Affiliate and Search Marketing News and Discussion
i just got this message from google adwords:
Important Change to URL Policy Enforcement
Starting in April, display URLs for new ads will be required to match their destination / landing page URLs, without exception. Please adjust your URLs accordingly when creating new ads.
Does this mean I NEED a landing page now? unless i want the display to have a bunch of numbers and letters?
Regards,
Alex
Newbie question.
Im putting a campaign together on Google. The affiliate program Im advertising does not allow me to put their url in the post. I do not have a website of my own as Im just advertising.
What’s the recommendation for the Display URL?
Thanks in advance.
Chill
Hi Tony, I ‘ve been reading your book and I can’t wait to get started. I do not currently have a web page but I have the domain name personalinsuranceagents.com. I was wondering if setting up a website for insurance quotes as alanding page is a good idea or is it too saturated. your thoughts? Thank you-Brian
Tony,
Much has been written about the need for a landing page to use in search marketing campaigns for programs that don’t allow direct linking. My question is how much bang for the buck do you think there is to setting up a separate ad campaign for the “landing site” itself? What percent of my total advertising budget do you think I should devote to promoting the landing site? I’m thinking this may get more folks to my site and then possibly produce sales for ads on the site without having to run campaigns for every single ad.
Any thoughts?
Got this info from Website Magazine. Can anyone confirm? Tony, does this truly forecast a decline in Commission Junction?
“Ebay has shocked many in the affiliate community by dumping Commission Junction and ValueClick – opting instead to promote their affiliate program independently through the eBay Partner Network. For many this signifies that CJ and other affiliate networks may over time be much less relevant, although small merchants may still opt for these solutions as it is often cost prohibitive to recruit affiliates directly.
The new in-house program will allow eBay to more closely align the program with the needs of its publishers and the eBay Community, and will eventually engage all of eBay’s assets to create one of the most robust affiliate networks in existence. The eBay Affiliate Program has more than 100,000 members globally and continues to be one of the most successful tools for driving buyers to eBay. Coupling access to the unparalleled scope of eBay’s global marketplace with industry-leading tools and a dedicated support staff, eBay ensures all types of Web site publishers, from the casual blogger to the experienced Internet entrepreneur, are able find success through profitable affiliate marketing.
Affected eBay and Half.com affiliates will be required to move their affiliate links over to the eBay Partner Network by May 1st, 2008. eBay will continue its valued partnership with ValueClick’s technology division, Mediaplex, for ad serving, tracking and other custom projects. More information on the transition process for eBay affiliates, as well as the eBay programs affected, can be found at http://affiliates.ebay.com.”
I’ve just finished reading your book and am about to embark into affiliate advertising. One question I have after reading several posts on the discussion board is about the search marketing trend. I see many people discuss how “the times have changed” and how ebay doesnt allow it’s name or url on search engine ads. Because of any recent changes in the market, do you feel that there are still millions to be made by the right people, even without a website? Second, if ebay and others companies alike wont allow there names or urls to be posted in ads (this is what I understand from reading some posts), can a different url be posted but the direct link lead to ebay.com? A final question I have regards Commission Junction. Are there any advertisers on their site that have different terms and do NOT allow search advertising? The reason I ask is because I found “ebay stores” through CJ and was wondering if even though it was ebay, it would still allowed to be search marketed.
Regards,
Alex Nemeth
P.S.- Wonderful Book!
Hi Everbody,
For those of you way up in the frozen North (where I used to reside before search marketing liberated me from the chilly grip of New England winters), keep your chins up. I dimly recall the frustration of shoveling out my driveway just in time for the plow truck to seal me back in, and then shoveling out a second time before going to bed, only to wake up to another fresh foot of snow. I understand this winter has been even worse than those I was once accustomed to, so I really do feel for you.
First a little news, I received notice that eBay Canada and eBay Australia are following the lead of eBay US & UK and will no longer allow search marketers to link directly to their sites from Google, Yahoo or MSN. It is worth mentioning, however, that you are still allowed to link directly from the so-called third tier search engines. I’ll list my favorites again below.
Affiliate Networks & Programs
Proven Search Marketing Winners
No matter how many times I say it, I still get almost daily emails from folks asking about a good program to start with. If there is a program which is proven to work for search marketers and web site owners alike, offers a wide selection of different products to test your marketing skills on, and has the brand recognition that helps a new ad get traction… it’s got to be Amazon.com. And I’ll tell you something else, too. Although Amazon may not pay the margins to make you rich, until you can turn a small profit with them, you should be cautious trying out other programs. You won’t find companies with more recognized internet brands (though some are as recognized) that are easier to drive traffic too, and if you can’t make an Amazon campaign work, this business might just not be for you.
Search Marketing Friendly Affiliate Networks
ClickXchange – With hundreds of quality affiliate program offers, high conversion rates, and a sign up process that is both quick and easy, ClickXchange is a great place to get started.
AzoogleAds.com – Another vast network of affiliate programs with competitive payouts and high conversion rates, also with a quick and easy sign up process.
Search Engine Marketing Tips
At long last, I am able to promote the MSN adCenter search and content network. For those of you who have read my book, you already know I consider it a top-tier search engine (though smaller than Yahoo and Google), but until today, I have not been able to conclude an agreement with MSN to promote adCenter. Making up for lost time, I can now offer my readers the chance to Try Microsoft adCenter for free* with a $75 credit for paid search clicks.
First Tier Search and Content Networks
Microsoft adCenter – Try Microsoft adCenter for free* with a $75 credit for paid search clicks.
