Log In
Members
Home
Add Reply
Add Topic
Topic RSS
7:28 pm
June 10, 2011
Offline
QuoteSteve asked for an update on my results at Microsoft Ad Network. In short: it's reasonably priced, the staff are helpful, and I've been getting good traffic. I have discontinued using Google ads except on YouTube -- they just didn't work well for me.
If you want more detail, here it is: I'm paying $0.09 a click, and my S/UD (the ratio of subscribers to unique visitors) is 37.4%. I think that's darn good! The key is to be patient. You are wasting money, assuming your main product is a CD, if you are paying to be in the top spot. I've been keeping my average position at 2.5. I've figured out (and John confirmed) that if you pay for the top spot, your conversions will be poor -- you get too many "casual clickers". The serious people will click the number 2 or number 3 ad.
When I have more time, I'm going to create more ads and squeeze pages that are designed for those ads. I'm also going to experiment with other ad networks. The nice thing is that pay per click (PPC) is pretty much "set and forget" (with a bit of monitoring) once you get it rolling.
12:32 am
June 9, 2011
Offline
Haha... Thanks Charley. That's awesome news! $.09 per click with a 37% conversion rate... So if I can do math that's 37 sign-ups for $9.00? So at a conservative 1% sales rate that's 1 sale for roughly $30 ad spend, right?
I think you mentioned though, that you are selling at a higher rate than 1%, right?
What is the price point for your offer?
Sounds like this is working out nicely for you. Nice job!
5:32 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
Steve Rodgers said:
Haha... Thanks Charley. That's awesome news! $.09 per click with a 37% conversion rate... So if I can do math that's 37 sign-ups for $9.00? So at a conservative 1% sales rate that's 1 sale for roughly $30 ad spend, right?
I think you mentioned though, that you are selling at a higher rate than 1%, right?
What is the price point for your offer?
Sounds like this is working out nicely for you. Nice job!
Since I started tracking in January of this year, I have averaged $0.70 in sales for each subscriber. So, if I pay $0.24 for a subscriber, I'm coming out ahead. 
9:40 pm
June 9, 2011
Offline
And there you have it... this guy is getting paid per lead (not per sale).
You're an inspiration, sir!
5:32 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
That really is good man. I know people who have been marketing for years that can't break even on PPC. And with a product that has such a small profit margin... really impressive. I'm gonna have to take lessons from you pretty soon 🙂
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
8:41 pm
June 10, 2011
Offline
John Oszajca said:
That really is good man. I know people who have been marketing for years that can't break even on PPC. And with a product that has such a small profit margin... really impressive. I'm gonna have to take lessons from you pretty soon 🙂
Probably not. Everything I learned about PPC I learned here! But thanks for the encouragement. 
As a caveat to those who might be reading this without being familiar with my earlier attempts -- I was losing money on Google, I was breaking even on Facebook, and it took me a while to figure out how to make Microsoft Ad Network perform the way I want. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it! But I've learned enough and have enough confidence now to try some different networks and ads...er...when I get some more time.
9:49 pm
June 10, 2011
Offline
Steve Rodgers said:
And there you have it... this guy is getting paid per lead (not per sale).
You're an inspiration, sir!
Thanks Steve! I should add a few thing to put this in perspective:
When I say I get 0.70 per subscriber, I'm simply dividing my total sales since January 2011 by my total number of subscribers since January 2011. It's becoming a fairly reliable number that isn't fluctuating too much any more. However, there is some "synergy" going on here. I know I'm getting sales from non-subscribers. I also realize that traffic sources aren't the same and that, while they might even provide the same number of subscribers, some sources provide subscribers who are more likely to buy.
Furthermore, I think it's important to keep in mind that I have a good number of followup emails and I give away quite a bit of good content (e.g., alternate mixes of songs on my album, videos, interviews, recordings of my practice sessions, etc). And when I give away the content in my followup emails, I ask them to tell me how they like it on my Facebook page, on Twitter, and YouTube. So, then their friends see the newsfeeds, tweets, shared videos, etc. I'm enlisting their help without telling them. 
