Revcontent Widgets not taking off (23)
Hello,
So I recently started revcontent after a while and I need an advice on the following situation.
I've found some good widgets on adplexity and started a RON campaign by bidding higher on those widgets, at 0.40 cpc.(mobile traffic), the rest of the bids are around 0.10-0.15. US traffic. Thing is i am not getting any traffic on those widgets at all, but I do on crappier ones. The CTR sucks , is below 0.10% average, but that is because of the shity traffic sources that took off.
Any suggestions on how to get traffic on those websites that similar competitors are running on Adplexity?
Last time I've tested revcontent was 3 years ago and now that they're not allowing WL anymore can't think of a better way to start the campaign.
Originally Posted by redfox
Do you have Pacing off? I wonder if that could affect it...
You could also try a more extreme version... bid on those at like 80 cents and lower the overall bid to a penny... just to see what happens...
But yeah.. @jaybot might have some good advice... he's been running more Revcontent than me lately...
Also- I'm sure you already know this- but the widget info on Adplexity can be really innacurate, and there's usually some 'bot widgets' listed on those... I remember looking at my own campaigns on Adplexity and it would have widgets in my 'Top 10 Widgets' list that I had blocked long before and that weren't any good.
Doesn't mean its a bad strategy for finding good sites- often when you look up a widget/site you find in Adplexity you can tell if its good or not just by the type of site and what other ads are shown, which is what I'm guessing you're doing- but just wanted to mention it for the benefit of anyone reading this in the future, since there's a natural tendency to overestimate the accuracy of spytools in that regard.
But yeah, you are right re: whitelists... I think Revc has followed the example of Taboola and Outbrain in trying to do away with whitelists as much as they can and get everyone to run r-o-n.
Yeah indeed is weird, I'm wondering if their traffic got crappier since the last time I ran it. 
I know adplexity is not bulletproof in terms of sites, but I haven't seen big traffic sources either on top competitors for that niche . I need a better starting point with some good sites, then I can do the magic for the rest of the process lol. Any other thoughts upon finding some good sites other than relying on those top 10?
I also turned off pacing , still not taking off. Thanks
If you're sure those widgets are good, then just keep bumping up those widgets until you at least see some impressions. Ad server might be punishing you for trying to only buy the good traffic though.
One strategy that might work: set all the widgets to default bid, then bid higher on your campaign level, that 0.40. Rev that engine for $20 or so. Then drop the campaign bid back down to 10-15c, and bump up your individual sites back up to 40c.
WL kinda-sorta works (camp bid at 0.01 and invididual sites bumped to where you want), but you need a lot of widgets and super high bids for it to give actual traffic, only really works on proven funnels.
Just cloned my campaign and starting clean again, will try to do that and see what happens.The only downside I guess if it's going to take off even for 20 bucks on crappy sites might bring me to a 0.04 % ctr again and will mess up the whole ERPM of the campaign. Will keep u posted. Thanks
So it looks like it won't take off other than on 1-2 widgets. I've put the cpc on campaign level 0.40, let it spend a little, even pushed to 1 $ to one of the traffic sources I was interested in , the rest of the widgets at 0.60 cents (mobile traffic) and zero, nada. And my CTR is 0.04% 
, average position 3 .
I believe the algo is made such as when starting a new account they make you spend some serious $$$, otherwise I can't explain these stats.
3 years ago when I last tried it successfully my worst ad was at 0.10% ctr. I'm going to wait for a few more days and see what happens. Challenge accepted.
I'll freely admit I struggled with RevContent. However, I do believe you are a tad too fixated on CTR. RevContent knows they have tons of crap sites and placements that don't get clicked on, while others that get clicked on like crazy. It is really only a useful metric when looking at the CTR for one ad versus another on the same widget.
Now that said, I did experience a similar situation where I found some widgets that converted and seemed profitable, but no matter what I bid I couldn't get any real volume of traffic. Granted, I didn't bid up to insane levels, but perhaps I should have tried that just to see.
