Our campaigns rise and fall with the offers we promote. Choose the wrong offer and whatever you do to make it work, it will always be a loser. Choose the right one and the world is yours.

But how do we know which is the right one?

Note: In this post, I assume that you have already chosen your vertical. Be it adult dating, weight loss, or mobile app installs — it doesn’t really matter.

What do I always do before I decide which offer to promote?

I have written down 5 tips that help me every time I choose offers for my new campaigns.

1. Ask Your AM the Right Questions

It is as simple as this. Your affiliate manager (AM) has all the data you need to know in front of her, so hit her up and ask for the reports.

What you are looking for are the TOP-performing offers in your vertical at the MOMENT, not three-week-old data. Every good network keeps these offers updated at least on a weekly basis.

Choose at least 2 to 3 offers to split-test, but do not stop there.

If your offer is global, you can — and should — dig even deeper.

Ask your AM for the list of top-performing countries. This tip alone has saved me thousands of dollars. Instead of trying a random country, I can go where the money is made RIGHT NOW. Alternatively, I can look for an unpopular market with potential, such as lower-level competition.

2. Volume > EPC

When we do paid traffic, we know that to be profitable, our earnings per click (EPC) should always be HIGHER than our cost per click (CPC).

EPC > CPC = PROFIT

However — I don’t know for what reason — networks still like to present offer reports based on EPC.

When I started out in 2013, I was thrilled by these numbers, but what I didn’t know was that making decisions based on that data alone is DUMB.

Average network EPC tells us nothing because from our point of view, it’s a black box.

We don’t know what traffic sources other affiliates use, and a few big affiliates could have a great traffic source and offer combination that pushes the average EPCs up.

And when we try to promote the offer ourselves, we probably get totally different numbers.

That’s why I always recommend asking your AM for reports based on VOLUME instead of EPC.

3. Good Artists Copy; Great Artists Steal

I believe Picasso would make a shitload of money if he were alive and working as an affiliate marketer today.

The only thing I can say about this tip is that you should not forget to take a break and look what is happening around you.

Spying on other affiliates is just another way of gathering more data. It is an art in itself, so maybe I will dig into it in one of my future posts.

4. Learn to Listen

Read your network e-mails, listen to your AMs, connect with other affiliates, and read what people on the forums are saying.

All these “hummings” tell a part of the story, which is like a puzzle, and your job is to put it together to see the whole picture.

5. The Sense of Experience

This is something I’m starting to see in myself after long months of hard work, and I’m trying to constantly develop it.

Once you launch a lot of campaigns in your vertical and in different GEOs, you will learn a LOT of things.

You will naturally develop a special sense that tells you which offers to run (and where to run them) and which not to.

I believe it’s called experience, and it’s a very good skill.

Okay, guys, I hope these 5 tips can lead you to the right path. They have helped me personally and are working for me. However, I believe there are much more and maybe better ways to find a profitable offer, so feel free to share in the comments your way of doing this.