Oct 28 2008

Calculating Profitable Ads – PPC Bully

  • (12) Comments. Got a say in it?
  • Published October 28th, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing by Jonathan Volk
Learn the techniques I used to make over $4,000,000 in affiliate commissions! Check out my Free Affiliate Marketing Guide and learn the "how to" for Facebook Ads, PPC Affiliate Marketing, PPV / CPV Affiliate Marketing, And Media Buying!

In Affiliate Marketing, if someone is making money in a niche using PPC, You can too (Most of the time)!

See... It's really all just a matter of fine tuning everything to be a well oiled machine that pumps out more dollars than you're putting in.

When someone else has figured a way to make this "machine" work, chances are, you can too as long as you optimize (oil it) enough.

I had my own formula for calculating profitable ads... Basically, I would watch major keywords for a period of around 30-90 days (usually a quick check during the "I don't want to do anything" times). Next I would make a mark of what sites I remember / are actually affiliates like myself. During the period of even just a week, you can begin to tell which are the bigger players and which ones are not. The bigger players have consistent higher positions and show for almost all inquiries. Smaller guys however probably show less frequently and in lower positions.

The thinking behind this is that the bigger guys have a much better optimized campaign. Therefore profits are higher so they can bid more to get a larger percentage of the market.

This is how I generally find what sites are what I consider profitable.

I've always wondered how sites such as PPC Bully calculated this type of thing for you.

If you don't know about PPC Bully, it's a site that basically does all the work above by checking the ad some 20 odd times a day. You can do this for up to 25 keywords.

After researching how they figured out if a keyword is profitable, I realized it was much like the way I try to calculate profitability but with even more accuracy and more importantly... automation.

How PPC Bully Calculates Profitability
Here is a little snippet from the PPC Bully page showing their algorithm.

Profitability-Indictor (PI)

How the PI is being calculated?

Ad PI = (Number of Days Seen * Percentage Seen) / Number of Days since Last Seen

Example:

Ad "Birthday Flowers" was seen 12 days out of 18. The Ad was last seen 2 days ago.

Number of Days Seen: 12 days
Percentage Seen: 12/18 = 66.6%
Number of Days since Last Seen: 2 days
P-Index = (12 * 66.6%) / 2 = 4
Profitable Ad is an ad whose PI is at least 7. You can change this default threshold (7) in the Account page.

Now, with anything, you could do this yourself like I USED to be doing, or you can sign up for PPC Bully and start doing the whole automated thing.

Personally, I like to automate as much as possible.

I think of it like this... I have so much going on right now affiliate wise, that I couldn't afford the time to take on another project right now. Let's say that I hear about a HOT campaign or keep seeing it all over. What do I do?

I throw in the top keywords into google... maybe some long tail keywords... and then continue working. Now... thirty days later, I have a complete data set of research material ready for whenever I am ready to enter that niche! :) And thus... more money is made.

To me, that's worth the 45 bucks.

  • (12) Comments. Got a say in it?


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12 Responses to “Calculating Profitable Ads – PPC Bully”

  1. I’ve been considering using ppcbully or one of the other sites like that. Problem is I’m also so busy I don’t have the proper time to start another campaign either so I’ll probably check it out in time.

  2. Random Guy says:

    Do you think tools like this could potentially ruin the PPC affiliate marketing industry?

  3. Nah… Regardless of how many tools you have… people who aren’t good at PPC will still fail.

  4. Rideswitch says:

    Hey Jon, I am giving iSpionage.com a shot this month after you reviewed it. I really like it. Which do you like better iSpionage or PPC Bully?

    thx, Corey

  5. Hey Corey,

    They’re both a bit different and have their advantages. iSpionage is more for keyword research while PPC Bully is more for Ad research.

    Thanks,
    JV

  6. Jeremy says:

    Cool post. Thanks for the insight!

  7. Young Empire says:

    I’m a newbie affiliate marketer and am going to launch my first campaign this weekend in the credit card area. I read your blog and it has helped me get started and provided some inspiration! This sounds like a good program which I’m going to look into after I give mine a shot.

  8. Gadget says:

    Nice info, perhaps I will give it try…

  9. Michael Moris says:

    Rideswitch, actually iSpionage is an Ad Resarch tool as well. In fact they monitor the ads in Google, Yahoo and MSN altogether. On top of that they also have keyword research tool feature.

  10. sick gonna try out ppc bully

  11. Hi JV,

    After the recent launch of the latest PPCBully version – do you think you might post a blog update on it, maybe some tips on how you use it yourself?

    Thanks,
    Paul.

  12. Hey Jonathan,
    Was talking to Wes Mahler and he mentioned you used PPCBULLY. Wondering if you are using the new one PPCBULLY2.0 and what you like about it/what works for you.

    Thanks,
    Phoenix

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