My first PPC journey. POPads + CPALead

[krass]

In my testing I found a lander that's getting me consistent 30% CTR for 3 days straight. No conversions yet, but this seems interesting:

day 1: 341/1197 = 28%
day 2: 451/1497 = 30%
day 3: 115/350 = 32%

I've cooked up some angles to pair with this lander so we'll see what happens.

 

[krass]

So the lander didn't work out. I'm back to the low payout offer. I got in touch with another network that runs the same offer but with 3 times the payout. Tried a few times and just got accepted. But I need to be approved for the offer first before I can promote it.

So in the mean time, I'm getting more data by running the cheaper payout offer. $20 spent for 4 coversions totalling $0.68. LOL. Silly numbers, I know. My plan is to build a huge whitelist and promote the better paying offer and I should go into profit.

I'm bidding really high for the blacklist campaign. I'll start the whitelist campaign with a lower bid.

One thing that's really strange to me:
I'm a noob so in the beginning I was all over the place. So now I'm somewhat more organised.
- I tried promoting an offer I found on CPAgrip that was converting for other people in the network.
- Ripped a lander I found for the offer.
- Created some variations.
- Sent Popads traffic to the offer
- no conversions

I thought ok, maybe I should send traffic from the same source.
- used the domain name the traffic source uses to trace traffic source origin
- found the exact traffic source
- sent traffic
- no conversions..

I don't get it. I've been spying this exact same lander being up for weeks with little to no variation.
Since my funnel is almost identical I should see some conversions.. but zero, nilch, nada..

same traffic source, same lander, same offer..

Well anyways.. all I have now is the low payout offer, literally the only thing that's converting for me.
Next steps:

I have a site that's getting traffic, so I'm installing popads code on there to spy on competitors.
Spied using my phone, found a lander for mobile sweeps.

So now I know the traffic source (popads), lander (fb-style), and offer (mobile sweeps).

I'll spend tomorrow recreating this funnel and try to get conversions from there. I'll let the
low payout offer gather the data for blacklist and whitelist.

That's all for now.

 

[pavel wazz]

You need to change networks also do split tests on many networks. I want to start doing ppv with cpa. But its hard cuz when ppl find something that works noone is sharing, wich is logical but thats why is super hard to start. Please keep sharinf.

 

[mumin4sure]

Am following your tread , keep us updated

 

[Dispply]

Will follow thread as well.

Btw, difference in payout is not always good as one network can be shaving.

 

[krass]

Will follow thread as well.

Btw, difference in payout is not always good as one network can be shaving.

The network I was running on redirects to the higher payout network, so I guess it's just them reselling the offer.

Anyway it doesn't matter because the network with the higher payout got back to me saying that they don't run in my geo anymore. The rep asked me to promote an offer in AU.

I'm not sure whether to take her up on this. The offer I'm running is expiring soon, so it's understandable that she'd want me to run traffic to a diff offer.

AU is much more expensive than my current geo so I'm not sure about this.

On the bright side, I'm getting better and better at balancing CTR with CVR. I have some landers giving me good ctr but crap cvr, and some have good cvr but crap ctr. I'm trying to combine the two and get the best of both worlds.

In conclusion:
- I have only one offer that's working but it's super low payout and may not be worth my time promoting it.
- Even if I could get it to profit, it's expiring soon and I'm going to have to hunt for other offers anyway.
- So I'm back to square one.
- Not really back to square one though, since I now know how to rip landers both mobile and desktop, how to set up trackers, how to create angles to manipulate ctr and cvr, and how to bid effectively in popads. Well, I have the basics at least.

Next steps:
Find a damn offer.

 

[Dispply]

Suggest you reading Charles's post about finding the offer.

 

[game333]

Erm, not to break your excitement, isn't CPALead an "INCENTIVE CPA NETWORK".
Meaning the leads you made there will be x4 lesser than a "NON-INCENTIVE CPA NETWORK".
Unless you promote a "INCENTIVE" landers, then that's a different story.

