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Degen TikTokery (36)

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Alright my friends - I figure if I'm gonna venture my toe into the waters that is TikTok, I might as well do a follow-along about it

For anyone who doesn't know, I have focused 100% on natives until now, and I'll keep updating my main thread "Serial Entrepreneur Jumps Into Everything Paid Ads" quarterly of course.

After @ScottyG penned the most inspiring follow-along in history though, how can one not be drawn to TikTok?

I am sure my journey into the bowels of this degenerate-zoomer-labyrinth/new traffic source will be less dramatic than Scott's, but in my opinion follow-along's are the best way to learn any new traffic source

Updates so far:

-Created account. Did it under the name of our agency just like with the native networks, and so far (knock on wood) no issues.

-Uploaded first campaign. Only created one creative, just as a test to see if it got approved. Amazingly it did, and within like 10 minutes of posting it. Then it went live, and spent the $20 budget over about a two hour span.

-Offer is AirPhysio from GiddyUp. Positives are that 1) I know it converts as we've done quite a bit of revenue on it via SEO and some via native, 2) there's lots of video creatives I can grab straight from GiddyUp's library, and 3) GiddyUp has created a special tracking feature called 'Premium Pixels' that apparently lets you do the whole tracking thing much easier than otherwise would be the case. Only negative is that they don't have a VSL Splash Page for AirPhysio on GiddyUp yet, and none of the advertorials have videos embedded, only text.

-Re: the tracking, if I am understanding it right, all I have to do is add "&gupix=mytiktokaccountnumber" to the url, and as long as I'm direct linking, that should essentially take care of the entire tracking side of things, and allow GiddyUp to post all the events to TikTok (add to cart, sale, etc). I might be misunderstanding this and leaving something out, so if that is the case and anyone wants to correct me please do so! I think I might still need to attach all the relevant utm paramaters but not sure so going to dive into that after posting this.

-For first camp, I chose "conversions" goal, focused on Add To Cart's, and ages 45-55 and 55+, in US and CA both.

-Had 61 clicks at .31$ USD per click. 11 of those people clicked through the advertorial to the landing page. 0 add to carts though.





So yeah, was amazed at how easy it was to get a campaign going (knock on wood!).

Again, this was just a quick test to see if I could get something approved. I need to spend a hearty chunk of time studying TikTok best practices next, then I can start actually seriously running stuff, and start the growth from "unconscious-incompetence" to "conscious-incompetence"

In the meantime I'm gonna leave this on though and hopefully next determine if the 'Add To Carts' actually do post to TikTok or if I'm missing something on the tracking front.

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wow, I guess taboola is not the only network that copied FB ads UI entirely looking forward to this.

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Another follow along by the esteemed @jack_l! Gotta grab a seat for this one!



Amy

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Thanks for doing this. Of course, threads like this always kill me, I want to chase after the shiny object. I'm trying to be good and focus on one thing at the moment.

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I hear ya man... I'm always wary of the same thing... in this case though I feel like I was inching to close to the other side and getting overly comfortable with just doing native, so want to challenge myself had originally planned on doing facebook but after thoroughly looking into it, I decided TikTok was the better course... better to "skate to the puck" as they say

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I'm with you. Were I in your position, I too would want to diversify and I would definitely go with TikTok over Facebook at this point. I can't wait to see what you accomplish.

And slightly off topic, any advice you can share about RevContent? I switched and so far I'm liking it, but definitely more work on my end to push spend to the converting widgets. I'm bidding them up $0.05 each day they don't get much traffic. Most are 1 conversion with 1 or 2 visits, so setting the bid to a percentage of EPC doesn't really work yet.

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I don't know man... that's a great question... I wish I had a better answer... Revcontent is sort of a mystery to me because on the one hand, its probably my favorite native network, in terms of the one I think most positively about... I love the ux... I love the company... love the inventory... it was the first network I had success on... but I actually haven't run on it in quite awhile because we've been so focused on non-US stuff, and they're mostly US.

I'll tell ya what worked best for me was INTL scattershot campaigns targeting like 20-30 geo's with super cheap clicks... and then targeting just US... either mobile or desktop...

