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The Mobile Cookbook: The Appetiser (46)


10-27-2015 12:31 PM #1 caurmen (Administrator)
The Mobile Cookbook: The Appetiser

Introduction

The Appetiser is the simplest way to get into mobile affiliate marketing right now.

This is the version of the Appetiser for affiliates using Go2Mobi as their traffic source.

You'll use a streamlined system to do the absolute minimum you need to start and optimise a successful campaign.

If you're new to affiliate marketing, this is the place to start. It's quick, simple, and can still generate big profits.

You'll pick something to advertise, set up banners, and optimise your results until either you're in profit or you can be sure your campaign won't work.

That's the same process everyone up to the biggest super-affiliates uses, and it's the most important thing to learn in Affiliate Marketing.

Once you're more experienced, you can add more advanced techniques - such as those in The Main Course.

Even if you're more experienced, the sheer speed of the Appetiser system makes it a good way to test new offers and angles.


The Appetiser: Ingredients

To get started with The Appetiser, you'll need:

An account with Go2Mobi.

Go2Mobi is a mobile ad network, which we'll be using to buy ads for this "recipe". There are many great mobile networks out there, but Go2Mobi is particularly friendly to newer users: they have a powerful interface for reporting and campaign creation, and good quality traffic.

Full Disclosure: Go2Mobi is a sponsor of the 6 Week Affiliate Mastery Challenge. On that course, several affiliates have made it to $x,xxx / day profits using Go2Mobi as their traffic source.

If you don't have it: sign up at http://www.go2mobi.com/signup/


An account with an affiliate network.

There are dozens of great affiliate networks out there. Here's a list of contacts for networks on STM. Note that if you're signed up with a network that does mostly cash-per-sale offers, like Commission Junction or ShareASale, you'll need to sign up with another, more mobile and CPA-focused network to get the best chance.

If you're new to applying to affiliate networks - you'll have to complete an email application form, and there may be a couple of days' wait. Take that time to make sure you fully understand the rest of this tutorial, get your Go2Mobi account live and funded, and so on. Do make sure to complete the email application thoroughly, as well! [/INDENT]




A list of top mobile offers on your affiliate network(s). Ask your affiliate manager for this. Ideally you want one that's sorted by volume - in other words, that shows the offers that are getting the most clicks right now. They'll almost always be good offers.

A testing budget. We'd recommend at least $1,000 to start testing with. Affiliate Marketing (AM) requires money to buy traffic and test campaigns. You must be able to afford to lose at least this much,

If you can't afford that yet: Unfortunately, you'll need a decent budget to begin your AM career. If that's not possible right now, I'd recommend investigating other ways to make money for now and coming back to affiliate marketing at a later date.

If you start a post about getting a budget on STM, people will probably have some good ideas for alternate revenue streams you can use to develop a budget large enough to begin AM!


A graphics program. Photoshop is by far the best option here, but if you can't afford that, Paint.net or Pixlr are both excellent alternatives.

Don't have a graphics package? Pixlr will let you edit your banners right in your web browser. Alternatively, the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription is free for 30 days, and subsequently doesn't cost much, particularly if you're a student or just subscribe to a single package (like Photoshop).


Got all those bits and pieces? Let's get going!


10-27-2015 12:31 PM #2 caurmen (Administrator)

The Appetiser: Chopping And Peeling


The first thing we need to do for our very first campaign is to decide what offer we're going to test. An offer is the endpoint for our mobile campaign - the thing we're advertising.

This guide is written following along with "Mobogenie", which is an app install offer, but the process will work equally well with a sweepstake or a PIN submit offer, or indeed any other low-payout offer you can find!

1: Offer Selection

Look at your list of top offers on your network, and find the top offer on there with a payout below $1. The Payout is the amount that you are paid per visitor who signs up to the offer.

It might seem like higher-paid offers would be better, but actually if you're on a low budget you're better to use lower-payout offers.

Is the offer for the US? If so, pick the next top offer with a payout below $1 that isn't for the US. US-based campaigns are much harder to make profitable.

Finally, make sure that your offer is not a direct APK download - if it is, it'll say so in the offer description.

