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Help! Optimizing landers and learning spy tools (18)

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Hi everybody!
I've been really working hard and having fun with creating banners, landers and in this whole affiliate marketing world. The only thing that I don't have now is money earned so I need to have some answers in order to achieve this target!

1. Landing pages: I've just had to stop a campaign because it wasn't converting at all and by tracker I can tell that is because users close the landing page without even clicking the CTA button.

I'm just wondering where I could've mistaken. I usually create landers following these guidelines which I read here on the forum:
- 3 lines that describe 3 benefits (and/or I sometimes describe 3 steps for exemple: 1. join 2. get your bonus 3. play)
- Easy and non-professional html page because I'm going only mobile)
- Appealing image sometimes used as background but I have also been told that they could even not been necessary.

The problem is that they don't convert and I don't know how to optimize them. Please help.

EDIT: I'm also preparing an offer of an app and the final merchant's landing page is the iTunes page. It seems to me that the iTunes page tells a lot of thing about the app and it is really appealing. Do you think a lander is necessary?
2. Spytools: I have mobile ad monitor and adplexity. They both seem great tools and they seem to work basically in the same way. My problem is that I can't understand how I can see the banners and lander that converts and that have to do with the offers I'm running or I'm going to run. So basically: how do I use spy tools in order to save my time with creatives and reaching goals?

Thank in advance

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Hello,

it's hard to tell you how to improve the performance just like that, there can be several problems : poor angle, some problem with the LP setup, html problem etc .. it can also be related to your hosting and the loading speed ... and it can also be a bad offer.

When starting the very first campaign, the first goal is to start getting some conversions somehow - for this, the best is to use ripped creatives and not shoot blindly and hope for a lucky hit. You need something that you know will be working to some extent. So unless someone gives this to you, you need to grab the creatives from a spytool.

A spytool will not show you landers or banners that convert the offer you are running, it's not possible. However, you can sort these based on how long they are running - if something is running for a long time, chances are it is making money for someone. So grab these creatives. Once you start getting conversions, then you can start tweaking the LPs and make variations of them. You need to test a lot of LPs, the best is to test different styles, and then you can make variations of the best ones.

iTunes or GooglePlay can both work directlinked without a LP - I mean they used to, it will be way harder these days. But a good LP can always increase the conversion rate. The iTunes page gives the user all the info, that's true, but it doesn't do much pre-selling, nor does it add a scarcity feeling - that's where the LP can help.

So, go back to the spytools and try to grab some of those long-running LPs or banners and see if you can find some combination that will start converting

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Thanks matuloo, really helpful as always!

Now I've understood the importance of using spytools (I use adplexity and mobile ad monitor) but I still have a doubt on how to use them.

Forgive my ignorance. What is the best way to use them? I mean, should I search for long-running creatives and choose the possible suitable offers? Use the keyword option to find something suitable for the offer I want to run or something else? For exemple, on Adplexity I see that the most of the creatives that are long-running are those for mobile browser and antivirus, should I be inclined to launch those types of offers?
Could you please give me some tips in order to get the most from spytools?

Two questions about scarcity
In your opinions, how much is important scarcity in landers? Is it something that should always be there?
Usually scarcity is expressed in sentences like "this download will be FREE only for 60 minutes" even if it's not true. Is there a way to express it without lying?

Thanks a lot in advance

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Hello again David, sorry for the late reply, but I just got back home from AWE Berlin.

When using spytools, I always tell people to use them just as inspiration and Im gonna tell the same to you The first thing you need to achieve is to start getting stable conversions in decent amounts. First talk with your AMs, and ask for offers that are alive right now and that are doing big volume. Then go to spytools and look for ways people use to promote them. Both banners and LPs. To make sure you don't copy creatives someone came up with today and is just testing them, pick those that are running for a long time, those should be proven and should bring the conversions.

So in case your AM gives you a hot sweep offer, load adplexity and grab some LPs for sweeps that are running for a decent period of time. Then run them and see if the conversions are coming in. Don't expect to be profitable with this. Once you find a combo of creatives and offers that does convert, it's time to come up with your own creatives by tweaking what you initially ripped. I'm telling you to check with the AM first because the longest running creatives can be for offers that are saturated by now or not active at all, and that's not something you want to mess with.

Scarcity - don't think of scarcity just as a time related constraint, you can limit by location, gender, age ... whatever that makes the prospects feel that they could loose the deal if they don't act fast. LPs can also use different sales tactics, not just scarcity - think about exclusivity - special deal for you, only available here ... etc there is ton of ways to skin a cat.

Advertising is a lot of about lying or at least about "Telling stories", everybody is doing it to some extent But you can always tone it down a bit and not just flat out lie.

Don't want to say "for the next 60 minutes"? Say "for a limited time" - the offer is not gonna be alive forever, right? So you're not lying.
Don't want to say "just for you"? Call out the device the user is on - "Your samsung S7 can win you a voucher today!" - the offer is not limited to samsung s7, but there is no lie in it and the user will feel like the sweep is only for S7 users ...

Be creative and find a way to get your message out

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Hi Matuloo, I hope everything went fine

Ok this is all clear and this strategy does make sense! By the way? Is there any risk about copyright using ripped banners?

