$50 Spent on Microsoft-Bing PPC Ads and My Learning Lessons so Far
I started on PPC ads with Bing one week ago and I've been vlogging my journey and progress. I've found that many people here try search engine optimization, but it's a smaller group that branches into paid ads.
Paid ads are crazy magic, and when you look at many successful companies, they invest in both: paid ads and organic traffic! Also, I had made it to 21 sales/mo organically, but that's not sufficient to get to Vegas in 2020, so I decided to try out paid ads to fill the gap. I assumed that if I'm driving traffic organically and that continues growing, then adding paid ads will just top it off. What do you think?
I've worked 18 months, over 800K words written, and 150 videos to build my organic traffic yet within a few short days of doing Bing ads, I've surpassed the # of clicks I've ever gotten with organic traffic! On the flip side, clicks don't make you money, so I have optimizing to do to convert more of the traffic from clicks to sales, but that's how this business goes. You drive the traffic first, then optimize for conversions, right?
I started out very conservatively. I thought because I had a $400 ad budget (which is small in the grand scheme of things), that I should have very few keywords, so I added like 5 keywords and after one week, I had no real traction. Only $1.00 spent. Hahaha.
I went back to the drawing board and decided to add in more keywords. I went the opposite direction and challenged myself to load in 1000 keywords in one day! I'm big on pushing myself, but 1000 keywords means a lot of ad writing and I didn't meet that challenge. Hahaha.
Instead, I had 225 keywords and 1-4 ads per ad group--that's when the traffic started taking off! I started getting lots of impressions and the clicks started to follow.
From there, I've been brainstorming alot about:
- My flow of relevance
- How to improve it
- Which keywords would be most relevant
- How to write more relevant ads
- Which target audiences my landing page could be most relevant to
- And more.
Now, my quality scores are going up and my cost per click are going down.
So far, I've had 3 referrals and a 67% account setup rate. I'm happy with the results so far, but I know I'm still at the very beginning of my PPC learning curve. I've spent $50 so far for the insight. Hahaha. And, I still have optimizing and tweaking to do I'm sure.
Definitely check out my Bing ads case study if you'd like clearer insight about what it may be like starting paid ads. I've taken lots of training, but application is quite different, and hopefully seeing my case study can help you feel like you're in the driver seat too! I'm spending the money and I'm willing to take your input on a case-by-case basis. No guarantees. Hahaha.
I keep going back to the training I've taken to make sure I'm doing things right, but it's still a learning curve, which is why I've recorded my case study. I think many people shy away when the money is dwindling down and they can be close to gold. Hopefully, I can persist, and you'll get to see me bump my head all the way to profitable campaigns!
As a result, I wouldn't recommend anyone start PPC campaigns without knowing you'll have to test for awhile to get them right. Testing costs. Even good ideas have to be tested and they don't always work. Ads have to work for people.
Kyle said he recommends 100 clicks to validate a test! At 0.30/click, you could be paying $30 for each bad test, but that's what it takes. A profitable campaign can make you much more than $30, more than $300, and possibly even millions if you persist and do the grunt work!
Even if you have experience with ads, changing niches, tweaking landing pages, launching new products or services, and changing audiences, there's still lots of room for testing needed.
Here is the video case study in case you're interested (FOR ANNUAL MEMBERS ONLY):
Part One:https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/my-pay-per-click-ad...
There are 6 parts so far, and you can find the rest in my "training" tab. Share them with anyone you know is looking to start out with paid ads (especially on Bing). Also, if you're interested in a raw case study (mostly SEO growth), check out my 15-18 month case studies where I share my income and traffic growth!
Here's the most recent (FOR ALL PREMIUM MEMBERS): https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/my-18-month-authori...
Have a great day! Best wishes for your success growing your business.
Recent Comments
47
Hey hey Tiffany, I'm right behind you on this one. I posted my first Facebook Ad yesterday. Doing a test for a week then want to try out LinkedIn Ads. After reading your post, I think I'll try out Bing Ads in week 3. Am interested to know why you chose to go Bing Ads rather than YouTube Ads or Facebook Ads?
The different ad platforms are so different. I like how qualified search engine users are because they’re looking for the content and you can meet people based on interest rather than social circle.
With social ads, you’re “interrupting” their experience rather than serving them what they want. I know it works but it’s not my preferred place to start. I like the idea of social for brand awareness and retargeting when the time comes. I think you can get people at specific phases of the buyers journey in search, and you have less control in social—my opinion.
I chose it because the mindset and buyers psychology is in keeping with SEO. I think social is quite a bit different and I haven’t built up my social yet organically very much. It’s more about entertaining than educating.
After I master Bing, then I plan to take my time to scale into Google, and continue scaling from there. I’d love to do YouTube but Its one at a time for me. Become profitable, balance the tasks well, and scale.