Example: if our top three offers are "Android Cleaner", in the US, with a $0.60 payout, "Win An iPad", in Germany with a $4.50 payout, and "Mobogenie", in Ireland with a $0.45 payout, you should choose "Mobogenie" as your offer!
TIP: If you can't find a good offer with a payout below $1, go for the next lowest payout that fits these criteria, and multiply all campaign budgets up by the payout of the offer you're choosing in dollars. So, if you choose a $1.5 payout offer, multiply all spends in this guide up by 1.5.


2: Research Your Offer

Visit your offer's landing page, and make sure that you know what it's actually offering!

If you can't get to the landing page, you may need to Google the name of the offer - sometimes it's hard to get to an offer if you aren't in the target country.

If the offer is in a language you don't read, Google Translate is your friend

If the offer is a mobile app (as it's likely to be), Google for some reviews of it, too, and make a note of what people say about it - good and bad.

Example: We've gone with "Mobogenie", so we go to its landing page: it's an app designed primarily to provide an alternative to the Google Play Store. Reading through some reviews, it seems that some people find it's easier to use than the Google Play Store, and some people like the range of additional apps it provides. On the downside, several reviewers have concerns about the apps from Mobogenie having viruses.

3: Brainstorm Your Angle

Now, sit down with a blank piece of paper or a text editor, and write down all the reasons you can think of that someone might want your offer.

Once you've done that, write down all the problems you can think of which installing / using your offer might solve, assuming it works as described.

Example: for Mobogenie, our first list includes:
  • Find great apps that aren't on the main Google Play store
  • Install apps with an easier interface than Google Play
  • Find apps related to specific interests, like movies or sports.



Our second list includes:
  • "Argh, I can't get this damn Play Store to work!"
  • "I want to try out some new apps on my phone - what's out there?"
  • "I've tried to find an app for movie recommendations, but all the ones on the Google Play Store are terrible - is there anywhere else I can get them?"
If you're having trouble or you're running dry on angles, visit Create At Least 21 New Angles For Any Offer In Under An Hour to get more angle ideas!


4: Choose Your Angle


Now, from all of those ideas (which we refer to as angles), pick one that appeals to you. There's no real science to this. Even experienced affiliates are wrong 90% of the time when they try to predict the best angle.

The key to success is not to get held up: pick one and move on to the next stage!

Example: From our list we choose the "Can't get Google Play to work for me" angle, mostly because we spent a good chunk of the afternoon on Skype helping a relative with their phone.That's as good a reason as any!


10-27-2015 12:31 PM #3 caurmen (Administrator)

The Appetiser: Starting The Cook!

1: Create Banners

Have a quick think about ideas for banners around your angle. Think about the designs you could use (plain text, flashing text, images, animation, Facebook-style, Google-style, game-like, app-like). Come up with a couple of short pieces of text enticing people to sign up for your offer.

Open up your graphics program, and make up eight banner images, 320 pixels wide by 50 pixels high, each one completely different.

Go wild here - experiment with colours, fonts, pictures, and so on. It really doesn't matter if they look "professional" - just make sure that



If you're not experienced with graphics, don't worry. Pro design skills are absolutely not necessary. Ugly and amateurish works.

Example: Here are three examples of banners for our "Mobogenie" campaign. The banner styles I'm using here are based on banners that I've run in profitable campaigns.







2: Create Your Campaign In Go2Mobi

Log into your Go2Mobi account, and click "New Ad" at the top right.



Now, you'll be presented with this screen:



Name this campaign something that will help you remember which offer and angle you're using.

Example: We call our campaign "Mobo Ireland"
For "Exchange", choose "Smaato". Exchanges are the "centers" for ad sales which Go2Mobi hooks into and allows you to access. Smaato is a good exchange to get started with, offering decent amounts of ad volume and a good balance of traffic types.

Now, Go2Mobi will ask you to choose the country for your campaign. Select the country your offer runs in, or the country you've chosen to run in if the offer runs in multiple countries. DO NOT run in more than one country at once!

Once you select your country, the main Campaign Creation screen will appear.


3 Get your affiliate link into Go2Mobi.

Go to your affiliate network, and copy the URL for your offer.

Most affiliate networks these days use a system called "Cake". If the offer section for your chosen offer brings up a window in the center of the screen that looks like the image below, you're on Cake. Copy the URL that the arrow's pointing to into a text editor.



