Hooah!
Although things aren't perfect (more about this shortly) — it looks as if this campaign is proving to be successful.
Sales are coming in … and that's just from scraping the surface. This is all good news as it means this market is ripe for harvesting — so to speak.
2009 Update: Ripe for the harvesting indeed. Since doing this case study the WoW market has matured and developed into something really big. The luke13 guide I promoted back in 2007 had a ClickBank gravity of 17.9 and paid out 62% commission ($19.93). Now — as I write this (July 2009) — that same guide has a gravity of 106.75 — pays out more (75% or $24.82) — and is the top rated World of Warcraft on ClickBank. Go figure! :-)
Let's look at what I've done so far…
97.9% of the traffic I've received so far is coming from the AdWords search network. I'm getting "almost" nothing from the CPM content network (site-targeted) — and so far, the "normal" content network has not even produced one impression.
I'm guessing this is purely because the Google AdWords editorial team have been thinned out over the Christmas period — and as such, my ad(s) haven't yet been approved.
So with that said — I'll focus this update on the search network.
Here are my search metrics to date…
All this was with my two initial ad groups. Some might call this laziness — I like to think of it as "testing the waters" ;-)
To fully roll the campaign out I would create at least 10 Ad Groups — as per demonstrated in the keyword research section. So it's probably safe to say — I'm only getting a fraction of the traffic I can, or "should" be getting.
But it gets worse still…
As mentioned in AdWords traffic section the 0001 WoW Buy Gold (bzh) Ad Group was costing me a small fortune to run — as I had my max CPC set to $0.90.
Although I showed that it was still turning a profit — I totally intended to drop the max CPC from $0.90 to $0.15…
BUT I FORGOT TO!
LOL! :-|
Here's what happened — it was Christmas, there was this Jolly old man in a red suit — there was lots and lots of beer … and I … err … just forgot. That's what happens when you write a "live" case study over Christmas.
It wasn't until another 5 days later (when I finally logged back into my account) that I had noticed that I had been paying an average CPC of $0.83. Yikes!
So because of me been a total goofball — I'm going to run two sets of metrics for you here. The "real" numbers to date — and the "what if" numbers…
The Real Numbers
Right in the beginning — like the goofball I am — I had mistakenly setup one of my other test ClickBank accounts for this campaign … instead of the special one I had specifically created for this case study. (And hence why the sales are split between two accounts below.)
And there I was wondering why I wasn't making any sales — as I was looking in the wrong account. Sometimes I think there is just no hope for me. ;-)
Now let's look at how these sales stack up when you factor in advertising costs…
As you can see — the Ad Group 0001 WoW Buy Gold (bzh) is now loosing money … which doesn't surprise me as I have been paying over $0.80 per click — due to my goofballness. (Is that even a real word?)
However — I'm "almost" doubling my investment with Ad Group 0001 WoW Guide (cjz).
Even with me doing goofball things — the "overall" campaign is still making money.
Here's the lesson to be learned — mistakes happen. Testing and tracking every step in the conversion process isn't automatic. Neither is tweaking your bids unless you have an automated bid management system like the large PPC companies use.
In 10 days and over a holiday I spent $62 and made $119. The other ad group lost money ($22) but I can either pause it or do what I wanted to do originally and bring the bid price down.
Before we get into the larger "what if" numbers let's look at this — I just built a tiny income stream. If I plug the hole in that one group — in 10 days I made a $57 profit. That's more than $2000 a year.
You might be saying to yourself…
$2000 a year? Dude, what a rip off! I want a red sports car, a big house, a pool, beach vacations! What's with this stinky $2000 a year?
If you are — you missed the point. We tested a market and built a $2000 income stream — while testing a market. There is an ad group to fix, 9 more to implement. Hell — we haven't even split tested our landing pages. We just got paid to run 10 days of tests!
The question you should be asking is "what if…"
The "What If" Numbers
If I hadn't of been a fruitcake and killed Ad Group 0001 WoW Buy Gold (bzh), I reckon that that group "could" have had an ROI of over 400%. (Quadrupling my investment.)
Why?
Well just look at the numbers…
The "on paper" failed Ad Group has produced 5 sales from 163 clicks. That's a 3.07% sales conversion. (Which is very high btw!) The successful Ad Group has produced a more typical 1.26% conversion. (6 sales from 477 clicks.)
So currently the looser Ad Group is producing 2.44 times the sales conversion than the successful group. (Which has a 190% ROI.)
All things been equal — the math therefore says that the "looser" Ad Group "should" have been able to generate an ROI of 465.63%!
As we know — all things are not equal … but still, I'm pretty sure that over the next few weeks the "looser" keyword group would still turn into a winner. It's only a looser because I left the max bid price at 90 cents per click.
In fact…
I would guesstimate that over the next month or three — with the addition of extra keyword groups — this campaign could easily turn into a $1000+ per month NET income stream.
Super Affiliate Tip — I've Now Created a "Proven" Sales Funnel!
11 sales from 640 clicks is a conversion of 1.72%, right? That's not bad at all. In fact its actually quite high.
But what you don't see is the "behind the scenes" workings…
Right now I have 168 "active" subscribers produced from the two keyword groups. That means I'm converting 6.55% of prospects that are entering my sales funnel. (From the squeeze page.)
Read that again!
Do you understand what I've just done?
I've created a proven sales funnel. (To the tune of 6.55%.) More so — I now know that I have a $1.30 per subscriber value.
And right now I only have 7 emails loaded into my autoresponder sequence — promoting just one product product. (Almost, but more about that next.)
