Colossal Mistakes Solo Ad Buyers Make Costing You Sales and Opt-ins

Are you among the solo ad buyers or want to be a solo ad buyer? If you’re not, you should be if you do email marketing of any kind, and build an email marketing list.

What stops many people from being a solo ad buyer?

Often it is fear. Fear of what? Commonly it’s one of these things:

• fear of solo ad failing
• fear of getting ripped off
• simply fear of the unknown

Now it’s time to help you eliminate those fears. Knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do. Let’s take a look at some colossal mistakes to avoid when you decide to buy solo ads, because you really need to kick the fear in the butt and join the league of solo ad buyers…

#1 Not Creating the Right Offer

This is big to do correctly from the start because is literally how you can make your solo ads free. Would you like free solo ads?

Of course free is meant as a result of your ad. Solo ads of any value must be paid for upfront. So you want an offer that is often referred to as self-liquidating.

Sometimes this might be called a “trip wire” or other terms used to lead an opt-in to making a purchase from you.

So the bottom line is you first give away something of incredible value. This means something that actually solves a real problem, but doesn’t solve the world of problems in your niche.

Then the next page makes on offer of something that builds on what you just gave away and offer to sell it for $7 to $27. You should keep the price as low as possible since the solo ad audience probably doesn’t know who you are, and they are putting you to the test.

You lower the barriers to purchase by minimizing the risk.

Your goal is obvious – make enough sales of the “up sell” to cover the cost of your ads.

Make sure your email follow up series continues to promote your up sell to increase the odds you will liquidate the cost of your ads.

#2 Not Using a Performing Ad

Ok, I can see you now saying how do I know my ad is performing if I haven’t sent it out or don’t have a list yet to test it with?

First, remember testing an ad with your own list is not a good test for what to expect from a solo ad list. Why? Two reasons…

1. Your list knows you and therefore is at least a warm audience
2. The solo ad list doesn’t know you and therefore is more like a cold audience that is only slightly warm because they know the sender

Well, you do have to take a leap of faith sometimes, this is business. Nevertheless, make sure you do the following:

• Split test your landing page
• Have multiple up sells or down sells
• Have an email follow up sequence

Don’t buy the largest number of clicks the first time you send. Use a small sample regardless of what bargain the solo ad provider offers

#3 Not Test and Tracking

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times anyone tells the new marketer to test and track, 95% won’t test and track. This is a big mistake to do in solo ads (or any advertising), because it is so easy to do online.

In the Navy, we would never go flying in the dark or the clouds without our instruments. That would be crazy right? So why would you send an ad out in the dark without testing and tracking it, unless you enjoying having no clue on whether your ad actually performs or not.

The bottom line is, there is absolutely no possible way to improve your ad performance if you don’t test and track.

Most good solo ad providers do track your clicks for you, but they can’t split test for you. Nevertheless, you should be tracking your own click through performance to keep your provider on their toes, and know which clicks go to which split test version of your ad.

#4 Not Knowing Your Metrics

What does this mean? Well, it means you need to know all your costs. Often the first-time buyer equates this to simply know the cost per click of the solo ad.

Wrong, wrong wrong!

The cost per click is only of concern when the solo-ad does not perform. But even then, it isn’t necessarily a cost per click problem.

Which is why problems number 1 through 3 are so vital to your marketing.

Here’s an exaggerated example that isn’t real, but illustrates the point…

Let’s say you have an offer for platinum hammers, and then you can put these hammers in a vending machine for $100 each. Then people are willing to put $120 in the machine day in and day out to get those hammers. You paid $100 per click (metaphorically). Was it worth it?

By knowing your costs, start to finish, you negate the worrying about the wrong thing. Start to finish includes your response to your email follow up sequence as well, not just the immediate buyers from the first click on the solo ad link. Are you getting this?

#5 Not Writing Your Own Solo Ad

There is a lot of differing wisdom on this, and anyone can make their argument sound logical. So here is an industry leader expert input…

The bottom line is the solo ad vendor is only trying to get clicks, and you are trying to get leads that will convert to sales. Your goals are vastly different than the vendors. You want subject lines and text that qualify your clicks as the right clicks.

Here’s a simple way to write solo ads that qualify your clicks…

#6 Not Getting Tier 1 Clicks

What is a “Tier 1 Click?” It’s clicks from people is the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand.

Why are these tier 1? It’s not because marketers think they are nicer than people in other countries. It’s because of the metrics. The numbers prove, without a doubt, that internet users in these countries are more likely to get out their credit card and buy something.

For you the marketer, no matter what country you are in, the best way to maximize sales is to get the majority of your solo ad traffic from tier 1 countries

#7 Not Knowing Who to Trust and Taking All the Risk

Actually, this isn’t a mistake. It almost cannot be avoided. Why?

Think about it for a second. You be the ad publisher for a moment. Is there any way for an ad publisher to have any idea if your ad converts when they did not create your ad, or test any of your metrics? Why do you think Google, Bing, Facebook, etc. do not guarantee your results?

It is simply not possible if they did not create your ad and do the metrics themselves.

So are there any solo ad vendors who will create the ads and run the metrics for you?

The answer is yes, and they are hard to find. But one I know of is Glen Hopkins and T1 Traffic. So give them a look if you want someone who does all of this for you. Can’t say how long he will keep offering this kind of service, but as I write this, it is available.

A second very limited risk option is with Igor Kheifets.  Kheifets offers what he calls Solo Ad Insurance.  He has an excellent reputation in delivering quality solos.  So Solo Ad Insurance is definitely worth your further investigating for you.

You can also minimize your risks by joining Facebook groups like “Solo Ad Sales Testimonials” or “Solo Ad Results“.