Bing is more friendly with my ad budget but they still have good traffic. I can experiment with Bing more than google or Youtube because it’s less traffic there, but once I get comfortable, I’m moving on over! Google or YouTube can sweep thru a budget if you make a mistake because they have so much traffic! Bing you can think about what you’ve done more revisit and tweak.
That’s my thoughts.
Thanks for your thorough explanation, Tiffany. So far so good with Facebook. 2 new Subscribers since I posted my Ad. Once I've completed this first test, I'll let you know. If I get just one sale, it would have been worth my while.
Looking forward to seeing more of your results! I've had an ad campaign going for a couple of my sites (small budget) for a couple of months now and am learning a lot, but not profitable yet.
It's definitely working better on my niche website than on my bootcamp site, so I'll be following to see any tips you can give from your experience.
Thanks for sharing!
Very interesting. It sounds like we're venturing into the same territories. Very cool!
Is your budget smaller than mine? I have a small one too. Hahaha. We're starting somewhere and that's the good part.
Now, at $20/day, I'm running out. At first, I didn't have enough keywords to spend $20/day., and now, I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. So far, I do have a 75% account setup which is pretty good, but it's not a sale.
It's still too early to see what the results are yet, but I'm excited to share more learning lessons when I have them. The most recent learning lessons are in the video training I published today.
I think Im going to leave my campaigns alone for a couple days and let them build data because I've been tweaking alot over the last couple days: adding new ad groups, adding more keywords, and reducing bids on a few keywords where the flow of relevance isn't as tight.
Yep, my budget is $5 a day for each site. With my niche site, I've been getting Amazon sales nearly every day. I've tweaked a couple of the ads and am now about breaking even. As soon as I get another month of data, I'm going to start focusing my efforts to a few keywords that seem to be getting the best results.
My bootcamp site ads have not been as successful. I spent money initially getting a lot of starter referrals, but wasn't getting any conversions to premium. So I started promoting the premium program with a little better success. I'm trying to avoid paying for a lot of clicks from those who only want a free, easy program. My account sign up percentage is better now and my spending has gone down--so win-win there.
All in all, I feel I'm getting wiser with my advertising budget each month. But I'm really looking forward to when things slow down at my job so I can put a lot more time into driving organic traffic!
The results from your niche site sounds great! It seems to be going in a good direction.
For the boot camp site, are you adding “free” into your ads? We’re the starter referrals setting up their accounts? Do you have messages following up and have you tried tweaking those for conversions?
Interesting.
I took out the word "free" in my ads because about 99% of my starter referrals weren't setting up their accounts, and none were converting to premium. Now I get about 75% that set them up, and I've had some sales. I think that it's because the referrals I now get are actually looking to set up a business and not just trying to find a fast money scheme.
I do have messages for follow up, but I need to spend a lot more time tweaking them and adding more!
I've just started a small ad campaign for my 2nd niche site, and when I've tweaked my niche ads to where they're both profitable, my plan is to spend all my ad dollars on them. Then I can concentrate on ramping up my posting to my bootcamp site if it's still no profitable with ads yet.
It's a process for sure!
Right. I’ve been considering testing ad headlines where it says $49/mo or $349/yr at the risk of CTR, but for more qualified clicks. If I try that, I’ll let you know how it goes.
It's a minefield all right, even when you know what you're doing :-)
The ad companies have got it optimised so you NEED to know how to how the system workd in order for it to be profitable.
Sounds like you're well on the way :-)
Ian
Yes. I think many "gurus" inflate the ease of paid advertising, and it's another nook where people think there is "overnight success". There are anomaly stories, but overall, it's like an art and a science. There's a learning curve, but the skill can be a great asset once it's learned. Thanks for your support.
Once you crack it, you can, almost, just keep pumping money in.
Eg, if you know that a $100 ad spend will return $125, you just keep going :-)
But, as you say, it's not quite as easy as that :-)
Look forward to your updates.
Thanks for sharing! I will be checking it out once my new website is doing good in organic search. :)
Thanks, me too! I'm trying to focus more while getting this site off the ground. Right now its content creation only really, got to have a decent amount of content before doing ads and other stuff. That said, I did create a YouTube channel. Added two older videos too. I'm taking baby steps with videos. I have one more older video that I'll post before I start making some specifically. They're just cat videos and I don't have to be in them! Once I get more comfortable, I may get more adventurous. But I have to introduce the kitties so my videos fit my content in some posts. I figured you should know I finally started YouTube since I was so reluctant earlier during your YouTube case studies. :)
I think I'll have to update my profile here to include my YouTube channel. The second one I uploaded didn't upload clear as I'd like but it was to showcase a recovering cat walking around when I did it. I don't know why it uploaded worse than when it is on my phone. Trial and error and learning something new everyday :)
Thanks for sharing your experience, Tiff! There are so many things to learn as an affiliate marketer, it's crazy 😱 I'm def not at the point of investing into ads yet but someday I just might!
I agree! Sometimes, I'm tempted to jump into everything, but it's unrealistic. Every subject matter has its learning curve! Hopefully when you're ready, my training can make it easier for you.