Now, add your campaign name (no spaces) to the end of the URL, followed by (type this exactly)

&s2={clickid}
So your final URL should look like this:
http://f5mtrack.com/?a=234431&c=27233&s1=MoboPythonIreland&s2={clickid }
Copy that, and paste it into the "Destination URL" field on Go2Mobi.

Don't close your Go2Mobi New Ad Window yet! We have more to do.

If your affiliate network is using a different system than Cake, either refer to the STM Guide To Offer URLS or ask your affiliate manager how to find and prepare your offer URL.


3: Link Go2Mobi and your affiliate network.

Next, we need to link your affiliate network to Go2Mobi, so that when someone converts on your offer it registers on Go2Mobi's systems.

In your Go2Mobi campaign creation page, click "Conversion Tracking":



A pop-up screen will appear, with a grey box near the top containing a long, complicated URL. Copy ALL of the URL in the grey box to your clipboard.

Paste that URL into a text editor. Now, at the end of the URL, delete the bit that reads

Code:
&clickid={clickid}&payout={payout}
and replace it with this:

Code:
&clickid=#s2#&payout=#price#
Copy that URL to your clipboard.

On your affiliate network offer page (if it's using Cake), click "Testing and Tracking".

In the "Postback URL" field, paste the URL you just copied.

Now your "conversions" (visitors signing up for your offer) will automatically be tracked by Go2Mobi.

If your affiliate network uses another system than Cake, either refer to the STM Guide On Postbacks And Pixels or ask your affiliate manager for help.



4: Set Up Your Bidding

Just below the "Exchange" setting in Go2Mobi, at the top of the page:



You should end up with a setup like this:



Hit "Save".

Finally, change "Status" to "Active" at the bottom of this section. That ensures your campaign will go live as soon as it's approved.


5: Set Up Go2Mobi Targeting

If your offer is only for iPhone, Android or another phone, scroll down to "Device Type" and select the Operating System you want, then click "Add Whitelist" (this is usually the easiest way to target by phone type). Click "Save".

If your offer only accepts specific "carriers" (phone companies), scroll to "Carriers", select those carriers, and then click "Add Whitelist". Click "Save".


6: Add Your Banners

Scroll to "Creatives" and click "Add".

Select all your banners for this campaign, and click "Open".

Once they have all uploaded (which you'll see on the system), click "Save".



6: Start the campaign!

Now, wait for the emails saying your campaigns have been approved.

And congratulations - your first mobile affiliate campaigns are live. Now just let them simmer for a bit...


10-27-2015 12:31 PM #4 caurmen (Administrator)

The Appetiser: Simmering

Allow your campaign to reach a $20 spend (more or less - a few dollars over doesn't matter).

If you have not had ANY conversions, according to Go2Mobi, then:



If you can't find any errors in your campaign setup and neither Go2Mobi nor your affiliate network has not recorded any conversions, pause the campaign and go back to "Chopping And Peeling", above. Choose a new offer and create a new campaign.

Otherwise, now allow your campaign to reach $60 spend, which should take 2 days.

DO NOT mess with your campaign during this time. No matter how much you might be tempted to cut banners, add new ones, or do anything else with your campaigns, resist the urge until it has reached a $60 spend.



The Appetiser: Choosing Fresh Meat

Now, we'll optimise, create new banners, and push toward a super-profitable campaign.

The chances are you won't be profitable yet. Don't panic - that's perfectly normal. What we need to do now is figure out what's working and what isn't.

To start with, go to your Reporting tab in Go2Mobi (at the top), select "Last 7 days", select "name" and "image" under "Creative", select "CPC" and "eCPC" under "Columns", click "Refresh", and then click the "Drill" button next to the name of your campaign.



1: Making The Cut

You'll see a list of your creatives - your banners.

Make a note of any banners that have a CPC higher than 30% of your payout. Also, make a note of any banners that have an eCPC of less than half of their CPC.

If ALL your banners have a CPC higher than 20% of your payout or an eCPC of less than half their CPC, go to Step 2, note down "No Outstanding Banners" and don't pause any banners for now.

Otherwise, now click "Edit" by any of the banners. You'll see a list of your active banners. Under "Status", change the banners you noted down from "Active" to "Paused".

