Mehdi Wild wild west contest (1) - Skincare trial campaigns (37)
Hello everyone,
First of all I wanna thank STM for this great contest, I believe it will be the kick in the butt needed for so many of us ! 
I've been preparing this campaign for the last couple weeks, waiting for my SS account to receive my wire etc and it appears everything is setup now (well still a small thing on the LPs but it will be fixed in a couple hours) and i'll be ready to submit my campaign to sitescout shortly.
Here's the break down of the data :
Tracking : I use CPVLab but the setup i used for my LPs doesn't allow me to track everything ..
Hosting : Dreamhost dedicated
Vertical : Skincare trial offers - CPL
Payout : from 33 to 40 depending on the network and offer
Networks : EWA, Ndemand, AAO, C2M
Countries : US/UK/AU/NZ/CA
Offers : Lush Illumination , DeadSea Kit, Vivexin, Hydroxatone, BellaPlex, DermaPure, ..
(sometimes they change the name of the offers so this might not be accurate by the end of the contest :s )
The campaign is a bit complex in the fact that it has several offers going up and down and spread over multiple networks, it's impossible to find 2 offers for all countries on one network!
Budget : 2000$
Source : SiteScout
Sites : Various - but i will go with a limited number
Landing pages : 2 lifestyle type
Banners : 30
Banners size : 300x250 only
Landing pages (sorry couldn't attach them they're too big, if an admin can fix that) :
Banners :
...........
So I think that's it for the introduction post, I'll update as much as I can and try to share as much data as I can too
Let's get this started!!
Mehdi
Ok so,
12/07/2012 the campaigns are finally setup on sitescout and pending approval !
It took me some time because I got an admin coded to manage the multiple offers spread across multiple networks etc .. each one have one step of each etc .. a nightmare so I lost 1day on this, and half a day on setting up everything in CPVlab but now it's up, I'll see if all the data is tracked correctly when the traffic starts comming in !
Also, I would like to give a thousand thanx to Mike from WhatRunsWhere for taking the time to show me how to fully take advantage of their tool to scrape placements super quickly and set them up on sitescout and let it do the job ! Wonderful !!
EDIT : Okey, 20min approval time thanx to Steve from SiteScout ! It's all up and running and traffic is coming in ! Next update tomorrow
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DAY 1 : 13/07/2012
Ok so I now have some data about my campaigns, still no conversions, but some targets start emerging by their CTR, and I have some data about the banners even though it's not definitive yet, here's where i'm at
I am still working on adding new placements, especially for AU/NZ where i didn't get much.
The global campaigns :
The placements list :
I don't wanna disclose the websites yet until I have more data, but it's basically all a rip off from WRW skincare advertisers, if you need help gathering that info do not hesitate to pm me and i'll gladly show you how to do it !
EDIT : I ended up making a video about this WRW thingy, you can check it here : http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...and-save-time-!
As we can see, i'm winning almost all my bids wich means i'm bidding high enough right now, and I find my CTRs to be "decent" on medium volume placements.
I'll keep adding placements and start taking down the bad ones in a couple days.
The banners :
I'm running 30+ of 300x250 format banners for now, downside is it takes longer and spends more to gather data about banners CTRs but i'm already seing some patterns crossing data from all the campaigns (us/uk/au/nz/ca), and i think i'll have some clear winners in a couple days, and be able to make declinations out of them.
That's it for today folks, hanging in there !!
---------------------------
End of DAY1 : 24h running.
I decided to make an update for the first 24hours since I got some conversions and talk about the plan for tomorrow (if none of my friends tries to get me drunk ^^), also I decided to do it in video so you can basically see all the data, even the targets, their volume, bid, ctr, etc ..
All next updates will be in video, unless my wonderfull accent really annoys you and you don't wanna hear it anymore 
To be continued ..
Looks great mehdi!
Been wanting to tap into skin care but I just cannot find the time. Better focus on what I'm doing best now and scale.
Really look forward on how it will turn out! Although I'm not the one running it but I feel excited for ya!
Nice first rebill follow along I've seen before. Great range of creatives too. Subscribed to this one.
yeyaaa! Balls deep man! Can't wait to see the results of this one Mehdi!
Awesome, mehdi! I'll be following this. Best of luck
Thank you mehdi! Looking forward to this one.
