I hope that you will learn something base on my experience and observation.  Please take note that I'm not an experienced affiliate marketer, not a guru nor a super affiliate. The result here is base on the actual campaign result.

The objective is to earn atleast 1K per Week (approx $143/day)  by using PPC to CPA by the end of November 2009.

This case study started October 25, 2009.

Result: FAILED

Objective:

1. To be able to have atleast $1K/week profit by the end of November 2009. That's approx $143/day
2. Document an actual campaign stats in a daily basis for future reference

Tools:

Google keyword, Google optimizer, Prosper202 & common sense.

CPA Network:

Neverblue << You can sign up here if you are net yet a NB publisher (shameless aff plug)

Daily Result:

Day1: October 25, 2009

• Overall CTR    =  6.94%
• Revenue         =  $29.10
• AdSpend        = $4.39
• Profit             = $24.71
• ROI                =  562.87%

Comments/Observation:

I have a nice 1st day for this campaign with a 562.87% ROI.  The campaign is running with 2 adgroup  and each adgroup has 3 ad variation.  Data is not yet sufficient to determine the winning ad copy so I will continue to run this as it is.

The keywords on the 1st day of this campaign are super targeted keyword but the number of search per day is very low.  To meet the goal of atleast $143/day, I need to increase the traffic by adding more keywords.

New set of keywords (200) and adgroup (14) will be added so I'l be expecting to receive more impressions/clicks on Day2.

Day2: October 26, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.27%
• Revenue         = $63.05
• AdSpend        = $21.99
• Profit             = $41.06
• ROI                = 186.72%

Comments/Observation:

Additional keywords pull down my overall CTR from 6.94% to 1.27% and increase my advertising spend 400.91% compare to day1. However, I have managed to increase the campaign profit by $16.35 that  is a 66.17% improvement profit wise.

Looking to the keyword performance I can see keywords that have lots of impressions but have a low CTR. I'l delete these keywords to improve my campaign CTR or re visit my keyword grouping and group them properly and create a separate adgroup for those kwds with high impressions and write a 3 adcopy for them. Basically my objective is to improve the CTR so I can get more clicks and hopefully more conversions.

I also deleted some keywords that received clicks but irrelevant to my offer.

We are still 103+ away from the target profit. I need to get the traffic as much as possible using my chosen keywords, checking the competition I can clearly say that I'm in the bidding war. I'm planning to beat my competitor by improving my QS and my CTR.

Right now I'm running this campaign using 343 keywords,  I'm not satisfied to the amount of clicks that I'm receiving, so I check if the ads are showing to my keywords using the Ad Diagnostic Tool and here are the results.

• 266 keywords are currently showing ads (OK)
• 64 keywords not showing ads due to unknown reason (NEED TO WORK ON THIS)
• 43 keywords not showing ads because one of my other ads is already showing this keyword (CHECK OR DISREGARD)
• 21 keywords are showing ads but the rank is not high enough to be in 1st page (ANALYZE , ADJUST BID, IMPROVE QS)
• 7 keywords are not showing because of low search (THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM - DISREGARD)
• 6 keywords are not showing ads because keywords are paused (KEYWORDS I PAUSED - DISREGARD)

So base on the result, I will work today for 85 keywords (result 2, & 4) and hopefully I could get the max traffic of my keywords tomorrow.

Day3: October 27, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.41%
• Revenue         = $33.95
• AdSpend        = $24.43
• Profit             = $9.52
• ROI                = 38.97%

Comments/Observation:

I've manage to show my ads to 313 keywords out of 343 kwds now. Enabling the inactive keywords due to various reasons above means I need to adjust my bid or modify adcopy to improve QS and show my ads to 1st page result.  However, this changes affects my conversion rate thus reducing my profit from 41.06 down to 9.52

I'l weed out the non performing kwds and ad copy to day to improve roi / profitability level. Remember, that we are trying to improve CTR so we can improve QS for low CPC , however, please bear in mind that  profit is much more important than everything else in this campaign!

So, what I did today, delete non performing keywrds, adjust the bid, pause the non converting ads...

Day4: October 28, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.16%
• Revenue         = $38.80
• AdSpend        = $19.35
• Profit             = $19.45
• ROI                = 100.52%

Comments/Observation:

I've increased the profit & ROI a bit, but decrease my overall CTR.  As usual, I'l try to increase my CTR.. i dont have a big problem in QS now as most of my keywords has 7-10.

To increase my CTR, i'l review again my the adgroup with high impression, pause, delete or create a separate adgroup for keyword with high impression but low ctr or no conversion.  This whay I can make my ad more targeted and hopefully turn that to a converting keyword.

Day5: October 29, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 2.34%
• Revenue         = $82.45
• AdSpend        = $29.77
• Profit             = $52.68
• ROI                = 176.96%

Comments/Observation:

Record breaking day for this campaign in terms of profit but we are still away from the 143/day profit target. As usual I will continue the optimization process. While reviewing the adgroup performance, I found 2 adgroups with high impression that don't have even a single click.  I'm going to examine these two adgroups again.

I'm very positive that I can make this campaign to a 143/day, it just needs time and proper optimization to achieve it.

