How to Find Converting Offers
So the big question is "What do I promote?"
When I first started, I was a bit overwhelmed. There are so many offers and so many traffic sources, I was on a limited budget for testing, and honestly, I found it easier not to start.
I call this the fear of running Traffic. Here is a video I shot on the subject:
Let's not let that be you.
Here are some terms we need to make sure we understand:
The offer is the specific product you're promoting.
The vertical is the type of product you're promoting.
An example of a vertical is Insurance.
Some examples of an offer in the Insurance vertical are auto insurance, health insurance, funeral insurance, homeowner's insurance, private mortgage insurance, etc.
Here is what it will look like for an insurance offer.
Below is an example of the structure:
- Start with the vertical
- Then pick a country you want to Target(certain offers are only in certain countries)
- Decide which offers you want to test
- Then pick an affiliate network to run with
The largest verticals in affiliate Marketing are:
- Health and beauty
- Wealth and make money niche
- Dating and relationship
- E-commerce
- Gaming
- Education
- Gambling, and many more
There is no need to worry if you pick the right one or not, anyone of these I mentioned can be a $1000 to $10,000 a day campaign if you figure it out.
Monetizing Offers
There are typically two types of offers
- Cost per sale
- Cost per action (lead generation)
Cost Per Sale
Cost Per Sale - CPS will pay the Affiliates Commission once a successful transaction has occurred.
One of my favorite affiliate program is the ClickBank Affiliate program.
Let's say, for example, Amazon is paying 10% Commission on all products sold if you happen to sell a camera through one of your affiliate links for $200. You will receive a $20 commission.
If you're a specialist as CPS offers, you're typically promoting Big Brands: Walmart, Overstock.com, Zappos, eBay, Priceline, Etc.
Cost per action (CPA)
CPA offers pay a commission to the affiliate when a desired action has taken place.
As an affiliate marketer, I would recommend CPA campaigns.
Why?
Because it is much easier to convert a CPA campaign.
In many cases, all you have to do is get a phone number, an email, or a phone call. That's much easier than pulling out a credit card and buying something.
Here's an example:
A debt consolidation company looking for leads.
They're paying $20 for every email address that is submitted, also called email lead generation.
The company will reach out to these people and try to help them consolidate their credit card debt. They will likely sell that email to other companies upon your submission. Shortly after, your email might get bombarded with debt offers, car warranty offers, etc. I am sure you have had this happen more than once.
A specialized affiliate offer might look like this: If you referred someone to the debt consolidation company that did a consolidation, you would get paid a lot more. A model like this is called a revenue share, but it's a lot harder to achieve and track.The email submits for $20 is much easier.
Usually, the more information that a company gets, the more the advertiser is willing to pay.
Just getting an email might pay less than a conversion that gets the phone number, address, and email.
Here are some examples of some CPA offers:
- Signing up for a dating website
- Signing up for a sports betting app
- Paying the shipping and handling for a diet pill
- Calling a phone number for student loan debt consolidation
CPA offers can be very creative you can get paid in several different ways; there are many verticals within the CPA niche.
Matching a Traffic Source with a Vertical is a must
In the banner example above, Dove Shampoo is targeting Time Magazine online readers.
Verticals and traffic sources need to be compatible and don’t always match.
Here are some examples:
- The Advertiser might not like certain traffic sources. An excellent example of this might be a dating website that doesn't want to be on adult Traffic.
- We already mentioned adult traffic is primarily male, so promoting a woman's diet pill to that traffic would not be a good fit.
- Promoting an app install that has a low payout would probably not work very well on Facebook, especially conversion traffic where the cost is relatively high.
The best way to figure out what works on different traffic sources is the spying and doing competitive research.
I will detail some of my favorite spy tools later in this guide. AdSpy is currently my favorite.
As a newbie how should I pick my first Vertical?
My tip is simple.
As I already mentioned earlier, pick one Traffic source. I recommended Facebook. The cost to test is low, and you can narrow down your targeting. Then pick one vertical and immerse yourself in that.
With Facebook, we've had success with lead generation offers.
If you're going to pick mobile Traffic, try app installs or sweepstakes.
Check the Traffic source first, then work on the vertical.
A lot of times, you will find if an offer has a very high payout; it's tough to convert so, you may want to consider something with a lower payout.
Here's an example:
Let's say you're starting out with $1,000 budget
- You run an offer that has a $10 payout, you would need a hundred conversions to break even.
- If you're running something that has a $2 payout, you would need 500 conversions to break even.
In the second scenario you have a lot more data to work with, you can do split testing and some optimization with 500 conversions.
How to Choose Your 1st Offer
Here are some rules that I have for myself and my media buyers:
- We do a lot of research before we decide to run anything, I mentioned earlier we use multiple spy tools and competitive analysis.
- Always start off with offers you see other affiliates running.
- Don't worry about the competition. In the beginning, finding a converting offer means people are having success, which means you can have success as well.
Sometimes the offers that you think are going to be the big winners suck, and those that have no chance end up being your best ones.
Start testing with multiple offers. From my experience, you will have to test several before you hit a winner most of the time.
Home Work
- Pick an Affiliate Network and get accepted
- Talk to your affiliate manager about what they recommend
- Do some competitive research and spying
- Make sure you have an offer that's relatively easy to convert
- Choose a traffic source and offer and Take Massive Action, team TMA!
