The role of Pay per Click (PPC) Affiliates

Just what is the role of the PPC affiliate in Affiliate Marketing?

The PPC affiliate spends a lot of time on a PPC campaign, researching keywords and phrases then optimizing the keyword list and experimenting with advertisement variations continually tweaking and modifying all variables to get the best from them, improving traffic quality and gaining the highest possible return for the merchant.

Couldn’t I just do this in-house or use a PPC agency?

Certainly you could but all the set up and maintenance costs would come from your company advertising budget.

The affiliate takes all the financial risk when setting up and maintaining a PPC campaign and if keywords do not convert or anything goes wrong it’s the affiliate that is out of pocket not the merchant.

It’s in the affiliate’s interest to work hard for merchants, as they are paid only on results, affiliates manage campaigns effectively and efficiently without using a merchant’s company resources, whereas if the merchant does his own PPC this requires a person to do it who will undoubtedly be in a salaried position adding to the company advertising costs.

Subcontracting a PPC campaign to an agency also incurs addition fees over and above the cost of the actual advertising.

Conclusion

Basically the PPC Affiliate does the majority of the work involved in PPC advertising but only makes money if it’s done right, thus minimising the financial risk for the merchant. Leaving the merchant free to use the budget saved in other areas of the business.