Google AdWords – The pioneer in pay-for-performance search marketing. Google’s AdWords program is one of the top pay-for-performance search engines.
Yahoo/Overture Sponsored Search – Yahoo! represents one of the largest and oldest search engines on the web. They are currently running a promotion offering $25 worth of free advertising to new customers. That could translate to as many as 250 free clicks through to the affiliate programs you choose to advertise. Click on the link below to take advantage of this great offer.
Yahoo! Sponsored Search connects businesses and customers online. Sign up and get a $25 credit.
Second Tier Search and Content Networks
These are the search engines that eBay still allows direct search on. The quality of traffic is not always as high (though in some niche markets it may be higher) but the costs are generally lower, so there are good opportunities to start profitable campaigns, or expand campaigns that are already profitable.
Search 123: A pay-for-placement search model, Search 123 is an excellent outlet for reaching customers you might not be exposed to on the larger search engines.
Enhance Interactive: Enhance is a pay-for-placement search engine with over 2 Billion Monthly Searches. Join Enhance Interactive today and receive $25 in Free Clicks.
MIVA: MIVA is also a pay-for-placement search engine with high quality traffic.
Website Design & Marketing Tips
As most of you know, the bulk of my success with affiliate programs has been with search marketing, and I still believe it is the easiest and quickest path to profitability, but considering that more and more affiliate programs are disallowing this practice, it may well be that landing pages are the future of search marketing. With this in mind…
Website Templates
As I have mentioned before, one of the services we are providing that I am most proud of is our FREE website templates. These templates are professionally designed, and include simple instructions for incorporating your own affiliate advertisements into the html code. Simply download the files from my site and unzip them to your root directory on your web server. Don’t have a web server? Don’t worry, just skip down a few paragraphs and you’ll find affordable and reliable web hosting services you can use to publish your new website. These templates are available at www.AffiliateMillions.com/web-design.html.
Website Promotion
One thing to keep in mind when you are promoting a website of your own is that there are many different options, some of which are not available when using search marketing just to promote affiliate programs. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a good example. With a site of your own, you should focus some of your efforts toward getting your site to appear in the natural search engine results. If you can successfully climb near to the top of a few key searches, you will begin getting the best kind of traffic… FREE! Add to that the relevancy of the traffic you get from appearing at or near the top of a few relevant search phrases, and you will likely have established a significant revenue stream.
A great book about promoting your own website that I read in preparation for launching the Affiliate Millions website is Insider Seo & Ppc: Get Your Website to the Top of the Search Engines, available now on Amazon.
Good Luck, Affiliate Millionaires in training!
Anthony Borelli
Hello Tony,
I’ve been running a campaign for about a week now, and have shown the following stats:
IMPR CLK CTR COST SALES Conv Comm CPC EPC RPC
YahooAD 188590 218 .12% $67.26 6 2.75% $24.00 0.31 0.11 -0.20
GoogleAD 66381 11 .02% $6.53 1 9.09% $4.00 0.32 0.36 -0.23
Total: 254971 229 .09% $73.79 7 3.06% $28 0.32 0.12 -0.20
To me, 3% conversion seems pretty decent for a first campaign, even though I’m not making profiting yet. My Yahoo Ad seems to be performing better than the Google ad at the moment as far as RPC. Can you give me any advice based on these stats so far? Is this a good start? I don’t know if it’s too early to tell already if this campaign is a keeper. Would it seem to be an issue of tuning now? The campaign is a registration campaign, where the advertiser pays $4 for every registration.
Thanks!
Clint
Hi Tony and thank you for your great book!
It seems that times have changed in search engine marketing since you wrote Affiliate Millions.
I am starting now my first campaigns in Google Adwords and noticed that most of the affiliate programs I have joined, don’t allow me to display the Advertisers brand or website in the display URL. Now this is a problem, because I don’t have a website of my own to use as a landing site.
Can you please give me an honest and detailed answer how you are actually dealing with this issue in your own search engine marketing? For example, if you are promoting company ABC’s products in Google, what do you write in the display URL, because you are not allowed to write “www.abc.com”? When you write your answer, remember that I don’t have a website. How can I market ABC-companys products in Google, if I can’t show their name or website in the display URL?
Thank you very much for your answer. I thank that your detailed answer to this question will help many of us very much.
When it comes to editing an ad, do you recommend just editing the original ad or creating an ad variation, pausing the first variation and letting the 2nd one gain steam? I know one could let both variations run simultaneously but won’t that delay getting a good feel for whether your edit has really improved things?
Hi Tony,
I’m presently enjoying reading both your book and the posts here at AffilialteMillions.com. I have yet to begin a career in affiliate marketing, so the questions below might seem to be (and probably are) spawned by complete ignorance.
Considering that affiliate programs and networks seem to be moving away from search marketing, would it be wise for a newcomer to focus on a web site approach when establishing an affiliate marketing model, rather than investing time and money in a method that could be doomed to extinction?
Okay, here’s where my ignorance really shines. I understand that many web site affiliate marketers use a blog, hobby, or informational site of some sort to attract potential customers for the programs they promote. But is it also possible, permissible, and effective to use search marketing ads targeting the advertiser’s product to generate traffic to a page on your website, rather than the advertiser’s, that briefly and specifically promotes the advertiser’s product and provides the all-important tracking code, instead of sending traffic to a blog page in hopes the visitor will spot the item or service for which he/she has searched? Or would this be considered an attempt to subvert the anti-search marketing policies?
Which is generally more productive for a web site affiliate marketer, using specific affiliate programs, or using a dynamic content-relevant ad program, like Google AdSense?
Thanks for all the great advice!
