Media Buying Affiliate Marketing Guide

 Media buying (also referred to as display advertising) is simply a fancy word for
purchasing banner ad space on a website, a network of websites, or an ad exchange
network.
Media buying can be as simple as buying banner inventory on a website directly from
the website owner or buying banner ad space through an ad network that provides
you access to very high traffic websites.
These media buys are usually paid for on a CPM basis. CPM means cost per 1000
impressions. An impression is simply one view of the banner on the website.
There are many huge benefits to media buying. First, the amount of traffic you can
get from media buys is phenomenal. Second, many of the restrictions you would see
on larger ad platforms (such as Adwords, Facebook Ads, etc) are not problems on
media buys.
The downside to media buying is that it can be very costly. If you use a large ad
network, you will most likely spend thousands of dollars before you even make a
profit.
Now before you stop reading because you think you wont be able to afford media
buying, let’s talk about the more affordable ways to do media buys.
Starting Out In Media Buying
When you’re first starting out in media buys I recommend you start buying directly
from websites or using ad exchange websites. Buying directly from websites allows
you to spend either a flat rate or generally a smaller amount than the large ad
networks.
Where an ad network would require a $10,000+ commitment, you can find direct
websites that will charge as little as a few bucks per month.
Now, before you go trying to find sites, I recommend you read “Know Your
Demographics” in the previous chapter. With media buying it’s VERY important to
know who your demographics are for a particular offer.
Another thing to know before you start out is offers that pay a low commission ($5
bucks and under for example) will be very difficult to make a profit on. I recommend
the higher paying offers such as lead generation offers or free trial offers.
Research Websites For Your Direct Buys
Ok, so now you have a good offer and you know your demographics. There are a
couple methods you can use to find good sites for media buys.
· Using Google Ad Planner research tool, you can find websites that have the
demographic that you’re looking for. Enter your demographics in the
adplanner and begin researching out the list of websites that ad planner
shows you. Sort the results by comp index. This comp index is the highest
relevance sites based upon the demographics you have inputed. I would
recommend targeting the higher comp index websites.
· On Google, Yahoo, and MSN you can search for keywords that are related to
the offer to find the top 50 websites in Google. Depending on how competitive
the niche is you can find some good websites.
This method can be especially effective if you know of keywords that are
converting for paid search engine traffic. The idea here is you go search for
websites and do your media buys on the natural organically ranking websites
for the keywords that convert well for paid search.
··
Use Quantcast ad planner. (http://www.quantcast.com/planner) Similar to
Google Ad Planner – another source to look through.
·
Things To Look For On The Websites:
I always recommend looking for sites with adsense or some other forms of ads on
the site. This shows that the website owner is looking to monetize and your offer will
generally be well received by them.
When you are looking for a website, if you find a site with banners on it already, I
highly recommend only buying banner space that is above the fold.
Above the fold means the banner is visible without having to scroll down on the
website.
If the banner is below the fold, I would only pay for it if the banner was extremely
cheap and I don’t recommend this for first time buyers.
Contacting the website
You can then contact the owner of the website and ask them to purchase ad space
on their website using the template below.
To get their contact information, you can use the whois (I use http://www.whois.sc to
check) or the regular contact page on the website. Either way, you should be able to
find some sort of email.
———————
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m interested in purchasing banner inventory on your website,
<INSERTWEBSITEHERE>. I am a direct response advertiser based from the US and
based upon my research, I believe your website would be a perfect fit for some of
our latest marketing campaigns.
I would love to begin a direct advertising relationship with you. We are flexible and
are looking to make things mutually beneficial. If you could, please email me back
with your pricing at your earliest convenience.
If you have any questions please feel free to email or call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX
Thank you very much for your time.
<Yourname>
<Company Name>
———————
Not every website is going to reply back to you. In fact, if you get more than 1 or 2
out of 10 people to reply, you’ll be doing great. That’s why it’s important for you to
email a bunch of people.
If they do not reply to your email and the site is valuable to you, try checking the
whois database for their phone number. Try calling them… Maybe they were just too
busy to reply and a phone call will get them to give you the focus you want.
Finally, if they still don’t reply, try Facebooking them. I know it seems a little creepy,
but Facebook is like the new “email” so to speak. People often check Facebook more
frequently than email and this could be a great way for you to reach that webmaster.
