How to Use Solo Ads for Affiliate Marketing (And Make Money)

This is a complete guide to using Solo Ads for Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to start if you want to make passive income from the internet. Why? Because:

You do not have to create products, provide customer service, set up billing and bonuses, and deliver updates
You can earn recurring commissions from sales
There are lots of products to choose from. Some affiliate offers even provide details such as estimated earnings per click.
Make massive profits from high-ticket items.
Scalable. You do not have to stick with one product only. Promote multiple products simultaneously and make more money.

Also, if you want to drive thousands of targeted traffic to your affiliate offer today, Solo Advertising is a perfect traffic channel. Here are why:

Highly targeted
Cheap compared with other traffic channels
Lower competition
Build your asset fast
Secretive. Do not worry about competitors spying on your email copies, sales funnels, and affiliate promotion strategies.
Quick results

So, affiliate marketing and solo ads are ideal for beginners to get started on internet marketing.

In this ultimate guide to solo ads for affiliate marketing, you will learn every part you need to know to earn money by promoting affiliate products through solo ads traffic. So, let’s get started!

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What is a Solo Ad?

Basically, a solo ad is an email advertisement where the email list owner sends your message for a price. Many marketers use Solo advertising (or Solo ads) for multiple reasons.

1. Highly targeted – Unlike most other advertising channels, solo ads traffic is qualified at different levels. The user has to open the email, read the message, click the link, and open the landing page. So, using solo ads for affiliate marketing promotions can be profitable.
2. Scalable – Solo ads are trackable. Hence, when you have found a perfect solo ad funnel, you can go beyond and buy more and more traffic to increase your revenue and profits. If your solo ads funnel involves an affiliate offer, you can even set up break-even campaigns and literally get solo ads for free, which we will discuss later in this article on solo ads affiliate marketing.
3. Build your asset fast with higher conversion rates – Due to the nature of solo ads traffic, your landing pages, or squeeze pages, for that matter, will get a higher conversion rate, like 20% and up.
4. Lower CPL – CPL stands for Cost per Lead. Unlike other traffic sources, solo advertising funnels can be adjusted to have lower CPL while making money by promoting affiliate offers.

Learn more details about solo ads and their effectiveness in this article.

Why Solo Ads for Affiliate marketing?

There are many traffic sources, such as banner ads, push ads, pop ads, PPC ads, video ads, interstitial ads, and native ads. But why should you use solo ads for affiliate marketing promotions?

The main reason is solo advertising basically works pretty well for some niches, and the cost per lead is pretty low compared with other traffic sources.

Let’s do quick math.

Suppose you want to promote a network marketing offer. You want to promote an affiliate offer while building your email list. Which traffic source comes to your mind first?

Google ads, right?

Want to guess the average CPC (Cost per click) for terms like ‘network marketing health companies, network marketing companies to join for free, network marketing strategies that work’ for the US?

Yep, the CPC is up and above $5.

And the crazy part is the CPCs for long-tail keywords, which are targeted and have a low search volume. If you target broad keywords in Google ads, the CPC may decrease a bit, but the traffic is lower-targeted as well. Not to forget that when you go deeper, target at the country level or the region level, CPC can become so expensive!

Let’s say you buy 200 traffic from Google ads related to network marketing to promote this Clickfunnels Network Marketing Secrets offer. Undoubtedly, Google Ads traffic is targeted compared to Facebook ads.

The cost of traffic is 200 x $5 = $1,000. Suppose the conversion rate on the squeeze page is 30%. So, the total email subscribers get is 200 x 0.3 = 60. It means the cost per lead is $1,000/60 = $16.67!

Let’s say the subscribers are immediately redirected to the affiliate offer as soon as they sign up. Since the front-end offer is a free physical book, suppose the sales conversion rate is 5%. It would be debatable.

The average cart value of the Network Marketing Secrets affiliate offer is $174.60. So, the money you would make through the traffic bought from Google ads is 60 *.05 * $174.60 = $523.8.

