Magerealm on Facebook - Bring back the light (19)
Hi Folks,
This is my first follow along, hope to get some advice on how I can make this campaign profitable. I'll provide as much details as possible here since my primary purpose here is to learn from it as much as possible.
Offer details:
Offer: Magerealm - Tier 1 AT BE DK FI IS IE LU NL NO SE CH GB DE FR
Landing page from advertiser when clicked on the tracking link http://vda.gtarcade.com/?q=150702wscUNVZ&sid=330 (currently the affiliate link redirects to some other offer page if you are not from the targeted Geos)
Payout: $2.80
Vertical: Gaming (browser based MMORPG)
Geo: There are 14 countries that are allowed but I will be focusing on UK first (prefer to target a country that uses English as a primary language first)
Traffic Source:
Facebook Desk Top News Feed
Optimized for Clicks to Website
Pricing based on "Get the most website clicks at the best price"
Tracking system:
Has set a rule to redirecting all traffic that are not from the targeted Geo to go to the home page of the game.
Strategy:
- Will set up 1 campaign for each Angle that I have (currently have chosen 3 angles to test out first)
- For each campaign (angle), will create 2 Ad sets and each Ad set will use a different banner
- For each Ad Set I have 3 ads which are simply duplicates of each other (read from Zeno's FB guide that we can just cull out the duplicated ad that perform worst after launching the campaigns)
- Will limit spending to $10 per day for each Ad sets (meaning $20 per day for each angle which is almost 10 x the payout).
Angles and Target Audience:
Angle 1: Immensely popular MMORPG among UK teenage gamers.
Target Audience :
Gender : Male
Age : 13-17 years old
Interests : Multiplayer game, Action role-playing game, Multiplayer online game, Role-playing game, browser game, Online games, Massively multiplayer online games, Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, rpg, Role-playing games, Live action role-playing game or Browser games
Behaviors: Played game in last 14 days
Potential Reach : 44,000 people
Angle 2: Most gamers rated Magerealm as better than Wartune. Play now to see if you agree.
Target Audience:
Gender: Male
Age: 25-34 years old
Interest: wartune, wartune at r2gamescom or wartune official game community
Potential reach: 15,000 people
Angle 3: Rated as one of the toughest Action RPG in 2015. Are your game enough for it?
Target Audience:
Gender: Male
Age: 18-24 years old
Interest: Action games, Multiplayer game, Action role-playing game, browser game, Online games, Massively multiplayer online games, action games, rpg, play free online games, Role-playing games, Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, free online games, Browser games or play free games online
Behaviors: Played game in last 14 days
Potential Reach: 100,000 people
Banners used:
I have only managed to create 2 banners (see attached) and is currently using both banners for all the angles - Each angles will have an ad set created using one of the banner.
Next steps:
1. As I just launched the campaigns last night will try do an update tonight or tomorrow morning on the statics.
2. Looking t the 2 banners that I have made, gotta admit that my photoshop skills sucks. Will try to outsource someone to do up a few more banners for me while I learn more about photoshop 
3. Will set up a lander tonight to test if it can helps improve conversions
Will love to hear what's your thoughs of the set up and what can I further improve on to get a better chance of making this profitable, thanks!
I think your angles are nicely organized and well thought through.
Regarding your banners- I would suggest utilizing convincing copy/calls to action in order to appeal further to your specific demographics.
I also might consider taking out the game play screenshots as they cover the full effect of the large image behind them and somewhat confuse the user on what to focus on.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Hi Hannah,
Thanks for the suggestions 
1. For the copy/call to action in the banner, currently I have the "Play Now" text button and the texts "No downloads required within the banners". Do you mean that I should add more copy like "Free", "Best MMORPG 2015" etc into the banner?
2. The game play screenshots - it didn't occurs to me that it might confuse or distract the users - I was originally thinking of squeezing in as much details into the banner as I can in order to make the impressions worth the $$
But now that you mention it, it does seems confusing on what the banner is trying to communicate/highlight to the users. Will definitely test versions of banners without the game play screenshots to compare the performance thanks!
On the banner creation: check this thread if you haven't already - http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...With-Photoshop
Thanks Shogun! I have soooo much more to learn about photoshop..
