Affiliate Marketing Tips - When is it Time to Cut Your Losses?

Author: Naomi Lowe

We have all been there. You've grabbed yourself a hyped up product form ClickBank and run off to build yourself a PPC campaign and great pre-sell page. You get up the next few mornings and you've spent a fortune on PPC and sold nothing.

So how long do we persist before we cut our losses? Well unfortunately there is no exact answer. Every affiliate has a different theory. Some are prepared to take losses far longer and try and make it up on the back end with repeat sales through their email list. Others never back a loser as it just eats away your profit. Here are a few tips that may help.

Affiliate Marketing Tip #1

First thing I do is take a careful look at the actual product itself. If I don't already own it I send an email to the merchant with a screenshot of my PPC campaign. I ask them for a copy of the product so that I can improve my pre-sell or write a review. Most merchants accept willingly, as long as there is proof I have been marketing their product.

Affiliate Marketing Tip #2

You need to establish that the product in fact meets a need. This can easily be done by taking a look at the product and by using Google's Search Based Keyword Tool. If you're still unsure take a look in the forums for that niche and see if people are talking about problems that could be solved with this product.

Affiliate Marketing Tip #3

Some products just sell better at some times or seasons than others. For example, if you're selling a seasonal product like an e-Book of BBQ recipes, you're going to experience very seasonal demand. Most likely, when spring arrives you're going to start to see an increase in sales conversion rates. So it's very important for you to understand that some products just don't sell all year round.

Affiliate Marketing Tip #4

Don't use time to measure the success of a ClickBank product. It is completely irrelevant if you've been selling it for 1 day, 2 weeks or 5 months. What is crucial is how many impressions have seen your product and how many clicks you have had.

Affiliate Marketing Tip #5

If you can not get any impressions this is usually an indication that you have either a niche with no traffic, or have a poor quality score. You can get a low quality score if your keywords and landing page are unrelated. Sometimes the problem is that you have poorly chosen keywords with very low traffic volumes or not enough keywords. Start by selecting more high traffic keyword phrases that are highly relevant to your site.

Affiliate Marketing Tip #6

Some times no matter what you do, you just can't seem to get any clicks on your adverts. So what can I do about a low CTR? If you have less then a 1% CTR there is almost certainly a problem with your advert or your market is just dead. Re-write the advert to make it more appealing and see what happens. As a rank amateur a conversion rate of 1% is not ideal but it is acceptable. Anything less then 0.5% after you have trialed a few things and you need to cut your losses.

Affiliate Marketing Tip #7

Conversely, if you are getting a high CTR and low sales, your pre-sales page is a problem or the product itself is just garbage. This is the most dangerous problem to have, as this one problem can cost you a lot of money. Try and fix this problem quickly by making your advert, landing page and merchants page follow a consistent theme and story. If that does not work get out as quick as you can.

My Own Rules Of Thumb

I only accept a minimum of 1% sales conversion after 500 clicks but preferably up around 2%, if I get 3% it's a major winner and I scale it big time. I must have at least 1.5% CTR, but I have a lot of experience with CTR. If I can't achieve these figures I usually dump it pretty fast.

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