This post, like many future others, is coming from the questions asked in the post linked right here. You can post a question in that post or contact me.
“What other traffic sources are out there that are similar to Facebook Ads? I’ve been thinking about stepping foot into the search engine PPC realm (MSN Adcenter), but wasn’t sure of how to go about it.”
Facebook Ads, for a majority of affiliate marketers, is a source of demographically targeted traffic. That differs from search engine traffic because, first you must do some demographic research/testing to find who will convert on what offers. Men or Women? 18-year-olds or 40-year-olds? East coast Americans or those on the west coast? These variables, among thousands of other combinations, can be the breaking point in profitability or an empty pocket.
Similar sources of traffic aren’t difficult to find. Media buys on membership style sites, social networks, or any other website that gathers some valuable demographic data from its users usually gives you the option to only advertise to those specific demographics you are looking for. Myspace is always a simple alternative (but I’m not sure if click-fraud is still a giant problem there or not). I believe Friendster also has a self-serve platform (good for international traffic as it’s not as huge as the others in the States. PlentyOfFish also has plans to integrate a self-service platform, as well.
There are several tools you can use to gain demographic data. I think I’ve gone over them at least 2 or 3 times in posts over the past months so start reading up! Data gained from these tools can be used on media buying and PPV/CPV campaigns.
As for getting in to search engine PPC, I covered steps for that in yesterday’s post -
“What are some steps to take? Just like a rebill campaign, or any other campaign, you’d do the same thing. Choose an offer you think will perform well, keyword/demographic research, competition research, build landing pages, write copy, design ads, launch campaigns and split test, split test, then split test some more. There are no short cuts I can give you without just giving you my profitable campaigns. Don’t count on that!”
It’s a bit more complicated than that, but we’ll save that for another post.
Image Credits: Clay Wells
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Mat Carpenter
I’ve used Facebook as a means to test a few very specific offers and it seems to have worked okay. I must admit that I haven’t tried Myspace yet, as I have the same concern regarding click fraud. The good thing with Facebook is the ease of access and the fact you can purchase vouchers extremely cheap.
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PPCpimps
although Myspace has a selfserve platform it is a totally different beast than facebook. different demo, different user mentality, different targeting. but def something that should be tested if you are running other media on social networks.
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AffPortal
I remember a script not too long ago that was able to spy on Facebook ads but I think the developer got a C&D from Facebook and had to discontinue it. Are there any other FB or MS spy applications to track ads over time on these platforms?
~Corey
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