Optimization is a key factor in success for internet marketing campaigns. There are so many variables needed to be tested until a campaign is fully tested & optimized.

One of these variables is frequency capping or also called as individual user capping.

If you are new to media buying, or CPV Marketing, you have to understand the frequency cap concept before setting up your first campaign.

What is a Frequency Cap or Individual User Cap?

Frequency cap or individual user cap is the number of times a unique visitor sees your ads within a given time. For CPM ads, when time period is not specified, the default time period is 24 hours.

In plain English, if frequency cap for a campaign is 2, it means a unique visitor will only see your ad maximum of 2 times within 24 hour period.

Why Do You Need to Set a Frequency Cap?

• Some sites have autorefresh javascript within their code. When you visit these types of sites, every X seconds, the site refreshes itself, by counting each refresh as an extra impression, and charging the CPM advertisers. So, a visitor might leave a page open, leave the computer and come back several hours later. Meanwhile, your ad can be shown to the same user thousands of times, by wasting your advertising budget.
• If a site is getting more than average page views per user numbers, you have to be careful. Forums, social sites, user generated content sites usually fit in this category.

Setting Individual User Cap for CPV/PPV Campaigns

Deciding on individual user caps for CPV campaigns is little different than CPM campaigns. You have to think about cookie length, audience target size (super targeted, or not, etc.), and start by testing.

Every PPV traffic company has its own settings. Below is a screenshot from Trafficvance. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

On CPV campaigns, I usually start with the default settings (1 view per 12 hours), and keep testing it. Some campaigns on CPV tend to lose its profitability after a while, and this is when you start playing with the individual user cap, and find the optimum settings by testing.

Branding or Performance Campaign

If your campaign’s goal is branding, you might want to be more flexible with frequency capping. Even if a visitor sees your banner several times a day, and you are charged for it, it might be worth. At the end, you’d like to promote the brand, and show them the ad as much as possible.

Some branding campaigns don’t even set frequency caps, and that’s also fine.

But if you are running a performance based campaign, you have to take frequency capping seriously, and test until you find the most optimized level for your campaign.

Frequency capping might easily turn a losing campaign into a profitable one. So, make sure you work on it before your next CPM or CPV campaign.

Since PPV affiliate marketing has been pretty popular lately, and many beginners are testing the waters, I wanted to share a tip I personally use to make money with my PPV campaigns.

Showing is better than telling. So, here’s the screencast I’ve created to show you the exact URL research method I use to target local websites, and sell national offers.

In the video below, I’m using 2 tools to do my url research. The first one is AffPortal, which is a must have tool to have if you want to make money in the PPV field, and the second tool is a free desktop tool called Laser URL by Matt Harward.

PPV Local URL Research Screencast

P.S. 10 year old would do a better job with video editing than me, I accept it.

P.S. 2) This is a fairly easy tip to get you started with lateral thinking. Whether you’re an experienced internet marketer or just starting, tips like these might help to start thinking outside the box.

P.S. 3) If you are new to PPV Affiliate Marketing, start with reading my post; PPV Affiliate Guide.

P.S. 4) Tools used in my screencast are AffPortal & Laser URL.

I’ve recently written a blog post about PPV Affiliate Marketing. After that blog post, I’ve received a number of questions related to properly tracking target url’s for PPV traffic sources.

I’ve decided to create this step by step instruction screencast of how to setup a PPV Campaign with proper tracking, by using Prosper 202. I’ve prepared this screencast for affiliate marketers who are new to PPV traffic source, and would like an easy and free way to setup proper tracking.

Some resources mentioned in the video:

• Prosper 202
• Azoogle
• Trafficvance
• PPV eBook for absolute beginners
• Tracking202

PPV is probably the most popular word lately on affiliate marketing forums and blogs.

Everybody is talking about PPV and how profitable this traffic source is.

I have heard about the word PPV first time in my life, almost 1,5 years ago from a good friend, and a very smart online marketer, and I’ve started testing the PPV traffic little over a year ago.

Since the secret about this traffic source is already out, I’ve decided to share my tips about PPV Traffic. Let’s start with the basics:

Here’s a quick menu to let you jump to the advanced topics if you are already comfortable with the basics:

PPV Marketing Guide Index

• What is PPV?
• What are the Popular PPV Networks
• Affiliate Networks
• What Should I Promote with PPV Advertising?
• Cost of PPV Traffic
• How to Start with PPV
• Direct Linking vs Creating Landing Pages
• Keyword & URL Research
• Understanding Your Customer Demographic
• PPV Optimization & Campaign Monitoring
• Tools & Further Learning Resources for PPV Marketing
• Articles and Resources about PPV Advertising

What is PPV (Pay Per View)?

PPV (Pay Per View) or CPV (Cost Per View) is a traffic source created by Adware Traffic.

Adware traffic is often confused by Spyware traffic. Even though they might sound similar, Adware Traffic is 100% legal and used by millions of people around the world.

