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Everybody loves free samples, isn't it? Traffic source: Google Ads and Bing Ads (29)

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Dear STM enterpreneurs,

I am happy to have the opportunity to share the start of my case over here. My background: I am a project manager in a digital Agency where our core business includes: video, websites, branding, conversation management,... . Working for other people is cool but working on your own projects is much cooler, that's why I am here .


The idea
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a site with a huge collection of free samples where you can apply for. (can also be discounts, vouchers). Not the most innovative idea but will try to make it work with good graphics and building a community.

First goal
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50$ a day


Tools/networks
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Traffic source: Google Adwords, Bing Ads (I also start collecting emails from start on).
Tracker: Prosper 202
Affiliate accounts: Currently F5 media, but looking for more networks with good "free deals".
Landingpages: subpages on a wordpress site and popup plugin to collect emails (http://codecanyon.net/item/ninja-pop...dpress/3476479)
Graphics: Photoshop
Hosting: Beyond hosting
Target country: Usa


First day results
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Date: 3/19/14
Clicks: 74
Conversion percentage: 21,6
payoyut: 1$
Cost: 38.6176 $
Rev: 16$
Profit: - 22,6176

Keyword ctr:
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text ad ctr:
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Landingpage example:
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Strategy upcoming days:
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I will try to find more good converting free stuff where I can get a commission between 1 and 3 $ average. For every "sample" I set up a new landing page. For the traffic I will set up multiple text ads , gather data and eliminate less converting keywords. Will try to find low cpc keywords to get a lot of traffic.

That's it for now, will be back soon with more data. I am a starter willing to share all my experiences over here and happy to receive feedback. Thanks!

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Go for it!

I am assuming these are genuine free samples and not bait-and-switch credit card rebills. If so, it seems like a really worthwhile project that can provide great value for both consumers and advertisers.

It is also something that can create massive business value for yourself if the project really gains traction. RetailMeNot.com is now a $1.7 billion (yes, billion with a B) company, and that business has made multiple centimillionaires out of its founders, all while providing great value for consumers and advertisers. That is a perfect example of what affiliate marketers should aspire to create.

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Ok, it's a while since I updated because had to deal with some other issues. Will try to do new updates on a weekly base from now on. Cmdeal, thanks for your support.
A quick summary: I have set up a "free samples" site where you can apply for topsamples. Main traffic sources are bing ads and Google Ads.

I have below some new results from a deal I am running on the site. 1160 clicks and 75 leads is good? 94 clicks and 2 conversions is bad, so I delete the keyword or I wait for more data?

Thanks

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Woah there... how much money went into that test above? Is the traffic from Google Adwords? If so, 1160 clicks leading to 2 conversions is likely burning a gigantic hole in your pocket.

Your data posted in the first post showed much higher earnings-per-visit, no?

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@zeno I have 1160 clicks and 75 conversions? Where do you get 2? Thanks for comment!
@cmdeal thanks for feedback, I go further on this below.

I think I didn't gave the right data to make conclusions, so I willl give some extra info/data.

The deal I am running is a "free beauty sample" with payout 1$. I have currently 2 Google ads running pointing to the landing page. Every time the same landing page (plan to add more ads soon and experiment with more personalised landers according to each ad). Below I post data based on last 30 days.

Notes and questions with shot below:

* For the first keyword in the list there are 694 clicks detected with prosper 202. However in Google Adwords I see only 535 clicks last 30 days for this keyword. How is this possible?
* The cost for each keyword is not correct. At setup I filled in a max cpc of 0,50 but it's much lower. How can I configure this correctly?
* So for the first keyword (which is "free samples" , no big surprise for a free samples website), I have 694 Clicks and 41 conversions, conversion rate 5,9%. Cost is 104 $ and profit is 41$. So the question: I stop this keyword or I try to get a lower cpc but a lot less traffic?
* I have 4 keywords with simular situation, for the others I need more data I think?



Other notes:

* On the bottom of every deal there is a section "similar deals" using this wondefull wordpress plugin: https://shareaholic.com/publishers. So if the targeted deal doesn't convert sometimes they pass to another deal and convert making up the loss not converting targeted deal.
* Using Ninja Popups for WordPress I made a nice looking popup with a conversion rate of 22%, which is good, not? So for every new free sample or deal I can send a mail to list. I very short period I build up a list of 700 persons, being very happy with that.

*thoughts:

Currently I am only targetting usa. I am thinking of adding samples or contest for other countries (good or bad idea?)

Thanks guys!

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Minor click discrepancies are normal - it's likely that Adwords is discounting some clicks for some reason (bots, approvals, duplicates) whilst Prosper is counting them.

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First of all, you need accurate data.

You need accurate cost information and match this with accurate revenue information. Right now, it is really hard to interpret the data that you have.

Ideally, if you can create a dashboard like another STM member has done here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...3y0/edit#gid=0 you will find it a lot easier to analyse the data and identify actionable insights.

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My bad, late at night, misread and thought stats were clicks > clickthroughs with 2 conversions at the end.

As cmdeal suggested, it would help if you reconciled the various data you have to make it more digestible.

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ok thanks, will come back with more organised data!

Added this little counter to some deals, will setup a/b test and see if I see difference between the one with counter and one without.

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Sick landing page mate keep it up

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Thanks @ me_media .

Another question I have, I am right to say it's not possible te get the actual cpc with prosper 202? So I will need to configure average cpc as my max cpc in prosper 202? That's a hard way to collect correct data or I am missing something?