I use Adplexity but I can't understand how to use it properly. For exemple, there you can search for creatives "by keywords", "by advertiser" "by publisher" and "by affiliate network". Ok for AN and keywords but what about the other two? I mean, which option should I search by in order to get the right informations?
Sorry for the newbie question

Ok thanks a lot. I surely have to study something about copywriting. I realized (and have found confirmation by reading the forum) that what gives you conversions is the combo "offer+right angles" rather than "cool banners+cool LPs". So I'm gonna learn as much as possible about creating angles and choosing the right offers. With "choosing the right offer" (beside talking to AM) I mean getting some informations about markets in general .

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Anybody?

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Im here

Copyright issues could arrise when you rip banners, but chances are you will rip something that someone else already ripped from a different affiliate Affiliates dont seem to care all that much about copyrights in general, you need to decied whether you want to take the risk or not. To be fair, unless you are running mega volume and using celebs in your ads, the chances of getting into trouble are very slim.

Everyone uses spytools in a different way, you need to develop your own system based on what you need to spy on. Im using them to get banner ideas for example, so what I do is load the spytool, check the newest creatives and grab the ones I like. When starting with some new offer, I load the longest running creatives and look for banners with matching angles... etc

Angles are very important, you definitely need to learn how to come up with them. Id suggest reading the Cashvertising book, it will give you a lot of ideas about how to write adcopy.

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Thanks Matuloo!

I've just gathered some informations on the STM section and got that book

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Great, read it and see if it helps you in any way. Angles are actually not that hard to come up with, you just need to learn how to "think" when building them. Forget about the obvious ones like : "win an iphone" and get more creative like "iphone users got to play pokemon go first, don't get left behind the next time, win an iPhone and join the elite!" Angles are all about the way you look at things, try to walk the shoes of your prospects and figure out what they want to hear

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Thanks Matuloo this was an epic post . I have also download some good content on STM regarding angles. Just out of curiosity, in your experience do you think that it's true that the converting combo is "offer+right angles" rather than "cool banners+cool LPs"?

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In order to answer this, you gotta tell me first what a "cool" banner or LP is

In case you mean advanced graphics on banners or LPs and stuff like that, then yes, good angle plus the right offer will beat that any time. It has been proven so many times before - ugly creatives win over pretty ones on a regular basis

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Ok clear, thank you

One last thing about spy tools. I read here on the forum that if we want to spy for free we can get VPN, browse web from the selected country and use an agent emulator. Could you please tell me something about agent emulator and free spying?

Thanks a lot man, you're teaching me so much!

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This will only work for wifi traffic tho, carriers are harder to spy on.

VPN is a tool that will connect you through a remote server so to speak and replace your IP with theirs, that way you can pretend that you are connected from another GEO. A widely used VPN is hidemyass for example.

Agent emulator is usually a plugin for your browser, not sure what browser you are using, but just search for "user agent emulator" and install the most recommended plugin. I don't remember the name of the one Im using since Im on vacation now and working from my kids laptop so I cant check

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. I'm using Chrome. So what exactly does an agent emulator do? That's what I don't know

Have a great vacation!

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Agent emulator changes the info that various scripts/programs use to identify what kind of browser/device you are using. So instead of chrome, the plugin will change this to "android native browser" for example and sites that use this info will think you are browsing on a mobile device and serve mobile ads to you now.

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Time is passing and I'm slowly improving but I still have some gaps .
When I launch my campaigns on mobile there are a lot of data to consider: "Os", "Os version", "carrier", "phone model" and so on. How do I have to treat these categories? I mean, do I simply have to blacklist those that are not converting and whitelist those that are or something else?

As said earlier in this thread, I'm aware that poor lander are still part of unsuccessful campaigns for sure. I'm trying to absorb as much as I can both on STM and the web (color theory, copywriting, LP designs, HTML etc) and although I understand where some of my mistakes are I always find new ones and green seems far away . I hope this is not a stupid question but is there a tool, or a way, to understand what the weak elements in a landing page are that make user close it down (as far as possible of course, miracles don't happen so usually )? I've read about crazyegg that allows you to see where a user stands for the most of the time on a page. Can someone give me some advice?

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Yes, that's it basically. Cut what is not working, target what is.Try to look at this as if it was a tree.

Example : it starts with Mobile, then it divides into tablets and smartphones, next comes iOS, Android, Windows mobile ..., then there is chrome, safari, explorer ... then brands, then models, etc ... Always start cutting from the bottom. So do not cut Android straight away, look down the "tree"... maybe there is one particular brand or OS that doesn't work well, cut just that. Understand what I mean?[/QUOTE]

Yes, poor landers can totally ruin the whole optimization process. It's crucial to have good ones. I know there are some tools that help with split testing LPs, there are tools that utilize heatmaps so you see where the user moves the mouse etc ... not sure how effective they actually can be as I never used them The most important part when determining whether a LP is good or not is how well it converts and I don't think there would be a tool that could help you with this except for a tracker that you are using already. Make changes and watch how they affect the conversions ... that's pretty much about it

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Yes! The tree example is really clear but then again, without conversions you can't optimizing anything

Thanks! .

I opened a follow-along where I talk about my LP problems. Could you take a look? http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...ever-surrender!

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