The Beginners Guide To Solo Ads

While influencer marketing and maintaining a social media presence have become the most common forms of promoting a business, it is important that you do not overlook the role that email marketing still plays today. Some studies have found that email marketing can generate an average of $38 for each one dollar that you spend on the strategy.

This brings an ROI that is much higher than a lot of the alternative marketing methods that you may choose the utilise.

Building a list on your website to participate in email marketing is one way to go about implementing this strategy. Another method that can generate a significant increase in traffic and even revenue is solo ads, but choosing the right list and company is critical when it comes to sending out emails to a list that was built by someone else.

What Are Solo Ads?

Before we dive deeper into this beginner’s guide, let’s first take a moment to look at what exactly solo ads are and how solo ads work. While the term is often used, especially when it comes to email marketing, there are some business owners who are not entirely sure what these advertising methods are and how their brand could benefit from them.

Solo ads are sometimes also referred to as quick ads. These are emails sent to a list that is owned and controlled by someone else. This “someone else” could be a person who has collected leads in a specific niche, or rather a business that specialises in building email lists and then selling solo ads on these lists.

The above is an example of a Solo Ad that I used to send out to attract people towards getting a free DropShipping e-book that I wrote. 

Not all individuals and companies that specialise in offering business owners solo ad opportunities work in the same way. Sometimes, you are given an opportunity to set up an email yourself.

Other times, however, you might have to provide details on what you wish to promote and then the person who owns the email list would set up an email with your business or offer’s details.

Are Solo Ads Worth Buying?

Solo ads can sometimes be relatively expensive, especially when paying a flat rate instead of being billed based on the performance of the campaign. You obviously want to ensure that your money will be well-invested, so asking whether or not these ad campaigns are effective is important.

The truth is, solo ads can be worth the money, but only if you are careful when it comes to choosing a supplier or even a specific list to send your email to. Not all suppliers have lists with responsive leads. When the targeting of the list is too broad, then you might also end up with a very low conversion rate and ultimately waste your money.

The good news here is that emails still play an important part in the lives of the average person, especially the professional individual. It is, however, important that you find the best place to buy solo ads.

One report explains that 59% of marketers that focuses on B2B strategies rate email as the most important effective channel when it comes to generating revenue. Another report explains that there is a 138% increase in spending when a person decides to buy something they received through an email offer.

It's always worth doing test runs with any new solo ad provider that you decide to go with. For example running a a solo ad towards 100 - 150 clicks will allow you to gauge how responsive the list is and the optin rates of your landing pages. 

You also require a good follow up sequence, providing your new subscribers with information towards the product they originally wanted to be told about. 

How To Choose A Solo Ad Provider?

Now that we have established that solo ads can provide effective results when increasing leads and profits, and generating more revenue, it is time to consider how you can go about choosing the right solo ad provider for your campaign. As we have noted, there are many providers out there, and they do not own lists that will provide you with effective results.

When you decide on a solo ad campaign, always do research. Try to find a number of different solo ad providers and then compare them to each other. Ask them some important questions to help you determine how effective and responsive their list is.

See if you can get an overview of the performance yielded in previous campaigns from these providers. This will help you determine the open rate and click-through rate of previous campaigns.

You may also ask the provider if you could see some of the previous emails that were sent to the list, along with the results of these campaigns. With this type of data in your hands, determining how successful your business would be with a solo ad to the provider’s list becomes easier.

You also need to make sure that the list is relevant to the niche that your business is targeting. There is no use in sending out a solo ad about a product that helps a person gain weight when those on the list are all interested in fighting against obesity.

Once you have all the relevant data, compare the different providers that you found. If you are using a platform that provides you access to these providers, see if you can find some reviews from people who have used them in the past. You ultimately want to choose a solo ad provider that is niche-relevant and has a high response rate but still offer you access to their list at an affordable price.

Using a platform such as Udimi will allow you to run very specific searches, or filtering to help you find the right seller. An example of one that I use when trying to test out new sellers can be found below. 

I look for people up to $0.95 a visitor, who can start with 200 visitors in the next 24 hours and who have got at least some sales. 

It is also a good idea to start out with just one campaign at a specific provider. You could set up smaller campaigns with multiple providers. This helps you analyse the results and find out which list or supplier is able to give you the best response rate.

As you can see from the example above, 50 sellers meet my criteria, so I have a number of different ones to use. 

Another option is to get the 'Little Black Book Of Traffic' from James Farcett. It's one of his upsells within the Break Out Reloaded course. The course shows how he uses solo ads and email marketing to build his $60k a month business. The Black Book upsell costs $27 (go for the downsell), and it's essentially his best Udimi providers and other platforms that you can get traffic from. 

Beginners Guide To Solo Ads - Conclusion

Solo ads can get a bad mark against them, mainly because a lot of people who sign up to these emails or ask for more information can be unresponsive or simply want free information. 

If you take the time to email, provide information and constantly nurture your new leads to become buyers. 

Solo ads can offer an excellent opportunity to grow your own email list by sending traffic to a landing page or a lead capture page. With some planning, you can use this type of advertising campaign to provide a significant boost to your business, whether your goal is to collect leads or to increase sales. 

Check out the Udimi review to see why I rate it as one of the best places to get Solo Ads.