Day6: October 30, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.91%
• Revenue         = $ 43.65
• AdSpend        = $ 22.29
• Profit             = $ 21.36
• ROI                = 95.82%

Comments/Observation:

If you are still following this challenge you will notice now that the earning fluctuates from day to day. There are days with high profit, days with low profit. This is normal in affiliate marketing business.  There are 4 things that will happen:

1. Little Profit
2. BIG PROFIT
3. Little Loss
4. BIG LOSS

We just need to avoid the last 2 (little loss, BIG LOSS) to continue running this campaign and that is when the  REAL CHALLENGE of affiliate marketing will begin. So by now you probably know the the reason why we are optimizing daily and weeding out the non performing keywords and ads. It's because we want to avoid BIG LOSS because of the non-performing keywords.

Neways, back to my daily comment and observation - looking at my campaign I see Google reduce the QS of most of my keywords. Yeah right! Google is really unpredictable and this will happen a lot. I'l just stick to the plan, that is, increasing my CTR just to please Google.

This time, I spotted 2 keywords that have x,xxx impression but no clicks. What will I do to them? Delete without hesitation!

Day7: October 31, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.49%
• Revenue         = $14.55
• AdSpend        = $15.05
• Profit             = $-0.05
• ROI                = -3.32%

Comments/Observation:

Today is another record breaking day but on the negative side.  This is the first day that I receive a negative ROI for this campaign. I didn't do any significant change in my campaign except removing the keywords that have x,xxx amount of impressions but no clicks.

Prosper202 tells me that GoogleBot is visiting my ads almost every 3 mins - I assume some QS review is going on.  I checked my keywords and my assumption is correct!  My keywords that have 10/10 before are now 6-7/10 . This could be the reason of the low conversion - my ads are not showing on my converting keywords.

What to do? the answer is there.. Improve the QS.

How? that's the 143/day question..

To temporary get the traffic back , I up the bid a bit. My goal is to show my ads at 1-3 positions for my best converting keywords.I'm not going to weedout any keyword now to observe and accumulate more data before I make significant change.

Long term solution: build a customize LP for the high converting keyword, this will take sometime but will benefit the campaign long term.

Day8: November 1, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.48%
• Revenue         = $24.25
• AdSpend        = $15.03
• Profit             = $9.22
• ROI                = 61.34%

Comments/Observation:

So, Sunday ended up with a 61.34% ROI, but the profit is very small. In a way, increasing bid the improve the campaign performance but this temporary action will not propel our campaign to earn 143/day.  I need to add more keywords.. and more converting keywords..

By now, the bid simulation already started showing in my ads. (Learn what is bid simulation and how it works here). I also receive adword alert telling me that the campaign is now eligible for "conversion optimizer".

Ok. I'm going to enable the  Google Conversion Optimizer. Let's see if its going to improve the campaign conversion. (btw, Jonathan says his campaign got 100%+  increase in profit using this feature - check his post here)

Day9: November 2, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.71%
• Revenue         = $9.7
• AdSpend        = $14.92
• Profit             = $-5.22
• ROI                = 34.99%

Comments/Observation:

Ouch.. the Google Conversion Optimizer works against me on this campaign. Bot is still visiting my ads frequently. QS is still unstable I see it changing every couple of hours, this makes me think that in Google everything is temporary!  When in a profitable day, just make sure that the campaign will earn as much as it can.

So, i turned off the conversion optimizer. I think this should only be enabled once the campaign is already optimized and running in a semi-auto pilot.

I also lower the bid to minimize the loss. Remember: to win this campaign I only need to avoid LOSING BIG.   I'm still working on my new set of keywords & LP and it will be added maybe after 2-3 days.

Day10: November 3, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.57%
• Revenue         = $48.00
• AdSpend        = $31.59
• Profit             =  $16.41
• ROI                = 51.95%

Comments/Observation:

So profit is up/down. You will observe an actual / real campaign behaviour. In affiliate marketing this is normal. There will be days that you'll have negative ROI and days that will have positive ROI. The challenge for us affilaite marketer is to find out what are the factors responsible for these changes and do everything to control these variables no matter what.

No change has been made on the campaign. I just let it run to gather data. This also give me more time to optimize my new campaign in other traffic source which I will not discuss here of course.

Day10: November 4, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.77%
• Revenue         = $19.4
• AdSpend        = $23.13
• Profit             = $-3.73
• ROI                = –16.13%

Comments/Observation:

Blue – red – blue – red – blue and red again. My daily earning fluctuates continuously. Campaign really needs more optimization.

Can I really turn this campaign to 1K profit weekly? The answer is Yes and only Yes.

Nothing special to share you today actually. I just wrote a weekly summary of the campaign performance so I can see the overall result easily.

If you are interested to check the weekly performance of this campaign, please proceed to PPC to CPA 1K/week summary at the bottom of this post.

Day10: November 5, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 2.05%
• Revenue         = $63.05
• AdSpend        = $28.35
• Profit             = $35.96
• ROI                = 122.4%

Comments/Observation:

The daily budget of this campaign is now set at 2K per day. I added new keywords to get more traffic.  I also download the csv file of the Keyword Opportunies as suggested by Google and added them to my new list.