And just let TheOptimizer do the work and block the bad widgets... and then just patiently buy data until a widget has 4+ conversions and then start bidding those based on epc... and then raise and lower your overall bid to control how much run-of-network traffic you get on all the remaining widgets that a) haven't been blocked, and b) haven't had 4 conversions yet...

That's all from like a year ago or more though so I don't know if that still works or not...

Its a wonderful network though because they're quite lenient so you can get really creative... like, want to put your own "ads" for weight-loss vsl's on the side of your refi lander? Sure! Want to do an exit-pop offer wall? No problem! Want a backbutton script that redirects to a search arb lander? You got it!

So in that regard it lets you use your creativity to your advantage quite a bit, which I like

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Thanks Amy excited to dive into a new traffic source! Hoping it will be a fun follow-along

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Great thread, a FA by @jack_l is a FA that I will definitely follow

Because it´s TikTok

Curious to see what happens the next few days but I am 100% confident you will succeed there.

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Lol scrolling through the platform is indeed a visceral look at our crazy human psyches and all the good and bad within it

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Okay ya'll...

Day Two:

For some reason my one single ad didn't spend at all today...

Not sure if its because I had selected a target CPA to shoot for and it didn't think it could get it since it had no conversions day one, or what.

So just started a brand new camp using the same offer and ad, but with an ad group and ad set on 'Lowest Cost' conversion optimization instead.

Anyway... other than that just trying to watch a few YouTube videos, etc, and keep learning more about the platform.

Interesting fact...

There are apparently now 130 million + active users of TikTok in the US... which is just mind-boggling... I had no idea it was that big..

And then as far as potential converters, it looks as though the 45-55 year old demographic makes up 13% of the platform, and the 55+ demographic makes up 7%.

So that would be 26 million people age 45+ using it... so definitely seems like a massive amount of potential volume for the right offers (though we already know that thanks to ScottyG of course ).

One thing I'll note though is that I still haven't seen any affiliate ads myself when exploring the platform. All I see are app installs, hashtag challenges, corporate stuff, and Shopify (women's clothing) stores.

Again though, thanks to Scott we know that affiliate stuff can work, and actually I can see how the platform would be amazing for stuff like refi and home improvement lead-gen if you have the right creatives.

Anyway... all utterly fascinating that is for sure

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Oh very nice, great to see another TikTok follow along getting started The one from ScottyG happened to be the most viewed thread here on STM for a few weeks straight, so there is definitely a lot of interest into TikTok on the forum. Can't wait for some results, I know you're just starting but with all the experience you have, it shouldn't take long to see some nice revenue figures

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First I thought maybe I a just too old for that stuff but when I see that many people in my age or older also engage in the typical TikTok video things I don´t know...

Then I only feel tired

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Yep, am excited to get going with it I actually LOVE video editing so I've always wanted to run some kind of video-based traffic...

But yeah, I am going to take it super, super slow though... so probably won't be the fireworks of ScottyG's thread for awhile, but hopefully I can provide some good info on it in comparison to natives and that sort of thing

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Yeah, there's some stuff on it that's actually really cool and inspiring/interesting... but there's plenty of abject degeneracy and idiocy too lol. I'm probably more of a YouTube guy myself if I had to pick a favorite platform for actually consuming content, but TikTok definitely seems to have cracked the code on making something addicting... I read that the average user spends 52 minutes a day on it, which is just nuts...

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Totally agree, there is so much idiocy on the platform and girls trying to look sexy and then some crazy couples doing silly things... it's so retarded at times but whenever I make the mistake of opening the app, I waste good 30 minutes on it from some reason LOL

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Add me on Skype man and maybe I can give you a jump start: live:.cid.35148eaaa81d3102

Refi, home improvement, solar all do very well. I've been throwing up 10k revenue a day in lead gen alone lately.

Always use Lowest Cost to start, I don't touch cost cap until I've cracked an offer and want more steady CPAs.

You better kill it man, rooting for you!

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To be honest, I never really checked TikTok itself much, I only installed it once to see what it is about and de-installed it pretty fast because I didn´t know how to use it and I also didn´t find anything even slightly interesting for me.

I only know it from web clips but that´s already enough for me to don´t feel a need to spend time on it, especially since I don´t really like or use social networks at all.

