Clickbank + Google/Bing (Does it actually work in 2018? Struggling to profit!)

To give more info about my actual results....First lets go with selling on the Back-End with Free Bait + Email after the opt-in. Even when my Opt-in rates on my Landing Pages are good (30-50%), good open rates/CTR for my Emails, I still can't get a good profit ratio for my sales from Email sequences once everything is done.

Same thing for Front-End selling (Landing Page/Review Page > Direct Link strategy). I'll have a good CTR to the LP, decent Cost Per Lead, but not enough sales to make it profitable at the end of the day.

Recently when I jumped back in, I tried promoting ClickFunnels as apart of Franklin Hatchett's new Affiliate Course. Same story with that too, haha. Ran Google Ads and Solo Ads to it, spent a couple hundred bucks and didn't get 1 ClickFunnels trial and no sales. Nothing against Frank, he's awesome, but I just don't know if these Affiliate Offers are suitable for paid traffic, guys like Frank seem to lean more towards organic/free traffic sources, which makes a lot more sense honestly.

Right now I'm also testing a new method, I re-created the Sales Page of this Clickbank offer (High gravity offer) and am running traffic directly to my custom Sales Page. I have 4 competitors on Google Ads who are doing this same method (They all made their own sales pages that the Ad links directly to), so I basically took inspiration from their pages to create my own sales page that is very similar but has a cleaner layout with lots of customer reviews.

Since all of the competitors have been running these same Ads for the past couple weeks, I'm assuming they must be profitable. Trouble is, the keywords they're bidding on are only based on the Product's Title (So there's not a lot of search volume). I first tried running my Ads to broader keywords in this niche with big search volumes, but got eaten alive with high CPC's and it just ate my money within hours.

The success of paid marketing depends on many things. Keyword research, product Research, marketplace research, etc. You have a good sense of them. And e-mail collect is the best way. Because you can promote different types of products in the same categories. Which means re-marketing.

The part where they are making money is using the email you have collected.

You will need to follow up on them, give them more value, built relationship / trust before pitching them the products.

I also fail hard with paid traffic but i will not give up i am constient that its not easy and its hard until i will find my ungle

Hi Gokusaiyan,

First of all, welcome back.

Second of all: interesting.

You have an interesting problem. Though I doubt from your point-of-view it's terribly interesting, more maddening, I'd imagine.

I was talking about eComm in another WF thread. Perhaps have a quick read of that; call it preface to what follows.

You clearly know you're stuff.

On the information I have to go on? My first instinct is to suggest that you need to know your audience better.

There is really little difference between promoting Click Bank, say, and promoting your own digital or physical products.

In some cases, there is no difference.

But you've whacked up $2 million with your own eComm.

That - to me - suggests that you know that audience better than the audiences for the affiliate products and/ or services.

It boils down to buttons/ triggers.

Specifically: knowing which ones to press, and how, when, and where to press them.

It depends on what affiliate offers I'm promoting at any one time, but I'll have EPCs anywhere from a few cents to several dollars.

And I push a lot of traffic.

- Organic, and

- Paid.

One of the reasons for my own success in IM (and, specific to this discussion, affiliate marketing) is my decision to work only in marketers where I have a passion.

You'll find marketers are split in that regard.

Some will say to follow the money, not the passion; and vice versa.

Well, for me? I recommend following passion AND money. One of the reasons is what I've already touched on: knowing your audience.

I began working in IM almost 24 years ago. But there are some markets I won't touch. I wouldn't, for instance, work in the market for attractive blow-up sheep.

I lack the experience.

(No no, honestly, I do.)

It boils down to knowing Joe and Jane Consumer well enough to push the right buttons in order to incite the desired outcome.

Well, if I myself am a Joe Consumer, in that market, then it immediately gives me a leg-up. Sure, I still have to continue understanding my audience, knowing them deeper and better (which sounds rather rude, but isn't, I promise), but it begins with choosing the right audience - me.

So! At this stage?

It does seem to me that you need to learn the triggers. There is no good reason why you shouldn't be earning money. Not if you know the above. It was a very good post and, as I say, you appear to know your stuff.

