Adult Traffic | FFS Another Newbie Doing Adult Casual Dating! (46)
Adult Traffic | FFS Another Newbie Doing Adult Casual Dating!
Hey Everyone! 
This is my first ever campaign, so I'm walking into this knowing that I'm in for financial hurt.
I plan on running this to the end so that I can at least experience the full life-cycle of a campaign.
Please don't hold back on the thoughts and criticisms - I've got pretty thick skin! And there's probably going to be a bunch of no-no's commited in this post too. :P
Let's get into it.
Pre-thoughts: As per Finch's How-To-Slay Adult Dating 2015, I already know this is going to be steep climb. It looks like if I want any chance of success, it'll have to be through getting creative and optimizing well.
Through STM's Adult Spytool, I noticed boobs. Nah, I noticed that the popular ads for dating tend to be in 300x250ish format.
In terms of angles, they seem to be either the fake Facebook message, so-and-so people need sex now, this is not a dating site, or get real sex tonight.
Also, everyone seems to go for YouPorn/PornHub, I realize that its PornHub mobile but hey I'll try it anyway.
Furthermore, I will also probably eventually need to get some kind of animation action going on too when optimizing the banner.
Launch
Traffic Source: TrafficJunky
Offers: 4Club ($2.40)/HookUp ($5.00)/HookUpCloud ($4.00)/RudeFinder ($5.20) >> All SOI
Note: I'm currently limited to 1 out of 9 networks that I applied for, so I went for as many offers on the network that provided nice landing pages/registration processes
GEOs: Australia ... with dreams of scaling
Budget: $50-100/day
Bid and Placements::
PornHub Footer Squares: $0.03
YouPorn Top Right A: $0.7
YouPorn Footer Squares: $0.06
Campaign Structure: Basically, split-testing the shit out of everything.
Offers
Website
Days of the Week
Placement
Banner Image
Banner Ad Copy
Thoughts for Angles: Check out this sexy member, Real sex is better, Try something new, Its so easy, Emphasis on real members, Lots of members, Messenger type ad (instead of Facebook - although I don't think that these will give me an respectable conversion rate.)
Landing Pages: Looks like most of these sites have a LPish setup so I'll keep it simple for now and maybe try introduce one later... see how we go.
Banners: I've uploaded the pre-made banner for 4Club (they need creative approval), and made some basic ones for the others for now for the sake of split-testing the offers.
How nasty's that 4club one??
So, now the ads have been submitted to TrafficJunky and are pending approval.
Now to wait for the data to come in! 
Well first of all good luck . Second if you start with TJ i would test the smaller site's like tube 8 , etc. Porhnub and Youporn are to competitive in Australia .The smaller site's can bring you good roi faster , then you can expand to the bigger one's .
"I'm in for financial hurt" ....
If you start with Traffic Junky, then this is pretty true! If you're just starting in Adult Dating, then that is the last traffic source I would venture to. It's akin to picking up a football, then deciding you're going to play in the super bowl.
I would start with JuicyAds or a smaller source to begin with. Give yourself time to make sure your setup is working correctly. It'll be a lot cheaper to learn using these smaller sources and you'll save yourself a bunch of money.
Thanks for the advice guys!
I've swapped out PornHub for Tube8, and signed myself up for JuicyAds, so that I can make a quick pivot when things go haywire.
Just waiting for ad approval and off we go
"quick pivot" ...
With that mindset you're going to do well in adult! The ability to pivot and make quick decisions and follow through is HUGE. I'm excited to watch this follow along.
Good luck man!
Very good thinking! I'm looking forward to seeing where this Follow-Along takes you.
Thanks @thebrent and @caurmen ! Your encouragement means heaps to me
I have added another 2 offers: AdultFriendFinder and JustHookUp, into the mix to see how all 5 stack against one another.
