The two projects
Project 1 — Panic Away AdWords campaign. Panic Away was an established digital product in the anxiety and panic attack self-help category, sold through affiliate networks with commission rates sufficient to support paid traffic acquisition [ClickBank affiliate program, c. 2010]1.
Project 2 — Meditation software YouTube affiliate. Separately, YouTube was identified as an emerging channel for affiliate content in the adjacent wellness space.
What was evaluated before spending
For the AdWords campaign: the Panic Away affiliate offer, commission structure, and estimated CPC for anxiety and panic attack search queries in US metro markets [AdWords planner data, c. 2010]. The question was whether the margin between commission and ad spend could be made positive through targeted campaign execution. It could.
The results
AdWords: The campaign produced a positive return on ad spend — affiliate commissions exceeded advertising spend [AdWords campaign exports, engagement records]2.
YouTube: The video generated affiliate commission income over time through viewer conversions, creating a passive income stream from a single content asset [YouTube Analytics, engagement records]2.
What this demonstrates
Evaluating a conversion offer’s margin potential before committing ad budget is the step most operators skip. The AdWords campaign succeeded because the math was done first. The YouTube asset succeeded because a single piece of optimized content continued converting without additional spend.