In the last two posts of this series, I talked about the importance of gauging a PPC Affiliate Program's reputation and weigning financial aspects such as rev-share and payment options. Now I'll take a look at bids and demonstrate how they're a strong indicator of a PPC provider's RIP - reliablity, integrity and performance.

Bids

Now that you’ve established the PPC provider as a sound business partner, you need to investigate their profitability. Bids are the bread and butter of the whole system. With almost any other factor, the affiliate can exert some influence – negotiate for a higher rev-share, seek a particular payment schedule, control the type and amount of traffic sent – but if the bids aren’t being strong enough from the PPC provider, then the whole game is over before it’s begun.

Some PPC providers allow you to look at the bids they have for any keywords, a fantastic tool for potential affiliates. With others, you have to be a little more savvy.

Think of it this way – two guys are selling water in the desert. One guy has crystal-clear ice water and the other has brackish, dirty, water with traces of camel urine. Who is going to have a tougher time with their marketing strategy? Who is going to have to work twice as hard to convince thirsty Bedouins that theirs is the water to drink?

PPC Affiliate Programs with high-bids are like ice water in the desert. They don’t need to make outrageous promises or rely on gaudy promotion techniques; they have a sound product that is simply better than their competitor. They are successful because of the quality of product and service that they offer, not because they have to go overboard to fool an affiliate. The better the PPC provider, the fewer efforts they’re going to make to attract you.

If your prospective PPC provider does not feature any tools to allow you to gauge their profitability, ask them. Send them an email or call them up. If you’ve got targeted traffic, that is, internet users who come to your site because of its specific content, let them know. They might have access to bids that are particularly high on some verticals, or bids on local searches that you can capitalize on. The benefit of having so many PPC Affiliate programs around is that each one is different and can cater to your individual needs. The webmaster who has a site on online gambling might not choose the same PPC provider as the webmaster who has a web forum on Montreal street racing.

One thing to definitely watch out for is a Bidding System. Any PPC Affiliate Program that features their own bidding system where advertisers can launch their own campaign is a program definitely worth your consideration. Why? Simply because that PPC provider will have bids on keywords that no one else does. If you partner with a host of PPC Affiliate programs, chances are you might be getting duplicate results for a search. A PPC provider with their own bidding system eliminates this problem immediately. Moreover, the revenue you earn with that PPC provider is going to be higher.