One thing to keep in mind, RevContent appears very sensitive about account balance. I've heard this from experienced marketers as well as my rep when he asked. The AI wants a balance high enough to suggest you'll keep spending. Perhaps just to avoid a situation where you run out of money, perhaps to reward those who spend.
I also wouldn't be surprised to find out that big spenders either had private deals with these sites, such that RevContent just got what was left over, or they had private deals with RevContent to ensure they get the lion's share of the widget's traffic. Because there definitely are a few advertisers who really just dominate RevContent as they run the same ads and landers as everyone else. Clearly something is heavily in their favor and I can only speculate what.
"I also wouldn't be surprised to find out that big spenders either had private deals with these sites, such that RevContent just got what was left over, or they had private deals with RevContent to ensure they get the lion's share of the widget's traffic. Because there definitely are a few advertisers who really just dominate RevContent as they run the same ads and landers as everyone else. Clearly something is heavily in their favor and I can only speculate what."
I'm pretty sure u got a point here . For instance if you look at top spenders and the traffic sources they are running on scrappers it doesn't make any sense. Sites no one really heard of and yet tons of traffic being shown on. Or other traffic sources showing in the Ron campaigns that are well known and yet you don't get a piece of the pie lol, so have to agree with that.
But with CTR, yeah actually meanwhile found an ad that jumped to 0.49 % CTR vs the rest of 0.04% and that had everything to do with the traffic source where is currently serving . Thanks for the tips, we'll see what happens next.
Originally Posted by redfox
I'm pretty sure u got a point here . For instance if you look at top spenders and the traffic sources they are running on scrappers it doesn't make any sense. Sites no one really heard of and yet tons of traffic being shown on. Or other traffic sources showing in the Ron campaigns that are well known and yet you don't get a piece of the pie lol, so have to agree with that.
But with CTR, yeah actually meanwhile found an ad that jumped to 0.49 % CTR
vs the rest of 0.04% and that had everything to do with the traffic source where is currently serving . Thanks for the tips, we'll see what happens next.I'm presuming its actual Revcontent but correct me if I'm wrong.
If that is the case, I agree with @iwanttofly - I think looking at the ad ctr or campaign ctr is not a reliable metric to make decisions based on.
The ctr of individual Revcontent sites varies wildly... because some sites have four 12-ad widgets + adsense, whereas some sites only have one 3-ad widget. As a result, the ctr's for those two types of sites will look dramatically different, even if everything else is the same.
As a result, your overall campaign ctr will often just be a reflection of the top sites that generated most of your clicks... and have zero value as a variable to optimize based on...
I would really seriously ignore it completely...
Even within campaigns... some ads will- for whatever reason- show more on x site than y site, which again- makes the ad ctr data meaningless between them.
If they are still showing that "Position 2" "Position 5" thing that might possibly be something you can make determinations from, but even that is tough.
So yeah... if you really just want to target 10 specific sites, then lower the campaign bid to one penny and raise the site-level bids on them to like 80 cents or something to start... if that kills the campaign and it quits spending, I would just assume that strategy no longer works... similarly if those sites still don't get much traffic... I would again assume the strategy is no longer viable due to changes in their algorithm.
But yeah, we all hate poor quality traffic, but I think at this point on native the only way to succeed is R-O-N camps... I think all the networks have made clear that they don't want people using whitelists... even if they ostensibly still allow them under some circumstances...
Luckily though with TheOptimizer you can still block the bad sites really quickly, and hopefully within a few hundred dollars spend you can eliminate the worst of them, and then you can keep using that blacklist you developed on subsequent campaigns if you want, minimizing the impact of bad widgets from that point forward.
With all that being said, I haven't run regularly on Revcontent for at least 6 months, so I could be wrong on the above, but based on my experiences on it from 2019-early 2021, that is what I would suggest
Yes it's actual Revcontent indeed. I'm on the same page with CTR fluctuations on widget level, and yes overall campaign CTR it's a reflection of the sites that actually took over. But also not spending the budget because of that so I believe it matters a lot.