There were a couple of newbie problems to iron out:
Tracking link
For Rudefinder and JustHookUp, I'm having some technical difficulties with the campaign URLs on
Looked high and low for any information on the problem with no luck, so sent a support request and will wait on a response to get that sorted out.
Average CTR: 0.07%
Where the ad, JustHookUp, with the best results had more boobs in it. (Should have known. Facepalm.)
To fix this, I'll use the current popular template everyone's using for casual dating and modifying it a bit for the purpose of better quality tests so I can really see how the offers convert.
In retrospect, I probably should have had 1 banner for all the offers across the board - that way I can get a true test result between the offers.
Get that done and the links fixed up and I'll be ready for a re-launch!
TL;DR : CTR bad, need more boobs.
The DOI, Double Opt-in, version of Adult Friend Finder is doing well for myself and quite a few others at the moment. If you run it, make sure you give it a little bit of time to "catch up". The conversions seem to fire on a delay with AFF, so your epc will look unusually low, but if you give it a few hours or a day, it will most likely compete or exceed your other offers (NO GUARANTEES).
Other than that, MOARRR BOOBS!!!
@thebrent LOL MOAARR! Ahhh good to know, thanks for the tip - I will keep that in mind as I follow the stats!
Small Update Today - mostly readjusting the starting point
Tracking Link
A rep from
RudeFinder
Has been paused so they're out of the game for now
Average CTR: 0.08%
New banner is up; it follows the template and angle that's been working for most for a while now so hopefully that will make my data collection budget more efficient.
Conversions: 0
Really need a landing page - will be setting one up whilst I collect data + improve CTR
Traffic Sources
Will be doing routine checking on other traffic sources such as TrafficHunt and JuicyAds - particularly looking out for websites which suit the angle that I zone in on later down the track.
Yep, get that lander up and running stat!
What's your CPC (Cost Per Click) working out at with that CTR? That'll give some good indications of what area you need to work on next.
@caurmen : Currently my CPC is sitting at $0.69 . Currently I am sitting roughly in the middle on the bidding ladder for both spots.
Alright! Took all night, but learnt how to set up VPS and landing page then resubmitted all my ads back up to TJ for approval.
I ripped a landing page that was similar in template to a lot of others that were around for a while - made some changes in text and pictures. So I suppose this will do as a baseline measure for now.
It follows the 3 questions >> rules format.
I guess this is good now, because the banners and landers are consistent, so I'll be able to gauge the value of each offer better.
I'll be running them on Tube8 and YouPorn's NTV-A 300x250
As per, @thebrents advice, I'll let it all run for at least 2 days so that Adult Friend Finder has a chance to catch up.
Quick update for the day now that the new lander and banner is up.
CTR: 0.15%
ROI: -80%
Looks like I'll be spending the day making new banners to split-test!
All right man, first of all, grats on your drive and will to succeed !!!
Now on to a couple recommendations for you
1. trafficjunky or whatever big network. People seem to be scared of them, but I say, if you have the budget to stand the loss, go fucking for it! You're in the learning phase, and getting burned is an important lesson You need to feel what its like when the numbers are coming in at high speed, and you also need data now, not the next month. Someone recommended juicyads to you, there are true gems in that network, but you will need to pick them via fixed/flat buys and thats no gonna cut it for you since you are GEO targeting now. If you go for their RON, prepare for a never ending battle against fraudulent publishers. I run profitable campaigns on juicyads for months, so Im definitely not trying to bash that network, just want to warn you about what you can expect there.
2. running dating without a pre-lander : please no! LP is an important part of the "selling process" please dont overlook it. I had dating campaigns giving me positive ROI when direct linked, but a proper LP always gave me better results. Dont be lazy and get some LPs, rip them, steal them, order them ... whatever, just dont look for reasons to not to
3. your offer selection : rudefinder, justhookup ... these offers are so saturated and they scrub so hard, pass on them, there are better ones out there. Its quite funny, but the old adultfriendfinder is working pretty well lately, go for it. Also, you might want to take a look at dateprofits.com since you're targeting EN markets, those guys really rock it for the last year or two
4. banners : image, image, image : the chick on the banner pretty much makes it or breaks it, forget colors, borders, fonts etc ... test those chicks, matures with big tits is what you want, only once you have your winning chick, then try to play with the other elements.
