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Sweepstakes 101 - Part 3 - Traffic Types & Sources (8)

09-10-2019 05:04 PM #1 vortex (Senior Moderator)
Sweepstakes 101 - Part 3 - Traffic Types & Sources

Best Traffic Types

Now that you've signed up to a few networks and advertisers, and have a list of the best offers, it's time to look for the right traffic to send to these offers!

Below are recommendations by experts on what types of traffic are most-suitable for running sweeps offers.

Traffic Types Recommended By Experts

Andrew Payne aka @Mr Payne:

Push is definitely a strong contender, but sweeps can also still work on Pop traffic.

I know guys running sweeps on Facebook as well (kind of grey'ish tactics) but they work - and for geos outside of the US/CA, not too many issues.

Tim Konijn aka @stickupkid:

FB. Also, email is huge for sweeps!

Mitesh Muley aka @miteshmuley:

I am running mostly only on Facebook, but Push traffic is also performing well.

Vincent Jouvin @ Big Bang Ads:

Best traffic sources: Display / Banner traffic, DSP, email traffic, push/pop and social (Facebook & Instagram) - depending on which offer they promote.

All other traffic - video, blog, native etc...either don't convert, are too expensive or simply irrelevant.

Arthur Kruijssen @ FRST Media:

We are getting good results with various traffic sources that all have their advantages.

These days a lot of traffic is coming from Facebook, which is usually very good quality for us, unless the targeting was set to a very low age group.

Push has been replacing the good old pops with steady results, but user interaction and quality varies.

Google traffic seems to be harder to get, mostly due to platform restrictions on sweepstakes, although some pubs make it work anyway. Quality on GDN is great.

Email traffic has been declining over the past year, but we still allow this media type.

Stephen Gelber @ Fluent:

For traffic sources that myself and my team have used that work well for sweepstakes - honestly everything.

Pop, push, FB, IG, Snapchat (working very well), mobile pop, mobile display, native, Google on the display side.

Pinterest actually hasn't worked well for us.

Ivy @ Wewe Media:

Best traffic types that are driving the most volume are SMS, Facebook, Google, and Push, respectively.

The bigger affiliates on our network are working more with SMS and Facebook. Traffic is expensive and can be limited but experienced affiliates manage to get CC subs profitable.

While push is becoming really popular among new affiliates, push as we know can be a little inconsistent because of ad fatigue, bids, competition, etc. - so revenues from push traffic are very erratic.

So it's important to vary your traffic sources and not just rely on one traffic type, in order to have more stable revenue from CC subs.

Gijs @ VIP Response:

Traffic types: SMS, email, FB, Google & push works well.

Emil Alexandru @blackemil:

The best traffic sources are the old ones for me: Facebook and Google.

Liad @ CreativeClicks:

Honestly on our side Push is currently the hottest.

As for push networks, I can recommend our own: thePushEngine.com http://thepushengine.com/

We have about 20 million active subscribers on push. We work on CPC but we collect our subscribers from within sweepstakes funnels so quality is really good. It's not a self serve - there is an AM that will assist with campaign creation. Interested affiliates can contact me directly for details.

As for display, our internal media buying team is connecting with direct publishers, so can't really recommend a platform to test.

Fabi @ Gotzha:

Most traffic for sweeps is FB, email and push at the moment. These traffic types have generated the most sales and are bringing affiliates steady and high performance.

Erik aka @erikgyepes:

Push traffic is your best bet these days. Pops used to be good and still may work with easy flows like SOI, but the traffic quality and volumes may be lower than they used to be.

Of course FB is a great source if you know how to play by its rules or have constant access to new accounts.

Shay Fodor @ Mappstreet:

The best results are seen amongst affiliates that are doing media buys on social networks / google, and pop traffic.

Pros and Cons of Traffic Types

Below is a summary on the pros and cons of each traffic type, based on what I know plus what I've learned from interviewing all these experts. (Disclaimer: STM does NOT condone the practice of cloaking or the buying/selling of accounts on advertising platforms such as Facebook/Google. Please exercise your own discretion and understand what the risks are when making your own decisions.)