Tip: If they have Google adsense on their website and never reply back, you could
always try making a Google adwords “placement targeted” campaign targeting that
domain name. Just make sure you are in compliance (no free trial offers for
example) before you put it in adwords.
Negotiate the Price:
Direct media buys like this can often result in huge profit because you can negotiate
crazy good rates.
Whatever price you are given, no matter how good, I always try to negotiate.
Everything is negotiable and often asking can reduce your cost by 10% or more. A
great way to negotiate price down is by offering more money up front in exchange
for a cheaper rate.
Also, I always recommend starting the smallest buy they will allow you to do. When
you get prices, if it’s too high for you to risk, then you could ask them for a test buy
first and see what they do.
The key to this is that if you are honest with the website owner and say it’s too
expensive for you (rather than trying to act like a big shot), they’ll be willing to work
with you on things more frequently.
Insertion Order:
After you have negotiated the price a bit, you will need an IO (insertion order). An
insertion order is basically a contract going over all the terms of the agreement
(price, time period, etc).
In the insertion order, make sure that you have the following: 24 hours out clause,
even clause, demographic targeting, day parting, and frequency cap.
24 Hours Our Clause:
This is a simple clause that allows you to get out of the media buy within 24 hours if
you are not happy with the results. This gives you a bit of a safety net if the media
buy is just a complete bomb.
This 24 hour fat clause does not mean you get all your money back. Instead you can
get all of it minus the 24 hours cost.
Even Clause:
An even clause is really for larger media buys but basically states that ad delivery
will be distributed evenly each day. This is to prevent you getting all your traffic in
one day.
Let’s say for example that the website you’re buying ad space from has many
banners rotating on the site. Now you decide to get out of the buy via your 24 hour
out clause. What some sites could do is put your banner up a majority of the time so
they spend nearly all of your money in the 24 hours. That way they only have to
refund as little as possible. An even clause would prevent problems like this.
Demographic Targeting:
This part of the IO is simply explaining which demographics if any you want to
target. Most of the times this will be GEO targeting based on IP.
Day Parting:
Day parting is when you want your banner ads to only show during certain hours of
the day. This can really help your profit levels if you find that you generally have
lower profit margins at a certain time of the day or week.
Frequency Capping:
Frequency Capping is the amount of times your banner is shown to the same IP
address in a 24 hour period. The recommended capping rate differs depending on
who you talk to. Somewhere around three times per 24 hours seems to be pretty
standard for bigger buys. For smaller buys, I don’t use frequency capping at all.
Focus on Optimization Of Your Banner:
Ok so now you have your media buy running. If you’re paying a flat rate or CPM
rate, you should be optimizing your banner as much as possible to get the best click
through rate.
The more clicks, the better chance at profit you have. I recommend using at least 5
or 6 banner variations for each size banner you have.
Here are some tips to get a better click through rate on your banner:
Split test 5-6 variations of each banner size.
Increase CTR by changing headlines, use shocking images, use blue underlined links,
use fear and pain, and test with a white bg color.
Try using images of people in the banners.
Try using testimonials in the banners.
Try using an all text banner.
Try to use blinking arrows.
Try to use gradient backgrounds for banners.
Media Buying Through Ad Networks:
Media buying ad networks are generally very large groups of high traffic websites.
The upside about the ad networks is that the potential to make tens of thousands or
even hundreds of thousands per day is there. The downside is that if you are trying
to do a media buy through a large ad network, you’re going to need to spend
thousands of dollars (tens of thousands) before you optimize your campaign to a
profit (most of the time).
You really need to have a significant cash flow before entering into these networks.
And before you get to a profit, expect to lose money…
Relationship:
When you are doing large buys from these networks, it’s important that you develop
a great relationship with your manager. These are the people who will help you to
optimize your campaign. Much of the campaign success relies on this manager
making optimizations for you.
If your manager is not responding right away to your needs, it’s time to request a
new manager. Seriously, it’s that important.
Ad Networks:
TribalFusion.com
Zedo.com
BurstMedia.com
Valueclick.com
Media Buying Questions?
Do you have any Media buying questions that I didn’t answer? Need someone to help
you start out in your first buys more? A good place to check out is Media buys coach.
(http://bit.ly/adoIFx)
Media buys coach is a monthly subscription service where you can take lessons on
Media buying and also ask experts questions directly. It’s well worth getting if you’re
starting in Media buying and want the option to ask about every little detail of your
campaign.
You can read my review on Media buys coach here. (http://bit.ly/adoIFx)