Daily Deal Offers / Groupon Guide (57)
Ok so the first thing you need to know here is there are no set rules for this campaign. I mean this in 2 ways.
1. You have to try different countries, with different offers, with different ideas and some will work and some won't (There's a lot of options, so mix-matching different things is your best way to find the gems. The good news is, it's pretty easy to find the gems. I'm currently running these campaigns and i'll give out a lot of my campaign info below, but i haven't scaled anything)
2. The rules for advertising these offers is in the 'early' stages. They may have rules, but they're pretty lax advertisers at the moment. This doesn't mean you won't get pulled from the offer, it just means it'll be more strict in months to come. (just like any offer… ie: rebills)
There are a LOT of these daily deal offers, Groupon is just the one the public is most familiar with (at least in CA/US). The branding is important when advertising these offers, but it's by far the key component to a profiting daily deal campaign.
- Research Affbuzz for 'deal', 'deals' & 'daily deal' offers, and ask ALL of your networks if they have 'private or hidden daily deal offers'. Quite a few networks have these offers private (also countries set to private). If they ask if your doing volume on similar offers say yes, but your looking to split test and launch new campaigns.
Some offer landing pages:
I am running this campaign on Facebook for a couple countries. Groupon has a LOT of countries such as Singapore and Japan (haven't tested them yet) which i'd like to run as a group campaign in a few days. These countries have such little competition on Facebook so this is quite an interesting opportunity and i've never advertised in either of those countries before -- i think both have a $1 payout too. I'll get all the translations done for us, and we'll test it together from there.
In the meantime, there's enormous amounts of traffic in all other mainstream Facebook advertising countries such as US, CA, UK, AU etc… So let me show you how i'm running these offers.
Angles / Facebook Targeting / Keyword Targeting
These all go hand in hand. You don't always have to target keywords on Facebook, but a lot of the time i recommend it. You'll see what i mean when you start testing these daily deal offers.
To get the best ROI you want to target specific things.
For example:
1. This is OK: 'deals up to 90% off in New York!'
2. This is Good: '90% off NBA tickets in New York!'
3. This is Great: '90% off New York Knicks NBA tickets!'
#2 Is your best bet for not getting in any trouble, while still achieving a high CTR and conversion rates. So unless your not to worried of network troubles i'd stick with #1 and #2. Ofcourse #3 will yield you the best CTR and conversion rates (but it's risky).
*If your doing #2/#3 ^ your going to want to keep this whole campaign low key (especially if your targeting direct names/brands which i'll explain below). Don't run tons of volume to it, and don't share it! Split it up among lots of countries/city's.
ie: if your running it in San Fran, limit your San Fran campaign to $100/day spending (less people that see it at once is better), and you can multiply the same campaign idea to new york. Even then, don't do too many leads a day, and spread your leads out a bit across multiple networks.
*Landing pages aren't needed. Usually once you find a working campaign i'd recommend you split test a landing page, but likely your landing page will get you in trouble if it has anything from #2 or #3 ^ in it. So overall i wouldn't recommend it for this campaign.
*You MUST target by city's! So on Facebook make sure each campaign is tailored to specific city's. Also include the city if you can in the ad title and absolutely in the ad body. You'll have to test which brings in a better CTR by using it in your headline: the City in your headline or Angle you take in your headline.
Angle Ideas
I've had some amazing CTRs and Conversion rates targeting the following things:
- Sports/Sports teams!
(NBA, Hockey have been my top 2. Depending on your country/ sports you know well, you have SO MANY OPTIONS! -- Baseball, Soccer!!, Football, Cricket, BOWLING (why not), the smaller the sport/niche the more you'll dominate it! Don't ask me for sports, just go research this it's all common sense)
> Targeting? -- Target the city of course, and try keywords. (For me keywords worked best). Assuming were targeting the 'New York Knicks' (which is an NBA team in New York). Your keywords would be: new york knicks, basketball, NBA, kobe bryant, michael jordan, lebron james, etc… ANY KEYWORDS that prove a person likes basketball at all is a keyword you want to use! (Now i know your all going to go out and do basketball but i urge you one more time, be creative and try other sports/niche's, you'll be a lot happier when you have a campaign that runs a lot longer!)
Ad:
Title: 90% Off NY NBA Tickets
Body: Wowza! <offer name here> is offering up the best deals on NBA tickets in the country! See insane off the wall deals right now!
(Enter more info surrounding the angle your targeting in the body copy, ad basketball players name, teams etc..)
- Traveling!
