As an affiliate marketer, the one thing that you need to have a good command of, is how to get traffic to your affiliate marketing campaigns. 

I typically use Facebook ads for my affiliate marketing campaigns, but recently, Facebook has been making it extremely difficult for affiliates to promote their offers, so I decided to give an alternative traffic source a try. 

That alternative traffic source is Microsoft Ads, formerly known as Bing Ads. 

I have been using Bing Ads since 2017/2018. If you know how to use Google Adwords, then using Bing Ads to drive traffic to your affiliate marketing campaigns should be no different. 

Bing Ads, is simply less popular than Google Adwords and so the amount of traffic available is on a smaller scale, but that does not mean that the traffic is not good. 

The traffic here is of a quality level and in this blog post, I will show you how you can also use Bing Ads to drive traffic to your affiliate marketing campaigns. 

If you decide to learn Bing Ads marketing, it will be another method to getting traffic, which in my opinion is a good skill to have. 

Here’s what you will learn: 

• What is Bing Ads
• How to join Bing Ads
• Getting started with Bing Ads
• What is MaxBounty
• How to join MaxBounty
• How to select MaxBounty offers 
• How to set up a successful Bing Ads campaign with MaxBounty offers

What is Bing Ads

For those of you who do not know of, or have never heard of Bing Ads, it is an advertising platform that is owned by the technology company, Microsoft Corporation. 

If you use the Microsoft search engines, instead of the Google search engines, then you will often see search results that have an “Ad” tag next to the result. 

This is an advertisement that has been created by either the owner of a product or an affiliate. 

Next time you search for something using the Microsoft search engines, pay attention to the advertisements that you see. 

Anything without the “Ad” tag is an organic search result. Other than that, it is paid for by the promoter of the advertisement. 

This is what I am going to teach you how to set up, for your affiliate marketing campaigns, so that when a user searches for keywords, they can find your affiliate offers and potentially help you get paid. 

How to Join Bing Ads

In order to create these type of advertisements, you first of all need to join Microsoft as an advertiser. To do that, click here. You will also get $100 for the first $25 you spend as a new advertiser to Microsoft. 

When you get to their website, click the Sign Up Now button. 

You will need a Microsoft account, so if you already have a Microsoft webmail address, such as hotmail.com, live.com, msn.com, outlook.com or passport.com, you can sign in with this. 

If you do not, then you must create one. 

Once you have entered your username and password, you will arrive at an application form that looks like this.

Complete the application form. When selecting the option for “Let us know how you’ll use this account”, if you intend to use Bing Ads to promote affiliate products, select the option that says “to promote this business”. 

If you intend to create advertisements on behalf of other businesses, select the option that says “to provide services to other businesses as an ad agency”. 

Once you have created your account, your Microsoft Advertising dashboard will look like this.

Whilst the first time viewing this, might appear overwhelming, keep in mind, that it will likely be, given it is your first time viewing it. 

I recommend that you give yourself a few days to a week, to go over each element of your Microsoft dashboard, paying attention to the campaign, ad groups, ads and keywords sections. 

Getting Started With Bing Ads 

If this is your first time using Bing Ads, it is important that you understand, that in order to advertise with Bing Ads, you must use keywords to create your ads. 

Keywords are certain words or phrases that people search for in the search engine, that makes your ads appear. 

For example, if a user searches for the keyword/keyphrase “make money online” and an advertisement has targeted this keyword “make money online” in its campaign, Microsoft will display that ad to the user.

As an affiliate or advertiser, there are, however, certain keywords that you want to pay more attention to, in your campaigns. 

Information keywords vs awareness keywords vs buyer keywords

This is where, understanding the difference between information keywords, awareness keywords and buyer keywords become important. 

Information keywords are keywords that users place in the search engines, when they are looking for information on a particular subject. 

Therefore, that user, has no intention to buy anything. All they are doing, is looking for information, to help them understand what a subject matter is. 

Let’s take a look at some affiliate products and typical information keywords for those affiliate products. 

You will see from the above examples, that the keywords used by searchers are entered for the sole purpose of getting more helpful information on a particular product. 

The user probably does not know, that there is a specific solution to their query and all they want at this stage, is to be able to understand the “how” or “what” of something. 

Awareness keywords

From that information, they may then be able to seek or become aware of a product that may solve their problem or answer their query. 

This then takes us to the awareness stage of an individual’s search journey. Now that they have more information on a subject matter, it is likely that such information has alluded to the awareness that a product does exist to solve their problem or answer their query. 

There are keywords which a user may enter into the search engine, which are not particularly strong buyer keywords, but they can potentially lead to a sale of a product, if the affiliate sets up his information post in a way which sells the product. 

These type of information posts can be review posts, question and answer posts, best “XYZ” product posts or top “XYZ” product posts. 

