A Kiwi starts AM - journey to $100/day (47)
Original goal of $xxx reached - peow!
Previous achievements:
[x] First $10 day (30-04-15) - 100% ROI too!
[x] First break even/$0.31 day (15-04-15) WE'RE GREEEEEEEEEEN
[x] First conversion (05-04-15)
I'm Kelly. I'm a 19 year old from New Zealand, currently in the last year of my Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance major) degree on drumset.
Through AM, I will achieve location independence, allowing me to live and travel wherever I want to satisfy my musical cravings.
I will not live like your stereotypical musician - bumming looking around for gigs while begging on the street or working at McDonalds. Fuck. That.
I've been working a part time programming job on top of university (I'm a computer nerd too) which keeps my PHP skills sharp has allowed me a budget to play with - an initial startup of between $1500-2000USD, and after that around $150/week added to the pool. I'm hoping this is enough to get me going and get at least close to breaking even. Even if I do exhaust the budget, I rest comfortably knowing it's the cost of learning the skills for my journey.
So, as of about 10 minutes ago, I launched my first mobile campaign following the Mobile Cookbook Appetiser.
I:
- Hit up my AM about non-US mobile offers running good volume
- Selected one of the five she suggested (Wallapop iPhone UK - payout $0.50/EPC .161)
- Researched the product on the iTunes store (I have no Apple devices), read some reviews on it
- Came up with 8 angles, and picked the one I thought had the most merit (not expecting to be right here)
- Created 8 banners, saved as PNG (I read a post here that for some strange reason PNG banners converted better than JPG on mobile)
- Created 4 campaigns on the Decisive network, Wifi/Mobile + Site/App combos
- Waited for approval...
- And just now hit play!
It's in the UK geo, which I hope is ok? Appetiser said anything outside of the US, but I'm aware that the UK is a big area.
Pressing the "play" buttons for the first time and seeing some clicks come through was a nice rush! I would have had something up yesterday, but just as my creatives got approved, the network paused the offer. So I have another campaign sitting ready to go if they restart it.
A question: what do you guys do while waiting for data to come back? Are you looking for other offers, researching angles and the competition, _____________? Any tips on running with a budget like mine? Want to abuse me for being a bloody Kiwi/shit at cricket?
Anyway! I'll update about this time tomorrow, by then I should have some good numbers (hopefully my conversion tracking is all working! Direct from network <-> Decisive).
I'd be honoured if you'd join me for the journey.
Cheers
So I loaded up a UK based VPN and using Chrome dev tools spoofed the iPhone 5 browser profile... it doesn't load app store and instead is coming up with this:
If I visit the bottom app.appsflyer.com link though, it seems to load the app store fine... I assume all is good?
You've got a nice start here, just need some data so we can better help you in a direction, when you have some free time spend it constructively of course, theres always something to do whether research or banner/lander creation for split tests
Very good plan. AM makes an excellent "muse" business for an artist - I got started in it for the same reason, although I'm a filmmaker rather than a musician.
What to do in downtime: learn, research, and set up more campaigns. You can ALWAYS be launching more!
Good luck - looking forward to your updates.
Looking forward to following this one!
Lets do this! Subscribed!
C-C-C-Combomaker!
Three Kiwi's in a row responding to a Kiwi. Critical mass!
One piece of advice: test multiple angles first, e.g. 3 banners for 3 angles = 9 in total, rather than 8 banners for 1 angle. The angles and creatives both can make a big difference, so best to test a bit broader when you first roll out the campaign.
Best of luck!
Thanks for the support 
Alright! Update time.
I've been running with what I started with, Smart CPM @ 1.5x payout = $0.75, daily budget on each of the campaigns @ $8, and I've hardly been getting any spend 
Here's a screenshot of about 20 hours:
I had an initial surge of clicks when I first began (from iOS 3.0 and 4.0, wtf?) which I blacklisted asap because I realised the offer requires iOS 7 anyway... but since I did that traffic has been very slow.
