What is your average open and click-thru rate?

8 years ago

How much are you spending for solo ads? Most of the times these leads do never convert.

So, here's what I think:
1. Don't spend another cent for solo ads.
2. Instead, put all your budget to get clicks from FB ads.
3. Direct these leads to a nice landing page, offer them something and have them subscribe to your list.
4. Make money from them.

Simple as that!

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M Thompson

8 years ago

I've never used solo ads, (well apart from a test case study) and my open rates are above 40% CTR's depend on the link but 15-20% is average.

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unlimitedoptions

8 years ago

Hi:

Solo ads can be effective but it depends on your source. I've had solo ad open rates as high as 52%. Click through rate as high as 5%. However, organic traffic from your blog will usually be more engaging than solo ads.
Consider splitting your budget 80% blog ads (Face Book, YouTube, etc) and 20% for solo ads.

Good Luck,

Dan

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YourBizAid

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by ShawnLim

As for list from solo ads, both open and click-through is low.

It makes me wondering whether it is still a good strategy to continue to buy solo ads to build my list. Since it is very expensive. However, if I only depend on traffic from my blog, it will be too slow. I only get a few subscribers from my blog each day.

What do you think?

Maybe you're bombing your list with too many offers while offering them little or no value in return. Just like everyone and their grandmother does.

If this is your case, I advise you pick up this guide and read: Addict Your Subscribers to your every email

It will teach you a ton of things on shooting your CTR and open rates through the roof.

Bottom line: learn to provide adequate value to your list alongside promoting your offfers to them.

Best of Luck!

Ken

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Steve B

8 years ago

Shawn,

There are many, many other sources of new traffic besides expensive solo ads. I suggest you spend some time delving into studying the alternatives.

Also, understand this: someone else's open and click thru rates have no bearing on your own situation. Really, there is no "average" rate because every promotion is different, every audience is different, every offer is different, every marketer is different.

Don't measure your own success to what anyone else is doing - it will hold you back every time. If their success is greater than yours, you'll think you're doing something wrong. If their success is less than yours, you'll be satisfied to do less than you're capable.

Measure success and growth against your own past performance.

The best to you,

Steve

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Vedmak

8 years ago

I found solo ads to be worthless as far as conversions go. Its one step removed from just grabbing email list someone scraped and spamming.

Instead try FB Ads and perhaps Bing Ads with coupons so you get at least 5 to 1 for your money (ie. $25 for $125).

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nicheblogger75

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Vedmak

I found solo ads to be worthless as far as conversions go. Its one step removed from just grabbing email list someone scraped and spamming.

That couldn't be farther from the truth.

My solo buys convert at near 48%.

If you were getting bad conversions, then it was either your landing page or the seller you bought from has crap traffic.

I have been crushing it with solo ads (and so have thousands of others) for the past 3-4 years.

I almost always have a positive ROI on my solo buys and the leads are very responsive.

I'm in the "make money online/biz opp" niche, so open and CTR rates are going to be low.

It's often a numbers game with the MMO niche, but there are still many things you can do to make you list more responsive.

I rotate my emails. I do one free ebook/video/software/helpful article and then one promo email.

Sometimes I even do one freebie and one promo on the same day.

It works great.

As I said, MMO lists typically have low open and CTR rate.

My open rate is around 12% and my CTR is usually around 5%-7%.

That's low for most niches, but it's quite decent for the MMO niche.

I also have more than 100,000 subscribers, so although the open and CTR rates are low, I still do great whenever I mail an affiliate promo. I can usually get anywhere from 4000-5000 clicks on a mailing.

As far as sales, my list converts between 2%-3% overall.

So, if I get 4000 clicks to a $7 offer at a 2% conversion rate, that's a cool $560 in sales on a promo email, and that's not including upsells. I promote a lot of offers from Warrior Plus that are usually on dime sale and the FE product starts out around $5.95. My list eats them up. These funnels usually have anywhere from 5-7 products in them, and many of the people on my list will buy one or two upsells as well as the FE product, and some even buy the entire funnel in one shot.

All I can say is maybe there are better ways of building your list than solo ads, but I'm living pretty well on my solo ad built list.

I hear a lot of people talking down solo ads lately.

I don't even know why I bother defending solo ads. The less people that buy them the better. That keeps the traffic fresher for me.

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Vedmak

8 years ago

Originally Posted by nicheblogger75

That couldn't be farther from the truth.

My solo buys convert at near 48%.

I call bs on that.

You are seriously going to post that half of people sent to you through someone elses list buy your promoted item?

Do you have ANY idea how ridiculous that sounds?

