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I act and feel like basically a complete newbie all over again (31)

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For the month of January I've been testing SiteScout. Not only have I decided to tackle this whole new traffic source, but I'm also trying out a vertical that I have only dabbled in in the past: dating. In total I've probably only run low $x,xxx in traffic to dating offers, and I want to get better at running them and make dating one of my major verticals in 2012.

In my testing I also wasted $200 which turned out to be mostly bot traffic (thanks to this thread http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread.php?4976-A-b-c-0 for helping me find out). I haven't gotten any replies to my emails about it to my rep, so I'm not super pleased with that but oh well.

In total so far I've spent around $800, $600 of which is dating offers, and I've made about half that back. I'm not really at the point of profitability. I'm hoping that by posting a follow along I'll get some good advice to help me get there faster, plus I figured we can always use another media buying follow along.

So now, the info:

I'm going to be running Find Me Love from C2M to UK traffic. According to the network interface, the EPC on this offer is $0.14. On previous tests, I've also found (through 4 different offers) that my EPC on this target tends to be (within a cent or two) the same as the network numbers in the C2M interface. We'll see if that holds up with this one, no guarantees of course.

I'm only going to be running this on one target, which previous testing has shown me has enough traffic that I can scale it big, but more importantly traffic which converts. For obvious reasons, I'm not sharing this target.

I'm going to take 5 of my best-performing creatives so far, and create a second version of each with a different click through button to see how it goes.

I'm bidding $0.50 to start with. I don't really have a reason for this, I just started off bidding that much and it worked for me.

So that's that. If I've missed anything major or have screwed something up, let me know!

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Looking forward to this Hannah.

One thing to note is that Find Me Love scrub quite a lot so be aware of that.

You may want to split test with another broad dating offer.

Also, the best performing landing page for that offer in my experience is the Grid-Style one, but of course, split test that too.

Good Luck!

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Thanks for this, that's all awesome stuff to note. I didn't know they scrubbed a lot, which sucks but oh well we'll see how I go. I'll find another good generic UK dating offer and split test the two.

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.14 epc seems very low... maybe that just proves what Andy just said about scrubbing.

edit: yeah i would choose a different offer.

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Sounds like a good follow along! I would split test quite a few dating offers actually, it'll make a big difference. Then once you find the top 2, split test with landing pages.

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Thanks guys... luckily (well, I choose to look at it as lucky) I accidentally switched the link in my campaign after it was approved, at around 2pm, and it didn't get re-reviewed tonight, so in the morning I'm going to find a bunch more dating offers, add the logo to my existing banners, then create some new campaigns for each different offer, since SS doesn't allow split testing offers.

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Don't forget to split test each offer over multiple networks too, can make a huge difference.

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^^ Yeah, for sure, thanks.

I've created campaigns for 3 more offers. We'll see if they get approved, since the redirect on all of them takes me to JustHookUp. Not hopeful, but we'll see. The other campaign's been approved, only gotten 1000 imps and 2 clicks so far though, don't really know why the volume's coming in so slowly.

edit: haha I'm a dumbass, the volume was so low because I set the daily budget to $5 so I wouldn't blow through a bunch of money when I didn't have other similar campaigns approved.

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^ did you create new offers or still running on C2M? Curious if you're unning be2 on CPATank?

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These are new offers, from EWA. 2 of my new ones got approved, so I now have three different offers running total. I'm not running Be2 for 2 reasons: first of all the few times I tried dating I never found them to convert, and secondly all the ones I've ever seen are 35+, which isn't exactly useful when you're media buying unless you're specifically targetting mature sites (which I'm not).

Anyways, here's an update:

- Find Me Love spent $7.22 for 51 clicks and zero conversions.
- Be Naughty got approved but did that weird SS thing I've seen from time to time where it didn't get any impressions. On other campaigns when this has happened I've noticed that the second day I usually get traffic so I'll probably have some tomorrow.
- Flirt Crowd UK spent $13.95 for 71 clicks and 2 leads for earnings of $10.60

Spent: $21.17
Earned: $10.60
P/L: (10.57)
ROI: -50%

I'm not changing anything yet, going to gather more data tomorrow.

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hannah try speeddate, i think it works the best on display traffic. just give it a shot maybe try getting a account with them direct

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be2 traffic is very inconsistent - epc's will vary so it's difficult to get any consistency with them. try some neverblue dating offers.

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If you were targeting sites from AdMeld (site IDs starting 2-) then often it takes 24 hours+ for them to approve the lander. Otherwise, it's because your bid is too low. If you bid too low, their platform doesn't bother bidding on impressions and you see lots of 0's.

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^^ That's good to know, this one starts with a 1- so not AdMeld. Turned out the site didn't get approved, I just didn't notice since the site I'm targetting came up as (blocked)online, but the actual campaign got approved.

Going to have to find a few more offers to split test today...

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Today didn't go too much better. Most annoyingly: all of my conversions so far have come from different ads. I wish the bastards would just choose one ad to convert from.