I read your post on Decisive Zeno and my account balance is well over $50, I've tried upping the CPM goal to $1.00 (2x the offer). I just upped the daily budget to $25, which has seen a small increase in traffic.
I've had no conversions yet - is it safe to assume that I probably should have by now over all of the campaigns?
Here are the banners, too. Apart from the plain green and plain blue ones, they're relatively even in terms of clicks.
I'm thinking I may not have any conversions because the angle isn't prequalifying the user for the app? I thought I could get away with intriguing first and then hoping they'd follow through anyway... perhaps not.
Zeno, I'm going to take that advice and perhaps it'll shed light on this (I see why it's a good idea :P). I'll cull some of the low performing banners and add in 3 more banners x 2 new angles. (update: decided on starting again with 3 new angles - one of the 4 splits of the original campaign reached 3x payout without a conversion...)
Aaah.
I'm also thinking of getting
ALSO I've been getting some click loss between Decisive and Adscend... 466 clicks on Decisive vs 353 on Adscend. Hmmm.
I'm also thinking of grabbing WRW and doing some research. It's expensive and is going to cut into my budget but it might help me out. Perhaps it'll help for future campaigns.
Let the original banners run for a bit longer before concluding that they're pretty well useless. Ah well. Learnt a lot from that one, got an idea of the process now. Onward!
Thinking I'll wait on getting LPs up until I've seen a few DL conversions - thoughts?
Been busy today:
* Bought the HMA VPN and did some spying - good to see how others are promoting
Went back to the drawing board and cranked out:
* New banner set - 3 banners x 3 angles for the Wallapop UK offer
* New banner set - 3x3 for another AM recommended offer (updating soon)
Going to put in some applications to other networks next week so I can split test offers between them etc.
Awaiting approval from Decisive on both campaigns - off to bed now so will run some traffic tomorrow morning and see how they go! I figure if I have a few different campaigns I'm working on (but not too many as to lose focus!), I'll hopefully always have something to optimise while waiting on approval for others.
Have also heard good things about the Ca$hvertising book, so I got hold of it and am gonna get reading.
Sweet. That's me for the night.
Ciao 4 nao.
Nice work dude.
Yeah for me the first banners didn’t really convince me - I don’t think I’d believe them and then I may be slightly confused when I got to the app.
Perhaps something like “(1) Playstations from £15” or some bargain that I could get may attract my attention more.
Yes great idea to spy - I think that’s one of the best ways to learn, by seeing what’s working for everyone else.
Good plan, looking forward to the next update hombre!
Looks like a good plan following your journey mate, go for it Kiwi, Kiwis taking over the Mobi market !
If Smart CPM isn't giving you any traffic, chuck it in the bin and try regular flat CPM.
You'll need to keep a closer eye on placements with flat CPM, because it's easier to end up overpaying for crap placements, but you can control the firehose of traffic more using it.
Came up with another 3x3 creative set for Wallapop - awaiting approval (I'm not sure if Decisive do weekends?).
Am I churning through campaigns too soon?
Sounds like we are having the same problems. I get nearly no clicks with smart-cpm. Gonna try the flat CPM, just like caurmen suggested. If you figure this out, hit me up. I'm interested!
Have you already decided if you're going to integrate a landes? That's a question I ask myself.
Originally Posted by buddstr
Launched my third set of 3x3 for Wallapop, going at it from yet another few angles (woo Decisive approving on weekends)
Leaving running tonight @ 3x goal/$25 limit, hope to have some good data if nothing else in the morning. Maybe even a conversion if I'm lucky.
Perhaps I'm tackling a geo too big to begin with?
Good hustling man, this game is really about persistence.
Apropos the offer, it doesn’t really tickle my fancy…. I’ve struggled with these kind of unique offers before but I tend to stick to more popular offers that you would see when spying. That’s purely from personal experience though, I’m sure it’s crackable - just gotta find out how!