2: Placements

Unselect "Name" and "Image" under "Creative" at the top, and select "Name" under "Placement". Click "Refresh".

Click "Cost" to sort by cost. Now go through and click the "Thumbs Down" button to blacklist any placement that has spent more than 4x the offer payout and hasn't had a conversion.

Note down how many placements you blacklist.

3: Carry On Or Cut?

Now we need to decide if the campaign is promising enough to carry on with.

If the campaign has not made at last -80% ROI (in other words, has not had enough conversions to make back at least $12), pause it, go back to Chopping And Peeling, and choose another angle, unless you have already tried 2 angles with this offer. In that case, choose another offer. With an ROI that low it's very unlikely we'll be able to optimise into profit.

If you noted down "No Outstanding Banners" in Step 1, and the campaign did not make at least -70% ROI (in other words, did not make at least $18), pause it, go back to Chopping And Peeling, and choose another angle, unless you have already tried 2 angles with this offer. In that case, choose another offer. The fact that all the banners performed very poorly means it's much more likely to be the angle or the offer that's not working.

If you noted down "No Outstanding Banners" in Step 1, you did not blacklist at least 2 placements in Step 2, and the campaign did not make at least -60% ROI (in other words, did not make at least $24), pause it, go back to Chopping And Peeling, and choose another angle, unless you have already tried 2 angles with this offer. In that case, choose another offer. If performance is poor evenly across all placements, rather than being [b]terrible{/b] on a couple of placements, this implies that our "leak" is the angle or the offer, not the placements or the banner.

Otherwise, create new banners and add them to the campaign until you have 8 banners running again.


The Appetiser: Roast And Repeat

If you haven't paused your campaign, allow it another $60 spend. Meanwhile, start another campaign from "Chopping And Peeling", above.

Once the next $60 spend has passed, select the days when you have been running the second $60 spend, and check banners and placements again as above, blacklisting or pausing as before. Also, now make a note of any placement that is profitable, and pause any placement that has had over 8x the offer payout and isn't profitable.

Then, check OSes if your campaign allows more than one OS. Blacklist any OS where the CPC is more than twice the eCPC over the second $60 spend. Check carriers, and do the same thing: blacklist any carrier where the CPC is more than twice the eCPC over the second $60 spend.

If you blacklist ALL carriers or OSes at this point, pause the campaign. It's unlikely we'll be able to optimise it into profit. Go back to Chopping And Peeling, above, and choose a new angle, or a new offer if you have already tried 2 angles with this offer.

Otherwise, create new banners and add them to the campaign until you have 8 banners running again.



IF YOU'D LIKE TO TRY SOMETHING MORE ADVANCED: If you have placements that are profitable, but not banners that are profitable overall, start a new campaign with just those placements, your current banners and the same OS/carrier blacklist you're currently using. Pause the placements in your first campaign. Treat this as a new campaign, and test new banners and experiment with bids to maximise your profit. This is called running a "Whitelist" campaign. From here on, you should just keep running your initial campaign, and transferring profitable placements over to the new campaign, whilst pausing unprofitable ones.

OTHERWISE: Now, allow the campaign another $30 spend, and then check banners and placements again. If you don't have any banners or placements that are profitable overall during the time that the campaign spends this $30, pause the campaign, go back to Chopping And Peeling, and choose a new angle, or a new offer if you have already tried 2 angles with this offer. Otherwise, create new banners and add them to the campaign until you have 8 banners running again.

Allow the campaign another $30 spend, then cut placements and banners again, pausing any banner that isn't profitable over the last $30 spend. If you have no banners unpaused after this, pause the campaign - we've given it a good try, and the odds are strong now that it's either the offer or the angle that isn't working. Go back to Chopping And Peeling, and choose a new angle, or a new offer if you have already tried 2 angles with this offer.

If your campaign has paused by now, don't worry! It usually takes a lot of testing to find a successful campaign - it's not unusual to launch 30 or more campaigns before finding one that's seriously profitable.

If you have launched enough campaigns with the Appetiser that you're feeling very confident with this method, it's time to move up to the Main Course. Go to The Main Course - Part 1 and start using that method instead. It's more complex but will give you a lot more tools.

Otherwise, if you haven't paused the campaign by now - congratulations, you have a profitable campaign! Move on to the next step.