Below you will find example affiliate products and keywords that have a slight buyer intent but because the searcher is at the awareness stage, there is still some doubt as to readiness to buy and so the affiliate should be careful about using these keywords in his affiliate campaigns. 

When searchers use keywords such as XYZ product review, they have an idea that the product exists, but there is no certainty that they want to buy this product right now. 

What they are looking for, is confirmation or validation that this product is worth their investment. 

Likewise, when searchers use keywords such as “best XYZ product” or “top XYZ product”, they know that there are products in the marketplace that can help them, but they still have not found a specific product for their needs. 

These keywords can lead to a sale and takes the searcher closer to making a buying decision, however the most powerful buyer keywords are what an affiliate should target, if they want to easily generate sales and make better return on investments (ROI). 

Let’s look at buyer keywords. 

Buyer keywords

Buyer keywords are keywords that demonstrate that the user has already gotten sufficient information on a particular product, knows the product exists and is now ready to buy that product because they believe, from the information sourced, that this product will solve their problems. 

Buyer keywords are the best keywords you can target, because it helps you generate sales quicker and target searchers who know what they want and are in a buying mode. 

If they are in a buying mode, it is likely that they have their credit card in hand, ready to make a purchase. 

Can you think of any buyer keywords for affiliate products? Let’s look at some buyer keyword examples. 

You will notice from the above examples, that the user knows exactly what the product is, so is going in search of that product, by typing in the specific brand name of the product and the actual type of product. 

They also use buyer intent words like “buy”, “order”, “price”, “discount” or “sale”, etc. 

If you are promoting affiliate offers, buyer keywords are the type of keywords you should be using in your campaigns, to get the best results and to reduce your ad spend and time testing keywords.

So if you know that there is an affiliate product that you’d like to promote, think of some buyer keywords and note them down. 

Later down in this tutorial, I will also show you how to find more buyer keywords for your campaign, with the help of Microsoft Bing’s keyword planner tool. 

What is MaxBounty

For this tutorial, I will be focusing on the affiliate network, Maxbounty. 

Maxbounty is one of the most widely used affiliate networks, that provide excellent affiliate products for you to use in your affiliate marketing campaigns to help you earn money.

I have been using MaxBounty as an affiliate, since 2018 and it is one of those affiliate networks that I would recommend. 

They have over 2000+ products that you can select from as a blogger, email marketer, social media strategist that pay on a cost per lead (CPL), cost per sale (CPS), cost per action (CPA) or cost per install (CPI) basis. 

The best thing that I like about this affiliate network, is that they pay weekly. 

Some networks pay on a net 30 basis, or worse, when the advertiser pays you. As an affiliate, I am sure that cashflow is important to you, so always having your commissions available to work for you, is ideal. 

This is one of the reasons why I would focus my efforts on promoting products from Maxbounty. 

How to Join MaxBounty  

To join MaxBounty, it is important that you know, that MaxBounty prefers to work with affiliates who have experience. 

Their application process will therefore require you to state your experience as an affiliate. Also you will be required to have a phone interview with one of their affiliate managers. 

Here are some tips to help you with your interview and application process: 

1. Be truthful in your experience. If you are able to demonstrate any affiliate marketing experience, such as successful campaigns, then have the figures to prove it (although specifics of the campaign is not necessary; it is just a recommendation). 
2. If you do not yet have experience as an affiliate marketer, I would recommend first getting experience and then applying once you do have experience. 
3. If you do not yet have experience and do not want to wait to apply, then act like you know what you’re talking about. This will include, understanding affiliate marketing and showing how you intend to promote their products. If you can demonstrate that you know how you intend to promote their products and that you are committed to doing your best, then you can still have a chance. So in a nutshell, have a strategy. 
4. Do you know what type of products you want to promote? Then mention this in your application and interview. 

Here is what MaxBounty’s current application form looks like: 

Step 1 Basic info

Here is where you enter your basic information such as your name and password to create your account, if accepted. 

Step 2 Security 

Here is where you set up security questions for your account.

Step 3 Contact

In this section, pay attention to the last question – “how did you hear about MaxBounty?”. A good choice to put is “mentor”. This will give the impression, that you are working under the guidance of someone who is successful at affiliate marketing. 

Step 4 Address 

Here is where you include your postal address.

Step 5 Experience

This section is the most important part and here are a few tips to help you complete it. 

What is your experience? 

If you are a complete beginner or have little experience, say so. But remember when describing your past affiliate marketing experience and how you intend to promote their products, always have a strategy. 

Outline what you know about affiliate marketing, how you learned it, the platforms you already have set up to start with affiliate marketing (eg. blog or social media audience), the budget that you have (if you intend to use ads) and how you intend to promote their offers. 

