Increased conversion during night/weekends on certain mobile offers (1)
Increased conversion during night/weekends on certain mobile offers
Hello guys
Occasionally you might get some email or a tip from an affiliate network or your AM, that a certain mobile offer has better conversion rate during certain hours of the day (usually at night)
I would like to explain the fundamental reason why these conversions are higher (note.. the conversion rates - not the payouts, this has nothing to do with payouts, it just influences the actual conversion rate)
You see in mobile billing space there are 3 major partners:
- regulatory agency (which prescribes the disclaimers, maximum ammount that users can be charged etc..)
- carrier (telecom) which has users
- merchant, which has offers on which users spend money
The role of the regulatory agency is to protect the users.
The role of the merchant is to get as much money from the users as possible.
The role of the carrier is to get as much money from users as possible, but at same time stays compliant with the regulatory agency and on other hand not "annoy" the users too much, so they don't switch the carrier.
So the carrier has a dual role - as a user protector and a user molester 
They want their users protected and business done in accordance with instructions from the regulatory agency, but they also want to milk as much money from them as possible (a feat becoming increasingly difficult with the internet, sms, voice rates dropping and the volume of these going to http platforms (eg skype, whatschat.. etc)).
Almost all carriers police the offers. They check periodically to see if they have the proper opt-in mechanisms, if they have the proper disclaimers etc.. They have a sort of due diligence system in plan.
They check the offer and put a nice little checkmark next to it - all compliant, all ok. In case shit hits the fan and regulatory agency comes busting their ass they show this "paper" and say: Hey we did our due diligence and all was in order, the fault is with the merchant, so we are not liable for anything. Its something similar to the DMCA system (the liability is passed on).
This combined with the ambivalent nature of carriers acting as both the shepherds and slaughterers of sheep enables some rather lucrative options during periods when carriers are "looking away".
For example:
- removing some check-marks I agree on offers
- removing the double optin system
- reducing the size of tos texts
- skipping the confirmation screen and billing user directly on visit of the offer page
- etc..
Some merchants are experts in abusing this, but they only have guts to do it when the carrier is looking away or rather when the carrier's due diligence team is not checking. A lot of carriers only check during normal work hours ( some have lately began checking also during night-time).
Now if you combine a brave (or stupid) merchant with a carries who is lenient with compliance checking you get offers which have conversion rates 2,3-5X higher during the night or weekends as opposed to normal working hours.
These "nightflows" are not available in all the geos or on all the carriers. They change nonstop and are very short lived. However when they are live, its profit bonanza for everyone involved.
For example a year or 2 ago Germany was really being abused, these days I think almost none of the German offers has "nightflow" enabled.
TIP:
Ask your AM if a mobile offer has a better conversion rate during the night or the weekend.
If you have a borderline profitable campaign, that's has already been optimized, pay attention to day parting, perhaps you can notice better conversion at night, even tho the AM didn't specifically say: run this only at night.
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I may have posted in the wrong forum. I apologize, I looked hard but couldn't find a more appropriate forum than Mobile.
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