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School Teacher Learning the Ropes... - MOBILE - APPETISER APPROACH (17)

10-08-2014 12:03 PM #1 bradleyslife (Member)
School Teacher Learning the Ropes... - MOBILE - APPETISER APPROACH

Hey Everyone, I'm Brad...

So here's the deal... I'm a High School IT teacher and I'm really over it.. I've been doing SEO based affiliate marketing using the Amazon Associates program for a while now and I've just dived in head first into the STM forums.. all very exciting. So this is my 3rd or 4th campaign now, and I'm keen to share what I'm doing and see how 'off' or 'on' I am with this whole thing.

Here's the offer:

Country: India
Category: Mobile Apps
Targeting: android
AFF network: Adscendmedia.com
Payout: $0.25
Converts at: Install and Launch


Here's my creatives:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kl6ftf5oa8...isive.png?dl=0

I've followed the Appetiser approach so far and have chosen my 'angle' of - "get free music" essentially... (with a few minor variations) - Have I approached that right?

I've submitted the four different sets of adds that include the wifi/mobile and app/site options... I am awaiting approval of them (hopefully in the morning - Aussie here).

so, any thoughts? am I on track with it? Have I chosen a lame angle? what would you do different up to this point? Am I over thinking it? thanks so much for your opinions in advance..

Cheers everyone.. will keep you updated on progress...

10-08-2014 12:20 PM #2 cmdeal (Veteran Member)

Is there any particular reason you have chosen that offer and geo?

10-08-2014 12:24 PM #3 bradleyslife (Member)

Hey @cmdeal... Only really because when I went to "featured" in adscend they were mostly US.. I did do all this yesterday only to find when i woke up that the offed had ceased... This one seemed like something that looked OK..

Do you think its a sucky one to have chosen?

For some reason my F5 application is MIA...

Cheers

10-08-2014 12:35 PM #4 panthary (Member)

Contact F5 again or add smitzma to skype

10-08-2014 12:38 PM #5 bradleyslife (Member)

Thanks panthary.. I'll definitely do that!

10-09-2014 02:08 AM #6 bradleyslife (Member)

OK, so here's where I'm at.. I started the campaign this morning and I have begun blacklisting underperforming creatives. I've also had almost 400 clicks through to the offer, and apparently 0 leads.. is that normal?

Anyway.. here are some screenshots of how each has performed, and what I have done.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g7tpcg8ft...n-17TOtXa?dl=0

Ta,

10-09-2014 02:13 AM #7 bradleyslife (Member)

OK, I just re-read the appetiser approach and saw this in BOLD...

No matter how much you might be tempted to cut banners, add new ones, or do anything else with you campaigns, resist the urge until they've reached $15 spend

so I have un-blacklisted everything.

10-09-2014 05:54 AM #8 zeno (Administrator)

You should test highly different banner variations and the angles therein.

Right now, given the traffic source costs and your CTRs, you need a 7-20% conversion rate on your offer to break even -- that is very unlikely in general and evidently not likely from your data.

10-13-2014 06:33 AM #9 bradleyslife (Member)

Hey guys,

First of all, thanks Zeno for that! I have changed tact a little and shifted offers to 'Skout' on the Affiliaxe network. I have also created completely unique banner variations and tested a little bit (still not with any great success - but i'm about to try another angle)

Before I get going on that.. I'm just wondering, what am I doing wrong? In the images below you can see that there is a conversion that did not appear in my decisive account... I thought I was following the appetiser recipe correctly.. but maybe I did it wrong... please help?

Affiliaxe conversion - Click image for larger version.  Name: Screen Shot 2014-10-13 at 12.48.47 pm.png  Views: 75  Size: 115.1 KB  ID: 3862
Discisive.is - Click image for larger version.  Name: Screen Shot 2014-10-13 at 2.39.56 pm.png  Views: 61  Size: 34.5 KB  ID: 3864
Affiliaxe Postback - Click image for larger version.  Name: Screen Shot 2014-10-13 at 2.42.06 pm.png  Views: 58  Size: 54.4 KB  ID: 3863

10-13-2014 07:29 AM #10 zeno (Administrator)

The Affiliaxe screenshot suggests it uses HasOffers.

Are you sure your links and tokens are correct or did you assume s1, s2 etc. were used?

HasOffers typically uses ....aff_sub=this&aff_sub2+that&aff_sub3=....

And the corresponding tokens to use in postback URLs are {aff_sub}, {aff_sub2}, etc.

You may want to check this!

10-13-2014 11:10 AM #11 bradleyslife (Member)

Thanks Zeno.. I really appreciate your patience!

I'm sorry, but I'm feeling a little confused with this syntax... is there a way to test it without actually having to get a real conversion to confirm it?

