Should I take a step back? (8)
Hi,
I am not on this forum so long, but since then the road has been great. Starting up campaigns, try to optimize them, get some green! Fantastic.
But today I was looking at my campaigns and I notice that I don't have a clue what I am doing:
- No real angle per campaign, it is just a big mess with banners and landers all over the place
- "test" campaigns running on RON, spending lots of money just to get 1000 placements with 1 click, so quite useless data
- 10239 ideas to optimize the campaigns, and sometimes just doing things because they "feel" right
The campaign I am talking about is doing some miracle brake even, and a bit more. But all the efforts I've done do optimize it made the results and campaign structure impossible to overview.
What I think would help me is just a screenshot how you are optimizing an offer, what kind of campaigns you are making. Do you create a campaign for every placement, angle, device, geo and maybe even banner? How do you organize it?
So currently, I am not loosing, but I am feeling seriously overwhelmed and a bit stressful that I just don't really know what I am doing. Can anybody relate to this?
Did you make notes of the optimization process you were doing? Have you waited to statistical significiant data are or did you do your optimizations intuitively?
Why didn't you use the mobile main course? It's a very easy and understandable campaign structure. In my opinion you were jumping to fast across traffic sources. You should analyze your current data to get the traffic source which works best and shutdown the rest for now.
Then analyze the data of that traffic source and find your winning offers their winning landers and creatives. If you don't have enough data you have to spend more money to get enough data about your creatives and landers.
I know exactly how you feel Dennis!
And it still happens to me sometimes when I'm to overwhelmed by my own ideas.
What I can suggest (if you have not already done so) is sign up for a free Evernote subscription.
Having ideas in your mind will only mess things up so type them all out.
Next make a schedule and actually rely on it. From 8am to 10am do this , etc.
It will really help your productivity.
I think people who are doing 400+ leads per day can give you even better idea's so I leave it to them.
You need to be able to digest all the information and put it together in some systematic format that you can use. Do you have the the steps you take before promoting any offers written down? Do you have a step by step optimization process written down? If you dont have this, you will certainly get overwhelmed by the process. The process is the most important aspect. Create some rule based system so you can approach the necessary processes in a simple but organized work flow. I would start by writing down a step by step guide for yourself to follow, and then systematically incorporate that into something like Trello. You should not be guessing what you next step is, you should already know. When you start to see your daily routine becoming redundant, and sometimes tedious, then it is likely you have created a systematic approach, with profits coming around the corner, sooner rather than later.
Yep I remember these days in the beginning, unplug bro its amazing what some clear space can do. Take a few days to yourself, completely! Clear your head, do something you love and then come back and start it again.
Keep it as clean as possible this time too, maybe even keep a diary to keep your thoughts on paper and out of your head. Best of luck man!
What would you say to me if I came to you with this problem you're having asking for your advice? I don't know what you would say, but I want you to think about it (actually do this, I promise it will help). That is a good start into solving your problem. "Can anybody relate to this?" I assuming you know others have obviously been where you are, I know that must be a rhetorical question. Ask concrete and actionable questions. Seriously, so what if 10 people respond to this post with comforting responses that they have been where you are, how does that help you? That might temporarily alleviate your stress, to make you feel like you're not the only one feeling this way, but that is the equivalent of drinking to remove problems. It doesn't actually solve the problem, it covers it up with a cheap blanket.
To answer your question / title of your post: Yes, I think you should take a step back.
Here is Actionable Advice
Try and make your campaigns and IM efforts in general as scientific as possible. Form a hypothesis, and test it. No emotion, stress, or worries. Its only numbers. You look at these numbers and you then make an action. That action is never based on emotion. You will know before the data even exists, what you would do in either case. For example, if LP1 > 10 conversions, then continue, else pause campaign. Don't let excitement or spur-of-the-moment ideas sway your approach. Use your creativity to make a clever series of angles, outline the tests you're going to make, and how you're going to make them. Once you're done making banners and angles, turn off the creative side of your brain and be logical – just follow your plan. Then document your test (campaign) as it runs. If you make any action, and that action changes the outcome of your campaign in any way, then document that action, your reasoning for it, and its effect. Later when you're looking at your campaign, this will come in handy when you're trying to remember why you made certain actions.
In terms of organization, how do you want to read your data? What would be ideal? Sit down and think about how you would choose to read your data, if someone asked you. Then form a system to input your data in that fashion that you chose. You are in complete control of everything you do, so if your actions are making you stressed out, then simply change your actions. You can help yourself more than anyone else can help you. It is frustrating at first, trust me, I understand. But do not let the beginning stress demotivate you. Make a concrete algorithmic plan on paper, leave nothing out. Then follow your plan step by step like a computer would. This will lead to less stress, as you're making no decisions except for in the beginning. Good luck, I hope this helps you
Thnx for the great advice! I will take few days off (But leave 1 campaign running since it is profitable 
), rethink my process, write it down and go from there. brb!
Take a break. Chill. Attempt to get a grasp on the overall space. Get a sodding massive bit of paper (or a handy wall) and mind-map that sucker. Get a grasp on the system, not just the pieces.
Then go back in with a plan.
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