3 campaigns, no results (super new) (13)
Hi, just starting in AM and now have three campaigns under my belt. None have performed and am looking for any help or feedback on what is going wrong.
MY GOAL
I want to get to a profitable campaign, and then be able to analyze data to scale campaigns or purge them. The concept of optimization is fascinating to me but the number of variables is staggering and I’m trying to “stay on the path” of the Cookbook to learn.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Tremendously impressed by the STM community and hope that one day I can return knowledge in return. Hoping that this follow-through helps someone else out.
My results have been very poor so far, with very little conversions and a low CTR. Based on what I’ve read, this is normal in the beginning and I’m pressing through, although it’s frustrating to not see immediate results!
WHAT I HAVE
· A total budget of $3,000.
· Starting with Go2Mobi and Adsimilis, using the Mobile Cookbook Appetiser and creating 320x50 advertisements.
CAMPAIGN 1
Sweepstakes; iPhone; Africa.
Conversions: 1
Total revenue: $0.2
Cost: $64.52
Profit: ($64.32)
CTR: 0.48%
CAMPAIGN 2
Same sweepstakes (but a different set of ads); iPhone; Africa.
Conversions: 3
Total revenue: $0.6
Cost: $52.17
Profit: ($51.57)
CTR: 0.53%
CAMPAIGN 3
Game registration; Asia
Conversions: 0
Total revenue: $0
Profit: ($45.94)
Average CTR: .86%
QUESTIONS SO FAR:
- Can I cancel a campaign before a $60 spend? It seemed like all three of the campaigns above were going nowhere well before the $60 mark.
- Should I pick just one vertical, like sweeps, and test it? Or is it a good idea to try multiple verticals?
- When running ads in non-English speaking countries, do we translate the ad?
Hi elem99
First of all, don't despair. You are starting off and these results are perfectly normal when you start out. Dont give up, keep on going.
Look at this period as a learning period and your main goal should be amassing data and learning from that rather than making money. Learning what doesn't work is as valuable as learning what does work.
Here's also an answer to your question:
Can I cancel a campaign before a $60 spend? It seemed like all three of the campaigns above were going nowhere well before the $60 mark.
--> If you spend 60$ on a low payout campaign and you make 0$, yes cancel the campaign. Analyse your results, learn from your data and move on to the next one.
Or drastically adapt your angle, creatives and bidding and try again. Always good to have a cut off point.
Should I pick just one vertical, like sweeps, and test it? Or is it a good idea to try multiple verticals?
--> Best is to focus on 1 or 2 verticals and 1 or 2 traffic sources. Do a lot of spying, reading and knowlegde sharing before deep diving into your chosen verticals and traffic sources.
When running ads in non-English speaking countries, do we translate the ad?
--> Yes, yes and yes! If you run campaigns in DE, make sure your creatives and landing pages are in German. Always work with the native language of the country.
Thank you; that's very helpful. I will be translating ads and focusing on a couple of verticals going forward!
Originally Posted by cbrughmans
Awesome Advice...
I have never had a problem with no being profitable using FB ADS.... My very first campaign i GOT 100% ROI
But POPS? whole nother' story ... Im following and watching ...
I use ONE HOUR TRANSLATION for my tier 2 countries
SONNY
Make sure to test some proven landing pages in the sweepstakes vertical. The ones a lot of people use are the spinning wheel one, and the others are usually a trivia question type lander. Grab a few of them for each GEO off of mobile Adplexity and rotate them in your campaigns to find a winner. More importantly though, test a ton of offers, as many as you can find. The difference in performance between offers is huge, and will make or break your campaign. If you can share more details on your landing pages, offers, etc. then we can give you some better pointers here.
Priest, thanks for the comment. You've actually identified a major concern I'm having: Should I be using landers?
I'm using the Cookbook Appetiser and have been creating campaigns containing eight 320x50 banners apiece. I assume these banners point to the offer's landing page, but they're not pointing to landing pages I've created.
Is it safe to say that I should skip to the next chapter in the cookbook to learn about landers, or should I keep grinding out banners for the time being? And it goes without saying, I REALLY appreciate the helpful community on STM. Thank you!
Irregardless, I'm signing up for Adplexity...
I'm not too familiar with the mobile cookbook as I went into mobile pops off the start. In mobile pops you definitely need a lander to do any damage with sweepstakes, and I would imagine it would be the same with display. A good lander is required in most verticals as you need to presell the visitor and get them in the right mindset to complete the offer. The offer pages often do very little to presell the visitor, so they just wonder why am I here and click away. In the sweepstakes vertical, your landing page's job is to make them feel like they have won, or that they have completed a task and are receiving a reward. Be careful to stay within the offer's terms (generally this means not using the word "free"). So the visitor arrives at your landing page, spins the wheel, and it lands on a prize. They feel like they have won something and your call to action will be something like "congratulations, click here to claim your prize". So then they get to the offer page feeling like they have won an iphone (or whatever it is your offer is for), and they are far more likely to enter their email or click the button to complete the offer.
