Paid advertising via search engines has been around since the early days when there were only text-based searches. The concept was simple – if someone wanted information about cats or dogs they would type "cats" into their browser's URL bar, which would then direct them towards relevant results from the various websites that offer such content online.
As time passed, these same users started typing more complex queries (such as "pets", "cat food recipes") in order to find what they were looking for. As this trend continued, so did the number of websites offering related services, creating an entire industry built upon advertising revenue.
Today, we're all familiar with the names of companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, eBay, LinkedIn and countless others who earn money through paying advertisements. Some are much better known than others but essentially all of them rely on some form of paid advertisement.
In recent years, many people have become obsessed with how effective paid ads really are. There are plenty of articles out there explaining exactly why paid ads work well, how they compare to other forms of promotion, and what makes one format superior over another. However, while there may be no absolute answer to this question, the truth remains that paid ads do generate traffic, especially targeted traffic.
If you want to learn more about the pros and cons of PPC ads, check our guide here. If you'd rather know how to get started using them yourself, read on!
There are several different kinds of paid ads that you could use for your affiliate marketing campaigns. Here are three of the most popular options:
1) Search Engine Advertising
This includes both organic and sponsored listings within search engine result pages. You'll typically see "sponsored links" alongside regular results. These links display at the top or bottom of each page depending on where you look. They also appear along side non-paid links, usually appearing above the fold.
These ads tend to be quite expensive because advertisers must first bid for specific keywords before being able to show up in search rankings. Once listed, however, they remain visible until the end user clicks away from the site or leaves the page entirely.
2) Display Network Ads
Like search engine ads, display network ads appear next to or below regular search results. Unlike SEO-based ads, though, they don't require any sort of bidding process. Instead, advertisers simply buy space directly on sites for a certain amount of time, allowing them to reach customers without having to pay extra fees.
Display network ads are very common on social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. They allow businesses to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests and location, among other factors.
3) Social Media Marketing
Social media ads are often referred to as "native advertising". They include posts on social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Because they take advantage of existing connections between brands and consumers, these types of ads can help build trust between business owners and potential customers.
They also provide greater control over visibility and targeting, something that is not possible with traditional search engine ads. While social media marketing isn't ideal for every situation, it can still prove useful for those looking to gain new followers or increase brand awareness.
Yes, you absolutely can! In fact, you've probably already seen them everywhere once you start searching for information. When you visit a website that uses Google AdWords, you'll notice a small box displaying the company name, logo, address and phone number.
The purpose of this advert is to inform visitors whether or not they should call, contact or purchase anything from the advertiser. It's important to note that these ads aren't meant to sell products - instead, they merely serve as a means of directing interested parties toward additional resources.
Because of this, they cannot be used to drive sales conversions. That said, they do create valuable leads and can assist with branding efforts, which can ultimately lead to increased customer satisfaction and referrals.
For example, let's say you own a local pizza shop called Pizza Hut. One day, you decide to try out the latest recipe developed by their research team. After trying it out, you feel confident enough to share your findings with friends and family members.
While sharing your creation with loved ones might seem harmless enough, consider that Pizza Hut pays millions of dollars annually to advertise on news outlets like CNN and Fox News. Through this method, they're hoping to attract individuals who have previously expressed interest in eating the product.
When it comes down to it, this kind of strategy works perfectly fine for promoting physical goods. But what happens when you choose to promote digital items? What if the person reading your post decides to download and install software from your link even after hearing nothing else about it?
What if they just happen to have bought something similar in the past? Is it worth spending money on this particular campaign? And if not, what alternatives exist?
Unfortunately, you won't always receive positive feedback on your attempts at generating leads through paid ads. Sometimes, you'll come across negative comments regarding either the quality of the service provided or the overall experience itself.
You might also encounter complaints about poor performance, ineffectiveness or lack of transparency. Even worse, you might never hear back from anyone whatsoever.
Ultimately, the decision to use paid ads rests solely on your discretion. Although you might think that it's pointless to spend thousands of dollars on an untested idea, remember that your success depends heavily on your ability to identify who your audience truly is and what they need.
At the end of the day, paid ads are an excellent way to obtain free samples of new products or test out promotional offers before investing real funds. For instance, you might sign up for a 30-day trial subscription to a fitness app. By spending $10 on the program, you'll be granted access to its full library of workouts.
