Paid Traffic - What should I presume?

8 replies
  • PPC/SEM
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I'm not into paid advertising/traffic, however I'm earning through free methods (affiliate marketing). This time I'm planning to spend/test 2-3 thousand dollars for paid traffic.

Now, of course, I know that it's all about opt ins, squeeze page, product, and etc. I'm already doing that, but I don't have any idea regarding investment or return. Could you please tell me something about it? What should I expect if I'm spending $2k on paid traffic? And, besides, if you can add some paid traffic sources, I'd be grateful.

Thank you!
#paid #presume #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
    Originally Posted by Chris Lengley View Post

    I'm not into paid advertising/traffic, however I'm earning through free methods (affiliate marketing). This time I'm planning to spend/test 2-3 thousand dollars for paid traffic.

    Now, of course, I know that it's all about opt ins, squeeze page, product, and etc. I'm already doing that, but I don't have any idea regarding investment or return. Could you please tell me something about it? What should I expect if I'm spending $2k on paid traffic?
    What should you presume???

    Very little (I resisted saying "Absolutely nuthin' !!")

    You can presume that:
    • NO paid advertising/traffic source offers a guaranteed rate of return,
    • that your success will depend not on the amount of your spend, so much as the source of the traffic, the quality of your ad copy, the quality of your offer, etc. and
    • unless you have a well planned process for testing the results of your advertising spend in small increments before committing the whole amount... you will probably spend more than you make.

    The source of your traffic can have a big impact on the conversion rates for any offer, and the only thing you are changing is your traffic source (and the fact that it will now cost you something other than time/effort). Wouldn't it make sense to have something to measure your results against? a benchmark of some sort?

    Since you are already converting free traffic,
    1. have you measured your conversion levels with that traffic?
    2. Have you compared the conversion rates between different offer types and/or ad copy?
    3. If there are multiple sources of that free traffic, have you compared the conversion levels between those various traffic sources?

    As a beginner, it's important to test every traffic source, each piece of ad copy, and each landing page so that you don't spend your entire ad budget in one place and have nothing to show for it at the end of the day.

    If you don't already know how your free traffic is converting - get your arms around that, first. In the beginning, that will be your benchmark.

    Then begin with a modest $100 spend with 2-3 (max) different traffic suppliers. Measure the results of each and compare them with the benchmark, and with each other.

    With those results, you can decide whether to test those sources again, using different ad copy, or whether to drop one supplier from your advertising plans. You can repeat these tests as many times as necessary with different suppliers, different ad copy, etc. until you are satisfied that you have a winning combination.

    Only then will you be able to predict your own potential results, and the prediction will not rely on "presumption", at all.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      Chris,

      I am convinced that traffic sources are not as important as traffic targeting. One marketer can have a profitable campaign using a particular source of traffic . . . but that same source can be a dud for someone else.

      The critical thing is that you put a compelling offer in front of an audience that wants exactly what you're selling. Often that means going right to the heart of where you find your audience.

      For folks that offer niche products and services, that often means marketing on niche sites like niche forums, niche blogs, niche portals, niche authority sites, etc. These places (venues) are where your targeted niche prospects hang out and can be found in concentrations without a lot of wasted views by people not interested in what you have to sell.

      As Sid (above) suggests, start small (the amount of money you spend on paid traffic) and test, track, and optimize until you have profitable campaigns set up and functioning. Only then should you ramp up your marketing budget.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author hagendazz07
        Originally Posted by Sid Hale View Post

        What should you presume???
        Very little (I resisted saying "Absolutely nuthin' !!")
        Then i'll say it don't presume anything


        Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

        Chris,

        I am convinced that traffic sources are not as important as traffic targeting.

        The critical thing is that you put a compelling offer in front of an audience that wants exactly what you're selling. Often that means going right to the heart of where you find your audience.
        These two previous comments are pretty spot on.

        To summarize, start small, target intelligently, test, collect results and then correct your course of action.

        As for paid traffic sources you could look at the big ones first like : Adwords, Bing and Facebook ads.

        Joel
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  • Profile picture of the author TBosch
    You should presume that you are going to have to do a lot of ongoing testing in terms of different traffic sources, to see what works and what doesn't. I'm talking about free and paid traffic sites. Don't be afraid to just dive right in, spending your money along the way on what looks interesting to you. Yes, it will cost time a money, but in the end you should be left with a long list of ineffective ad sources but a quality short list of traffic site that deliver.
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  • Profile picture of the author greenowl123
    What you should expect with paid traffic is that it will be a learning experience for you.

    Especially if you plunk down 2 or 3 k all at once for traffic from one source.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    If you're spending $2k on paid traffic, you should expect alot of opt-in leads. But hopefully you've tested the traffic source first to make sure that you DO get quality leads, and they do convert and buy. And when running the test, if you've only spent like $100... then at $2k, you should be able to launch yourself off the ground, and start getting some orders and backend orders too. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author johnlagoudakis
    For paid traffic I like to use Trafficvance and LeadImpact PPV, but both those networks require $1,000 upfront so that can be very risky for you if your budget is $2,000.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
    Wrong pls for this post. Try the PPC forum
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    Too lazy to write something clever here, so check out my marketing blog and learn from a REAL Super Affiliate at JeffLenney.com

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