Everyone dreams of finding that one magical formula that can turn every campaign we launch into a profitable campaign.
Alas, that’s wishful thinking.
The cold hard fact is that most affiliate campaigns will fail.
You will have to wade through hundreds of campaigns to find a gem which will then scale it up to make up for all the losses and then some.
I have been in affiliate industry since 2008 and have launched thousands of campaigns over the years.
During this time, I have discovered five reasons why affiliate campaigns fail and what you can do to fix it.
Of course, I am not promising you a magic formula. Neither am I promising that if you fix these five reasons then all your campaigns will be magically profitable from day one. I am simply offering you the mistakes you need to avoid as much as possible.
So, let’s start…
#1: You Don’t Do Enough Research
This is perhaps the most important step for success of any campaign. Yet, it is one step most people avoid because it is not glamorous enough.
Yes, it takes time to do market research properly and it is boring. But this is also one of the most important aspects of succeeding as an affiliate.
What do I mean by research?
It can be as simple as asking your affiliate manager if the offer you want to promote is converting for other affiliates…
Or it can be really extensive research using spy tools and manually browsing all the sites you possibly can with proxy and researching what offers and landers others are promoting.
But you absolutely have to do your research before you even spend a dollar on the traffic.
Success in affiliate marketing doesn’t just come from running profitable campaigns but also from not wasting your money on obviously bad campaigns.
So how do you start the market research?
Firstly, ask your affiliate manager point blank – is the offer converting for others?
Your affiliate manager might not want to say NO directly (because it is their job to get you to run traffic) but look for hints – if they avoid answering the question or if they recommend that you try some other offer then that is a hint for you.
Then you should go ahead and research the offer on sites like SimilarWeb or Alexa or any of the spy tools on the market.
Where is the offer getting most of its traffic from?
Is the traffic mostly coming from “warm” traffic sources like email lists or from “cold” traffic sources?
What countries is the traffic coming from?
What kind of advertisements are being run?
What landers are being used?
Research. Research. Research.
Then, go ahead and copy what seems to be working the most for others.
Don’t try to be too creative and just do what others are doing – if they are spending money on the traffic, it is obviously working for them.
#2: Don’t Be Afraid of Spending and Losing Money
If you want to make money in this game, you have to spend money on traffic. And you cannot be afraid to lose it.
When I was starting (and, sometimes even now) I get into the mindset of fear when it comes to spending money on testing new campaigns.
As a rule of thumb, for each placement you are testing, you need to be able to spend 3-5 times the CPA before you decide if the placement is good or not. If you do not see any clicks until 3X CPA or any conversions until 5X CPA, then you cut it.
Let’s say the payout for the offer is $10, then you need to be able to spend between $30 to $50 per placement before you cut it.
When you run a lot of campaigns, you will develop a gut feeling. But you will still need to spend cold hard cash on testing it.
Now if you are testing hundreds of placements, we are talking about thousands in testing budget.
I have been doing this for years but sometimes even I start freaking out when I am losing money.
At this moment, you need to tell your brain to quiet down and go through with the testing phase.
Spend that money – not every placement will lose money unless you did not do your research properly and are running a bad offer.
Don’t think of it as lost money. Think of it as money you have spent on buying data about which sites make you money and which don’t.
Once you find the placements that are profitable, you will make back all money lost on bad placements and then some…
#3: You Are Not Brutal Enough to Kill Campaigns
This is closely related to the previous point.
Sometimes, when we spend a lot of time researching and money on testing, we get emotionally invested in the success of our campaign.
But when you are running affiliate campaigns, you must let data do the talking. Your emotions don’t make money – traffic that converts for advertisers does.
You can also think of it as sunk-cost fallacy.
Remember: do proper research, launch the campaign, and run enough traffic to get *STATISTICALLY VALID* data.
But once you have enough data to make correct decisions, throw your emotions out of the window.
If something is not performing, kill it.
If the creative you spent hours designing is not performing – kill it.
If the landing page you spend hours creating is not working – kill it.
If the placement is not converting – kill it.
Don’t get emotionally invested in success of anything. If it works, spend more money on it to make more money. If it doesn’t work, kill it to avoid wasting your money.
#4: You Don’t Have a Competitive Advantage
When it comes to running affiliate campaigns, let’s be honest – everyone copies each other.
I mean I literally started this article with the advice to research what is working – advertisements, landing pages, offers, placements etc.
I mean copy everything…
And, when you find the winning combination, others WILL copy you.
That’s part of the game. You have to accept it as reality.
So, what can be done about it?
You have to find a competitive advantage. Something others who you are competing with don’t have.
It could be exclusivity to run the offer in certain geos or traffic sources. Or, faster payouts. Or traffic sources where you are the first one to promote it.
This is where you have to get creative and try to find out what advantage you can get that others don’t have.
#5: You Are Trying to Compete by The Rules
This is perhaps the most important and delicate rule.
If you comply by all restrictions of the offer and traffic source, you will not be able to compete against others who are breaking the rules.
The more aggressive the landing page, the more it will convert for you. But usually, the traffic sources and offer owners do not like it because it is risky or deceiving.
The truth is that most of the times offer owners know what you are doing and “tactically” accept aggressive marketing.
But they can never accept it in writing and will publicly prohibit you from promoting it in an uncompliant way.
It is extremely risky though. If you get caught the network or offer owner can refuse to pay you.
Like I said, it is a delicate balance for risk vs reward.
That’s why we have cloaking software, and you have to learn how to use then properly.
Otherwise, those who do use it properly will outbid you from your most profitable placements because they are making more money than you.
Conclusion: I have shared with you the most important lessons I have learnt over the years. I hope they help you avoid the mistakes I have made over the years.