I personally believe that if you can get the marketing around paid Ads correct it can be a fantastic way to drive people to your site. I'm not ready to try this yet as I still have to build the content in my site . I will be trying it out with both Google and Bing when I'm ready.
I have a marketing and sales background which helps me understand just how to produce effective Advertising. The only thing I'm sad about in your post concerns the direction that training seems to be going in. More and more training is only available for those that pay there accounts yearly. Jim
I agree that marketing around paid ads is a fantastic way to drive traffic. It's a learning curve just like anything else. Having a marketing and sales background is a great advantage for you.
Sorry to hear you're sad about the direction of my training. I make a lot of training for monthly and premium members, and I plan to continue that. In fact, I'm one of the top creators here, and I have a significant amount of time slotted for that.
My full views on why I make some training for annual members is here: Why I Make Some Training for Annual Members Only In short, I think going annual is a great decision for entrepreneurs to make if they want to grow a business. I want to reward people for making the decision to go annual, and I think adding extra training is a great way to do that.
I know I could keep the training to myself or publish it somewhere else, but I want to publish it here for those who choose to take the leap.
I understand why you're doing it. It's just that in the last couple of days I've had three training sessions I couldn't access because of this. I'd love to go yearly but I need to make an income here before I can even begin to think about it. I love WA but what I'm starting to wonder is if this access to yearly members only is going to become a growing trend. I have noticed a few other members that have changed their previous accessible training to yearly only. If this continues it could in effect drive premium members away from here.
The only real reason for pushing people to yearly, apart from the cost savings, is because it increases retention percentages. When it comes down to the 'Nitty Gritty' the person that sponsored me is actually receiving far more commission from my monthly payments then he would be getting if I went yearly. So, I am in effect probably more then making up for any shortfall in training income. Jim
Promoting the annual membership isn't an income move for the most part because you're right, you pay 40% more when you stay monthly. Stats show that monthly members still have high retention, so promoting annual sales isn't for that reason either.
If I were your referring affiliate, my largest paycheck would come from your monthly payment--that's not why I promote annual membership. Also, I wouldn't get the commission from your upgrade to annual because I didn't refer you--that's not my reasoning.
Like I mentioned before, I've made lots of training for monthly premium members and I don't plan to stop that. Have you seen my training for monthly premium members? There's lots of it. Dozens of hours by now.
The training on Bing ads is for annual members because you have to have money to spend on ads, and if you're in a financial bind, then it's more suitable to take the training that's already available.
The Online Entrepreneur Certification has been proven to make people (like me) money, so master what's available to you, then move onto the next thing.
This same dilemma will be faced everywhere you go. There will be some things you can afford and other things you have to leave alone. I face the same dilemma at times. Complaining about price isn't the way to solve that problem, solving the income problem is the best way to solve it--that's what I do.
If you really want to go annual, I recommend saving. It was a big commitment for me also, but it's been the best decision I've made for my business, so I recommend it for you and others.
This is great information. I have had a little experience of Bing ads and find it easy to use. Once I put up an ad just to test and I directlinked to the vendor without using a landing page.
I ended up making around two hundred dollars in two days while my ad spending was around 8 dollars.
Without thinking about it I had managed to put up an ad promoting a clickbank product aimed to women who wants to find try love on Valentines day so just by chance I promoted the right product to the right people at the right time.
Unfortunately sales soon went down and I stopped the ad but it does prove which enormous potential there is in paid marketing.
Cheers,
Jojo
Wow! What an experience. I know experiences like yours can happen. Everyone is looking for an opportunity like that (me included). Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome.
I had another experience with Facebook ads. I set up a very simple squeeze page which after collecting an email sent the visitor to a page that promoted a product on how to seduce women.
Ad spend was really low and within a couple of days I had made 240 dollars in only one day while my ad spending was 10 dollars a day. This went on for a few weeks and then sales dropped dramatically and finally Facebook stopped my ad due to a change of policies.
Unfortunately the product I promoted did not seem to be of good quality so a lot of people asked for a refund and the in the end I think I just about broke even as a lot of my earnings had to be refunded.
This project was badly prepared by me and I should have researched the product a lot more before promoting it but it still proves the power of paid marketing. If this is done correctly I do think that you can make good money quickly and without a great deal of work.
I am certainly going to try again but this time I will make sure I do my research and promote something truly useful.
I wish you the best of luck and lets keep in touch.
Cheers,
Jojo
Wow! Another very interesting story. It sounds like you really have a great knack for lead generation with paid ads. Now, if you find a product that serves the clients' best interests, then you can be onto something great!
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I like this girl.
Thanks! I really appreciate the compliment. Hopefully, we'll get to know each other better and encourage one another to grow successful businesses.
No problem darling, I hope and believe so as well. Listening to you right now and your story. 15 min in..... I've got a lot to share and a lot of this I know, but have been out touch. So gotta refresh, much to tell you. Know you can help.
Sounds great.