Awesome! Excited to see the results Good luck mehdi!
Subscribed it Mehdi. Thats an awesome one for sure Looking forward to it...!!!
Totally looking forward to this! I see people slinging skincare on SiteScout in sooooo many of their placements, so I definitely want to see how this goes!
yo bro, awesome follow along....exciting to see how it goes for ya..
Awesome follow along, keep it going man!
Really excited to see the results . Good luck Mehdi
Thank you all for your support and enthousiasm !
I just got my developer to finish my "offers management system" and i'll be submitting all this to sitescout in the hour , will keep you posted through the update spot
Let's make this happen!!
Mehdi
I'm excited too. Good luck mehdi !
I just update the update post ! campaign is up and running, will probably have some good data by tomorrow
Mehdi
Alright, new update on day1 posted
Didn't sleep much this last few days, this contest context is really super productive for me !
Mehdi
Originally Posted by maynzie
Mehdi
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd ... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM !!
My first skincare conversions ever .. i'm making my own history! haha
Convert2media :
AboveAllOffers :
I was just jumping around about the c2m conversions when my buddy Eli from AAO hit me up on skype to tell good news were coming in !
Mehdi
Originally Posted by mehdi
My first skincare conversions ever .. i'm making my own history! haha
Convert2media :
AboveAllOffers :
I was just jumping around about the c2m conversions when my buddy Eli from AAO hit me up on skype to tell good news were coming in !
Mehdi
Congratulations Bro
Keep doing .
Originally Posted by mehdi
My first skincare conversions ever .. i'm making my own history! haha
Convert2media :
AboveAllOffers :
I was just jumping around about the c2m conversions when my buddy Eli from AAO hit me up on skype to tell good news were coming in !
Mehdi
New video updates to close day1
Mehdi
Awesome! Keep up the good work man
Update DAY4 : 16/07/2012
Alright guys, so it's been now 3 days since the first update, so I wanted to check and tell you about the data I gathered and what I changed so far.
Numbers to date :
Spent : 358$
Views : 515 659
Clicks to LP : 532
%CTR : 0.10%
eCPC : 0.67$
LP 1 %ctr : 7%
LP 2 %ctr : 5%
Hits to offers : 23
Conv : 3
Revenue : 117$
EPC : 5.10$
%CR : 13%
ROI : -67%
Basically I've been waiting to have significant data before i make tweaking and that took time, but i managed to get some anyway.
The banners:
On the banners side, I went from 30 banners and narrowed it down to 5 banners now.
Following this improvement, banners CTR went from .05% to .16% now, I don't know if that's too bad but the thing is i'm guetting a large chunk of my volume from high volume websites like mediafire.com & co, so this ctr doesn't really choc me since people are not on these websites for long.
Next step is making animated versions of these top performing banners, I'm having a designer work on it atm.
The landing pages :
The landing page's CTR% is terrible, and i was going nuts wondering why since it's really all the same landings I see running all over the place.
I just found out a couple hours ago there was a bug on my template script, instead of showing "6$ trick to wrinkle free face" in the header it was showing the offer payout, so "47$ trick to a wrinkle free face" ... you can imagine how that would affect the CTR badly, so that's fixed now !
I also added a 3rd LP in the mix to see if something good comes out of it
Summary :
It doesn't look bad to me, there's still plenty of room to improve banners and landing pages CTR%, and I only need to double the clicks to offer page, if the CR% is consistent it should get me closer to breaking even, wich is my goal for this campaign/follow along
I will update you tomorrow about the improvment if any on the landing pages after fixing the bug and how's the new one performing.
I'll also update on the animated banners when they're ready&up, I'm hoping to double the actual CTR on both banners and LPs !
Mehdi
Hard work -- I'm sure it will be rewarding
Nice work man, you've got some conversions, I think you can definitely make this profitable! Looking forward to the next update
Thanx for your support, i'm really hoping to at least break even on this campaign at the end of the follow along contest, hopefully by the end I'll have cracked the code to make it profitable and be able to fund my SS account for next level and may be even try bigger networks like eBDR etc ...
Mehdi
Update DAY7 : 19/07/2012
Okey guys, so they say "Live and learn", so i'm living and learning !
I had to pause my campaigns 2days ago because my banners CTR% was awfull (around .12%), and even with spending 200$/day i was getting statistical data for my LP so I had to fix it !
