AdWords - Sending Traffic Straight to Aff Sites

How high can you bid & still make money?

[skibum]

For anyone out there buying AdWords and sending the traffic straight to affiliate sites, how much do you typicaly bid?

Is it all $.05 keywords or have you found you can bid higher, $0.50 $1.00, $2.00, $5.00, etc...

[cjshu]

I never bid more than .50. But then Im not making thousands of dollars a month either. I don't have any that I generate any traffic to at .05. I think the competition is to high and the nickel days are gone for most keywords.

CJ

[Cowabunga]

Skibum,

We start in the $.10 to $.12 range for these types of ads. Then, after a week or so, we review our average position column and then begin upping bids on individual keywords to move them into better positions (if they are performing).

[paybacksa]

I second that. Watch conversion rates very very closely, and dump campaigns that aren't converting well enough to keep your profits at acceptable levels.

As the bid cost goes up, so does the CTR, but does the conversion rate keep up? Also, the risk increases, since th cost per click is higher. In my world higher risk means the profits must be more than just proportionally higher... 10% more risk needs about 30% more profit, whereas 50% more risk needs like 200% more profit, etc... since the risk involves off-site factors like domain management, backlink management, etc.

I have found in my most of my areas that bids over $.15 or so require conversions over 35% to be worthwhile, but this will vary with your industry/niche/definition of conversion/profit per conversion/overhead/etc.

I have one area where $1 bids are worthwhile at 10% conversion, but that one is unique for me - it may be typical of high value conversions, but in this case the risk associated with the keywords is very low (as long as it stays under the radar!)

[skibum]

Safe to assume any of the more expensive keywords go to indie programs that have better tracking than the major aff networks?

[shelbeesmom]

I also start my campaigns out low but have YET to find one that will produce at .05 cents a click.
I also found that the HIGHER my individual keywords are, the LOWER my other keywords need to be....seems if you target those 3 and 4 letter phrases they "steal" from your high conversion keywords.
I rarely ever bid over .75 click because I'm just not rich yet and I want to learn MORE before I stick my neck out too far!
Shelbeesmom

[shelbeesmom]

Whoops....too late at night
"....seems if you target those 3 and 4 letter phrases they "steal" from your high conversion keywords. "

I meant to say 3 and for WORD phrases! Sorry ...
Shelbeesmom

[vibgyor79]

>>> Safe to assume any of the more expensive keywords go to indie programs that have better tracking than the major aff networks?

Definitely. Affiliate programs from MYAP (for example) have subIDs. Use those to track the conversion rate of each keyword/adgroup. Set the bid price based on the invidividual keyword/adgroup conversion rate.