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myob

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Vedmak

I call bs on that.

You are seriously going to post that half of people sent to you through someone elses list buy your promoted item?

Do you have ANY idea how ridiculous that sounds?

What he means by "convert", is they simply subscribe to his list. This is quite possible with a totally awesome free incentive through solo ads in ezines which are regularly read by his target market. However, his subsequent offers do not seem to be resonating well to those subscribers, according to his own admission:

As far as sales, my list converts between 2%-3% overall.

Solo ads really do work, but I would call his list-building system of actual buyers to be dismally ineffective and slow.

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Vedmak

8 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

What he means by "convert", is they simply subscribe to his list. .

Ok, I'll agree, thats possible although very unlikely. We are still looking at 48% which is higher than anyone I know gets from top ads. Its as possible as winning state lottery.

I experimented with solo ads for a while and what becomes obvious very quickly is that its same few lists being spammed. You pay to be advertised to same lists possibly several other people were advertised to that same month. Even if subs dont unsub right off, odds of them BUYING (and that part is ALL I care about, sales) are next to nil.

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myob

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Vedmak

Ok, I'll agree, thats possible although very unlikely. We are still looking at 48% which is higher than anyone I know gets from top ads. Its as possible as winning state lottery.

It's important to note that we're talking about solo ads here, not ezine "top ads", which are nowhere nearly as effective, primarily due to its much shorter content.

Originally Posted by Vedmak

I experimented with solo ads for a while and what becomes obvious very quickly is that its same few lists being spammed. You pay to be advertised to same lists possibly several other people were advertised to that same month. Even if subs dont unsub right off, odds of them BUYING (and that part is ALL I care about, sales) are next to nil.

I use solo ads quite regularly, with great success. But although my initial conversion rate is much lower (avg range 4-13%) due to requiring a nominal purchase, the subsequent sales promotions have frequently been converting as high as 27% in resales. Unsubscribe rate need not be a problem either, as long as your offer and message resonates with the ezines' reading audience.

It's essential to run solo ads multiple times to maximize their potential. Including references to your blog (which should already have a substantial following) and testimonials about your qualifications and/or product quality can drive conversions well into double digits.

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nicheblogger75

8 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

Solo ads really do work, but I would call his list-building system of actual buyers to be dismally ineffective and slow.

Well, it's actually normal for the MMO niche and when you are getting 4000-5000 clicks to an affiliate offer from a broadcast, if the offer pays a $10 commission and even if you only get 1% to buy, that's still 40 sales, or $400. At 2%, it's $800. At 3%, it's $1200.

I don't really know anyone who is upset when they can spend 15 minutes to send out a promo email and make $400-$1200 from it while they do things they enjoy all day.

But hey, what do I know?

I'm only a top 1% elite affiliate on Warrior Plus.

You know what?

You guys are right. Solo ads suck. None of you should use them.

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myob 8 years ago

Originally Posted by nicheblogger75

But hey, what do I know?

I'm only a top 1% elite affiliate on Warrior Plus.

That's not a particularly elite group to be among the top 1% of affiliates, but at least it seems to be good enough for you.
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- nicheblogger75 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by myob
  
  That's not a particularly elite group to be among the top 1% of affiliates, but at least it seems to be good enough for you.
  
  You have to make a lot of affiliate sales to be in the top 1% of all affiliates that belong to Warrior Plus. There are probably tens of thousands of affiliates. Being in the top 1% means that I make more sales than 99% of all the affiliates who belong to Warrior Plus.
  
  I didn't say it was good enough for me, or that it was my sole accomplishment as an affiliate.
  
  It is, however, an achievement I am certainly proud of and one that shows I have achieved success.
  
  I'm not making millions from my business, but I'm doing pretty good for myself.
  
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Vedmak

8 years ago

Originally Posted by nicheblogger75

Solo ads suck. None of you should use them.

You are not trying to sell them to me, you say they work for you, I'm fine with that. I am not in your niche, I do not sell WSO's nor do I do much in "make money" niche, only few JV's, so, for me, solo ads suck. I primarily deal in long term contracts for services.

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nicheblogger75

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Vedmak

You are not trying to sell them to me, you say they work for you, I'm fine with that. I am not in your niche, I do not sell WSO's nor do I do much in "make money" niche, only few JV's, so, for me, solo ads suck. I primarily deal in long term contracts for services.

No, I'm not trying to sell them to you at all. I don't sell solo ads.

You questioned my conversion rate, so I posted some proof.

Now, anybody can post a screen shot. We all know they can be faked or stolen, etc.

However, mine is real.

I'm just engaging in a discussion. You said they don't work. I said they do.

