Once upon a time, not so long ago actually, affiliates were into this thing called ‘PPC' – That's pay per click in ‘old affiliate speak'. Affiliates made money, a lot of money and a fun time was had by all. So what happened? Well, a few things really;
- Affiliates started getting interested in other traffic sources like media buys, PPV, etc. and a lot of newer affiliates went directly to these sources.
- Affiliates started getting banned by the PPC engines for violating terms or promoting certain offers and moved on to other traffic sources.
Lately you don't hear anyone talking about PPC. Affiliates are still cashing in, but this business is so geared towards the latest and hottest traffic source or promotion method that you don't hear much about the ‘older' methods.
PPC has changed a lot over the last year. Where once it was a playground for affiliates, now you have to be very careful not only about what you promote, but how you promote it. So what works in 2010?
Google Adwords
People do still run CPA offers, and yes you can even see rebills running. My advice is to stick with something that works and has very little chance of getting you banned. This means promoting physical products. Stick with merchants such as Shareasale, Linkshare, etc. Physical products are a bit different from lead gen or most CPA offers so if that's what you are used to running, expect to have a slight learning curve. The bidding is different, the keyword selection is different, and the volume is usually a bit lower. In addition, the landing pages that work well for physical products are a bit different from what you are used to making for CPA offers (Hint – think blog).
In terms of what to promote, that will be what stops a lot of people from promoting physical products. There are so many products and merchants to chose from it can be intimidating to know where to start. My advice is to not think about it too much. Pick some merchants that have some higher priced products so you can get a decent commission and just start building campaigns.
Yahoo Search Marketing
Yahoo still converts very well. The problem is, it is being absorbed by Microsoft adCenter which will serve as the campaign management platform. Physical products can work on Yahoo also, but there just isn't always enough volume. Lead generation offers work great. As far as quality score goes, you don't need content on your LP…the main thing is CTR and deleting keywords racking up impressions but not getting clicked. Because of this, you can throw up campaigns pretty quickly. Clickbank products also work well on Yahoo. Clickbank!? Yep, you can have some pretty solid campaigns promoting CB products.
Bing/MSN adCenter
There was a period of time, before Google banned tons of affiliates, and when Bing has just started making a push to be a dominant player that this traffic was the best quality you could get (for my anyway). Alas, more and more affiliates have moved over to Bing, increasing bid prices and competition. Bing has also been a little screwy with quality score/guidelines lately. I think some of this has to do with the growth, and not having all employees on the same page. I've been on lengthy phone calls with adCenter which basically result in them not being able to find a reason a LP was disapproved. I expect to see some of these glitches ironed out soon but I do think quality score is going to get stricter. The main thing with your LP on Bing is that you want to be as relevant and transparent as possible. This means having at least the keyword you are bidding on somewhere on the page and a privacy policy. I would go a step beyond that and include terms and conditions, about us, contact, basically go overboard on that stuff.
Now as far as what to promote, that is a bit more difficult. Bing just doesn't have the traffic yet to make promoting physical products worthwhile. CPA offers can work great but the quality score issues can make these difficult. Landing pages that convert well won't always get through the editorial process, and those that do don't always convert well. What has been working great for me lately is direct linking to CPA offers. My ads almost always get through and I have no problems with quality score. I would suggest to keep promoting lead generation offers here, direct linking when possible.
PPC is still a viable traffic source and there is a ton of money to be made there. One thing I love about PPC campaigns is that they can be very stable. I have one campaign that has been running almost untouched (except for swapping out offers) on Yahoo for over 2 years now. If you left PPC for greener pastures, or have never attempted it, there is still money to be made there.
Yeah PPC is still alive and kicking, although it has become harder to promote things as an affiliate – especially on Google. Google are on a path to rid their paid search (and content engine) from sites acting as “bridge” sites. In other words, sites with a sole purpose to get people to go buy something at another site.
Personally, I still believe tons of money can be made on Google but we need to adapt to new ways of thinking instead of the old slap-up-some-LP-and-pray-it-stays tactic.
Just started doing PPC a year ago and haven’t made much money yet. I wish I had gotten to it earlier when it’s not as tough as today. But still, I’m glad I’m learning new methods through your blog (and other sources) in order to keep up..