[Journey] Testing a Single-Page Affiliate Site on Google Search Ads (Failed First Attempt)

After completing this experiment, I realized that with my current skill level, this offer is very difficult for me to convert. If I can’t get feedback from results quickly, I can’t properly evaluate whether the offer is worth continuing to test. That would likely lead to burning more budget, and my budget is already limited.
For now, I’ve decided not to continue with this offer. My next experiment will focus on testing a new offer, specifically looking for an affiliate offer that fits cold traffic from Google Ads search.
Since this experiment successfully validated the compliance side of Google Ads, I’ve made the landing page URL public and included it in the full write-up on my blog. I won’t post the direct landing page link here to avoid making this feel promotional, but if you’re interested, you can find my blog link in my profile.

Here are some questions to things to do for the next campaign that might help you out.
Im more of a Meta guy so maybe double check with chatgpt if these make sense with google.

Make sure for the next campaign you have 3 offers to rotate from to see which one would convert best.
if you have a low budget, choose the offer that converts first.
I noticed you spent $60 on this campaign, are you planning to spend more when testing offers?
i think you need to spend more money testing, if CPA is $50, you may need to spend more than that, almost x2 or x3


You lander looks nice, and it has good ctr, but how does it look on mobile?
I think your lander also needs more CTA maybe some half way not just at the very end, I make sure my team optimize for mobile and it would be very wordy if its not setup right.
goodluck on the next test.

starcraft89 said:

Here are some questions to things to do for the next campaign that might help you out.
Im more of a Meta guy so maybe double check with chatgpt if these make sense with google.

Make sure for the next campaign you have 3 offers to rotate from to see which one would convert best.
if you have a low budget, choose the offer that converts first.
I noticed you spent $60 on this campaign, are you planning to spend more when testing offers?
i think you need to spend more money testing, if CPA is $50, you may need to spend more than that, almost x2 or x3


You lander looks nice, and it has good ctr, but how does it look on mobile?
I think your lander also needs more CTA maybe some half way not just at the very end, I make sure my team optimize for mobile and it would be very wordy if its not setup right.
goodluck on the next test.

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First of all, thanks for the support, Bro.
In this experiment, I realized that the high-ticket ecommerce offer I was testing is very hard to convert with cold traffic from Google Ads. Lately I have been researching what types of affiliate offers are actually suitable for cold search traffic on Google Ads. My next test will focus mainly on conversion rate, so I plan to rotate multiple offers and use campaign data to identify which one converts the best.

As for your question about how my landing page performs on mobile, the reason I did not target mobile devices is budget control. In my previous experiment, I only targeted desktop traffic. I do not have mobile data to compare because I personally feel that testing with mobile traffic can waste too much budget. Mobile clicks are often more casual and less intentional. Once I find an offer that is converting or has real profit potential, and I am ready to scale, then I will consider launching separate campaigns that include mobile traffic.

The reason I did not add a CTA in the middle of the landing page is that my last campaign was mainly to test whether the account and ads would stay compliant and not get banned. So I intentionally kept the page less commercial and more informational. That experiment was successful. The next one will focus on improving conversion rate.

Not here to demotivate you, i think you are paying really high cpc. First test product on other paid traffic sources and gather the data (people who actually buy product) before burning a budget on google ads. Data is everything in paid traffic. I have not read every single post yet though.

Just my personal opinion, I might be wrong.

Nut-Nights said:

Not here to demotivate you, i think you are paying really high cpc. First test product on other paid traffic sources and gather the data (people who actually buy product) before burning a budget on google ads. Data is everything in paid traffic. I have not read every single post yet though.

Just my personal opinion, I might be wrong.

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No worries, I’m not afraid of setbacks. I’m still learning and testing myself. What I worry about is burning through money wildly and ending up with nothing learned.

