Many affiliates get into affiliate marketing after reading one of the popular ebooks on the topic that are sold online. But most of these ebooks concentrate on training people to use Google AdWords. I figure that is because Google has higher traffic volumes and because it is very easy to quickly set up your first affiliate campaigns. Many affiliates never get past AdWords, though, and that is where they are losing out.



You should already know that it’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. Particularly when that one basket has seen better days. I can assure you that relying heavily on one advertising network, particularly Google AdWords, is not a smart strategy for growing your affiliate marketing business.

For some affiliate products advertising at the other networks will be even more profitable. In fact you should be using all of the three major pay-per-click networks. They are Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft Adcenter, and Google Adwords.

Here are five reasons why you should consider using a different Pay-Per-Click advertising network.

Reason One – You Receive No Traffic

Sometimes when you set up a campaign at one of the advertising networks, you don’t receive any traffic. This can happen for a number of reasons. Sometimes you can change something in your campaign to get your ads running, but other times nothing seems to help. So switch advertising network. You could be up and running in no time.

Reason Two – Because of Editorial Policy

Sometimes you cannot get certain ad campaigns to be accepted due to the particular network’s editorial and content policies.

For example, Google has recently been rejecting campaigns that promote sites for music and movie file-sharing. I’ve been trying to run a legitimate campaign for one of the major legal music downloading services, and it’s just taking too much effort to get Google to look closer and recognize that my campaign is legitimate. I have more or less given up and the campaign is now running at Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN Adcenter instead.

Reason Three – For Price of Traffic

Sometimes the price at which you can get traffic on a given keyword phrase will vary widely from one network to another. So if you are not getting traffic at a price you are willing to pay, try switching to another advertising network.

Reason Four – To Replicate Your Campaigns

What do you usually do after you find a successful affiliate product? Do you improve your ads, add more keywords, add more countries, and increase your investment? Well, don’t forget to add more advertising networks.

For every successful affiliate campaign you identify, you should be trying to get it running profitably at all three major Pay-Per-Click networks, if at all possible.

Reason Five – To Test New Products and Retest Old Ones

Too many affiliate marketers are only testing out new affiliate marketing campaigns at Google AdWords. The, if the affiliate product is successful at Google AdWords they might roll out the campaign on the other networks. This strategy is seriously flawed.

The problem with this is that there are so many affiliate marketers using Google AdWords compared with a few years ago. They have pushed up the price of traffic on many of the popular keywords and it is much harder to get low-priced clicks now in many topic areas. An affiliate product that was once very good may no longer be profitable using AdWords because of the rising price of traffic.

And that right there is why many affiliates give up. I recommend that affiliates break out of the habit of only using Google Adwords to test new affiliate products. Try some products first at Yahoo Search Marketing or MSN Adcenter. Remember that traffic may or may not be cheaper than AdWords. That is not critical either way, because you will quickly discover that conversion ratios are different too.

I have given you five reasons to take your advertising dollars and spend them somewhere else. Your affiliate marketing business will be better off if you do.

Perhaps you should go back to some of the affiliate products you tested and threw away at AdWords. You just might identify some affiliate products that are actually profitable using another pay-per-click network.