The Appetiser: Serve Hot

If your campaign is now profitable, increase the campaign's daily spend each day in accordance with your available budget. Don't spend enough that if the campaign suddenly stops working you'll run out of money, but aim to steadily increase the volume on the campaign.

Continue to add a couple of new banners every day, and pause them after spending 5x the offer payout if they don't achieve better ROI than your existing banners. If they do, pause the banner in your campaign with the lowest instead.

At this point, you should also talk to your Affiliate Manager and ask about more frequent payment terms and pay bumps for your offers.

Continue launching new angles, but make most of them angles for the offer that you have which is working. If it is available in other countries, launch your working angle as a campaign in those countries too.

Congrats - you're now a successful affiliate marketer!

And that's it! Any questions, comments or suggestions? Post 'em below!


10-27-2015 03:13 PM #5 HenryW (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by caurmen View Post

An account with an affiliate network.

There are dozens of great affiliate networks out there. Here's a list of contacts for networks on STM. Note that if you're signed up with a network that does mostly cash-per-sale offers, like Commission Junction or ShareASale, you'll need to sign up with another, more mobile and CPA-focused network to get the best chance.

If you don't have one: Sign up for F5 Media. It was founded by the same people who founded STM, and they take STM membership as a very good sign on an application! There are also many other great networks out there if you prefer to use one of them - the key steps won't change.

If you do sign up for F5 Media, you'll have to complete an email application form, and there may be a couple of days' wait. Take that time to make sure you fully understand the rest of this tutorial, get your Go2Mobi account live and funded, and so on. Do make sure to complete the email application thoroughly, as well - whilst F5 is connected to STM, you do still have to apply and prove you're serious!
If you're signing up to F5 Media like Caurmen suggested, include "Go2Mobi Appetizer" in your referral notes so we can get you set up and on your way in your Appetizer journey!

Good luck all!


10-27-2015 03:17 PM #6 JayZinQ (Member)

Another top notch Guide!
Let's do this y'all!


10-27-2015 04:01 PM #7 accelerator_dd (Member)

@HenryF5 - Just added you on skype. Got my Go2Mobi account approved and my application was sent for F5 a few days ago. Can't wait to get started!


10-27-2015 05:13 PM #8 hokkienmee (Member)

Alrite ... great timing! I have also sent my application for f5 a few days ago. And also submited my 1st campaign to go2mobi still awaiting approval. Just in time to use this guide.


10-27-2015 06:07 PM #9 markohf (Member)

Quick question, does it really matter if I use an email-submit, app download or a PIN Submit? Since I want to use my CPA network which doesn't have a lot of app installs. And most of the offers are $1 payout PIN Submits for countries like Brazil.


10-27-2015 06:48 PM #10 caurmen (Administrator)

@markof - PIN submits are absolutely fine and this guide was written with them in mind, as well as sweeps and app installs.

I'd recommend avoiding email submits, not because they won't work with this methodology - they will - but because generally they're pretty crappy offers and they mostly scrub pretty hard.

@hokkienmee - Fantastic! Start a Follow-Along if you haven't already!


10-27-2015 08:22 PM #11 roryltm (AMC Alumnus)

@caurmen - Thank you! I've been trying (on and off) to run mobile campaigns with G2M and the previous Appetiser. Obviously there isn't a major delta between the two, but this is super helpful. Gonna have an offer in a couple hours, hopefully with a follow along.


10-27-2015 08:33 PM #12 HenryW (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by hokkienmee View Post
Alrite ... great timing! I have also sent my application for f5 a few days ago. And also submited my 1st campaign to go2mobi still awaiting approval. Just in time to use this guide.
Just added you in skype bud


10-27-2015 09:11 PM #13 whtang (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by caurmen View Post
@markof - PIN submits are absolutely fine and this guide was written with them in mind, as well as sweeps and app installs.

I'd recommend avoiding email submits, not because they won't work with this methodology - they will - but because generally they're pretty crappy offers and they mostly scrub pretty hard.

@hokkienmee - Fantastic! Start a Follow-Along if you haven't already!
Awesome guide. thank you @Caurmen :-)

The only difference i can see compared with the other Appetiser guide is the traffic source. Can you tell me why sweeptakes "doesnt" works on Decisive and works for Go2Mobi?


