Media Buying 101: Tips, Tricks, and Disappointment

by MrSwag
15 replies
Hey y'all,

So I'm pretty new at Affiliate Marketing, and last month, I decided to venture into promoting a clickbank product via small Media Buys and Aweber to capture leads.

The site I'm advertising on gets 5,000 daily uniques of laser targeted traffic (100% suitable for my niche - it's a game guide), and I'm getting my above-the-fold banner space for dirt cheap (I contacted the website owner myself). It's almost too good to be true - except for one thing -

NOTHING'S CONVERTING. I'm going on my second month of advertising on the site, and so far, I only have 25 leads, and ONE sale. ONE sale in an entire month. And that's with a .5 click through rate for my ad(s), which is a 468x60. Not bad for one of the worst banner sizes imaginable...

The niche I'm in is pretty profitable too - I've seen others have success with methods less polished than my own, so I'm wondering:

What do y'all know about creating high converting squeeze pages, effective email marketing copy, and other such tactics to drive up conversions? Have can you share mistakes you've made but resolved?

I'm NOT starting this thread to just look for a "magic" solution to get my campaign profitable, but I sincerely want to learn and try EVERYTHING I can. I'm hungry, and I'm not going to be another affiliate drop-out statistic.

Hopefully, other newbs can benefit from this thread to if/when they want to take a shot at email marketing/media buying.

Look forward to the discussions!
#101 #buying #disappointment #media #tips #tricks
  • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
    Originally Posted by MrSwag View Post

    The niche I'm in is pretty profitable too - I've seen others have success with methods less polished than my own
    This is the source of many a failure; a perception that someone is making a lot of money doing something, when in reality they are not. Are you certain these people are making good money?

    I would be highly unlikely to pay for a game guide. If I did, I'd need to be convinced the author was an expert. If it's for XBox Live, include your gamertag so they can look up your stats for the game and see that you are a top tier player. You may also try giving a section of it away for free to prove that your strategy skills are top notch.
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    • Profile picture of the author SebCole
      Originally Posted by DubDubDubDot View Post

      This is the source of many a failure; a perception that someone is making a lot of money doing something, when in reality they are not. Are you certain these people are making good money?

      I would be highly unlikely to pay for a game guide. If I did, I'd need to be convinced the author was an expert. If it's for XBox Live, include your gamertag so they can look up your stats for the game and see that you are a top tier player. You may also try giving a section of it away for free to prove that your strategy skills are top notch.
      yea those are stellar comments. the people you think are making so much probably are not
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  • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
    Actually, I may have misread that. Your ad is on a game guide. Thought you were selling a game guide.

    Most of this traffic will be youths and that heavily complicates things. What are you pushing?
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  • Profile picture of the author Assaf_L
    It seems to me like your landing page just wasn't convincing enough. It could be anything from the benefits you gave (if at all) to the way you wrote the page. Even spelling and grammar mistake might create a problem. I think the best way is for you to look at your squeeze page from a customer perspective. If you can't, then find someone who can.
    Know there is nothing wrong with failing; you just learn from it, and move on.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrSwag
    Thanks for the replies, and I am promoting a game guide for an MMO that just came out. But the site im advertising on has a lot of walkthroughs and strategies that don't conflict the with guide im promoting.

    And all my landing page is IS benefits...

    But thanks for the replies I guess..

    Back to google.
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    • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
      Banned
      What is an mmo?

      It's kind of hard to give you any specific advice/suggestions because no one here knows what you're promoting, or where you're promoting it, or what your banner looks like, or your landing page, etc. Anything we'd tell you would be a guess at best. One thing is for sure...your opt in rate is terrible. What is it, about 3%?
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  • Profile picture of the author MrSwag
    But yeah, I've tested the sh!t out of everything. I still need to split test landing pages a bit more, but my ads are doing alright.

    I'll be working optimizing landing pages tonight and if my conv. rate goes up, I'll let y'all know what I'm doing differently... maybe it'll help those in my position.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrSwag
    MMO - Massively Multiplayer Online (RPG)

    And my opt-in rate is terrible? No way! If I knew that, I'd probably make a post on Warrior Forum asking for advice!

    And f*** it, I'll share my ad/landing page. I know it's a big "NO-NO" to reveal your niche, but since it's far from being profitable, I don't care anymore. I need as much constructive criticism as possible.

    go to www(dot)d3sanc(dot)com and my ad is in the upper-right corner to the right of the logo.
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    • One of my husband's co-workers wrote a program to do arbitrage in Diablo 3. He made several thousand dollars before his account was banned.

      I think the layout of your landing page is funky. Most squeeze pages have a vertical format; you're having the reader move horizontally.

      I would rewrite some of your copy as well to tickle the greed neurons. Instead of:

      Auction House fundamentals and basics for beginners that'll get you started making $$$ immediately.

      I'd do:

      Make money immediately with can't-lose Auction House fundamentals
      With one little secret you can pillage D3's economy

      etc.

