Promoting High Ticket Items with PPC?

[croni]

Guys, does anyone have experience with promoting medium/high ticket items (>$500) with PPC?

I am trying to do PPC-CPA arbitrage promoting Amazon high ticket items, but I am worried that in this price range surfers need a lot of trust in a website before they buy after visiting my landing pages. Which would mean that conversion rates are low and the whole campaign not profitable...

 

[StarkReality]

The real problem with high ticket items is that people tend to compare prices alot before buying, although amazon has alot of trust and is popular, so certainly a good choice for your campaign(s).

Make sure to stay away from electronics, home entertainment, everything with loads of offer comparison and review sites around and go for things like furniture, clothing, etc...items people buy at sight without looking around for something similar or cheaper.

Oh, well, it pretty much boils down to trial and error :rasta:

 

[ImagesAndWords]

If you're gonna do this, be sure to write good and targeted ad copy - targeting for the most part people who have already decided on make/model of the product but are now looking for a place to buy it from.

Give them a reason why they should do so from your site.

 

[Diorex]

One problem with high value items is that many people shop online but end up buying offline (or buying over the 800 number on the website) thus denying you a commission.

You also have the problem of people not necessarily buying on the first click, which means your cookie might not get counted when they come back to a bookmark.

Another problem is that compared to many things the payout is particularly low. You sell a $500 piece of furniture and get $35 payout (7%)
when the merchant is realizing 20-30% operating margins. You become a very low paid marketing consultant who is taking all the risk.

It is hard to compete against a direct manufacturer/reseller in a similar product because they can either bid much higher pushing you down the page (while still earning far more per sale than you do) or they can compete on price to increase conversion while the affiliate program you are working through has very little at risk and may be less inclined to offer low prices or free shipping or extended warranties etc.

Lastly, while there might be an extensive list of keywords in high priced products (even with low competition and at cheap prices) - you may not be able to get hundreds or thousands of clicks per day which may make the set-up of the accounts more laborious than the rewards you might reap. The low volume also hurts your ability to really test extensively.

If you can make it work - great, but I would prefer high volume and low margins over low volume and high margins just about any day.

 

[croni]

If you're gonna do this, be sure to write good and targeted ad copy - targeting for the most part people who have already decided on make/model of the product

Good point. In case of high value items where a lot of review and price comparison sites exist, targeting the buyers with specific keyword phrases is key. Promoting offers via PPC and landing pages without a real brand/trust visitors probably won't follow your recommendations for high ticket items, because they need trust and have many well known sites to gather information.

I made the mistake to bid on best/review/ratings keywords for a high ticket item, and those keywords aren't converting (for lower ticket items they do).

 

[croni]

Lastly, while there might be an extensive list of keywords in high priced products (even with low competition and at cheap prices) - you may not be able to get hundreds or thousands of clicks per day which may make the set-up of the accounts more laborious than the rewards you might reap. The low volume also hurts your ability to really test extensively.

I totally agree. You need to target very buyer specific PPC keyword phrases for high ticket items I guess. But then you've got low volume because auf long tail keywords and the fact that less people buy expensive things than not so expensive ones...

 

[KunkVentures]

if you are trying to target high ticket items, don't go after amazon as an affiliate. You'll make like 2% commision.

 

[Dodgerbob]

if you are trying to target high ticket items, don't go after amazon as an affiliate. You'll make like 2% commision.

Yep. Definitely choose merchants that will pay better. Not only is the volume an issue as everyone has properly mentioned, but the low payout amount x low volume can net you gets you low gross revenue. $30 commission per sale x 2-3 sales per week isn't worth your trouble.