyword research.

Here’s how I would tackle this market:

Dog Breeds
airedale terrier
akita
australian shepherd
basset hound
beagle
bichon frise
bloodhound
boston terrier
boxer
brittany
bulldog
bullmastiff
cairn terrier
cavalier king charles spaniel
chesapeake bay retriever
chihuahua
chinese shar-pei
cocker spaniel
collie
dachshund
doberman pinscher
english springer spaniel
german shepherd
german shorthaired pointer
golden retriever
great dane
great pyrenees
labrador retriever
lhasa apso
maltese
mastiff
minature pinscher
miniature schnauzer
newfoundland
papillons
pekingese
pembroke welsh corgi
pitbull
pomeranian
poodle
pugs
rottweiler
saint bernard
scottish terrier
shetland sheepdog
shih tzu
siberian husky
vizsla
weimaraner
west highland white terrier
yorkshire terrier

Dog Problems
aggression
anger
bark
barking
biting
chewing
crying
digging
flatulence
house break
house breaking
house training
jealousy
jumping
litterbox train
litterbox training
nipping
paper training
potty train
potty training
seperation anxiety
toliet train
toliet training
whining
chasing
begging
leash pulling
leash training
growling

Now the first row is a large list of dog types, including synonyms, such as canine, k9, and of course puppy. The second row is a huge list of all possible dog behaviors.

Multiple the first column by the second column and you have a highly targeted keyword list with broad reach. This is how a super affiliate would approach this market.

This is how a super affiliate makes 50 sales a day and 100% ROI. That is, by not just bidding on more keywords, but a much broader reach of keywords.

By the way all of this is from my presentation at the Affiliate Summit in Miami.

Paul, an affiliate, who saw my presentation at the Affiliate Summit, emailed me the following question:

“I enjoyed your presentation at Affiliate Summit. I have one quick question for you…

When you showed your example of building keyword lists using “dog” and “behavior”, what tool did you use to generate the list of various dog breeds? I tried to replicate your example in the Adwords keyword tool but that didn’t seem to return that same list. Ditto on the keyword “behavior”. Can you help?

Thanks!”

This is a really great question. Here’s what I wrote back to Paul:

“I’m glad you enjoyed my talk.

I would just google search dog breads and find some websites that discuss the different types of breeds. You can do something similar to get all the behavior + use lateral search tools, similar to the one wordtracker offers.

The key is to think outside of the box, don’t strictly rely on keyword research tools.”

Here’s what Paul wrote back:

“OK thanks Amit. From your slide it had the “look” of a keyword tool that had generated the list of breeds and a separate list of words related to “behavior.” I ran a search for dog breeds and wikipedia has a great entry, and searches on “types of behavior” came up with good results too. So from there I guess I would dump the lists into Excel and create the keyword combos. That’s pretty easy to do.

Thanks for the info Amit!”

Paul, you have got it down! I never would have though wikipedia would be a source to dig up keywords!

Kudos.

It’s this time of creative keyword research that separates the men from the boys, and the women from the girls!