OK, let's cut the BS. A real look inside CPA marketing (Why one offer 'aint nowhere near enough!)

16 replies
OK,

First of all, this post has nothing to do with people who sell their own products and make aff sales on the backend.

It's purely aimed at the guys who teach or attempt to market aff products like CPA offers with paid advertising.

You've seen the claims...

"Make $500 per day"...and so forth, right?

Now, I'm NOT saying this is impossible, just want to throw in a dash of reality based on real numbers and maths here...

Let's say you find a typical CPA offer with an EPC of 0.42 (very common).

(for those who don't know - EPC is average earning per click across the network, for that particular product or offer)

Ok, now let's say you advertise either on a CPM or PPC basis. In the best case scenario, and usually when using CPM (cost per thousand impressions), you'll be lucky to get a CPM of maybe $0.30

Now let's assume you get 5 clicks per 1000 visitors. Again, this is based on the known average of 0.15 CTR of contextual ads.

That equals $0.06 per actual click on your ad...ok?

Now, there are SOME places where you can get around 1000 impressions per hour. So let's say you manage to find them...and you're ticking away with 1000 impressions per hour, and 5 clicks on your ad in that hour.

Now, remember we said the offer has an EPC of $0.42? Well, that means in one hour, you'd get 5 clicks bring you $0.42 each on average.

So on average, you'd be earning 5 x $0.42 per hour = $2.01
- MINUS YOUR AD COSTS OF 5 x $0.06 per click ($0.30) = $1.70


With these typical numbers, in order to make minimum wage with the average CPA offer (or other similar aff offer) you would have to get 3-4 x as many impressions and subsequent clicks...

In other words, about 3000 impressions per hour, and 15 x clicks.

What's my point?

Just to say, that earning $1000's per day from CPA, or affiliate marketing, is not always as black and white as some people make out.

In fact, the real gold (aka = truth) is in creating MULTIPLE offers, running multiple promotions and building a list to do multiple backend sales.

Don't expect to pick one CPA offer and get rich...or in fact, even make minimum wage with it.

========
* please correct me if my maths is wrong

* figures gathered from personal testing, research and stats on traffic sources and CPA networks

* this is not slating people who teach aff marketing per se, just a headsup to those about to invest their dinner money into this wild jungle

* I don't doubt that people ARE making thousands per day from CPA and other such types of offers, but again, it's not quite what you think...it's about large volume, mass admin and lots of number crunching

* yes, I fully understand that offer, different offers, different traffic sources make a difference...but I'm going off averages to make a point here

* yes, I know that your ad will make you money when you sleep, so effectively you earn around the clock, but hopefully, with the reality of how small the numbers are when you get everything right, you'll see my point about the work and volume required to make BIG money???

Peace |m|

Nick
#affiliate #close #cut #inside #marketing #real
  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Hey Nick,

    Nice post. The only thing I would have a problem with is the title (and why you're not even close) - I hate comments like that since they assume you're failing at it - which we're not all.

    Nice to see you sharing such great detail to help people.

    Thanks

    Andy
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    nothing to see here.

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    • Profile picture of the author Nick Brighton
      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      Hey Nick,

      Nice post. The only thing I would have a problem with is the title (and why you're not even close) - I hate comments like that since they assume you're failing at it - which we're not all.

      Nice to see you sharing such great detail to help people.

      Thanks

      Andy
      No problem Andy - the "not even close" thing was to signify perceptions, not results...but I'll change it, no worries.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Atkins
    "or in fact, even make minimum wage with it."

    Why not? I mean... if it's converting well, then why is it
    improbable?

    Personally I prefer to concentrate my efforts on one
    product or one CPA offer instead on plenty of them.

    Don't know how it worked out for you, but it works pretty
    well for me.

    Whenever I find a good product (or CPA offer etc..) I stick with
    it. I start promoting it like mad with my lists, paid advertising, some
    free traffic methods etc... and I make plenty of money with it. I
    certainly make more than minimum wage with it.

    Anyway, this doesn't mean that I'm right & you're wrong. Not at
    all. Everyone experiences different results in marketing, and
    everyone finds his own way to succeed.

    PS: In your example you mentioned one traffic method.
    Whenever I promote something I drive traffic to it
    from plenty of sources. That's why I manage to make good
    money with one offer or product.

    Cheers
    - Johnny
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  • Profile picture of the author misterwrecker
    Hello Nick,

    There is a lot of truth as to what you are saying but your example is very narrow and does not represent the whole spectrum.

    If you have a cpa offer that is converting at 10% and pays $10, you EPC is $1.

    Now if you are paying .50/click, you are making an ROI of 100%.

    I am sure many cpa marketers will agree my numbers are not far fetched and this also is a narrow example.

    You do not need massive amounts of impressions and clicks to make a nice profit.

    There are people that go for volume and run on slim margins but make a lot of money and others go for a higher targeted approach with less volume but a higher profit margin.


