Home > Adult Traffic (NSFW) > Follow-along Campaigns

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Back to $X,XXX per day in 2016 (34)

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Hey guys,

I was working with SEO traffic for 8 years on my own network of french adult websites and was able to reach $X,XXX per day around 2012, my company was going well with one employee, I was earning money by selling VOD memberships (rebill).

After, the market started to be very tough, and VOD is now almost dead.

In 2015, I discovered CPA Networks and then, I started to promote adult dating on my websites (CPL), and learned about using Voluum, Peakconversion etc. and I did around 80-100$ per day for some months but I didn't focus on it anymore and let it run, so it was getting worst.

I also tried a campaign on Exoclick RON in March to May 2015, with $1200 budget, but I didn't focus on it so I did a -42% ROI (it didn't seem so bad, I didn't optimized anything).

Now, I'm back, more motivated than ever ! So I updated my campaigns with "free traffic" 2 months ago, and read a lot on STM, blogs, etc.

From these campaigns, I tested a lot and I finally kept 5 banners, 3 LPs and 3 offers which was performing well, then I decided to take action with paid traffic on Exoclick.

Traffic Source : Exoclick (Premium)
Offers : Adult Dating
Payout : around $2.50
Geo : FR
Bidding : $0.200 CPM (like current highest bid)
Budget : $100 / day
Creatives : 5 banners
LPs : 3
Offers : 3
Tracker : Voluum

I launched my two first campaigns on two Premium websites some days ago :

Format : 300x250
Placement : Mobile Header
Frequency cap : 3 / 24h

And the stats wasn't so bad :

29/04/2016

On Exoclick :

Impressions : 19.582
Clics : 122
CTR : 0,62%
Cost : 3,92€

On Voluum :

Visits : 170
Clicks : 53
CTR : 31,18%
Conversions : 6
Revenues : : 14,67€

Profits : 10,75€
ROI : 274%

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30/04/2016

Cost : 20,62€
Revenue : 29,39€

Profit : 8,77€
ROI : 42,53%

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01/05/2016

Cost : 29,92€
Revenue : 55,27€

Profit : 25,35€
ROI : 84,72%

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02/05/2016

Cost : 19,88€
Revenue : 22,09€

Profit : 2,21€
ROI : 11,11%

So I was very happy to collect data while not losing money and see some green. But I wasn't able to get more traffic even if I was the highest bidder (I don't know why), and the websites aren't so big, so I decided to launch two others campaigns on two bigger premium websites.

First one :

Format : 300x100
Placement : Mobile Header
Frequency cap : 1 / 24h

Second one :

Format : 300x100
Placement : Mobile Middle
Frequency cap : 1 / 24h

(First I didn't set any capping, but my ads' CTR was too bad and I was loosing the budget too fast, so I set up 1 / 24h)

Here are my Voluum stats for 2016-05-02 to 2016-05-05 of the four campaigns :



So my two first campaigns are now loosing a bit, but I think I will keep like this to collect more data, analyze and optimize.

I decided to stop the fourth campaign to focus only on the third one cause the ROI is better, and the Mobile Middle 300x100 doesn't click at all for me...

On the third campaign, I noticed that one banner had a better CTR than the others, but 0 conversion... And another one low CTR but good conversions. So I created a new banner, by mixing both of these ones.

And then, I'm really happy to see that my new banner is the only one in the Green today :



So I just created two more declinaisons of this banner, and pause the one with 0 conversion which actually costs me the most.

For my landing pages, for now they all perform the same, so I keep like this to get more data and I just focus on the banners for now.

The problem for the third campaign with the 300x100 Mobile Header ads is the eCPC, so expensive ! I have a 0.19% CTR and $0.121 eCPC... Compared to my two first campaigns which have $0.025 and $0.078 eCPC (probably due of the bigger 300x250 banners).

Another problem : it looks like I'm only getting Wifi traffic. I looked the bid on the mobile carriers traffic, but I'm also the highest bidder, so I don't understand why I get only Wifi traffic ?

