PPC -> AM; How much did you start off with?

Dare Devil

Dare Devil

Not the Blind Superhero
Apr 13, 2010
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daredevilcontent.com
I've been fielding questions from a friend that really wants to get into PPC pushing affiliate marketing offers.

By far, the majority of my PPC experience is pushing my own stuff or for other things that are really unrelated to affiliate marketing in what I guess is its truest sense. Added to that, I was already "heavy" into online marketing by the time I got into PPC so I am a little uncomfortable telling him how much he should have to get started since my experience will be pretty drastically different from his.

I'm thinking that he should have ~$5k or so to get started "right" but I know a lot of guys out there started with much less.

Needless to say, I'd like to get some feedback from guys that jumped right into AM via PPC and/or FB and/or media buys and what budget they think would be good to start off with.
 


i started with blackhat SEO, saved a bunch of coin then moved to ppc. If it had it to do again though I'd go straight to buying traffic. More stable and scalable typically.
 
I started out with somewhere around $250-300. I made my first campaign profitable, and did really well, but honestly a lot of it was luck (did not properly track or test lp's etc.) Honestly it is different for everyone though. What kind of IM experience does your friend have? Does he lack common sense? Honestly I have a couple friends I have tried to show ppc to and my one friend that actually made everything click and now makes ok money is a college dropout and most people consider him a bum i guess. Basically what I am trying to get at is there are tons of factors that will decide how much your friend needs to start with. If he is patient and understands that the computer doesnt just print money, and is willing to sit down a couple hours a day for 3-4weeks and constantly reads and also is willing to lose some of his own money by just getting down into the nitty gritty and messing around with ppc a little, he could easily get a great foundation down and start generating some profitable campaigns after losing anywhere from $200-400. If anyone thinks im way off base with that number then please chime in, but in my honest opinion if someone studies right they should be able to become profitable after a couple hundred bucks. Good luck with your friend
 
Yeah, its def. true that everyone is different and all and I have definitely been down the road of trying to explain what I do for a living to people that seemed interested only to back away when they started to realize how much work I put into it. Ordinarily, I'd have given him the same canned answers as well but we're pretty tight (i.e. he knows what I do and has looked over my shoulder a lot over the past few years) and he's familiar with the game and has done his research but is looking at me for the "expert guidance" or whatever. Plus, I'm bankrolling at least $2k for him to help him get started. While that's not a ton of money, I definitely wouldn't be handing it over if I wasn't 100% sure he was dead serious and a sharp guy.
 
smaxor said:
If it had it to do again though I'd go straight to buying traffic. More stable and scalable typically.
Click to expand...

Same here. Particularly with SEO. I'm just sick of it. Yeah, money can be made with SEO but anymore it really feels like everyone on the SEO scene is fighting for scraps compared to how easy it was just 5 years ago.
 
smaxor said:
i started with blackhat SEO, saved a bunch of coin then moved to ppc. If it had it to do again though I'd go straight to buying traffic. More stable and scalable typically.
Click to expand...

completely agree. i only did SEO for the first maybe 3-4months i did AM, and i actually got my niche site on pg1 of google, but honestly you cant help but feel like you have been wasting your time when you do SEO for a month and then setup a profitable campaign in a week
 
Had less than 100 bucks to lose when I got into ppc. Glad I turned profitable on my 2nd-3rd campaign otherwise I fear I'd have never touched PPC again. My first profitable campaign was totally EPIC.
 
Very similar to iliketurtles, except my budget was $300. I don't know where I would be if my 3rd campaign didn't hit profitability.
 
I started with $4,500 (that I made by selling a free hosting site) and lost it all within a month or so. I stopped doing AM for a year and started up again with around $200 and got a couple profitable campaigns with Google Content Network and Facebook.
 
I started with a credit card and hit 100%+ ROI on $100 spend in 3 days. I was happy, and then Google kept slapping the shit out of me. I got pissed, and haven't really touched PPC since.

On a side note- I now have a site SEO'd for all those keywords and rank first page for practically all of them. lol.
 
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