AM Insights - Valery from Propeller Ads (3)
In the last post of the AM Insights series we had Stijn from Gotzha.
This time we get some great insights and views from the perspective of a trafficsource affiliate manager.
Affiliate managers from CPA networks are mostly there to help you with offers to earn money but today we learn a bit about the other side where you spend your money 
It´s interesting to see that some answers are pretty similar.
And here is Valery from Propeller Ads, thanks alot for your input
Can you tell a bit about you like who you are, for how long you are working in the affiliate industry, what you are doing there and so on.
Hi!
My name is Valery Puzankov.
I’m an Account Strategist at PropellerAds.
My path at PropellerAds started in the Support Team 2,5 years ago.
In 2019 I moved to the Account Strategist position, so I have experience of assisting newbies in affiliate marketing, as well as top spenders in the Network.
First some general information about PropellerAds.
What ad formats do you have?
What ad formats do you recommend beginners start with and why do you recommend it?
PropellerAds is the top Push, Popunder and Interstitial traffic source.
The company gives access to 600+ million users on Push Notifications. Moreover, you can expand your Push campaigns with In-Page Push Notifications! We have recently presented this newly developed traffic type and now we are actively developing it.
Push and Pops are formats to focus on for beginners. Once you have stable results with them, go scaling on Interstitial, which is our third format.
Volume is huge in each of the 195+ available geos, there is a variety of bid format options and progressive tools which can cover most of your optimization work load.
Popunder is cheap and requires only your creativity with prelander, so this provides an easy entry for beginners. Push notifications require a higher budget to start with, although with CPC you pay only for interested users and prelander is not necessary most of the time.
What bid formats are best for testing?
And which are good for scaling and why?
Popunder
If you work with Popunder, I would suggest using CPA Goal 2.0 — an auto-optimization tool that helps drive conversions at the target price you set. The basic principle of CPA Goal 2.0 is that the better your campaign converts, the more traffic it will get.
In most cases, CPA Goal 2.0 is your best choice for testing if you can send conversions through postback and conversion is relatively easy (SOI, CPI). Anything below $20 has a decent chance of performing well.
If you can’t send conversions through postback, go with SmartCPM. It’s a second price auction model that allows you to always pay a fair price for traffic. You don’t overpay for cheap sources, while getting a chance to sample the top converting sources with high CPMs.
The old flat CPM is still the best option for scaling, if you have 1-10 sources that bring you profit and you want to squeeze each and every impression from it.
Push notifications
CPC is the best choice for testing and scaling, since you only pay for interested users. Once you want to scale and have good sources to push - create a Whitelist campaign with an increased bid.
CPM is good for scaling as well if you have narrow targeting to push.
My general advice for scaling is to use all bidding formats available. You should have SmartCPM as RON campaigns; CPM for Whitelist campaigns; and multiple CPA Goal 2.0 campaigns to maximize your profit.
What current trends do you see, what verticals are slowing down and what is killing it right now?
Are there any really hot geos you recommend or are there geos that are overrated?
VPNs for iOS, Cleaners for Android, Antivirus for Windows; Crypto has been doing very well in recent months and continues to grow.
Finance bank offers in LATAM are the thing to pay attention to.
What would you recommend as the best way to start for a beginner (vertical, conversion flows, low tier vs high tier etc)?
Easy conversion flow, Popunder/Push Notifications. As for vertical, Mobile subscriptions and SOI sweeps can be a good place to start.
Talking about communication with affiliate managers, what´s the best way for a beginner to receive help from an affiliate manager?
First of all, a beginner should show his or her potential and get under their manager’s radar
We have a benefits program for advertisers – Propeller Priority. The program includes 4 levels, which are determined based on spending.
• Green – monthly spend from $0 to $500.
• Silver – monthly spend from $500 to $5000
• Gold – monthly spend from $5000 to $15000
• Platinum – monthly spend from $15000+
A PropellerAds manager is assigned to accounts with $5k+ monthly spend, that is, to Gold and Platinum levels. In some cases, several days span with over $100 daily spend can also catch a manager’s attention.
Then once you’re in touch, just be respectful and don’t expect an immediate answer every time
Sometimes the whole day is a meeting after meeting, followed by scheduled calls and urgent issues with partners. We prioritize a lot and if you are in a big spender/high upside category, you will get all the attention. If you are a beginner and ask legit questions, while being respectful and patient, you will eventually get into a high upside category as well.
In addition, don’t forget that the PropellerAds team is always ready to answer your questions in support and Telegram chats 
What should an affiliate do if the AM takes too long to reply?
Be patient and respectful. If there are consecutive cases of the AM not replying for days, communicate directly about it. If that doesn’t help - mention it to the support team.