I'm really sorry for this long first post, which is probably a mess cause my english isn't perfect, and I've too many things to tell and to ask but I'm really happy to share it with you. I think I'll have a lot of questions.

My goal is to be back to $X,XXX per day at the end of 2016 but first reach the goal of stable $XX profits.

Thanks in advance for your help, and thanks for reading this long post.

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Subscribed!

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Hi,

I'm back with the stats for the last 2 days.

I just changed my Exoclick account to use $ instead of €, I hope it's a good choice.

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06/05/2016

Campaign 1

Cost : $22.25
Revenue : $11.58

Profit : -$10.67
ROI : -47.95%

Campaign 2

Cost : $6.88
Revenue : $9.03

Profit : $2.15
ROI : 31.25%

Campaign 3

Cost : $51.40
Revenue : $26.07

Profit : -$25.33
ROI : -49.28%

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07/05/2016

Campaign 1

Cost : $19.74
Revenue : $22.94

Profit : $3.20
ROI : 16.21%

Campaign 2

Cost : $4.49
Revenue : $0.00

Profit : -$4.49
ROI : -100%

Campaign 3

Cost : $51.84
Revenue : $10.20

Profit : -$41.64
ROI : -80.32%

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Since the start I have :

For the Campaign 1 : 3,511 visits - 928 clicks - 63 conversions.

For the Campaign 2 : 3,768 visits - 461 clicks - 29 conversions.

For the Campaign 3 : 2,696 visits - 593 clicks - 43 conversions.

Do you think it's enough data to start to analyze and optimize ?

I was ready to start by optimizing only the banners, but I read that it's better to look at the stats by combinaisons of banner / LP / offer.

For this, is-it ok to use Voluum like this :



???

Thanks in advance for your help.

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There is definitely enough data to start optimizing. But you should be careful with "logic" of optimization. Firstly, try cutting out paparametrs that will affect less on amount of traffic you can get from your traffic source because sometimes after cutting something big you risk being left without impressions at all(depends on traffic source). Don't forget to use conversion calculator like that one LINK to cut out landers and banners even more effectively

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Thanks a lot for your answer Lansky.

Yes I'll use PeakConversion to choose what to cut, I read this awesome tutorial from Vortex some days ago.

About the "logic" of optimization, I'll only cut banners, landers and offers, I'll not cut placement because my campaigns are on Exoclick Premium websites and I want to focus on it, this is not RON.

But yes, clearly now I'm weak with optimization, I don't know how to start. And I don't know how to find profitable combinaisons to focus on.

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So you can share you stats from Voluum with your landers, offers, and banners Well, If you see that, for example, one of your 3 banners is working a lot better than 2 others you should cut off these 2 and make new versions of the first one. Same should be done for landers. As for the offers, you should also do split-tests with different networks. For example, if you have the same offer in network "A" and network "B" don't be lazy to split-test them cuz sometimes you can get really different results for CR.

Update:
I haven't worked with Exoclick, but I believe that even working with Premium websites they allow you filtering parameters like browser, OS, ISP etc, so "logic" of optimization is about these parameters.

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Ok, I'll make some screenshots and share it here.

Ah yes you're right for Exoclick, I need to also look into the brands, carriers etc. But for now, even if Exoclick tell me I'm the highest bidder, I get a really small amount of traffic, I don't know why. For one carrier, the bid is higher, but for all the others and for Wifi, I'm the highest. But my number of impressions is still very low. For the Campaign 1 and 2, I don't have any capping. For the Campaign 3, my capping is 1 / 24h.

And I still pay the trafic too much expensive for the Campaign 3.

Campaign 1 (300x250 Mobile Top) :

CTR : 0.33%
eCPC : $0.076

Campaign 2 (300x250 Mobile Top) :

CTR : 0.94%
eCPC : $0.021

Campaign 3 (300x100 Mobile Top) :

CTR : 0.19%
eCPC : $0.118

I don't know how to get a lower eCPC and how to get more impressions ?

Thanks again.

