Launching an Affiliate Offer: From Zero to Profitability, Part II

Okay at this point, if you’ve followed part I, we have a campaign with a landing page that converts, and we’re bidding on the right keywords, and our campaign is either breaking even, or slightly negative or positive.

Now it time for the fun part, optimization!

Optimization is both an art and a science, the more experience you have doing it the better, and better, you get at it.

I’m going to discuss some techniques and thought processes I use when I optimize my ppc campaigns, but remember the best way to learn how to do this is through spending hours upon hours on one campaign after another optimizing!

Here’s what you need to focus on:

COST PER CONVERSION:

You see this column if you have Google conversion tracking turned on, and it is THE most important metric you need to track. Cost/Conv. tell you how much you need to spend to make 1 sale. So if it’s $5 for your campaign and the payout is $7, then you make $2 profit for each sale.

SPLIT TESTING ADS:

Your first goal is to get the Cost/Conv. of all your high traffic adgroups as low as possible while preferably maintaining your ad position on the first page.

The best way to do this is to split test 2 ads at a time. You’d be amazed at the difference in conversion rate of 2 different ads. Test different headlines, body copy, display urls, etc.

Find the ad with the lowest Cost/Conv., not necessarily the highest conversion rate since you can have a low CTR ad with a high conversion rate but your Cost/Conv may be high since Google will force you to more for click for an ad with low CTR. You need to find an ad the gets a good CTR AND a high conversion rate.

As far as quality score goes (including landing page quality score), please refer to this post. Remember quality score ONLY effects your minimum bids, nothing else.

As far as split testing ads, keep your focus on your top traffic adgroups. Remember the 20/80 principle

EXPANDING & TRACKING KEYWORDS:

A great way increasing your traffic is to go into your top traffic adgroups and use the Google keywords suggestion tool to add keywords directly to your adgroups.

Once you had enough data, start to monitor which keywords are converting to sales and which are not. Adjust bids, at the keyword level, accordingly.

ADJUSTING ADGROUP BIDS:

This is the main method you will use to optimize your campaign. The simple fact is some keywords just convert WAY better than other, and if you have your campaign setup with tightly targeted adgroups then you’ll know exactly what set of keywords convert and which don’t by just tracking the Cost/Conv of each adgroup.

Here’s some tips when adjusting bids, assuming you have an offer paying out $10 per sale, and your goal is 100% ROI, or Cost/Conv. equal to $5.

1. Lower bids on adgroups by 10% that have a Cost/Conv greater than $10
2. Raise bids on adgroups that have a Cost/Conv less than $5.
3. If you have an adgroup where you spend $20 (2X payout) and no sales, pause it.
4. If you have an adgroup with a Cost/Conv greater than $20, pause it.
5. Repeat the above steps until you converge onto a Cost/Conv of $5

That’s it, some basic optimization tips you can take to the bank.

WARNING:

If you use these optimization tips, PLEASE wait until you have statistically relevant data. Lose money for a while if you have to, but don’t make rash decision.

Optimizing your campaigns is REALLY easy as long as you can control your emotions and not freak out that you’re losing money.

Don’t be stupid.

Don’t be rash.

Don’t panic.

AND don’t be afraid to lose money while optimizing your campaigns. Losing money in the beginning is PART OF THE PROCESS.

Do you have the emotional toughness to be a super affiliate?