Maybe you don't use them and that's fine.

To each his own, etc.

And that comment you quoted was sarcasm, anyway. Just trying to inject a little humor into the thread.

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Vedmak

8 years ago

Originally Posted by nicheblogger75

However, mine is real.

I'm just engaging in a discussion. You said they don't work. I said they do.

Maybe you don't use them and that's fine.

To each his own, etc.

And that comment you quoted was sarcasm, anyway. Just trying to inject a little humor into the thread.

I understood its sarcasm. I quoted one line longer than I meant to. I understood your original comment to mean that you were selling product/service to 48% of people sent to you from solo ads. Conversion=sale, for me, you use it to mean signing up to your list, so there is the misunderstanding.

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nicheblogger75

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Vedmak

I call bs on that.

You are seriously going to post that half of people sent to you through someone elses list buy your promoted item?

Do you have ANY idea how ridiculous that sounds?

What I mean is that if I buy 100 clicks, 40-50 people will end up subscribing to my list.

It's not ridiculous at all.

It's common among people who know what they are doing with solo ads. There are many others whose conversion rates are even better than mine.

Here is a screen shot of my solo buys for this month alone. I have purchased 800 clicks this month, which is actually a lot less than normal because I was in Las Vegas from the 1st-4th and did not work on my business at all. So these are from the 5th through today.

"UC" stands for unique clicks and "A" stands for the number of subscribers acquired.

If you still think it's BS, that's cool.

I don't have to prove myself, just showing you that it is possible.

In fact, this month I am converting at 56% so far.

However, by the end of the month it will fall to anywhere between 40%-50% conversion.

I usually buy around 5000-7000 clicks per month.

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Raeez Gaibee17

8 years ago

Depends solely on the traffic source,quality and Offer

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JohnMcCabe

8 years ago

If I were to aggregate all the various open and click rates, then average them, the result would be worthless. Even to me.

I commend you on being sharp enough to keep the organic and solo ad lists separate. You can already see that different sources will have different open and click rates.

You've seen that, as you do things now, your results from people coming from your blog are better than those from your solo ads. Unless you want to invest the time and money to improve your solo results (if they can be improved), it seems to me that the logical step is to find more ways to get people to your blog, and from there onto your list.

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agmccall

8 years ago

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jeng cua

8 years ago

Originally Posted by ShawnLim

Hi, I have mailing lists.
I'm just wondering what is the average open rate and click-thru rate for most people.

I'm currently driving traffic through solo ads and from my blog.

I discovered that traffic from my blog is more responsive. The open rate for that list is higher and the click-thru is also higher. As for list from solo ads, both open and click-through is low.

It makes me wondering whether it is still a good strategy to continue to buy solo ads to build my list. Since it is very expensive. However, if I only depend on traffic from my blog, it will be too slow. I only get a few subscribers from my blog each day.

What do you think?

Hi Shawn!

If you are buying solo ads, you cannot control what your users see before they landed to your site. You need to control this if you want higher open rate and sale conversion.
I would rather use google adwords since this is the highest converting traffic platform or Facebook.

I think it would be better to control your own traffic. You may want to check this out google adwords campaign structure best practices.

Hope this help.
jeng cua

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thomsoncody2

8 years ago

I think the best traffic is search engine, forum and email marketing traffic. There open rate is almost 50%.

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JohnMcCabe

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Vedmak

You are not trying to sell them to me, you say they work for you, I'm fine with that. I am not in your niche, I do not sell WSO's nor do I do much in "make money" niche, only few JV's, so, for me, solo ads suck. I primarily deal in long term contracts for services.

If I'm correct in assuming the above means you are in a B2B niche, I can understand why the solo ads you can get from most brokers won't work for you. Especially if you're dealing in enterprise level services.

If you want to try emailing ads to other peoples' subscriber lists, you might want to make a list of the trade association newsletters, trade magazines, blogs, etc. specifically targeting your niche.

Many of those will offer "endorsed mailings" or even list rentals to their subscribers. These will be much more targeted than anything you'll find from an IM solo ad source.

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Vedmak

8 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

If I'm correct in assuming the above means you are in a B2B niche, I can understand why the solo ads you can get from most brokers won't work for you. Especially if you're dealing in enterprise level services.
.

Entry level for services I normally broker is higher than average. For me, solo ads from several sources resulted in zero conversions, while my expected conversions (sales, where individual signs up for a contract and pays monthly from there on) from fine tuned, targeted, FB Ads are around 3.5-4.25%. Strictly speaking about value of my Ad Dollar, for me, Solo Ads were waste of money.