5. the ROI : -80% roi, kiss the campaign goodbye, restart, change pretty much everything. Contrary to popular belief, you have pretty much 0 chance to turn a -80% campaign into a profitable one. We're not charity here, even in adult where the volume can be huge, we still want AT LEAST 25-30% roi when scaling anything. You can be a ninja at optimizing, but you simply cant do miracles. With some experience under your belt, you should be able to launch close to breakeven campaigns without any optimization done, then you can pull them into the profit zone by doing the optimization magic. If a campaign simply fails, dont try to make it work, simply fuck it and move on. Every try is gonna make you stronger and soon enough you will have your winner.
All the best to you man, you seem motivated so I have faith in you
BTW : so many people start in adult again lately, what is this, some seasonal influx? I get regular emails from people who want to break into the market, I really start to think about making an adult marketing blog or something
@matuloo - Thank you heaps man! Will be dwelling on your recommendation at work all day today hahah. To be honest, I chose adult just because I'm a perv :P
As per matuloo's suggestion I will scratch out rudefinder and justhookup and go back to offer hunting tonight and look for better offers to work with + sign up for dateprofits.
I've got 25 banners ready to go when I hit that stage - going to go find some mature big titted lady images to throw into banners and landing page to test too.
Originally Posted by darsdars
))Yup, try to get better offers, I would recommend some SOI offer so you can see some action fast. BTW : dont take the "big titted mature" as the only rule tho, its just a good baseline "niche" to start with. On one hand, the MILF niche is still huge plus majority of men seem to prefer bigger boobs over small ones. And at the same time, by using mature chicks, you will attract the older audience too, which is good for the lead quality. But other things, looks or approaches can work too of course.
@matuloo - Hahah some of us are just willing to admit it, aye? Although I must admit I am getting the worst case of blue balls while making these banners!
Just a little bit of a progress update:
I have talked to my AMs who have suggested 2 offers, I have also dug through the list of offers and found another 5 to try out.
I will raise the daily test budget to $100 per day and narrowed it down to just 1 website.
Unfortunately my ads have been knocked back by TJ twice in a row now but I think I understand their rules and the next lot should be okay!
In the mean time, I'll keep grinding out banners and landing pages so that it is all ready to go when the time is right!
Originally Posted by darsdars
))$100 per day is a very nice budget to start with, just dont try too many placements/offers/banners at the same time, so the sample doesnt get distributed over too many variables.
TJ rules are not that hard to follow, it seems a bit complicated when you read them for the first time, but ultimately its just about staying away from animated banners in spots where they dont allow them
Good luck
Good luck on your adult journey.
Subscribed.
Thanks guys and Happy Valentine's Day ;D~<3
Out of the 7 offers that I have run I have 3 that are within -30% to 5% ROI - Still don't think it's enough data so I'll let the 3 run a bit longer and add another 2 offers that I found into the mix.
Started another campaign with the best performing offer and uploaded 15 banners on the same website and placement, in an attempt to get a higher CTR and lower CPC
NOTHING CAN STOP MEEEEEEE (except for ad approvers)
5 ads rejected before the weekend. F*** Me.
"Rejected: Bestiality" - Yeah okay. My bad.
Originally Posted by darsdars
"Rejected: Bestiality" - Yeah okay. My bad.
Good luck ill be following your journey.
15/02/15
Spend: 149.50
Revenue: 54.40
P/L: -95.10
ROI: -63.61%
Cut out a few more offers tonight
Uploaded another 10 ads with all different angles. Need to keep pushing that CTR up!
Currently setting up another variation of landing page and learning how to tweak it to match banner angle.
