Let's See If I Can Make Facebook Profitable... (18)
Hi guys,
Firstly - I'm loving the follow along threads. Awesome way to see what everyone's up to and where they're making AM work.
I'm new to the forum and have been reading through threads that peaked my interest. I'm not new to online marketing but affiliate marketing is a brand new channel for me so I'm ready to apply myself and go all out.
From what I've read so far, it seems it's possible to make any traffic source work but sticking to one (and mastering it) is key. Test the bollocks off every campaign and the "science" will reveal the winners to move forward with.
Here We Go...
So I'm setting up my first affiliate campaign and I'm going to be using Facebook. Why Facebook? Because I already have experience with it and have had great success with it for lead gen in the past. It's also probably the most specific platform when it comes to targeting an audience. I know it can be very unforgiving but I feel like I've got enough experience under my belt... specifically their terms and conditions!
The offer I'll be promoting is on the Clickbank network and pays out $36 per sale.
I'll be splitting the traffic over 3 separate landing pages to start with which will be identical except for the headline.
I'll then take the winning headline and create a second split test for the CTA (I've found some great examples on STM).
Because I'm using Facebook, I think I'm going to be safer to use my LP to educate visitors rather than be a 'gateway' page. Meaning, instead of having a headline, bullet points and an image I'll make my LP more of an advertorial. Is this a bad idea?
Any feedback at this a stage would be great and very much appreciated.
I'm off to build my empire... 
subscribed , wishing you best of luck in your new journey 
Sweet, keep us updated with your progress.
No one seems to be mentioning how FB does not like Clickbank all that much so be very careful in how you promote this.
Either way, good luck mate!
Thanks Fabian - Although I've got no data to go by, I'm fairly confident that my landers will boost the quality score up. I had the same concerns about promoting Clickbank which is why I've gone a slightly different route with these blog style landing pages.
Testing will show if I've been overly confident!
I'll be sure to post every wall I come up against.
Originally Posted by stealthmarketer
However, lots of good, honest products there... with FB you never know
Good luck man!
There are plenty of quality CB products but on the other hand plenty of crap ones.
Always check the offer page on MyWoT, ask for a review copy, and Google around for feedback on the product.
If it's a complete pile of curd, or worse -- borderline deceptive, don't both running it (if it is, the more you scale, the more you risk you absorb).
Users complaining about your ads is not good for business.
Looking good - since you already have FB experience that should give you a head start.
It's worth noting that payout's pretty high, which isn't always great news. Do you have a considerable testing budget available? You'll almost certainly need to spend more than $130 per angle you test just to get a basic idea of whether it'll work, and significantly more than that to optimise to profit.
THINGS WENT SOUTH...
Landing Pages Completed.
Tracking Set Up.
Facebook Banners Ready.
Ads created in Power Editor.
Upload.
1st Ad Approved... Great!
[Lunch Time]
So I returned from lunch only to see that after approving my first ad, they had gone a MASS disapproval of all my other ads without explanation. When there was not explanation I knew things were bad.
It turns out that despite having a landing page set up, FB's reason for disapproving was strictly down to the product I was promoting which happened to be in the weight loss niche.
I thought this would be fine as I'd been doing lot's of list building with weight loss using Facebook previously. NO.
Facebook have since been sending me notifications every 2-3 minutes of ANY campaigns that I'd previously ran with disapproval notices... On ADS THEY'D PREVIOUSLY APPROVED, TAKEN PAYMENT FOR, AND ALLOWED ME TO SCALE.
This new campaign must have triggered it.
This particular account is now under review and I'm unable to create Ads with it. Usually this wouldn't stop me pursuing with the a different weight loss campaign, but the fact that they went through all previous successful weight loss campaigns and disapproved them... that's kinda thrown me off course a bit.
ERM... Shortest follow along campaign ever?
Well, ads easily get disapproved if you trigger certain keywords. There must have been something with your landing page that they didn't like. I'd always bait and switch after the ads are up, and make sure your site's clean from any links at first.
The main purpose of your landing page shouldn't be the offer itself, but something else of value that Facebook likes, after approval you can start sculpting the content to make it sell and hopefully chaaa-ching.
Bummer OP. Stay away from weightloss CB on fb anyhow. Plenty of other products on there... P.S. Don't let this stop you. Just get another account and get back on the horse mate.
Yikes yep well you did choose one of the precarious verticals!
Stuff like this is certainly a good lesson though - to be careful, not underestimate FB, and not keep all your eggs in one basket.
You guys are awesome. Getting back on horse...
New account opened + New landing pages set up.
To be clear of Facebook's filters I've decided to switch my offer from Clickbank to something on a CPA Network. I also didn't want to be creating ads and sending to the same URL that had been banned previously.
The offer I'll be promoting now is a $5 trial purchase with a backend payout of $50/sale. EPC $0.40.
I had reservations about going after a higher payout as it obviously requires a larger testing budget BUT I'm on a mission here. I'm hoping that the low $5 buy in will help here.
Am I being to adventurous here?
Check the offer is kosher first. What vertical?
If it's a skin/diet/muscle/etc. rebill trial you will be lucky to get it through anyway - FB will disapprove lots of things like that based on their dislike of certain verticals and billing practices.
@Zeno - thanks for the advise.
It's a health supplement. Are they still likely to disapprove if my lander is a whole website and not just a single page?
Here's how it's laid out:
- Landing Page URL http://xxxxxxxx.com
--- How it works
--- Success Stories
--- FAQs
--- In The News
--- Order (This bad boy registers a conversion with Facebook and redirects to the affiliate offer)
You should be very familiar with Facebook's advertising guidelines:
F. Pharmaceuticals and Supplements
i. Ads must not promote the sale of prescription pharmaceuticals. Ads for online pharmacies are prohibited except that ads for certified pharmacies may be permitted with prior approval from Facebook.
ii. Ads that promote dietary and herbal supplements are generally permitted, provided they do not promote products containing anabolic steroids, chitosan, comfrey, dehydroepiandrosterne, ephedra, human growth hormones, melatonin, and any additional products deemed unsafe or questionable by Facebook in its sole discretion.
So, Facebook might let it through, or they might disapprove it with no reason other than because no, and you will not be able to argue the point with them.
What product is it specifically?
They may also (quite likely) retro-disapprove the ads later even if you do get them through - they do this a lot with diet/muscle/skin/supplement verticals.
Why? Because they can and they are zealous about protecting their users.
You can certainly run it and see what happens, but I must stress that, if you want to play in those verticals, you should be content with losing accounts without warning and the uphill battle of getting new accounts.
So facebook doesn't allow any clickbank products? How do they know if it's in the clickbank network?
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