 

[krass]

Erm, not to break your excitement, isn't CPALead an "INCENTIVE CPA NETWORK".
Meaning the leads you made there will be x4 lesser than a "NON-INCENTIVE CPA NETWORK".
Unless you promote a "INCENTIVE" landers, then that's a different story.

As i said im a total noob lol.. what network would you recommend?

Suggest you reading Charles's post about finding the offer.

Which post is this? Can you give me thhr link?

 

[game333]

As i said im a total noob lol.. what network would you recommend?


Which post is this? Can you give me thhr link?

I can't help you either, mobile marketing I guess furthermobi? Check out affiliatefix, there's a section where you can find loads of resources regarding affiliate network.

 

[krass]

So after reading game333's post above i realized I was promoting incent offers, which payout less. I've been working my ass off trying to apply and get accepted to networks and so far i've been accepted to adscend, cpgrip, bigbangads, peerfly, maxbounty to name a few.

I've also taken a day off from running campaigns to evaluate my journey and get perspective.

All my current campaigns are shot at this point.
I have two scenarios now:

1) got a recommendation to promote mobile pin submit for AU. The payout is good at $10 but the terms are strict and the cpm for pops in AU is twice what it is for MY.

2) maxbounty recommended a dating offer, also for AU. At the same time i saw a journey in here about a guy who does ppc on bing for surveys
- i'm considering this because coming from an seo background I'm familiar with keywords, and during my seo days I did have some success building aff sites for dating.

But it would be a huge pivot because i'm already waist deep in pop traffic, and i made a promise to myself that i'll master pops first before moving on to other stuff.

I guess i should've gone straight to ppc marketing given my background, but running pop traffic is easier since you dont have to worry about keyword, banners, etc and I can focus on improving my landers.

Sigh..

Decisions, decisions..

 

[krass]

So I've decided to stick with Popads traffic source until I get something profitable. I found an offer that converted once after $10 ad spend and I think that's good enough. The only shitty thing is that my tracker didn't record the conversion since my postback isn't working so I've contacted adsbridge and still waiting for their reply.

Landing page stats:
LP1- 1670 views 1017 clicks = 60% CTR
LP2- 1673 views 60 clicks = 3.5% CTR
LP3- 1721 views 46 clicks = 2.6% CTR

So LP1 wins CTR wise, but it means jack if I don't know from which LP the conversion came from. If anyone here knows how to set up CPAGRIP postback in adsbridge I would be much obliged.

I have been trying for days to get it to work, and the support in adsbridge have not gotten back to me yet re this.. fml

I need to get into addspro or yeahmobi to rotate the offers, but no luck so far. I'm moving forward, hoping for the first breakthrough campaign.

BTW, the offer I'm running right now allows both mobile and desktop, or at least it doesn't specify which traffic it prefers whether mobile or desktop. I'm running mobile traffic to it, but the offer landing page doesn't seem to be mobile optimized. It doesn't look bad in mobile, but it looks way better in desktop. I think I'll test desktop traffic to it also, but then the conversion requires to a) select a carrier, and b) enter mobile number. This is very confusing. Does this mean that the offer wants desktop users to enter their mobile phones?

Looks like I need to test more offers.

 

[vidb]

So I've decided to stick with Popads traffic source until I get something profitable. I found an offer that converted once after $10 ad spend and I think that's good enough. The only shitty thing is that my tracker didn't record the conversion since my postback isn't working so I've contacted adsbridge and still waiting for their reply.

Landing page stats:
LP1- 1670 views 1017 clicks = 60% CTR
LP2- 1673 views 60 clicks = 3.5% CTR
LP3- 1721 views 46 clicks = 2.6% CTR

So LP1 wins CTR wise, but it means jack if I don't know from which LP the conversion came from. If anyone here knows how to set up CPAGRIP postback in adsbridge I would be much obliged.

