In this blog post, I am going to tell you:
- Why Facebook Ads Is a BAD Choice For Affiliate Marketers
- The TYPE of Ads You Should Be Running For BEST ROI (Return on Investment)
- A Traffic Source I’ve Used For A While (not Google Ads) & A Strategy I’m Testing
As an aspiring affiliate marketer, you should always be on the look out for traffic sources.
Most of what you’ll hear hocked around, is usually “Facebook Ads!, Facebook Ads!, Facebooks Ads!”
Personally, I never really got Facebook Ads to work that well for me, so I very rarely use it.
Despite hearing it on numerous ocassions telling me “Ben, you gotta be running ads more seriously duuude, I’m crushing it”.
Yeah well, it’s great you’re “crushing it”.
It’s not really my kind of thing.
And I’ve given it a pretty solid go.
I’ve probably sunk $10K into Facebook ads alone and got back a 1/3 of it.
Here’s why Facebook Ads suck…
Facebook Ads by nature is Interruption Marketing.
INTERRUPTION.
Meaning by definition: You’re interrupting people.
You’re basically dangling your ad in front of someone’s face in the hope they might be interested.
(they probably won’t be)
That’s why CTR on Facebook is generally bloody awful.
The guys that tend to make Facebook Ads work for them that I know of, are ALL e-commerce guys.
Typically with:
- Bottomless pits of cash
- Huge product inventories to shove in front of just about every demographic Facebook has.
I don’t have an endless cash supply and quite frankly, I tried e-comm and it bored me to death, so I chucked it.
Nobody (outside of the IM sphere) goes onto to Facebook because they want a free report.
Or they want to buy an info-product with 10 upsells.
They’re on Facebook to talk to their friends.
So that’s one thing.
The other thing is this..
Supposing they ARE on Facebook to buy some info-product or give someone (who they have precisely NO clue about) their email address…
Your Ad is competing with everything else going on their news feed.
And trust me…
…if it’s a straight choice between clicking your Ad or commenting on their buddy “Steve’s” funny facebook update which they’ve been tagged in… your Ad loses.
Every. Single. Time.
There’s no question.
Another reason I dislike Facebook Ads, is this…
Ads on Facebook tend to have a freaking brief shelf life.
What I mean by this is, Ads burn out.
(You’re lucky if you get 72 hours out of a facebook Ad…and that’s probably pushing it).
They burn out FASTER than any other Ad platform I’ve used.
You’ve got to constantly come up with:
- New Angles For Your Ads
- New Ad Copy
- New Images
- New Calls To Action (CTA’s)
Basically new bloody everything.
And don’t even get me started on the Facebook Ads approvals process and compliance.
In fact, the more I think about Facebook Ads, the more I hate it.
And the more I see what an altogether crap platform it is for a marketer to choose to use.
Especially if you’re an affiliate.
There is only one instance where I use Facebook Ads.
And that’s for retargeting people who have interacted with any of my sites elsewhere.
I never drive STONE-COLD traffic with Facebook Ads.
But what’s better?
Search Intent Based Ads!
These type of Ads will ALWAYS outperform Facebook Ads.
These are Ads that somebody has actually got up off their butt’s, fired up their computer, typed a keyword into Google or Microsoft Bing and are ACTIVELY looking for a solution to their problem.
It’s not like Facebook, where an Ad has just been stuffed in their face!
If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’ll know I’m a huge fan of Google Ads.
I use Google Ads on a daily basis, they are Search Intent Based.
It’s bread and butter for me.
But there’s another traffic source I’ve been using for a while:
Enter Microsoft Ads…(BING)
Microsoft Ads is very similar to Google Ads by nature.
People are actually SEARCHING for something.
But the user base between Google and Microsoft is VERY different.
Microsoft (Bing) users are an entirely different demographic to Google’s users.
The average age of a Microsoft user is 45.
They’re a much more mature audience.
I find conversion rates to be much higher than Google though.
Certain offers work very well on Microsoft.
Whereas others don’t.
It’s all about choosing the right offers for their users and targeting the right keywords.
How Much Traffic Does Microsoft Bing Have?
But there’s a problem..
It’s not really a problem, it’s more of a FACT.
Microsoft has less traffic than Google.
According to Wordstream, Google have approximately 90% market share.
Microsoft has just about 4%.
Whilst that pales into insignificance compared with Google Ads, Microsoft still has a LOT of traffic.
Microsoft Bing still gets a whopping 900 Million Searches per day!
And guess what?..
If you’re an affiliate, you’ve got a LOT less competition and cheaper clicks to boot too.
I’m Testing A Strategy…
I’m currently testing a strategy with Microsoft Ads for a clickbank affiliate offer I’m going to be promoting in an interesting Niche.
The strategy is simple:
Highly targeted Microsoft Ads > Simple Landing Page (with ZERO Lead Capture) > Affiliate Offer
This is a little bit different to my usual method that I would use for Google Ads.
I’ll be posting my results shortly, good or bad.
If it’s bad, I’ll still post it because there’s value in what didn’t work.
If it’s good, I’ll be posting the results of that too.
Stay tuned!
Ben.