I’m a beginner, so I don’t really know what range of CPC is reasonable. And when you mentioned testing with other paid traffic, which platforms does that mean? Meta or TikTok and so on? Some people suggest using spy ad tools to research before running an offer.
For my next experiment, I need to focus on how to select the right offers. I can’t just run offers randomly anymore. I’ve already spent over a hundred dollars, but I consider it a learning experience. I’ve figured out how to make my landing page and ad setup compliant so that the campaigns can run properly.

I am Mr feng said:

The CTR is 11%, which is actually pretty good. But the CTR on my landing page is not good. I’m pretty sure my landing page doesn’t align well with the search intent.

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I think you could do more/better with the landing page. The dark theme doesn't match a website trying to sell chopping boards, it gives off a very techy / saas vibes compared to a website trying to sell a kitchen utensils.

As @starcraft89 mentoined, adding more CTAs would help too. It's a sales page, you want to be pushing for a sale! Maybe look into some landing page conversion/ optimization / psychology tips.

Otherwise loving the journey so far and hopefully things start clicking for you!

I am Mr feng said:

After completing this experiment, I realized that with my current skill level, this offer is very difficult for me to convert. If I can’t get feedback from results quickly, I can’t properly evaluate whether the offer is worth continuing to test. That would likely lead to burning more budget, and my budget is already limited.
For now, I’ve decided not to continue with this offer. My next experiment will focus on testing a new offer, specifically looking for an affiliate offer that fits cold traffic from Google Ads search.
Since this experiment successfully validated the compliance side of Google Ads, I’ve made the landing page URL public and included it in the full write-up on my blog. I won’t post the direct landing page link here to avoid making this feel promotional, but if you’re interested, you can find my blog link in my profile.

View attachment 506000

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A titanium cutting board? Rip knives

SoloZS said:

I think you could do more/better with the landing page. The dark theme doesn't match a website trying to sell chopping boards, it gives off a very techy / saas vibes compared to a website trying to sell a kitchen utensils.

As @starcraft89 mentoined, adding more CTAs would help too. It's a sales page, you want to be pushing for a sale! Maybe look into some landing page conversion/ optimization / psychology tips.

Otherwise loving the journey so far and hopefully things start clicking for you!

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Tks Honestly, I actually made this landing page using ChatGPT. At first glance, it looked fine, so I didn’t think too much about it. But you’re right, for something like a SaaS or tech product, it does feel a bit off. Haha.

my future landing pages, I will make sure to add a clear CTA in a prominent spot.

navyraiser said:

A titanium cutting board? Rip knives

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It’s a titanium cutting board, and that banner was generated using ChatGPT. It does feel a bit misleading.

I am Mr feng said:

It’s a titanium cutting board, and that banner was generated using ChatGPT. It does feel a bit misleading.

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Yeah exactly, wouldn't all the knives get dull if you use a titanium cutting board?

navyraiser said:

Yeah exactly, wouldn't all the knives get dull if you use a titanium cutting board?

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That’s actually one of the drawbacks of the titanium cutting board. Health and hygiene are supposed to be its selling points, but honestly, I don’t think it really matters. Haha.

I am Mr feng said:

I actually made this landing page using ChatGPT.

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As a freelancer, I could tell - something about AI websites that really give of a tech vibe.

With your next offer be sure to take the time and work on the landing page. You're already spending money, you don't want to finally have an Ad that works only to have the landing page have users clicking away.

I am Mr feng said:

That’s actually one of the drawbacks of the titanium cutting board. Health and hygiene are supposed to be its selling points, but honestly, I don’t think it really matters. Haha.

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I do get the hygiene point but once you slide your knife over that thing you can sharpen it again. Just surprised that people don't use their brain anymore (I don't mean you of course)

SoloZS said:

As a freelancer, I could tell - something about AI websites that really give of a tech vibe.

