Home > Mobile > Follow-along Campaigns

---

Get a mobile master or die trying (15)

---

Hi guys,
I would like to start this thread to keep a journal of my progress and to receive inputs from the big guys.

The title is a serious statement, because AM is the what I decided to focus on to change my life. Success is my reason of life. I started to make money online in 2006 with adsense, then with domain names, and building and selling websites. I also built companies that failed.
I made money but ridiculous amounts compared at what I would have done if I had focused on "one thing". Yes, my big defect was to go from one idea (profitable) to another because I though there was something better to make money.

A month ago I was building my umpteenth website, a viral blog for facebook-adsense-native aribtrage, but one evening, while looking for interesting blogs, a post opened my eyes. How stupid I am, AM has been under my nose for years, and I never studied it in deep it. I made some money with AM on my websites, but not with paid traffic.

After ten years I've finally found something to focus 100% on, 17 hours a day, no pause.

On march 26 my knowledge on mobile AM was close to zero, and after I signed up to STM I started to devour everything on mobile.

Since my budget is 4.000-5.000 €, I see that the best choice is low payout sweeps on mobile pops, but I may consider app installs too. My first target is 100 $ a day profit within september.

After reading and reading, this week I started to take some action, just to learn the tools.

- Bought HMA VPN for one year.
- Voluum
- Learning spy tools and technics
- Uploaded some landings on amazon services just to learn how it works.

My current networks are addiliate, peerfly and avazu.

Today I setted up popads-voluum-YTZ, just to learn Voluum and to see if there is something profitable on some GEO on YTZ. Spent 40 $ but I'm very happy to collect some data and to learn voluum.

In the next days I'll study a plan to launch my first campaign on a 2-3th country. I'll spy and reverse engineer to discover good campaigns.

I'll do everything to succeed, even selling my scooter, car, whatever to rebuild budget, but I'll do my best to not reach that situation.

---

Nice start so far! For YTZ, I would recommend launching a multi-geo camp on zeropark and targeting all geos, then cutting unprofitable geos and continuing to run profitable geos, and also setting up new camps to only target each of the profitable geos separately. There are some good threads on this topic - if you're interested please let me know and I'll find them for you.

Monetizer.co is also a very good monetizing service, similar to how YTZ works. So feel free to give that a try too if you're planning on continuing to run rotational networks on pop.

Starting with tier 2/3 geos, promoting low payout offers on mobile pop is a good plan. That way you'll collect data faster which will allow you to learn how to optimize a campaign in a shorter time. So great plan!

Looking forward to seeing you progress over the coming weeks/months.



Amy

---

Hi Amy, it's nice to see your answer, I've been reading your posts for weeks and weeks, thank you. (can you please correct dy-die in the title?)

Regarding YTZ, I suspect you are referring to thedudeabides and jennatalia's threads, which I've read two times. They're making arbitrage, instead I would like to find profitable GEOs and offers. and then retroengineering. Since my budget is in the 4.000-5.000 range I'm focusing on methods which can help me to reduce the initial risks as much as possibile. I'm also studying how to use anti-bots scripts and so on...

My focus is still on pops and sweeps but after I started the thread I've read some discussions and blog posts telling that RON and pops are "budgets burning", since there is not targeting and you have to test a lot. I trust the top guys here, and if they say that pop and sweeps are a good start, then I'll go for it.

Before I start my next campaign I want to be sure that my budget is enough with this vertical and traffic.

I know that I must lose money to collect data, and that's ok for me, but I'm asking myself how much, plus or minus, I have to spend before going breakeven, at least.

ps. I've read many times that zeropark is not so good for sweeps

---

I edited the title for you

Im not going into much detail since Amy is already taking care of you, but let me explain one thing.

The setup with YTZ that thedudeabides and jennatalia were using is NOT arbitrage. YTZ still pays you based on conversions that your traffic makes, maybe they have some CPM deals in place too, but its usually actual conversions. Pure arbitrage is when you just buy some traffic and basically send it to another traffic network or some buyer with a profit that is based on per hit $ and not on covnersions. YTZ is more like a CPA network that works with blind untargeted traffic, so they show the highest converting offers they have to traffic with matching demo or other factors they can identify. Even with YTZ, you can still see that some offers are working better so you can tailor the ads/LPs to match it better. Your basic focus would be to drive as much traffic to them as possible - so high CTR banners and LPs.

