THE 22 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF AFFILIATE MARKETING [PART 1/3]
Affiliate marketing is a fast moving business… what used to be the norm just a couple months ago, might be completely gone by now. But there are some rules or principles, let’s call them LAWS, that will stay valid for many years to come.
Charles Ngo posted a great article on his blog (first of a series of three) dealing with the affiliate marketing principles. Drawing inspiration from The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Charles has set out to identify 22 affiliate marketing laws, the first part of this series addresses the first seven:
1. The law of the market — the standard life-cycle of a product or an entire market goes through certain stages. Such as introduction, growth, maturity and decline … Be the first to market. The earlier you are in, the higher the profits.
2. The law of the offer — The offer is 75% of the battle. no matter how crappy your creatives and funnels are, you can still sell a GREAT product. But chose a flawed or simply shitty offer, not even the best funnel in the world will get you profitable.
3. The law of protection — Affiliates love to copy and they do it all the time. Your banners, landing pages and whole funnels … they will be ripped by hundreds of others, as soon as you start targeting the more visible spots. It’s basically inevitable. Instead of fighting a losing battle, focus on elements that are hard or impossible to copy: internal tools, exclusive offers that only you can run, secure traffic spots on prepaid deals, speed up your workflow.
4. The law of speed — speed is important, especially the loading speed of your landing pages. Maybe not so much with desktop traffic, but if you focus on mobile, you simply HAVE to optimize for speed. Utilize CDNs, clean your code, host closely to your target audience … there is plenty you can do.
5. The law of experimentation — In a competitive space such as affiliate marketing, it’s those who experiment the most, wins. Don’t look for step-by-step guides, don’t look for blueprints… experiment!
6. The law of communication — in order to convert a prospect into a paying customer, you need to identify their problem and offer a solution … in an easy to understand way. Get to know your customer, learn to speak THEIR language, explain what you have to offer and why they need it. Keep It Simple Stupid.
7. The law of segmentation — Smaller budget? Service a small segment, well. The big fish ignore the small segments that can still be profitable. They ignore them, because they are after volume. And that’s where you step in … use the strategies of big guys, but target the segments they miss.
So that was the first seven solid, evergreen laws. Stay tuned for the remaining 14 over the next couple of months.
>> Read more <<
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WEEKLY PICKS:
ANTI-REMOTE — Don’t adopt “remote” working. Adopt distributed work, Blair Reeves claims. An interesting article on building a remote team and dealing with the creative and collaborative challenges that are inevitable. 👨💻 — Read more
FAILURE — Is failure absolutely necessary on the path to entrepreneurial success? And, if so, how much failure is too much? Here’s how the world’s most successful people fail. 🤔 — Read more
CONNECTED — Has modern connectivity and social media “ruined” travel? The r/digitalnomad community react. 🛩️ — Read more
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BEARISH — Here’s some tips on how to survive the bear crypto market 📉 — Read more
THE $111K VIDEO SPLIT-TEST
Wistia spent $111,000 producing three different video ads for video editing software company Soapbox. That’s $1k, $10k and $100k spent on video ad production respectively.
They then split-tested with a $60k budget over three weeks using different ad types, across both Facebook and Youtube. They had two KPI’s:
- Cost Per Install
- Cost Per 25% Watched
Here’s what happened.
Ad Types
- #1 Direct Response Single Video Ads(FB & YT) — ran identical copy to support all three video ads.
- #2 Sequential Advertising (FB)– deliver the three ads consecutively based on engagement. Those who engaged with the $1K version were served the $10K version. Watchers of the $10K version, saw the $100K version.
- #3 Video Carousel(FB) — display the three video ads in a row, all copy the same.
Facebook Targeting: Lookalikes based on existing customer data
- 75% video views custom audience from past video campaigns.
Youtube Targeting:
- In-market: Advertising, marketing series and/or video software
- Custom intent: Based on terms users have previously searched for in Google
- Topics: Marketing, sales, video software
- Remarketing: Viewed certain videos and video interactions on YouTube
The winner, winner chicken dinner: The $10k video w/ direct-response format. CPI of $7 (YT) and $24 (FB).
This was half the cost per install than the other ads ($1k and $100k). YouTube was the most efficient traffic source overall = $11 CPI.
Facebook provided product install volume but way off their goal of $8 CPI, the overall average was $40 CPI.
P.S. They even created a docoseries on Amazon Prime that explores the relationship between money and creativity.
>> Read More <<
FEATURED STM THREAD:
READY TO GIVE UP AFTER JUST 10 CAMPAIGNS.
We all know it’s not THAT easy to succeed in affiliate marketing, but some people are simply giving up way to early. Like one of our members who was ready to throw in the towel … after just 10 failed campaigns.
The good thing was, he decided to post on STM to get some advice from more experienced affiliates. And they delivered. Several industry veterans stepped up and provided valuable insights and shared their own stories … after all, we’ve all been noobs at some point, and most of us still remember the struggle.
Now it’s up to the member to ask the right questions, he’s got the attention of the STM community and many members voiced their will to help out. It will be interesting to see how this struggling affiliate progresses.
>> Check it out here <<
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Stay tuned for the next edition of MRKTRS WKLY.
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Originally published at mrktrs.co on December 13, 2018.