*You can do this 1000 different ways.
Method 1: Target lots of states/provinces offering up deals in Las Vegas! Keywords are your key to riches here! This is a working campaign right now and it isn't too risky. I'll give you some keyword ideas for Facebook to get the ideas flowing (would also work well on PPV!).
Keywords: Clubbing, popular club names, top 'clubbing' music artists, *people who like to party = your target market!!* get it 
Method 2: You can target fans of the movie 'the hangover'. (The keyword doesn't exist in the Facebook DB for some reason, so just target 20-25 year olds.
Ad:
Party Like The Hangover
<crazy picture of Alan from the hangover here / other crazy drunk pics relating to vegas>
Crazy Vegas trips up to 90% Off! Deals like you've never seen, signup with your email quick before this offer goes!
~ If you haven't see the movie 'the hangover' this is it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119646/
A movie about a wild trip to Las Vegas loved by MANY people, and known by 85% of the population between 18-25 in US/CA.
You can use the vegas angle to also target men/women 45+ looking for a 'gambling/party' related trip, might want to use 'las vegas' related keywords for this age.
Just keep using ideas based on what i said above. It's literally endless! Doesn't just have to be vegas, for all you know trips to cuba will offer 10x the ROI. When i have more time i'll be testing this out on mega levels (top of my list)!.
-----
*Sometimes Facebook doesn't like affiliates pushing daily deals, if thats the case just don't mention the daily deal company or the word 'deals' in the ad.
Also:
They don't like the 'email capture' style landing page. So you may have to make fake landing pages for whatever your angle is. All you have to do is take a screenshot of the groupon style page, and swap out the pic, headlines and body text with your own and upload it. (Takes 5 minutes and no major skills are needed, just use the eraser and add in your own images and text). They won't care if your groupon style landing page is hosted at whatever-unrelated-domain-name-you-have.com, they just want to see a related landing page to your claim from your ad.
*As most campaigns on Facebook your images are very important. Overall it's not too hard because your targeting will reveal some massive CTR for you, but your images are still your knight in shining armour. Test a lot of images, and find weird/wacky things related to what your targeting. The guide below is a VERY GOOD guide showing you how to achieve high CTR with images, so use it for this campaign!
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...-Amazing-CTR-s
Also girls in the images will do good, but no need to focus on that. My top images for all my campaigns don't have girls in them, but it's a good fall back method.
*Your knowledge of local city's and famous/big things in those local city's will help you out greatly with these campaigns!
*This campaign can literally be done with ANYTHING! If you want to stay more low key, which i do suggest then run it with less known targets. ie: targeting people who like 'vitamin water', or the 'quicksilver' brand. Targeting mainstream events/sports teams will bring more 'heat' to your campaign and increase your chances of getting in trouble.
*This is a campaign you want to Scale!!! It has many different advertisers, and many networks are carrying the same offers, and new offers are popping up all the time. Also tons of room to expand your ideas, since 'deals' work with everyone and everything (celebs, brands, sports, traveling, etc! Tons of competition among advertisers/networks for your traffic is good for you!
*Don't forget, ask your networks about ALL of their 'daily deal' offers. Some smaller networks have ones others don't, and some networks have certain offers/countries set to private!
*Payout bumps are pretty key, get all the bumps you can, 15 cents makes a big difference on $1.10 offer and 10,000 leads.
Top stuff Jordan - can see why it took sometime to write - there are so many daily deals around,
there's no excuse not to be able to run a campaign anywhere.
Would you classify coupon offers in the same vertical -
PS: Anyone for Nachos -
^^
ie: Target Nacho lovers on Facebook in every city in the US. To me that seems like a campaign that would work right away, it's really all about testing whatever comes to mind.
awesome post, on a side related note the hangover part 2 is being released May 26th this year so will probably be an upcomming trend - can't wait for it 
Great guide Jordan, thanks for that! I just got all of my keywords disapproved in LI without any reason, grml. Any special tips on promoting this on PPV? Target wise ord demographic wise would be appreciated!
sick guide!
check out this page for popular things on FB to target
http://www.facebook.com/directory/pages/ just scroll from A-->Z
Excellent guide. This is the kind of detail I joined for . 
Few questions:
With Groupon are you putting their name/brand names in the ad in any way?
Neverblue got the highest payouts but the restrictions are really onerous. eg no use of brand name or citydeal etc, must be non direct linking approach, NO SEM, NO SEO, NO Facebook only non direct approach (wtf?) and NO networks !!
wondering what ways they think we have left to promote left after leaving out all those>
Are you just breaking these rules anyway?