But maybe I should give it a try for marketing purposes.
You´re a hero, seriously

@ScottG

My account it located in Germany and for example I can´t advertise to USA.

I also can´t advertise in all Asian geos.

I added a new account in my ads manager located in Vietnam, there I can run ads in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
All these geos are not available in my German account but I can´t verify business details in VN so they probably won´t approve ads there.

Do you know how I can advertise to all countries?

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Agency accounts don't have any geo restrictions

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Alright, you guys, another update...

Day Three

Had our first sale!

Camp started spending again for whatever reason and we had our first sale

So that's $40 revenue over $47, not a bad start! lol



(Just joking re: above, I know it will be a long hard road just like learning any new traffic source is)

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Really cool! I havent tried TikTok Ads in over a year. Im hearing that the platform has developed alot. Can I upload a hash list yet for making LLAs? Or can I only still make LLAs from my own custom audiences over 1k?

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How hard is it to make ads for TT? I love the simplicity of PPC and Native when it comes to creating ads, but from what I gathered on TT you need to create videos?

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Yup, pretty much any TikTok expert recommends to create video ads specifically for TikTok to reach maximum effectivity. So to do it really the right way, you should produce your own videos that match the overall feel of TikTok. But I'm pretty sure lot's of people do not start with such video ads straight away and try to use whatever they have available and just maybe tweak it a little bit.

What's your experience with the ads @ScottyG ? Are you producing your own tiktok-style video ads or re-using some old ones? What did you start with @jack_l ?

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Hey gents!

Had another sale!

I seriously feel like I'm starting in IM again from the beginning lol. Each sale is like a total rush

But yeah re: your question @matuloo and @eurosen, so far I've just been using the video creatives provided by the Aff Network, but my main plan is to make videos myself.

I won't be showing my face like Scott (mad props to him) but just like talking into the camera while pointing at various things (houses, money, cars, ecom products, whatever).

Anyway, only 2.5 days and 2 sales into this new thing but I'm EXTREMELY excited... I could be wrong, but it feels like one's creativity is a much, much larger variable on TikTok compared to native, which I really like.

Native can feel like a nuclear arms race at times, like it just comes down to who has the highest payout and is willing to accept the lowest margin, whereas on Tiktok, since I can't imagine people stealing each other's videos (is someone really going to download Scott's selfie video and run it themselves? Seems like it would be insanely brazen), and since the videos are so much more complex than a native ad, it seems like creativity will be the name of the game.

Who knows though, I've only barely dipped my toe in the water, but just thinking out loud

Anyway, cannot thank @ScottyG and @jaybot enough, they've both been super helpful so far!

Trying to get an agency account rented so I can run in other geo's beyond US/CA, and then gotta get this fancy-dancy API server thing built so I can pass conversions for all other networks besides GiddyUp (GiddyUp has a special integration like I mentioned above - its absolutely wonderful - you literally just add @gupix=yourtiktokpixelid to the url and that takes care of everything).

Will keep the updates coming!

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I can feel the excitement!

And I share the same opinion about creativity and tiktok! Do you have access to ecommworld video replays or have you had a chance to attend? There was a pretty cool presentation from Savannah Sanchez (http://thesocialsavannah.com/) where she was talking about how to make tiktok video ads and she was also showing some good examples. Might be worth it to watch that one.

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I'mma hit em' with that DMCA if they try to steal my videos but I wouldn't put it past them.

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Super stocked for your follow along @jack_l

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Personal UGC made on the TikTok© app using the TikTok© captions with the TikTok© AI voice.

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Thought so

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Okay ya'll...

Newest Update:

As our TikTok profit ScottyG (PBUH) has referenced... "Blood alone moves the wheels of history", and in that vein I must report my first bloody day on TikTok

Luckily only at micro volume, but yesterday we went $0 over $120, and had ads denied like all day long lol.

But yeah, actually the stats weren't that bad as we had tons of Add To Carts, but none turned into a sale.

Overall so far here's my stats for the ecom offer I've been running in US+CA targeting 55+ for the first 4 days or so:

Sales: 6
Revenue: $240
Presell Landing Event: 1,187


Landing Page Event: (2nd page of funnel after presell: 494

Add To Cart: 64

Initiate Checkout: 56

Shipping Information: 12


I woulda done a screenshot of it but there were two organic ones from one of our content sites mixed in and I couldn't figure out how to filter them out...


