Wouldn’t it be nice if for every dollar you spend, you get back $11. Possibility of this happening with paid search marketing is almost slim to none. However, with media buying these numbers are a reality.
Yesterday, I had a very unexpectedly good day in terms of affiliate marketing and media buying. From just $93 ad spend, I made $1,362 in revenue. That is over 1000% return on investment.
Sounds unbelievable? Well, take a look at the screens below.
Nov 13, 2009
You all tried guessing what is the new marketing method that I’m using to promote offers. From the comments, I’m not surprised to see that none were able to guess. This is no fault of yours. This is because this method is not talked about a lot and there is not much about it out there either. But I’m sure you have heard or read about it briefly somewhere. So without further adieu, let me introduce to you “media buying”.
lol..did you just say, “oh I knew that”. I know you did, but it wasn’t so obvious, right? 
So what is Media Buying?
From an online affiliate/media buyers point of view, media buying is when you buy ad space on a website. It could be in the form of text ad, banners, rich media or video ads.
How is media buy priced?
Media buy can be priced on CPM basis as well as CPC basis. But majority of big publishers/websites only allow you to buy ad space on their site on CPM basis.
CPM = Cost per 1000 impressions
How much does a media buy costs?
A typical media buy could cost anywhere from $1k to over $100k. There are two types of buyers in the market.
Branders: These are big companies looking to brand their products. They normally don’t’ care how much they per CPM and normally they have big advertising budgets.
Direct Response Advertisers: This would be us, the affiliates or anyone who wants a direct return on their advertising dollar.
What do you need to get started with media buying?
You need a few things to get started. Media buying is good in way that you’re not competing with everyone in the market, however, you couldn’t start media buying with just $100.
1. So for one, you need at least 3k to 10k of capital to start. Your typical media buying deal as an direct response advertiser would be anywhere from $1k to $10k. Typically, most publishers will ask anywhere where between $5k to $10k but you can find or make a deal with them to do a test buy for $1k to $3k.
2. You absolutely need an adserver. Without an adserver you will be flying blind and most probably going to lose your money. Adserver is used to track clicks, spend, conversions and also optimizing your campaign.
3. You need to understand what an IO (Insertion Order) is and what clauses to ask for in it.
My results so far:
Currently, I’m not making enough with media buying to quit my job. Actually, I’m not even making as much as I use to with search PPC. However, just like with paid search marketing, I can work my way up to make 4 figures a day BUT without the fear of slaps.
-G