I just submitted a batch of animated gif banners this morning, waiting for them to get approved, aiming for .25%+ wich would mean double de clicks and would be good for a start !
Also, I did a couple mistakes:
1 - I'm running 5campaigns at a time on us/uk/ca/au/nz at 40$/day budget each, wich after thinking about it is a mistake, I should focus on fewer campaigns and give them more traffic to get data faster too. So I paused the US and UK campaigns wich i'm told are hard/impossible.
All 3 conversions came from CA by the way, wich is a profitable campaign by itself.
2 - I just "tilted" that I was bidding 1$ cpm and that may be too low to go on the news websites & stuff !! so may be i'm not guetting the best quality traffic i could for this campaigns, i'm gonna try to bid higher to include those sites.
Any advice about this 2 points would be grately appreciated
Here are the numbers to date :
Spent : 573$
Views : 840 000
Clicks to LP : 859
%CTR : 0.11%
eCPC : 0.67$
LP 1 %ctr : 10%
LP 2 %ctr : 10%
LP 3 %ctr : 13%
Hits to offers : 40
Conv : 3
Revenue : 117$
EPC : 2.92$
%CR : 7.5%
ROI : -79%
So here's where I'm at atm, did a lot of changes on banners / lps / campaigns .. hopefully it will better the performance a little bit and I can find at least one winner amongst the 5 (CA is in good shape for that) !!
Thanx for reading, and again, any help / advice / experience given would be very appreciated
EDIT : 4 gif banners approved and campaigns up and running again !
Mehdi
I just ran a small campaign with search traffic for skincare rebills using a similar lander.
Highest conversions from CA, then US and last was UK.
So don't give up on your US campaign so soon
FINAL Update DAY11 : 23/07/2012
Okey so it's the end of the contest today, and with it the end of this follow along!
During these 11 days, I tried about 35 banners and 4 different landing pages, in different combination, with different tweaking, without being able to get closer to profitland .. not even break even land ! haha
Banners :
I tried more than 30 different banners, narrowed it down to 6 when I had some data (top ban was .11%), and made animated version of them without being able to get them passed the .2% point ..
Landing pages :
LP2 was the worst one so I took it down and added 2 other landing pages in different styles but still couldn't get any of the landers pass the 15% CTR .
Traffic :
I was mainly advertising on mediafire.com , dailymail.co.uk, etc .. this kind of websites, but bid war was getting tough and eCPM kept increasing until a point where it became obvious to me that i was far away from the twists I needed to profit.
Conversions :
Regarding the conversions, it started out good but quickly drained down the rain with no conversions at all for the last 8days, here are the screenshot from my accounts on c2m and AAO
C2M :
AAO :
Conclusion :
I started out with 2000$ for this campaign and spent around 1K$ of it and made 117$ so as you can see i'm almost 900$ down for a -90% ROI !
Also, I learned a valuable lesson about budget sizing and vertical/offer selection, because it would appear 1 or 2K$ is way too low for testing a 40$ payout offer, because you need a good amount of $ to improve your banners, and after that improve your LP and finally test several offers from several networks. It takes a while to get statistical data you can use.
My take on this will be to wait a little bit before I start working seriously on this type of offers, even though they're very attractive because of the rebills and payouts but it doesn't mean it's easy to make profitable since there's still a rude competition on the good spots.
This is the first follow along i go completely through since i'm an STM member and for that i'd like to thank the admins for organizing this contest, I've learned a lot, about me, about the campaign and also about a ton of other things thanx to other member's follow alongs!!
See you all soon for other follow alongs and some video tutorial if people like it, i'd be happy to produce some
Mehdi
yo! This was a good followalong.
Mehdi: did you design all your own banners? Very cool ...
What wer your bid prices?
Thanx caleb! About the banners no mate i suck at design haha, i had a designer make them for me.
boosting it depends on the website you're running on, i left the bid at 1$ max , so it bids 1cent more than the best bid without every going over 1$ cpm.
Mehdi
Thanx caleb! About the banners no mate i suck at design haha, i had a designer make them for me.
boosting it depends on the website you're running on, i left the bid at 1$ max , so it bids 1cent more than the best bid without every going over 1$ cpm.
Mehdi
Originally Posted by mehdi
thanks!
Landing Page is Epic..did you designed it or some one design for you ?
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