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Spying Software (20)

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As a newb, I believe one of the best ways to get started is to see what works for others. Spying tools help a lot here.

So I was wondering, what spying tools are out there? From reading other threads I discovered:

WhatRunsWhere(Any opinions on how accurate they are/what's their coverage would be useful)

I found no Facebook ad spying tool currently, do you have any suggestions

Affexpert has POF spying tool, how accurate is it by your experience?

Any other spying tool?

Best regards

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WhatRunsWhere is for media buying, it has a lot of coverage, but I don't know specifics. You can message the owner Mattaw he is on this forum.

I heard there was an FB ad spy coming on the forum soon.

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What about the POF tool, how accurate have you found it to be? Tot days = number of total days seen I guess ?

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www.lotsofads.com for FB

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Only thing that's missing imo is a PPV spy service. It took me around 30 minutes to write my own bot that visits a specific set of urls and puts the popped landers into a neat text-file, but I still think it's stupid that everyone is running their own bots wasting each other's money.

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Don't get too hung up on spy tools. This is where affiliate marketing disappears up it's own arse, everyone copying everyone else and zero innovation. I never made a single cent off of spying. Sure some people do ok, but it's a losing game, a race to the bottom. The real returns come from using your brain and thinking up something new. Be a leader, not a follower. Just my 2 centimes

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^True words.

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Big money = Innovation.

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I agree 100%.

At the same time, someone starting out needs to learn how the market and especially the traffic source works.

A newbie trying to innovate is sure to end in disaster.

For someone who's already banking big, yeah sure they'd be making much more in the long term creating their own campaigns incorporating all the data, knowledge & experience they've gathered over the years. As someone who has gotten into AM very recently, I can tell you I'd be pretty lost without the ability to look at what's already running and working for others.

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Lol, your advice is very dangerous to newbies. There's a theory called "The Curse of Knowledge", and that is, when you reach expert level in something it's very hard to get and see how it was in beginner's mindset.

There's some studies (Read "Copycats" by Oded Shenkar, Harvard Business Review) that show that 2nd fast movers and imitators take a bigger piece of the cake than innovators.

Maybe we have a different definition of innovation. I want to use spy tools to get some framework of what works and what doesn't, of course I ain't going to copy blindly. I'm just gonna use that as a blueprint and improve. It's bad to go to extremes, like do innovation without taking anything as an inspiration and/or blueprint (if you wanna build a rocket then it's a good idea to take a look at other people research and past rockets, not start from scratch).

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I understand the curse of knowledge. I was a newbie too, we all were. But my most successful campaigns were when I had no idea what I or anyone else was doing, and I know I'm not alone in that.

What you have to understand is that you actually have a huge advantage over anyone with any experience. You haven't been contaminated by existing ideas. You are starting with a blank canvas. You only get to do that once, ever. As soon as you start looking at other campaigns, you become infected with those ideas. Right now is the time you can think the most freely, unbound by preconceptions.

To use your own analogy, someone who wanted to reach the moon and who had never seen a rocket might look at the problem in a completely different way. After all, who's to say a rocket is the best method? They could end up inventing an anti-gravity drive that spits out fluffy bunnies as its only waste product. It might take them a bit longer than basing their ideas off a rocket, but the world would be a richer place as a result.

Every campaign you see, the harder it becomes to think of something truly original. No matter how hard you try, subconsciously you will draw on what you have seen.

It's tempting to take shortcuts. But I think you're squandering a golden opportunity.

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I am gonna LOL this...and say that your coming at it from the wrong angle....noob or not I don't care....

its not like building a rocket....

looking at camps like that provide no real framework for anything....your seeing a small snippet of whats being done....and whats even funnier is the fact that the core stuff the very basic stuff, really all the tools you need have been laid out here in these forums or in some very good books like....

cashvertising or tested advertising methods....

tbh this has been beaten to death here in these forums over and over and over again and its funny how few people actually listen....and just keep thinking that camp spying or case studies are gonna help them understand stuff and make them $x,xxx/day....