      Why is there a question mark in your title? "Make Real Cash with Diablo III?" Question marks imply uncertainty.

      fLufF
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      • Profile picture of the author MrSwag
        Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post

        One of my husband's co-workers wrote a program to do arbitrage in Diablo 3. He made several thousand dollars before his account was banned.

        I think the layout of your landing page is funky. Most squeeze pages have a vertical format; you're having the reader move horizontally.

        I would rewrite some of your copy as well to tickle the greed neurons. Instead of:

        Auction House fundamentals and basics for beginners that'll get you started making $$$ immediately.

        I'd do:

        Make money immediately with can't-lose Auction House fundamentals
        With one little secret you can pillage D3's economy

        etc.

        Why is there a question mark in your title? "Make Real Cash with Diablo III?" Question marks imply uncertainty.

        fLufF
        --
        Thank you! These were really helpful suggestions!
        Appreciate it, I'll start implementing changes asap and let you know how it turns out.

        As far as the landing page... I know, it does look a bit funky. It's all over the place haha
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      • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
        Banned
        Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post

        One of my husband's co-workers wrote a program to do arbitrage in Diablo 3. He made several thousand dollars before his account was banned.

        I think the layout of your landing page is funky. Most squeeze pages have a vertical format; you're having the reader move horizontally.

        I would rewrite some of your copy as well to tickle the greed neurons. Instead of:

        Auction House fundamentals and basics for beginners that'll get you started making $$$ immediately.

        I'd do:

        Make money immediately with can't-lose Auction House fundamentals
        With one little secret you can pillage D3's economy

        etc.

        Why is there a question mark in your title? "Make Real Cash with Diablo III?" Question marks imply uncertainty.

        fLufF
        --
        Yeah, not really liking that landing page. Like you said, it's a little funky. Too much going on too. I would lose the "newsletter features" part. You don't need it. Add that part in to your initial follow up or something. Not crazy about the headline either, and that's probably the most important part. Not liking the font either, lol. Picky, I know, but it looks amateurish.

        Assuming my earlier math was correct, your sales conversion rate after they subscribe isn't too bad....around 5% or so, maybe a little less. The sample is too small at this point to really know for sure though. Your goal for now should be to work on that landing page. Keep it simple. There are plenty of examples around here to look at for inspiration.
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    • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MrSwag View Post

      MMO - Massively Multiplayer Online (RPG)

      And my opt-in rate is terrible? No way! If I knew that, I'd probably make a post on Warrior Forum asking for advice!
      Yes way, lol. You said the forum gets 5,000 visits a day, and your banner CTR is .5. That means you're getting about 25 visits per day from this banner. That's about 750 visits for the month. You also said you have 25 leads, which I assume are optins. That's less than one a day, and is a little over 3% opt in rate. Assuming my math is correct, your opt in rate is terrible.

      And f*** it, I'll share my ad/landing page. I know it's a big "NO-NO" to reveal your niche, but since it's far from being profitable, I don't care anymore. I need as much constructive criticism as possible.

      go to www(dot)d3sanc(dot)com and my ad is in the upper-right corner to the right of the logo.
      Meh, it's a no no for posers. You notice they're never worried about you seeing their internet marketing sites though, are they? The only reason I don't reveal my sites is because I dabble primarily in adsense at this point, and I don't want to lose my account because of some jerk off clicking my ads. I have no problem revealing niches though.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kurt
        Originally Posted by Black Hat Cat View Post

        Yes way, lol. You said the forum gets 5,000 visits a day, and your banner CTR is .5. That means you're getting about 25 visits per day from this banner. That's about 750 visits for the month. You also said you have 25 leads, which I assume are optins. That's less than one a day, and is a little over 3% opt in rate. Assuming my math is correct, your opt in rate is terrible.


        Meh, it's a no no for posers. You notice they're never worried about you seeing their internet marketing sites though, are they? The only reason I don't reveal my sites is because I dabble primarily in adsense at this point, and I don't want to lose my account because of some jerk off clicking my ads. I have no problem revealing niches though.

        It's a forum? I missed that...

        IMO, this is likely the major problem. Forum visitors are probably the same people every day. There's a good chance they have "banner blindness" for your banner.

        Can you rotate different banners?

        Also, since most forums get repeat visitors, your campaign will probably have a point of diminishing returns. I'm not sure I'd spend much time on an ad campaign on the same forum, unless you can be sure the forum is getting plenty of fresh people every day. Maybe try advertising every 3 months or so?
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        • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

          It's a forum? I missed that...

          IMO, this is likely the major problem. Forum visitors are probably the same people every day. There's a good chance they have "banner blindness" for your banner.

          Can you rotate different banners?

          Also, since most forums get repeat visitors, your campaign will probably have a point of diminishing returns. I'm not sure I'd spend much time on an ad campaign on the same forum, unless you can be sure the forum is getting plenty of fresh people every day. Maybe try advertising every 3 months or so?
          Yeah, that's a good point too. If it hasn't yet, that will become an issue eventually.
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  • Profile picture of the author Niceness
    I'd like to just chime in and ask where you are getting your traffic from? Are you sure that your visitors are coming for the right reasons.
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