Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is one of the quickest, most potent ways to promote affiliate products. If you can learn to control its power, you can create a six-figure affiliate income for yourself. Grab a pad and pen because we’re going to give you 10 PPC tips that you can use immediately to make more money promoting other people’s products.

Tip #1: Track Your Keywords

It takes time and diligence, but it’s worth it. You must know which keywords are converting into sales. Keep the ones that are converting. Trash the others. There are some affiliates who have PPC campaigns with only 1 or 2 keywords that are driving a full-time income with them. They found those keywords by tracking.

Tip #2: Direct Link

You need to test a merchant’s site and landing page before expanding your PPC campaign. The quickest way to do that is to link your PPC ad directly to the merchant. If 100 people click your ad and nobody buys, you may need to find another merchant to promote.

Tip #3: Beat Back The Competition

Your competitors want to outrank your ad. After all, the higher an ad’s rank, the more exposure (and clicks) that ad will get. Often, they’ll do it by bidding more than you. With Google’s Quality Score, you can bid lower and rank higher to beat back your competition. And that leads us into the next tip…

Tip #4: Control Your Quality Score

Google’s Quality Score is an attempt to control the quality of their advertisers’ sites. The better your quality score, the less you’ll pay per click and the higher Google will rank your ad. Maximize this opportunity by maintaining a “Great” quality score for each of your keywords.

Tip #5: Use Small Adgroups

Some affiliate marketers dump hundreds of keywords into their adgroups. Then, they wonder why their ads aren’t getting exposure. Google, Yahoo and MSN are turning their backs on advertisers who don’t use small, targeted adgroups. The fewer keywords you have in your adgroup, the more effectively you can target your ad (and landing page) to the people typing in your keywords. Keep your adgroups small.

Tip #6: Structure Your Campaigns Logically

A lot of affiliates sabotage their PPC campaigns by structuring them poorly. If you’re promoting 4 different treadmills, separate each treadmill into its own campaign. Otherwise, the architecture of your campaign will quickly become messy. Google loves well-structured campaigns. Some evidence suggests they reward them. It’s likely Yahoo and MSN will begin following Google’s lead soon.

Tip #7: Test Your Ads

Many inexperienced PPC advertisers don’t realize how effective testing their ads can be. One ad can be incrementally better than another ad and bring in thousands of dollars more in commissions. Always test your ads against one another.

Tip #8: Track Your Keyword ROI (Return On Investment)

This is actually related to Tip #1 above. Most affiliate programs provide you with a “subid.” You should be using this parameter to track each keyword’s ROI. You may find that one keyword in your campaign is generating a 20% return while another is driving a 3,000% return. By tracking your keyword ROI, you can identify where you should be devoting your attention.

Tip #9: Shoot For Seasons

Here’s a PPC tip that you won’t find in many other places. Each season, there are a host of products that become hot-sellers. In the summer, bikinis, bathing suits and even cruises are hot. In the winter, other items are hot. You should be promoting seasonal affiliate products. Because other affiliates ignore them, the field is virtually wide open.

Tip #10: Beware Of The 2nd-Tier Engines

If you’re going to use the 2nd-tier PPC platforms (such as Looksmart, Miva, etc.), you need to track everything. Fraud is rampant on many of these platforms. So, proceed with caution.

Putting It Into Action

If you’re doing any PPC advertising and you’re not implementing each of the 10 tips above, you’re leaving money on the table. PPC affiliate marketing is a competitive arena. You need to do everything you can to control your click costs, ad rank, exposure and each keyword’s effectiveness. Use 1 tip at a time. Soon, your competition will wonder why they can’t beat you.

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