So, you have got a deficit of $476.2 while having 60 people on your list. Now, let’s look at how using solo ads for affiliate marketing offers can look.

Here is a solo ad seller who sells traffic for MLM (Multi-level marketing) or network marketing offers.

If you look at his statistics, you will notice that his buyers got sales 70 of 100 times. So, his traffic converts. The cost for 200 clicks is $161.00 after I enabled the only top-tier option. The Only Top Tier option lets you drive traffic from Tier 1 countries, which include English-speaking wealthy countries such as the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Supposing we get the same lead and sales conversion rates, we will make $523.8 out of 200 visitors. That is a profit of $362.8! That is over 200% ROI from a single solo ad affiliate marketing campaign.

Yes, the data is tentative. But you get the idea that solo ads for affiliate marketing are definitely a possible scenario where you can scale up to anywhere you want to go.

Before learning how to make money with solo ads by promoting affiliate products, you need to understand this:

Nature of solo advertising

Getting solo ads for affiliate marketing work is possible. But only if you understand these reasons.

• The solo ads subscriber is a human being with feelings, ambitions, and dreams just like you – Although solo ads and affiliate marketing are a numbers game, if you remember this when building sales funnels, you will make more money.
• Email marketing rules are applicable – When doing email marketing, you need to remember that the subscriber might have signed up for dozens of newsletters like yours. What strategies do you follow to stand out? Keep this in mind.
• Subscriber is looking for solutions – The beauty of email solo ads marketing is that the subscriber has already passed other stages and is on the transactional stage. Do not be afraid to pitch your affiliate offer as a solution as soon as you convert the traffic into leads. You may be surprised! 😉
• Solo advertising is a crowded space – Before selling affiliate products through solo ads, think of the average subscriber. He/she might be subscribing to every other list every week. So, how do you stay out of a crowded space? Stand out from others or move to another less crowded space. That is why you will see the engagement of email subscribers of solo ad traffic is getting low and low as time goes on. Clean your email list from time to time and use retargeting to re-engage inactive users on your list.

So, now you know the basics of solo advertising, let’s move into today’s main topic: How to use solo ads for affiliate marketing.

Ways to use solo ads for affiliate marketing

There are two main ways to use solo ads for affiliate marketing.

1. Sending traffic directly to the affiliate offer
2. Sending traffic to affiliate offers after converting visitors into leads

Sending traffic directly to affiliate offers

You might probably have seen this tactic many times if you subscribed to several solo ad sellers’ lists.

Pros

Find out the sale funnel’s conversion rate immediately
A/B test funnels
Test different solo ad vendors to see their traffic conversion rate to your offer combination

Cons

You are not building an email list

Sending traffic to lead capture page and then affiliate offer

Smart marketers use this method. Here are why:

Pros

You are building your online business asset, which in most cases is your email list.
You can have multiple earning streams by promoting various affiliate offers to your list.
Tracking overall ROI across solo ad campaigns after the completion of the email autoresponder sequence becomes possible. In other words, you can calculate the ‘real EPC’ from solo ad buys, unlike estimated or halfway income calculations. (ex: Semrush Traffic cost estimations)

Cons

You will lose people who would see the sales page. Normally, if your lead capture page’s conversion rate is 50%, 50% of other people will not see the sales page.

Solo ads for affiliate marketing that work

If you want to get solo ads to work for affiliate marketing and build your email list, you should choose the second method: sending traffic to your lead capture page and then affiliate offer.

If your solo ads sales funnel is effective enough, you can build break-even campaigns and profit from solo ads traffic. I will share some tips on how to use the best solo ads for affiliate marketing to earn more money from every click you purchase later.

How to use solo ads for affiliate marketing

A good solo ads affiliate marketing strategy involves these components.

1. Lead magnet
2. A good squeeze page
3. A good affiliate offer
4. A reliable tracking system
5. High converting solo ads traffic for affiliate marketing
6. The backend of the affiliate funnel

Lead Magnet

The lead magnet is an offer you exchange for the visitor’s email address. It has two purposes.