PPV (Pay Per View) means you will be charged every time your landing page is viewed by a visitor who has the Adware installed on his/her computer. Visitors see your landing page as a pop up, pop under, or a full page bridge. Since PPV pop up isn’t treated as a regular pop-up, it doesn’t get blocked by most pop up blockers.

When a user who has the adware installed on his/her computer takes a specific action within their browser, such as visiting a URL or visiting Google and typing a word to search, a new browser opens up with your landing page in it. Whether this user browses your page, stays on it, clicks on a link, or simply closes it, you get charged for each view when your landing page is loaded and viewed by the users.

If you are direct linking an offer, your cookie is dropped to the user’s computer.
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What Are the Most Popular PPV Advertising Networks?

• Trafficvance

This is the first network I’ve started testing little over year ago. Traffic quality is pretty good, never had a complain about the quality.

• MediaTraffic

I’ve tested some offers with MediaTraffic. I’ve met Basil from MT during the affiliate summit in NYC. He was a great guy and I’m planning to spend some serious cash on MT during 2010.

• Adon Network

I have an account with Adon, but didn’t start testing anything yet.

These three PPV Networks are usually most recommended. But there are many other networks you can test PPV with. You can check PPV Playbook‘s 10 PPV Network Post to find more about other available networks.
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Which Affiliate Networks Can I Use with PPV Traffic

Whether it is PPV traffic, or any other type of traffic, you have to check with your affiliate managers you work with. PPV traffic is getting accepted by most affiliate networks right now.

Some affiliate networks such as Neverblue have special links (downloadable software link) to use for PPV Campaigns, and for some networks, you need to use the contextual link. Again, check with your affiliate manager for the correct link.

My all time 2 favorite affiliate networks are Azoogle and Neverblue. They both have great affiliate managers who are ready to help you get started.

As far as I know, CJ and Clickbank are some of the networks which don’t like direct linking from PPV traffic. Again, you have to check with your network and make sure they accept PPV traffic (if you are direct linking).
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What Should I Promote with PPV Advertising?

PPV is a relatively cheap traffic source compared to many paid traffic sources. It doesn’t convert like Google Adwords, but if you are smart, you can come up with very profitable campaign ideas.

Before deciding what to promote, you have to clearly understand that PPV marketing works different than PPC marketing. When you are marketing with PPC traffic, people are usually in the buy mood. But with PPV, you have to interrupt the user, and convince them to check your offer out.

Understanding the concept of Facebook Targeting will really help with the PPV marketing mindset. Because targeting a specific customer demographic is one of the most popular ways of targeting in PPV.

After you are clear with the targeting options for PPV traffic, it would be a good time to decide what to promote.

Here’s a little secret. If you know how to target and create the correct list of targeting keywords & URL’s, you can profit on pretty much any type of offers on PPV.

Some people say biz opp converts well, other affiliates say short lead gens only, and some say they bank with CPS.

It totally depends on how you promote it. An offer could be the biggest loser if you direct link, but turns great profit if you create a great landing page. Trying some creative and unique LP’s on PPV really helps.

You have to learn the browser size of the pop-up window for each PPV Ad Network. They all have different sizes. Especially, if you are creating a landing page, you have to design with the pop-up browser size in mind.
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How Much Does PPV Traffic Cost?

In most networks minimum PPV cost starts around 1cent to 1.5 cent per view. Even though you can find PPV networks offering cheaper views/clicks, this is an industry average.

While Trafficvance views start at 1 penny/view, MediaTraffic charges 1.5 pennies/view, these are the minimum bids.

Even though everybody talks about less than penny for each view, you have to test and see yourself the cost of views for different niches. I have personally seen bids on some targets for up to $4.00. Yes, you’ve heard it right, a page view for 4 sweet dollars.

Below is a current screenshot from my Trafficvance account, and the time period is little over one year. My average cost per impression is $0.0293. Little less than 3 cents per view, not bad at all.

In PPC marketing, EPC (Earnings per click) is what matters, and in PPV marketing, EPV (Earnings per view) is important. My overall EPV for the time period of this screenshot is over 10 cents. So, it’s not bad at all.

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How to Start with PPV

Open an account with one of the PPV networks, then install the Adware of that network to one of your spare computers. Start browsing, visiting different sites, searching for keywords, and take a close look at the pop-up windows.

This is simply the best way to start.

See what competition is doing, try to understand the mindset of an Adware user by being one.

After you do enough research about the competition, pick your first offer. Don’t think narrow on this. You can promote your own blog, ecommerce site, or even create an email list. You don’t have to direct link to an affiliate offer.

Think creative, and make up your mind for the first campaign you are going to run.
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Direct Linking vs Creating Landing Pages

Since you know what you will be promoting, it is time to make a decision on direct linking vs creating a landing page. I’d recommend testing both.

