Quote from James A.Hart on July 8, 2025, 8:31 am

When I first started running affiliate ads, I had no idea how bidding strategies actually worked.

Back then, I played it safe—
I kept my bids as low as possible, thinking it would protect my budget and minimize risk.

But after tracking and testing my campaigns, I realized something surprising:
in many cases, higher bids actually led to better performance—and more profit.

Why Lower Bids Don’t Always Lead to Higher Profits

In most traditional businesses, spending less usually means making more profit—
you buy products at a cheaper price and keep the margin.

But when it comes to buying traffic, that logic doesn’t always hold.

Here’s a simple example:

John is making $1,000 profit per day from his campaign, bidding $1 CPC.

He decides to lower his bid by 10%, hoping to improve his profit margin.

But the moment he drops the bid, the campaign starts losing money.

Why?

Because the high-quality ad placements that were bringing in profits required at least a $1 CPC to win.
By lowering his bid, John lost access to those profitable placements—and the campaign tanked.

Track Profitable Placements Closely

In many cases, the placements that generate profit are the ones that require higher bids.

That’s why you need to monitor the performance of each placement carefully—not just traffic in general.

Here’s another example to show why higher bids often lead to better results.

Let’s talk about pop-under traffic.

With pop-under sources, there’s usually a bidding system:
The higher your bid, the earlier your ad is shown.
And the earlier your ad is shown, the better your chances of conversion.

Think about a user browsing the web who gets hit with five different pop-under ads.
If they’re all for dating offers, which one is the user most likely to click or convert on?
The first one they see.

If your ad is shown in the 4th or 5th position—because your bid was low
—then that user has already seen multiple ads before yours.

If they’re the type who makes impulse purchases, they probably already clicked and converted on the first ad.

Another reason I often bid higher: volume.

Higher bids unlock higher volumes of traffic. And volume is power.
It gives you leverage to scale faster and negotiate higher payouts with networks.

Sometimes, affiliate marketing feels counterintuitive.

A higher bid brings more profit. An ugly ad with a clunky landing page might outperform the polished one.

So what’s the takeaway?

Test everything. Rely on data—not logic alone.