1. Increasing email subscribers – If you offer highly valuable assets for free, more people will enter their email addresses.
2. Qualifying leads – Another very important aspect of a lead magnet is qualifying subscribers. For instance, if your lead magnet is about super easy Fiver gig ideas, the subscribers are interested in freelancing as a whole. You can utilize that in your email marketing campaigns to pitch more freelancing affiliate offers and private label products or even share tutorials on increasing Fiverr earnings and alternatives to Fiverr, such as SproutGigs, to build trust.

Depending on the lead magnet, it should have these characteristics.

1. Resourcefulness – How much applicable is the lead magnet to the subscriber’s life and business?
2. Instant gratification – Can the lead magnet be applied to their existing procedures? Ex: How are the Fiverr gig ideas helpful if they involve advanced learning skills such as Photoshop editing and copywriting?
3. Impact – No matter how good your lead magnet is, if it does not address critical issues and provide lasting solutions, not patches, it will basically be useless.
4. Freely accessible – Is it downloadable or online accessible? Or is there any friction?
5. Perceived value – People count values price-wise in any aspect of their lives. That is not different for lead magnets. What is the perceived value of your lead incentive? If it’s low value, not many people will consider getting it.

A lead magnet can come in different final forms. Here are some most popular ones.

• A PDF – A file that can be used on any device. Common PDF lead magnets are ebooks, resource guides (ex: a converted blog post into PDF), and checklists.
• Online article – Yes, an online article can be a lead magnet
• Video Course
• Physical product
• Consultation service
• Free access to the premium product – Ex: Whitelabel product or PLR software

You can prepare a lead magnet by yourself or by hiring someone or buying a premade digital product from a PLR site.

Lead magnet for solo ads affiliate marketing

Using solo ads for affiliate marketing improves when you consider the benefits of building the lead magnet.

• You can incentivize signups in solo ads email body to increase subscribers – Cordially request them to register by clicking the link in the email to get instant access.
• Surprise visitors on your lead capture page – You could not say anything about the lead magnet on the email body and surprise readers on the squeeze page and make the lead magnet into a surprise gift.
• No need to have a lead magnet – One benefit of using solo ads for affiliate marketing is that you can cut lead magnets off from your to-do list. Many affiliate offers have free front-end offers. For instance, our Network marketing secrets affiliate funnel offers a free physical book. You can literally sell this item on your squeeze page to incentivize signups.

Also, you might find that some solo ad buyers do not offer any lead magnet at all. Instead, what they sell is an emotion, a dream, a feeling, and a destination or direction of life they want to achieve.

Squeeze page

The squeeze page is also known as the lead capture page. Its sole purpose is to maximize email capturing in any way possible. It does not have to be pretty or long. You are good to go if it converts better than other squeeze pages.

A Squeeze page has:

• Headline – That sells your pitch (in our case, the lead magnet)
• Offer selling points – It can come in bullet points, sub-headlines, descriptions, or even as the background image.
• Opt-in form – The place where people can enter their contact details
• Call to action button

All visitors from solo advertising campaigns will visit your squeeze page. Then they will enter their email address. After successfully registering to your list, they will be redirected to the affiliate offer.

Sounds awesome, right?

So, how do you create a squeeze page?

Create a squeeze page for solo ads affiliate marketing

Well, there are two ways of creating a squeeze for solo ads affiliate marketing campaigns.

1. Hire someone to create a squeeze page for you – Used to be the most popular way back in the last decade. But not anymore.
2. Use a landing page creator and design lead capture pages yourself – The best way to use solo ads for affiliate marketing. This way, not only will you be responsible for the success of your campaigns, but you will also be able to scale your campaigns in unprecedented ways.

So, what are the best solo ads funnel builders for affiliate marketing?

