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I used to think of Advertising as gambling, but Advertising doesn’t have to be all risk if you think about and handle it the right way.
The key is to think of your initial ads as a process of data collection. Once you have enough data, it’s really hard to fail.
Yet, gathering data only helps if you know what that data means and how to use it. While testing is important, you have to do it right and know what the data is trying to show you.
To have your tests be viable, you need to only be testing one thing at a time. If you’re testing more than one thing, it’s very difficult to tell what’s going wrong and why it’s happening.
Before we dive in, keep in mind that testing doesn’t always require a huge budget. If a network demands a large budget, test one one that doesn’t to get your ad and landing page working before you move onto one of the networks that requires a budget bigger than you’re comfortable spending.
The main problem with this part is that your budget and your offer play a huge part in how easy it will be to make it work.
If you have a product that nets you $1,000 profit for every sale, obviously you can spend way more than an offer that nets you $20 per sale.
Even if your product is expensive, you still don’t want to waste money. If you’re spending $500 to make %1,000, that’s OK, but wouldn’t it be better to spend $100 to make $1,000?
When an ad isn’t working, a few things will be happening:
What to adjust (in order of problem probability):
The acceptable range for “working” will vary, but it should be fairly obvious. You have to make more per click than you spend.
To figure out if your ad is working while you’re not making sales, take your earnings per click (EPC) from other sources (affiliates, organic traffic) and see whether your CPC is less than your standard EPC. If it is, your ad is working.
If you’re making a profit, your ad is definitely working.
Your clicks are flowing nicely and you’re happy with where your costs are. Yet, nobody is signing up (or buying).
You need two things in place to optimize a landing page:
For Analytics, Google is fine. If you’re using WordPress, there are plenty of plugins that can get you the data you need.
For split testing, you can either use a plugin, script, or click tracking software to get it working.
What it looks like when your landing page isn’t working:
While your best bet is to start split testing aspects of your page, your offer may need to change entirely.
Split testing will take longer, but it’s risky to change everything when the offer isn’t working. It still may not work.
The primary reason to split test is because your results will improve over time as the traffic tells you what they want.
Your list is growing and your ad is performing, but nobody is buying.
When this happens either your offer isn’t a match to your list or your copy is too weak and isn’t performing.
The first step is to take a look at comparable offers in your market, especially if you know they’re selling well.
To be sure they’re selling, check the affiliate network they use. It will give you all of the data you’d need to be able to determine whether they’re making sales.
If they’re making sales, take a close look at the structure of their sales page. What have they included? What pain points are they focused on? What are they doing that you aren’t?
Do an edit on your sales copy and attempt to structure it similarly to your competitors. Don’t outright steal their copy, use theirs to guide the direction you take your own.
This is also a good time to start split testing variations of your page to see what boosts your conversion rate. Here are some things to test:
Obviously, changing the offer should be the final thing you do. It’s far more difficult to do than any of the other options.
Wish it was easier?
You can remove all of the ad testing by buying your traffic from us… 🙂
