Is payout the only "competitive advantage" still left? (14)
Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is building "competitive advantages" in my campaigns.
However these days I think it seems a better payout is the only competitive advantage that is left?
I've tried to do flat rate buys to try to buy out spots that are profitable for me, however the pricing I get is usually worse than what I get just using the self-serve platform. Most of these places (at least from what I can see) don't want to sell the traffic for a flat rate, and they only want to sell you their absolute trash holdings lol. I understand them not wanting to sell premium Tier 1 traffic etc, but I've been trying to buy Tier 2 geos and still can't get a deal.
Obviously landing pages, banners, etc. aren't competitive advantages as they can be ripped in 2 seconds.
I guess another would be "exclusive offers", but I don't know how one would go about getting those. I run decent volume, so maybe I could get one. But it seems you'd have to run a TON of traffic for an advertiser to create a new offer just for you.
So that being said, is payout the only competitive advantage left in adult?
It's a good question and I wouldn't go to such extremes as no system can prosper when everything only depends on one element.
No doubt, payout is a significant factor because we all want money but what's the point of high payment rates if you never reach them?
Every element is vital and that includes the creatives as they are what converts, the traffic source as it's what brings you customers,
the advertiser (and the like) as it's the one that pays you money, the support there as they are those who help you solve problems and so on.
The only thing that is permanent is change so all you have to do is analyse, adapt and tweek
You don't need to run TON of traffic to just get entry into "Exclusive offers". If your traffic quality is above average, converting well enough into sales (sometimes high-ticket, back-end sale) for advertiser and you're running significant amount then getting into exclusive offers isn't hard. Many times you get "invitation" from their side to run offers.
leadreaktor's post is on spot, totally agree with her. Sometimes small tricks or strategies can be a great "competitive advantage".
LeadCloak
Thanks for the response guys.
I understand there are many elements to a campaign, but what gives you the advantage over other affiliates?
Offers: Most affiliates have access to the same offers
Traffic Source: Most affiliates have access to the same traffic sources
Creatives: Even if you create good ones, they can be ripped from spy tools in 2 seconds
My question is how to avoid the race to the bottom when everyone has access to the same things?
I have profitable campaigns, but this is only due to the fact that I have large bumped payout on these due to history with advertiser etc.
Like I don't see how an affiliate can go to somewhere like TJ with a street offer and make money without a little help. Even in lower tiered geos these days are competitive.
There are couple of great articles from Charles Ngo regarding this topic.
Take a look:
https://charlesngo.com/defend-your-c...s-with-a-moat/
https://charlesngo.com/dyingcampaigns/
Originally Posted by henrik
My contention is though that some of these in Adult may not exist (at least that Im aware of, maybe I need to do more research).
For example I dont think you can really buy bulk traffic these days at a discount, at least from the places I'm trying to buy them from anyway.
Offers: request exclusive offers at the advertiser which you run. if you see certain niches growing or you see unsaturated ground, act on it an say I can possibly do xxx or xxxx a day if you add this or adjust that. Be pro active.
Traffic source: try to learn and read more about certain tactics to get the best spots and cheapest traffic. Again be pro active.
Creatives: if you master above two points, you will always beat the leechers ripping your stuff, since they are way ahead time.
I am not saying you don't put enough effort in it, because I have no clue, YOU are the only one that can make a difference, nobody here.
Originally Posted by stickupkid
I think just evaluating my campaigns I do work a ton on my creatives, but I think maybe I'm not being pro active regarding the other stuff (sourcing cheaper traffic, negotiating better etc)
I do run decent volume, so I should be able to secure better deals.
I guess I'm just trying to find the last bits of profit in my campaigns.
Yeah catch up with AM’s have a little chat and build a relationship. Once I was a publisher manager, from experience I can tell guys I had a good connection with I gave more cap, better deals or exclusive offers.
You gotta earn stuff, nothing comes towards you by itself.
Sent from my iPhone using STM Forums mobile app
This is something I think about a lot in natives.
Looking on Adplexity, there really aren't THAT many different affiliate products succeeding on any one traffic source. And because of spytools we all- to some extent- can see what everybody else is running.
The obvious strategic advantages are higher payouts, discounted traffic, exclusive offers, etc, plus and then there's things like good angles/creatives which are important but can be stolen, and other small advantages like popups/scripts/etc, but I think the other biggest advantage which is less black and white, is mastery of traffic source, which is something I've been trying to focus on.
A beginner on Revcontent might rip a campaign and landing page, but he may spend 500$ on bot traffic on any given topic before even getting a conversion. Or he might test out that offer on a bunch of bad placements and not get any sales and think its a bad offer, when in reality its good.