There are many landing page creators out there with different features. Some are tailored towards online course creators, membership sites, and WordPress site builders, while others lean towards email marketing, affiliate marketing, and solo ads marketing.

Here is a list of free and paid squeeze page builders to use solo ads affiliate marketing campaigns.

1. Clickfunnels – The professional marketers’ serious choice. Clickfunnels is equipped with many solo ad sales funnels and squeeze page templates to get you started.
2. Brizy Cloud – Another cloud landing page creator with an easy drag-and-drop builder. Learn more in this Brizy Cloud review. The cost of Brizy website builder is cheaper when compared with its competition.
3. Elementor – If your choice is a WordPress-based page builder, give Elementor a try.
4. UpViral – A giveaway software. Its new drag-and-drop intuitive page builder lets you build signup pages and have social share pages at the backend. Know Upviral pricing plans from here.
5. Kartra – Another funnel builder with tons of features, such as an email marketing platform, webinar software, and much more.
6. SwipePages – A fast landing page creator service
7. Unbounce
8. LeadPages
9. InstaPages

Here are several tips for creating an excellent squeeze page for solo ads traffic for affiliate campaigns

• A/B test every element – You should always run a split test to find an optimal landing page for solo ad traffic. Headline, sub-headline, CTA text, CTA button color, and font sizes are some of the most impactful elements that increase or decrease the landing page conversion rate.
• Use conversion boosters – Using progress bars, countdown timers, gamification widgets, and videos can boost the conversion rate. But, you must A/B test.
• Use exit popup boxes – Never waste a visitor. Get more people on your list by integrating an exit-intent popup. You can check this list of the best popup creators to find a suitable tool. I recommend Convertful to create better popups. Learn more in this Convertful review. Additionally, you can use a tool like ConvertBox (by the ThriveCart team). ConvertBox has got many features and targeting options for funnel builders. It is currently running a lifetime deal. Find out more in this ConvertBox review.

• Retarget visitors on social media – Lower the cost for solo ad traffic by retargeting visited people on social media. Once you have enough data, you can create a lookalike audience to get cheap leads.

Create your lead funnel by following these instructions and move to the next step on solo ads for affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Offer

Here is the step you were waiting for in this guide on solo ads for affiliate marketing!

You should be careful when selecting an affiliate offer. Here are some tips to consider:

• Select a higher converting offer – Many affiliate networks list the average conversion rate of the front-end offer and the overall conversion rate across the sales funnel. Look into those stats.
• Look at EPC – EPC or Earnings per Click will give you a vague idea of the average earnings per affiliate click. That way, you can assume average costs and the likelihood of the campaign’s success. If EPC > CPL, you can assume that the offer would be an excellent match to your solo ads affiliate funnel.
• Sales funnel structure – A sales funnel consists of the following:
  • Font end offer – The tripwire offer is usually a low-cost item. Ex: $4.99 or $9.99
  • Upsells – Mid-range priced items pitched after the front-end sale is made
  • Downsells – The lower-priced upsell. Pitched after the buyer rejected the upsell.
  • Free trial – Try a subscription-based product for free. Usually, software like WebSite Auditor or a SaaS app like BrandOverflow.
  • Recurring products – Is there any recurring product that you will make money on every period?
  • High-ticket items – Usually pitched at the end of the funnel. They are the ones that make a significant portion of revenue. However, many affiliate high-ticket items’ commission rate is low, usually below 20%.
• The quality of the product – Some products will be worth a ton in years to come. In my experience, I bought UpViral for a one-time fee. But now, it is a high-value item that is only offered in the recurring pricing model. So, I am glad I bought it when it was in the sale. Make sure your affiliate products are also high in quality, and your subscribers will not regret buying.
• Cookie details – Does the affiliate product follow the first-click or last-click model? What is the extent of the cookie lifetime? These are essential questions you need answers to.
• Sales page – Does the sales page have an opt-in form? If it does, stay away from those types of offers. Most of them are used to building their email lists and do not credit you for the sale even though they advertise they do.

