Native Ads - Q&A (22)
Hey guys and girls,
my plan before going to AWA was to run sweeps on pops, but while there often the topic of conversation/speeches was native ads. Right now I'm undecided about which to go for. Sweeps on pops seems easier to get into because of more detailed posts and lower payouts. Native seems like something that is more longterm. I did some research on native and couldn't find much information, so I still have some questions with my own answer I got from talking to people and researching. Maybe this can also help someone else.
Feel free to correct me where I'm wrong.
1. What are the verticals working on native?
This is what I found:
Health (ebooks, pills, oils, vitamins, muscle programs)
Dating (ebooks, courses)
Software (security)
Products (gadgets, keyboards, etc)
Some gaming
I guess other offers like nutra, gambling and such are being cloaked.
2. What are the common traffic sources?
What I found: Outbrain, Taboola, RevContent, Content.ad, Go2Mobi, Gemini, mgid, AdBlade, Adyoulike
3. What is a good starting budget for native?
As far as I know, for stuff like sweeps, app installs, pin submits it is around 1.000 to 5.000 USD. Is it the same for native?
4. What are the usual payouts?
I'm guessing 10~50 USD.
5. What are the common places to get offers from?
I think mostly Clickbank, don't know if offers from normal affiliate networks (Adsimilis, Advidi, Clickdealer, etc) are suited for native.
6. What's is the common flow?
I see mostly the banner+headline on a website (i.e. ViralNova), that goes through to an advertorial (fake article/blog) and then to the offer, sometimes direct linked.
7. How is tracking done? Can you still track with
8. And spying? Just go to the websites like ViralNova? Or use tools like AdPlexity?
Found NativeAdBuzz, AdBeat, AdVault, BuzzSumo
9. And lastly: Is this a good starting point? Or rather stick to app installs, pins, sweeps?
These threads were also good to read:
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...raffic-Sources
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...ve-Advertising
Go with pops and stick with low payout offers until you're comfortable with the whole process. Adplexity for spying.
^Best advice you can get. Most of your questions will answer themselves when you start running.
Thanks for the honest feedback, I appreciate it!
Originally Posted by skeatatu
Everybody gets an advice on doing pops with low payout offers. Every newbie here.
All these people go and compete with each other on pop traffic sources running the same ripped landers off spying tools.
Meanwhile in the native ad land... $$$
The best advice you will not get is: do what everybody else is doing and get what everybody else is getting (e.g. most affiliates do not make any money).
Native ads are great if you're not doing what everyone else is doing.. Think outside the box and have an offer that isn't being ran by 30 others.. and you can make $. Otherwise it's just a bidding war to the bottom.
If you want to make quick & easy money, go find a killer ClickBank offer and direct link on RevContent. A lander would obviously increase conversions, depending on how good the copy is. My 2 cents.
Originally Posted by egorpe
Running low payout offers on cheap traffic sources is a cheaper way to learning the fundamentals for someone who's still figuring out tracking.
Originally Posted by thuglife
Originally Posted by egorpe
as far as i see it you will have to pay what i called "Education Tax" on any method that is new to you even on pop , display and native.
some of the methods cost less thus the tax will be low however the more you "fail" the more you learn what not to do.
the best thing is understand how much are you able to "invest" in learning, once you decide you must be 120% into this so you can make sure at the "end" you learn as much as possible.
talking specifically about native ads - a lot of affiliates are starting to talk about this (STM and other affiliates) and work with this, so for anyone who is looking to get into the native ads promotion the time is now!!!
lol. the posts/replies made me laugh. the hard truth is people banking on sweeps with pops will tell you go native & diet. whilst people banking on native & diet will tell you go sweeps with pops. nobody wants more competition driving up traffic prices and in turn lowering their own ROI.
@thread starter: they all have vested interests in the question you're asking. try asking some other skills-based question and not a question based on personal preferences. this way you wont go wrong with the answers. any vertical/niche you go into will be a different learning curve. pick something you'd like and stick with it, theres no surefire way of making success except determination and hard work (and intelligence). any route you choose, you'll 100% make losses at the start.
the payout of offers should play a part in your decision but definitely not the most important factor. if you're starting with only 500$ budget i'll tell you not to start at all. not even sweeps. with that amount of budget you'll mostly blow it all and give up. you'll have problems with scaling even if you manage to breakeven because you'll have to wait for payouts. you'll have cashflow issues. if you're starting out with 5,000$ or more, it doesnt really matter which niche you go to. work with something that you like/prefer so you'll be happy working with it.
Some good points in the replies, some not so good IMO either 
First of all, the truth is, you can make money with any traffic type and pretty much any vertical. Of course, some offers work better with certain traffic type or vice versa, for example adult traffic works well with adult dating. But generally speaking, its not like you can run sweeps only on pops and it wont work with banner traffic. So its more about picking what suits you, whatever reasons you might have for it.
