Marketing and advertising in the competitive online market need to be relevant, concise, highly targeted, and cost effective. Qualifying for all that are solo ads, a form of email marketing.
Solo ads, when done right, can lead you to quick success in the business. However, there are a few sob stories of people getting rigged as well.
On the greener side, Solo ads can increase your engagement rate and make you reach a larger audience, with the possibility to boost your ROI.
In this article, I tell you how a solo ad works, which niche it works best for, and how to run one. I also give you an insight on how to find reliable solo ad providers so you don’t get scammed like many.
With a lot more. Let’s get into it!
What Are Solo Ads In Email Marketing
Solo ads in email marketing are a type of email advertisement carried out intending to reach a bigger audience base. Here, a marketer pays to have their promotional message sent to a list of subscribers, owned by someone else.
RELATED: Click Here To See How Solo Ads Compare To Google Ads & Facebook Ads!
How Do Solo Ads Work?
When you want to reach a larger audience, you have to reach out to a marketer, perhaps someone from your industry. For an agreed fee, they would allow you to use their email list which you would be able to send your promotions or advertisements.
This does not mean they would hand you down their subscriber list. You would give them the link, poster, or email that you wish to send, and they would send it to their email list. The email will be sent directly to the target audience, only on your behalf.
Generally, the fee that you might need to pay would depend on the number of clicks on your advertisement. Or it might depend on how big the email list is.
The measure of your success through solo ads would depend on the following:
Quality Of Email or Subscriber’s List
The quality and more so, the relevance of the mailing list subscribers to your product are crucial when it comes to predicting the success of your solo ad.
You have to make sure that the solo ad provider that you would pay to send the email marketing too has an audience base that is close to similar to the niche.
Relevance Of the Offer:
You can’t send all the email fanfares to anyone and everyone. You would need to make sure that your online advertising is aligned and relevant to the audience you are targeting.
Do you expect to send an email about graffiti t-shirts to an audience who are usually interested in adjustable bath rails and have conversions? I don’t think so.
Quality Of Ad Copy:
Your ad copy should be clear, concise, and engaging. You don’t want to write a lot of fluff before getting to the point.
The more you highlight the benefits and how they can help the audience, the better the quality of ad copy. Additionally, you’d want to have a call to action (CTA) in your marketing piece.
Reputation Of the Solo Ad Provider:
You would have a higher chance of traffic conversions and clicks if the solo ads provider sending out the email is well-known, well reputed, and most trusted by his subscriber list. People are more likely to buy from email marketing that comes from trusted sources.
Timely Delivery:
The timing of your solo ads also determines the effectiveness of the marketing. It’s less likely an audience would pay heed to solo ads during the holiday season, for instance.
Are Solo Ads Worth It?
Yes solo ads can be worth it when done right. Although the costs and risks are lowkey always present with each email ad sent, there’s a lot that a relevant solo ad can provide to you.
First of all, regardless of whether you drive sales, you get to reach a bigger target audience. Some of these potential customers might never have heard about your business, had it not been for the highly targeted solo ads.
If you have a relevant audience and a reputed solo ad provider, one of the biggest benefits of working with solo ads is the promise of a higher return on investment (ROI).
Sure you have a price to pay for it, but compared to other forms of advertisements, solo ads are one of the most cost effective ones out there. These ads are especially worth it for businesses in niches where the pay per click rate is too sky high!
Remember your cost would depend on the click-through rate (CTR) so you wouldn’t have to worry about spending too much plus you would have flexible options on prices.
With solo ads, it is possible to gain quick results and hence quicker sales. This is primarily because you are not having to build your email list, another win situation.
Solo ads are all about little efforts for big returns.
Solo ads are also worth the money because of the degree of scalability. If you are short on budget and are starting small, you would want to scale down to a smaller audience. Unlike most other advertisements, you would also be able to test your promotion to see whether it performs well.
In Which Sectors Do Solo Ads Works Best
Solo ads are highly targeted and can get you a high return on investment. It is not true for all sectors though. Here are a few niches where solo ads work most effectively:
Information Marketing:
Information or internet marketing is another sector where you can expect a high return on investment with solo ads as a tool because it works on the basis of highly narrowed targets.
