- 29
- Jun
- 2010
Becoming The Target – AdCopy Tip
Posted by: Ruck under Affiliates, Media Advertising, Performance Marketing
It goes without saying, if you are working in the Performance Marketing Industry or another sector of Affiliate Marketing, or hell, being an advertiser as well, one skill you must obtain, refine and possess is copy writing skills. Now one could say, “I like to outsource that part” but I really got to bring you down to earth for a minute. Adcopy is YOUR SELLING point in this business. Whether you are writing content for websites, writing up presell landing pages, running ads on Search Engines, running a media buy, running your own offer. It doesnt matter. Adcopy skills are a must.
I want to share some of my tips here for adcopy. Now with adcopy, I consider to be almost anything you may write online. I hate tooting my own horn here, but honestly…
I’m one captivating motherf$cker…
Almost anything I put out there for the public web is NOT ONLY read, but it’s commented, complimented and solicited elsewhere. The only work I do is creating the content itself and the content is syndicated by others.
Why is that? What does this mean? What can I learn from this?
First off, the reason my content gets talked about is because I’m real. I’m not a robot, I’m not an egotistical A-Hole (although i used to be) looking for a pat on the back. I have the not “give a shit” attitude. Either you will like or you wont, but either way, you ARE going to talk about it. 
I want you to read the above and apply it to your own content. It’s important, it’s critical, damn in this business…it’s vital.
An Example –
I just discovered your “zero to hero” series and I gotta say its pretty great man. Also it answered my question about the autoresponder that I sent you. Seems like I should go check out more ruck archives. Keep sharing bro.
I got that on Facebook the other day. Honestly, I sat back saying “Where the hell did he find this, and more importantly, when the hell did I write it?
That comment stemmed from a free report I wrote AWHILE back here.
What I am saying is that I write stuff that gets remembered. You should too. Originality pays the bills. Write something that people remember, and you have something that will always bring people to YOU, not you to them.
Here are some tips on becoming a copywriter that will help you to sell more online. No matter if it’s content sites, ppc campaigns, media buys, emailing. Pay attention.
- BECOME THE TARGET – This is crucial, that’s why it’s first. See the #1? = Crucial
Super duper Adcopy comes from those who put themselves in the shoes of the ones they are selling to. This requires a few things:
- Know WTF it is you are giving away or selling.
- Go back to the basics – If you dont know the basics of marketing, I’ll toss you a freebie here –> PROVIDE A PRODUCT OR OFFER THAT FILLS NEEEDS.
- Identify your uniqueness – The tough one here. What’s different about your product? Your offer? Your approach?
Sit back, become the consumer. What is your problem? You already have the solution but now you need to think like the consumer. What, When, How? You can fill their needs obviously, but you will never be able to do it without encouragement, calls to action, a sense of urgency. Split test ways how to do this, and you will come up with a winning formula on how to get consumers to believe you.
Identifying your uniqueness can be a multitude of things. This could include a unique approach to your landing page which nobody is doing (or hasnt copied yet HA!). This could also include promotional codes for discounted shipping, giving something away BEFORE offer completion ( do not confuse with incentive marketing) or hell something as simple as looking at your competitors ads and instead of offering something (such as benefits), ask a question that you can help with within your adcopy or content on your page.
Adcopy gets the clicks, clicks get the money. But you cant get either until you become good at catching people’s attention.
Tired from vacation, more to come later.
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This is a battle constantly fought daily in managing affiliate marketers. Other than “what’s the epc”? This follows closely after.
- Which Offer To Run Ruck
- Where Do I Run This Offer Ruck
These questions have become almost synonymous with monotony.
While I applaud those marketers just starting their careers, sometimes (or especially after 2 years) when you are asked these questions daily over and over, it gets tiring. After my friend Smaxor posted the question “Ask yourself this? Do you look for an offer to send traffic to or do you look for traffic to send an offer to?” on Twitter I started thinking back in the day when I would go after offers. There REALLY is a lot of ways to go about starting with an offer. I want to cover these two today.
Looking For The Offer First – This goes without saying. You’re signed up with an Affiliate Network to run offers, plain and simple. Teaming with your Affiliate Manager is crucial here if you are just starting out. If you are experienced, chances are, you already have something in mind you are going for. However, if you are not experienced, here are some questions that will prime your manager for giving you some solid responses.
- What is this offer’s network wide conversion rate and EPC?
- What are your top 3 publishers converting at?
- What types of traffic does this offer accept?
- What has been the largest revenue generating channel of traffic? (EG..email, social, ppc?)
- Does this offer do well direct linking or is a landing page better?
- What’s the max payout I can get if the offer takes off for me?
- Can I get a bump BEFORE delivering traffic so I get a good metric of revenue for testing?
- What demographics can you provide for this offer? (If any).
Offer research at it’s finest and who better to deliver you valid answers than your AM?