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The answer is probably increase CTR for campaign 3 by creating more attractive banners, cuz amount of impressions you get on banner traffic usually depends on CTR x your CPC and the higher result you get here the bigger outcome of impressions you recieve. Hope that makes sense

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Ok, I already started to create some declinaisons of my best banner but the eCPC is still very high.

For the Campaign 3, I just cut the worst performing offer (performs 2 times worst than the 2 others), and added a new offer to split test (which seems to already perform very good after one hour).

The strange thing is that this worst performing offer on Campaign 3 is the best one on Campaign 1 and the middle one on Campaign 2... I'm a little bit lost. ^^

Thanks ! :-)

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How come your not smart bidding? You could end up paying lower...

Another strategy to use would be to split up campaigns between iOS/Android. This way it will be very clear where the volume is, what platform has the better conversions and if you use smart bid, you will find out what platform has lower bid price. <This price can fluctuate depending on competition starting/pausing campaigns.

If you are not use smart bid, I would adjust my bid to 0.203 or 0.207...etc
Paying minimum is never a good idea, cuz majority will pay that and you don't want to be with the majority. By paying additional pennies, you could be receiving a lot more traffic with better ranking. <Ofcourse there is no guarantee, but test it out and see.


P.S read all post by Finch, don;t miss a single one, he goes beyond the traditional ways of running adult.

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Thanks for your message webdev.

I didn't update here but I now bid at $0.250 SmartCPM.

For the Finch posts, you talk about here on STM ? Or on his blog ? Anyway I'm currently reading his Premium Posts 2016 and it's very interesting.

I didn't start to split iOS / Android but that's a good idea.

I don't have money left on Exoclick now, I'll charge tomorrow to restart the campaigns and continue to get data.

But as I said, I think I've enough data, but I don't know what to exactly check on Voluum and how to optimize well.

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Hi,

I just figured out that Exoclick is on New York time (EST/EDT timezone), so my stats wasn't totally accurate. I just updated the costs with the right timezone (UCT-4) on Voluum.

But if I compare the cost on my timezone (UCT+2) on Voluum and on Exoclick with "Europe/Paris" time, it is still different...

Anyway here are the stats for yesterday :

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08/05/2016

Campaign 1 (300x250 Mobile Top)

Cost : $16.47
Revenue : $25.53

Profit : $9.06
ROI : 55.05%

Campaign 2 (300x250 Mobile Top)

Cost : $2.52
Revenue : $5.50

Profit : $2.98
ROI : 118.08%

Campaign 3 (300x100 Mobile Top)

Cost : $46.33
Revenue : $25.81

Profit : -$20.52
ROI : -44.29%

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So the two first campaign are back in the green, but very low traffic so not a big profit... But it's always good to get free data.

The Campaign 3 is still in the Red, I didn't start to optimize anything. I gonna post some screenshots later today because I really need some help to know what to optimize, it could be so good if someone can look at it. :$

Thanks a lot for your help. :$

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Here is the screenshot if I look at Ads / Landers / Offers for the last 30 days for the Campaign 3 :



(Sorry for this very long screenshot ).

In your opinion, what should I do now ?

Thanks.

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I started to cut some banners on the Campaign 3.



I cut banner 1, banner 7 and banner 8 (the banner 5 was already cut).

And I added 3 new banners to test.

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Here are the stats for yesterday :

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09/05/2016

Campaign 1 (300x250 Mobile Top)

Cost : $11.64
Revenue : $5.90

Profit : -$5.74
ROI : -49.30%

Campaign 2 (300x250 Mobile Top)

Cost : $1.94
Revenue : $0.00

Profit : -$1.94
ROI : -100.00%

Campaign 3 (300x100 Mobile Top)

Cost : $45.36
Revenue : $36.11

Profit : -$9.25
ROI : -20.39%

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Hello greedy Just found your PM asking for assistance so here I am

I will try to give you a few pointers and suggestions in a few points, if I miss something, please ask again as thread is pretty long by now

