On a mission to break even : Like a BO$$ (23)
STM Soldiers,
I will spare you the details of what I do for a living as I do not want to get long winded on this post, suffice it to say I have been self employed since 2004 and as you can see from my profile I initially joined STM in 2012.
I may share the story later about how I ended up back at STM.
So, I am currently following The Mobile Cookbook (after taking Malan D's advice, he is quite the character) and I must say I am pleasantly surprised by how comprehensive this guide is....and trust me, I have seen many.
Real Quick.
I believe in taking massive imperfect action.
I also believe in imitation first, innovation after mastery.
Actions Taken:
- I was already a member of a well known affiliate network from 2013 so I hoped that would save some time (check)
- Decisive Account (check)
- Chose offer to promote (check)
- Graphics Program Youzign much quicker and easier than Photoshop spits out banners super fast (check)
- Budget 1k but I am expecting to spend 3k before things turn around.
- Created 8 Banners 320x50 (attaching them and yes they are amateurish as hell but they will get better)
So boom I thought I was ready to rock but ...learned that my Aff network uses in-house tracking instead of Cake. Small obstacle, but a slight holdup because I can't seem to get the workaround from my Rep and I really don't want to get off of the path. As I said I will not innovate until I am more experienced and have a deeper understanding of how this all ties together.
I will take this time to visit the link detailing which networks use Cake and apply to 5 Affiliate networks that use it.I have already reached out to the F5 admin for acceptance.. I saw where others were having issues using in house tracking systems and I prefer to just follow the process right now.
More to come
I am also a big believer than taking action can't be replaced by any amount of reading.
Looks like you are up to a good start, keep us updated with more info as clicks come through.
Hahah love the Charlie Sheen banners, winning!
Will do.
Hey Yussef, I'm following this post and looking forward to the steps you'll be taking towards break-even and profitability. Like you said in your first post, taking massive imperfect action is important so we can learn from it. Don't quite get your last post where you state that most readers only respect proof of concept or success.
I think it is just as valuable to all readers to see what doesn't work. Speaking for myself, I've never really been active in the mobile space and I'm looking to learn from others that take their first jab at it. So please do keep us posted on how your campaign is progressing! Best of luck!
Will do foreal, and I deleted that last post because I see that's not the case around here at all.
Update:
So this morning proved to be very productive. I was contacted by 3 of the 4 networks that I applied to this past weekend and had Skype interviews with 2. Fortunately the one I really wanted to partner with has accepted me and I have emailed over my ach, EIN and w9. The other said they will email me their decision which I think will also be positive.
Another network let me know that they had my app and would have the US team hit me up soon.
I got accepted into another network without any interaction or interview whatsoever but I don't think it's a good fit right now, but maybe when I get a better grasp of tracking systems other than Cake I can check them out again. Just following the system.
So once my rep confirms that she has all of my final information it's time to pull the trigger. BOOM!
Ya boy is ready to fail forward. Stay Tuned.
P.S. If you are applying to your first network please know that the top guns are serious about protecting the integrity of their networks. One raked my ass over the coals with questions about traffic sources, screen shots of past performance, what offers I plan to promote yadda yadda. Just be prepared.
Update: Got approved to a great network with an awesome Rep... I mean she is the bomb.com
Had a bit of a challenge finding a gif banner creator to create nice banners and I wasted a whole day fucking around with a site that pissed me off after I learned the interface and finally created the banners.
Eventually I will learn Photoshop well enough to create banners but the learning curve was a bit too much to learn and have my campaign up in a reasonable amount of time so I tried Bannerflow.
Bannerflow seemed to be the answer to my problems but then they hit me with the Okee Doke..yep they allowed me to create the banners (very nice I might add) then dropped the bomb on me that for gif images not only is there a monthly charge and a price ($5-$10) to download each banner but...they also charge .50 per CPM for the lowest membership... I refused to be pimped like that, so I went to bed extremely pissed at 2:00am determined to find a solution.
Back up at 7:30am and I found an answer ... I will just resize the 728 banners given to me by my rep I used 10 instead of 8. They looked pretty awesome anyway and I found a free gif resizer at http://ezgif.com/maker which made resizing full sized gif banners to 320x50 a breeze.
I was determined to launch my campaign today.
So i was back on track. Yes.
The only other issue I ran across was notification that my target campaign was getting paused, but it was all good, because they were simply changing the link and offer number, so my rep explained everything to me and helped me set up my tracking pixel. This would still be the same offer thankfully.
I followed the Appetizer from there precisely, then funded my account 1k. Now I am waiting on my Decisive approval and creatives approval from my rep (I can still test 50 leads) so that's where I am.
Stay tuned.
P.S. My offer (not the one I originally posted) is in all Portuguese and being run in Brazil so I spent a day in Google translate learning my offer. I even read up a little on Brazilian culture, family structure etc. so I could identify a little better. Cool country. 120 million people. Wow...Did I mention that my ad rep rocks?
P.S.S I just got notification that I am approved for another Ad Network (applied on 5/8 6 days ago) that I had given up on. WINNING! I did get turned down for one though but the 2 I really wanted to join accepted me.
While I wait for offer approval I found a really inexpensive way to crank out Gif banners quick. No photoshop. I will call this my poor man's banner creator.
Just a practice banner.