10-28-2015 03:09 AM #14 wooncc (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by HenryF5 View Post
If you're signing up to F5 Media like Caurmen suggested, include "Go2Mobi Appetizer" in your referral notes so we can get you set up and on your way in your Appetizer journey!

Good luck all!
Just submitted my application to F5 as well, can't wait to get started with the journey! Hopefully got accepted into F5
Thanks!

William


10-28-2015 06:02 AM #15 multicore creative (Member)

petamax, thanks


10-28-2015 11:14 AM #16 caurmen (Administrator)

@whtang - Sweeps can work on Decisive too. The Decisive guide is older and was written when app installs were the big thing, hence focusing on them.

However, you should be aware that Decisive's publishers are currently becoming quite restrictive about what offers they allow - so you may find problems with running sweeps just because a lot of placements won't allow them.


10-28-2015 08:17 PM #17 MobioInc (Member)

@caurmen thanks for this!

Can you clarify this part please? I can't understand here which banners should we cut and why.

1: Making The Cut

Make a note of any banners that have a CPC higher than 30% of your payout. Also, make a note of any banners that have an eCPC of less than half of their CPC.
What do you mean note these banners? Should we pause them because it's unlikely they will convert with positive ROI?

If ALL your banners have a CPC higher than 20% of your payout or an eCPC of less than half their CPC, go to Step 2, note down "No Outstanding Banners" and don't pause any banners for now.
Is everything correct here? As i understand "no outstanding" banners means we can't decide if they are bad to stop them.

Otherwise, now click "Edit" by any of the banners. You'll see a list of your active banners. Under "Status", change them from "Active" to "Paused".
And which banners should we pause?


10-28-2015 09:04 PM #18 whtang (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by caurmen View Post
@whtang - Sweeps can work on Decisive too. The Decisive guide is older and was written when app installs were the big thing, hence focusing on them.

However, you should be aware that Decisive's publishers are currently becoming quite restrictive about what offers they allow - so you may find problems with running sweeps just because a lot of placements won't allow them.
Thank you for the explanation.


10-28-2015 09:18 PM #19 Go2mobi (Member)

This is a great guide! Caurmen hit the nail on the head as far as settings recommendations, and the overall process makes a ton of sense in my mind.

I would be happy to field any questions about the Go2mobi platform


10-28-2015 09:39 PM #20 accelerator_dd (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by Go2mobi View Post
This is a great guide! Caurmen hit the nail on the head as far as settings recommendations, and the overall process makes a ton of sense in my mind.

I would be happy to field any questions about the Go2mobi platform
I'll go first then. I am just starting out and setting up my first campaigns with Go2Mobi as a traffic source. On the subject of "Exchanges", I've been searching around trying to see how they differ from one another, which one works best for what type of offers, but so far I haven't found anything helpful. Can you explain that briefly or give us some links to read up ?


10-28-2015 11:05 PM #21 vision (AMC Alumnus)

Quote Originally Posted by accelerator_dd View Post
On the subject of "Exchanges", I've been searching around trying to see how they differ from one another, which one works best for what type of offers, but so far I haven't found anything helpful. Can you explain that briefly or give us some links to read up ?
Wondering what exchange to use for your mobile advertising campaign?


10-28-2015 11:25 PM #22 lanikai87 (Member)

Has anyone made money following this sort of guide? and specifically on Go2Mobi or Decisive?


10-29-2015 12:16 AM #23 webdev (Member)

If your going to ask for
1) screen shot for the offer for every targeted device,
2) screenshot of landing pages on every device
3) affiliate links and how it appears on every device...

Why not just have a section on the campaign set-up where you can attach all this?


10-29-2015 12:53 AM #24 Go2mobi (Member)

Great feedback webdev. In our experience this applies to only about 5% of all campaigns, so making this a necessary step will just complicate the process for the vast majority of campaigns.

That being said, if you're confident that we will have issues rendering your campaigns, feel free to attach links to the assets you mentioned above in the notes section. Obviously not as easy as an upload on our platform, but using a service like Awesome Screenshot or another image hosting service and providing a link will serve the same purpose.


10-29-2015 12:56 AM #25 intergmediagreg (Member)

good stuff!