This is great for testing things out without worrying too much about financial investment. On the flipside, you could also opt to invest the full amount and cancel the membership afterwards. Either approach is valid, although it does depend largely on your personal needs.
It doesn't matter what kind of paid ads you choose to implement. Whether you prefer to go the route of SEO, social media or search engine optimization, the choice lies in your hands.
However, there is one major issue that applies to all of them. Namely, none of them can guarantee consistent earnings. Yes, you can achieve impressive numbers when working with high-quality products. However, you could easily fail miserably when dealing with low-grade materials.
To avoid wasting precious amounts of cash, it's essential to understand which methods produce long-term profits and which ones yield short-lived returns. With that knowledge under your belt, you can select the right option at the right time.
Fortunately, there are numerous tools available nowadays that can help you determine whether or not you're making progress. For starters, you can use tools like ClickTraffic to track how many unique visitors you receive over time.
Another option is to keep tabs on how many times your ads are clicked. This will give you insight into how frequently your ads are actually viewed. Ideally, you want your ads to be clicked on multiple times throughout the course of the week, month or year.
If you're struggling to figure out what to do next, take a deeper look at the data collected by a tool like Google Analytics. Using this feature, you can see detailed statistics including how many people visited your site, how long they spent browsing, and which pages generated the greatest levels of engagement.
By monitoring your stats regularly, you'll quickly discover patterns and trends that will enable you to refine your business model accordingly. Ultimately, this will improve your chances of succeeding at paid advertising.
Although it seems counterintuitive to claim that advertising is somehow bad, there's no denying that it requires a significant level of commitment. Depending on your goals and expectations, you could potentially waste hundreds of hours conducting studies and experiments, tracking analytics and analyzing data.
Even if you manage to overcome these obstacles, you still have to deal with competitors who are willing to throw big bucks at paid ads. To succeed against the competition, you'll need to constantly innovate and develop strategies that offer higher ROI.
That said, despite the fact that it takes a lot of effort, paid ads can be highly profitable. If done correctly, you can turn them into a source of passive income and cut out the middleman altogether.
With that said, it's vital to take everything slowly and carefully. Before jumping headfirst into any new venture, it helps to weigh the risks and rewards involved. Doing so will ensure that you maximize your odds of success.
Should you decide to pursue paid advertising, remember that it's impossible to predict precisely how effective your methods will be. At the end of the day, it's up to you to pick the path that fits your lifestyle and skill set.
PPC (pay-per-click) advertising is one of many ways in which an affiliate marketer promotes their website or product through advertisements. The idea behind this method is that if someone clicks on your link when they're searching online for something related to what you sell, you get rewarded with some amount of money from your partner's site.
The key here is that you don't actually need to own anything yourself - you only need to be able to create a webpage containing relevant information about whatever it is you want to sell. If people find out about your product through search engines like Google, then you'll earn commission off every sale made by anyone who visits your page.
In recent years, PPC has become increasingly popular as more and more websites opt into allowing advertisers to use them. It also allows marketers to target specific audiences based on certain keywords, so there's no limit to how much traffic you might attract using these methods.
However, while PPC is great for building up brand awareness and getting lots of targeted traffic, it isn't always easy to turn those visitors into customers. In fact, just because you manage to generate a lot of interest doesn't mean that all of that attention translates to sales. So, before we go any further, let's take a look at whether PPC is right for you.
There are two main kinds of PPC campaigns: Pay Per Click (PPC) and Display Advertising (DPI). Both allow you to place text adverts alongside organic results on webpages. While both types have similar characteristics, including cost and targeting options, there are differences between them.
Display advertising works by displaying the advert on a separate section of the page. You usually see "Sponsored" banners above the regular content of a blog post or news item, but sometimes you may even see them directly below articles. They often appear across multiple pages too, meaning that you could potentially be promoting several different brands at once.
Pay-Per-Click advertising, meanwhile, takes the same approach as display advertising, except that instead of being displayed on top of other content, you'll typically see a sponsored result pop up on the first page of results after entering a keyword.
This means that you can easily control exactly where your advertisement appears - either above or below the actual content. However, it does come with its disadvantages since you won't know how well your campaign is performing until long afterwards.
If you've got a decent budget available, then yes! There are plenty of companies around offering PPC services specifically designed for affiliate marketers. These include AdvertSpace, Bidvertiser, Skimlinks, ShareASale and Adsterra. Some of these offer free trials, whilst others charge monthly fees.
