So you say you don’t like the niches and offers that your affiliate network has? Then make your own!
Once you have been doing PPC and lead generation for a while, you have a valuable skill in the general business world. Believe it or not, there are a ton of companies that still have no presence in search engines or PPC. Your skill at driving targeted leads and sales via PPC is highly sought after. Its just a matter of packaging your pitch in a way to promote yourself and what you can do.
Here’s an approach that I have found effective. Companies love PDFs with percentage and charts. So throw together a some graphs and charts from your Google analytics. Show how you can effectively convert xx% of clicks at a cost of $xx dollars. Show estimates of the sales or leads that you could bring the company each month. Give them a bit of your background and success in previous campaigns, by showing actual figures and sales generated for other companies with specific examples.
You will be amazed at how successful a pitch like this can be. If you structure your fees so the company has no upfront cost, and only pay out on a performance basis, you have a very compelling offer. So if you have the skills but are tired of the same old offers, make your own niche in an area you love and expand your business while your at it!
I’ve thought about this a few times for niches I found that had very little or no competition but never went through with it because I come from a consulting background and I pretty much hated dealing with clients for the many years I did it. I always go back to running a network offer instead (different niche obviously) but one of these days the opportunity will be too big to pass up I’m sure.
And to add to that, what about doing it on a local basis. I did a deal with a local dentist that did teeth whitening and some cosmetic stuff. In general there’s TONS of competition for teeth whitening products but not for local towns and cities. Do a search for “your city teeth whitening”
Now imagine getting someone to click that ad and convert at $0.20 to become a lead directly to your dentist’s assistant where she calls right away and sets up an appointment. $0.20 cost made me $9 referral commission.
I’ve written in the contract that we had that I would not do biz with a similar type business with (about) 5 miles radius so he felt like he was 1-up on the competition. Works well and I give him a few dozen leads per week.
Now imagine if I could cover the state with dozens of dentists or whatever niche.
JACKPOT
Can you elaborate more on this? I never really thought about it on a smaller local scale. And there’s no way a Dr, Dentist or other professional would have time or resources to do this themselves.
Not sure what you’re looking for Micky. Promote your company as offering the service to marketing clients’ products in search and show them a good return.
Fairly simple. I was just commenting on how Chad says to create your own niche. You don’t have to just go after a product nationally. You can think local too for some of the same products if they’re locally relevant.
“local teeth whitening”
“local dialup internet”
“local lawyer”
“local legal services”
and 100 others I got on the top of my head.
Great advice! That’s exactly what I’m working on with a company I used to work for.
How do you track this sort of thing to ensure you’re getting paid for what you deliver? I’ve often thought I could do this for many companies that have little to zero web presence, let alone an affiliate program.
Is there some sort of free/cheap affiliate software they can install on their end that keeps them accountable (and possibly makes it easy to setup 2nd tier commissions so I can recruit others?)
How have you tracked this sort of thing in the past? What sort of terms do you set for commission rates?
I’d be interested in how Chad goes about this too. I’m thinking of a million ideas for this great post, but I’m always looking for a little more clarity!
Awesome post, again, Chad!
When I have implemented this in the past, all lead/sales gathering is done on my site before passing on to the company who is buying them. So tracking in not an issue since you control everything, and you know exactly what you are sending them. Its not real time, but they don’t seem to mind.
Ah, so this is something thats a bit easier for things like lead gen where you’re getting contact info versus selling a product where you’d need to collect/process the transaction which would essentially be drop shipping right?
Good article, straight to the point.
It’s all about convincing your prospects that you can deliver.
Yup, that’s exactly what I’m doing now. There’s so many niches that aren’t even on the web right now that it’s like a kid in a toy store, a biker in a harley store, a girl in a shoe store… well, you get the idea.
Good post Chad… I too been noticing increase demand for PPC pros.
Hi Chad, throw mine on the pile – curious if you recommend any software on the private network side. Know of a few that are good for one-off programs but this seems like it would require a bit more, wouldn’t it?
[...] Chad over at CDF Networks made a good post, about how to use your skill of marketing and paid search to create your own niches. I’ve actually thought about this before, good to see someone actually putting it into action. This is something I’ll have to just write down on my future to do list! Check it out here. [...]
Nice post. Its all about coming up with an idea and going after what you want
Lead gen, rainmaking has existed in the brick-and-mortar world for some time.
Although SEO and SEM agencies (and some web design firms) have the jump on this, the potential addressable market is the SMB (small and medium biz) market out there.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to take a look at some of the reports at marketing sherpa, emarketer, idc, bcg or pwc consulting to get a feel for the type of material that’s being used to market your services.
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The key to success is determination and having a strong USP because with 6-figure contracts being signed after a presentation and negotiation, it can be a lucrative market.