Anyways, I've paused Find Me Love. I got one conversion from 88 clicks, which combined with yesterdays stats came to one conversion from 140 clicks. It's just not enough to get me profitable with optimizing, I'm sure. I spent $17.40 in total on that offer.

The second offer it turned out did get denied, Be Naughty. Oh well.

The third offer got two conversions today from 125 clicks, for a revenue of $10.60.

In total my stats for today:

Revenue: $15.60
Spent: $27.23
Profit: (11.63)
ROI: -43%

I guess I'm going to collect more data. I'm thinking about getting a whole week's worth of data before throwing a landing page in the mix. Good idea? Bad? I also have zero idea how to do a good dating landing page (never done one before in my life) so I'm happy to take any advice anyone has about that, too!

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So far the best kick ass guide I've seen recently on the subject of promoting dating offers was by Finch Sells at http://finchsells.com/premium-posts/ . get yourself "volume 3" it is $34.95 . Volume 1 will for sure give you a lot of education on promoting dating offers.

Disclaimer: I don't get any financial compensation and http://finchsells.com/premium-posts/ is not an affiliate link.

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Yeah, I might give that a shot, thanks.

I realized I forgot to update yesterday. So here are the final stats for then:

Spent $8.08 for 85 clicks and 1 lead at $5.30 = -34% ROI.

Today:

Spent $8.04 for 69 clicks and got 1 lead at $5.30 = -33% ROI.

I've created a few landing pages for this bad boy, but didn't get them finished in time for review today, so I'll have to submit them on Monday. If they do terribly I'll post them here. I just need something to get that conversion rate up, it's not cutting it a 1.something percent. If I can get a 4-5% CVR on this traffic I'll be thrilled. 3-4% and I'll be happy.

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Not much to report today. Spent $7.90 and made $0. Boo.

Still going to run it tomorrow, then throw my new landing pages into the mix on Monday when they'll get approved.


edit: I also had a look today and found out that in total, every single one of my ads has gotten exactly one conversion. Ads are assholes.

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Ugh, another $0 revenue day and now the offer's been paused. I love timing.

Back to the drawing board...

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You gotta get off those FindMeLove, JustHookUp offers that are all the same shit.

Try True or SpeedDate, hell even Match if you can find it. Those are my three favorite advertisers in the US. Internationally, I <3 Be2 if you have good traffic.

I swear I just saw an email that had a True - UK - Female - 21+ offer from some network. I think it was EWA.

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EWA has true, speeddate, and be2. I stay away from date-connected like the plague.

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Agreed with Riley..

Those offers scrub like crazy..

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Agreed, spent about $100 on adult traffic for JHU. 100% loss and no conversions, will try what you suggested riley

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Hmm, those "scrubbing" offers are outperforming most of the others being recommended here in my SS tests.

Test everything, assume nothing.

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Cheers for the word in. I always appreciate not having to promote my own shit!

@Hannah - Agree with Riley here. FindMeLove is total junk. Even if you get profitable promoting it, it won't be without the whiff of bullshit from knowing you're getting screwed in the process. It's one of those offers that can make an affiliate want to slit his wrists.

I'd say Be2 is the best dating offer in the business and has been for a long time. I run through them directly, but you can get some great rates with Adsimilis. I think they probably have the best payouts from any network at the moment, and certainly some of the best conversion rates. The problem with Be2 is the age limit though. 30+ makes it awkward for media buys unless you're being super selective with your targets, or running some kind of age qualification on the landing page (recommended).

True and Mate1 are my other favourites. Both reliable performers and galaxies ahead of FindMeScrub in the performance stakes. SpeedDate converts like a wet dream, but the payout is pretty brutal from what I remember.

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Yeah, I'm not running Be2 for that 30+ reason, the majority of the population on my target is definitely under 30.

This morning I created new campaigns DLing True.com and Match.com. I'll build the LPs for them this afternoon, but I want to get a taste of how they convert before I build them. In the interest of continuing to test I've also thrown in my LPs for Find Me Love which came back online later last night, so now I'm waiting on approval for those four campaigns. Hopefully approval is quick, Mondays can be really hit/miss in terms of the time it takes to approve things.

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Just a +1 for Finch's premium posts.. I've bought all 3 volumes.. awesome stuff in there including a tip on how to get be2 at a better source which pays CPS.. I won't disclose the info so just go buy it for yourself and read!

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Well, today sucked. My two DL campaigns got approved, one of the two LPs did as well and the other got stuck in the "pending" pile overnight. Oh well.

I spent around $5 on each of the three and got no conversions. I also screwed up the tracking code on the LP but going from my network stats it looks like 4 of the 13 clicks actually clicked through to the offer. I've fixed this now and we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

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I ended pausing this campaign completely after not getting any conversions at all for a few days on any offers... working on scaling a different campaign instead.

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Agreed on True and Speeddate. Those and maybe eharmony are the only mainstream ones that convert.

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Damn I wondered why my Flirtcrowd leads were so frustrating... conversions jumping from 1 in 4 on day 1, to 0 in 25 on day 3. FC has the same owner as FML and JHU.
Can't say they scrub (I'm too newb to be so bold) but it's too inconsistent to spend any more time testing.

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