Learning Paid Traffic Is How You Spend Money Where It Actually Matters

There is a common saying in Chinese: spend your money where it matters most. Everyone understands the phrase, but when it comes to actually doing it, very few people seem to know what that means in practice.

Many people want to start a side hustle or a small business, yet they either fail quickly or find it very hard to keep going in the beginning. In my view, one major reason is that they put money in the wrong places. A lot of people still feel deeply reluctant to spend money on advertising.

Real Examples

After observing people around me over the past year or two, I have found that the small-scale entrepreneurs who actually made money all did it through reasonable paid traffic. No exceptions.

1. An ordinary admin employee who switched into programming

   This person was genuinely ordinary. If I had to name one strength, it would probably be that their English was a little better than average.

   • Main paid traffic platform: X (x.com)
   • Annual net income achieved: $300,000+

2. A programmer with more than 10 years of experience

   A real old-school programmer. Most of his freelance work still comes from PHP, mainly using established systems such as WordPress and Shopify.

   • Main paid traffic platform: Google
   • Annual net income achieved: around $200,000

3. Someone very good at spotting trends

   Whatever is hot, he sells courses around it. When many people wanted overseas remote jobs, he sold coaching on how to find overseas remote work. When AI development became popular, he sold different kinds of AI development courses.

   • Main paid traffic platform: Google
   • Annual net income achieved: $100,000+

   Some people may wonder: if the buyers of these courses are mostly domestic Chinese users, why would they advertise on Google? Think about the nature of these courses. They are all related to overseas opportunities. Advertising on Google can actually be more precise. Because the traffic is precise, there is less useless communication, and the conversion rate is relatively high.

A Practical Paid Traffic SOP

Below are two paid traffic channels that are still quite useful for people building for overseas markets.

Google Ads Paid Traffic SOP

1. Account setup and verification

   • Create an account: go to ads.google.com and sign in with Gmail.
   • Identity verification: upload identity documents as required. Note that Google reviews advertisers very strictly, so make sure your landing page, meaning your website, does not contain policy-violating content.

2. Ad creation process

   1. Choose the campaign type: make sure you choose Search Ads. In the early stage, I do not recommend choosing fancy display ads.
   2. Core operation, keywords: enter specific intent-based keywords.
   3. Write the ad copy: prepare 15 headlines. Your headlines must include the keywords you are targeting, which helps improve ad quality and reduce cost per click.
   4. Budget suggestion: search ads are competitive, so I suggest $20 to $30 per day. Remember to run them continuously for at least 7 days without interruption.

X (Formerly Twitter) Paid Traffic SOP

1. Entry requirements

   • Subscribe to X Premium: this is a required first step to access Ads Manager and gain a basic level of system trust. If your budget allows, I suggest going directly for Premium+.
   • Polish the account: make sure your avatar and bio show your professional positioning, such as software development.

2. Posting and promotion process

   1. Publish useful content: write a high-quality long post or thread. Ideally, include a story, and avoid making it look like a hard sell at first glance.
   2. Activate ads: go to ads.x.com and create a new campaign.
   3. Targeting setup:
      • Keyword targeting: enter keywords such as Software Engineering, Optimization, and related terms.
      • Similar-account targeting: target users who follow major accounts in the same field.
   4. Budget suggestion: start with $5 to $10 per day. If the engagement rate, such as likes and reposts, is good, then add more budget.

Summary and Suggested Path

For independent developers or personal brand websites, I suggest following this gradual path:

Start by measuring results on a weekly basis. If a keyword performs well, increase the budget. If a post performs well, publish more related posts in the same series and keep promoting them. If something performs poorly, cut it.

You also need to be mentally prepared for the first one to three months to be pure investment. Otherwise, it is very easy to give up too early. Once the business starts generating income, take part of that income and reinvest it into paid traffic.

In other words, plan the early investment carefully. Later, let the business fund its own traffic. When the money for ads comes from revenue, the pressure becomes much smaller, and it becomes easier to keep building the business for the long term.