Hey STMers!
most folks know that PoF is a great place for noobs to start (hence, i'm still on PoF and will be for a while yet)
but where to go from there? what would be the next platform you'd look to scale to and master?
FB? Media buys? mobile?
just curious really as to what path people take.
thx!
Ahoy Leighton!
Yeah for sure, it comes down to budgets I guess, because of the super tight targeting options on POF you can make your buck last a little longer but once you've got a few thousand its best to move onto more scalable options like
Adult, Mobile, Facebook, PPV, Media buys. All of which have pros and cons, you just have to pick one that intrigues you the most, and stick with it and become a master of it then. Plenty and plenty of threads on all of these traffic sources on this forum, just immerse yourself into it.
Quick cons I guess of adult is the transparency of all campaigns and low entry level, but there is a tonne of opportunity outside where everyone is running and scaling is easy. Mobile has a bit more of a learning curve then the other sources as there are more variables to desktop tracking but campaigns are much harder to rip and can last a long time, also the future seems to be headed heavily towards mobile the opportunity is endless there. Facebook, well we all know account bans are common, if you can find your way through that hustle you can make a big tonne of money, but without a good source of accounts you're gonna get headaches and media buys are great but require a tonne of testing too.
So pick your poison dude and move on to big things! best of luck
In the past a clear path forward was porting working PoF campaigns to FB. But that's no longer viable.
I think the reason people suggest PoF for newbies is because it is a great platform on which to learn the fundamentals that are necessary on all platforms - mindset, offer selection, angles, creatives/ad copy, tracking, ad/campaign creation, testing, optimisation, networking and AM relationships.
Moving from PoF I think another self-serve source is sensible, such as those you listed.
Facebook has volume in spades but can be tricky to master and easy to mess up, and easy to burn money. The level of targeting available is obscene.
Mobile is a growing medium and thus has the growth appeal, especially in certain countries.
SiteScout... I wouldn't recommend - even easier to burn money there than on FB and I believe you'll spend longer than expected trying to get ads/campaigns live.
I think a defining question for you should be: What kind of offers do I want to advertise? What vertical do I want to focus on? This will narrow your choices.