So... this is what I have the URL set to in decisive.io - http://performance.affiliaxe.com/aff...ff_id=46299&s1=SkoutMalaysia&s2={{{bidhash}}} (Bold is what I added according to the appetiser guide)

Question - Should I have 4 different ones of these? - It doesn't actually say in the appetiser that the URL needs to be changed... so I assumed no.

Therefore, going by what you are saying is that I should make the postback URL:

http://win.crwd.io/convert/{{{aff_id=46299}}}

Am I anywhere close with this? I'm feeling particularly dumb right now... especially as it says this is the easy bit in the guide...

Thank you!

10-14-2014 12:03 AM #12 zeno (Administrator)

Heh, making progress by thinking about it at least!

Step 1: Go to Affiliaxe.

Step 2: Go to the particular offer where it shows your tracking link. Click add subid, then fill in some placeholders in the subid boxes and hit the + symbol to process and get the new affiliate link:






This will reveal the correct structure of the affiliate URL.

I presume it will look like this: hxxp://performance.affiliaxe.com/aff...ff_id=46299&aff_sub=123&aff_sub2=abc

The way to pass subids is therefore not with s1, s2, etc., but with aff_sub, aff_sub2, aff_sub3, etc.

Your link that you use in Decisive should therefore be: hxxp://performance.affiliaxe.com/aff...ff_id=46299&aff_sub=SkoutMalaysia&aff_sub2={ {{bidhash}}}

You can test that your link works on your own. Take it and load it in your browser with some random aff_sub and aff_sub2 values.

e.g. hxxp://performance.affiliaxe.com/aff...ff_id=46299&aff_sub=derple&aff_sub2=bananas

Now, go to the left hand side menu > reports > performance report.

Edit the report options to display the subids and all clicks:






Hit apply.

You should now hopefully see the subids that you passed through in the SUBID, SUBID2, etc. columns.

If you can't, double check your link and test it again. Try with a different offer link. Make sure you have confirmed that the values pass through - this should hopefully make things click a bit!

On this note, you should definitely read Caurmen's guide to the fundamentals of tracking if you haven't already - http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...-Read-This-Now

Now that this is sorted, and you have adjusted you Decisive link, all you need to do is change your postback URL.

The URL is basically hxxp://win.crwd.io/convert/NETWORK_TOKEN

Where the network token part is the correct token for the first, second, third, or whichever subid you passed your unique click tracking ID under - in this case, this is the bidhash from Decisive.

You passed it as the second subid, which in the URL is aff_sub2

If you go back to the offer's page and down to pixels/postbacks, when you try to add one you should see something like this:






The tokens are therefore {aff_sub}, {aff_sub2}, and so on.

So, edit your postback to fire back {aff_sub2} and you're golden, explicitly: hxxp://win.crwd.io/convert/{aff_sub2}


This should set you on the right path.

P.S. if it wasn't obvious I use hxxp to avoid the forum's autolinks - do make sure you use http in actual links.

10-14-2014 12:08 AM #13 bradleyslife (Member)

Oh my gosh, This is an epic response!!! Thank you so much!!

I'll get right onto it during my lunch break here at work. I am seriously in awe!

Cheers mate!

-Brad

10-14-2014 06:33 AM #14 cmdeal (Veteran Member)

Zeno.

Hero.

10-14-2014 07:37 AM #15 nickster (Member)

Just want to chime in here with one thing I have learnt in my long(ish) affiliate career. Make sure you don't go with no name networks unless you personally know the people running them and even then be ultra cautious.

Not saying Affiliaxe is no good, I've just never heard of them and they certainly aren't a tier 1 network.

10-15-2014 02:56 PM #16 caurmen (Administrator)

Holy crap. That's possibly the best, most thorough explanation of how to make an instance of tracking work I've ever seen. Nice one Zeno.

10-20-2014 04:27 AM #17 bradleyslife (Member)

Thanks again Zeno for that epic post! I managed to get all that operational and I have run two different angles for the Skout app... I'm almost at the $15 for each of the sets for this second angle... however, it's not looking great - Click image for larger version.  Name: Screen Shot 2014-10-20 at 2.20.38 pm.png  Views: 62  Size: 177.7 KB  ID: 3967

sooo... going by what is mentioned in the appetiser approach:
"If you've launched 2 angles with this offer and neither had any profitable campaigns, go back to CHopping And Peeling and choose another offer, then go through the process again."

I'm thinking of switching offers to one of the ones that f5 sent me in their 'top south american mobile +ph" email the other day. Specifically this offer:
Click image for larger version.  Name: Screen Shot 2014-10-20 at 2.26.15 pm.png  Views: 52  Size: 16.2 KB  ID: 3968

sooo.. what do you think? thanks in advance...

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