Looking For Traffic First – This part is going to take a bit of creativity from you and your affiliate manager because essentially, you are going to provide some of the answers to the questions asked above. Chances are, you have discovered a traffic source but may know nothing about it. There are two parts to this equation that you need to piece together FIRST before making a decision on an offer to test.
First off – Whatever traffic source you are going to run on, your Advertising Representative should be grilled thoroughly. Some things to ask them would include:
- What is the main vertical or type of offer that runs on here?
- What is the highest revenue generating vertical?
- Are publishers making more money with banner or text ads?
- Can you give me an example of what works best or what you think would work?
- What are the main demographics for where this offer is running?
Just concentrate on getting as much information as you can on WHAT IS WORKING GOOD on this traffic source.
Second – Take this information to your affiliate manager. Let them know you have a traffic source that has told you that (for example) that a certain vertical is generating the most revenue with (example) text ads and this is the demographics for this channel of traffic.
Between your Ad Rep’s and Affiliate Manager’s recommendations you will almost certainly be lined up with a offer to test and take a lot of guess work out of the research process. Smart affiliates know to use everything around them and take advantage of their time management wisely by using all the resources at their disposal.
Second – Take this information
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If you are anything like me then you probably have a ton of newsletters that hit your inbox daily. One of the things I have is a filter that has all my traffic source newsletters, emails and everything else filtering into one easily managed label in gmail. I guess I should start sharing some of this stuff for the new marketers out there so when I saw the MyAds Newsletter today, I thought I would share some general tips that they sent. These arent much use to the experienced marketers out there but might be helpful for those just getting started.
The Big Question – How Can I Increase My Views And Clicks?
1) Increase your ad budget. This will enable your ad to receive more impressions and clicks.
2) Modify your bid amount to be more competitive against other advertisers.
3) Adjust your targeting criteria. Try broadening your criteria to reach a broader audience and capture a higher number of impressions. Or you can narrow your criteria to make your ad more targeted and improve your click-through rate.
4) Revise your ad to include a better visual design, ad caption and call-to-action language. A change can suddenly entice a prospective customer to take immediate action.
Now to a lot of publishers this doesnt really mean anything but it’s always nice to get even the slightest communication from a traffic source without having to pry it out of them. Here’s a little gift from MyAds:
Now you can give up to five (5) of your friends a FREE $50 advertising credit on MyAds*. That’s more than enough for them to start a new campaign and see how advertising online can be an efficient way to get new visitors or customers. And they’ll also remember you for helping build their business. They will enter this code at the Billing Page.
Give them PROMO CODE: 50MYADS
*Offer of credit shall only be redeemable by first time MyAds customer. Offer is non-transferable. Offer only valid for legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and Washington D.C. who are 18 or older. Offer is subject to the MyAds Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. MyAds reserves the right to rescind this Offer and/or terminate the service at any time. Offer valid thru Jan 31st, 2010.
Enjoy!
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Trolling around the interwebz this weekend on the prowl for more advertising sources (this is pretty much my weekly thing) I came across a seemingly cool company called Admob. I was really hoping to turn up an interesting source this past weekend. Seriously, I am beginning to get tired of the vast amount of CPM Display companies that I coming across. Most of these companies are usually struggling for revenue and they usually let any ole tom, dick and harry into their network. Basically this means I would be advertising on a ton of porn and made for ad shit sites that yield little but most often NO return. (See Adengage). Nothing against you Adengage, I’ve drank beer twice at your booths in the last year at industry conferences and I am just as brutal here as I am when I am in your face.
Anyway…
Admob is designed to serve Iphoner’s ads. Pure and simple, I would imagine a lot of affiliates have jumped on this. Now would be a good time to test it out. I’m interested to see or hear from anyone that has tested this platform out. If not, I will be throwing out my own tests just as soon as I finish up with AdKnowledge.
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More Google desperate attempts to create more revenue sources keep me happy in pants. Seriously, with all the declining stock talk the pressures on the big G to make some things happen. Now that Youtube has their own sponsored video advertising platform this could help them out. The damn site gets more traffic than heaven. This I can tell you right now, is a blogger blessing. I seriously kid you not. I made a few videos as a blogger last year and with the small amount of views I got (into the thousands), I got a ton of visitors. Seriously, if you ever wanted to create a membership site on teaching people how to make money online, Youtube is a damn fine place to do it.
Not that we are interested in that though right? Seriously, that sounds like a little bit of work and building something for the long term. Pffftt. You came here to get some ideas on how to generate revenue fast with Youtube right?
First off, I am not going to explain how it all works. If your familiar with Pay Per Click platforms, then this should be a cinch. If you are not familiar then Michelle Macphearson has posted a walk-thru.
Now that we established how to do it yourself, it’s time for ideas. Keep the discussion going here.