I think KGB may be the way to go as they dont appear to have any rules at all.
Can you share what cpc/epc/ctr you aim for
Originally Posted by index
Awesome guide!
I started running these offers prior to this guide, but this has really helped open my eyes.
Currently running a kgb deals offer for UK with direct linking. Trying the ticket angle and got one ad with a CTR of 0.274%. No conversions yet so I am wondering if angles like that really can convert. Aren't people supposed to see something about "tickets" on the lander?
PPV Newbie
-They convert REALLY well! Think about it form your own perspective if you weren't an online marketer.
-You see an ad offering your favorite tickets for 80% off, and you know these 'daily deal' sites are legit, so you type in your email to see the 'offer'.
Gamekeeper
-I was adding the name for groupon, then they stopped approving my ads sometimes (it's 50/50)
-Neverblue is retarded, ask your aff manager at neverblue if you actually have to follow those rules, sometimes those are there as precautions,
-I am breaking those rules, KGB seems to have a bit lower CR, but definitely less strict
-Just remember US/UK aren't the only countries! I'm doing quite well with other countries
-CPC i aim for varies... depends on how well your stuffs converting. You'll 90% need less than 10cent clicks unless you found a real winner! (Goal is under 5 cents forsure)
10 c clicks - wow its been a while since i seen those. The starting cpc are always well over the $1+ mark and more when i set up. CTR is everything isnt it.
Yea I'm checking with Neverblue it does seem b/s
Funny though, i asked my AM at the one of the UK networks I'm with "any restrictions?" and he said not really they are after volume. Their deal is 15% rev share on every sale + a further £2.50 for every new client - not a straight submit deal but it might work quite well on high converting offers. I can also get a list of new offers as they come out (UK)
Do you see any issues arising if you set an ad promoting an offer and the user discovers there is no such deal available, like nightclubs, sports events etc? I ask because i see only a limited number of offers on the Groupon page for any given city relating typically just to restaurants, hair and beauty etc
i just talked to my am at neverblue and he told me that direct linking is absolutely restricted :-( can you recommend me another network which is good for groupon offers?
10 cent clicks seriously isn't hard at all. You just need to make sure your targeting is tight, and you test a lot of images!
Rev share is quite the risk, especially with the methods above.
http://www.affbuzz.com/offerbuzz
(Search 'groupon', 'deals', 'daily deals', 'group deals', etc...)
Ask the networks your currently on if they have any daily deal offers. As i said quite a few networks have unique daily deal offers you won't find on affbuzz and ones that i don't know about. This is because they go by weird names most of the time and don't have the word 'deals' in their offer name.
I hope everyone is working on their campaigns. Don't give up after one and something I'd like to stress 1 more time is go out and find more unique daily deal offers and the best way to do that is to ask everyone of your affiliate managers for daily deal offers on their network. The smaller networks seems to have more of these.
I'm trying to find more networks with Groupon Japan/Singapore but can't, so i just emailed Neverblue to ask about there insane restrictions. I'll update here soon
Hmm so my angle is probably not working right then. I already deleted the 0.0x CTR ads and this is what I have left.
No conversions so far all direct linked.
^^^ Not much to work with. 0.2 CTR probably won't cut it though.
Having trouble with KGB, doesn't convert at all.
Originally Posted by klax
Originally Posted by klax
ps: i'm split testing with EWA right now..will post my results soon
I think KGB is a UK based company. It may have better name recognition with UK traffic. Same as Groupon here in the US. Just a thought. I haven't run either yet but I will be soon.
Stackman - have you tested these with a LP yet?
Originally Posted by stackman
Thanks for a great guide!
Stackman: I signed up with KGB deals just to check what it's all about, and what kind of deals they are offering. I couldn't find any deals on NBA and similar tickets at all. I mean is it still ok to market the offer like "NBA ticket deals" even if they don't have these kind of deals? I did notice that you could suggest your own deal within the KGB interface though, so I guess in theory they could get these kind of deals
Originally Posted by Jay
Originally Posted by klax
I started running this and am seeing close to 100% ROI, but for some reason Facebook took away my keyword targeting so I can't really scale. Has anyone seen this before?
Instead of a little search box where I can enter keywords I have a big box that says "Broad Category" and allows me to pick from generic stuff (gardening, reading, movies, etc..)
Btw, not going to reveal how I'm running it but I'm running the KGB - US offer if it helps anyone.