How to find affiliate products for solo ads?

The best part is there are thousands of affiliate offers. You have no problem in that regard. But the issue is sticking with one offer and testing enough before moving to another affiliate product promotion.

Here are some of the best affiliate networks where you can find hundreds of thousands of affiliate products in various niches, from Make Money Online, MLM, Business Opportunities, and Cryptocurrency to health, gardening, and survival.

1. JvZoo – JvZoo is regarded as one of the best affiliate networks for solo ad traffic.
2. ClickBank – One of the oldest and most reputable affiliate networks. I have never missed any paycheck from ClickBank. They are transparent and vetted on products before listing them on the ClickBank Marketplace.
3. WarriorPlus – An affiliate product marketplace by WarriorForum, which Freelancer.com now owns. You can find products similar to the ones in JvZoo.
4. ShareASale – A place to find online service-based affiliate programs. Review of ShareASale affiliate network.
5. Impact – Another place to find software-based affiliate programs
6. Avangate – An affiliate marketplace with software mostly.
7. PartnerStack – Get access to SaaS affiliate programs
8. Clickfunnels – Promote affiliate products offered by Clickfunnels
9. ThriveCart – ThriveCart is an online checkout platform and affiliate management software. Some product owners use ThriveCart to run affiliate programs.
10. MaxBounty – A place to find high-quality CPA offers. Many of those will give you a cut for every successful lead. So, integrating a Maxbounty offer in your solo ads affiliate marketing campaign funnel can make you quick cash.
11. Commission Junction
12. LinkShare
13. Clickbooth
14. PayKickStart – Same as ThriveCart. PayKickStart lets vendors run affiliate promotions online.
15. PayDotCom

As you see, finding affiliate programs is not that hard. But, if you want to use solo ads for affiliate marketing in a unique way, you should take steps differently.

Here is what I mean. Many vendors have already sold popular affiliate products to their lists. For example, I do not know how many times email subscribers have seen Clickfunnels affiliate offers. So, how do you find unique but high-quality affiliate products for solo ads and email traffic?

MunchEye

Want to know how big boys and girls crush affiliate promotions and bank millions each year?

They get ready for big marketing promotions. MunchEye is an Internet Marketing Product launch calendar where you can identify products and their details. The best part is that you can easily find all product launches in every affiliate network on MunchEye.

It consists of three sections:

1. Big Launches – Product launches by big sellers
2. All Launches
3. Just Launched

Here is the MunchEye page for the SpinRewriter 12 product by Aaron Sustar.

Now since you know how to find a good affiliate offer, let’s move into the next step.

Recommended: I have written a complete guide on How to use MunchEye to make money. Check out if you are interested in learning more strategies for earning money through product launch promotions like Launch Jacking.

Tracking System

Like any business, you need to track the progress and monitor the performance — no difference for solo ads. In fact, you must use a traffic tracker in solo ads.

Although the seller will provide a final traffic completion report, you should always track it from your end. Why?

That is how you can carefully monitor the traffic, clicks, opt-ins, sales, geographics, demographics, and other traffic statistics. You need to find the best solo ads for affiliate marketing that work and buy from the vendor again to build your list and generate sales simultaneously.

You might find there are many link shortening services like Replug (review) and Bitly. But, they do not have features we need for solo advertising, such as traffic filtering, link redirection & rotation. Here is a list of leading link tracking tools for solo advertising:

• ClickMagick
• ClickMeter
• Click.Org
• LinkTrackr

The backend of the affiliate funnel

Now you have set up basic components. But, if you want to increase the return on investment for every solo ad click, you should strengthen the backend of your funnel. Like a house’s foundation, an affiliate funnel’s backend is the…

Yes, the email marketing setup.

A good marketer has set up a pretty good email sequence campaign for solo ad traffic. It is not all about focusing on the traffic you buy but also on the long-term vision too.