I have been trying for days to get it to work, and the support in adsbridge have not gotten back to me yet re this.. fml

I need to get into addspro or yeahmobi to rotate the offers, but no luck so far. I'm moving forward, hoping for the first breakthrough campaign.

BTW, the offer I'm running right now allows both mobile and desktop, or at least it doesn't specify which traffic it prefers whether mobile or desktop. I'm running mobile traffic to it, but the offer landing page doesn't seem to be mobile optimized. It doesn't look bad in mobile, but it looks way better in desktop. I think I'll test desktop traffic to it also, but then the conversion requires to a) select a carrier, and b) enter mobile number. This is very confusing. Does this mean that the offer wants desktop users to enter their mobile phones?

Looks like I need to test more offers.

Alex is an AdsBridge rep here on AffiliateFix. You can drop him a note on @Alex_099 and he is pretty quick to respond or can ask Irina to connect and sort out the issue.

I'm not sure but CPAGrip might capture the IP address of the conversion, you can use that IP address and look it up in the Global Report section on AdsBridge to nail the LP that gave you the conversion.

Check with your AM if this offer is best promoted on Mobile or on Desktop... they are the ones with all the insights.

 

[krass]

Alex is an AdsBridge rep here on AffiliateFix. You can drop him a note on @Alex_099 and he is pretty quick to respond or can ask Irina to connect and sort out the issue.

I'm not sure but CPAGrip might capture the IP address of the conversion, you can use that IP address and look it up in the Global Report section on AdsBridge to nail the LP that gave you the conversion.

Check with your AM if this offer is best promoted on Mobile or on Desktop... they are the ones with all the insights.

Yeah I did contact alex in the adsbridge thread but it's still not working. Cpa Grip is an incent network also right? I need to get approved for mobile networks. F5, Clickdealer, Mundo etc. That will be priority no 1 this week.

What is your skype
krass

check your PM mate

 

[john snow]

yep,get some non-incent network and you will get to profit

 

[vidb]

@krass... Did you check with your network to get the IP address of the conversion?

 

[Phill AdsBridge]

Yeah I did contact alex in the adsbridge thread but it's still not working. Cpa Grip is an incent network also right? I need to get approved for mobile networks. F5, Clickdealer, Mundo etc. That will be priority no 1 this week.


check your PM mate

Hello @krass, as well as Alex, I'm also reperesent AdsBridge here.

Can you check pls with aff network what parameter they use, in order to pass click ID?

Looks like your settings will look like:

1. offer Screenshot “AdsBridge - Next generation tracker and landing page builder! - Mozilla Firefox 2016-03-16 10.20.50.png”
2. postback http://xxxxx.ab4all.com/trackpixel/track?tid={tracking_id}

Could you pls make a screenshot of your offer setting, you can send it in private message if you want to, so we could check if anything is correct.

Let's make it work!

 

[krass]

I've restructured my whole funnel. Came up with new landing pages, putting new offers in rotation.

My latest ROI is ~-50%

Finally getting somewhere. I've tried to make contact with cpa networks but no luck so far. Tried clickdealer, F5 media, Mundo media, Dssply.

The offers that are converting for me are from cpagrip, but I haven't resolved the postback issue yet. Shoutout to Nick from adsbridge for his patience in dealing with a noob. The token is passed to the network but it stops there, cpagrip did not send the conversion back to adsbridge. I tried getting in touch with John but he's travelling a lot so yeah.

So what I'm doing is to separate the campaigns by carrier first, so that I know which carrier is converting. I'll just have to focus on this carrier, and if I want to test other carriers, I have to pause this one. Painstakingly slow.

I really need to get into more networks. Any of you guys can refer me? I'll sign up under your aff link, I don't mind at all.

That's all for today.

 

[kate.dispply]

Hey @krass,
can you contact me via Skype? I'll see what I can do.

 

[krass]

Hey @krass,
can you contact me via Skype? I'll see what I can do.

Hi, Kate. I added you on Skype. Let's talk.