What are solo ads? solo ads that are sent to customers based on a specific location. These are customer-specific and topic-focused promotions that are targeted to a specific group of consumers. These advertising materials contain only advertised information about any product or service, which means you are the only star on the platform and no one else is holding your spotlight.
Many people question the effectiveness of solo ads compared to banner ads because it is popularly believed that not many people appreciate this type of marketing technique. Generally, they are often perceived as unnecessary and a nuisance.
But, if you look at it from a bigger picture, the purpose of advertising and marketing objectives is to get people to see and be aware of your product. Out of a hundred or thousands of people on the mailing list, it would be impossible not to have a single soul eager and eventually click on your ad.
If you want to try out the power of single ads, there are a few things you need to be careful of:
- There are tons of solo ad blasters online that can deliver too many good and true promises that can almost sweep you off your feet. But, before you give your sweet “yes” to the offer, do a good background check and see what other customers are saying about them.
- If you’re still unsure of any of the information we’ve gathered on good solo advertising companies, do a test and see how it changes your numbers – % of options, whether solo ads generate sales for you. Through this, you can get an idea of exactly whether this technology is what your business needs. Remember that not all marketing strategies are ideal for you.
- To save you a lot of time and other essential work, point to real people who can help with your solo advertising campaign. Hit up the directories that have a compilation of all kinds of solo advertising companies. These directories have classified these single ads by different marks. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to deliver the right kind of note to the right kind of audience.
Solo advertising is not rocket science, but it does require adequate understanding and extensive work to ensure its effectiveness as a tool to advertise your product. Explore your options and see what works, the Internet is a huge marketing field, solo advertising or not, your imagination is your only limit.
What are Solo Email Ads?
Solo advertising, also known as single advertising or email advertising, is a form of advertising by which an Internet marketer, who usually has an informational product to offer or sell online, often engages in the Internet marketing/online marketing.
To earn money/work from home, another pays email list builders who have an email list in the same niche or interest. A quick list or single email ad is a one-time email blast sent by another party to their email list, usually for a fee. Usually, this is a flat fee or performance-based.
The ‘quick list’ component refers to a list that has already been created, but by someone else. This is not the same as buying an email list where you get people’s emails and contact information. The emailing list is created, owned, and maintained by the person or company you are paying for.
You don’t have access to their list because the email is sent by the person or company that owns it. You will usually provide the sender with the copy you want to appear in the email. In some cases, the sender may choose to edit your copy or write it himself.
Now that we’re on the same page as to what solo ads are, let’s dive into some of the details.
Should You Buy Solo Ads?
The first thing you need to do is ask yourself, “Should I buy a solo ad?”
While emailing thousands and thousands of people may sound good on the surface, there are some important questions you need to ask yourself.
Questions like:
- How reactive is the list? Has the owner of the list destroyed it multiple times and now its open rates are disappointing?
- Are the prospects on the list for your ideal target audience? If the list isn’t targeted or related to your audience, chances are they won’t be interested in what you want to say in your email.
- Do you have proper tracking? You need to set up to track these initiatives to know if you are getting what you are paying for.
- What should be the return on my investment to make it worth it? You will need to know what goals need to be met so that you can be sure that you are not going to lose more than your investment.
- While there are certainly additional questions that may be specific to your situation, I have found these to be among the most important questions that should always be answered.
Solo Ad List Responsiveness
Let us dig a little deeper into the importance of single ad listings and their engagement. Most solo ads will only tell you how many people are on their list that they like to “wow” you with their ability to reach such a large audience.
While list size is somewhat important, what is more, important is how active the list is with the emails they receive. If you’re buying a single ad from someone who blasts emails for anything and everything every day, chances are there will be less engagement on that list.
So out of the thousands of people on that list, only a small percentage will be paying attention to any emails coming from that sender. You will not reach thousands of people – only a fraction of what was promised.
If possible, ask the sender about their specific open rates. Of course, it’s not always the sender’s responsibility to generate an open because subject lines play a huge role in this. 33% of people say that subject lines determine whether or not they will open an email.
Finding the Right Audience for Single Ads
While it’s certainly important to find a single ad with an engaging audience, it’s more important to make sure you’re sending the message to the right audience. Think about it, would you like to talk to people who are apartment owners about top backyard landscaping tips?
Probably not because they won’t have much use of this information because they don’t have a yard. So with single ads, you need to know not only your target audience but the audience of the list you will be emailed.
Most reputable single ad providers can give you a pretty good idea of the demographics of their list. If a provider can’t give you these details, I suggest finding someone else to buy a single ad. Once you have identified a list that your ideal audience is on, you need to evaluate whether it will be worth your time and money.
Set your solo ads up for success
Everything needs to be tracked in the digital marketing world. This includes your solo ads.
Some single ad providers will provide you with their data, but you need to track the data yourself.