According to many studies, it takes at least seven contacts or touchpoints for a visitor to convert into a customer. That is why the cost of customer acquisition is higher in many industries. Also, a reason why many affiliate products offer a higher commission rate, usually 50% and up for the front-end offer.

Here are some tips to make the backend of the affiliate funnel powerful that make you passive income day and night:

• Use a good email autoresponder software – Some email marketing services have lower deliverability rates. Make sure your autoresponder also lets you segment your list with tags. I recommend GetResponse for beginners.
• Action-based email sequence – Current email marketing software lets you send messages based on the user’s actions. For example, if the subscriber clicks a link in an email about Fiverr gigs, send him an email about starting his own agency for freelancers.
• Have a high-converting email swipe file – Nature is full of patterns, be it waves, fractals, or spirals. Knowing these patterns can predict the future. Same for internet marketing campaigns. Any marketer’s dream is to use quality, proven, high-converting email sequences that can be changed minimally and achieve profit every time they push that magic “send” button. Check out these affiliate marketing email templates for inspiration.
• Increase engagements – How would you increase engagements? Provide resourceful content, link out to videos, ask questions, run surveys and polls, and hold giveaways.
• Offer bonuses – Offer bonuses for buying from your affiliate links. Entice scarcity by offering exclusive bonuses for the first ten buyers or people who buy the OTO (One-time Offers)
• Do not miss out on special moments – Send targeted offers on special days like Black Friday, Summer, New Year’s Eve, etc. Here is a list of email subject lines to use on special occasions, events, and holidays to boost your open rates and sales.
• Use countdown timers – Email timers can be extremely helpful in increasing urgency.
• Offer a variety of offers – People change so does their interest in a topic. Don’t be inclined toward a specific niche or selection of products. If you built an email list on make money online, test different offers related to business opportunities, funnel builders, online courses, SEO, content marketing, crypto, internet marketing, bitcoin, CBD, forex, and CPA.
• Retarget – Running a special affiliate promotion? Why limit to email marketing only? Retarget your subscribers on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, and websites through banner ads. Integrately lets you sync your list with most advertising networks. It is also a task workflow automation tool and an alternative to Zapier. Find out more in this review on Integrately.

Solo ads for affiliate marketing

Since you have set up the affiliate marketing funnel, buying solo ads for affiliate offers is next.

It involves these two essential steps:

1. Find a seller
2. Review the seller

Find a solo ad seller

This is a real task!

Why?

Because unlike Facebook ads or Google ads, Solo ads’ traffic quality depends on the solo ad seller’s hand. The money is wasted if you buy solo ads from the wrong seller. That is why you should be careful when buying ads.

But the good news is there are multiple ways to buy solo ad traffic.

1. Solo ad directory
2. Directly from vendor websites
3. Facebook groups and Forums

If you are a beginner, what I recommend is using a solo ad directory. The best solo ad directory is the Udimi.

Some of its features are:

Buyer Protection – It works as a middleman between buyer and seller. Think of Fiverr for solo ads. If you face any issue, Udimi is there for you to resolve your problem, even issuing refunds.
Traffic filtering options – It is hard to know if the traffic actually originated from emails. Udimi’s sophisticated traffic filtering system makes sure you get real email traffic.
No chance for spamming – If sellers send ads via spamming, Udimi will instantly discover that by getting spamvertising notifications via email feedback loops, and Udimi will just 404 any spam link, so there is no chance for spamming.
Guaranteed clicks – No space for fraud. You get guaranteed solo ad clicks.
Targeted clicks – Want to get targeted traffic from top-tier countries, not third-world countries. Udimi got it covered.
Solo Deals & Cheap Udimi Pricing — With a free Udimi account, you can purchase unlimited clicks and use Udimi Prime Traffic Filter for just $3.00 per solo ad campaign, no matter how many clicks are ordered. Also, you can get discounts up to 20% from different quality sellers in the Solo Deals section.
Money-back guarantee – You can get a refund on Udimi. It is something you can only hope for if you buy traffic from some sellers directly.
Check solo ad reviews – Buyers rate their purchases and seller’s traffic quality.
Udimi forum – Want to hang out with like-minded people and share knowledge on how to use solo ads for affiliate marketing and the best solo ads sellers for affiliate products? Check out Udimi’s Forum!