Here's the TikTok stats:

Spend: $395.39
Impressions: 33,551
Clicks: 1,116
CTR: 3.30%
CPC: $0.35
CPM: $11.78
Add To Cart CPA: $5.81
Add To Cart CVR: 6.09%


So yeah, no instant millions right out of the gate, but for the first tiny bit of spend on my first camp ever having no idea what I'm doing I'd say pretty darn good...

You can see too that the engagement (as measured by presell tr and add to cart rate) is just off the charts...

There's also a huge variance between creatives in performance... so I can see how the creative is everything on TikTok...

So yeah, planning on testing TONS of stuff and mastering this TikTok stuff as fast as I can!

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Howdy ya'll -

So didn't want to leave this thread hanging...

Wanted to do a final update that I have stopped running on TikTok...

I liked the platform... but have just gotten super busy with other business interests and have consolidated the things I'm focused on as a result...

TIkTok was kind of torturous too as we had some HUGE success off the bat running something we were already running on native... like insanely good success... but then they started denying it and disabling our accounts...

Our agency team (Viera Media) was absolutely incredible about trying to get us whitelisted to run the offer in question... and worked their tails of for like 2 months on that... but it seems the confused TikTok bureaucracy was just too big of a barrier...

The other stuff we tried on TikTok had mixed results... saw some big profit days with UK Senior Life Insurance... but had trouble keeping campaigns going green for more than a few days...

Actually three different times we ran UK Senior LIfe... about a month apart each time... and every time we started off WAY in the green for a couple days... then breakeven... then into the red... was the same every single time...

Also had some mixed success with other UK lead-gen... US Refi... and ecom... (especially ThePhotoStickOmni and Starscope Monocular)... but nothing huge...

Anyway, am still very bullish on TikTok as a traffic source... but at this point am just focused on some other stuff...

But yeah... I asked Viera Media if I could do a review of them on here (since we've seen so many comments from people asking about how to rent an agency account) and they gave me their blessing, so going to do that separately.

In conclusion, while we didn't become bigtime TikTok media buyers, I enjoyed my time on the platform, and I VERY much enjoyed brainstorming and chatting with ya'll on this FA

Greatest wishes for success to all you TikTok degens that pick up the ball from here!

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Thanks Jack for sharing your experience. Your thread was very helpful. Can you please share if you tested any Jumbleberry offers on TikTok? And does anyone know how to track Jumbleberry offer on TikTok using Binom?

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Hey @asharjamil - I didn't run any Jumbleberry ones specifically... but I ran GiddyUp and DFO ones and those networks are basically just like Jumbleberry. I am a big fan of all three.

As far as tracking, some networks like GiddyUp have a TIkTok integration built out so you don't need anything extra. I'm not sure if Jumbleberry does or not.

Alternately, you can get Funnelflux and it integrates with TikTok. Or, you can pay 500-1000$ to have a custom API server thingy built to integrate between TikTok and whatever tracker you are currently using.

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Thanks Jack. I am running offers for GiddyUp for a while now. I love the network. Now I want to test Jumbleberry offers. I will try to setup tracking with FunnelFlux. Thanks.

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Well Jumbleberry very well may have an integration just like GiddyUp...

But yeah if you do need to get postbacks set up for running stuff that doesn't integrate with TikTok, I would recommend just getting an account with Funnelflux, as you can use it for anything else too (natives, push, etc).

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Sorry to see you gave up.
If it helps, I am seeing the exact same shit. Crazy profits day 1, and then it goes down from there.

Believed that it's the creatives (they get burnt out too fast) but I am working with 12 million people audiences.

It has to be something else... tried relaunching every 3 days and ran into what tiktok is infamous for, disapproving you saying it violates policy when it doesn't violate policy. Then I've tried duping the same thing a gazillion times to get random adgroups approved, it'd get approved but performance would suck.

Still no solution, however overall I'm profitable in my lead gen stuff (run exclusive lead gen with own paths/backend so no competitors, no one can Rip n Run it either) just seeing the exact same shit that it does crazy well then dies.. everytime.. [what u saw]

if anyone knows a solution to that id love to hear it too

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