The Mobile Cookbook: The Banquet (21)
Welcome to the final stage of the Mobile Cookbook!
The Banquet covers getting from small successes as an affiliate - around $xx or $xxx per day - to the massive numbers you've heard other people report on STM.
$5,000 a day, $50,000 a day, even higher - they're all possible in the fast-growing mobile sector.
To find out exactly how, and extract the most reliable, battle-hardened tips, I interviewed Mr Green, Stackman and bbrock32, then I combined their insights into the stratosphere of affiliate marketing into this single guide.
You'll learn what traffic sources can get you to huge daily numbers, what the key mistake is that stops affiliates from reaching $x,xxx or beyond, how to structure a campaign so that it has the potential to make ten grand a day, and more.
This guide is designed for experienced affiliates. Even super-affiliates already running $x,xxx a day are likely to pick up some useful tips. But beginners should read too, to prepare yourselves for the future!
Let's get going!
Can YOU Get To $xx,xxx a day?
If you're a newer affiliate, or you have a small initial budget, you probably can't shoot for $x,xxx a day initially.
But it's possible to go for it sooner than you think.
The primary thing you'll need in order to scale up is bankroll.
You'll need to be able to invest $10,000 or more in testing a campaign to bring it to four figures a day, most likely. And that's after you've brought the campaign to initial profitability.
Before you aim for the big leagues, you should also make sure you have the basics down. When you're scaling big, you can't afford to have tracking problems, server issues, or to not understand why your campaigns work. Consistent experience running several successful smaller campaigns is vital so that you know what makes a campaign tick.
However, if you have that experience and the cash in the bank, there's nothing stopping you from scaling up.
All three of my interviewees agreed that $xx,xxx campaigns are very similar to $xx campaigns in most ways.
You don't need:
- Connections. It helps to go to meetups and know people, but $xx,xxx a day is possible without doing that.
- Outsourcers. A lone affiliate can get to $xx,xxx a day.
- Genius. $xx,xxx campaigns are made by good planning and hard work. You don't have to be an affiliate marketing genius: just a determined affiliate marketer.
The Differences Between An $xx /day And An $xx,xxx / day Campaign
The key difference between an $xx /day campaign and an $xx,xxx a day campaign is incredibly simple.
An $xx / day campaign is limited in maximum scale. After all, if you could scale it more you would!
So there must be something limiting it.
If you're planning to get to $xx,xxx a day, the most important thing to do with your campaigns is to make very sure that they can scale to that size.
Primarily, make sure that you're running an offer with that level of maximum scale. We'll go into more detail on offer choice for mega scale in a moment.
Don't choose an angle that only has niche appeal. If you're running a campaign that only works for a single placement it'll never scale to mega-figures.
Likewise, a single model of phone or a single carrier in a single country are fine things to target for small niche campaigns; however, you must reject campaigns like this if you're aiming for the big leagues.
You can either target a single large geo - USA across all carriers, for example - or you can choose an angle and offer that will work in multiple countries.
In either case, aim for minimal targeting. "Android" or "iOS" should be fine in many large geos, but "Blackberry with Vodafone" will never scale to the volumes you need.
How To Tell What Geo Will Work
There's a simple and reliable tip to tell what geo can give you mega-figures: use the campaign planners on popular Demand-Side Platform traffic sources like Decisive or Sitescout.
The Decisive Campaign Planner, for example, allows you to preview the volumes available on their network in all countries across the world. By looking at the relative volumes there, you can get a pretty good idea about the overall mobile landscape and the potential volume per country - not just on Decisive, but across the mobile landscape as a whole.
For example, there's far more traffic available in the USA than just the traffic Decisive has access to. However, if you compare the volume available in the US to the volume available in Kenya, the ratio on Decisive's planner is likely to be indicative of the overall ratio across all traffic sources.
To use this tool to find the best geos to target for high-volume campaigns, sort by volume. The top 12 countries are, at the time I'm writing this, certainly capable of supporting an $xx,xxx a day campaign. The top 20 or so will support an $x,xxx a day campaign.
Below that, you'll need to combine multiple countries. Don't ignore that possibility! A number of small countries can add up to a big profit.
Angles For Mega-Campaigns
$xx,xxx a day campaigns have to have angles that appeal across the board.
It's very easy to get confused between "things that have universal appeal" and "things that appeal to everyone I know" - it's important to gain as broad a perspective as possible. Viral sites can help to give you a good idea of what has truly mass appeal - although Stackman warned that often they can turn out to be more "internet-wide" than genuinely mass appeal.
For truly mass-appeal angles, look at mass media. Tabloid newspapers (such as the UK's Daily Mail), popular magazines (Cosmo, Hello, etc.) and mass-market TV all give a good idea of what the general public will respond to.
Obviously, mass-appeal angles often vary by geo. If you're targeting the UK, study UK media.
Consider experiences that are universal to mobile phone users or users of a large group of mobile phones, too. Download styled banners, FB styled banners, common system looks. Universal signage in general - stop signs, for example - also communicate well.