I’m going to focus to GET more clicks so as to receive more traffic – In my opinion this is the way to turn this campaign from $35.96 profit to $135.96/day to $1359.6 /day.

Day10: November 6, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.47%
• Revenue         = $58.20
• AdSpend        = $30.32
• Profit             = $27.88
• ROI                = 91.95%

Comments/Observation:

I'm still working on getting more traffic. Keyword research the whole day. Tommorow we will see new result with additional kwds.

I also remove now the non performing ads and replace it with new one.

Remember the key: Always TEST, TEST, TEST in different perspective.

Day10: November 7, 2009

• Overall CTR    = 1.42%
• Revenue         = $130.95
• AdSpend        = $113.38
• Profit             = $17.57
• ROI                = 15.47%

Comments/Observation:

Additional keywords. Non-performing keywords to be deleted and optimize in the next few days. This is the first time the campaign hit the xxx level. I'm excited on this campaign as I very positive that soon this offer will hit the x,xxx per day mark.

Day11: November 8, 2009

• Revenue         = $121.25
• AdSpend        = $115.19
• Profit             = $6.06
• ROI                = 5.26%

Comments/Observation:

Am I going anywhere here? I spent 121.05 for a revenue of $6.06 lol.  Some of you may think that this campaign is going nowhere. Lets just continue tweaking, and optimizing this one. Soon, we will find the right combination.

The daily hits to my ads is now doubled. I want more clicks, so I'l continue adding keywords. I'l deal with the lp and conversion optimization later. When we are spending 300-500 a day in spend, thats when the real fun will begin

Day12: November 9, 2009

• Revenue         = $164.90
• AdSpend        = $192.06
• Profit             = -$27.16
• ROI                = -14.14%

Comments/Observation:

Day13: November 10, 2009

• Revenue         = $
• AdSpend        = $
• Profit             = $
• ROI                =

Comments/Observation:

Feel free to leave comment or questions if you have any.

I really wanted to join this company as I heard lot of good news and successful stories of many affiliates running their offer. If there are many big players running their offers for sure there are bunch of gold to be dig in Azoogle.  I don't need to be the top affiliate, I just want to taste a small portion of what they are promoting.

So, after 30 mins of chat with my AM discussing offers, conversion etc..  I have one campaign running in Azoogle. That is from the campaign I'm running from other network. Basically I just change the destination URL so it will point to Azoogle. I generate affiliate link and setup the offer in my t202 then I sleep.

Morning comes, when I login to my Azoogle account this is what I see.

Sounds like a good 1st day running offer in Azoogle. The stats shows my first day earning in azoogle 10 hours after sending traffic to their offer. I'm planning to start new campaigns from them and I'm wishing that I'l have more good days like this.

Here's the sign up link if you are interested to apply in Azoogle (Click Here to Apply at Azoogle.)

That's all for now. Have a nice day to all!

This is actually my first CPA campaign using the paid search as a source of traffic. The offer is a lead generation campaign that lasted for about 1 1/2 months.

Using the idea that I learned from my unsuccessful Facebook Affiliate Marketing experience plus useful advise of online friends who are already doing well in this industry, I finally get my very first PPC to CPA campaign running.

Unlike facebook aff marketing wherein you can just grab your affiliate code, write your ad and target your demo, here in PPC via search, I need to come up with converting keywords, ad copy and landing combination for this offer to work.

Affiliate marketing tasks that I learned includes:

• Market research
• Niche research
• Keyword research
• Ad copy
• Landing page
• Tracking

I keep an eye on below figure and make them as high as possible by testing every possible variation/combination by optimizing my adcopy and landing page daily:

• Ad copy CTR
• Keyword Impression / CTR
• Keyword/Ad copy that result to conversion
• Landing page clickthrough to offer CTR

In the end I found out keywords that is giving a constant conversions. I then expand KW list from there and the rest is history.

Here is the result:

Earning:

• Hydra -  $ 3,306.60
• Neverblue -  $ 3,302.25

Ad Spend:

• Combined  -  $ 3,712.82

Net (ROI) :

• $6,608.85 - $3,712.82 = $ 2,896.03 ( 78% ROI)

I'm happy that I earn money on my first PPC to CPA campaign. Another good thing to mention is that, I use my adsense earning to fund my advertising thus, making my $ 3,712.82 adsense earning to $ 6,608.85!

Unfortunately the campaign didn't last long they stop me before I scale it. My AM told the advertiser don't like me.. So, instead of grieving I started a new campaign. I'l share the report on the my next post.

Lesson Learned:

• Don't just drive leads to offer, for a long term campaign, it is very important to consider also the quality of the traffic. Ad copy, Landing Page, Keywords plays a vital role for a quality traffic.
• Seek opportunity!. If you are already included in Google Adsense Payroll, or already receiving online income from Infolinks, Chitika, Kontera. Try PPC to CPA affiliate marketing, reinvest your earning. Just don't forget to consider the risk involve and invest what you can affort to lose.

Not yet affiliate marketer? Apply Here >>  Hydra & Neverblue and try the next level of making money online