    -John
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  • Profile picture of the author Affiliit
    Let's face it, network EPC is not ever accurate, it has too many variables to think that will be your EPC
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  • Profile picture of the author Cash37
    I've made a ton running one offer, on one traffic source, not capturing emails, and barely testing my LP. I actually personally don't like to run too many offers at once because you can make a ton from just focusing on a few and testing
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    • Profile picture of the author Nick Brighton
      I totally understand the responses, and my point really was that YES, you need to go far and wide with a good offer, not expect to put all your eggs in one basket so to speak.

      Originally Posted by misterwrecker View Post

      Hello Nick,

      There is a lot of truth as to what you are saying but your example is very narrow and does not represent the whole spectrum.

      If you have a cpa offer that is converting at 10% and pays $10, you EPC is $1.

      Now if you are paying .50/click, you are making an ROI of 100%.

      I am sure many cpa marketers will agree my numbers are not far fetched and this also is a narrow example.


      -John

      Yeah, but if you really look at network EPC, that's kinda rare isn't it?

      You do not need massive amounts of impressions and clicks to make a nice profit.

      There are people that go for volume and run on slim margins but make a lot of money and others go for a higher targeted approach with less volume but a higher profit margin.
      Yeah, that kinda backs up my post really...and I really think that's the hard truth which a lot of newbies might overlook (not their fault, it's just the way a lot of these courses are sold).



      Originally Posted by Affiliit View Post

      Let's face it, network EPC is not ever accurate, it has too many variables to think that will be your EPC
      You probably know more about this patch of advertising than I do, so please tell me how this is so? I genuinely am interested.

      Have you tested offers with a certain EPC that have in reality turned out to be much higher EPC's in your actual campaign? It wouldn't surprise me, just curious that's all.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kenster
    Thanks for the post and a lot of your concepts are true. I know you mention this as one example, but it is important to understand the scope of the internet. Yes, you need massive amounts of impressions, clicks etc but thats the great thing about the internet, especially in the paid traffic world...you can get enormous traffic. Set your budget or bids high enough and you will see more traffic than you thought possible.

    And yes, most people doing well in CPA have many campaigns going, each of which may be run on multiple traffic sources, so your one cpa offer making $1.70 per hour now may be many many times more than that.


    If you have a good landing page for a high paying trial offer or something and you find a good high traffic keyword that's converting, then one offer, one traffic, one campaign can be making a ton of money. Obviously its not easy to find huge winners like this, but it is very possible.


    So there is a lot of validity to your statements but I think it underestimates the power and scope of the internet.
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  • Profile picture of the author misterwrecker
    Hey Nick,

    A network epc of $1 is not uncommon at all.

    As far as your title states that one offer is not enough, that is definitely the case and even one traffic source is not enough.

    I don't think anybody can disagree with the fact that multiple streams of income is a must. The cpa game is very volatile and if you put everything into one offer and one traffic source, you will be playing catch up.


    -John
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  • Profile picture of the author ben565
    Originally Posted by Nick Brighton View Post

    Don't expect to pick one CPA offer and get rich...or in fact, even make minimum wage with it.
    well i know affiliates who where making $1000's per day just from the **** offer!
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    • Profile picture of the author misterwrecker
      Originally Posted by ben565 View Post

      well i know affiliates who where making $1000's per day just from the **** offer!

      What's the key word in that sentence?
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  • Profile picture of the author MrCoach
    10 sites that average $1.70 an hour is over $10,000/month in income. Not bad, if you ask me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nick Brighton
    Is it just me, or does the thought of managing thousands of campaigns, tracking and conversion reports, traffic sources and budgets a real nightmare (like, a full time job!)

    lol
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    • Profile picture of the author Phobos
      Originally Posted by Nick Brighton View Post

      (like, a full time job!)

      For many, IM is a full time job ... lol
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      • Profile picture of the author Kenster
        Originally Posted by Nick Brighton View Post

        Is it just me, or does the thought of managing thousands of campaigns, tracking and conversion reports, traffic sources and budgets a real nightmare (like, a full time job!)

        lol
        Originally Posted by Phobos View Post

        For many, IM is a full time job ... lol


        Agreed for many it is a full time job.

        If you are managing that many campaigns, then my bet is you have software or a full team managing everything or most likely both. Most people dont even wish to get to that point though. To make a few hundred dollars a day you certainly dont need thousands of campaigns. For many, that's all they are after, that is fine.


        I also think its important to build your CPA business as a business and not a bunch of individual transactions.

        And to some degree you are right. That is why you hear of people starting out in CPA, making a bunch of money, and then start doing other things like iphone or facebook apps or being investors in startups or making their own start ups. :p
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        • Profile picture of the author JackBenson
          I'm not sure why you are limiting the hourly impressions to 1000 or 2000??

          Many affiliates match the right offer with a traffic source and it can just take off.

          I have had over 2.5mil impressions a day going to ONE offer.
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