---

thank you Matuloo, it's all clear now. I'm sure there are guys that are doing well with YTZ or redirect.com, but can't find much information. Anyway I'm just testing with YTZ to spot opportunities and not to make consistent returns

---

YTZ, redirect.com and other monetization platforms like these are the best for people who have access to cheap unsorted bulk traffic. In other words, people who can move around HUGE amounts of traffic and dont have the time to optimize every bit of it

Of course you can make it work if you manage to find the right traffic for it at the right price

---

Haha buddy you have more experience in AM than I do and you know it! Don't be shy just because I've already provided suggestions - the more the merrier!


Haha those are EXACTLY the 2 threads I was going to suggest!

And yes your approach would be better, i.e. using Monetizer.co's stats as a research tool.

I would start by checking vertical+geos that have the highest revenue in Monetizer, generating links for those vertical+geos, and browsing to them using a VPN to see what kinds of offers are running. You don't necessarily need to find those exact offers on aff networks and run them - you can find similar offers and test those because you know the type of offer is doing well for that geo. (Actual example: Iphone 6s offers in TH.)

Another way: Take that vertical+geo link and run traffic to it. After you get some conversions, go into Monetizer's stats to see which offer is doing the highest revenue and/or eCPM. Generate a Monetizer link for JUST that offer, browse to it using a VPN to see which offer it is, and then look for that offer and/or similar offers to run on the same traffic source.


Those blog posts are right: There's a lot of fake traffic in pop. But people are still profiting from it, and for newbies, pop traffic is the best way to learn how to optimize a campaign because it only involves traffic and lander, no banners.

As you can see from Monetizer's stats, "raffle" or sweeps is doing very well for a number of geos. I've even started testing sweeps offers again myself - have been running other verticals before now.


Unfortunately there's no telling when you're find your first profitable campaign. But I'd say that joining STM and starting a follow-along are the best things you can do to shorten the learning curve so...so far so good!


I did run sweeps there before, but don't remember how the conversion rates compared with other networks. If you're concerned, then don't do your initial testing there. Once you have a profitable camp you can always scale there to see if you get the same performance. Also, the geo you're targeting will matter too.


Lastly: Since you're on a budget, I have 2 additional suggestions for you:

1)Avoid competitive geos. This mean US/CA/AU/UK etc. - basically first-world countries. Competition is fierce. Try Asian, African and LATAM geos. TH/VN/ID/MY/SG etc.

2)Avoid high-payout offers. They won't necessarily make more money than low-payout offers. It all depends on the conversion rates of the particular offer. For discussions on why low-payout offers are better for limited budgets, please see the section "Won't higher-payout offers make me more money than lower-payout offers? Should I avoid low-payout offers?" in this thread:

http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...-AM-FAQ-Thread!


And don't let fear paralyze you into not taking action. Just start testing and documenting every step of the way, and we'll do our best to help.



Amy

---

You could use YTZ to get an idea of bids and responsiveness of geos on traffic sources. Be careful though, some networks, Exoclick for example have become very strict with what is getting advertised through their network. So if you were to use something like YTZ on exoclick you could get your account banned if YTZ rotates through a very aggressive ad.

Good luck on your campaigns!

---

sorry lanikai87 and Amy, missed your replies.

This week I have launched my first campaign. A sweep offer in a tier 2 country (suggested by my AM) and followed every single golden tip I have read in this fantastic community.

Ripped 3 landers and translated into local language.

After setting up everything on Voluum and traffic source, I started to send traffic, and received 2 conversions within minutes. Cool, let's collect more data I though, so I can share with the guys on STM.

Convertions are still flowing but today, before the middle of the day I have received an email telling me the offer daily cap has reached 85%. Ok, that means the offer is converting well and that the owner cares about quality, but how do I make money with such a limited cap?

At the moment ROI is -18%

---

Sounds like you're making some nice progress!

