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With a tight budget is there a cheaper way to spy to see what works? (16)

07-10-2015 02:25 PM #1 tmgroup (Member)
With a tight budget is there a cheaper way to spy to see what works?

I have a tight budget of $2000, is there a cheaper way to spy to see what works? Mobile Ad Scout and What Runs Where do not fit in my budget right know.

07-10-2015 02:35 PM #2 joshogle (Member)

Cheapest way is going to be to get creative and make your own version of something that "works."

07-10-2015 02:37 PM #3 shakedown (Member)

Manual Spying. Here is a free VPN: http://www.vpngate.net/en/

You could also do carrier spying if you needed: http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...carrier+spying I've tried this and it works great.

07-10-2015 02:51 PM #4 cbrughmans (Member)

Also check Alexa, Similarweb and most services like WRW offer a 7-day free trial. Just sign up to that as well. You'll get enough info in that time period to get going.

07-10-2015 03:15 PM #5 randomdude (AMC Alumnus)

There are many ways to do that. Here's what I use:

For landing pages:
Go to Google and search for "inurl:voluumdata [KEYWORD]".
For example "battery" for battery saver apps.

For banners:
Go to Google Image Search >> type in some keyword >> click on search tools >> select size >> select exactly...
For example with keyword "battery" and 320x50 you will get a lot of mobile banners to steal, I mean "inspiration".

For pop traffic:
Get an account at builtwith.com , check some pop sources (e.g. AdCash) where they are running. Go to those sites and click around till you trigger a pop up. This works with several ad networks, as long as BuiltWith tracks them.

For redirects:
Get an account at ZeroPark and check for keywords that look like typo domains (e.g. facebppk.com ). Or assemble a typosquatting domain list and check for redirects.

For mobile campaigns:
Get some free utility apps and check the banners.

If you find some affiliate landing page on a domain, then definitely check it with SimilarWeb.com - this gives you mostly a bit of insight of where they get their traffic from. Alexa is meeeh.
And to add some fun always make a site:-query on Google for that domain ( e.g. site:affsite.com ). This gives you often more insight what is running on that domain. A lot of affilites never heard of the robots meta tag and some even don't prevent dirctory listings on their servers.

Oh yeah... and to do spying in specific countries you will need a VPN (e.g. HideMyAss).

Buuut... and this is a big butt: Those spy tools are really worth their money, because you get a much better insight on how things really work. For example Google doesn't tell how often they found a banner or where they found it. Plus there is huge amount more "inspiration" on those tools. And they save a lot of time.

Oh and another yeah... I attended a webinar from OfferVault some days ago and they are running currently a promotion for WhatRunsWhere to give new clients 50% discount for the first month (but you need to subscribe to Display+Mobile). Promocode is: offervault50

07-10-2015 03:44 PM #6 iAmAttila (Veteran Member)

If you have a tight budget and cant afford basic spy tools even you wont be able to compete. Traff sources are full of sharks with tons of money to spend so if you come in with few bucks only youll be eaten alive.

07-10-2015 03:48 PM #7 HenryW (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by randomdude View Post
There are many ways to do that. Here's what I use:

For landing pages:
Go to Google and search for "inurl:voluumdata [KEYWORD]".
For example "battery" for battery saver apps.

For banners:
Go to Google Image Search >> type in some keyword >> click on search tools >> select size >> select exactly...
For example with keyword "battery" and 320x50 you will get a lot of mobile banners to steal, I mean "inspiration".
^^ Super cheap, can be effective.

It's all about getting creative, in.. er... searching for creatives.

But at the end of the day, the reason people spend their $$$ on these spy tools is because they're WORTH IT. The time you will save, and the relevant creatives/data you will find using the proper tools will pay off exponentially.

07-10-2015 03:56 PM #8 wiifmdude ()

Quote Originally Posted by randomdude View Post
Oh and another yeah... I attended a webinar from OfferVault some days ago and they are running currently a promotion for WhatRunsWhere to give new clients 50% discount for the first month (but you need to subscribe to Display+Mobile). Promocode is: offervault50
Great tips.

I haven't had any success in finding LPs with WRW (display or mobile). Is there a trick to find the LPs ?

Cheers,

07-10-2015 05:02 PM #9 thien425 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by wiifmdude View Post
Great tips.

I haven't had any success in finding LPs with WRW (display or mobile). Is there a trick to find the LPs ?

Cheers,
lol I am wondering this too, I signed up yesterday for the trial but it seems like everyone is direct linking.

07-10-2015 05:11 PM #10 ploppythejailer (Member)

just gotta look a bit closer and click on a few interesting banners.. there's shit load of landers on there.

07-10-2015 07:42 PM #11 Mr Baffoe (Veteran Member)

http://www.follow.net is also another good free option.

07-10-2015 07:47 PM #12 wiifmdude ()

Quote Originally Posted by ploppythejailer View Post
just gotta look a bit closer and click on a few interesting banners.. there's shit load of landers on there.
Honestly I spent a few hours without finding a single one... I must really have looked in the wrong verticals

07-10-2015 09:33 PM #13 randomdude (AMC Alumnus)

I haven't had any success in finding LPs with WRW (display or mobile). Is there a trick to find the LPs ?
Well, actually WRW is full of LPs. So I assume you are looking on WRW mobile at app installs? I also saw only direct linked banners. But if you look at other verticals like sweeps, then you'll find some. So it depends on the vertical you are looking at. Also you'll find on WRW Display a lot of landing pages.

Don't know what you are searching for exactly, but if WRW doesn't show you LPs for your vertical you could search via Google, as described here:
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...l=1#post234042
Also: If the domains which you find do some volume (check with SimilarWeb) then you could have success by searching for these domains "by advertiser" on WRW. Maybe you will find variations or new ones.

You could also try MobileAdScout. They crawl pop networks only.

07-11-2015 02:47 AM #14 acepowermarketing (AMC Alumnus)

vpn > go to your geo, click all banners, find the top 3 advertisers domain, rip their entire banners and LP and offer.

11-06-2015 03:08 PM #15 spartanen (Member)

Here some examples for Landers/banners: http://www.getfreestuffonlinenow.com/

11-06-2015 03:55 PM #16 thuglife (Member)

Check out MakeMassive.com - you can see most stuff for free and it's only $149/mo.

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