The best thing to do is to try each service out and decide which ones suit you best. Most of these platforms are fairly straightforward to use, but depending on your needs, you might prefer to choose a company that offers additional features such as reporting tools or analytics software.
Another important consideration is how flexible your chosen platform is. For example, some sites require you to set aside a large chunk of cash upfront, whereas others give you access to funds over time. Whichever way works best for you depends on your financial situation, but whichever option you choose, make sure you understand how it operates before signing up.
Some platforms are better suited to smaller businesses than larger enterprises. For instance, AdvertiserX charges $100/month for basic accounts, whereas SkimLinks starts at $50/month. On the other hand, Advantages will happily accept payments via PayPal, Amazon Payments & Stripe, making it easier for small business owners to join in without having to worry about credit card processing fees.
Advertisers should keep in mind that not all providers offer equal value. A few, such as Advertise.com, provide limited functionality, whilst others, such as Viglink, offer far more flexibility. Make sure that you check out the various offerings carefully prior to committing to a deal.
Yes, absolutely. As mentioned earlier, one of the advantages of PPC is that it gives you complete control over your ad copy. Therefore, it makes sense to write enticing messages that tell potential customers about your affiliate partners' goods and services.
For example, you might use words such as 'buy', 'cheap' or 'discounts'. Or perhaps you'd like to highlight special offers or discounts that your partners are currently offering. Whatever wording you use, though, remember that you must never mislead anyone about the nature of your relationship with your partner. This would constitute fraud, and if discovered, your account may be closed down immediately.
It's also worth pointing out that if your PPC campaign targets users who already visit your website regularly, you shouldn't feel restricted to writing promotional posts solely about your partners. Instead, consider creating original material that contains useful tips for readers and includes your affiliate links naturally.
You might also want to think about giving your brand personality through branding elements such as logos and tag lines. Of course, you'll still need to follow legal requirements regarding copyright infringement and trademark issues, so be careful.
Finally, bear in mind that although PPC is perfect for increasing visitor numbers, you will probably lose less money overall by spending this kind of advertising money elsewhere. After all, if users aren't clicking on your ads, then why bother paying for them?
Unfortunately, Google Ads cannot host third party content. Whilst this sounds limiting, it's actually quite liberating for affiliate marketers. Because Google owns everything on the internet, they're essentially the gatekeeper of the entire industry.
Therefore, if you wanted to promote a particular product on your website, you wouldn't be allowed to do so simply by linking to it within an existing article. You'd need to start a whole new webpage dedicated to selling that product exclusively. And if you were looking to drive traffic to another website, you'd need to buy a domain name and build up a social media following.
So, basically, you're stuck with Google unless you hire a professional SEO agency to help you out. To put things in perspective, if you had hired a pro to handle your SEO back in 2006, you'd now be earning millions thanks to the massive growth of the digital economy.
But hey, that was then... today is now, and you can learn everything you ever needed to know about starting an ecommerce store from scratch in our beginner's guide to ecommerce.
It's no secret that many people use search engines like Google or Bing to find information online. They're also used as an avenue for advertisers to reach potential customers with their own marketing messages in exchange for money from their sales. The process has become known as Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
If you've done any kind of internet research over the last few years then you may well have come across these advertisements yourself - they're often displayed at the top of search results pages and appear alongside organic listings when users type certain keywords into a search box. If you see one while browsing, don't be alarmed! It doesn't mean your site isn't relevant to what the user was looking for, nor does it always indicate that there's something wrong with your content. In fact, PPC ads help improve your website rankings because they're usually more targeted than "organic" webpages.
But how do you actually get started if you want to start making some cash using PPC? Let us explain...
Yes, yes it is! There's plenty of evidence to suggest that PPC affiliate marketing works better than other forms of digital marketing. For instance, according to Hubspot’s State of Digital Marketing Report 2019, 67% marketers say PPC helps them achieve higher ROI compared with traditional methods such as social media and email campaigns. Another report found that 80% of B2B companies were able to increase revenue through PPC. Of course, this data only relates to those businesses who already had a presence in the market place, so it's unlikely that all newbies would have been successful in getting traffic via PPC. However, it still shows that PPC is effective regardless of whether you're targeting small business owners, entrepreneurs or large corporations.
The main reason why PPC affiliate marketing works so well is due to its ability to target specific audiences based on demographics, location and interests. These factors allow advertisers to determine which websites visitors should land on instead of random clicks landing anywhere. As a result, there's less wastage of time and resources since the adverts are clearly focused on what customers really need. And because PPC affiliate marketing requires very little maintenance once set up, it's easy to scale without having to spend too much time managing different accounts.