Optimisation For Mega-Campaigns
Optimisation for mega-campaigns is very similar to optimisation for normal campaigns.
Kill non-performing placements, but focus on testing a lot of banners and a lot of landers for the maximum possible ROI.
Don't be afraid to kill placements that just aren't working. If you have chosen your offer and traffic source well, you should be able to cut a lot of non-performing placements without reducing your volume below what you need.
Most importantly, don't get overly attached to campaigns. If they're not showing some signs of promise on a broad scale - close to break even on top landers / banners after a couple of rounds of testing - kill them and move on to a new offer or a new angle.
Most of achieving success at large volumes is testing more than the average affiliate: more offers, more banners, more landers, more angles.
Traffic Sources For Massive Scale
Here's one thing that surprised me: according to my interviewees there are very few bad traffic sources for mobile.
That doesn't mean you won't have to optimise. There are many, many bad placements, but most traffic sources have at least some potential.
In order to achieve $x,xxx a day, or more, you need to either run on one huge traffic source or be capable of scaling to a lot of smaller ones by using a common format: like the ubiquitous 320x50 ads.
Which Traffic Sources Can Achieve $xx,xxx On Their Own?
I'm glad you asked! Here's the list my interviewees came up with:
- Airpush
- Inmobi
- Google Display Network
- Adqiuity
- Appnexus
- RMX
- Adult (Traffic Junky, Exoclick, Plugrush)
- Millenial
However, that's not the only way to skin this particular cat: you can also aim to start on a smaller traffic source and work outwards.
Starting Small And Working Out
If you start off by creating and optimising a campaign on Decisive or a similar platform, the next step is to spread that campaign to similar traffic sources.
Initially, scale as much as you can at your first traffic source.
You can either then move to other Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) similar to Decisive and test your campaigns on them, or you can do some research to find out where your traffic comes from.
To research, you'll want to look at the apps or sites you're getting the most traffic from. Snoop around them, and find what other ad network tags they're using. Then scale your campaign out to those networks.
You can also take a hierarchical approach: starting by moving to other DSPs, then moving to larger sources that own their own traffic (Inmobi, Buzzcity, and so on) and then finally to huge platforms like AppNexus and RMX if the campaign continues to be profitable. (The latter tend to have very large minimum deposit and buy requirements, so you won't want to go there first!)
One of the really big edges you can get as an affiliate at scale is finding lesser-known traffic sources. This is one of the great uses of trade shows, particularly advertising trade shows, as opposed to specifically affiliate shows: you can find sources that other affiliates aren't aware of.
Finally, if your campaign will meet their stringent standards, you can port successful mobile display campaigns to truly massive sources: Facebook or the Google Display Network.
All three of my interviewees had different approaches to scaling. The common ground was to start with a single traffic source, and if it isn't large enough for your scaling needs, then move outward to sources you believe will be similar.
Your campaign won't work on every traffic source you try, and you'll need to devote a significant budget to testing on each one - around $500 - $1000.
Offers For Massive Scale
As with all campaigns, the offer is the most important element of a massive campaign.
However, in this case you're not just looking for an offer that converts: you're looking for one that won't cut your campaign off at the knees.
Before you even consider testing an offer whilst you aim for massive scale, you should find out if the offer has conditions will stop you scaling. Things to watch out for:
- Limited targeting. That single-carrier, single-phone antivirus is never going to make you a millionaire.
- Narrow or Small Geos. The offer you pick either needs to be based in a huge geo (the top 20 on Decisive's Planner) or be able to scale to many geographical areas.
- Offer Caps. A capped offer will just stop you in your tracks. Whether it's a network-wide cap or an individual cap, it's vital to know if one exists and if it exists and is too low to make your target amount, avoid that offer.
- Unreliable advertiser or network At huge volumes you can't afford to not get paid. Search on STM and look for warning signs before starting with a new payer.
- Suddenly Going Down. You can't always avoid vanishing offers, but it's important to do your best to avoid them. Ask your AM what their feeling on the offer is - a good AM will have a sense if the offer's long-term. If possible, get in touch with the advertiser via LinkedIn and ask about their plans.
Beyond that, all the common types of mobile offer can give you $xx,xxx a day. PIN submits and one-clicks can be extremely durable, sometimes lasting for years. Apps can be more of a flash in the pan: but whilst they exist they can do huge volume. Dating and adult are both still massive. And whilst none of my interviewees had huge experience with Pay-Per-Call, it's a fast-growing field.
As always, you'll need to test a lot of offers to find the ones that convert best for you. And to do that you'll need to be signed up to a good number of networks: 6-8 good ones at least.
Mistakes To Avoid
Getting to $x,xxx a day or even $xx,xxx a day is surprisingly simple: it's affiliate marketing as normal, but on a larger scale.