HOWEVER, the only real marketing I'm doing is simply using techniques I learned from John and folks here at the forum. I have a squeeze page, a mailing list, followup emails, and I'm driving traffic. My traffic sources are Twitter, YouTube (using a modification of John's "Twitter" technique), and PPC ads. I'm just focusing on building my list because everything else is being driven by the number of subscribers I get. For all I know, I might only be getting 0.35 (or whatever) from each actual subscriber, and everything else is "viral". But it's viral because I am list-building and providing good content to subscribers.
Make sense?
10:36 pm
June 9, 2011
Offline
Yeah... well whatever you're doing is working tremendously.
I was just trying to point out that because you are watching all this stuff, you can see that you are getting enough sales to be in the black per subscriber instead of just per sale. The free and viral traffic just supports your ppc efforts. Synergy indeed.
Some people have huge lists with a subscriber value in the red. This is really something else man! Nice job.
12:40 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
That's a really good point about how your list may be potentially bringing in income form OUTSIDE of your list. I never even really considered that, but it makes sense. If you use social media share options on everything you do, that's going to be somewhat inevitable. Good stuff.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
7:55 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
Just another update:
So, last month, I converted about 30% of my clicks to subscribers and paid about 0.09 a click. I'm pretty excited about that. As I said in my reply to Alan Robson's post, for planning purposes, I count on 25% and 0.10 a click. I'm probably going to be investing a little more in PPC, and start doing some geo-targeting in the major cities within less than a day's drive.
I love what John suggested about "touring" in one of the coaching calls -- i.e., geo-targeting PPC near venues in major cities, and then setting up concerts after you have a following in those places. Absolutely brilliant! Man I love the internet! We are so blessed to be musicians in this age. 
4:55 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
Very cool Charlie. I can't wait to hear your results.
Question... Your CPC is fantastic. Are you maxed out on your potential traffic, or are you getting a low CPC because you are bidding with bottom of the barrel prices but in turn, slowing down your traffic? It just seems that if you can sustain those prices and conversion rates you should be scaling this up pretty dramatically so that you can pull in a few hundred subs a day. I seem to remember you saying you were pulling in a relatively small number of clicks through PPC. Just wondering why.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
6:21 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
John Oszajca said:
Very cool Charlie. I can't wait to hear your results.
Question… Your CPC is fantastic. Are you maxed out on your potential traffic, or are you getting a low CPC because you are bidding with bottom of the barrel prices but in turn, slowing down your traffic? It just seems that if you can sustain those prices and conversion rates you should be scaling this up pretty dramatically so that you can pull in a few hundred subs a day. I seem to remember you saying you were pulling in a relatively small number of clicks through PPC. Just wondering why.
I'm getting great results because I'm a cheapskate and slowing down the traffic. 
I'm getting more comfortable with the risks though. Since you mentioned it, I'm going to ramp it up a bit starting tonight and see how it goes. Even if I lose in the short term, I'm adding to my funnel, so my subscriber value will go up. The thing I'm most excited to try is geo-trageting to build a fan base around the major cities within a day's drive.
Also, I just signed up tonight at: http://www.adknowledge.com/
12:47 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
Any results yet? Let me know when you get some results with adknowledge. I'm curious.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
6:39 pm
June 10, 2011
Offline
John Oszajca said:
Any results yet? Let me know when you get some results with adknowledge. I'm curious.
I think it's still early to say much. However, preliminary indications are that CPC is actually less than what I'm paying at Microsoft Network, but the conversions aren't as good. The thing that's a little weird to me is that you don't bid on keywords -- you bid on categories. For example, "music downloads" is a category. But that's as specific as you can be.
I'm going to just continue to experiment with different PPC opportunities and see what I like and what works for me. So far, Microsoft Network is my favorite.
5:30 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
Cool, thanks. Is "musicians" a category? Always looking for new ad sources for MMM.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
1:19 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
John Oszajca said:
Cool, thanks. Is "musicians" a category? Always looking for new ad sources for MMM.
There's "music - general", "music - recording studio", "music - CD", and a few others. Those three are the closest to "musicians".
1 Guest(s)