1. mobile dating : You started with mobile dating on exoclick, I would suggest to test also desktop traffic. Desktop offers pay more and sometimes they work better than mobile. Since its mobile traffic, did you test the LPs if they display correctly on mobile devices? One thing to keep in mind : smartphones perform differently than tablets. Some offers don't want tablet traffic on mobile (wap) offers at all. In exoclick, there is the option to select device type so use it, because mobile zones will have mixed traffic.
2. bidding : always use smart CPM with exo, traffic will be cheaper. When checking the bid for your targeting, don't forget to set all the fields and also browser type, you will see that especially with mobile traffic the "android browser" shows higher bids than others - thats because of high bids for 3G traffic.
3. capping : did you set a cap? Always start with 1/24 for the best performance.
4. sites/zones targeting : stay away from RON for now and target just premium spots. As you already have seen, different zones on the same site show different performance so find zones that work the best and focus on those.
5. exo is pretty hard to master, did you consider other sources? Trafficjunky is usually easier to optimize for example, you might want to try that too.

So much for the basics, now lets take a look at the data you posted.

I would suggest that for now you pick just one banner size and focus on that. You will need to test a ton of banners so it will be easier to do them in just one size. According to my experience 300x100 performs usually quite differently to 300x250, so it would be a good idea to focus on one. Looks like you had the most promising results with the 300x250 header spot, so Id suggest to focus on that one.

I don't think you have enough data yet for that campaign, so slowly with the optimization. Look at the sources and if there are some really bad ones with CTR waaaay lower than average, you can cut them. You can also cut the worst banner(s) if there are some thaty are worse than the rest by far.

You didnt write much about LPs, you should definitely test a few. Its true that the style the same on pretty much all LPs out there, you can still change images, colors and buttons and that can make a huge difference. Definitely test at least different women on the LP.

Banners - you need to test a ton of banners in adult and always be ready to come up with more. The woman on the banner is one of the most important elements, make sure you test a lot of female types in order to find the best converting ones.

Volume - you need more volume in the campaign, the CVR can be really erratic with low volume and it will skew your data. Add more zones to the campaign or bid higher, there must be a ton of volume for France.

Offers - definitely test multiple offers from multiple networks too, the difference can be pretty big.

Deep analysis - as you can see in the screenshots you posted, some banners seem to work better with certain LPs and even offer landing urls. You can try to find the best combinations, but you need more than 1 or 2 leads to confirm a combination is really good. So we are back to the need for more volume

Once you have more volume, you can analyze OS, browser type, connection type etc ... and decide whether it makes sense to launch separate campaigns with deeper targeting or alter the one you have already.

So much for now I'd say, we can continue when you make the decision about sticking to one banner format or not and when you have more data.

Good luck.

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Hello again.

So basically, the biggest problem is the volume for now, which holds you back from testing more banners. I just checked exo and indeed, the bulk of the volume is in the footers. SO you have no other option, but to target those Create a new campaign and target all the premium spots with 300x250 footers or bottom spots. Once you start getting traffic, you can adjust the bids on a per-spot basis, on some its not needed to bid as high as on others, so no need to overpay. You also dont want to take the 1st position now. Make sure to set cap to 1/12 at least, with footers its very important.

At this point you simply need to work on your funnel. Test as many banners as you can, but keep it in balance with the volume. Also test various images on the LPs, make 10 variations and split test them, some females simply convert better.

TrafficJunky is a competitive place but sometimes, some GEOs are not so widely used, so I wouldnt stay away from it.

You mention that different spots perform differently with the same landers or offers ... thats how it is and the less volume you have, the more erratic it can look. Once you start running more volume, the patterns will be more visible and easier to identify.

As for the 300x100 spot, I would say pause it now and try to focus on these footers, once you find some good banners there you might try to transfer them to the 300x100 spots too.

You can start the same campaign in desktop too, 300x250 format will have good volume there aswell and sometimes the same LPs work for both mobile and desktop. Run a smaller test and see if you are getting better performance there and act accordingly.

To lower the cost of click, work on your banners. Lowering the bid will help too, but raising the banner CTR is a better idea

Keep me posted on your progress

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Hi Matuloo,

Thanks a lot again for your answer, you make me see more clearly the next steps to continue my campaigns.