1. Update for the performance for yesterday - 15th July.
Attached is a screen shot of yesterday's performance for the campaigns.
In summary:
Total Ads Impressions: 8,951 views
Total Clicks: 15
Average Clickthroughs rate: 0.17%
Total Conversions: 0
Total Spending: $59.54
Total Earning: $0
Profits: $0
ROI: -100%
2. Actions taken since yesterday:
- Outsourced banner creation to Fiverr and Banners & Landers, hopefully to be able to get the banners from them quickly
- Sent an email to the game developer to request for a media kit (if they are willing to grant me access)
- Uploaded a lander last night - and this morning I actually saw a conversion from the Lander - here a short link to my lander hosted on Rackspace http://tinyurl.com/pantebh
- Killed off Ad Set 2 (banner 2)from Angle 3 after it has spent $9.80 without a single click.
- Kill off more ad and ad sets that are not performing
3. More things to be done
- Test out Hannah's suggestion to see if banner with more call to action and without game play screen performs better
- Come up with more banner design that I can probably test out
- Come up with more angles for testing
- Continue posting on my Magerealm fan page and try to grow it
4. Thoughts
- My current CPC is wayyy too high for the campaigns to stand any chance to be profitable at all. Priority now is to work on coming up with better angles and banners to achieve better CPC.
5. Questions
i. Apart from better angles, better targeting and better banner designs, is there any other way that I can work on lowering my average CPC?
ii. I am currently bidding on "Get the most website clicks at the best price". Does anyone have any experience with this bidding option and comments on it?
iii. For FB advertising, is it common for the impression cost to be very high for the first few days and drop after that? I was looking at the data for today and I seems to be getting cheaper impressions and clicks - will be able to confirm once I compiled today's campaigns performance tomorrow
iv. Currently my ads click throughrate averages at 0.17% , what is considered a good clickthrough rate for FB Desktop News Feed ads that is targeting on browser games?
Try targeting Runescape players.
Its becoming increasingly pay to win and its users are becoming angry and moving else where.
I am sure there are a few angles you could create with this one.
Originally Posted by mr will
Thanks for the suggestions
1. For the copy/call to action in the banner, currently I have the "Play Now" text button and the texts "No downloads required within the banners". Do you mean that I should add more copy like "Free", "Best MMORPG 2015" etc into the banner?
2. The game play screenshots - it didn't occurs to me that it might confuse or distract the users - I was originally thinking of squeezing in as much details into the banner as I can in order to make the impressions worth the $$
But now that you mention it, it does seems confusing on what the banner is trying to communicate/highlight to the users. Will definitely test versions of banners without the game play screenshots to compare the performance
thanks!Regarding your question #1- I think you should add more convincing/attention capturing text. Ask yourself the key question: "WHY should the user want to play this game?"
Regarding the game play screenshots- often times the more simple the better. Our brains process visual content 60,000X than text- yet we should never make the user have to work to understand the image. Then we risk losing their attention. I think it would be best to focus on one powerful image, paired effectively with attention grabbing text.
I appreciate you considering my feedback. Keep me updated on how things are going. You are welcome to PM me.
Hi impuls3,
Thanks for the heads up! can imagine doing targeting many other similar game where gamers are facing similar frustration 
Hi Hannah,
Thanks for the additional clarification! Will definitely test out your suggestions and update here once there is any findings
With pleasure! Looking forward to hearing more about your progress!
Hi all,
Here's a quick update on the progress so far.
1. Attached is the screen on the overall campaigns performance
In Summary:
Total Ads Impressions: 28,058
Total Clicks: 89
Average Clickthroughs rate: 0.32%
Total Conversions: 5
Total Spending: $185.25
Total Earning: $14.00
Profits: -$171.25
ROI: -92.44%
2. Actions taken since previous update:
i. Created new banners with call to action in the banner and without the gameplay screen shot
ii. Killed off those ad sets that haven't gotten a single conversion after spending close to 10x payout
iii. Created a new campaign targeting Runescape players (Angle 4)
3. Observations (might be weak since the amount of traffic and conversions are actually quite low) and learnings :
i. The lander (although a very simple one) helps in the conversion.
