Affiliate marketing is a big trend in recent years, which is closely linked to the online sphere. Numerous digital marketers are getting paid by the companies to generate leads or other traffic to the brand’s website or social media account. Affiliates get either a share of the company’s revenue (rev-share) or a fixed pay for a certain action performed by a client (CPA). There is also an option of mixing these two payout models (hybrid).
And the best part about affiliate marketing is that you can work in literally every niche – from online gambling to something as unexpected as alternative energy. The latest case from GBC Time proves just this. Keep reading to know how to create a successful lead generation campaign in a little more than two days.
Attila O’dree, digital marketing expert and the author of the popular blog iAmAttila, has shared his wisdom in lead generation and affiliate marketing. The ladder is in Attila’s own words.
Lead gen campaign
The best recent lead gen campaigns I have launched were solar campaigns at Clickdealer, where we filmed a solar installation on a house, and then compared what their electric bill was before solar, and what it is now on a typical sunny day.
Key goals – to be profitable
As affiliates, our main goal is to be profitable by working with the payout we get and then getting the lead for less than the payout.
Tracking software is used to measure goals
We measure this using a tracking software named RedTrack, and the system used by Clickdealer where when a conversion arrives, they post the clickID back to our Redtrack system, and we can see the costs and earnings per click and other important metrics like landing page clickthrough rates (CTRs).
Main KPIs
CTR on a landing page is very important and also breaking things down by zipping code/state for solar lead gen.
Target audience: homeowners
Our target audience for any type of do-it-yourself (DIY) / home-related lead gen offers are homeowners mostly.
We target using Facebook’s targeting options but find going broad works better than trying to dial it in really tight.
Main stages of the project
Testing angles
The first stage is always testing angles/creatives since our offer is set.
We had to determine which creatives get the best CTR and lowest cost-per-click (CPC) and are most effective.
As always conversions matter, but if you send more people to a landing page, you’ll get more conversions most of the time.
The time frame is usually 48 hours to get data, on which creative does best.
Monitor the data and pick the ones highest conversions
After that, we look at the data and pick the ones that got conversions, if there are no conversions, we pick the one that brought in the best landing page CTRs.
Dial-in and scale the campaign
Once we dial in the campaign, we scale it by going into more states with the winning creative combinations.
The project was run on Facebook
Facebook, as it has the most senior users, was the platform where we launched our campaign.
The main tool – Facebook Ads Library
We use the Facebook ads library. Sadly, gone are the days of great spy tools like MagicAdz. Now FB ad library is all we use, and also we use native spy tools to check how they run these types of offers on native sources like taboola and outbrain.
The project was done by Attila’s team alone
I did the project alone with my team. I don’t do joint ventures.
The profit margin was 20-30% with $XXXX per day
Our profit margin is usually 20-30% on the scale when we spend mid-range $XXXX per day on a particular state.
Unique content is a key to success
Content that is unique and stands out works the best. Like the one that we used (as mentioned above).
The payout model is CPA per lead
Payout is CPA per lead.
Our investment included:
- cost of landing pages;
- creatives;
- the labor to put it all together and setup tracking, campaigns, and launch.
It took 2 days and 1 hour to launch the project
It takes 2 days of prep and then 1 hour to launch a campaign.
The weakest part of the project was limited capacity
We don’t work with clients, we work with B2B CPA Networks. The weakest part of the project is that there is a maximum capacity, which we can do per day. They cannot take unlimited leads because their call center has a limit.
Working directly with the client is the best
If I could redo the project now, I would just skip the middle man and go directly with the client. But since we are best at running performance-based traffic, that is not an option, until we have a margin between the payout and our actual acquisition cost.
Advice for new affiliates: join a forum and take action
If you want to become an affiliate, read books on the subject to understand what affiliate marketing with paid ads is. After that join a forum and see what’s trending right now, and then TAKE ACTION.
Read more: Top Gambling Affiliate Programs