First of all, here are the stats for yesterday for the three campaigns (I made some changes on the campaigns, I cut the worst 2 banners and added new ones and cut one offer to test a new one) :

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11/05/2016

Campaign 1 (300x250 Mobile Top)

Cost : $13.35
Revenue : $5.73

Profit : -$7.62
ROI : -57.07%

Campaign 2 (300x250 Mobile Top)

Cost : $2.78
Revenue : $2.95

Profit : $0.17
ROI : 5.99%

Campaign 3 (300x100 Mobile Top)

Cost : $30.19
Revenue : $21.82

Profit : -$8.37
ROI : -27.71%

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So now, I just paused it all and I'm preparing a unique new mobile campaign on many Exoclick Premium websites as you told me to do, I'll post all the details of the campaign here later today.

Same for the desktop campaign, I'll prepare it today with smaller budget and post it here.

For TrafficJunky, I think France is widely used. What GEO would you recommend to start with it ?

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Its not really possible to suggest you a GEO, some are crowded, some are not and some are occupied with my own campaigns so really can't tell you exactly where it makes sense to run

Using pure logic tho, since you already have creatives for France, I would suggest to try France on TJ too. Stick to one GEO for some more, at least until you figure out whether it can work for you or not.

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Ok matuloo, I'll have a try France on TJ very soon, thanks !

Anyway, my new mobile campaign is ready to be launch on Exoclick :

Exoclick 300x250 Mobile Footer Campaign

Traffic Source : Exoclick (5 biggest Premium websites)
Offers : Adult Dating
Payout : around $2.50
Geo : FR
Bidding : $0.200 Smart CPM (like current highest bid)
Budget : $100 / day
Creatives : 5 banners
LPs : 2
Offers : 3
Tracker : Voluum
Format : 300x250
Placement : Mobile Footer / Bottom
Frequency cap : 1 / 24h

Do you think my settings are good ?

Next steps :

- Let the campaign run for some hours, and start to cut low CTR banners (after like 15 000 impressions for each, except if it is high converting) and replace it by new banners to keep testing new ones every day.

- Select the best offer, cut the others two and choose a new one to test against the best one.

- If I see one placement/website better than the others, I pause the campaign and I launch a new campaign only on this placement/website.

- Same as before, but for the devices.

- Prepare the desktop campaign on Exoclick.

- Prepare the same campaigns (mobile and desktop) on TJ when I'll have something profitable.

Don't hesitate to tell me if I miss something or if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks a lot !

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Hi, man! Do a research of the most used angles in your GEO an test at least five of them until you find the most profitable.

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Reduce the bid a little bit, you don't need to be the highest bidder, make it 0.19 if 0.2 is the top bid.

Its ok to start on these large sites to get quick data, but as soon as you see something with promise, add the smaller sites too. Everyone goes to large sites to quickly test new stuff so the bids are often pretty high there. Smaller sites also outperform the large ones pretty often.

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Hi bdmmoreira, thanks for your message. But I'm still a bit lost about angles... If I test 5 differents banners on the campaign, one is young woman, one is old woman, one is cartoon, one is "game" etc., is-it like testing four differents angles ?

For the bid, the minimum is $0.200 for France, so I can't make it lower.

Ok, I'll add smaller websites when I start to optimize banners, LPs and offers.

Anyway, I launched the campaign some minutes ago, and for now, it makes me afraid haha ! 8000 impressions and only 8 clics, so 0.10% CTR...

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Yes, can be this. Test at least 3 different images for each angle.

But I'm talking about other type of angle:

For example: Better than Tinder vs Local Milf Looking for Dick

Do the research and test at least five of them using at least 2 or 3 images with each one until you find the most profitable

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CTR in footers will be lower, that's normal. But the high minimum bid might pose a problem - the clicks will be quite expensive, maybe that's why the max bid is also the top bid. But one thing at a time, we will see how high the CTR will be in the end and how well that traffic converts.