However, I do have associates from other niches and when I was discussing Solo Ads with them, predominantly I got feedback that Solo Ad sellers they dealt with tend to spam those lists and that even just opens, clicks and impressions (where person would come to read copy, but not actually sign up/convert) were sub-1%.

But, I am always open to hearing about other peoples experiences, especially if they are doing significantly better with some avenue than I did.

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myob

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Vedmak

But, I am always open to hearing about other peoples experiences, especially if they are doing significantly better with some avenue than I did.

I sometimes may spend several thousands of dollars a month on solo ads, because they work. My target market is B2B, professionals and middle management, selling mostly high end industrial equipment and supplies from Amazon.

For any given commercially viable niche, there are hundreds and usually far more of relevant ezines and newsletters accepting solo ads or similar advertising options.

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Lucian Lada

8 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

For any given commercially viable niche, there are hundreds and usually far more of relevant ezines and newsletters accepting solo ads or similar advertising options.

Hi Myob,

How does solo ads compare to article syndication? I know you're a big proponent of it (ie article syndication).

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myob

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Lucian Lada

Hi Myob,

How does solo ads compare to article syndication? I know you're a big proponent of it (ie article syndication).

Hi Lucian,

How's it going? I haven't seen your posts here in quite awhile.

Of course, there is no comparison for the effectiveness of article syndication to any other method of traffic generation, in my always not so humble opinion.

But when publications won't accept outside articles, or turn down submission requests, a perfectly viable option is to buy enough ad space to fit the article.

I do this not only with print magazines and newspapers, but also online publications such as ezine solo ads. The online solo ad articles are truncated, with a link to the complete article on my website.

I think you recall I wrote about this some time ago, although I can't find the link right now. This type of advertising is so powerful that the FTC requires such articles appearing in print media (as well as TV "infomercials") to display a prominent notice at the top of the page that it is an ADVERTISEMENT.

In my experience, using ads in this way is extremely cost-effective because it takes away the edge of just being another sales pitch, and provides a subtle yet powerful hint of endorsement from the publishers.

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Lucian Lada

8 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

I haven't seen your posts here in quite awhile.

Yes, I haven't been active here in a long time, and that's because the state of the forum is, well, you know what I'm talking about. Still, I'm happy to see there are people like you and others (ie John McCaibe) still around and willing to share their expertise with others.

Thanks for the answer - it now makes sense. Yes, I remember you talking about buying ad space for your articles when they don't accept submissions, but I didn't know about the truncating part. Why do you truncate articles? Because they don't fit?

Also, I know you like tracking traffic sources for performance, but how do you monitor traffic from offline sources? The only way I can think of is appending a unique code to the URL (which is how you say you do, anyway), but this might put off some people. Alternatively, you might buy different domain names, one for each offline traffic source, and add the exact same content and sales funnel on each, but this seems like a lot of work.

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myob

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Lucian Lada

Yes, I haven't been active here in a long time, and that's because the state of the forum is, well, you know what I'm talking about. Still, I'm happy to see there are people like you and others (ie John McCabe) still around and willing to share their expertise with others.

You're right. Back in the day, big name marketers hung out here frequently and freely shared their secrets. Now, it's basically a place for people to sell products and exercise their baby guru muscles.

Originally Posted by Lucian Lada

Thanks for the answer - it now makes sense. Yes, I remember you talking about buying ad space for your articles when they don't accept submissions, but I didn't know about the truncating part. Why do you truncate articles? Because they don't fit?

My articles typically are in the 800-1200 word range, so there are no solo ads with enough room to fit them in. The articles in solo ads contain just the first few paragraphs, then teaser copy at the end points to the rest of the article on my website.

So many people say that solo ads don't work, but the real problem is they try to make a sale (either a product or incentivized "sign up") right from the solo ad.

It used to work this way quite well, just like many of the other twisted and failed marketing schemes that you and I have seen popping up here on the forum over the years by so-called "gurus".

Originally Posted by Lucian Lada

Also, I know you like tracking traffic sources for performance, but how do you monitor traffic from offline sources? The only way I can think of is appending a unique code to the URL (which is how you say you do, anyway), but this might put off some people. Alternatively, you might buy different domain names, one for each offline traffic source, and add the exact same content and sales funnel on each, but this seems like a lot of work.

I use the same tracking code format as online, but it is designated as "Dept #" after a telephone number. My staff will take orders by phone with the code as the tracking source. If customers order from the website, they must enter the tracking code on the order form (forced field). They also cannot just subscribe to my lists without first making a purchase; the subscription form has a forced field for purchase receipt number.

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What is your average open and click-thru rate?

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