Prior to Black Friday 2017, I earmarked $250 to promote my affiliate links on some select eCommerce affiliate programs in Nigeria.

The budget was to be spent specifically on Email Marketing and Facebook advertising. My projected ROI from the venture was an ambitious 300%.

On November 7, I rolled out the campaigns. A $20 ad spend was used to the test the waters on Facebook. The TA was the lookalike audience of an online shopping page I created a while ago.  The clicks ramped up in no time. $1.38 in ad spend and five sales conversion later (all within hours), I halt the promotion.

Why kill the campaign when it was starting to look good? It’s the shopping season, I reasoned. Folks are naturally inclined to be on the lookout for the best shopping deals online or offline. Why not just point them to where they can get them? I started word of mouth advertising, preaching the gospel of Black Friday and fantastic deals to my family members, colleagues, friends and neighbours. And of course, I encouraged them to shop with my affiliate links. The results? Well, the charts on the feature image says it all.

Morals. Affiliate Marketing is not all about ad spend or budget. Good, old word of mouth advertising is still very effective.