InsureMe Affiliate Blog: Thinking ROE for PPC

This picture has nothing to do with anything. I am listening to Affiliate Arbitrage – Winning Bets in Paid Search session at eComXpo right now, and something was brought up by Vinny Lingham that really resonated with me. Vinny, one of the more advanced affiliate marketers on the planet, pointed out that succeeding in the pay-per-click market is not really all about return on investment, but about return on effort (ROE).

In my experience in this business, the affiliates with an eye for ROE are the most successful. ROE is all about working smart – getting the projects done that will have the most meaningful impacts on your bottom line, and knowing how to spot and drop projects that will have little or no impact.

Examples of ROE Decisions

A good way to illustrate ROE is to look at some of the decisions that affiliates are faced with on a daily basis. Questions like:

Should I work on building a Google AdWords account that has a massive volume of clicks and high click charges or should I work with a smaller PPC company who has barely any traffic but low click charges? (Answer: The highest ROE would be with Google since they will give you access to the biggest audience.)

Should I spend four hours writing custom ads for my Yahoo PPC account or four hours writing custom ads for my Ask PPC account? (Answer: Writing Yahoo ads will provide a higher ROE since your Yahoo ads will reach more people than Ask.)

Is it better to spend a week developing a cool Flash based banner for my new affiliate web site, or should I make a static banner and spend time building quality landing pages? (Answer: Skip the Flash, which has a lower chance of increasing revenue for you, and focus on building a good landing pages, which should help you make more money.)

You get the point. We all have a limited amount of time in the day, so making the most of it by working smart can mean the difference between success and failure.

ROE Questions

Before you start working on your next PPC project, ask yourself the following questions to make sure you are working on a high ROE project:

Is this project targeting a large enough audience to be worth the time invested?
Are their larger audiences I can tap into with other projects?
Do I see the amount of time being spent on this project paying for itself in financial returns?
Will this project teach me something that will help me be more successful in the future?
Are there other projects that could make a bigger impact for the same amount of effort?
Am I avoiding a higher ROE project because it is the less enjoyable than my current project? If so, what can I do to make the higher ROE project enjoyable?
If you were to pay someone to do this project, how much would you pay them? Would it be your most valuable project or would there be something you would pay more for?

Hopefully by asking yourself these questions you will be able to take an objective look at the work you are doing and find your highest ROE projects.

[UPDATE: Make sure you check out Vinny’s post on ROE for a detailed example of why making good ROE decisions is essential to your affiliate success.]