The sector mainly comprises brochures, lead magnets like eBooks, flipbooks, and how-tos. This would also effectively work for social media marketing, blogs, PPC, brochures, and banners.
Health and Fitness:
Weight loss programs, fitness food, supplements, and equipment are all part of a highly targeted niche. Email marketing through solo ads can be effective because people within this niche are always actively looking for better products and services. So solo ads can grab their attention.
Financial services:
Insurance or loan services, financial coaching, training courses, or investment programs are all part of the financial services sector and require advertisements that are more intended like solo ads.
Personal Development:
Solo ads work for sectors that promote and sell self-improvement materials like books and coaching services. The inquisitive, minded audience for this sector also clicks more on solo ads than others.
Native Advertisement:
Native advertisements are paid content and a part of digital marketing or digital display adverting. These work great with solo ads. It includes sponsored articles, social media posts, paid infographics, Spotify playlists, collaborations, etc.
Do Solo Ads Work For Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing and solo ads go hand in hand. Combining the two can help you increase your sales, and conversion rate, and earn an impressive amount of profit.
If you are an affiliate marketer, you would know that solo ads can help to build email lists and generate sales, all in no time. For affiliate marketing and solo ads to work well together, the email list must be relevant and targeted. It’s also important for promotional mail to be curated well with a good call to action.
How Do I Run Solo Ads?
Want to run a solo ad successfully and get it right from the get go? Here are a few steps to follow:
Step 1: Set up your objects regarding the solo ad. Make a checklist regarding how many signups you want, the budget, and what’s a good click-through rate for you.
Step 2: Determine the kind of solo ad you want to run. Solo ads can be of a few types, for instance, you could run a solo ad for sales leads, organic promotion, or affiliate marketing.
Step 3: Define your target audience clearly. Targeting the relevant audience makes or breaks the potential of your solo ad.
Step 4: Determine a budget you want to keep for running solo ads. You would want to keep a budget for your ad provider and a per day costing as well.
Step 5: Get your landing page prepared. Once a target clicks on the link you send them, it should direct them to a sales funnel where they are likely to earn you some money!
Step 6: Research and contact a reliable sales ad provider.
Step 7: Send them the link and finalize the email list that would be targeted with the solo ad.
Step 8: Test and track the performance of your solo ad.
Where To Find Solo Ad Lists
When I mentioned sob stories earlier, I meant people running solo ads from providers who turned out to be big let downs and spam filters blocking their campaigns. The only way your solo ad might fail miserably is when you fail to find a trustworthy and reputed solo provider.
There are several solo ad marketplaces to find legit solo ad providers. You may consider the following:
Udimi
It’s one of the top rated and most trusted marketplaces for finding solo ad providers. They are most popular as they offer protection against fraud and scams, plus the payments are processed by Udimi itself. You can enjoy 15% off recurring orders and discounts with each.
You can check out my Udimi Review here.
Trafficforme
It’s one of the marketplaces on the heftier side. With more costs, but provides reliable providers. This marketplace is particularly lucrative for niches such as finance, fitness and health, and personal development.
Upviral
Another reliable solo add list provider, where you are not restricted to running only limited campaigns. Their sweepstakes help you create a large audience target, while the excellent reward systems ensure no ads go stale. You also get analytics data for tracking.
SoloAdsX
As a solo ad provider, SoloAdsX is one of the ad providers with the most advanced features. They track email lists through locations and devices. With more advanced targeting capabilities, you would get more relevant lists for SoloAdsX.
Things To Consider Before Selecting Solo Ads Provider
Research is of utmost importance when you are selecting a solo ads provider. Read about the provider, watch out for reviews, and check their track record.
Here’s a checklist to determining a good solo ads provider:
Good reputation
You can search online for testimonials and client reviews to understand the track record of the provider. A reputed provider is likely to provide you with a more suitable email list.