Its an easy trap to fall in to....and if you keep going down that path it becomes a habit...and I argue it hampers creativity(and the size of your wallet)....

lets do an example cuz talk is bullshit and data is king....


http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...kier-campaigns

ummm ya.....

so you really need a framework for that?

like seriously?

(not trying to be a dick btw but just trying to give you non bs advice)

look at his lander

tell me what spying is gonna do there?


point I am trying to make is......he used some very simple tactics that are covered in almost any basic marketing book....

AIDA

attention - bright colors, flashing background
desire - 47/ hr
interest - from home, asking a question
action - click here

......

people waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

overthink shit when it comes to the landing page part/ad part of things....(I am guilty of this myself sometimes)

pretty much every banner, ad or lp you will ever do will cover those 4 points....if it doesn't its prob why your not making any money

the rest of your success is learning how to maximize the traffic source your running on....again where so many people fail.....they make $100/day then move to the next great thing.....instead of really maxing out every possible way to use that traffic to make ROI.....and learning all of that traffic sources secrets and tips and tricks....

which btw you will never learn from spying or copying.....you only learn that by running traffic and testing what is possible with that given source and getting creative with it....ie testing shit outside the norm.....

so here it is.....here is how you make $x,xxx,xxx online

understand AIDA - eg..using it to talk to your demographic/interest your targeting
stick to 1 traffic source until you have learned to or maximized every last possible click of traffic from it....
track your shit
ABT (always be testing) in a methodical way....think rinse and repeat....rinse and repeat....
Manage your risk

so by the end of this your either thinking I am a total cock....and "why did I pay $99 to get yelled at by some fucking unicorn".....

Well please don't take this as being directed solely at you....there has just be an absolute shit ton of people not getting it lately....

and focusing there time (the most valuable asset you have) and effort on all the wrong things....

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@dare05

I'm going to place a mix of devils advocate and explain how copying in this market can be good and bad (there's 2 stages of copying)

1. Innovation
Takes a lot of work, a LOT of trial and error, but when you hit it big, boy is it worth it@!!

2. Stage 1 Copying
This is when you see a unique campaign for your first time and you copy it. At this point in time most people don't know about this campaign/angle/offer and it hasn't been on every traffic source already etc.. So yes if you copy this you may still hit it very big, but this is almost as hard as #1, because this means your finding someones innovation which is based on luck.

3. Stage 2 Copying
Nothing wrong with it, we've all done it. Some are better at it then others, i personally haven't made much money from it. This level of copying is once it's been EVERYWHERE, you've seen it on every traffic source, it's on spy tools, your affiliates managers all know about it, etc... This is when it's deeply saturated and the ROI is no longer a fraction of what it used to be. There is $ to be made, but honestly SO MUCH LESS!!!

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I think you went to the other extreme.

First, I'm not starting with a blank canvas. Nobody is. I've already seen many ads on national TV etc etc...I guess the point you're trying to make is not to focus too much on spying?

@POlarbacon I'm gonna take your advice...still very new at this. @stackman, you're right, it seems to be about balance ultimately, between innovating and watching other ads but not focusing yourself too much.

Damn I'm gonna start testing a lot after reading all this..maybe also hire outsourcers to also test to get a broader perspective.

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I love this topic.

I do not usually self promote but when I do I chose to hyperlink.

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Really good points. I'm now totally confused with so much contradictory opinions of mods/admins/established members lolz

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What works for person A doesn't necessarily work for person B.

Some people have a creative background, some people have a methodical background, some people are good at talking to people, some have a mix. Based on those you may find you will be a lot more successful going down one route as opposed to the other.

In the end you gotta find what is right for you and only you.

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Disaster? Like a campaign failing? 9 out of 10 of all your campaigns fail. That's not disaster, that's the game.

Since when is thinking of your own campaign "innovating?" I hope the industry isn't at that point.

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The pilgrims got the arrows, the settlers got the land. Google wasn't the first search engine, the iPod wasn't the first mp3 player. SDI - swipe, deploy and improve. Innovation is over-rated in this business, just keeping it real.

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Agree'd they are useful to find placements you may not have thought of though.

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