If this next test doesn’t give you any results I’d switch offer.
An angle to think about:
People like the benefits of an in app purchase.
People don't always like to spend real money to get an in app purchase.
Connect getting cold hard cash, to getting paid apps--free.
Yepp, you need to make sure that the person who looking at your banner will miss something to not install the app or game . Check reviews, check the app positive things and make sure the viewer understand that he really needs to install it. No questions ...he just need to have it.
If you just tell them , install this good game, that is not enough.
Today:
- Abandoned previous offer.
- Had the first Skype session of our mastermind.
- Switched to an AV offer.
- Spied on AV offers.
- Cranked out banners.
- Creatives got denied (processed a lot quickly than usual though) because PeerFly was redirecting elsewhere with wrong device/geo.
- Set up
Voluum and some rules to counter it - Awaiting reapproval now.
- Getting through Ca$hvertising!
Should I begin thinking about creating LPs, or should I pursue direct linking a little longer?
Nice work dude. Love your work.
I usually go for higher volume/popular offers because
a) I know they work - other people are obviously making money off them
b) they’re easier to spy and get inspiration/see what’s working (giving yourself a head start, rather than jumping in totally blind)
I think you’ll find AV offers will generally work better with LP’s, unless they have a super good lander for the offer. Your lander can be super simple too.
If you want you can always split it (33% direct link, 33% to LP1, 33% to LP2).
Makes sense, thanks for that Ruby. I've ripped a few LPs I like (so much cloaking going on out there damn) and am finishing up modifications.
I've been DLing to play store in the meantime just to see what happens, Decisive is giving me fuck all traffic yet again... upped smart CPM to 4x payout for tonight so I'll at least get a little data... gonna do flat CPM tmrw when I can watch it carefully. Keen to get away from it to be honest.
Applied to more networks today - now a member of Avazu and Clickdealer (my clickdealer AM is a fucking top chap, looking forward to working with him further), both are in far better timezones. Now I have some solid offer recommendations.
Today's activities:
- LPs done, DL was getting clicks but no converts... waiting for publisher approval
- Nearly finished Ca$hvertising
- Banner set done for a recommended Cleaner offer
- Translation for new banners done
- Awaiting publisher and source approval to run that shiet
- Spy spy spying motherfucka
No excuses just progress
- Cleaner banners approved, running traffic. Driving 7 hours today so scared to leave it on flat CPM without being able to check, that'll wait until tonight :P
- Interview for Mundo done
- Uploaded a campaign to go2mobi to try a new traffic source (campaign approved, waiting on creatives)
Travelling today but will be getting more done when I arrive!
Cheeky weekend in Aucks?
Looking forward to the update!
Originally Posted by Ruby Tunes
Got flat CPM running on Decisive, should hopefully rack up at least $20 spend on both mobile/wifi within the next bit. Looking forward to updating with a decent amount of data at the 24 hour mark. Go2mobi rejected the same banners for the particular exchange I chose, so I'm waiting approval on another one now. Keen to see how it compares to D. Also wanting to try a local source... Test test testing. Am I trying too many at once?
Had a big derp and my LPs are on my desktop in Wlg... AV campaign on hold until I'm back at base on Monday night.
Why not start working in larger geos, now that you seem to have gotten a lot of the basics down?
Originally Posted by stitch
Geo #1:
Spend: $9.00
Revenue: $14.00
Profit/ROI: $5.00 (+56%)
Geo #2:
Spend: $10.79
Revenue: $7.00
Profit/ROI: -$3.79 (-35%)
Geo #3:
Spend: $2.27
Revenue: $7.50
Profit/ROI: $5.23 (+230%)
@laurence 2-3 weeks now, I'm launching a new offer atm - gave this one a solid run in 9 geos. It's done me so, so well and I've learnt so much more than I'd ever imagined.
@cmdeal: It seems so obvious now... d'oh. Thanks for the lightbulb moment.