However, there are a few key points that can really hamper your efforts:
- Not testing enough. In order to get more rewards than most affiliates, you need to test more than most affiliates. Landing pages, banners, offers, angles and traffic sources. It's as simple as that.
- Not believing you can do it. Getting to $x,xxx or more might be simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy. You need to believe that you can get there, and conquer any hidden self-talk telling you that you could never achieve something that massive. It's possible. You can.
- Over-thinking. 80/20 thinking is smart in the affiliate world, but don't believe you can take shortcuts from theory alone. Keep an open mind, don't make assumptions you can't back up and test, test, test.
- Believing in secret sauce. There is no secret ability, connection, or software that superaffiliates have that you don't. And $xx,xxx campaigns are not massively different from $xxx campaigns.
- Jumping Around Just like when you're getting campaigns working in the first place, you need to focus to succeed. Don't jump around verticals or do adult one week and listbuilding the next: focus on one area and get really good at it.
- Not Being Ruthless About What Campaigns Could Work. Whilst you need to focus on an area to succeed, don't fall in love with a single campaign, angle or offer. If it's not working, kill it and move on.
- Thinking Too Small Think carefully when you start: can this campaign get to $x,xxx a day? How? If you can't see that it can achieve that volume, don't run it.
Should You Try For Massive Mobile Volume?
So in conclusion - should you go for the leap from "affiliate" to "super-affiliate"?
All three of my interviewees said very firmly that you should. If you've got the bankroll, the experience, and it won't kill you to do it, there's no reason not to go for it.
It's true that small, tight, niche campaigns are more likely to succeed - but not that much more. And the rewards of a single massive campaign are so much greater.
The hardest thing about a large campaign compared to a small campaign is simply finding the volume needed to get to $x,xxx or more. If you can do that - there's no reason not to try.
I hope that was both interesting and useful! That concludes the Mobile Cookbook series - if there's anything you were confused by, anything you'd like to explore further, or any other comments you have, post 'em below!
Another epic post from Caurmen!
Thanks for taking the time to write this up mate.
Wow Caurmen! You posted this on the same day I happen to be starting my first mobile campaign (i.e. today)! This "coincidence" means a lot to me on more than one level.
Many many thanks - I just LOVE all your tutorials!
Amy
Interesting post. I have a campaign that makes ~$15 dollars a day that took me three weeks to optimize to that level (one offer one geo). Its my first truly successful campaign. Im breaking Mr. Green's last rule in your post with it. I guess it is time to take it to other traffic sources, since I notice Decisive is not on your list of sources that can scale on their own.
Also with Adiquity, can you optimize placements with them? I did a test a while back but could only target geo's and handsets. I asked about targeting placements and blacklisting placements and they said it could not be done.
@fishinseo - there's no shame in walking before you run! Having a few successful campaigns under your belt, even if they're not huge, and knowing that you can generate more is pretty important before you start scaling massively.
However, trying a port to other geos or other traffic sources is a very sensible move at this point!
I'll leave it to others to answer the Adiquity question as it's not a traffic source I know well.
@vortex - cool! Looking forward to hearing how you get on with it!
@bbrock32 - No worries! Thanks for the fantastic interview, advice and quotes.
guys you are so f****** awesome, how can this forum cost only 100/mo?
We try harder 
Thanks!
This is amazing! Thanks Caurmen 
This is gold. Full of great information and motivation. Your tutorials caurmen rock year by year!
the sky is the f-ing limit, as i read this i get this energy in my gut i feel like i wanna explode from excitement.
this is like a freaking drugggg and i want moarrrr.
hello there,
im on mobile pops and somehow i keep getting stuck on scaling. moving to managed traffic sources somehow i am not profitable and their back end is very slow resulting in losses, so i end up with a bunch of smaller traffic sources and decreasing ROI over time, because i ran out of things to test.
however i had some success before on banners, things quickly scaled to 1000/day in revenue but the camp died very quickly, and im not sure why, should i focus on banners since they offer so much scale? but i dont know how to maintain the ROI
xavierfok
I am on a similar position, i am desperate looking for a platform where i can scale big, my frustration has led me to FB, have you tried to tame the beast yet?
Originally Posted by yohn1985
I am switch to fb still doing mobile tho
Hi Caurmen, this looks great! I'm only just starting out with affiliate marketing and am making my way through the Appetiser approach to get started. Thanks for the all of the great tutorials in the Cookbook, they are a massive help. Just wanted to point out that 'The Banquet' is not currently linked to the Mobile Cookbook forum index or introduction thread. A link might help people to find it if they jump straight to that forum/index.
Originally Posted by mcsteve
Thank Caurmen and 3 super affiliates for this thread. Though some info is out of date (such as Decisive) but it is definitely worth learning.
Tien
This is amazing.
Don't you people look at dates of when things are posted here??
The basic concept is all the same, we cannot expect them to write how to make xxxx/day in Spring 2017 and how to make xxxx/day and scale it further during Winter 2017.
Don't you buy an international best-selling book which was published 2-3 years ago
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