So, now that we know PPC affiliate marketing pays off, let's take a look at how you go about setting it up.
Let's talk about what exactly PPC means first before we continue talking about how to set up a campaign. When you think of PPC, you probably imagine sponsored links that pop-up on a webpage. But technically speaking, PPC refers to anything that involves paying someone to deliver a message directly to a visitor. For example, a company might display a link on a billboard outside of a store, or send out emails promoting discounted deals to their database.
In essence, a PPC program allows anyone to advertise their services or products for free but charges others whenever someone clicks on an advert. So, even though the advertiser is not responsible for delivering the message themselves, they'll still receive payment each time someone visits the page where the advert appears.
This form of advertising is popular among both individuals and organisations alike. One of the best examples of this is Facebook's Sponsored Stories feature which lets brands post short video clips to share insights into their brand. Even if you aren't selling anything, this could be useful for boosting your personal profile, increasing awareness of your organisation, or simply just generating buzz around your latest project.
And although these kinds of PPC affiliate marketing campaigns require some technical knowledge, it's worth noting that there are several tools available to assist you along the way. Some of these include:
Skimlinks: A tool designed specifically for creating contextual links within articles. Once set up, publishers can choose which sites they'd like readers to visit after reading their posts. SkimLinks makes it easier for bloggers to create hyperlinked product reviews without needing to embed codes manually. This saves time and improves SEO performance.
ShareASale: An ecommerce platform for sharing and monetizing blog posts. You can earn commissions on every sale generated from the posts you write, plus the option to sell items that weren't included in the original posting.
Adsterra: A service that provides an automated system for creating ads for various platforms including YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest.
CJ Affiliate: A simple yet powerful WordPress plugin for creating customised banners. With CJ Affiliate, you can automatically generate affiliate links for any given URL. All you need to do is enter the title of the page you wish to promote and the author name. Then select the desired banner size and preview the final image.
Bidvertiser: A similar tool to CJ Affiliate that allows you to design banners for multiple platforms simultaneously. You can easily switch back and forth between designs, allowing you to quickly test changes until you settle on the perfect version.
There are three basic ways to run a PPC campaign – direct bidding, auctioning and dynamic insertion. Direct bidding essentially involves placing bids against competitors' offers to win the right to show an advertisement to a particular group of viewers. Auctioning works similarly to direct bidding except that you bid against a predetermined amount rather than competing with other advertisers. Dynamic insertion uses algorithms to decide which ads will appear next, based on the context of the current page being viewed.
While a lot of people only associate PPC with display ads, there's another method called Search Network Advertising (SNA). SNA differs from regular PPC in that it targets keyword phrases within search engine results rather than individual terms. Essentially, you bid for positions where your ad will be shown above the organic listing.
With regards to SNA, it's important to note that it's not suitable for everyone. While it can certainly benefit smaller enterprises who rely heavily on local searches, it won't provide the same level of exposure as a PPC campaign. Plus, it comes with additional costs and restrictions that apply depending on the country you operate in. That said, it's worth considering if you intend to expand beyond local clients.
Now that you know a bit more about what PPC affiliate marketing entails, here are a few tips for finding success:
Choose a niche that matches your skillset: If you're confident enough in your writing abilities, consider starting a blog dedicated solely to providing valuable advice and commentary related to your chosen field. Alternatively, if you prefer to keep things professional while earning income from home, try blogging about topics related to finance or accounting. This ensures you stay relevant throughout your career while building relationships with potential employers.
Know your audience: Before launching a campaign, it's essential to understand what your goals are. Is it to attract new leads or to build rapport with existing fans? Are you trying to boost engagement amongst followers, or are you hoping to convince prospective buyers to purchase a premium package? Ultimately, knowing what you're aiming to accomplish will help shape the strategy behind your PPC campaign.
Write engaging copy: Writing great headlines and descriptions can significantly affect how your advert performs. Make sure you avoid generic language and stick to key words that relate to your topic. Try testing different variations of titles and descriptions to ensure that they perform optimally. Remember, it's crucial that your description includes the benefits that your product/service offers.
Test regularly: To maximize profits, you must continually monitor your PPC campaign and adjust accordingly. Regularly check stats like CTR, CPC and CPA to identify areas where improvements can be made.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.