10-29-2015 01:27 AM #26 webdev (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by Go2mobi View Post
Great feedback webdev. In our experience this applies to only about 5% of all campaigns,
I seem to fit in the 5% way more than I like too


10-29-2015 03:46 AM #27 Go2mobi (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by webdev View Post
I seem to fit in the 5% way more than I like too
Totally understand. It's gotta be frustrating, we really do our best to approve campaigns even if we're having trouble rendering them. Honestly, a big part of why we ask for this information is just making sure advertisers don't waste spend running traffic to a dead offer. You'd be surprised how often our advertisers are thankful for the rejection because they made a mistake setting up their campaign/offer URL. We're just trying to help, I swear


10-29-2015 12:43 PM #28 caurmen (Administrator)

@lanikai87 - yes, quite a few STM members have reported in the past that they saw their first affiliate success following the Mobile Cookbook.

@MobioInc - Yes, we're noting those banners because they're unlikely to produce a profit even after optimising other areas. If some of your banners are like this but some aren't, then you should pause those banners. (I've updated the text you mention to make it clearer - thanks!). However, if ALL our banners are in the "unlikely to make profit" category, then it implies there's a problem elsewhere, with the offer, the angle or the placements. Hope that clears things up!


10-29-2015 08:42 PM #29 davizzle (Member)

Thank you so much Caurmen!
I've been reading through the Onboarding and Getting Started Guide and am going to be jumping into and focusing on Pin Sumits so this guide couldn't have come at a better time!
Just sent in my application for F5 and have an account with Go2Mobi. Looking forward to getting started


05-24-2017 12:30 PM #30 elem99 (Member)

Thank you for writing this Appetiser! Just started mn my first campaign, and I've had one one conversion after $30 spend. Does that one conversion prove that my affiliate network is working? Or should I be concerned that the affiliate network is not properly set up?


05-25-2017 03:11 AM #31 elem99 (Member)

Thank you for this guide. Can you help clarify one section please? It's not entirely clear to a complete newbie.

“Make a note of any banners that have a CPC higher than 30% of your payout. Also, make a note of any banners that have an eCPC of less than half of their CPC.”——> All of them. Makes sense so far.


If ALL your banners have a CPC higher than 20% of your payout or an eCPC of less than half their CPC, go to Step 2, note down "No Outstanding Banners" and don't pause any banners for now.
——> But shouldn't these banners be paused because they're non-performing?


Otherwise, now click "Edit" by any of the banners. You'll see a list of your active banners. Under "Status", change the banners you noted down from "Active" to "Paused".
——> Since all were noted due to non-performance, should the banners be moved to paused?
Thank you for your great guide. Even though my banners are completely failing, this guide makes it clear to get back up, study, approach again and stay the course. Appreciate you sharing this.


05-25-2017 09:41 AM #32 caurmen (Administrator)

@elem99 - If you're in a situation where all your banners are underperforming, the chances are the problem isn't your banners. So in that case we don't touch the banners, and instead look for other causes: placements or just a bad angle/offer.

Does that make sense?


05-25-2017 05:49 PM #33 gmfdirector (Member)

Just to clarify; this method doesn't require a pre lander? Just banners? So the flow would be banner -> offer page?


05-25-2017 07:23 PM #34 caurmen (Administrator)

Yup, that's correct.


05-26-2017 04:43 AM #35 elem99 (Member)

Hi Caurmen, I think so. Here is the background...I received one conversion on a sweepstakes offer after a $60 spend was completed. So because I only received one conversion, all the placements were pretty much bad also.

For my second campaign, I was planning on designing all new banners with a different angle, but it sounds like that might not be the best approach. Would you recommend that I use the same banners (graphically) and just switch out the angle? Thank you for all your help so far...the guide has been fun to work through.


05-26-2017 11:16 AM #36 caurmen (Administrator)

You may as well design new banners. It's a good thing to get practise at and the new angle will work equally well either way.

Just be sure to monitor the CTRs on the banners and see if your new designs get higher or lower CTRs - worth knowing that info.

Sounds, to be honest, like the issue was the offer. That's frequently the case. Test a second angle, and if that doesn't work, move straight on to another offer!


05-26-2017 05:32 PM #37 elem99 (Member)

Thank you - I'll follow your advice!