So yes, landing pages are very important. I think signing up for adplexity is the best step you can take at this point. Download some landing pages, clean them up, and put them into your rotation. You should see a major improvement in conversion rate.
Thanks everyone for your help. I applied the advice you gave me in the latest round, specifically:
* Changed my mindset from making money to focusing on what I can learn in this stage;
* That means I focused on how to improve my process, and got a lot faster at creating ads & launching them;
* Learned how to translate banners
Shifting my mindset made me super-productive (I even knocked out sets of ads in airports and hotel rooms), but I also had a lot of fun by focusing on learning how to launch campaigns instead of making money (yet).
One piece of advice I haven't yet moved on is Adplexity, because I want to get a more solid routine in place before upgrading my software stack...it's coming, very soon.
That being said, my results are still awful. My current strategy is that next week I'll move to the next step in the Mobile Cookbook, and focus on learning all I can from that stage, still not focusing on money yet. That stage requires me to get a tracker, so costs will increase. Does that seem like a smart strategy?
Here are my results - I've asked a few questions below, and if anyone has any answers, it would be very appreciated!
Camp 4 (Thailand game registration)
(actually translated the banners properly this time)
Conversions: 0
Profit/Loss: ($31.24)
.75% CTR
Camp 5 (UK sweepstakes)
Conversions: 0
Profit/Loss: ($31.37)
.61% CTR
Camp 6 (UK sweepstakes)
Conversions: 0
Profit/Loss: ($22.88)
CTR: 0.53%
Camp 7 (Poland sweepstakes)
Conversions: 0
Profit/Loss: ($31.30)
CTR: 0.39%
Camp 8 (Thailand grocery sweepstakes)
Conversions: 0
Profit/Loss: (25.99)
CTR: 0.98%
Camp 9 (South Africa grocery sweepstakes)
Conversions: 0
Profit/Loss: ($22.12)
CTR: 0.37%
Camp 10 (Italy sweepstakes)
Conversions: 0
Profit/Loss: ($21.14)
CTR: 0.63%
Questions:
* It seems odd to get zero conversions (but at least it's consistent). Could I be doing something fundamentally wrong? The exchange I use is Smaato. Could that be an issue?
* People say to test offers in multiple geos. How is this possible, when the offer specifies what geo to use?
* Does it seem like I'm ready to move to the next step of the cookbook, even though I don't have very many conversions at this stage?
Thank you to everyone on this forum for being so helpful. Hopefully this follow-through is helpful to someone else.
Zero conversions in ten campaigns is indeed an indicator that something is going wrong.
Without knowing the details about your campaigns, I would recommend you to shift gears and use a different strategy.
(Ps.: trying to make sweeps work without lander could be the problem)
The Mobile Cookbook has been written a while ago. The display landscape has changed a bit since then. So I would use the knowledge of it but alter the strategy a bit.
I would recommend you to move to pops and use pre-landers and tracking.
Flying blind without analyzing & optimizing the data is not a viable approach anymore.
Further you're operating in very competitive and expensive GEOs.
I would recommend you to focus on LATAM, SEA, Middle East and Africa for cheaper learning and faster progress.
Once you have a winner you can then use your display experience and scale it to display.
I'm with sebastian_r : running without LPs is most likely the problem.
It's also true that mobile cookbook has been written a while ago, things got harder in the meantime. Mobile display also changed, I actually wrote an artile on it, not so long ago, you might want to check it out : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...it-DEAD-or-NOT
Matej.
Thank you to you both - and that article was SUPER informative. I will indeed pivot to a new strategy like you suggest - and my time so far was definitely not wasted. I'll report on what round 2 brings - thank you!
Another strategy, if you're wanting to continue to direct-link, would be to use generic banners with 1/2-click carrier-billing offers:
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...l=1#post299115
I still have a couple of camps running on go2mobi that I haven't touched in months - still making profits after all these months.
You'll need to test a TON of offers to find ones that work, and prune the IP ranges you're targeting so you'd only be targeting those that convert. But keep your starting bid low and cut offers very early on (e.g. cut when an offer doesn't convert in 5-10x payout), there's still potential to make money there. And mDSP traffic performs more consistent / less volatile than pop traffic.
So now you have several options. 
Good luck and let us know how you get on!
Amy
Thank you for that post! Very interesting - and the fact that you got 15%+ CTR on generic banners, wow. Good to have another strategy to pursue. I'll check back in soon. Thank you everyone for the help.
Matt
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