Sharky, lol!
Following this thread for sure, im looking into adult now and your progress is a huge inspiration
I think you should test on smaller geos first, I mean 2nd or 3rd tier countries, lower volume there but if you are on a budget is better to test there, master TJ and then move on to bigger geos.
Best of luck bro!!
Thanks guys, I have been thinking about migrating to 2nd/3rd tear countries and will definitely make the shift soon. Right now I feel as though I'm making some progress though so I'm going to keep pushing with this campaign!
Was checking out my statistics today and I noticed that both my tracker and network are telling me that I've had 15-20 clicks since the new ads have gone up, but the new campaign on TJ is telling me it's had 60.
Similarly, it always seems as though, the number of clicks on TJ seem to be double what my stats are telling me.
I wonder if my ripped LP is booby trapped... time to start sniffing it out
Alright, replaced the jquery script with a fresh one. Scanned for any unknown links in the html and css. We should be good to go!
16/02/2015
Spend: $41.00
Revenue: $16.00
P/L: -$25.00
ROI: -60.98%
I'm still trying to fix the difference in click numbers between
I wonder if I am mistaken in not thinking that TrafficJunky click equates to Visit count in
It doesn't make sense when I look at other follow-alongs and crunch their numbers :S
Must look into it further...
1. Going to try a landing page that I made from scratch
2. Check out my VPS stats - downtime perhaps? For those wondering, I'm using HostGator.
3. Last option would be to consult Voluum/TJ
Erk. HostGator do not have a great reputation. Server issues would probably be the first thing I'd recommend looking into.
Are you running Pingdom or similar to query for downtime and response times? If not, I'd recommend setting that up: www.pingdom.com . It's free to monitor one page.
Also, it might be worth going old-school and investigating some log analysis software - see if you're getting as many requests for your page as TJ says they're sending. http://www.webalizer.org/ is old but good for that.
Ahh thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Caurmen!
I'm now majorly confused.
On one hand, I see the the number of "visits" seems to equate to the number of clicks that TrafficJunky is posting.
Then I look at other follow alongs and snippets of their
Originally Posted by darsdars
Ahh cheers for clearing that up, matuloo. Looks like I'll be canning hostgator and switching to another host!
Sorry for the disappearance guys, life/work got hardcore (13 hour shifts with no lunch breaks... and I'm suppose to be a health professional)
BUT I haven't stopped. Since then, I've started dabbling in other GEOs and other traffic sources.
I've lost thousands of dollars and hours of sleep but the shit that I have learnt is well worth it.
A better understanding of metrics and which ones matter and how to manipulate them.
Technical ability such as HTML, CSS, Javascript and Photoshop I can now work with to empower my Ad Funnel.
And most importantly, data on GEOs, offers, traffic sources and then the sheer experience.
I guess one of my biggest lessons throughout all of this is that my most successful landing page is one that I created myself to suit the campaign and offer that I was running. Compared to a control group LP that I ripped from another affiliate it performed almost twice as well.
I feel as though I'm ready to profit now. I'll be going hard, so that I can free myself to come to things like the next STM meetup.
Thank You to everyone who has supported me throughout this follow along.
March is the month of madness and the month in which I reclaim my life!
A New Campaign, a pair of Weary Hands, and a Burning Spirit... LET'S DO IT.
Scheduled a chat with my AM who made suggested a couple of niches and some offers for each one.
I did my own research by going onto tube sites and going through people's ad funnels to find out what they were running.
Then went through my networks list to see if I could add them as well as any other interesting offers onto the list.
Now I have 5 in total to test.
Did some more tube-surfing and took the most commonly ran angle and applied it to my most succesful banner/LP from past campaigns + new images to suit the niche.
This will be my control/testing group.
*Day 1 Stats*
Spend: $17.98
Revenue: $9.90
P&L: $-8.08
ROI: -59.59%
Statistically, lacking. Need moar data.
