How much money does it take to become successful with paid traffic to affiliate campaigns?
Everyone asks it. Even myself.
Back in 2007 I got started pushing campaigns on Adwords and I remember throwing my arms up on countless days after spending $200 – $300 and only making $20 – $50 in commissions.
How much was I going to have to sink into this venture until I found the “super affiliate” success that so many talk about?
Nearly a decade later, I’ve coached and mentors thousands of other affiliates from newbie to successful super affiliate, and have been asked these very same questions countless times.
Unfortunately, I still don’t have one solid answer…
When you go into a paid traffic campaign there are a number of different variables to consider.
- Is the offer a solid converter?
- Is the geo highly competitive?
- Are you using your own pre-lander?
- Did you develop an aggressive funnel?
- What type of Click Through Rate (CTR) on your ads do you expect?
The list goes on…
Once everything is factored into the equation you can begin to get a better idea of what you’re going to be spending to start a campaign.
Back to my campaigns in 2007, it took me a couple weeks dropping $200 here, $500 there until I learned how to get a high enough CTR where my CPCs would drastically drop.
I then figured out I could split test my pre-landers to get more people clicking through to the offers I was promoting, and could then split-test those against multiple networks.
Eventually, I found the winning formula, but I can’t say it was immediately after $X,XXX spend. It really was trial and error until I began to develop a systematic process I could follow.
Nowadays when coaching media buyers, I’m able to share my process, and help them get started by learning from my mistakes.
First, if budget is a huge issue (i.e. you’re going to have to get into credit card debt to spend a couple hundred dollars) then you need to wait until you build up some capital!
In last week’s webinar, I briefly covered some organic methods to run traffic to your offers that doesn’t cost a dime. However, it does take a bit more work than just buying traffic.
Second, get started with lower-paying offers…
This may sound kinda crazy, but if you only have a couple-hundred dollar budget, start with offers that pay under $5.
Most offers that pay these lower amounts either convert after few actions or are in newer markets that aren’t economically stable.
For example, a campaign in Australia is going to have a payout around $20, but CPCs are going to be higher. AU is more developed and a number of advertisers are very well implanted into the industry.
Mobile networks are also able to offer higher-cost subscription models; therefore it drives up the competition and price of inventory.
On the other hand, a market like Romania that’s relatively new (in the mobile content billing space) is going to be much cheaper to get started.
Not only does it lack competition, the offers aren’t able to bill as high of an amount, opening up the playing field for newer marketers.
Also, after spending $10 – $15 on penny (or cheaper clicks) for an offer that pays $2 – $3 per conversion, you’re going to know pretty soon if you have a chance of making it work.
Especially if you work hard on developing out your funnel and have analyzed the conversion flow, you have the opportunity to find some major golden nuggets that even experienced affiliates may not be aware of.
I always chuckle a bit when I get an email from a new media buyer letting me know they have a budget of $100K+ but just need to know the exact offer, traffic source, and landing page to run and they’ll spend their ENTIRE budget with us.
While that’s certainly flattering, it’s not that simple.
I could easily say Google Adwords or Facebook, Offer X and Offer Y with this lander.
In fact, I’ve done this countless times.
99% of the time they come back and ask “why isn’t it working” only to find they either had a better idea (modified the campaign a bit) or aren’t trying anything different.
You see, even sometimes what works for one, doesn’t work for all.
Sure this maybe the case with some really aggressive credit card trial offers, but that comes down to available cap vs. the top converting landing page.
In conclusion, if you’re asking the question, how much money do I need to get started with paid traffic, then you probably need to wait until you gain more capital or get started with a couple lower paying offers until you find some winners.
Always remember…
You had to crawl before you could walk. You had to walk before you could run. And you had to run and train before you could run a big marathon.
The same is true in affiliate marketing or online business.
There is no substitute for hard work and experience.
