Multiple PPC Campaigns for Affiliates: Good or Bad?

Is there an advantage to having your affiliates doing pay per click?

[WebbRich400]

I am the Search Marketing Manager at my company and we have been doing PPC inhouse for the last couple years. We are starting to outsource some of this to other companies, however, the question has come up whether having more than one company doing PPC marketing is counter productive because you are basically competing against yourself and driving up bid prices. For example, Company A & Company B are using different URL's but the landing pages are the same and they both will be bidding on the same keywords (for the most part).

I think its a valid concern, however, I also know that there is an argument for increasing your exposure on the internet. Perhaps another factor to consider is that some affiliates will be targeting different keywords. Perhaps its not black or white, but maybe a variation like "yes, it could help... as long as you don't have more than X number of affiliates doing it".

The subject matter related to our 8 offers includes real estate investing, stock investing, debt elimination, internet business, etc. We have probably some of the highest payouts which pays 100-110% of the value of the ebook that is purchased. So, we have several companies that are interested in doing Pay Per Click and SEO Marketing as affiliates for us.

On the SEO side, it seems like it would be a good idea to get multiple companies involved, but what about the Pay Per Click side? I would appreciate opinions, but even more than that, has anyone been able to determine which is better and getting solid results through testing?

Thanks,

Richard

[beesticles]

You'll get an interesting selection of answers to this, but here's my tuppence worth. I don't have any problem with affiliates using PPC, providing they are giving you incremental sales and not cannibalising your existing business. So a good rule is to stop them bidding on 'easy' searches, such as your brand name.

Make sure that you measure them with one tracking system so you can clearly determine where sales are coming from. Otherwise you'll have the problem of adding up all the sales from your different marketing channels and discovering they total more than you've actually sold.

Using affiliates properly will mean that you profit from a wider selection of keywords than you probably have in your own PPC campaign. It should also give you multiple opportunities on individual keywords. However, be prepared to 'police' the affiliates and weed out the ones that don't play by your rules.

As with all marketing - test it and find out!

[WebbRich400]

¦ So a good rule is to stop them bidding on 'easy' searches, such as your brand name. ¦

Excellent Suggestion... I really appreciate your comments. Thanks!

[scott3411]

you need to build out your long tail!

[kea12345]

Also, affilaites will drive traffic where you can make money, but they will actually lose money, but they do not know it yet. In the long run, it will get your business name out there. The fastest growing companies on the Internet all allow their affiliates to do PPC. It is generally the bigger offline brand concious companies that do not, to their own detriment in my opinion. The key, as others have mentioned, is establishing rules, such as not bidding on your brand name.

If you find it is not working for you, you can always forbid it later.

[vincevincevince]

Ask them not to put your domain name in their URL and that way you will get multiple affiliate bidding against each other.

The result might be 5 ads for your product showing on a given result, dwarfing ads from your competition. The less your competition's ads are shown the more you make sales...

[CSE_Monkey]

Another business rule I have noticed is to put a cap on the CPC bids they can make (works on Overture/YSM). Make sure the cap is below what you are currently spending. Won't be relevant much longer though.

Cheers!

[aeiouy]

I agree with the others here. Let your affiliates do PPC, even encourage and assist them, just protect what keywords you want to focus on as your core business and let them go after the rest.