Stackman I saw you mention above that .20 CTR won't be enough but I'm seeing a .18 CTR for .07 clicks and around a .15 EPC so it can work. For some reason my CPM's are only .13 (I'm assuming it's the keywords I'm targeting)
EDIT: My KW targeting was disabled because I was using the FB Ad Uploader and creating ads too fast (so be careful). I can still create kw targeted ads using the ad uploader but I can't see how big the target demo is.
@sirob4
That's pretty wild. I haven't seen that before. However, I have been manually creating a lot of ads (Nearly 100/day - I think it's time to buy some automation software) and I've been noticing a lot of funky things with the system with regard to the interface. I haven't experienced exactly what you have, but for some of my campaigns, the targeting options move to different locations on the screen. I don't remember which one exactly, but if I find it, or if it happens again, I'll take a screenshot.
Can you post a screenshot?
Jay: Here's a screenshot below. As I mentioned above, I did figure out why it was happening and I still can use keyword targeting through the ad uploader. If you're still doing things manually, I would HIGHLY suggest you get the FB Ad Uploader mentioned in these forums. I can't even tell you how much time it saves you and it allows you to test more campaigns quicker and more efficiently. Easily worth 10x what I paid for it.
@sirob4
Ewww, that's ugly. It looks like MySpace Ads!
With all the quirkiness I've seen creating ads manually, I've been hesitant to use any automation software. I'll look more into this. Thanks for sharing!
Originally Posted by ppvnewbie
Hi Stack,
New to PPV and only have experience direct linking campaigns so far. However, your post inspired me to have a go at running a PPV campaign using my own lander based on one of these angles.
Please if you have any feedback on my lander (linked below) I would be very appreciative.
http://myprizedeals.com/lasvegasparty2.php
http://myprizedeals.com/lasvegasparty3.php
My plan is to start running this on LI, split testing it with different images as shown in the different links.
Thanks,
Richard
Hey Richard,
the landing pages are good.
You can try adding some sound ( even some music will do ) to attract more attention.
I suggest starting a new follow along thread so we can give you suggestions.
Thanks BBRock32!
Will post up a follow along right now.
Hey, thanks for this really valuable guide!
Has anyone tried promoting deal toolbar downloads, like this one? http://www.gogetdailydeals.com/?affi..._id=12860&sub=
Any experience?
toolbars are tough cause they require installation.
I'm having a hard time with these daily deal camps. I can get the ads past the reviewers, but for some reason I'm not getting any impressions for them.
On the other hand, my dating stuff gets the usual traffic so tin foil hat theory says they are penalizing me for putting these daily deal offers on there. Think there's any truth to this?
Thanks for the Post,
Facebook Keeps Disapproving my ad.
It says "The destination of your ad or Sponsored Story either violates Facebook's Advertising Guidelines or could not be reviewed. Before resubmitting it, please visit our Help Center for additional information and examples compliant with our Advertising Guidelines.
heres the link to the offer.
http://www.facebook.com/ajax/emu/end...&a=0&sig=87248
any suggestions?
That link won't work for us, post the URL of the end offer page itself.
If it is your affiliate link it may be geo-redirecting anyone outside the offers specific country it is targeted to. If a FB reviewer gets redirected (and it will always be to something different generally) they will disapprove your ad. If this is the problem point your advert to a redirect file on your own server and do your own geo-redirect.
Otherwise it could be that the offer itself (offer page) is blacklisted by Facebook or rated red with MyWoT, check it's rating. If it's red rated then you will need to ditch it, or cloak/use a landing page or both.
http://tnktrck.com/?a=4088&c=3744&s1=
That is the link
It's going to an email submit offer. If you are trying to run an international offer that redirects to another offer they'll decline it if that offer isnt allowed.
Thanks for the advice guys!
Would you all have a clue how to bypass this?
Point to a URL on your server, a php file that you have redirect people based on their geographic location. I.e. handle the redirects yourself to avoid the network redirecting people to shady/irrelevant offers.
There are multiple threads on geo-redirecting.
Also check out http://ctrtard.com/code/blazing-geo-...n-your-server/
Bumping this for the fact that daily deals are hot right now. Lots of INTL opportunity's and many offers killing it in US/CA/UK
Nice, any recommended to push?
