Creating Well Performing Ad Variations

October 1st, 2009 1 Comment By Ryan Buke Affiliate Marketing, Media Buys, PPC, Web Publishers

The Art of Creating an Attractive Ad which Appeals to the “Right” Audience

Did you think that if your ads have an impressive CTR, the campaign(s) will automatically end up being profitable? Wrong! Think about it: the most important thing is convincing the people who click to perform a certain action. Maybe you’re selling something, maybe you want them to sign up for something.

Even if you have a brilliant landing page, convincing the “wrong” audience to perform the action(s) in question is so hard that it’s just not worth it. Most people think that it’s your job as an affiliate marketer to convince as many people as possible to click on an ad. Well, it’s not.

Do You Want Lots of “Curious Clickers”?

Here’s the thing: even a complete beginner can come up with an ad which is so “different” (weird, interesting, maybe even shocking) that lots and lots of people end up clicking. But there’s just one problem: most of them would be “curious clickers” who have no interest whatsoever in what you’re offering. They would click that shiny ad of yours, drop by and then leave.

In other words, you’d practically be throwing money away. While it is true that you will get cheaper clicks if your CTR is high (after all, networks display ads based on how much money they make from each of them – they make more money from people with low bids but a huge CTR than from people who are willing to pay a lot more per click but have an ad which nobody wants to check out), it still just won’t be worth it in most cases.

Exact Science + Art = $$$

Affiliate marketing is an exact science as well as an art and in this case, you have to find the right balance between creating an attractive ad and not making it appealing to the wrong crowd. It sounds complicated but it really isn’t. If you have at least some basic understanding of marketing, you’ll be fine.

All you have to do is make the ad “different” but still make it perfectly clear what you’re offering. The potential visitors need to know exactly what they’d end up finding if they choose to drop by. Show them what your site is all about in a unique way. Tweak, tweak and tweak some more. Find something that works, scale. Rinse and repeat. Have fun!

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