This can be done easily with Google Analytics.
The ideal way to do this is to use the UTM parameter in the URL of your single ads. UTM parameters work in Google Analytics and are essentially tags that can be sent to your analytics account along with some detailed information.
For example, your URL might look something like this:
www.yoursite.com/sales-page?utm_source=solo-ad&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=website-you-bought-the-ad-from
There are 3 required fields when using UTM parameters:
- utm_source – used to identify the source of the traffic
- utm_medium – This is the medium the link was on (email, CPC, etc.)
- utm_campaign – This is used to label the campaign in which the link was marketed (in this case, it could be the website from which you purchased the single ad)
When using UTM parameters, keep in mind that they are case sensitive – so be sure to be consistent with your naming conventions.
You’ll want to use these URLs in your ad campaigns and then link your initiatives to sales. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that Google Analytics has a goal-tracking setup as well.
Setting up proper tracking will help you know whether single ads are a good fit for your business.
It’s important to stay on top of your metrics, especially when you run into single emails.
Know your break-even point with solo ads
As with any investment made in your business, you should always know what your expected return on investment is. You probably don’t want to spend more money than you make – it’s generally not the best way to run a business.
Let’s say you received a single ad with 1,000 emails and it would cost you $1,000.
This means you will spend $1 for each outgoing email.
Now, take the low-end worst-case expected conversion rate of 1/2%. So that means you would expect 5 sales from this list of 1,000 emails.
With your $1000 investment, this would result in a cost of $200 per sale. Therefore, you must have at least one product or service that will bring in at least $200 per sale to break even.
If your typical sale is $500, this particular listing will be worth the potential investment.
However, if your typical sale is $50 this would not be a good listing you would lose money.
But if you’re confident that you can write a compelling email subject line and engaging content that will drive people to buy on your website, you can increase your expected conversion rate and make the numbers run again.
Over time, you’ll be able to get a good idea of your specific conversion rate and make a more educated decision when searching for individual advertising opportunities.
You may find that your single ads initiative is driving a 2% conversion rate, which means you’ll need to earn at least $50 per sale. But if you’re selling a $200 offer, with a 2% conversion rate, you can get $4000 in sales. Subtract your $1000 investment and you’ll be left with a profit of $3000.
Ca-ching!
When you can be proficient with single ads, it’s like printing money. Just make sure you have a tool to evaluate the return on your investment.
Knowing the Basics of Solo Advertising Can Go a Long Way
Understanding the basics of single ads can help you become smarter about your approach. When you know what to look for, how to track it, and how to evaluate your return, you can make smart business decisions.
Look, there are many shady providers of single ads out there – but there are some great ones.
Knowing the basics can help you tackle the waste and find the right provider for your solo ads.
While no guarantees are using single ads, by asking the right questions and implementing proper tracking, you can put yourself in a better position to make the right decisions.
Interested in using solo ads? Great!
Looking for a way to track their effectiveness before you get started? Ok, kudos to you for being business savvy.
It’s important to know how well solo ads perform financially and ClickPerfect provides the insight you’ll need to evaluate your success. This handy tool will help you learn more about the overall customer feedback along with the benefits of sending a single ad list.
An alternative to solo ads
If all of this sounds tempting, but you’re too broke to test it, there’s an alternative. Make a good eBook or some tutorial series. Make it enough to be worth $5-$10. Set up a landing page and write some email copy to sell it. Also, consider setting up a simple affiliate tracking system – you’ll need to verify sales.
Now reach out to some list owners in your niche. Here’s your pitch: You send my email to your list, and I’ll give you all the proceeds from the sale. But I need to have the email address of anyone who places the order.
Here’s why it works:
- You will be introducing your brand and your small $5 product to a new audience.
- You will be building your list – but not just with everyday customers. You’ll find customers who are willing to shell out money for what you sell. This is a far more valuable customer than someone who has never been bought.
- Your list partner stands to make a fair share of the change. At least enough to make it worth your while.
Your listing partner wants the landing page and shopping cart to be on their site. You may also have to play with how much your product should cost. Maybe the owner of the list wants it to be $2. or $10. Run the numbers and get as good a deal as you can.
Even after a few deals like this, you will have built up a small but highly responsive list of buyers. It is something on which a business can be built.
Wrapping up with what are solo ads and usage
For some businesses, single ads work well. They’re an affordable way to quickly build lists or blast exposure for a product launch. But there are some stories of people getting burnt. And there are other sobbing stories of marketers not doing their homework and thus getting really bad results.
If you don’t go through a list carefully, and you haven’t chosen a list that’s appropriate for your business, don’t complain about losing money.
And please, start slow. You won’t know how your email/landing page creative performs until you try it on 3-5 lists. Just because your creative tank is on a list doesn’t mean the owner is a scammer. This could mean that their list doesn’t care about your offer.