Thanks

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What happens after someone clicks on your call to action? If you are using Google or Bing, this is really high intent traffic, so you should expect much higher conversions than you are getting right now, unless the process is too much of a pain for the user (e.g. very long firm to fill out, registration required, etc.)

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Process is simple. They just have to leave their email and nothing more... . But... , seems like I was targetting mobile as well. The landers are optimised for mobile but not the offer pages. So I lowered all bids for mobile to -100% . We will see what happens.

Another question. I am using Wordpress for my lander. For some ads I want to alter the landing page content a little bit to match the ad. Is there any plugin making it easy to have multiple versions of 1 post? Or I have to duplicate every post for any small change to the copy?

Thanks!

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Ok, I managed to create a first accurate (I hope ) dashboard. I took all keywords with more then 20 clicks so far.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

my conclusions and questions.

* Made 1 big mistake in this month, was also targetting mobile while offer is not optimised for mobile. Stats now include mobile. Is it possible in prosper 202 to see difference between mobile and desktop?
* None of the keywords is profitable at the moment although the flow is relevant (relevant keywords,ads,lander and offer). I will test more variations to see if there are any differences.
* I will bid for lower CPC, try to make the keywords profitable.
* Will definately have to add more keywords to find some winners.

Thanks

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On your dashboard can you make clearer for each line item what is

Total Revenue
Total Cost
Revenue per Lead
Cost per Lead

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@cmdeal added those columns at the end as a summary now.

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Okay, your CPCs are way too high. I suggest that you bid much (MUCH) lower, but with much stronger ads, and try focusing on the broader network instead of the main search sites.

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With the broader you mean display as well?

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Changing the landing page to display small changes: Wordpress is not the ideal platform for this. It's doable, but will probably require custom code unless there's a plugin out there I'm not aware of. What you're suggesting is very similar to the approach Patrick McKenzie uses on his Bingo Card Creator software (pretty much the benchmark for successful micro-software vendors) - it's best done with a custom content management system.

However, this is a very simple task to have coded as a system for your landers. If you hit oDesk you should be able to get it done pretty cheaply. Using something like Ruby on Rails it's pretty much an afternoon's work.

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You basically need lower CPCs or much higher landing page conversion rates. Unless you go very long tail on the keywords, you will struggle to get your CPCs down just on the Google.com search results pages.

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Ok, solved:

It is extremely important whenever you modify your PPC campaign, if you are to change your CPC on your bids for instance, you must update it with a new unique tracking202 destination URL. If you change your CPC and use a old destination URL, tracking202 will think the CPC is set to whatever, your last unique destination URL had its CPC set to.

In most cases, for every text ad you use, you should have a unique tracking destination for that specific text ad.

#newbiemistakes

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Indeed, it will be difficult to get my CPC down and still get traffic on Google. Will try if I can get low cost clicks via display and Bing ads. Came up with 2 ads:

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Ads are not bad.

You should avoid the word apply, however, as that suggests that the consumer has to do work. Not sure what you have in the green area, but if it is the name of your site, it is probably better to use that real estate with a strong visual image, social proof, or other conversion and CTR tricks that marketers commonly use.

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Thanks, real good feedback.

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Ok it's been a while again. Time for an update.

4 weeks ago I managed to get break even for 7 days (even some profit days) with Bing Ads. Then suddenly my account got suspended. The reasons the editorial team gave are:

* Many options, such as http://popularproductrewards.com/rd_p?p=334503&t=21697 lead the user to MFA sites such as http://valuedealshopper.com/?subid1=202047&subid2=6389 .

==> This is an automatic geo redirect from affiliate network if you are visiting this offer outsitede USA. I explained it but they don't get it I think. I also think it's not possible to ask the affiliate network te set a custom lander if visitor is not from usa?

* The Editorial Team also inform me it is the overall business model we do not accept. For example, when the user goes to http://mysite/free-pizza/ and clicks on "click here for free pizza" they are directed to other sites with surveys/questionnaires.

==> Anyone managed to run those kind of offers through bing ads? If not I am willing to remove those.


Conclusions/insights of last weeks:

* Was on my way to get this business profitable but then got struck by bing ads policy.
* I am not managing to get profitable with Google Adwords, although they don't have any problems with the business model. Like cmdeal earlier said, it's too difficult to get low CPC and a lot of traffic.
* I am running proven offers and confident about my landers (having good conversion rates). I also included the keywords on landers people are searching for to improve user experience. A So this is good I think.
* Got a high converting landing page to collect new emails. (50% average conversion rate). See shot below.

Actions upcoming days:

* Still want to get approved by Bing Ads.
* Focus on broader netwerk like cmdeal suggested. Any recommendations?
* Adding new offers.
* Getting more emailadresses to send the offers.

* Really want this business to work. So all recommendations are really welcome.

Thanks!

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Perhaps you should pursue legitimate daily deals offers? That kind of lander would do well.

I'm talking Groupon, LivingSocial, etc.

P.S. Geo-redirects should never cause problems, because you should be geo-redirecting, with your tracking system, to avoid the affiliate network doing it outside of your control.

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Thanks for GEO tip!

Groupon and LivingSocial don't completely fit in business model of site because it's all about free stuff. I know those offers aren't 100% legit but currently these are the best I can find... .

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@zeno ,

Any guides to do geo redirect with propser 202?

Thanks.

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Part of my FB guide - http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...king-Campaigns

You can do this with the STM-modded p202 but AFAIK, not with self-hosted vanilla p202.

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