It’s 4:30am, I’m knackered, but I’m on the verge of my first PPC campaign using Adwords based on the PPC-Coach.com methods. Actually, it’s not my first ever campaign. About 2 years ago I randomly setup a campaign to Amazon from Adwords and it actually made a decent profit, but it was an accident and wasn’t repeated.

Anyway, as I said, I’m on the verge of success, or maybe failure. I have my ad copy, I have my campaign almost setup, and I’m going to make the finishing touches tomorrow. I’ve been putting it off for so long for fear of failure, which is a joke because by all rights my first attempt should be a failure.

I’m not expecting a profit from this campaign, but I’d be happy if I got some conversions and most of all that my systems all work. I want my keywords tracked properly, I don’t want any technical screw ups basically. I’ve spent enough time making sure everything’s working so I should be ok, but you just never know.

Fingers crossed til tomorrow…

I’ve just signed up for PPC Coach, and already I can see it’s well worth the monthly subscription. It’s too late in the night for me to think straight, but I just want to jot down a couple of things I’ve learnt tonight while they’re fresh in my memory.

1. It’s possible to get into PPC without getting into masses of debt. This has often been my fear, that I would struggle in the first few weeks while I got my grounding and end up struggling financially. But looking at the ideas suggested on the site so far I can see how it’s possible to test a whole load of campaigns without busting the bank.
2. If I’m going to take this business seriously then I have to take a good hard look at the reality of my situation. I need money for campaigns and testing, it’s that simple. Yes, I can always put it on credit, and that may well work and be an option for me - but I want to consider other sources of revenue. So what I came to realise tonight is that I might have to get a job (well, another job cos I already have one).

I guess tonight, just like the last few days, has really impressed upon me how much I want this and that I’m willing to go back to working the 9-5 to get it if I have to.

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If you’re thinking about using Facebook to send some traffic to a well known affiliate-friendly company such as Amazon, let me save you from spending your hard-earned cash.

Max CPC: $0.26

Clicks: 495

Total ad cost: $121.59

Conversions: 2

Revenue: under $5

The figures speak for themselves. The lesson here is this - failure isn’t something to be avoided. It’s to be rejoiced over, not that we should parade our faults for the world to see, and not that we should be proud of falling short.

But we rejoice in the fact that we put in the effort, we ran the race. And believe me, this is a race that can be won. I don’t advocate putting effort into something that isn’t viable, but this “internet marketing” lark is certainly doable.

I see my failure as one little step towards success, I heard someone once call it “failing upwards”. I’ve spent years looking, and reading - I know a lot about internet marketing and yet I’m the first to admit I’ve never really got stuck in there.

I never tried. Well now I’m trying.

I’m letting the failures be my motivation, pushing me on, further and further into my full potential.

I know I have it in me. And I will work for all I’ve got to see this through. So I’ll leave you with a quote from a guy called Randy Pausch which my mentor often likes to use:

Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough.

Ok, so I just wrote that to get some attention - but they did abuse me, kinda.

It’s been a week of trying new things for me, and I thought to myself,

“Hell, why not - everyone else uses it”.

I left a campaign on targeting the majority of the Facebook users in the UK (about 7.5 million). It’s not even been 24 hours yet and the billing is staggering - I worked my way up to over $100.

Yes, I know that’s nothing to you hardcore pro internet marketers, you who smoke $50 bills, good for you. But to me it’s a lot of money to lose in one day.

It’s not all bad, because at least some of 480 people I sent across to my aff link will convert. I wasn’t expecting killer conversions, but hopefully it’ll be enough to cover some of the losses so I can optimise and start over.

There’s not really much optimising that can be done with Facebook Ads though, maybe target a smaller age range. I guess in a way that makes it somewhat easier to tell what works and what doesn’t, unlike traditional PPC where you have a myriad of keywords to select from.

The affiliate stats are so slow at reporting, I’ve paused the campaign for now while I wait for it catch up. I’m full of both excitement and dread to see how my first one’s gone.

What if I didn’t do the 301 redirect right and I’ve sent them all to a black hole?

I better not have screwed up.