How do you decide how much time you're going to dedicate to an affiliate?
Prioritizing. *covered in the questions above*
What are good geos for beginners and why?
It’s better for beginners to work with tier-3 countries. These geos are more affordable, so they will help you garner more experience.
But I would focus on offers more than on specific geos. Choose offers with an easy conversion flow. You can find many good ones in Zeydoo. This CPA network contains more than 500 private offers tested on PropellerAds traffic, so I can recommend it.
What's your opinion on testing new campaigns, what's the best approach?
Same question for scaling campaigns for maximum volume.
I’ve covered what bid formats to use for testing and scaling.
From testing campaigns you should exclude low performing sources.
Scaling campaigns should be targeted on a Whitelist you’ve collected on testing campaigns.
What are the most effective ways to bid for high quality and high volume without overpaying?
CPA Goal 2.0 and SmartCPM for testing.
CPM only for narrow targeting, unless your goal is to buy bulk traffic and volume is your only goal.
What's the best way to find hot traffic opportunities on PropellerAds?
Follow our marketing newsletters, telegram chat and social media:
• Telegram
• Facebook
• Linkedin
• Instagram
• Twitter
What are some of the most common mistakes you see from new affiliates?
Wrong campaign settings, creatives that don’t convert etc.
To avoid such mistakes, read our blog, it contains a lot of useful information.
Talking about the most successful affiliates you work with, do you see a pattern that could help others as well to increase their revenue? Of course. No personal details needed.
As I can see all successful affiliates constantly look for new knowledge.
Besides, they are very persistent and patient.
And it is not a surprise because it takes years of experience to learn tricks of affiliate marketing.
What would you like to tell new affiliates that could help them on their way?
Let’s imagine I’m an affiliate.
The most important thing I would focus on is building relationships and networking, meeting new people.
That gives you exclusive conditions and cooperation opportunities.
Then I would try to hone my skills at making good creatives, prelanders, unique funnels.
The key is to excel at things 99% of affiliates couldn’t do.
Or meet people who can provide that for you
And general advice, take your time and be patient.
Gradually grow and enjoy the process of excelling at affiliate marketing!
I guess most of us know Propeller Ads but can you tell a bit why new affiliates should run your traffic?
What makes you special, where are your strenghts?
What makes PropellerAds special?
Huge volumes of high-quality traffic from all over the world, the lowest prices on the market, powerful auto-optimization and auto-testing tools, very professional and friendly support, 9 years of experience…
The list goes on and on
We work with all verticals except adult.
All of them show good results, but often it depends on the ad format.
According to our statistics, the verticals that work best with our traffic are the following:
• Push notifications: sweepstakes, dating, eCommerce, crypto, finance
• Interstitials: dating, gaming, finance
• Popunder: COD, sweepstakes, utilities, finance
As for the best geos, the situation is constantly changing.
I strongly advise following PropellerAds newsletters and social media to keep up to date on the best geos with large volumes of traffic and low competition.
In addition, this way you will always be aware of all our platform updates.
It’s important, because we’re always developing new tools and features.
For example, we have recently released Audiences 2.0 – a set of retargeting tools aimed at helping you collect users in four ways: based on clicks, converted users, engaged visits, and retargeting pixel.
Not so long ago we introduced a new traffic type — In-Page Push — and published a number of posts on how to expand Push campaigns with it.
Those who joined our Telegram chat and follow our social media are the first ones to know about such news.
Last question for today, do you have a bonus or something like this for our users who are hungry to test your traffic?
We are ready to give ten $35 bonuses for beginners! if you haven’t worked with PropellerAds yet, send “STM35” in a private message to @propellerads on the forum and get your code.
Please note that this is a welcome bonus and can be applied for the first deposit only!
Do not make a deposit until you receive the bonus and remember that PropellerAds does not allow the multiple account opening.
That’s not all!
We often give out bonuses in our Telegram chat and we also have a special promo for those who are already making money with us.
Affiliates can write case studies about campaigns with PropellerAds traffic and get paid for them.
Thank you very much, it´s really interesting to see that some of your recommendations are very similar to Stijn in the last interview.
It´s also very good to read about your view on testing/scaling and the different bid formats because this is where we can safe money when we do it effective and where we can make more profit when we know how to get more volume.
I hope you all enjoyed the interview, the next one is just around the corner
Insightful, thanks
For me it´s pretty interesting to read about the different bid formats and how to use them.
I am doing it in a similar way as well because there is no 1 bid format that is perfect for each and every campaign.
Play them together, go for maximum volume as well as for high ROI on lower volume so that it results in higher overall profits.
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