Performance Advice

March 13, 2008 on 6:16 pm | In Questions and Comments | 3 Comments

Hello Tony,

I’ve been running a campaign for about a week now, and have shown the following stats:

                 IMPR        CLK   CTR     COST   SALES Conv          Comm    CPC    EPC    RPC

YahooAD  188590     218   .12%   $67.26    6       2.75%       $24.00   0.31   0.11 -0.20

GoogleAD 66381       11     .02%   $6.53     1       9.09%       $4.00    0.32   0.36 -0.23 

Total:       254971     229   .09%   $73.79    7      3.06%       $28      0.32   0.12  -0.20 

To me, 3% conversion seems pretty decent for a first campaign, even though I’m not making profiting yet. My Yahoo Ad seems to be performing better than the Google ad at the moment as far as RPC. Can you give me any advice based on these stats so far? Is this a good start? I don’t know if it’s too early to tell already if this campaign is a keeper. Would it seem to be an issue of tuning now? The campaign is a registration campaign, where the advertiser pays $4 for every registration.

 Thanks!

Clint

3 Comments »

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  1. Clint,

    The conversion rate does look good. The obvious focus now is on lowering costs. Are you paying more or less per click now, than your average? Unless yourcurrent costs are lower, and continue to get lower, you need to focus on improving your ad text. The right ad should be able to get you into profitable territory.

    Keep an eye on that conversion rate, too, though. Sometimes the conversion rate will drop after the first week or so, indicating that one of your more valuable keywords (or, more difficult to detect, a valuable broad match on one of your keywords) will stop showing ads. If this happens, your ad text may need bigger changes, but you’ll want to identify the high converting search term first, so you aren’t wasting time and money tuning an ad that is no longer showing in the best space possible.

    Tony

    Comment by Administrator — March 14, 2008 #

  2. Hi Tony,

    I’ve been using Yahoo more than Google, as I found that Google was more expensive at the moment. Right now in Yahoo, I’m averaging closer to 15 cents a click I think, if I’ve done my calculations right. However, my ad placement is still a little ways down for some search terms, but I’m guessing that part of the game is patience right? But there are a few search words in the top 10 placements. I’ve increased my daily budget slightly to allow for more impressions which would hopefully boost CTR and ultimately conversions while still giving me a positive RPC. I am running about 3 or 4 ads together in Yahoo to see which get the better responses as well and which lead to conversions (each has it’s own tracking id).

    I had a couple other questions for you as well though.
    1) Are there any specific markets that you would recommend a marketing newbie steer clear of due to high competitiveness, and others that would be good to start in? For example, advertising for payday lenders versus dating websites?

    2) Have many other people commented on the difficulty of getting accepted for programs in the CJ network? I’ve setup a website, and yet still seem to get rejected. Out of about 10 applications, I’ve been accepted on about 2. Any advice?

    Clint

    Comment by afb — March 17, 2008 #

  3. Clint,

    First, I want to point out that raising your budget can’t improve your CTR. It can increase traffic, and this can help you evaluate your performance quicker aft you make changes, but it can’t improve your CTR on its own. Focus on better ad text or, if you have the margins to support them, higher bids.

    Now, in answer to your questions;

    1. Markets to steer clear of… you mention dating services, and they belong to a unique catagory. Some programs, like dating services and education offers, offer the unique advantage of people don’t just pick one. They often join, or request information, from multiple sources. The only way to compete in those arenas is with a landing pages that offers multiple programs (an offers you a shot at multiple commissions for each visitor). In direct search, you will never be able to compete with the ads for these landing pages, because they can make (and therefore bid) much more than you. Either build a landing page, or skip these offfers.

    As for programs I like for beginners, I ALWAYS recomend Amazon.com. I don’t think you’ll get rich (the competition is tough) but if you have any talent for this at all, you should be able to make some Amazon campaigns profitable, so its a good test of your innate ability to write good ad text and choose good keywords. If you can’t make money on Amazon (which is not just a proven winner, but offers you the opportunity to sell almost anything) this may not be the buiness for you.

    2) Difficulty joining CJ programs… I am only just now beginning to realize how fast affiliate network registration and program acceptance practices change. Whichever way the wind blows, though, a better designed page will improve your acceptance rate. If you don’t have the skills to make the improvements yourself, you can get help at http://www.affiliatemillions.com/web-design.html.

    Good Luck,

    Tony

    Comment by Administrator — March 17, 2008 #

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