Have you asked your AM whether there's a chance for the cap to be lifted? Also check to see whether it's an individual cap just for you, or if it's a network-wide cap. Some advertisers set an initial cap on all affiliates to make sure they don't send too many leads before they've had time to verify the quality. Your AM should be able to give you some suggestions.

Also - once you have a winner in this round of lander test, I would highly recommend testing more offers. You may very well find an offer that converts better than your current one, that doesn't have a cap. Ask your AMs for similar offers and maybe take a quick look at offer aggregators like odigger, or at makemassive.



Amy

---

Hi Amy, contacted the AM and he said that I should try to send my traffic in the morning because the CAP is reached at 2pm

mmmh, I don't know what to do now. Tomorrow I'll send traffic again, but I have to find other offers with more cap

---

Today I had to stop the campaign because it was not doing well like the previous days, and went from +110% to -100%, I know of the ups and downs of the campaigns, but such a difference is strange, so I checked che path and I saw that when I click on the affiliate link in the lander the redirect is sooooo slow, so probably visitors are closing the boring page. Besides Voluum is showing like 120 clicks, and the network just 30.
What do you think is the problem here?

I started the campaign with three landers, 1 facebook themed, 1 with a wheel, and 1 themed with an incoming local festival. At first I though that the local festival idea was amazing, and that the lander would have outperformed, but I was wrong. The GEO loves facebook. The first one is the winner, since all conversions are coming from it. When you test a facebook themed lander I suggest to put a notification too, it seems more real. It worked for me.
I cutted the losing landers at 3x payout and no conversions.

Don't know it the slow final step is a problem of mine, or the owner of the offer.

I'm testing another GEO with the same lander, different offer, and I'm not encountering the same issue

---

Nice detective work there! However, the slow speed may be cause by one or both of these:

1)Voluum redirection speed

2)Offer page loading speed


To find out which of these is the problem (or it could be both):

1)Split-test with another offer(s) and compare the clickloss.

2)Check the offer page load speed using pingdom or similar.


My guess would be that it's the offer page loading slow. If that's the case, the only thing you could do would be to alert your AM about this, who will in turn inform the advertiser. It will be up to them to fix the issue.

And you've checked your lander loading speed of course? It's OK right? OK means < 2s, preferably a lot less.


This is GOLD! Thanks so much for the very generous share!


Yup! Now I'm even more certain it's the offer page running slow. Please do verify this using a speed checker like pingdom and report the problem to your AM so they could fix it.


Then simply go into your campaign settings at the traffic source to set up dayparting - just buy traffic during those hours.




Amy

---

hi Amy,
it seems that was an offer page speed issue. The offer is still converting but sometimes the speed issue returns. So I have good and bad days. I'm collecting more stats but I think I'm going to abandon this offer because of the issue above and because I hate the fact that my AM some days responds and some days doesn't. It impossible to work like this, or it's the norm?

Regarding the current stats, I cutted some placements and Android 5.0 (a lot of traffic and 0 converions). The rest is not showing significant inputs for now.

ROI is at -35%, so far.

I'm not sure if I'll cointinue with sweeps on pops, but this first campaign is a good start to learn the basics by doing. I know it's important to not jump from one vertical to another, but I would prefer to study something more mid-long term, like installs, for instance. I'll keep you updated.

---

I agree. There are so many offers you can test. If your AM isn't actively trying to resolve the speed issue with the advertiser then you'll be better off testing other offers.

Most AMs are really busy handling many affiliates, so as a new affiliate you'll just need to be persistent and hit them up multiple times a day. If they're still not responsive, you can try to email your network to request for a new AM. Alternatively, just shift focus to another network - there are so many good networks out there.


Have you tested more offers like I suggested before? It would be the easiest way to cause the biggest jumps in ROI. Sure you can cut your way to green but that probably won't be satisfying and you may not have much traffic left at the end. Not to mention your scaling efforts will probably be futile as well if your funnel isn't solid.


Problem with installs is that there aren't many good apps out lately AFAIK. I'd suggest testing more geos instead - especially now that you have experience with sweeps and know what kind of landers convert. But don't let me discourage you from exploring new verticals!



Amy

---

Home > Mobile > Follow-along Campaigns