What I'm saying I've already tried what you're saying here "So yeah... if you really just want to target 10 specific sites, then lower the campaign bid to one penny and raise the site-level bids on them to like 80 cents or something to start... if that kills the campaign and it quits spending, I would just assume that strategy no longer works... similarly if those sites still don't get much traffic." and nothing happened, 0 traffic on that WL. I even tried other widgets on the WL just to see what happens and no traffic with very high bids.
This doesn't mean that this strategy might not work at all, it's just not working now lol.
I'll just leave the campaign for a few more days and see what happens with the rest of the widgets (last time I ran Revcontent was 3 years ago so yeah, need to observe it a little more and get up to date) and not necessarily run on those top ones.
Thanks for the support guys!
I have a question, is there like an MSN equivalent on revcontent ? Last time I ran it I was just running topics such as conservative news etc. Would there be a bigger site other than Breitbart lol?
MSN is on revcontent actually, but majority of MSN widgets on revC are garbage and too expensive.
For conservative news, Newsmax is probably your best bet. There are quite a lot to go through, some are shit, but some of them are golden.
Breitbart sucks these days, good volume, but too expensive.
Thanks Jaybot, I'm actually struggling right now to find at least a couple of sites that convert well. I'm slightly breaking even, so it's not that bad for first week. I'm not focused 100% on conservative news related sites, just trying to find a bigger traffic sources. Haven't tested newsmax yet, I'm surprised it still converts lol.
Hey, do you guys think that changing my photo and headline on my presell without resubmitting it for approval Is going to ban me on revcontent? I think I saw a thread a while back regarding, but cannot find it. Got some good ads running, but presell rate is 5%, so definitely needs some tweaking. Should I go safe and resubmit? This means they'll get approved back on Monday
Unless you change your headline to make some crazy claim like "lose 100 lbs in a day" they won't have a problem it
I make changes to my landers often and have never even gotten an email about it
Originally Posted by redfox
I've made changes to headline, body copy and image. I've resubmitted for approval after even though will miss out on the weekend traffic. Thanks
Changing the LPs is not the best practice as far as I know. I have had some problems with revcontent in the past because of it, but it was a BIG change so not sure how they feel about some minor edit... @jaybot or @jack_l should know better.
In my experience, Revcontent doesn't care if you adjust your lander after approval as long as your creatives are compliant and you are spending money with them.
This x2.
(always good to be careful though certainly)
Originally Posted by sd31677
Thanks jaybot and jack_l ! I almost lost a revcontent account due to some LP changes, but as I mentioned, those changes were pretty significant Good to know that they dont really care about minor, and I suppose compliant, changes.
Guys, not sure if anyone could help with this, but after running some tests and finding some good offers in the direct response space, with some good ctr, decent LP ctr %, can't seem to find a couple of good widgets which are higher volume in revcontent.
Now, my rep basically said with other words that I didn't spend enough so they can give me a widget lists that converts in the health space.
Which means running RON and spending thousands until getting something.
I believe in testing a lot, keep improving but can't wrap my head on finding a good website so far or where to start from. Like a large traffic source to begin with.
If anyone has a couple of widgets to share, I'd be super grateful .
That's a helluva ask. Even if someone gave it to you, it's no guarantee it would work with what you're doing so unlikely. You can search some of @jack_l 's old threads and he actually gives away his WL in one if you want to try that.
But. I would wait until January and then start your own tests on RON and start blacklisting.
Tbh, you don't have to spend that much, I've blown about $60k on revcontent this year and they'll send lists to me, but even those aren't worth much. My lists still do better.
Just keep grinding and try not to lose your shirt.
Yeah, haven't been consistent with it this year tbh, hopefully will manage to uncrack some. I tried a few of jack's wl, but none of them took off.
For sure not losing it, just getting started and warming up! Either way, thanks man!
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