The best thing about Udimi, from a buyer’s perspective, is that the seller’s identity is verified to keep their network transparent.

Read: How Udimi Works

Other ways to buy solo ads for affiliate marketing that work

Apart from Udimi, there are only a very few solo ad directories. So, the alternative is buying solo ads from sellers directly via a website, Facebook group, or internet marketing forums. But, it is very risky.

If you want to buy solo ads for affiliate marketing from a seller directly, you will have to:

Test their traffic quality
Make sure traffic is delivered within the time frame
Make sure you are not scammed
Build a relationship and have a dialogue

You cannot risk everything because good solos cost $0.5+ per click, and it takes time and a lot of testing to find an optimal funnel setup. So, try Udimi and scale after that to other methods.

Recommended: Massive Solo Ad Rolodex (Get details of best Udimi vendors)

Review Solo Ad seller

If you choose a solo ad vendor from a directory, it is easy to review the seller. Here is the solo ad seller’s portfolio on Udimi.

93% of last solo ad reviews were marked as ‘got sales’
16% of buyers bought again
You can provide the solo ad text
Get only top-tier traffic

Check positive vs. negative ratings from buyers, including detailed reviews.

Also, see the traffic quality in the share report.

If you choose to buy solo ads directly from sellers, it is crucial to ensure you are spending your money in the right place. Some sellers will send fake clicks, and some sellers will deliver low-quality clicks.

The next step is buying solo ads for affiliate marketing campaigns.

Know your break-even point

Now, you know how to use solo ads for affiliate marketing. But, it is a business. You should regard it as a business to make a profit from every solo ad campaign. Here are some tips to understand your break-even point.

Track and monitor everything – It is essential to track every step of your funnel. Which demographic and geographic drew the most affiliate commissions?
Understand user stage – Where is the user located in your email funnels?
Increase EPC – 80% of your total affiliate commissions will come from 20% of products. What is the 20% of your business? Optimize it even more.
Leverage promotional and targeting strategies – Retarget people who did not subscribe for the first time and run a referral program to form a viral loop.

How Many Clicks Should You Buy?

Now, this is a complicated topic. Some would say you should start from 1,000 clicks for strong testing power. While others would say you should start small, like 100 clicks initially, to see if the solo ad seller’s traffic is worth buying more.

But, the lucky spot is within that 100 – 1,000 click range. Let’s assume that your solo ads squeeze page’s average lead conversion ratio is 35%, which is easy to achieve.

If you buy 100 clicks, you will spend about $50 and get 35 leads and 35 people who will see your affiliate tripwire offer. But if you buy 1,000 for $450 – $500, you will get 350 subscribers and 350 people who see your affiliate offer.

The sweet spot, according to my experience, is 300+ clicks. Here is why:

You will get 100+ subscribers to your list. (i.e: 300+ * 35% = 100+ leads)
100+ people will go through the sales funnel
100 sample size is the minimum to make a meaningful decision
It will cost about $150 to buy 300 solo ad clicks. If you are lucky, you will get 10% over-delivery from sellers. That means 330+ email clicks for $150.
The affiliate funnel should have a minimum of $0.5 EPC to get to your break-even point. Most high-converting affiliate sales funnels have $1+EPC. So, you get a return if you buy more clicks.

When using solo ads for affiliate marketing campaigns, data is significant. But you do not want to spend too much or waste money. So, 300 – 400 clicks will be a sweet spot to test an affiliate funnel and seller’s traffic quality. Just paint your own picture. Your mileage may vary.