With your next offer be sure to take the time and work on the landing page. You're already spending money, you don't want to finally have an Ad that works only to have the landing page have users clicking away.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I really appreciate your advice. The landing page is definitely important, but honestly, I think what matters even more right now is choosing a better offer. At this point, that feels like the most important thing to me.

navyraiser said:

I do get the hygiene point but once you slide your knife over that thing you can sharpen it again. Just surprised that people don't use their brain anymore (I don't mean you of course)

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Bro, we’re on the same page. But when it comes to choosing a product, I still tend to rely on search data, like Google Trends or other keyword tools. Some products that I personally don’t think are that great actually show pretty solid search volume. And in some cases, the competition isn’t even that high.

Take the titanium cutting board for example. If you look at the SERP on Google, a lot of sites ranking on the first page aren’t even that authoritative.

But I feel like if I continue trying to promote this offer through Google Ads, it’s probably going to be tough. The offer itself just doesn’t feel competitive enough.

Recently, because of Chinese New Year, I took some time off. I ended up fully switching into rest mode and basically did nothing for a while.

After my previous experiment, I realized the offer I chose wasn’t suitable for testing with Google Ads. So my next focus is on finding affiliate offers or programs that actually fit Google Ads search traffic. The key is to identify keywords with strong commercial intent and relatively low CPC.

Lately, most of my work has been summarizing and documenting what I’ve learned so far on my blog. At the same time, I’ve been researching potential offers and digging into their related keywords to see which ones are worth testing.

Once everything is ready, I plan to start rotating through different offers and test them one by one.

Quick update, it's been a while.

Honestly, the past two and a half months have been crazy busy with my full-time job. Limited time means slower progress, but I never stopped.

In my last post I mentioned I was looking for affiliate offers that actually fit Google Ads cold search traffic. That's been my main focus since then. Most of that time went into research and writing everything up on my blog, which is why I haven't been updating this thread.

After my failed experiment, I figured out something important. The problem with ecommerce offers isn't the ads or the landing page. It's the offer itself. Most products on networks like ClickDealer can be found cheaper on Amazon. Cold traffic simply can't compete with that price gap. The conversion math just doesn't work.

So I shifted direction completely. I'm now focused on recurring SaaS affiliate programs. Higher LTV, lower friction, and free trials make them a much better fit for Google Ads cold traffic compared to physical products.
Most of my research has gone into three things.


First, I tested which major SaaS affiliate networks actually accept complete beginners with zero traffic proof. I applied to 4 of them and documented the real results.


Second, I found a method to discover SaaS affiliate programs that aren't listed on any network. Turns out tools like FirstPromoter, Rewardful, and Tolt leave trackable footprints on their affiliate signup pages. You can use this to uncover a ton of independent SaaS programs that most people never find.


Third, I put together a list of recurring SaaS programs that beginners like me can actually get approved for, and I'm keeping it updated on my blog. These are the offers I'm planning to test in Iteration 3.


Since my budget is limited, I've been spending the last couple of days trying to figure out how to filter out offers that just aren't worth my time or money before I even launch a campaign. I'm working on building a set of criteria to do that.

I'm following this with great interest. Best of luck!

Elissa44 said:

I'm following this with great interest. Best of luck!

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Tks. Bro!!!

As a beginner, I signed up for several well-known affiliate networks because I wanted to find more SaaS affiliate programs, especially ones that offer recurring commissions.

So far, I’ve applied to four networks, and two of them approved me, including PartnerStack. I’m really happy about that because PartnerStack has a lot of the SaaS affiliate programs I’ve been wanting to apply to.
This is the status of the 4 networks I applied to:



Some networks require proof of traffic, and I submitted my blog, which is less than 3 months old and has almost no traffic—basically a brand-new site. So you can take that as a reference; PartnerStack is actually fairly beginner-friendly.


Next, I’ll continue signing up for more affiliate networks.

Here are some screenshots of my successful applications after submitting them.





Right now, I’m collecting more recurring SaaS affiliate programs to prepare for the next stage of testing.