If you do have a budget, I have found that affiliate networks prefer affiliates who have a big budget. Budgets of more than $1000 per month is favourable. 

Be very specific in your answers. 

If you have some experience or are extremely experienced, you do have a better advantage here, because as I mentioned in the beginning, MaxBounty do prefer to work with affiliates who have experience. 

However, it does not mean that if you have little to no experience, that you have no chance at being accepted. 

It simply means that you must work harder for your application to get accepted and hopefully my tips above will help you move into the phone interview stage. 

What offers are you looking for? 

MaxBounty has several types of offers, from survey offers, ecom offers, health and beauty offers, cost per lead offers. 

I would recommend that you have an idea as to the type of offers you would like to promote. Perhaps you have seen other affiliates be successful with survey type offers.

Then mention that this is the type of offer you would like to promote. 

Your website URL

As you can see, Maxbounty does require that you have a website. Having a website does put you at an advantage, as it shows that you are serious about what you are doing. 

For that reason, if you do not have a website, I recommend that you get one. 

Make sure that the website has sufficient content on it, since as part of the application process, MaxBounty may visit it. 

Is this account for incentive traffic? 

Incentive traffic is offering some form of incentive or compensation, like cash, to people for clicking through to other websites. 

I do not know what MaxBounty’s policies are on incentivized traffic, so I would recommend that if you know that this is something you are pushing, that you do your own due diligence and make sure that it is an acceptable form of traffic permitted by MaxBounty.

Step 6 Terms

Finally agree to their terms and submit your application.

Your application is then likely to take a few days to be accepted and processed. 

Be patient. 

Ready to join MaxBounty? Click here to get started. 

How to Select MaxBounty Offers 

Once you have been accepted and you are in your MaxBounty dashboard area, you will come to an area that looks like this. 

To find offers that you can begin testing, I recommend looking at the top campaigns, trending campaigns and MaxBounty picks. 

On these tabs, you can find the campaigns that are being successfully run by most affiliates. 

MaxBounty picks also have great offers hand selected by MaxBounty as offers that are successful on their network. 

Another great idea is to get in touch with your affiliate manager and ask them which is the best affiliate offer to promote. 

For example, if you intend to use paid advertising to promote affiliate offers, an email or message that goes like this, will help you get some offers to start testing: 

“Hey [affiliate manager’s name], 

I am ready to promote some offers with Bing ads. Can you let me know which offers are hot right now on Bing traffic?”

Here are some tips for how I select offers to run on the Bing ad network:

• Select ecom offers
• Select offers with a high payout that is above $50
• Select verticals in the health, beauty, skin or supplement niches 
• When researching offers or spying other affiliates, if an affiliate is promoting it, add it to your list to test. 

How to Set Up a Successful Bing Ads Campaign With MaxBounty Offers

I have created the below video to help you set up your Bing Ads campaign. This is exactly how I set up my ads on Bing. 

A few tips that I need to mention before you watch the video. 

• There is no special offer. As an affiliate, your goal should be to test as many offers and keep the ones that are converting well for you. Just because an offer converts for me, does not mean it will convert for you. You as the affiliate, need to do your own testing with the traffic source you want to use to promote the offer. 
• I recommend selecting at least 10 offers and set them up on Bing. Keep the ones that convert and turn off the ones that do not convert. 
• My ad kill method is to spend up to the payout amount. For example, if an offer pays out $80, I am prepared to spend up to $80 testing the product on Bing. That way, even if I make one sale, I have broken even. Some affiliates recommend spending 2x the affiliate payout, however for me, I will know that if I have received over a certain number of clicks to an offer, that it is unlikely to convert with the keywords I have selected. 
• Before turning off a campaign, check the number of clicks you have received to the keyword; not to the offer. Maybe the certain keyword you selected did not convert but perhaps another keyword may convert. Always keep this in mind. 
• It is sufficient to use up to 10 buyer intent keywords in your campaign. 

Any other tips that I remember, I will mention in the video. 

I hope you enjoy it.

If you’re on mobile, you may have to rotate your phone sideways for the entire video to show properly.

Wrapping Up

Maxbounty and Bing Ads go hand in hand. I do also use Facebook ads to promote some of their offers, so if your traffic source is Facebook ads, then MaxBounty is still a great selection of an affiliate network. 

Click on this link for a case study to one of my most successful Facebook Ads campaign.

I have used both MaxBounty and Bing Ads to make over $1700 in commissions in one month with just an ad spend of $307. 

I have found that if you have really good buyer intent keywords, that your ROI is exceptional with Bing Ads. 

That is because, when a user is ready to buy, it will take minimal clicks to an ad to make the sale. This is why it is important to target buyer intent keywords. 

I hope that you found this short tutorial useful. 

Tell me in the comments whether you are using Bing and Maxbounty and how are you finding it so far.