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Starting my Native Ads Journey! I Need Your HELP (15)

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After one year of procrastination, I have finally decided to start my native ads journey. @jack_l and @jaybot 's native ads thread motivated me and triggered me to start this journey.

I am already running push traffic. But the problem with push is that, campaigns run for only few days/weeks then you reach a saturation point, and the ROI starts declining. Scalability is low. For that reasons, i want to get into natives(for long term purpose)
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I have few questions and favors to ask before i start:

1. I want to start my native ads joruney with Revcontent and one thing i know about Revcontent is that they have shit loads of BOT widgets. While running push campaigns on Revcontent, it took me months to figure out the good widgets from the bad ones.

I know it's a big favor to ask but can someone share me global(Account level blacklist) for Revcontent Native ads, so, i can save thousands of dollars that i wud waste if i were to blacklist them manually. I would be forever indebted if someone can share that with me.


2. In my early days, shud i start with Tier 1 countries(US/AUS/EMEA etc) or start with Tier 2,3 first? Or it doesn't matters?


3. Since Revcontent has shit loads of bot traffic, i wud be using "the optimizer" to automatically block the widgets from wasting my budget. So, to eliminate bad widgets(in the EARLY stage), what rule shud i set in "the optimizer"?

if Ad CTR is more than 1%-> pause them?
After 50 clicks, If LP CTR is less than 10% => pause?

What rules shud i set? Can someone share their rules that they use for new campaigns?

4. What shud be the approach to start Native ads campaign? Shud i start with the highest bid(so, i can get exposure of all the widgets) or start with low bid(so, i can accumulate all the shit widgets and blacklist them first). What shud be my bid at start of the campaign?

5. Can low payout offers ($20 and below) give positive ROI in Tier 1 countries - for native traffic?

If someone can answer these questions, it wud be very helpful.

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Great questions man

Here's my thoughts:

1. I haven't run on Revc in quite awhile, but the main problem is that while good widgets (whitelists) usually have longevity, blacklists (bot widgets) are the opposite, because the network is usually blocking those widgets themselves once they see them get blocked by enough users.

So yeah, the 'bot widgets' you want to watch out for are mostly brand new ones that everyone is dealing with... certainly a blacklist would be a little help, but I wouldn't worry too much about it... its not like it was a couple years ago when it was really bad...

Also, I could be wrong but I believe Revcontent only gives new accounts top-quality inventory to start, to cut down on that exact problem.


2. Either one... on Revc it always seemed like it was more of a binary US vs Everything Else, since US is the vast majority of their traffic. INTL is certainly nice since the cpc's are lower, but there's some great US offers you might want to try, so either way/both I'd say.


3. I would NOT block based on ad ctr, as that really just depends on the type of widget (a 3 ad widget will have a super high ctr whereas a 16 ad widget on a page full of tons of other widgets will have a super low ctr).

I WOULD block based on lp ctr though, and basically set rules to block the obviously bad ones. Example, if you're running a mini-advertorial to a Clickbank VSL and getting a 40% lp ctr, I'd block anything that goes 0/10 perhaps... Whereas if you're running mobile lead-gen and getting a 10% lp ctr, I'd maybe block widgets that go 0/30.


4. Depends on network... on Outbrain I start high and 'rev the engine', on Taboola I start at or slightly above target cpc, on Revcontent when I used to run there I'd start low and work my way up. Really depends on the ad server and how 'sensitive' it is. Revcontent is very robust so I always liked to start low to get rid of the bad inventory cheaper. Don't know if that still works though.


5. Yes, absolutely!

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When you were running Natives on Revcontent, were you paying 3% fees for each top-up?

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@Rhino Congratulations!! And Best wishes on your native journey

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Yes, if you pay via credit card it will be 3%. (or at least it was when I did so)

I quickly switched to Wire Transfers/ACH though, where I would just send them money upfront, to avoid the 3%. Same with Taboola.

Outbrain doesn't give that option though so I still do credit card with them.

That 3% can really cut into your profits though... say you run 12% overall profit when you combine all your camps, that's 25% of all your income :/

Then again, there is a benefit in not having to pay ahead of time when it comes to cash flow/etc obviously.

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Being from the US, it becomes easier for you to send wire transfer. In my country i have to pay 10% tax for foreign remittance.

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I can relate that. I too have to pay 3% as international charge Although I pay through mastercard and 4% on topup, That will make 7% in total..

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Yikes... that's brutal man...

So that's specific to your country that 10% charge? And specific to wire transfers? Definitely better to go with the credit card in that case! lol

The one positive of using a credit card is you don't have to pay a bunch of money up front in USD and let it lose to inflation while it sits there...

If you think about it, if the US government is debasing the dollar at 20% per year then paying up front is losing 1.5%+ per month too... so positives/negatives both ways...

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A word of caution: I have found native campaigns to only have about a six week profitable window before they tank (even though ad and landing page CTR stay the same)

This is NOT to discourage you, as I am now making just shy of a six figure (annual) income on native. Just want you to have the proper expectations going in

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Thanks. That means, one has to constantly find something new to survive long term in this industry. It's not like...set and forget. And that's the hard thing about affiliate marketing.

I think once you find some profitable campaigns, then it's more about repeating the same pattern/sales funnel with different offers.

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I think it depends on the vertical and traffic source and geo too... in my experience Revcontent often followed that exact "great for six weeks then fall apart" path that @sd31677 mentioned, whereas on Taboola I've had more long duration stuff...

Ecom also seems to go in spurts, whereas big traditional lead-gen verticals seem more evergreen...

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And please, take what I have to say with a grain of salt, as I have only been hitting native hard for 7 months. Hopefully, some other more experienced folks can chime in and prove me wrong (or better yet, give advice on how to avoid this)

But yes, the "set it and forget it" days of IM appear to be long gone

I heard it said somewhere (paraphrasing here) "affiliate marketing is a job. A very high paying job, and much more rewarding on a number of different levels that a regular one, but a job nonetheless"

(That said, I think you will find more long term stability in this space as opposed to push. At least I have)

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Well said @sd31677. Probably a good thing too... keeps all the passive income gurus on YouTube from sending us too much competition

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Yup i know in future, there will be months, where i'll struggle to find something to work and i might have to settle for loses. And there will be months where i wud make more money than i can imagine. In AM, consistency is not there like a normal job. But the overall profit(at the end of the year) is far more than a normal job.

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Check if you can open a company with Stripe Atlas. They open you a Delaware corp in the USA A. And they have a partnership with Silicon Valley Bank, so that you get a US corporate bank account without having to go to the USA. They charge 500 usd for the paperwork.

https://stripe.com/atlas

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