Push - Best for more-aggressive (i.e. misleading) landing page angles, without the need to cloak. Unlike pop ads which are displayed on publisher websites for everyone to see, push ads are only seen by the individual subscribers, so there are no publishers to piss off. Push traffic is also really easy to find - I'll provide a list in the section below. However, push traffic is more expensive than pop, and campaign performance (i.e. conversion rates) can be erratic/inconsistent.

Pop - Still good due to comparatively low cost, but can't run landers that are too aggressive on many pop networks. Many pop networks have stricter rules on compliance now - such as no trademarks are allowed, and no promising the visitor that they have won. Some affiliates are cloaking in order to run aggressive landers. Pop traffic though is also really easy to find - I'll provide a list in the section below.

Facebook and Instagram - Some cloak and some don't, depending on how aggressive your landing pages are. However, you will most likely still get accounts banned at least once in a while - again, depending on how aggressively you run. To stay under the radar, it would help to run lower spend across more accounts (tip by @stickupkid), and target countries outside of US/CA (tip by @Mr Payne).

Google - Harder to get camps approved, but quality is great. Again, cloaking may be required (although not mandatory for success).

Email - Can be a great source of traffic. The main challenge is that it's hard to find lists that aren't spammed to death already. I have yet to find a source I could recommend to all of you - will update this guide if I find one. Start by asking all your AMs though.

Native - Hella expensive, so really hard to make work. CC Subs are the only type that has any hope of becoming profitable with its higher margins (compared to lead gen offers).

SMS - Definitely can work, but some offers don't allow it. Problem is most SMS database owners are not GDPR compliant (see comment by Vincent @ BigBangAds in the next post, under the SMS section). And, as with email, you'd also need to be able to find a good database to rent that isn't stale AF.

Snapchat - Not mentioned a lot, but works well according to Stephen Gelber @ Fluent.

Pinterest - Not mentioned a lot, but not working well for Stephen Gelber @ Fluent.

Worth mentioning is that there are lots of ad platforms that sell banner traffic besides just FB and Google. I don't have any to suggest at this point because I haven't run a lot of that, and it has been a while since I did. But if you go off the beaten path to test some of them you may find some gems. Alternatively, you can approach webmasters directly to see if you could strike a deal (look for a tip from Vincent Jouvin @ Big Bang Ads in the next post regarding the DSP they've been buying traffic from).

The next post will contain detailed tips from experts on how to run sweeps campaigns on each of the major traffic types.

Traffic Sources

Below are some traffic sources where you can run sweepstakes offers. Reminder: As affiliates buying traffic, we would sign up as "Advertisers" and not "Publishers". (Disclaimer: STM does not endorse the use of any vendors. Please sign up at your own discretion.)

Pop:

Adcash (get your deposit bonus here)

Adsterra

Advertizer

Clickadu

Hilltopads

PopAds

PopCash

PropellerAds

SelfAdvertiser

Zeropark (get your deposit bonus here)

View Zeropark's Best Pop Sources for Sweeps in This Thread (and make requests for any geo you're wanting to run):
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...etials-within!

Push:

Adcash (get your deposit bonus here)

Admaven (get your deposit bonus here)

Adsterra

Advertizer

Clickadu

DaoPush

DatsPush

EZMob (get your deposit bonus here)

MegaPush

MGID (get your deposit bonus here)

PropellerAds

PushEngine (Contact: Mark at mark.se@creativeclicks.com)

Pushground (get your deposit bonus here)

RichPush (get your deposit bonus here)

Zeropark (get your deposit bonus here)

View Zeropark's Best Push Sources for Sweeps in This Thread (and make requests for any geo you're wanting to run):
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...etials-within!

Social:

Facebook

Instagram

Snapchat

Banner/Display:

Google Ads

(Looking for more recommendations...)

SMS:

Giljs @ VIP Response has SMS databases available for rent. Please find contact info in the "Affiliate Networks & Advertisers" section of this guide.

Email:

Recommended by [B @stickupkid[/B]:

Inboxus
Fruzzel Media
Across.it
Adgenics
VIP Response
Online Activity

And of course sweep advertisers likes Response Concepts and Qubiq have their own e-mail databases.

