How a Single Keyword Strategy Netted $24K in CPA Marketing

From Student Debt to Seven-Figure Campaigns

Joey Babineau came into affiliate marketing with $40,000 in student loans and two full-time jobs sucking up his time. He knew that to break free, he’d need a system that delivered fast, targeted results without endless organic hustle. The answer? Google Search Ads tied directly to CPA offers. In just a few months, Joey ran millions in ad spend, found one keyword that returned $105K on $80K of spend, and netted $24K profit—while scaling his business past seven figures.

Why Google Search Ads?

Paid social channels like TikTok and Facebook often ban or throttle affiliate links. With Google Search, you know exactly what people search for and can match their intent. Joey says it’s the easiest high-intent traffic for affiliates because people actively hunt for solutions before they click.

Key Advantages:

• Immediate visibility for buyer-intent keywords.
• Lower ban risk vs. social platforms.
• Complete control over bids, budgets, and ad copy.

Selecting High-Value CPA Offers

Joey hunts offers on networks like MaxBounty and MaxWeb. He filters for payouts above $30 and conversion rates at or above 5%. Anything under that drains your ad budget with little return. He tracks conversion in CPV Lab Pro, seeing rates as high as 7.82% on winning campaigns.

Optimizing Landing Pages

You can’t send search traffic directly to a CPA offer or you risk an account ban. Joey builds clean, fast-loading landing pages and A/B tests headlines, calls to action, and images. On one test, swapping in new headlines pulled the click-through rate from 1.8% to 3.9%—dropping cost-per-click by 30%.

Understanding Traffic Temperatures

Joey segments campaigns into:

• Cold traffic: New visitors researching solutions.
• Warm traffic: Users who’ve seen ads or pages but didn’t convert.
• Hot traffic: Ready-to-buy users searching brand or product keywords.

He focuses budgets on warm and hot segments, where conversion rates soar.

Campaign Profit Formula

By plugging clicks, cost-per-click, conversion rate, and payout into a simple spreadsheet, Joey predicts profitability before launching big spends. When his moving parts aligned—a $1.00 CPC, 5% conversion, $30 payout—he saw a projected $625 loss on 1,000 clicks. Then he improved his landing page CTR above 45% and conversions to 7.82%, flipping margins into positive territory.

Key Results

One keyword spent $80,000, drove $105,000 in CPA payouts, and pocketed $24,000 profit. That single case proved the power of precise keyword targeting and rigorous testing.

Tools & Networks Used

• Google Ads for search traffic.
• CPV Lab Pro for click-to-conversion tracking.
• MaxBounty & MaxWeb for top-converting CPA offers.
• Jasper AI to generate ad copy and landing page headlines.

This approach scales: repeat the keyword research, refine your funnels, and reinvest profits into new campaigns for compounding growth.