Using Adwords for affiliate marketing

How does that work?

[dickbaker]

There was a post here a while back that mentioned putting the CJ affiliate link into Google Adwords ads.

Ever since reading that post, I've been trying to think of how someone doing that could make money. Wouldn't the person spend more on Adwords than he would get in CJ commissions?

If anyone can shed any light on this, I'd much appreciate it.

[skibum]

Most people will spend more than they earn but some don't and make a few (or more) extra bucks from doing this.

[eljefe3]

You just need to find the right keywords products. I stumbled across a keyword that converts like crazy, yet only costs me pennies a click. It is not using a cj aff program, but it is using an affiliate program and it does earn substantially more than what it costs, somewhere to the tune of 3000%.

Granted this is an unusual case, but most ppc players will know which words convert to earn them 300-500% back on their ppc spend.

[davewray]

I liken it to panning for gold. You need to sift through the thousands of keywords to find that little gold dust of a keyword. Find enough of these and you are set...the key is to keep "panning" for such keywords because over time your competition will find the same keywords and you'll want to continue having an edge over them. Be ever vigilant! Patience is of huge importance if you want to succeed at the PPC direct to merchant "game".

[markwelch]

Yes, most people who do this lose money. They are often persuaded to try this because someone has sold them an ebook or "system" promoting "affiliate arbitrage."

[edited by: eljefe3 at 3:20 am (utc) on July 4, 2007]

[gabby]

Wouldn't the person spend more on Adwords than he would get in CJ commissions?

Yes you're correct -- of course you're correct -- never spend any money sending AdWords traffic to CJ -- you'll never make any money with this business model -- bad idea -- ;)

[vincevincevince]

You have to think about what kind of characteristics would make this work. If your traffic is from SEO then you can afford lots of semi-targetted traffic and low conversion rates. With Adwords, you need highly targetted traffic and high conversion rates.

Therefore, Adwords targetting people out to buy a widget can work well, but just targetting widget in general may not.

Although increasing targetting decreases traffic, it also decreases the cost per conversion. Instead of broad targetting at one product, narrow target at a hundred products, and you get the same end result in terms of conversions but yet you keep your rate up.

[tsinoy]

I agree with what dave said here..
> I liken it to panning for gold. You need to sift through the thousands of keywords to find that little gold dust of a keyword. Find enough of these and you are set...the key is to keep "panning" for such keywords because over time your competition will find the same keywords and you'll want to continue having an edge over them. Be ever vigilant! Patience is of huge importance if you want to succeed at the PPC direct to merchant "game".

I've even gone into lengths to hire people to research keywords for me on a consistent basis. ie. daily... I do however find that in order to keep up with what I make I need to hire more people and go into more industries faster.. because the different markets are getting really competitive.