These dudes running 5-6 figures a day though for years on end likely know the whole platform like the back of their hand. In thirty seconds they can put together any combination of 200-widget whitelist of proven widgets to test new offers on, with reams of historic data on average cpc and epc per widget.
That makes it that much faster for them to find the campaign's epc, which then means they can segment all their widgets into various whitelist tiers based upon epc and cpc, and the beginner with less knowledge will have a heck of a time competing with them.
I have no idea if that translates to adult, but your thoughtful post put it in my mind so wanted to share.
That's what I'm trying to do though is approach the traffic source as if its some country I'm leading an invasion of, and figure out every single ditch and factory and foxhole and all the best invasion points 
(plus all the other strategic advantages mentioned above, of course)
Originally Posted by jack_l
Looking on Adplexity, there really aren't THAT many different affiliate products succeeding on any one traffic source. And because of spytools we all- to some extent- can see what everybody else is running.
The obvious strategic advantages are higher payouts, discounted traffic, exclusive offers, etc, plus and then there's things like good angles/creatives which are important but can be stolen, and other small advantages like popups/scripts/etc, but I think the other biggest advantage which is less black and white, is mastery of traffic source, which is something I've been trying to focus on.
A beginner on Revcontent might rip a campaign and landing page, but he may spend 500$ on bot traffic on any given topic before even getting a conversion. Or he might test out that offer on a bunch of bad placements and not get any sales and think its a bad offer, when in reality its good.
These dudes running 5-6 figures a day though for years on end likely know the whole platform like the back of their hand. In thirty seconds they can put together any combination of 200-widget whitelist of proven widgets to test new offers on, with reams of historic data on average cpc and epc per widget.
That makes it that much faster for them to find the campaign's epc, which then means they can segment all their widgets into various whitelist tiers based upon epc and cpc, and the beginner with less knowledge will have a heck of a time competing with them.
I have no idea if that translates to adult, but your thoughtful post put it in my mind so wanted to share.
That's what I'm trying to do though is approach the traffic source as if its some country I'm leading an invasion of, and figure out every single ditch and factory and foxhole and all the best invasion points
(plus all the other strategic advantages mentioned above, of course)As far as mastering traffic sources, I think Adult is pretty straight forward so I don't really see this as a big advantage. Maybe there are some hidden gem traffic sources, so I guess I could look into that.
However I think it's becoming more of an arbitrage game where you need advantages over the competition since everything is pretty transparent unlike perhaps other verticals.
I think I should be able to get better deals though as I've run 6-figure revenue at several networks this year and have a pretty good track record in terms of quality. So I'm going to see if I can swing something lol
Like i said above, have a chat with your AM and try to get into exclusive offers. If you're running traffic worth six figures per month -- it shouldn't be hard for you.
LeadCloak
This is such a great topic for discussion!
Lots of great input has been offered.
I haven't run adult in a long time, but aside from the payout, below are some of the other elements I could think of where affiliates can gain an advantage over the competition:
Targeting - The hundreds/thousands of publisher sites on Exoclick RON comes to mind. Just finding out which sites are duds can require 4-5 figures in spend - most newbie affiliates don't have the heart to fork out this money upfront.
Efficiency in Monetizing Traffic - I don't remember if adult networks work the same way, but for pop, the broader you target, the more volume you can get for cheaper (potentially). But targeting broad would mean being able to monetize each major traffic segment effectively, for example by testing a ton of offers and figuring out which offer converts the best for each major segment (e.g. use tracker rules to direct mobile carrier A traffic to offer X, and mobile carrier B traffic to offer Y). Another thing you can try, is approach the smaller publishers and offer to buy all their traffic. Buying from JuicyAds is similar. Basically you'd be buying broad traffic - and optimizing by segment can allow you to squeeze out more profits, as well as bid higher than the competition.
Efficiency in Testing and Workflow in General - If you can test more extensively for cheaper and do it faster than your competition, that would definitely give you an edge! And that is something that can only come with experience (which is something you have).
Extent of Scaling - If you're very efficient and/or have enough manpower (e.g. a team), you can scale to more traffic sources and faster, compared to the competition.
Lead Quality - An experienced affiliate such as yourself must know what kinds of angles are resulting in the best lead quality - which is essential for pay bumps.
I'm sure there are others, but these are what I could think of off the top of my head.
Amy
A huge advantage overlooked is automation and its becoming more popular option for getting a leg up over others, teams who build systems to get campaigns up fast and optimise fast will have a huge advantage, especially on FB/GDN and it would work well with adult too with high volume campaign output with ability to mass submit and gather data to optimise quickly.
VA's help but even then its a sluggish wait time often daily to get reports and know what to do next etc
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