The right triggers? How and where and when to use them?

I'd look into that, mate.

Best of luck!

- Tom

You do not have a funnel. Direct linking is the absolute best way to lose money in affiliate marketing.

You need a good ad that promotes the bait..or the free gift in exchange for their email.

Once they give you the email and opt in send them to a Bridge Page...this is where you have a testimonial of the product you are going to promote along with a bonus if they buy from you.

For example, If i were to sell 3 Week Diet, a Clickbank product I would give away a free guide related to weight loss...or a video that shows you the top 2 things you can do to jumpstart your weight loss>

Once they opt-in they would go to my Bridge page where I would have a video testimonial of a user of 3 Week Diet and how it worked for them. Under this I would have a few bullet points of what to expect in the 3 Week Diet program and under this I would have a bonus stating when they buy the program using the link below to send me the receipt and in exchange I will give them a free recipe book (you an find PLR books online and use this as your bonus.) Or if you used the program you could do weekly training via YouTube live.

From here the go to the vendors page and hopefully buy the product.

|BUT there is a 97% they will not buy so you need to have a 7-10 email follow up sequence in place. Dont try to sell on every email. Tell a story, offer the solution. Get them to trust you and take interest in your stories.

You will also want to make sure to retarget the people who landed on your site and get them back>

Visited site but did not opt in
Opt in but did not visit vendor page
Visited Vendor page but did not buy.

Now you will have to make 10-20 sales before the vendor will place your pixel or code on their site but if you are makind sales for them they will do this!

This is 100% the best way to be a top affiliate with any product. Getting traffic is easy but getting traffic to buy is not...this is the best solution!

The real reason you got traffic and opt ins but no sales is you sold the product to them....you did not sell the solution to their problem. You also did not "Bridge" the gap from your ad to the vendors offer...which is why the bridge page with testimonial is so crucial!

No doubt, you already understand that there are quite a few variables affecting the success of any offering regardless of the niche. Sometimes you have to test and track each variable separately until you reach the ROI that makes the offer profitable when taking into consideration the cost of your marketing.


To make matters worse, sometimes you will find two or more variables are at the root of your selling system not producing like it could. Testing then becomes a bit more tricky and sometimes more complicated.


One thing that I have noticed that is an almost universal roadblock to selling affiliate offers (which I don't normally do, but I notice this from the buyer's point of view) is poor and non-compelling sales copy.


Let's face it, the sales copy on Clickbank products is all over the place! Often the copy is very poor. You get amateur product creators writing their own copy for their sales letter and it is poor quality, boring, and not at all enticing. And without a great offer + compelling copy, you're not going to get many sales.


Certainly your problem could be something else . . . but be sure to at least address how well a CB product motivates the prospect with a powerful pitch and call to action. If it doesn't have that, no amount of traffic (even targeted traffic) is going to make much difference in your sales.


The best to you,


Steve

yeah not sure why you'd want to start affiliate marketing if your shopify stores are making millions, but ok.

Affiliate marketing works and you can make a full time income with it. Having those low end offers at the beginning are what we call "loss leaders" - meaning, they are meant to just get the subscriber or buyer onto your funnel.

The money is made on the back end, through follow ups and also selling higher ticket items.

These days, people are getting leary of putting in their email for a free gift. So they will put in a bullshit email to get past the opt in.

Another way to get immediate sales from the optin, is to send them to a thank you page that lets them know their email is on its way, and then redirect to the affiliate offer after like 10 seconds.

Some will buy, but you are essentially getting the email to promote over and over again.

Here's my two cents. Hope it helps!

The answer is yes, but obviously not the way your going about it. While your set up is fine, at least in theory, something else is broken here. If you're collecting emails and you're actually getting interested leads, it's really just about figuring out how to monetize those leads.

Typically, you need to use multiple monetization methods to be successful. Just giving a way an ebook and sending a few emails promoting one product isn't going to do it, usually. You can also start a blog, write about topics in the niche, send emails announcing your new blog posts and use Google AdSense on the blog posts, along with affiliate links (Amazon, CB, Flexoffers and others) in the content.

