I'm also an adsense publisher, and it seems to me that on that side, you can sign up to publish ads where you get paid for a conversion.
On the AdWords side, I don't see any way to buy ads in this fashion.
I have an ebook to sell, and as an alternative to affiliate marketing, I would like to be able to sell it using Adwords to drive traffic to it. For example, on a $10 ebook, I make $2.06 using Clickbank at 75% commission. This means I could offer it on a pay-per-conversion basis of about $5 to $7 on Adwords, if my pocket calculator is working right, allowing for returns, gremlins, phases of the moon, etc.
Of course, I might be able to accomplish the same thing by paying for clicks, and even make more money, but I would have to watch things a lot more closely and put a lot more hours into it.
Is there a way to buy ads in adwords on a pay-per-conversion basis?
> I'm also an adsense publisher, and it seems to me that on that side, > you can sign up to publish ads where you get paid for a conversion.
> On the AdWords side, I don't see any way to buy ads in this fashion.
> I have an ebook to sell, and as an alternative to affiliate marketing, > I would like to be able to sell it using Adwords to drive traffic to > it. For example, on a $10 ebook, I make $2.06 using Clickbank at 75% > commission. This means I could offer it on apay-per-conversion basis > of about $5 to $7 on Adwords, if my pocket calculator is working > right, allowing for returns, gremlins, phases of the moon, etc.
> Of course, I might be able to accomplish the same thing by paying for > clicks, and even make more money, but I would have to watch things a > lot more closely and put a lot more hours into it.
> Is there a way to buy ads in adwords on apay-per-conversion basis?
> Thank you to anyone who takes the time to answer.
I think Steve is right that the "cost-per-action" advertising is still in beta for advertisers. It does not appear to have been eagerly embraced by publishers, in part because the process is cumbersome and not automated as with AdSense. I assume that over time, these ads will run right alongside CPC and CPM AdSense ads.
But you don't necessarily have to wait for Google. The "cost per sale" internet advertising model has been around for 12+ years, in the form of "affiliate marketing" and "associate programs." Thousands of merchants operate "affiliate programs" in which they pay publishers based on sales -- either directly using an in-house solution, or through an "affiliate network" like ShareASale, CJ, LS, SR, etc. One way I make money is by buying CPC advertising to promote some merchants who have affiliate programs, and there are thousands of affiliates who use AdWords the same way (often losing a LOT of money, see http://www.MarkWelch.com/affiliate-arbitrage.htm for an understanding of how the "math" works and why most people who try this strategy lose a lot of money).
As you observe, PPC/CPC advertising is risky, since you could pay for a lot of clicks that don't generate sales. The "affiliate marketing" model provides much less risk, since you only pay based on actual sales (presumably paying a price you can afford!). And you're also correct that a carefully-managed PPC/CPC campaign can be more profitable than affiliate marketing, if you're willing to assume some risk and spend the time managing and optimizing the campaign.
> As you observe, PPC/CPC advertising is risky, since you could pay for > a lot of clicks that don't generate sales. The "affiliate marketing" > model provides much less risk, since you only pay based on actual > sales (presumably paying a price you can afford!). And you're also > correct that a carefully-managed PPC/CPC campaign can be more > profitable than affiliate marketing, if you're willing to assume some > risk and spend the time managing and optimizing the campaign.
You are right on target here. The product I am wanting to advertize on a cost per conversion basis is a product that I am submitting to ClickBank even as we speak. So far the things I really don't understand about ClickBank are the awful login passwords (which can only be changed for another awful password) the 72 hour waiting period when you submit something, and the single starting page for all products on one account - realistically limiting people to one product per account.
So I am intending to offer the product through the affiliate network directly, but I thought it would also make sense, if possible, to offer the product to adsense publishers.
I've also thought of a way that Google (or someone else) could out- affiliate the affiliate systems.
All I want is two or three thousands shares of stock.
> One > way I make money is by buying CPC advertising to promote some > merchants who have affiliate programs, and there are thousands of > affiliates who use AdWords the same way (often losing a LOT of money, > seehttp://www.MarkWelch.com/affiliate-arbitrage.htmfor an > understanding of how the "math" works and why most people who try this > strategy lose a lot of money).
I visited the page you reference here, it is a very good writeup.
I've done a lot of direct mail in times past, so I already have a pretty good idea about the dynamics of response rates, conversion rates, etc.
I had just set up and afa camapign that would be arbitrage (I even named it arbitrage-1!) and I deleted it after reading your article. I didn't realize Google had made it against the rules. Nobobdy had clicked on an ad yet (it had only showed 40 impressions.)
Have you done any arbitrage across ppc networks, from one to the other? It seems to me there might be some opportunities there.
Not for me though, I have other things that I am working on.
Also, unless your site is designed as a reverse-pyschology fakeout, I would think you could gneerate more customers if you prettied it up alitt,e with wordpress or something.
But then, perhaps you have done an a-b split on the format.
Meanwhile I assume I can put clickbank links on my pages, as long as I don't use some context-baseddynamic lookup for them.
Is there anyone else besides clickban that you like, that is compatible with adsense?
FYI, although ClickBank is probably the "best bet" for a downloadable e-book, most serious affiliates don't work with ClickBank, for a number of reasons. See http://forum.ABestWeb.com for perspectives on different affiliate networks (but DON'T POST THERE until you've spent many hours reading, and never try to post your affiliate program info for free). I don't know that an e
> Have you done any arbitrage across ppc networks, from one to the > other? It seems to me there might be some opportunities there.
A number of "promoters" encourage this strategy, and a few affiliates claim to find opportunity in "network arbitrage," but mostly it doesn't work, for the same reasons that "Affiliate arbitrage" doesn't usually work. Perhaps most important, there are only three legitimate PPC search networks (Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter); moving to the "lower-tier" PPC search networks brings in a huge amounts of worthless and fraudulent traffic -- I've talked with many, many, many advertisers and I've never found any "real" satisfied advertisers who actually measured ROI. You have to be VERY cautious in evaluating any "endorsements" of the lower-tier networks because most of them pay a "bounty" for new advertiser signups, and as a result many affiliates will seek to earn the bounty by referring advertisers with misleading or false endorsements. As a general rule, ignore any "endorsements" that are anonymous or pseudonymous, and read other endorsements very carefully to determine if they are credible or relevant. An endorsement that says a particular source sent a lot of "traffic" or "prospects" is meaningless; the only legitimate measure is ROI (return on investment) or ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), measuring how many dollars in sales (or profit) are generated by each dollar spent on the advertising. For lower-tier networks, the ROI is almost never positive.