@Mike: I do actually run everything off Drive, those were my first ever landers and I hadn't established a proper workflow at that stage. I was saving locally and copying (which I forgot to do), changed that shortly after... only a fool makes the same mistake twice 
Yesterday was a case of green green and more green. Things blew up a little while I slept.
Geo #1:
Spend: $6.84
Revenue: $8.00
Profit/ROI: $1.16 (+17%)
Geo #2:
Spend: $3.11
Revenue: $14.50
Profit/ROI: $11.39 (+366%)
... wow?!
Geo #3:
Spend: $2.46
Revenue: $7.50
Profit/ROI: $5.04 (+204%)
Umm. And there Geo #2 was, showing no promise yesterday!
I've been doing some thinking, and I've decided I'm going to stop updating this thread. I'm at a point where I feel I have the basics down and there's little benefit to keeping this going. I'm by NO means a master and I haven't had any big campaigns yet, but I'm confident they're not too far away.
Thank you so so much to everyone who helped out in these early stages. Getting through the first few campaigns is hard without a doubt, but the support and breadth of knowledge floating around this place helped me get there. I look forward to sticking around and continuing to be involved.
I hope that this thread serves as a nice little motivator to anyone just starting out. CPI is the perfect place to learn the ropes (and yes, you can convert on Decisive). Fail hard and fail fast, but be smart about it.
I'm planning on being at the next STM meetup all going well - look forward to putting some faces to names. Until then, my head is down.
Chur chur chur, cha chur chur.
Hey
Why haven't you been able to scale?
Originally Posted by tim roth
Countries with claimed 2-5m impressions/day (from a volume list), add targeting, then bidding to keep a $0.25 payout on an already raped speedbooster offer in check. It's definitely been doable but in my experience difficult to get much volume out of while staying green. I've been whitehat the whole time, too, which hasn't made it any easier competing with really aggressive landers.
I could be wrong, maybe there's something I'm missing and if that's the case then I'd love to know, but the conclusion I've drawn is that the offer has run its course... I've been panning for gold in a stream, not mining in a massive quarry.
Awesome work mate. This is a must read thread for any newbies - showing how persistence and constant action results in progress and profitable campaigns.
Next stop: Stitch’s success story! This Kiwi’s about to grow really big wings... Watch this space!
This is a great thread, thank you for sharing Stitch!
Good thread to follow! Looking forward to reading more!
Originally Posted by tim roth
Originally Posted by izzy
Howdy Stitch, any updates?
Still plugging away testing, I've partnered up with someone whose strengths are my weaknesses and vice versa... hitting it with him has been my main focus.
I've kept the campaign in this thread running, it's approaching mid $xx stable daily. Still plugging away at it, I keep finding more little gems as I go deeper and deeper.
It's funny how quickly you desensitise to the numbers. When I first started I would have been jumping around the room at +$50NZD/day (which to most students is a nice cash infusion for beer), but now I'm actually deeply unsatisfied with it.
I'm a competitive person by nature, it's now a game of 'beat the high score'.
Let me know if you're around Wellington sometime. Love to buy you a beer!
Awesome stuff and glad to hear you've found a partner in crime.
Not sure when I'll next be in NZ but for sure will drop by.
Thanks a lot for all the updates Stitch, it's been a pleasure reading through your ups and downs. People can learn A LOT from this thread.
I hope to see you at an STM meetup in the near future
Update:
Happy to be able to say over the last month we've met the original $100/day goal a whole bunch and surpassed it by a fair margin a number of times. It's all real
Working on getting the consistency happening and staying nicely diversified, so an offer going down doesn't cause noticeable waves.
Thanks for the supportive posts, look forward to putting faces to usernames in December!
Nice one mate!
This was a fun thread to follow.
Thanks for sharing, you've motivated me to continue to push even though I'm running into a wall.
Originally Posted by raymondduke
No updates for quite some time. How are you doing right now?
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