Increasing my bad and throwing in another placement on the same website.
a banner idea for your HoopUp campaign ...
@franco12 ahh thanks! I've seen that banner heaps - its pretty eye-grabbing too. I'm sure it gets the clicks, but I wonder what sort of LP CTR and CR it would pull for a dating offer. It's still certainly worth a try though; only the data can answer our questions.
*Day 2*
Spend: $22.37
Revenue: $11.08
P&L: -11.29
ROI: -50.47%
I would still like a bit more volume for more data, however, it's starting to become clear which offers convert and which ones don't.
Will give it another day for the DOI's to catch-up before I start culling.
*Day 3*
Spend: $23.61
Revenue: $4.08
P&L: -$19.53
ROI: -82.72%
I see who the weak offers are now. Eliminated 4, solely running 1 offer now.
Uploading 9 banners tonight.
3 angles with 3 images each. 1 angle from my previous campaigns which did the best, 1 I ripped from spying, and 1 original idea.
*Day 4*
Spend: $24.12
Revenue: $15.00
P&L: -$9.12
ROI: -37.81%
Increasing bids, expanding to extra placement to get more data.
So far on average:
Angle 1 - 0.17%
Angle 2 - 0.19%
Angle 3 - 0.23%
All averaging around 20-30 clicks so I'll let it run with the extra volume for a bit longer.
Start gathering images to test with the successful angle.
*Day 5*
Spend: $54.09
Revenue: $23.66
P&L: -$30.43
ROI: -56.26%
Angle 1 - 0.16%
Angle 2 - 0.14%
Angle 3 - 0.24%
All the angles get similar LP CTR's and conversion rates so the decision is an easy decision with angle 3.
Made 15 new banners with different images for angle 3
5 new banners for angle 1 just because I found some nice images that suited it better.
*Day 6*
Spend: $48.55
Revenue: $47.32
P&L: -$1.23
ROI: -2.53%
Actually uploaded 30 banners to let them run over the weekend lol
Going to pick 3-5 congruent banners and start tweaking the landing page accordingly.
LP is currently running at 25-30% CTR + 8-10% CR
I think some consistency between the placement site and banner transitioning into the offer page should boost those two metrics.
Will try to bump volume up some more - wanting at least 30 conversions a day before I consider going for a paybump!
*Day 7*
Spend: $54.01
Revenue: $33.80
P&L: -$20.21
ROI: -37.42%
Gonna keep letting it run, too many banners means that the data is spread out too much for 1 days worth of data.
Started making some images for the LP based on the popular banner images.
*Day 8*
Spend: $47.59
Revenue: $43.94
P&L: -$3.65
ROI: -7.67%
Picked my winner banners - going to try tweaking copies and colours.
Modified my landing page after reading some articles on unbounce.com. Excited to test that against my current LP.
If you are running our offers speak with your AM and ask them to contact me and i will look at the account and see what can be done for you, that is of course if you are indeed running my offers lol
Thanks wilsyb0y, currently I am not running any of your offers. I appreciate the awesome gesture though
*Day 9*
Spend: $88.02
Revenue: $67.38
P&L: -$20.64
ROI: -23.45%
Got overly zealous here and increased my frequency cap from 1 every 8 hours to 3 every 8 hours.
Dropping it down to 2 every 8 hours.
New modified banners haven't been up for long so, not enough data to really say anything yet.
Also opened up another placement for more volume + data.
Originally Posted by darsdars
*Day 10*
Spend: $147.23
Revenue: $23.47
P&L: -123.76
ROI: -84.06%
*Day 11*
Spend: $53.20
Revenue: $12.53
P&L: -40.67
ROI: -76.45%
Looks like this offer is dead. CV dropped off from 4-6% to 1-2%.
Reverted back to last relatively successful set-up on Day 11 but looks like its no good.
Will have to start up a new campaign.
hello
May i know where i can get good dating offers like you said ?which aff?
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