This will grab the freebie seekers and maybe they click on an ad from Google and you make a few cents or dollars, depending on the niche. Now, you've monetized someone on your list that may never be willing to buy the product you're promoting.

Your CPC is too high for the product commission. It's a simple math problem. Your introductory offer should cover the cost of your traffic while you make your profit on the back end.

Assume 1% will actually buy your product on the first shop, if you spend more tahn $0.40 per click on a product giving you a $40 commission, you're not breaking even on the front end. For $1 per click, you need to get a $100 commission to make it worth it and you'll likely have a bit of a lower sales percentage on the front end.

The math problem is now solved and it becomes a keyword/bid problem. Going after keywords that either don't convert very well or cost too much will ruin the system and cause you to spend too much for traffic. Knowing your numbers will allow you to test and adjust until you have a system that works.

It's never been a gimmick, that I promise you. It's also not hype or scammy, although some programs may make it seem that way. Is it my favorite strategy? No. Can you make money with paid traffic and CB product? Absolutely and people do it every single day.

It sounds like you may have given up on some products and systems before they had a chance to succeed for you if you've tried, as it sounds, about every product under the sun.

Affiliate marketing isn't magic in a bottle and won't give you massive profits overnight. It takes testing, trial and error, and work. I don't think you have a problem with the work part, but you may be giving up on one product/system too soon.

For example, if you spend $100 on paid traffic and you get 100 leads (using your $1 per click, personally, I'd want closer to 300 leads for that much, but that's me) but just one sale, you're out $60. Yes, that's discouraging, but it's cheaper than most courses and just taught you a HUGE lesson.

Now, you go back and ditch the keywords that cost more than $0.40 per click or you lower your bids as you now know it takes 100 leads to get one sale. Plus, you start monetizing those other 99 leads through blog content with AdSense, other products and a full sales funnel.

Depending on one product isn't enough and I would be looking for products with their own built-in funned that pays you multiple times. I would also consider products with a rebill in there to help on the back-end.

In addition, why not have multiple products in the same funnel or at least going out to your list over time. For example, if you're in the weight loss niche and you have a main weight loss diet product, that same lead is likely interested in getting a flatter belly, a tighter butt, losing fat and a few other things in that niche. You can even do a blog about the top 7 weight loss supplements (link to them through Amazon or Market Health for more affiliate commissions) and blast it out to your list once it's done. Also, add in Adsense for the freebie seeker that never buys anything and you can monetize your list better.
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The most successful method is using everything you have mentioned together. However, some use all paid traffic or all blogging or all youtube or all solo ads and they see plenty of success.

I like starting with one or two traffic methods, mastering them, and then adding more. Plus, Youtube, blogging, social media and SEO all work together very nicely.

The key is to monetize as many people that come to your site as possible. Once they are on your list, you need to find a way to cash in!

I hope you find the answers you're looking for and I hope I have been able to help.

Benjamin Ehinger

Well I am not sure about Google Ads.
But its working well with Bing.
Why dont you try other traffic networks as well and specially mobile ones?

I like to be positive, but even Clickbank acknowledges that a large percentage of affiliate marketers do not make a profit.

For me the solution has been to make available high ticket products. You will pay the same for advertising and any other marketing tools you work with, but your payout when you make a sale will be considerably larger.

Yes, you will may fewer sales with a more expensive product. But your overhead will be the same and, in many cases, all you'll need is one sale to make it worth your while.

Sorry, to go back to the beginning. You said you've tried 3 times, can you eleborste anymore?

I don't know if I agree that the best way to make money is with paid traffic. I've always preferred paid traffic and to this day I still do.

Hi, i have created 2 Bing ads account before and they died as soon as i had added my credit card with the same reason "suspect payment". I did not understand why, it was the first time i created a Bing ads account. Someone please help me for that. Thank you in advance!

The conversions are lower for me on PPC when compared to Youtube and other *free* advertising methods. I know it sounds obscene but it really boils down to what you promote. I basically tell people that they need to create a funnel and promote themselves on social media. More often than not, you need to warm up your audience if you want to bring home the bacon. That means "presell" like there's no tomorrow.