How To Minimize Risk On Your First Online Media Buy

Ever wonder why every myspace resource site, every forum and teen targeted shithole of a site is plastered with ringtone banners from CPX, Right Media and Pals? Ever notice how the same networks on higher quality sites have been serving what seems to be the same banner ads for years? This is because it works.

I”ve been following closely as some fellow affiliates explore some less mainstream traffic sources, mainly media buys. (Those blogs are well worth a subscribe by the way). Some affiliates are making some serious cash using media buys and have been for years.

The reason media buys can be so successful is because there is far less competition (PPC and SEO are only a small line in the traffic generation spectrum) and the barriers to entry are so high. For example, the minimum media buy for Tribal Fusion runs at $10k I believe. We spend more than $30k a month with them so this may have changed. Many affiliates do not have this kind fo money to simply throw at a “test campaign”.

The secret to making a media buy a success is being prepared and having the data before you jump in. What better way then to use your existing PPC test data? You have been running Google content network and Yahoo Publisher Network campaigns right? If not, no need to read any further.

Let’s use the Google content network for this example. Say you are running an offer for emirates (the airline). Your AdWords placement report should tell you not only which site you can target (for a private ad deal) but also what creatives generated the highest CTRs. Remember, you’re paying per thousand impressions, you want to make them count.

So assuming your highest CTR banner/creative is this one:

USE IT! Use it as a base to split test your other creatives. You know this has the highest CTR in the content network, this usually follows suit in larger media buys.

Hint 1: The banners and creatives provided by advertisers in say… Commission Junction can sometimes far outperform anything you could ever create and by the same token sometimes perform horrendous compared to your own creative. Test your own creatives with the creatives provided by the advertisers to get the real picture.

Once you get familiar with what works and what does not, the sky is the limit. You can sometimes strike gold getting clicks for cents on the dollar and believe me, it gets addictive. It can almost make PPC advertising not seem like the trouble it’s worth.

Hint 2: Many of the campaigns that you see being advertised through the larger CPM networks are not by the advertisers themselves, they are by affiliates!

As you can tell, I got a little bored about half way through this post. The point I am trying to get across is that media buys are not black magic. They are a natural progression. Once you start dealing with the larger numbers, it gets way more interesting. Assuming you are reinvesting everything back into your advertising campaigns, you should be able to afford a small media buy in months. $10k profits a month is not that difficult to achieve once you get momentum and media buys can have a significantly higher return on your ad spend.

I hope this has helped someone.

August 4, 2008 | Filed Under Online Marketing 

Comments

9 Responses to “How To Minimize Risk On Your First Online Media Buy”

  1. Musashi on August 5th, 2008 11:52 am

    I’ve always wondered about media buys… I really like the idea of split testing your banners on the content network, seems so obvious, yet never really thought about it (doh!) I suppose this would help banner ctr on your organic sites as well, good stuff…

  2. PunditX on August 5th, 2008 9:41 pm

    Cool of you for stopping by Musashi. It would help banner CTR on your “organic” sites aswell if you use adsense or contextual advertising on your site.

    To be honest though, I’d rather not waste my time with adsense. (Even though I cannot anymore).

    There is SO much cash to be made working on affiliate stuff it’s shocking.

  3. Dave on August 6th, 2008 5:18 am

    Would you suggest experimenting with banners using site placement on Google?

  4. nmwando on August 6th, 2008 3:34 pm

    You can smell a quality blog from 50 miles away in this affiliate marketing world. Keep the quality coming, don’t blog everyday if you dont have anything to say lol.
    Otherwise bro, good fucking blog. :)

  5. nmwando on August 6th, 2008 3:36 pm

    okay fine, this is too much but i am launching a small banner campaign for one of my accounts. :)

  6. Andy - Multivar.org on August 8th, 2008 4:14 am

    I enjoyed this post, thanks :-)

    You don’t personally invest $30K a month in media buys though do you? My understanding is that you are an employee at an advertising agency or something like that which readers should be aware of.

    But, you can obviously give us great information that is from the professional side of things.

    I think, one of the crucial factors as an affiliate using a Banner in a media buy is what your link looks like as somebody hovers their mouse over the banner. Or do people just dive in and click regardless?

    We can all cut and paste great looking banners. But what goes on hover-click and after the click is the thing.

  7. Jamie on August 8th, 2008 3:04 pm

    I’m wondering about the “test your own creatives” bit. Typically advertisers are a bit protective of their brands and the creative they provide. Do you get permission to create your own first or just go rogue?

  8. Budi on August 12th, 2008 5:03 am

    Great post! Sorry for lack of comment :)
    This is the first time I comment on any blogs that I subscribe :P

    I wish I have a mentor like you. Interested?

  9. Kevin on September 11th, 2008 11:21 am

    Great post. I’m going be doing a media buy but I will be direct linking to the merchant. Is it better to use an Iframe or a Redirect to hide the Referer info from the Network/Merchant. If this works out I dont’ want the Affiliate Network or the Merchant just taking me out of the picture and buying their own ads on the site.

    I’m thinking about going with an Iframe but I’m not sure if that will block the referrer data. Or do you recomend a better way to block the network or merchant from seeing the sites we are doing media buys on?

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