Any way to get around Neverblue's crazy terms for groupon?
groupon is strict on all networks right now..
i am also searching any method to get around with this but cant do it so far
Originally Posted by irideflatland
Forget about Groupon. They have some clicks/tracking problems now. I used to have over 20% conversion rates with their international offers (mainly German, Norway, Spain etc) but right now the conversions tanked to 1%. Which is ridiculous, so my AM said. I'm just waiting for them to solve this issue, and yes, i was banking A TON from Groupon International offers..... lots of opportunities bros!
Joe
^ which network offer you're running?
great stuff, trying this right now on French Market on Facebook
I've spoken with a guy at KGB Deals in the UK today...
Apparently all Facebook Ads should be approved by them and their agency prior to going live.
Plus -
You can only promote a niche daily deal if there is one in that niche for that day and in that city. For example - if you promote a Sushi offer there has to be a Sushi offer on their site for that time and in the targeted city.
You can't advertise a Sushi daily deal in London, if there is one in Manchester. And if that deal ends on the 19th, then you have to stop promoting that deal on that day.
I'm giving you a heads up because this is definitely not being communicated to the affiliates by networks. KGB Deals are getting hot on this as they have received several complaints from the ASA about Facebook Ads.
It's been communicated down by the CEO and Global CEO of KGB Deals that any misleading Facebook ads are strictly prohibited.
Could you still get away with promoting non-current deals? Probably, if your network hasn't told you otherwise. Is it worth the risk? That's up to you.
Yikes!! that sounds like too much work, but i understand the quality issue...
To be honest the non current deal thing is mumbo jumbo. Don't only follow my advice as it may get you in trouble, but if they really expect affiliates to make new ads/keywords/landing pages each week for every new deal they have... it doesn't make sense. You'd be ending campaigns before they even started getting a good ROI. Don't make ads for 90% off Football tickets because that's just a lie, but advertising a sushi deal in Toronto should be just fine no matter what week it is.
>> From my experience as long as what your offering is legit, then you won't have any problems, just check traffic quality before hand. If you get your ads approved by groupon and you periodically check for quality with your AM you won't run into any issues.
Originally Posted by stackman
I'd be inclined to agree. I hadn't even heard of the non-current deals thing until I spoke to KGB Deals themselves. They sound pretty adamant about it, which is why I'm surprised the networks haven't communicated this to affiliates. KGB said Groupon had a lot of the same complaints from ASA too, which is why I'm guessing you don't see much social traffic allowed on Groupon offers these days.
I presume the same will happen with KGB. But yeah, it's totally unrealistic for affiliates to keep making new offers every few days for each different deal they put up.
Update on the KGB Deals issue.
This was a broadcast put out today by their agency:
"I am writing with regards to the use of Facebook and other social media for the promotion of the KGB Deals affiliate programme.
As you will appreciate this is a very difficult area to police and any representation of the KGB Brand and its offers must be compliant with the advertising standards code of conduct irrespective of their source.
Recently we have had issues with affiliates falling foul of these regulations intentionally or otherwise, and it is essential that publishers use great care with the use of Facebook and social media in driving traffic and sales. For the sake of clarity I have included guidelines that will be added to the programme terms and conditions with immediate effect. They merely re-enforce the need to comply with the ASA Code of Conduct.
“Affiliates must ensure that any content displayed on social media such as Facebook, Google + and Twitter, represents genuine KGB Deals offers correctly in terms of description, pricing and information that would be found on the offer page of the KGB Deals site. Any affiliate found promoting fictitious KGB Deals will be removed immediately from the programme and all commissions cancelled. Affiliates found to be misrepresenting deals (either in price, offer or description) or promoting expired deals intentionally or otherwise will be suspended until corrections are made. Repeated breach of the guidelines will result in removal from the programme and the cancellation of commissions.”
I hope you appreciate the need to bring this into effect, as whilst KGB has no wish to prevent the use of social media in promoting the programme they have ultimate responsibility in the eyes of the ASA and the consumer and as such it is the duty of publishers to ensure that they are compliant for such activity to continue on the KGB Deals programme."
I'm guessing FB isn't really going to be much of an option for KGB anymore.
Can you test this offer on FB without a cloaker and use angles such as fashion?
You mean people actually CANCEL Groupon or KGB Deals after 'signing up' (i.e. giving their email) for FREE, just because they can't find an 80% of Sushi deal in their town..?? Seriously....
1/2 the deals that Groupon advertise themselves are bullshit and never transpire..... I'm still waiting for 80% of dildo's in Singapore..... [j/k]
I agree you don't have to run Groupon only there are a ton of other daily deals campaigns that converts well because i can say Groupon is taking ages to approve your creatives and at some point you may just wanna try other intel offers.
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