Tips for Using Solo Ads for Affiliate Marketing

1. Always starts with a low number of clicks at first, like 100 clicks or 150 clicks.
2. Anything below 100 is statistically insignificant to making a decision. That is the double-edged sword of solo ads. You don’t want to spend too much on solo ads and also want to make the necessary decisions. So, choose wisely.
3. Ensure your solo ad affiliate and email marketing funnel are set up properly. Double-check tracking links, solo ads email copy for grammar with a tool like Grammarly (review of Grammarly.com), and make sure the squeeze page’s opt-in form and post-signup actions are working properly.
4. You cannot pause campaigns once they run. So, so make sure your affiliate links are right, and your affiliate tracking code is embedded. If you used an affiliate link tracker, which is highly recommended, you could reset the destination URL anytime you want from your end.
5. Working with a solo ad marketplace (e.g., Udimi) is recommended. You will save yourself from lots of trouble. Learn how to use the Udimi marketplace from here.
6. Invest in a tracking tool, fast-loading landing page builder, and high-quality email marketing tool.
7. Solo ads are all about testing and tweaking your funnels. You can continuously improve email swipes, selection of affiliate products, opt-in squeeze pages, lead magnets, and different solo ad lists. It is a process of improving and growing.
8. Know your break-even point. Know your numbers. Calculate CPC and EPC to determine the estimated profits per click so that you can scale your solo ad buying campaigns.

Related: How to Start a Solo Ads Arbitrage Business

The “Thank You” Page Magic

Now, you know how to use solo ads for affiliate marketing. But you are not the only one doing it. So, how would you do it differently to stand out from other affiliates and get subscribers’ attention the way you want?

It is a simple solution. Make the first moment a great memory.

Here is the truth: Ordinary people who use solo ad traffic for affiliate offer promotion simply redirect traffic to an affiliate funnel once the visitor is converted to a subscriber.

But you can be smart and integrate a referral or giveaway funnel where subscribers can win more gifts by inviting others to join your email list!

How cool is it?

The best online giveaway tool I have ever seen that is affiliates-friendly and allows integration with existing tools is UpViral.

Drag and drop page builder allows you to design any page you want to
A/B test sign-up and share pages
Run rewards and giveaway campaigns same time
On-Click signup links to enter participants without entering details again
Custom actions to incentivize people to do tasks you need. (i.e., Follow you on Twitter, Subscribe to your affiliate funnel, or even add your email address to the contacts list or address book)
Geo-restrictions, whitelisting, blacklisting, post-giveaway actions, emails on reward unlocks, and many features.

Radically improve your lead funnels by integrating a giveaway aspect. A viral loop generated by referees will reduce your solo ads budget and increase free traffic, email subscribers, engagements, and profits.

Host a giveaway campaign on UpViral servers or your website, and customize the landing pages with the drag-and-drop builder and A/B test. UpViral integrates well with page builders like Clickfunnels, InstaPage, LeadPages, and Brizy.

Check these UpViral pros and cons to decide if you should use it or look for an UpViral competitor like Vyper.ai or GrowSurf, which supports conversion/transaction tracking and can come in handy in solo ads affiliate marketing.

Final Words

Traffic is the blood of your online business. The person who knows how to drive lots of targeted traffic and convert them makes big bucks at the end of the day. It does not matter how good your graphics are and how convincing your emails and sales copies are. You won’t make money unless you know how to drive targeted traffic.

Solo ads are undoubtedly an excellent way of getting thousands of traffic on demand. Unlike other channels, solo ads traffic is targeted, qualified, and warmed up. And the best part is the costs per click of solo advertising in some niches are cheap compared with other niches. Ex: network marketing, business opportunities, finance, Cryptocurrency

Since most people like to tap into affiliate marketing due to low barrier, not having to provide customer service and literally unlimited earning potential, solo ads for affiliate marketing has become popular among the marketing community.

If you have done it correctly, you can make a profit from every solo ad click. That is what you learned in this ultimate guide to solo ads for affiliate marketing.

So, what have you learned from this article? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below. If you found this article helpful, please share it with your friends.