What are Solo Ads and Are They Right for You?

If you are an online marketer, one of your biggest tasks is to generate leads.  These leads need to come from traffic to your offers.  There are many ways to generate traffic.  Traffic generation methods include SEO, PPC, YouTube Ads, video marketing, blogging, social media marketing and many more.  One of my favorite and most predictable ways to generate targeted traffic is through solo ads.

What are solo ads?  Solo ads are email advertisements that others send out on your behalf.  It’s a way to leverage another person’s large email list to allow you to build an email list.  Another way to put it is solo ads are email-based advertisements you buy from other email list owners. They’re typically sent as dedicated emails – so the entire message is all about your promotion.

Now, with solo ads, you want to be sure you are getting them from people that are targeting a similar audience.  If you are in the MMO or make money online niche, this is easy since most of the solo ads providers have large lists specifically targeting people that are looking to build a business online.

Other popular niches where solo ads become a viable option include personal development, health & diet, crypto opportunities, business opportunities, forex trading trainings and programs and the survival niche.  It’s pretty easy to find solo ad providers in these niches.

If you are in a different niche, you’ll have to really do more researching and networking to find someone else in that niche that has a large email list.  When you find them, you could build a relationship with them and ask if they will send an email out on your behalf.

One of the most common ways to buy solo ads is to purchase click packages.  This means that you buy the amount of clicks that the provider will send to your offer.  If you buy 100 clicks you will get at least 100 targeted visitors to your offer.  This is why it’s so predictable.  It’s like traffic on demand.

With any solo ad that you run, you’ll want to test out your provider first and start with a lower click package to evaluate the quality of the traffic they are sending you.  This is because; you will quickly find that not all solo ad providers are alike.  You have to be very careful so you don’t get ripped off.  There are a lot of unscrupulous solo ad providers out there that will send you fake clicks, fake email leads and/or bot traffic.

There are several ways to screen your solo ad providers to help ensure you don’t get ripped off.  One way is to have a conversation with them first about your offer and what converts the best with their list.  As you have this conversation, you will get a better feel for the legitimacy of their service.  Still, start with a small package.  There are typically no guarantees offered in solo ad advertising so getting a refund will be out of the question if you are not happy.  If there are any guarantees, it’s usually only related to the amount of clicks you receive and not your opt in rate or conversion to sales rate.

Questions to Ask Your Solo Ad Provider

I mentioned earlier that you will want to start a conversation with your solo ad partner before committing to buying his/her traffic.  The most important questions to ask are what converts best with their list and what does not convert at all with their list.  Here are some other questions you can ask them.

• What’s the sales funnel(s) did you use to build this email list?
• What’s your main traffic source?
• Have you done any affiliate promotions in the last 30 days? If so, how did they go?
• How long does it usually take to deliver clicks?
• Will you write the email swipe (creative) or will I need to supply one?
• Are there any guarantees?

As you ask these questions, listen carefully and rationally but trust your gut feeling too.  Also, check out their testimonials and reviews.  Look at the dates on the testimonials too if they are provided.  You’ll want to see recent testimonials that will indicate that this solo ad provider is regularly updating his/her list and still providing a decent service.

Ultimately, you want to find a provider that has real people, people that buy things or people that are genuinely interested in their offer on that list and is not just building a list to sell clicks to people like you.