Ok first round of creatives rejected by Decisive for misleading content...funny because these were banners I got from the AM.
It's all gravy though I am determined to crack this nut and wanted an excuse to get my creative juices flowing anyway.
I will take it as confirmation that I am in the game. I am glad I did not waste the wait time sitting on my hands. Time to crank out some creatives before 4pm.
CAMPAIGN IS LIVE!
So here are a few valuable lessons I learned along the way so far.
After making over 4 rounds of banners and getting over 24 of them rejected, I learned some very valuable lessons:
1. Mobile is a patient man/woman's game if you're a newbie. Expect delays and obstacles but don't let them become roadblocks. Keep it moving!
2. Do not over-complicate things. My first round of banners were all fancy gifs that moved and did all kinds of shit but never got approved because I spent too much time on form before function. After getting my banners rejected repeatedly I took a step back and looked at how the pros keep it simple and still keep winning, then went back to the drawing board and kept it simple.
3. Read the "reasons for ad rejection" section especially if you are using Decisive. At first I thought they were just being petty, then I realized it was me. My ads were non-compliant and nobody cares how much time you spend on them, if they are wrong they are wrong. Save yourself some headache and make sure they meet the ad criteria.
I learned the hard way that using the Android robot image ( regardless of how you dress him up) and icons that "look" like buttons from popular ISPs will get your ads rejected quickly. My ads are all in Portuguese so I had to translate everything to make sure that each ad conveyed the message I wanted it to.
5. The best thing to come from this experience was how fast I can create banners now. My first round of banners took me a day and a half to create. My last round took me 17 minutes. So yeah, trial by fire has helped me and they got approved super fast.
So my campaign is live and I am in the game. I am sure there will be more bumps and bruises on my way to success but I am ready. See you on the other side. Peace
Why do those first few conversions feel so gratifying?
Subscribed! Keep going... like a boss! 
Nice work, your CPA is already under $1 even though there isn't much data yet and it might go higher but good start.
Your banners are nice but I feel they are too detailed.
Try something more simpler and see how it works.
Originally Posted by omrikos
My thoughts are that a good landing page will capitalize on those clicks a lot better than direct linking straight to Google Play. Thoughts?
I agree with omrikos, your banners are a bit too detailed.
Some offers might work better without a landing page. You know what you should do... split test.
I think those are starting to look better.
Originally Posted by affiliaxeoran
Awesome progress Yussef! Like a boss
Btw if you can squeeze in another member for your mastermind group, I would be hugely up for this.
I'm currently at about the same stage as you, currently testing the Skout app out with some creatives targeting Ireland and Spain and have some early data.
Let me know, either way wishing you success and will be checking in on your thread.
A thought.
I almost did what is probably most common for us Newbs and that is jump in a start a new campaign to just have some more data coming in fast....But I decided to learn as much as I can about the one I have for now.
You see here is the thing.
After reading numerous follow along threads I learned that many campaigns go days or sometimes weeks with no conversions and as a result the campaign either gets shut down all together or a new one is started simultaneously.
This was almost me today...Until I had this thought. I am converting and the numbers are consistently getting bigger as I play with the details. Nothing Epic, but a small victory at least.
So here is my plan. Today my campaign got 3,599 clicks. Out of those clicks I got 7 conversions.My 4 campaigns have been running approximately 1 week and I have a total of 35 conversions.
My ROI is currently -83.73
I spent $9.18 for the 3,599 clicks. Now for me to make $100 profit per day I would need to convert 606 of those clicks. For $50 Profit only 328.77 (less than 10%).
I know most of the people clicking are clicking for a reason, so instead of getting distracted with the learning curve of a new campaign I am going to see how much I can play with this one until I get higher conversions.
-Out
After 2 of my campaigns hit the $15 mark I measured all of the comparative analysis against the criteria set in the appetizer and decided to pause all 4 campaigns for this promotion. I have learned a lot and have meticulously gone through all of the tabs in the live reports daily for over a week.
I wound up with about 40 conversions, but at too high of a price. To scale the traffic I actually raised my CPA goal far beyond 5 times the payout just to see where the traffic flow had to be to give me steady conversions. Once I hit a certain CPA the conversions almost became predictable. In this case much too high for an .18 payout but I went from averaging 2 conversions per day to 7 - 8 per day. I am just imagining the future with a much higher payout and conversion rate.
Note to self : I do not think this is a good traffic source for this offer. Or as my Am said most are killing this promo with POP. I had to research to find out what the hell POP was lol
Kicking myself for putting a whole G into my Decisive account. I should've split it between 2 traffic sources to run the same offer simultaneously for more data. Lesson learned.
I have already identified another offer and talked it over with my AM and she says this one has had a steady long term history of conversions with the agency. I am putting my trust in her and I spent the day spying so I have a hefty folder of successful banners to get me started brainstorming. Angles are not a problem...I am a hustler by nature so figuring out angles come second nature to me, that's the fun part.
Time to jump back in.
Got so frustrated I started doubting myself and the tutorial, but that was just fatigue so I gave it a day and just let it run.
Now I am back fighting the urge to jump around. Tracking setup does not seem complicated at all ( I can set it up without a guide) but I know something is not setup correctly because the disparity is too great.
Thinking of trying another tracker to see if I can get results I can understand. Until then I will direct link.
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