Solo Ads or Pay Per Lead?

5 replies
Hi folks. I have a question here which should generate some interesting debate and may prove helpful to a bunch of marketers out there.

If you are trying to build your list quickly, and you have some cash to invest, how should you do it? I see several options, but want to focus on a few.

1. Buy solo ads.

With this option, you pay for a guaranteed number of clicks on your squeeze page. Whether they will convert to subscribers or not is up to the quality of your offer. Most solo providers over deliver on the number of clicks and you can get a good optin rate if your offer is good enough.

In addition - again, if your offer is good enough - you can make some sales on the front end, and with upsells and OTOs even offset some (or all) of the cost of your solo ad fee.

2. Pay for guaranteed subscribers


Some vendors offer guaranteed subscribers too. You pay not for the clicks, but for the subs.

Now some of these are really bad - because they are outsourcing to people who sign up to offers and get paid to do so. The vendor is making a small profit on charging you more than they are paying them. I am not referring to that kind of set up.

I am considering here the solo vendors who accept your money per sub instead of per click (usually more expensive to buy).

3. Run your own pay per lead program

You set up your CPA program in which you pay the affiliate for every subscriber they send your way. Again, you have to be careful that they are not filling your list with ad.fly traffic and such like - you have this in your rules.

So - these are the options on the table. What do people think? What have you experience of? What do you believe works the most in terms of generating the best return on the money you have to invest? 1, 2, or 3?
#ads #cpa advertising #lead #pay #pay per lead #solo #solo ads #targetted traffic
  • Profile picture of the author twinkenterprises
    The pay for subscribers idea is interesting. I've never seen that service before, I'll have to check it out. The only thing I can see happening is you pay for 5 subscribers. They get thier payment and then all unsubscribe. I've had success with solo ads and credit and free mailers. It seems I get a lot of clicks, but only a few subscribers.
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  • Profile picture of the author gcbmark20
    Hi Paul,

    I can only personally vouch for solo ads as I use them on a regular basis for my list building efforts.

    As for the pay-per-sub; it does sound as though sellers could ask people to sign up and pay them for doing so and pay them badly so they get to keep most of your money you gave to them for that ad.

    Once you have your own product, there are many places to upload it to and find affiliates by offering 100% commissions at the front end of your product.

    I think it all depends on where you are with your business and whether you are a product owner, an affiliate or both!

    All the best anyway and thanks for the thought provoking question!
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Dunstan
      Originally Posted by gcbmark20 View Post


      Once you have your own product, there are many places to upload it to and find affiliates by offering 100% commissions at the front end of your product.

      All the best anyway and thanks for the thought provoking question!
      Yes - you are right about the offering of 100% commissions to affiliates, and this is something I do already. I didn't really want to get into that for this thread.

      I was more interested in finding out whether people had achieved a better return on investment on the pay per sub than the solo ad. For example - Abel Chua offers both schemes. You can buy clicks or leads. John Cornetta the same. These are quality marketers and will not go the route of paying others to sign up to the offer.

      Does anybody have any experience in pay per sub? Does it work out more effective than buying clicks? In addition - there are plenty of marketers who run their own pay per lead offers. They must find this cost effective or they wouldn't do it. Is it better than solos?

      Thanks for your comments.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Atkins
    The problem with 2 and 3 is that people can use proxies to sign up
    themselves our outsource the signups. Solo ads are risky but the other
    2 are much riskier. In the end it depends on the seller. Do your research
    on the seller before buying from him.
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  • Profile picture of the author itravel2004
    I still prefer solo ads, at least I can buy solo-ads from safe-swap which guarantee won't be cheated.
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