I initially redirected 50% of clicks to the lander and have the remaining 50% redirected to the gaming page and noticed that only the clicks that got to the lander are converting while none of the clicks to the direct link convert..
ii. It might not be a very good idea for me to outsource my banner creation at this stage (even though it is taking me hours of efforts just to create one banner). Reason being that, when I received the banners, I'd say that the freelancers did exactly what I requested for but yet I was't exactly happy with the banners - this is largely due to me not being able to have a clear vision on the exact banner that I was expecting (reflecting on it, I took the easy way out by dumping the banner creation to the freelancers and hoping that by some miracles they will come up with a superb banner).
I guess I probably need alot more experience in creating banner before I can be able to effectively outsource this portion to someone else
iii. Thanks to Hannah and Impuls3 suggestions, I am finally seeing some conversion for this offer. Seems like a simpler banner with some copy much better than the original ones that I have And yes, the conversion rate for the Campaign targeting the Runescape players (Angle 4) are much better than the other angles too.
iv. It seems that after a few days from launching, the CPC for some of the Ad sets were dropping, (either due to lesser bidding by others or hopefully because FB thought that the banners are getting decent clickthrough rates)
v. Although the campaigns are still in the red, but the newly launched campaign are only at a -44% ROI, pretty hopeful that with some further optimizations, it can be profitable soon 
4. Further Actions.
i. Will be testing more banners and Ad copy for angle targeting Runescape Players to see how can I push it to being profitable
ii. Will be setting up more campaigns to target other games players similar to Runescape players.
*I have also attached the newer banners that was created, please feel free to comments on how can I further improve these banners thanks!!
Originally Posted by mr will
iii. Thanks to Hannah and Impuls3 suggestions, I am finally seeing some conversion for this offer. Seems like a simpler banner with some copy much better than the original ones that I have
And yes, the conversion rate for the Campaign targeting the Runescape players (Angle 4) are much better than the other angles too. I think you new banners look very nice and crisp. The only thing I might suggest (if there is room) is that you attach the word "free" to the words on the button "click here to play the game". So it instead reads: " Click Here to Play the FREE Game" or even "Play the FREE Game Now". Also, I would make the arrow shape of the button more distinct so that the user know immediately that when they click the arrow it will take them to the game.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks Hannah, thanks for sharing your suggestions!
Yep, definitely worth testing those ideas too
Looking forward to following your progress and hearing your feedback on what worked.
Just a quick update..
I have saw quite a good improvement in my banners click through rate but strangely my conversions tanked since last weekend.. even those campaigns that was initially getting little bit conversions are getting 0 conversions since last weekend
Throughout this week I have set up a few more campaigns and tried out FB right column ads (which surprisingly is generating clicks to my landing pages at very low cost) but still all of them are not generating a single conversion at all.
I am still getting 1 or 2 organic conversion daily from my FB fanpage , so I suspect the issue is unlikely to be from the advertiser's landing page or from my trackings (I am using
Paused all my campaigns today and will be going back to my drawing board again tomorrow to come up with more angles to test out. (will update again on the new campaigns once they are running)
Just a quick question, what do you guys/gals usually do when your campaigns suddenly stopped getting any conversions?
One of the best resources is your Affiliate Manager. Use them! They can help inquire further whether there could be potential issues with the offer on the advertiser's side.
Have you been in touch with them? Did they provide you with any feedback?
I found out that the cause of drop in conversions was due to my error
I made some optimization to my landing page previously but accidentally changed the link on the "Click to play" button on my landing page. Have corrected the error since then and saw one of my campaigns getting positive ROI on the next day.. Unfortunately, the offer was paused last week before I can increase my budget for the campaign that was seeing positive ROI
Guess one of the key takeaway that I learnt while doing this offer is that for gaming offers, I need to move at a much faster pace, otherwise the offer might get paused before I managed to make a profit..
Dear, a shame the campaign will pause.
I encourage my friend, I'm also testing offers the same type and with facebook
Sometimes advertisers desktop games are undecided, or low budgets.
I hope to have success in the next test!
Unfortunately, this can often be the case with popular desktop games. Especially if they are not direct and/or have tight conversion CAPS.
Sorry that you had to deal with that- although you are right that it is part of the process, and now you know that your pace needs to be quickened. You'll get there
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