Low payout offers and pops being recomended to newbies : can you think of an easier setup to get running faster? I dont. I remember one thing very well, when I was starting out with paid traffic, I simply didnt understand the details until I started running for real. A huge part of this biz is the enormous amount of stress that comes with the fact of burning money, especially at night when you are sleeping. This is something every new affiliate needs to get a taste of, to decide whether they actually want to go on with it or not. The sooner they learn the lesson, the better. A day of running paid traffic gave me more than days of reading, the stuff finally started to make sense. Tracking, understanding the data, changing stuff on the fly ... you only learn this while running traffic. To get started with pops and some low paying sweeps offer only takes to get registered at a traffic network and one affiliate network. This can be achieved within a few hours sometimes and you are ready to go. No need for any creatives, its possible to run without LPs too... perfect setup for a fast start. Will they loose money on it? Of course they will, just like anybody who starts with this business, thats how it works. The fundamentals that they will learn here are transferable to any type of promotion, its simply the same everywhere, so it doesnt really matter where they get the first lesson.
Sending people away from the vertical that I bank on : I agree some might do it, who needs more competition, right? But there are situations where it doesnt really matter and with the amount of spy tools these days, you cannot really hide. I run a lot of adult traffic, banking on dating for quite some time already and I have no problem to tell you so. Heck, start a follow along and I will even give you tips, just like I do it for quite some time. Of course I will not tell you what GEOs I run in, I will not show you my creatives or tell you what network to buy traffic at. Im not afraid of competition tho, my payouts are bumped so even if someone steals my funnel, they wont be able to outbid me. Not unless they are willing to run with a loss for quite some time and thats not something newbies can afford. So I wouldnt generalize the intentions like this.
I have to agree with the starting budget limits, it's really hard to start with something like $500. Im sure some people can do it but its very hard. The pressure goes up very fast when the budget comes to its end and one tends to act stupid when thats the case, rationality goes to shit once the $0 comes close The best situation is to have some budget and a backup income source for a few months, from a part time job or whatever.
One way or another, every affiliate has to find his/hers own way and learn to read between the lines of stuff posted on forums. There are people whos advice you should listen to, there are also people who post nonsense, even tho they might believe in what they say. Also keep in mind that what works for one person, doesnt really have to be an universal method. Its like this in any business, online or offline.
Good luck
The only truth you'll ever find in this business is by testing and analyzing the data properly.
If you have a question, follow the scientific method and you'll find a much more
Truthful answer than you'll ever get out of an affiliate.
Further more, test as cheaply as possible. Pick an offer in a tier 3 geo and test it on sweeps and pops. Let the data decide where to focus your efforts.
maybe my statement above seemed to have generalized the intentions of some of the replies above. i wouldnt accuse those who replied of ulterior intentions, however it is undeniable that theres the possibility of vested interests.
nevertheless, as I did agree that payout of offers should matter, i'd put it down to this. if you're looking to get your hands wet as quickly as possible and see some conversions to keep the belief that affiliate marketing works for you then you might want to go with low payout offers. however if you're someone who already have that belief and self-confidence that you'll definitely make it work, go with any niche that you deem fit. just make sure you're ready to burn some money either way.
Originally Posted by 1vansyl
Originally Posted by 1vansyl
Originally Posted by skeatatu
I would jump on mobile. It's by far the easiest source to learn due to the sheer amount of data you get and the lower payout offers. Don't expect it to make you rich doing what everyone else is doing but once you're in there for a few months you can transition into sources once you've developed confidence and proved to yourself you know what you're doing. Practice hitting singles before you swing for the fences.
Any recommendations for Native ad exchanges? I've been running mobile Native on Mopub and I would like to test display next. Thanks!
Originally Posted by affiliaxeguy
When somebody would ask me for advice, I would advice only the best. The reason for that is reputation.
It is obvious that many things simply don't work (99%) as they promise. Why would anybody have to pay "Education Tax" on something that you already know that it won't work? This is definitely not the way I would run a business
It is of course different if you like that people fail and you make even more money on that.
Don't get me wrong here, I have no problem in paying "Education Tax" for what does work!
Just my2cents.
Originally Posted by attilafxx
Will it work for everybody? Of course not.
Will you learn the tracking, basic optimization and all the fundamentals with pops/cheap offers? Of course you will and it will be cheaper than it would be with many other verticals. So lower "eduction tax"
Maybe 80% of people who try affiliate markleting will give up before they see their first profits. So by giving advice to new marketers I have 80% certainty that they will fail, does that mean I shouldnt do that at all?
There is so much relativity in this biz, you cannot make judgements that easily.
You definitely want to be tracking at the publisher level, most of the algorithms for these networks are optimizing for the publisher CPM.
Here is a chart that shows the value to pass in your tracking for each network:
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