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Ok, but testing too many banners in the same time will need more budget and longer time no ? Because with 5 banners, 2 LPs and 3 offers it's already 30 differents combinaisons.

What do you think about this ?

Another question : do you need to create a campaign for each angle ? If no, how do you organize it ?

Thanks.

Yes, and the high CPC was a big problem in my 3 previous campaigns... :/

I'll update the stats here in some hours to see how it's going.

Thanks a lot.

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Hey, I'm back with the stats of the new campaign for the first running day (yesterday) :

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13/05/2016

Exoclick 300x250 Mobile Footer Campaign

Cost : $29.97
Revenue : $31.26

Profit : $1.29
ROI : 4.29%

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I'm happy for this first day, but I spent only $29.97 on my $100 daily budget... Is my capping too low ? Is my bid too low ? With my current bid, my eCPC is still very high : $0.123.

Here at some screenshots for yesterday and today stats to see if I can start to optimize something :

Sites



The two first lines are the two "smallest" websites from my selection, so I think my bid is too low to get more impressions on the biggest websites.

Variations



Offers



Landers



So for now I don't know what to do to start to optimize, I think I don't have enough data.

Maybe I can start to cut some banners and add new ones ?

Someone on another forum told me to not run a campaign on 5 websites with this low budget ($100 per day) because I can't get enough data, that I should run campaign on only one website... But it's what I was doing before. What do you think about it please ?

Thanks.

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Hi, even Sundays I'm here to update my Follow Along !

Here are the stats for yesterday :

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14/05/2016

Cost : $38.55
Revenue : $22.45

Profit : -$16.10
ROI : -41.76%

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I'm still collecting data but yesterday evening I added a new banner, a variation of the most converting one (with the highest CTR).

I still don't know how can I get more traffic without increase my eCPC too much. I just changed my Smart CPM to $0.225 instead of $0.200 to see what will happen.

Thanks a lot !

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Hello,

I see one offer is out performing the other two, but looking at the $, the difference is not so big - you need more data there.
Same for banners, some have better CTR (especially one) but I dont know how well they convert.

Look at the banner stats again - if there is one or more that are waaaay lower than the others, cut it.

$100 per day might be a low budget for some site, but it might be more than enough for another one. So a claim like $100 is not enough for 5 sites is nonsense, it all depends on the amount of traffic. What you want to achieve is decent volume spread across the day as evenly as possible.

How much % of the available traffic are you getting now? Opening the cap could help, but its not the best idea to rush it, especially not in footers. It shouldnt be a bid problem since your bid is also the top bid - unless their bid-estimates ain't working again, which happens sometimes. Did the increased bid help it any?

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Hello.

I'm also affiliate marketer and am learning from your thread.
Thank you for posting your detailed working.

I never run adult offer yet, but here is my small opinion.
It seems that you are concentrating on optimizing banners and LPs.
Do you blacklist bad siteIDs?

I think blacklisting is another thing to concentrate.
There might be some siteIDs that are only eating your budget.

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It's on Exoclick. Ok I'll have a new try when my funnel will be perfect, thanks !

Hi junlhbt !

Thanks for your message, I'm happy that you like my follow along.

I don't ban sites ids because I'm working with premium placements and one campaign = one placement.

If the placement is bad, I stop the campaign.

But for RON, yes I banned the bad sites id.

Thanks !

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Yup, I thought it was EXO. Don't run their RON with dating campaigns unless you have a perfect funnel. It can work pretty well for carrier traffic, but general dating campaigns are pretty hard to optimize on their RON. The problem is the total mix of placements, multiple ones on one site etc ... several zones on one page and you either block them all or take them all... really nothing for testing.

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Hey I'm still here, sorry if I didn't update my follow along but I was in China for some weeks and it was really hard to access Internet, and all the VPNs I tried were too slow.

The campaigns were still running slowly and I'm restarting to work on it, I launched new ones on new traffic sources and on new GEOs and I'm now working with developper/designer to create new LPs and banners faster and to create some very useful tools.

I'll try to update my follow along very soon.

Thanks.

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Welcome back

Looking forward to your progress

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