You have plenty of options when it comes to paid advertising. Social Media Ads, Google Search Ads, Youtube, mobile Ads and there is also Solo Ads, but what are solo ads?
They’re probably the least known among all of the options. Even though they are probably the best traffic method for people who don’t have A lot of experience with paid advertising or are very well suited for someone looking to build their email list incredibly fast with ease.
What Are Solo Ads?
A solo ad is nothing more than an email marketing campaign. A mass email sent to your list prompting people to take action by signing up for A service you’re offering or purchasing A product that you’re promoting.
The thing is you need to send this email out by the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands to have an effective email marketing campaign, which would require you to have A massive email list or access to infinite leads/email addresses.
Which once you’re an established business online, or you’ve built your brand, and have been selling products for A while having effective email marketing campaigns or “follow up” promotions won’t be an issue, but what about when your first starting and you don’t have an engaged audience or don’t have A list of people that might want to buy what it is you’re promoting?
Related Post: Why Start An Affiliate Marketing Business?
Solo Ads are basically where you reach out to someone who has A pre-existing email list and they will send out mass email marketing campaigns catered to your product or service.
They’ll charge you per email sent and the cost can vary depending on the niche or industry that their email list is in. Which is another important thing to keep in mind, people have email lists in different niches or specific industries so you’ll need to keep that in mind when you’re getting ready to purchase ads because you wouldn’t want to purchase an email marketing campaign to A list that isn’t relevant to your product or service.
Say for example you’re an affiliate marketer and you’ve decided to promote products in the health industry and you find A solo ad provider that has amazing reviews, good prices and A high conversion rate / open rate within their email list but their list is built around people interested in or involved in the make money online industry. The chances of them signing up or purchasing something that isn’t directly related to their interests are a lot lower than if you purchased solo ads from someone who has A list relevant to your product.
To some, that statement might seem like A no brainer but it is something very minor that can be easily overlooked and cause you to get very little results / have A much harder time achieving A return on investment.
Solo Ads are very popular in the MMO (Make Money Online) industry and you can usually expect to pay around $0.40 per email.
Websites like Udimi are dedicated networks for solo ad providers. This also means if you do happen to have or build your own email list you could charge people per email you send for them as well.
How Solo Ads Work
Upon finding A solo ad provider that suites your needs you will then chose where you would like them to send traffic to and how many emails you would like to purchase.
Most solo ad providers will also give you the option to create your own email that you would like to send.
Although I would usually recommend just letting your provider write the copy / the email because they know what their list is more responsive to and will probably be able to achieve better results. Unless you are really able to identify with your ideal customers and have some experience writing influential sales copy.
That’s basically it, Solo Ads are very simple and effective paid traffic method.
You’re paying someone with an established email list to run an email marketing campaign to your website, product or service and they charge you per email sent.
Directing To An Affiliate Offer
Solo Ads are probably the only paid traffic method that you can send directly to an affiliate link.
For those of you that aren’t aware or are new to affiliate marketing, it is against terms of service and advertising policies to run paid advertisements directly to an affiliate link.
Doing so on platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram Or Youtube will eventually result in your account being banned or your marketing campaigns shut off.
I’m not saying that you can’t run paid marketing campaigns to your affiliate links on those platforms, it just requires you to be A bit more tech-savvy and have A website/bridge page that you own that you’re able to send traffic to before redirecting them to your affiliate offer.
The picture above using ClickFunnels as an example but the same principle applies for all affiliate offers, links or products that you’re planning on promoting.
Although sending paid advertisements directly to affiliate links can seem appealing, quick, and easy way to make some cash, I wouldn’t recommend getting into the habit of it.
Not only can it be A bad habit to form especially when your first starting because you don’t want to get into A rhythm of doing things A certain way because they seem easier. People that have A lot of success or make A lot of money online are the ones who treat it like A real business model and not so much as A get rich quick scheme.
Using Solo Ads For Leads / Building Your Own Email List
As the saying goes “The Money Is In The List.” Using Solo Ads to build your own email list is incredibly easy and effective. Especially if you’re someone who doesn’t have A following or really any traffic sources to build an engaged audience on your own.
Having an engaged email list or the ability to send follow up promotions through email is the most common marketing practice across all businesses. Whether your local pizza restaurant is sending A promotional about A discounted pie for the game day or its Valentine’s day sale from A high-end jewelry store utilizing email marketing A very powerful tool throughout every industry.
To build your email list using solo ads you would need to direct traffic to something called A capture page or A bridge page. Where you would offer some type of lead magnet / Perceived value in exchange for their contact information.
Below is an example of A Lead Magnet / Bridge page. Where I was offering A Free 4-day training where I was teaching people how to start their own online businesses online but it was spread across through A series of videos through email.
Upon signing up for the free 4-day training they were then taken to another page that gave A bit of on overview but it also redirected them to an affiliate link.
This is A very effective method because it gives you the ability more money back on the front end while building your email list because it can be difficult to be profitable from the start when building your email list with solo ads but don’t let that discourage you. You’re building an engaging audience that you’ll be able to monetize off of for months or even years to come off of your initial investment and once you do have an audience or an engaged email list you can then also use that to build traffic / utilize it to build other forms of engaged audiences.
Say you have A blog and you upload A new post or you have A Youtube Channel and you upload A new video or even A Facebook group having An email list gives you the ability to grow on those platforms as well. Send out an email notifying people when you’ve uploaded A new video or created A new post.
What Are Solo Ads?
A solo ad is nothing more than an email marketing campaign. A mass email sent to your list prompting people to take action by signing up for A service you’re offering or purchasing A product that you’re promoting.
- You find A Solo Ad Provider In Your Industry – Udimi
- Purchase Emails From Them (Price Ranges From $0.10-1.00 Per Email)
- The provider will then promote your website or your service to their email list