Here’s an update for April for the “Day Job Killer” style PPC campigns I’ve been testing out..

It’s not all good, in fact I’m coming to a pretty negative conclusion on my experiences so far, with most of the campaigns I’ve tried proving to be little return for the work and time involved, and some being a total loss.

In fact there’s only a couple that are really looking like winners..

Product “B” (ClickBank) April’07

3 clicks, 152 imp, 1.97% ctr, $1.52 @ $0.50 cpc = 0 x $0.00

Loss for month = $1.52
total profit = $48.54

this one has gone real quiet.
I’m going to run it for another month, but if it gets no sales in May I will probably drop it.

Product “C” (ClickBank) April’07

17 clicks, 269 imp, 6.31% ctr, $2.48 @ $0.14 cpc = 0 x $0.00

Loss for month = $2.48
Total Profit = $42.12

This one had more clicks, but no sales, so same again, I’ll run it for another month and see if it picks up again..

Product “D” (PayDotCom) April’07

106 clicks, 1,998 imp, 5.30% ctr, $7.72 @$0.08 cpc = 0

Loss for month = $7.72
Total Loss = $25.92

I’ve managed to squeeze the cost of this one down by over 50% which is positive, but it made no sales.

The commission pay out on this one is over $40, so I’m going to also let this one run one more month before deciding.

Product “E” (ClickBank) April’07

494 clicks, 8,848 imps, 5.58% ctr, $143.70 @ $0.30 cpc = 1 x $41.60

Loss for month = $102.10
Total Loss = $69.34

This looked like it was going to be a winner in April, as there were 4 sales in total, which would have given a profit of $55.46, but 3 (!!!) of the sales were refunded.

I am going to let this run a little longer, probably only a week or two, and keep a very close eye on it.

Product “F” (ClickBank) April’07

12,504 clicks, 2,973,387 imps, 4.20% ctr, $622.69 @ $0.05 cpc = 19 sales = $112.39
Loss for month = $212.80 [Ouch, again!!]
Total Loss = $429.46

Hmm, this one went a bit FUBAR.
I set up a couple of extra keyword ad groups and forgot to switch off content match, and I got bitten in the arse..

Through the tracking I have managed to now cull the keywords down to a more effective list and it now looks like this group should make a profit in May, although it’s going to have to do well to wipe out the deficit that it’s already running in…

It’s also slowly building a list as well, which should allow me to start pulling back more profit over time.

Note to self: Always check you’ve switched off Content Matching!!!!
:}

Alternative Affiliate Source (software) Trial

Still no sales, so I’ve now killed both groups at am overall loss of $11.95.

Amazon Test Groups

I’ve been testing out a bit of software called AmazonHunter for this and it looked awesome.

I was able to set up six campaigns with adgroups for hundreds of products in just a few hours.

However, whilst the ads are getting some impressions, the CTR is pretty lousy (varying from 0.03% to 2.33%) and the campaigns as a whole are running at a loss of $4.56 so far.

I’m going to let them ride for another couple of weeks, but it’s looking like they’re a loss.

If I find time this month I may give AmazonHunter another run, but choosing more mid ranged price products instead, as the current ones were all high ticket items (over $400 each).

Summary: -

I have to say that trying to make money with PPC campaigns is proving to be harder than I anticipated, and so far the test groups I’ve set up have actually made a loss overall, as well as taking up quite a lot of my time.

Personally I’ve made more money from less effort with Niche affiliate sites and SEO work.

If I can’t turn it around this month I’m probably going to go back to using PPC primarily to promote my own products and my PLR products.

Having said that, in fairness to Day Job Killer, I am not using all the advanced tactics covered in the DJK manual.

For most of these campaigns my methodology has been quite simple, specifically: -

1. Register a similar domain name to use for a cloaked redirect affiliate link

2. Gather some keywords and split them in to groups to track them separately where appropriate (not really relevant for “product name” campaigns)

3. Split test ads and tweak them for maximum effect.

I’ve only set up a squeeze page and freebie report for Product F, and although that is running at a loss so far, it has turned around in May and I’m interested in seeing if these extra tactics are what is needed to make the difference.

If it is then I will stick to products where I can implement these extra steps, although it does make the process far more time consuming..

I guess I’m unconvinced by this PPC tactic as it does seem to be a heck of a lot of work for someone as lazy as me.

Tags: Day Job Killer

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