Finding The Best Solo Ad Providers

Finding a good solo ad provider can be tricky. Earlier this week I've been approached by Nik, a very unhappy affiliate marketer who feels he's been conned by his solo ad vendors. Nik is promoting a "business opportunities" niche and has recently bought a solo ad traffic twice, 100 clicks (i.e. 100 visits to his site) each from different vendors;

I looked at Nik's lead generation page and it appeared to be reasonably responsive to me. I also looked at his email swipe files and I couldn't find any faults. So I concluded it was the low-quality traffic that he received; he didn't have much luck in choosing his solo ad providers, in my opinion.

Internal Factors

I couldn't find any mistakes or faults in Nik's lead webpage nor in his email swipes. Firstly I'll explain what a responsive lead generation (opt-in) page should be and a decent email campaign should be.

I have recently explained about a responsive opt-in page in one of my posts, so I'll just summarise here;

• The header should say it all; explain what you're promoting in no more than 2 lines.
• The opt-in form should be placed in above-fold.
• The opt-in form should collect the visitors' first name and email address only. Don't try to collect unnecessary information such as the visitors' last name, address, phone number etc.
• The page should load fast. 
• The page should be built using an updated page builder. It's vital to be mobile-friendly.
• No jargons! Terms we (you and I) use on a daily basis can be someone else's alien words. For example "lead generation" "web traffic" "solo ad"... Online newbies don't know any of these words.

Now email campaigns that are not opened by recipients; there are two main reasons;

• The subject line is boring; need to learn a copywriting technique, or
• Emails end up in spam folder.

The subject line of each email needs to be interesting enough for many recipients to open. A basic copywriting technique is essential.

To make sure your email is safely delivered to your subscribers' inbox,

• Avoid using spammy words ("free" "credit card" "clear your debt")
• Never use a free email address (gmail, hotmail, yahoo-mail etc.)
• Place no more than 2 hyperlinks in one mail
• Optimise image, if embedding. No more than 1Mb but as small as possible in file volume.
• Write at least 10 sentences.

If these factors on your part are all clear and you're not getting good direct results from the purchase of solo ad traffic (i.e. low opt-in rates and low email open rates), it's very likely that the vendor didn't deliver responsive visitors to your page. 

What Is An OD (Over-Delivery)?

Let's look at Nik's case above (1) and (2) again. He received "10% OD" from the first vendor, and "25% OD" from the second vendor. 

Over-delivery is extra clicks that solo ad venders normally deliver as a bonus. The reason behind it is because quite oftentimes, a discrepancy occurs between a seller's tracking record and the buyer's own record. It can be due to different filtering systems they use, or it can be the server's slow response. For example a buyer's web server speed is temporarily erratic and the response is timed out when a visitor is sent to the webpage.

As a result, while the seller's statistics show "100 clicks delivered", the buyer's statistics might show less, say "97 clicks received". Anticipating the discrepancy, normally 10% or more extra clicks (=visitors) are sent at a solo ad provider's discretion. Some providers can be more generous and send more visitors, say 15% by default. If they receive a complaint from their buyer for low opt-in rate, they might send even more visitors, such as 30%, 40%, 50% and so on. 

In terms of the opt-in rates in Nik's case, he received;

What Are "Responsive" Visitors?

Responsive visitors are visitors to your website who show interest by taking action. They would subscribe to your newsletter, they would email you back to ask some questions, and ultimately purchase your products.

So I'll rephrase this question - How and why some solo ad vendors send you non-responsive, useless visitors?

#1 "How Does That Happen?"

​How come an opt-in rate can be so extremely low? (Nik's case No. 1) Or how come very few subscribers open your email, despite the fact that you've received such an amazing opt-in rate? (Nik's case No. 2). The reasons can be;

1. The solo ad provider sends out bot traffic (using a software or a bot traffic exchange service)
2. They have many bot subscribers in their list, and they're spreading fake opt-ins without realising it.
3. They are sending a campaign to wrong type of subscribers. For example if your webpage is about cryptocurrency investment, while the provider advertises your page to people who are looking to make success in affiliate marketing...then nobody will sign up with you.
4. They are using a clickbait technique. Some are maliciously deceptive (e.g. "Sign up with this offer and claim your free $1,000 instant cash.")
5. They are collecting low-quality subscribers in the first place.

If an opt-in rate is extremely low, any one or more (or all) of above can be the reasons. Whereas if an opt-in rate is unusually high (>60%) but your email open rates are so low, No. 2, 4 & 5 are likely to be the reasons; bots or fake opt-ins.

#2 Why Are Some Solo Ad Providers Doing This...?

The reason is simple; because they're not customer-focused. They don't know they have a duty of care to their customers and make their own excuses such as; 

• "I'm delivering good results with other customers, so the low opt-in that you received must be due to some fault at your end (and it's not my problem)."
• "You only ordered 100 clicks. I need to give priority to other customers who buy in bulk, 1,000 clicks or above at a time (so I couldn't care less about you)."

Neither of these excuses is valid, nor acceptable. They have a duty to ensure each buyer is happy however small the unit of order is. 

Finding The Best Solo Ad Providers

It's not too difficult to find out a solo ad provider is sincere or ignorant - ask questions before you order a traffic service, and see how helpful they are. Here are some tips;

You can tell how experienced and helpful the vendor is from the way they explain. If their answer is minimal ("Okay." "Sure, will do."), forget that vendor and find someone else.