In the course of my arbitrage campaigns I have tried traffic sources spanning the tiers of search engines. I would like to give my analysis of these engines as candidly as possible. As mentioned in previous posts there are currently some issues with Google’s Adwords, but before they figured out that I was trying to actually earn money with their engine (I know, the mere thought of it is nuts) I had used it quite extensively. Right before the end I had figured out a couple of techniques that afforded me very cheap clicks (in the neighborhood of .01 to .05 cents a click) consistently. I’ll begin with these techniques. I’d like to also point out that I did not pioneer either of these but it always helps to have more sources of instruction for aspiring arbitrage patrons.

The first technique involves the use of banners. A simple yet effective technique for getting Adwords clicks for .01 to .03 cents a click is to use the image ad option. You will want to find a program to create banners. I used a free web program though the name of it escapes me. Simply type in “free banners” on Google and explore the results and I guarantee you’ll find something acceptable. Remember, if you’re using this for purely arbitrage purposes you’re not really going to be concerned about creating a masterpiece. Just enough to grab a reader’s attention and get them to click the ad to direct them to your shitty arbitrage site. While I’m thinking about it, you’ll want to keep in mind that unlike your typical Adwords ads, these can take several days to get approved by the Adwords staff so be sure to give yourself plenty of lead-in time.

Anyway, back to the creation of the ad. Once you’re on said free-banner-making site you’ll want to create a 468 x 60 Banner with some kind of relatively generic phrase and your site’s url. For example if you were creating a banner for a debt consolidation site you would want to create the banner to say “Debt Consolidation Resources” on the first line, on the second line “Bad Credit Help”, and on the third line your url. Again, this is nothing special and really, the only aesthetic merit that may accompany the banner is the crappy free pattern that you’ve chosen as your banner background. Once you’re done writing the ad you’ll want to download the .gif file.

You are now ready to create your Adwords image ad. While in your Adwords account, select the “keyword-targeted campaign setup” rather than “site-targeted.” When I tried using the site-targeted approach I only got impressions and no clicks but feel free to try it to at least experiment if you’re so inclined. Select your countries and territories (preferably United States only for optimal click ad values-I’ll explain later). On the next page you will select “image ad” as your preferred medium. As mentioned, you will upload the 468×60 banner to your listing and simply include your URL when prompted by the system.

Next you will want to include your keywords and bid appropriately. Include something like a thousand keywords. When I’ve done this method I have bid .03 cents for all my keywords and got pretty good results. I have heard of people bidding .01 cent for each keyword but for starters I would try .03 cents just to test the waters. If you’re getting a lot of clicks then feel free to move down to either .02 or .01 cent bids.

You’re Done!

A few things to consider with this technique, and on these points I speak from personal experience. This technique does work. I feel it is important to mention this as I’ve heard several people say in the past that they were not having good results, or no results for that matter. You will want to create a few separate banner ads because it is possible that some will be slower than others on their uptake. I believe the way this works is as follows. It takes a few days for the Google rep to approve the ad. Upon approval it may take some time for the ad to sink in and effectively penetrate the best places for it to run. So you don’t have any unrealistic expectations you should expect that the ads will take approximately 3 weeks to really begin showing any tangible results.

I ran these ads to parked pages which I don’t recommend if you plan on keeping your Adwords account in working condition. Do however, use this technique with your other arbitrage sites and remember to be patient as it will take some time before it is running effectively. For me it took something like 3.5 weeks. When I finally started getting clicks it worked wonderfully. I was getting around 100 clicks a day at .02 cents apiece.

In the next post I’ll discuss another (even better) technique that is sure to get you .03 to .05 cent clicks on Adwords. Feel free to post any questions.

Technorati Tags: arbitrage, traffic sources, Adwords