Matching Offer Types to Traffic Types

Mathijs Kortland & Bobby Verlaat @Sinum Vendo have shared with us on a silver platter, their experiences on what types of traffic have worked best for each type of offer. You will also find more tips on this topic in the next post, but Mathijs+Bobby's advice below I feel will serve as a great primer.

SOI/DOI Offers

1. Countries: Beginners -> tier 2 + 3. Advanced -> ALL.

2. Traffic types: Push (only if you can bring down cost efficiently), Facebook/Instagram (only with knowledge of the risks + rules by Facebook/Instagram), mixing Pops and Display (cheapest way, but watch quality – most of the time lower compared to other traffic sources).

3. Offer types: Start with voucher offers that are not saturated, or where competition is relatively low. Be unique, creative and adapt your strategy towards GEO + Audience type. Normal phones like iPhone / Samsung still do work, but as they've being milked out, more difficult for a beginner especially.

Subscription-Based Offers

1. Countries: Beginners -> tier 2 mainly (higher CPAs, best ROIs). Advanced -> ALL.

2. Traffic types: Push (higher CPAs, do watch the costs as it can drain very rapidly on higher volumes), SMS (where the advertiser allows it), Facebook (subscription-based is more aggressive compared to SOI/DOI so watch out for bans, or promote more white-hat like @stickupkid). And to mention a fourth one, Pops still work, but CR is lower, and being creative is a must.

3. Offer types: Mix of phones + vouchers. However, vouchers work best as with SOI/DOI.

Credit Card-Based Offers

1. Countries: GEOs with wide credit card coverage, or where it’s a popular way to pay – for instance in Germany or the Netherlands, people do have credit cards but still favor debit cards. I have heard stories that LATAM also can do well. But focus mainly on tier 1.

2. Traffic types: SMS, Push, Facebook, Email and I recently read that Pops also work.

3. Offer types: iPhone, Samsung, Huawei. Voucher seems to do less, but generic vouchers and specific ones for the creative minds among us are also fine.

09-10-2019 07:01 PM #2 stickupkid (Senior Moderator)

Addition for e-mail:

Inboxus
Fruzzel Media
Across.it
Adgenics
VIP Response
Online Activity

And ofcourse sweep advertisers likes Response Concepts and Qubiq have their own e-mail databases.

09-11-2019 12:29 AM #3 vortex (Senior Moderator)

Originally Posted by stickupkid

Addition for e-mail:

Inboxus
Fruzzel Media
Across.it
Adgenics
VIP Response
Online Activity

And ofcourse sweep advertisers likes Response Concepts and Qubiq have their own e-mail databases.

Fantastic thank you!! Adding these to the main post.

Amy

09-12-2019 07:12 AM #4 William Yang (Senior Member)

Advertizer should be in the both pop list and push list!

09-12-2019 08:34 AM #5 alexcn (Member)

Great post Amy! Sorry, but in the last part of your post, it's recommended for newbie's to start with 'voucher' offers that are off the beaten path (ie NOT iPhone or Samsung phones)

What is meant by a 'Voucher' offer exactly? Does this mean just a giveaway/Sweeps offer, or does it have something to do with a Coupon or something?

Would you mind giving an example of an off the beaten path 'voucher' offer?

Thanks!

09-12-2019 10:13 AM #6 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Originally Posted by alexcn

Vouchers in sweeps are usually shopping coupons for a particular shopping brand, so like Tesco, Wallmart, MediaMarkt ... depending on the GEO.

Here is a MediaMarkt voucher LP from clickdealer :

09-13-2019 05:48 AM #7 alexcn (Member)

Thanks @matuloo. So it's like a branded gift card, rather than a discount of some sort. Makes sense.

09-14-2019 01:17 AM #8 vortex (Senior Moderator)

Originally Posted by William Yang

Advertizer should be in the both pop list and push list!

Thanks @William Yang for the suggestion - added!

It was actually the gentlemen from Sinum Vendo that made the recommendation.

(This is weird - I don't see the part mentioning Sinum Vendo when viewing from mobile, but the mention is visible on desktop.)

Like @matuloo has pointed out, voucher offers are sweeps offers with prizes like giftcards, and usually these are in $500/$1000 (or the same amount in euros or pounds depending on geo).

Amy

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