09-12-2017 12:58 AM #38 daydreamer (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by caurmen View Post
The Appetiser: Starting The Cook!

1: Create Banners

Have a quick think about ideas for banners around your angle. Think about the designs you could use (plain text, flashing text, images, animation, Facebook-style, Google-style, game-like, app-like). Come up with a couple of short pieces of text enticing people to sign up for your offer.

Greetings Caurmen!

Thanks for the great post! It is very informative but I do have some questions since this is all new to me since I just started learning affiliate marketing.

I notice the networks I am currently with (Mobidea, CPALead and Adwork Media) all have banners and landing sites with the offer. From your post above, why wouldn't I just use the ones they provide? Are those just examples or is it because everybody uses those?

Thanks for the help!


09-12-2017 06:21 AM #39 daydreamer (Member)

Greetings Caurmen!

I also notice a lot of people suggest using Voluum as well for proper tracking. How does that fit in with your cookbook so far? Does Go2Mobi track it the same way?

I am also confused on inputting the offer URL into Go2Mobi from CPALead. It appears CPALead uses its own In-house proprietary platform and not Cake. How would the final URL look if this is the offer URL I get from CPALead, "http://movfe.com/srv.html?id=1604363&pub=791404" ?

Thanks again for your help!!

-DK


09-12-2017 09:58 AM #40 caurmen (Administrator)

@daydreamer - First off, in 2017 I'd recommend going for pops rather than mobile display. It's just easier to get it working these days. Look at Vortex's Pop guides to get some ideas on how to do that.

Default banners: they don't convert. They're generally offered as examples, and won't give you the performance you need. There might be a single offer on a single network out there where the provided banners actually work OK, but I've never seen it

Voluum: the Appetiser is specifically written to not require you to use an external tracker. That simplifies the learning curve and reduces your initial costs. However, if you want to start off running Voluum too, there's no harm in that, and it'll be good practise!

Go2Mobi tracks all the data you'll need for the Appetiser approach, though, so you don't need Voluum or any other tracker if you're following this guide.

CPALead Offer Formats: you'll need to know the "tokens" that they use in order to track your offer performance. Specifically, you need to know how you should modify the URL so that you can track the click ID of each click. Look in their documentation online or ask your AM about integrating their service with a tracker - if you post their response here we should be able to help you out!

Hope that helps!


09-13-2017 05:21 AM #41 daydreamer (Member)

Hi Caurmen,

Since I have made some progress following your instructions, I would like to launch a mobile offer and then I plan to learn some Pops with Vortex.

Would it be ideal to use both Voluum and Go2Mobi since I already signed up with Voluum? I am CPALeads to reply back with a response before I can move forward.

Looking thru some of the Networks, I notice a lot of the mobile offers are Pin or Sweepstakes and hardly any app installs (does that just vary depending on the network?). How would you approach an angle with a sweepstakes since there are no reviews and benefits like an app would?

Thanks for all of your help!!


09-13-2017 10:44 AM #42 caurmen (Administrator)

First tip: start a Follow-Along Campaign! You'll get lots of good, specific advice that way.

I'd avoid app installs at the moment anyway - sweeps or PIN submits are both good choices to start with.

Since you have a Voluum sub, you can definitely integrate that into the campaign - obviously you'll have to figure out some of the linking steps yourself rather than just following the tutorial, but there's lots of Voluum tutorials on STM to help you!

Good luck, and looking forward to hearing how you get on!


10-09-2017 06:59 PM #43 umairikr (Member)

@caurmen- I was rejected to the smaato exchange on the Go2mobi campaign setup. Do you recommend I try another exchange?


10-10-2017 10:30 AM #44 caurmen (Administrator)

@umairikr - Honestly I'd recommend starting with a different traffic source these days if you're new to AM. Pops are good.

But if you want to try display to learn the ropes, ask why you were rejected. You should be able to modify your banners or pick a different offer to get through the process.


10-10-2017 10:20 PM #45 umairikr (Member)

Go2mobi only does display? Does the cookbook only cover display? How can I get started with pop?


10-11-2017 10:01 AM #46 caurmen (Administrator)

This cookbook only covers display, yep.

Here's one of Vortex's great tutorials on pop traffic: https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...oluum-Version)


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