Alas, that’s wishful thinking.
The cold hard fact is that most affiliate campaigns will fail.
You will have to wade through hundreds of campaigns to find a gem which will then scale it up to make up for all the losses and then some.
I have been in affiliate industry since 2008 and have launched thousands of campaigns over the years.
During this time, I have discovered five reasons why affiliate campaigns fail and what you can do to fix it.
Of course, I am not promising you a magic formula. Neither am I promising that if you fix these five reasons then all your campaigns will be magically profitable from day one. I am simply offering you the mistakes you need to avoid as much as possible.
So, let’s start…
#1: You Don’t Do Enough Research
This is perhaps the most important step for success of any campaign. Yet, it is one step most people avoid because it is not glamorous enough.
Yes, it takes time to do market research properly and it is boring. But this is also one of the most important aspects of succeeding as an affiliate.
What do I mean by research?
It can be as simple as asking your affiliate manager if the offer you want to promote is converting for other affiliates…
Or it can be really extensive research using spy tools and manually browsing all the sites you possibly can with proxy and researching what offers and landers others are promoting.
But you absolutely have to do your research before you even spend a dollar on the traffic.
Success in affiliate marketing doesn’t just come from running profitable campaigns but also from not wasting your money on obviously bad campaigns.
So how do you start the market research?
Firstly, ask your affiliate manager point blank – is the offer converting for others?
Your affiliate manager might not want to say NO directly (because it is their job to get you to run traffic) but look for hints – if they avoid answering the question or if they recommend that you try some other offer then that is a hint for you.
Then you should go ahead and research the offer on sites like SimilarWeb or Alexa or any of the spy tools on the market.
Where is the offer getting most of its traffic from?
Is the traffic mostly coming from “warm” traffic sources like email lists or from “cold” traffic sources?
What countries is the traffic coming from?
What kind of advertisements are being run?
What landers are being used?
Research. Research. Research.
Then, go ahead and copy what seems to be working the most for others.
Don’t try to be too creative and just do what others are doing – if they are spending money on the traffic, it is obviously working for them.
#2: Don’t Be Afraid of Spending and Losing Money
If you want to make money in this game, you have to spend money on traffic. And you cannot be afraid to lose it.
When I was starting (and, sometimes even now) I get into the mindset of fear when it comes to spending money on testing new campaigns.
As a rule of thumb, for each placement you are testing, you need to be able to spend 3-5 times the CPA before you decide if the placement is good or not. If you do not see any clicks until 3X CPA or any conversions until 5X CPA, then you cut it.
Let’s say the payout for the offer is $10, then you need to be able to spend between $30 to $50 per placement before you cut it.
When you run a lot of campaigns, you will develop a gut feeling. But you will still need to spend cold hard cash on testing it.
Now if you are testing hundreds of placements, we are talking about thousands in testing budget.
I have been doing this for years but sometimes even I start freaking out when I am losing money.
At this moment, you need to tell your brain to quiet down and go through with the testing phase.
Spend that money – not every placement will lose money unless you did not do your research properly and are running a bad offer.
Don’t think of it as lost money. Think of it as money you have spent on buying data about which sites make you money and which don’t.
Once you find the placements that are profitable, you will make back all money lost on bad placements and then some…
#3: You Are Not Brutal Enough to Kill Campaigns
This is closely related to the previous point.
Sometimes, when we spend a lot of time researching and money on testing, we get emotionally invested in the success of our campaign.
But when you are running affiliate campaigns, you must let data do the talking. Your emotions don’t make money – traffic that converts for advertisers does.
You can also think of it as sunk-cost fallacy.
Remember: do proper research, launch the campaign, and run enough traffic to get *STATISTICALLY VALID* data.
But once you have enough data to make correct decisions, throw your emotions out of the window.
If something is not performing, kill it.
If the creative you spent hours designing is not performing – kill it.
If the landing page you spend hours creating is not working – kill it.
If the placement is not converting – kill it.
Don’t get emotionally invested in success of anything. If it works, spend more money on it to make more money. If it doesn’t work, kill it to avoid wasting your money.
#4: You Don’t Have a Competitive Advantage
When it comes to running affiliate campaigns, let’s be honest – everyone copies each other.
I mean I literally started this article with the advice to research what is working – advertisements, landing pages, offers, placements etc.
I mean copy everything…
And, when you find the winning combination, others WILL copy you.
That’s part of the game. You have to accept it as reality.
So, what can be done about it?
You have to find a competitive advantage. Something others who you are competing with don’t have.
It could be exclusivity to run the offer in certain geos or traffic sources. Or, faster payouts. Or traffic sources where you are the first one to promote it.
This is where you have to get creative and try to find out what advantage you can get that others don’t have.
#5: You Are Trying to Compete by The Rules
This is perhaps the most important and delicate rule.
If you comply by all restrictions of the offer and traffic source, you will not be able to compete against others who are breaking the rules.
The more aggressive the landing page, the more it will convert for you. But usually, the traffic sources and offer owners do not like it because it is risky or deceiving.
The truth is that most of the times offer owners know what you are doing and “tactically” accept aggressive marketing.
But they can never accept it in writing and will publicly prohibit you from promoting it in an uncompliant way.
It is extremely risky though. If you get caught the network or offer owner can refuse to pay you.
Like I said, it is a delicate balance for risk vs reward.
That’s why we have cloaking software, and you have to learn how to use then properly.
Otherwise, those who do use it properly will outbid you from your most profitable placements because they are making more money than you.
Conclusion: I have shared with you the most important lessons I have learnt over the years. I hope they help you avoid the mistakes I have made over the years.
