Last week I introduced a popular affiliate marketing technique called media buying, also referred to as display advertising. This technique is when you approach an individual website, network of websites, or ad exchange and purchase banner inventory by CPM (cost per one-thousand impressions). Now that I covered the very basics I want to talk about how to find the properties that convert to begin your successful media buying campaign.

While there are many different techniques to finding sites to purchase inventory, I’m going to discuss some of the easier ones.

* Use Google To Your Advantage
- The first technique I began using was searching Google (or Yahoo, MSN/other search engines). A few years ago, promoting ringtones was VERY popular and provided many affiliate marketers will tons of revenue. I utilized media buying to gain a competitive advantage on my competitors promoting ringtones.

First, I would figure out a popular search term such as ‘free ringtones’. Most all ringtone offers didn’t allow the word ‘free’ so I couldn’t bid on this keyword or use this in my creative. I could, however, search Google for ‘free ringtones’ and purchase banner inventory on the top 20 – 50 sites. Using the same method I mentioned last week, I contacted many webmasters who were happy to sell me direct inventory to their sites. I would place ads all over their sites that said ‘Send Ringtones To Your Phone In 3 Easy Steps’.

I never mentioned the word ‘free’ but was able to get several hundred leads a day at a fraction of the price if I would have been bidding on keywords (not to mention I couldn’t even bid on ‘free ringtones’). From ’50 Cent Ringtones’ to ‘NBA Ringtones’ there wasn’t a term I didn’t try to buy inventory on. I also did a lot of SEO (which I will talk about later on this blog) to my advantage.

* Quantcast.com
- Quantcast.com is a website that collects demographic information on United States websites around the Internet. While their information is not 100% accurate, it provides a great starting point when deciding to media buy. The excellent thing about Quantcast.com is it even includes ad exchanges and networks. The other advantage is that this information is 100% free. Simply sign up for a free account, click ‘planner’ at the top, enter your target demographics, and begin buying inventory on the results. As I said, the data will even return ad networks/exchanges that match your demographics.

* Google Ad Planner
- I like to use Google Ad Planner along with Quantcast.com. I feel by using both of these tools together, I can quickly determine which sites match my demographics and are more likely to convert for my offers. The great thing about Google Ad Planner is you can even do a search by keywords or other sites visited. These can both be two powerful features especially when used with Quantcast.com. Google Ad Planner is also free!

* Compete.com
- Compete.com includes a lot of data on many websites such as unique visitors, page views, average stay, visits per person, search analytics, and more. The downfall is you must have a paid subscription to view most of this information. If you’re going to become a serious media buyer, I suggest making the $200+ a month investment to view this data. My personal favorite part about Compete.com is using the ‘compete referral analytics.’ Utilizing this tool, I’m able to type in a competitors URL and quickly discover where they’re buying their traffic from. This can get VERY interesting!

As I mentioned above, these are just some of the most popular tools online to use. Everyone has their own method, but these will give you a competitive advantage against your competitors to find cheap, converting traffic. Feel free to ask questions below, I’ll answer them as quickly as I can. Good luck!