Quality and price
First you need to make sure that the price is not off the roof. You need to be cutting costs with solo ads. More importantly, you would want to make sure they are providing you with quality traffic, not just any traffic. You could ask them to show you proof of conversions with their previous clients.
Contacts
It could be an extra security layer if the provider is reachable through contact. You would be able to rely more on providers who have a website and provide a phone number.
Terms and conditions
Read what they mention in their terms and conditions before finalizing a deal.
Here are key tips you may want to keep in mind when looking for a provider:
- Don’t splash on solo ad providers at the beginning. You would want to start small.
- Use socials media, forums, and community discussions to know more about a particular provider
- Don’t take testimonials to be facts. Trust only reputed sources.
- Don’t believe anything that sounds too good to be true in solo ads schemes.
- Always ask the provider about their experience and how the email list came about.
- Make sure the spam complaint rate is no more than 0.2%
- Ask your potential provider about their hard bounce policy. Any provider saying none would be a red flag.
How To Measure ROI On Solo Ads
In any investment, it’s imperative to be able to measure the expected return. In conversion marketing procedures such as solo ads, you need to measure the ROI.
Here are ways to track and measure ROI on solo ads:
Return On Investment (ROI)
Percentage of profit made through the solo ad divided by the amount of money put into the ad campaign. Higher the ROI, the better. In simple words, your ROI should be high to indicate that you are gaining more than you are investing.
Cost per lead (CPL)
This is the total amount of money you invest in your ad campaign divided by the number of leads created. The lower the CPL, the more cost effective your solo ad is. Hence, the lower your CPL, the better. This will indicate that ROI is higher.
Click through rate (CTR)
CTR is the measure of the percentage of people who are seeing your ad and clicking on it. Simply put, the number of ads on your clicks is divided by the number of times your ad is shown. A good CTR may range from 2 to 5%. A lower CTR means a lower ROI.
Conversion rate
The target audience that converts into customers makes up the conversion rate. Higher the conversion rate, the higher would you expect your revenue to be. A higher conversion rate is an indicator of better Roi and a sign that your solo ad is effective.
Retention rate
Retention rates are your old customers. This comprises people who come back to buy from you. When a solo ad targets an audience that not only converts but is retained, it means your ROI would be higher.
How To Track the Performance of Solo Ads
What would set you apart from your solo ad competitors is your ability to track your campaign’s performance. Tracking is important in online marketing because it lets you understand which promotional campaign is working and where the traffic is being directed from.
Tracking tools and apps help in this cause. The one I recommend is ClickMagic. While ClickMagic is not a marketplace to find vendors, it is one of the best tools used for solo ad tracking.
The website provides for cross device tracking and helps you to set pay rules and limits. Tracking your progress in a solo adventure is as important as getting hold of good providers.
Testing your solo ad performance can take you places with your engagement. And there are a few ways to accomplish testing of your solo ads.
For one, you would test the landing page that potential customers will be directed to. You could do this using A/B testing. This works for opt-in leads on personal landing pages.
Another way is to purchase a few hundred clicks, about 300 to 500, from your provider. This would allow you to foresee whether you can get your targeted sales with this provider.
FAQs
How much do solo ads cost?
The cost of solo ads would depend on the reputation of the provider, the size of the email list, the quality of the email list, and your niche. Typically, solo ads can cost from $30 to $500 in total. Udimi for instance, charges $0.05-$0.09 per click.
How do I become a solo ad seller?
For starters, choose a niche or category and start web hosting. Next, if you’re doing it on your own, you would need email marketing software like Convertkit. Then, you would want to join solo ad marketplaces where you can sell your solo ad. Once you have everything ready, you will fill orders and broadcast them.
Final Thoughts
Solo ads can be one of the most effective forms of online advertisements when and if you can run one the right way. The right way to run solo ads is to understand who your target audience is, for one.
A reliable solo ad provider from a trustworthy marketplace can be a starting point. You would need to cross check the quality and quantity of your email list and the track record of your provider alike.
Let me warn you that there are leeches out there waiting to rob you through your solo ad. Being careful would keep you safe and boost your ROI like never before.