But, internet marketers are usually not very patient and we want to start testing right away. That’s fine, start testing a direct linking if you like, then think about creative landing page ideas.
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Keyword & URL Research

This is the key to success in PPV marketing. You can have the most creative landing page in the world, but you won’t turn a profit if you target wrong URL’s & keywords.

When you create a campaign at your PPV Network, you need to enter targets. These targets are both URL’s and keywords. Some networks let you enter queries, etc.

Let’s say you’ve entered a target google.com , this means if somebody types google.com on their browser, your ad will pop up, and you will be charged for the view. So, you have to be very smart and careful about creating your target list.

Most affiliates recommend bidding on URL’s only, and not using keywords. Even though I’ve found some profitable keywords, I also agree that targeted URL’s are better for PPV Marketing.

You have two options when creating a URL list. First option is manual. You simply visit Google, Yahoo, MSN and start searching and copy pasting the result URL’s into an excel sheet. This might work when you are new, just starting to test, and don’t have high budgets.

But if you want to create profitable campaigns with huge keyword lists, you have to automate the process.

There are two tools I highly recommend to automate the target creation process. The first one is AffPortal which has a number of tools to automate your PPV Marketing process including a URL generator. AffPortal is a monthly membership system which costs $37/month. The second tool is Laser URL from Matt Harward. This is also a great tool, and it is absolutely free. What beats that?

Whether you create the targets manually by searching Google, or use a tool, your target list is the key to profits in PPV. More targets you test, higher chance that you will find some gems.

Even though this is time consuming, I’d highly recommend a manual check for target URL’s created by automated tools. This will keep you from wasting your money on untargeted URL’s.
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Understanding Your Customer Demographic

You cannot be successful in internet marketing unless you understand your potential customers.

Start with Quantcast and do an in depth research about your potential customers. Visit related websites to your offer and try to understand the browsing habits of your potential customers.

When doing customer demographic research for PPV Marketing, you have to keep in mind the “Buying Mood” of customers. Remember, you are interrupting them from what they are doing. Your offer needs to be convincing to pull their attention.

Think about your offer and interruption relation. If your potential customer is watching a related video, and she sees your pop-up, would she change her focus from the video to your landing page? If your answer is yes, add that video URL to your target list, if it is no, don’t bother, it will just cost you money.

I have found my most profitable targets by thinking about the buying mood of my potential customer demographic. There are billions of URL’s to target, be wise and and understand the needs of your customer demographic before running a PPV Campaign.
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PPV Optimization & Campaign Monitoring

I use Prosper202 to track and optimize my campaigns. This is a self hosted, open source and free solution from 202 Team. They also have a great affiliate network called Revolution 202 which I highly recommend.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any all-in-one solution to manage PPV Campaigns. You have to do the optimization process manually or find a way to automate it.

If you can’t get a custom solution programmed to manage your campaigns, you can use iMacros (free firefox add-on) to automate the bid optimization process to some extent.

Increasing attention to PPV marketing has also created a terrific business idea to offer an all-in-one solution for PPV Management similar to PPC Management tools. Any entrepreneurs out there who want to take the task?
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Tools & Further Learning Resources for PPV Marketing

Some people are self learners. I personally like to test new things to learn after checking a few resources.

But for some, having a guide, training video or an ebook is much more productive.

I have gathered a list of available PPV training courses and tools available in the market. Even though these resources have pretty good feedback, I haven’t used any of them other than AffPortal. So, check them out yourself and see if they will help you to get started faster.

• AffPortal – $4.95 for 7 day trial and $37/month after that.
• Mass PPV Traffic – $77.00
• PPV Riches – $47.00
• URL Keywordz – $47.00

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Articles and Resources about PPV Affiliate Marketing

When I first started testing PPV traffic, there weren’t any resources about getting started. It wasn’t like starting with Google Adwords, but nowadays, more people are talking about PPV and more bloggers are blogging about it.

I’ve gathered a list below, and I hope it will help to get some further understanding of PPV Traffic Source. If you have good blog post, video and article recommendations, please add them to the comments below, and I’ll be happy to review and add them to this list.

• Ian Fernando has a good tip about using coupons with PPV traffic, and a video explaining what PPV is:
• Justin Dupre has created a 2 part guide for PPV marketing. Checkout the PPV Walkthrough Part 1 & Part 2.
• Bryn Youngblut has a good post about PPV Advertising.
• PPV Playbook is a $47 eBook, but also has a free blog about PPV. It has a good PPV Case Study you should definitely check out.
• Inside Affiliate has some good posts about PPV, and here is a good 2 part guide; Marketing CPA Offers with PPV Part 1 & Part 2
• Ad Hustler writes about PPV, and has a case study of a PPV campaign which he’s lost $14.05.

Conclusion

If you are in the internet marketing business, you have to be on top of all the latest trends. PPV is one of many popular traffic sources currently.

If you haven’t tested this traffic source yet, now would be a great time to start testing.

If you are already experienced with PPV, please share your experiences and tips in the comments below.