Needles to say, if the autoresponder sequence was larger (say 2-3 months long) — and I has promoting a portfolio of products — I could get the subscriber value way, way up. Probably 3 times what it is now. Of course, that means a lot more profit…
… from A LIST I'VE BUILT FOR FREE!
As the list gets bigger, of course, I can start to do JV's with other list owners. An asset that could, and should be leveraged all day long. ;-)
YouTube — Some Of The Best "Under The Sales Radar" Email Fodder Available
AdWords and the other PPC traffic sites like Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN adCenter are not the only place you can get traffic from.
You can buy banner ads on other demographically related sites (media buys), interstials, popunders, expired domain traffic, SEO, etc…
Each of these sources will have have a different ROI but most can be made to work.
Remember — you aren't interested as much in "ROI" — you are interested in NET profit. Track all your sources — but as long as a source is making you money — why would ever consider eliminating it?
Another emerging source of traffic is from social networking sites. Unfortunately, a lot of Internet marketers equate this with the latest round of spam and page generation techniques. Not that there is anything wrong with this, but here people's perceptions are not quite correct.
You can use social networking sites like , Squidoo, Facebook, MySpace, etc., for list building and even for direct marketing.
And the fact that these sites are "free fodder" makes its all that bit tastier. ;-)
2009 Update: Boy oh boy has that "social networking" stuff caught on. Social media is HUGE. Services like Twitter are MASSIVE — everyone is using them — from Barack Obama to Ashton Kutcher — it's gettin' crazy!
Here is what I've done…
As you can see (highlighted above) I've added two YouTube videos to my sales funnel. The first three days in the AR follow-up sequence is information and selling. I've then thrown in two videos to "break up" the sales process — to "connect" with people.
But the thing is … I don't stop selling. (Although I'm perceived to not be selling.)
You see, I now use this opportunity (when their guard is down) to cross-sell (or at least introduce) another set of related products.
I do this by keeping them on my site. I don't shoot them off directly to YouTube.com. (Because I would loose the ability to continue to sell them.)
My autoresponder message sends them to a custom landing page where the YouTube video is inserted/embedded in the middle of the page.
This lets me sell the other offers AND provides the reader with an interesting video. And guess what?
It doesn't have to be your video! That's right — as long as it is fun and interesting and relevant you can use any video on YouTube for this.
SECRET TIP: Shhhhhhh… keep this one quiet. People are all up in arms trying to figure out how to beat Google's Quality Scoring on landing pages. Well, it just so turns out that you get major points using an embedded YouTube or Google Video clip.
Here is one of my YouTube video landing pages…
Now of course there is a number of "persuasion " type things going on here. That said, I'm not going to go into them — I'm sure you can figure it out yourself.
But essentially what I'm trying to do is introduce other products to my subscribers … in a very subtle way.
I'm tracking it all of course. (More about that next.) As the sale funnel matures with more subscribers, I'll get a clear picture of what works best, and what doesn't work at all.
You'll notice I included an AdSense block above the image. That was a test. A test that proved to me that these subscribers are not interested in clicking AdSense ads. (On my site at least.)
That said — unlike with the AdSense block — 40% of the subscribers that watched the video clicked BOTH affiliate product links that I introduce to them below the video. Muhahahahaha!
And yes — it's all getting tracked too.
To date I haven't generated any sales for those two products yet … but then it's still way too early.
Track EVERYTHING!
If it can be tracked, track it!
I do. You should too. There is no excuse not to with all the amazing, cool and powerful tools out there.
I even track which links get clicked on in each email in the follow-up autoresponder sequence. I track everything.
It's the only way to accurately determine what works and what doesn't. Guessing is not an option. Guessing should never be an option.
Case Study Conclusion
There are many, many different ways to successfully promote ClickBank products using Google AdWords. This case study address just one of those ways.
This is a numbers game. The more products you promote — the more "winners" you'll find. It's that simple.
This is not about trying once or twice, loosing money, and then running off thinking (and saying) that this doesn't work. It does work … and it works well!
Remember — Failure is part of the winning formula!
If you get good as this — you can "almost" create a winner out of every single campaign you go after. If you're new to this — it may take 20 failures before you hit gold. That's just the way it works. It's called experience.
Don't give up!
If you follow and understand what I've taught here — you'll make money. I can guarantee it … that is, if you take action and are persist.
Resources Used in this Case Study
Keyword-Level Tracking from AdWords to Affiliate Networks
- Conversion Prophet (ESSENTIAL!)
In this case study I used Xtreme Conversions. XC worked really well — but it was a nightmare to install and get working just right.
Since then Conversion Prophet has come out — and I love it. I've been using it since 2008. It rocks! It's easy to install — and it "just works".
Click-Tracking
I use LinkShiftr to track "clicks". It has some cool advanced functionality too — like link/offer rotation. It's not an expansive service either.
bit.ly works great too — minus the advanced stuff (and it's free).
Keyword Research
… and SPYING!
iSpionage wasn't actually used in this case study. It didn't even exist back in 2006.
I've included it here simply because … if I had to run this campaign now, in 2009 — I'd rely on iSpionage very heavily.
ClickBank Market Research and Analysis
Autoresponder
- Aweber (ESSENTIAL!)
November 2010 Update: Talkin' of AWeber … take a look at my email marketing course — Autoresponder Madness. It's a 6-week advanced email marketing training program. It's said to be the best email marketing course in the world (I didn't say that btw). More here »
February 2011 Update: The next step is to join my Affiliate Bully Insiders tribe. I don't have a free newsletter that you can signup to. To hear more from me in 2011 — you'll need to pay to move to the next level. It should be an easy decision for you to make at this point. Click here »
