A few days ago I was checking my Facebook newsfeed and overall my timeline when I noticed this viral video which I originally saw like 3 years ago.
The video explains how buying Facebook Ads is a waste of time because 90% or more of the traffic (don’t quote me, I don’t remember the exact number) coming from Ads were fake profiles and bots that never interact with your ads or buy anything.
We as marketers know that Facebook is one of the biggest traffic sources online and its quality is unmatched by almost every source except for Google. Facebook generates billions of dollars in revenue by driving targeted traffic to pages, websites, offers, and a lot of branding and it’s probably the favorite social media source in general.
But because of this viral video hundreds or even thousands of people who never ran a Facebook ad or that only spent $3 bucks and never made that money back now think that Facebook ads are a complete scam.
Sometimes I think maybe an avid marketer planned the video to get people away from Facebook ads, but most probably it’s just to get viral views and followers.
Anyways, the point is many times we get asked about a traffic source we recommend because affiliates are always looking to the easiest sources to start learning.
And once you recommend one some people will answer things like this:
Oh no, but I’m looking for another source because I spent $100 there and only made $37 back.
I tested it but that traffic source doesn’t work. It’s ALL bot traffic. I spent $20 there and 0 conversions.
I signed up to that traffic source but their CPMs are so high NOBODY can be profitable there.
Something must be wrong with my account because I tested a pin submit in Facebook and after 200 clicks nobody converted.
Honestly, if you’re asking somebody for a recommendation and you’re going to say NO then why ask?
You can, however, explain a bit your situation and tell them why you think that traffic source didn’t work for you and see if you can get any proper directions to do it right and keep testing.
There are a lot of reasons why a traffic source might not work for you, but don’t automatically assume it doesn’t work for others.
Here are just a few reasons that come to my mind:
The traffic source has very high prices
Yes, many times a traffic source has high prices and you think you can’t be profitable there. I mean, how could you make money on a $0.3 app when the bid is like $20 CPM , right?
Well, first thing you need to do is market research. If the cpm is high, it means something is working really well there. Nobody is going to keep spending money for long periods of time if it doesn’t convert. Some affiliates might do it for a couple days to kill competition, but it can’t go forever.
Do your research and check which kind of offers are killing it so much that they’re driving the CPMs up. Sometimes I pay more then $30 CPM for pop traffic, because I know it works and converts. Sometimes I pay $0.3 CPM.
The traffic source has very low prices and it’s 80% bot traffic
Oh yes, there are traffic sources full of bot traffic and yet they still survive. When this happens you have to be aware that you’ll lose money in the beginning trying to filter all the garbage and you HAVE to give maintenance to your campaign and filter the new bot websites every few days.
Publishers are smart and many of them have automated systems to create and submit new websites to a traffic source every day. Some traffic sources fight this better than others, and thus usually have higher quality of traffic but at higher prices too.
The thing you need to consider is that some traffic sources will always have a high percentage of bot traffic and you either live with it and think of it as an advantage, or leave them alone for somebody who can monetize it.
If a network is selling traffic that never converts and it’s mostly bots, for how long do you think they can do that? Either the prices are going to go down to compensate it or the network is going down after a few years. I bet many of you can think of a couple networks that had really bad performance and ended up disappearing after 1-3 years of being in the industry.
Affiliates are very aggressive and you can’t keep up with them
Let’s keep it real. We’re all looking for ROI and some affiliates can be aggressive as hell. Sometimes your cute simple lander won’t stand a chance against other people with higher payouts, 5 scripts to make the landing page impossible to close, iFrames, etc.
I’ve met some affiliates that can’t sleep at night because they think the police is going to come to their house and arrest them (cough, nutra, cough, 01-800 support, cough). If you can’t keep up with them you’ll have to move to another source or try to adapt or come with unique angles or offers nobody have so you can have an edge.
You didn’t test enough
Yeah. Simple as that. If you haven’t spend at least a few hundred dollars just to test the waters please don’t say something doesn’t work.
If your offer has been tested and proven in other sources and it just doesn’t work in a new source then it’s OK, you can explain that and think of why it’s happening. We all have sources or even geos that somehow never worked for us but others are making money. But if you randomly chose an offer and 1 landing page and it’s not backing out you still have a lot to test before saying it sucks.
Don’t forget the payouts of the offers define your campaign budgets. If you’ve got $1,000 to test don’t go for a $20 or $50 payout offer. You can’t get much data out of it. This is one reason native traffic is not recommended for new people and why so many mobile offers with low payouts are popular.
Some traffic sources suck, though
OK yes, I admit some of them really suck but it’s mostly because they have weird user interfaces, tons of bot traffic and slow approvals. But overall, if a network has the intention to be in the industry for long, they have to sell real traffic to real people, or they will lower their prices and volume until they die.
But please, don’t say Facebook or Adwords suck. They do have weird algorithms and systems that create head aches every time they get updates but they do work and the traffic is real with very high quality if you know how to use them.
Some traffic sources suck and don’t have volume, but I don’t see them recommended much anywhere for newbies, so they’re more obscure traffic sources you use to scale if you can.
Make sure learn a traffic source and dominate it. Some people will make $20 per day in a traffic source and think of moving to another because there’s not enough volume to make $300 per day.
What they don’t know is other affiliates are doing $2,000 per day in the same traffic source because they’ve learned the ins and outs of it and dominate it. Yes, you have to learn how to scale and in many cases we have dozens, hundreds or even thousands of campaigns running to reach 4-5 figures per day, but it’s not imposible.
Servando out.
Hi Servando!
I have been following up on your threads for quite some time now.
I really need your help.
After reading your posts and emails as I am subscribed to you. I am running a few mobile campaigns, direct linking on mobile Advertising using interstitial and Banner Ads (on StartApp advertising network) and I have spent so much now, getting almost 1000clicks and thousands of impressions on each, but yet no generated lead, not even one conversion.
I have checked severally on my tracking and linkings, targeting & the campaign, everthing seems right and good, but yet no lead at all.
please can you help out, could it be bot traffic stealing away my leads?, how can you help me to control or stop bot traffic.
Please reply.
Thank you.
Hello.
Here are a few things I recommend you to do in this case:
1. Select offers (2-3) that are proven and converting in those ads. you can check that with Adplexity.
2. Use 2-3 landing pages and split test them. You’ll notice the publishers sending bot traffic easier with a landing page than direct linking.
3. Which geo are you testing? I’d recommend to start with a tier 3 country and spy what’s working on it before launching.
I am actually running a google play App install Ad on a 3tier country and its Indonesia.
the verticals I work on most is Sweepstakes/Gift Vouchers and Adult.
I have been experiencing the same thing while running Ads on those verticals for almost a month now, have really lost alot of $$$ on paid traffic due to same reason.
OK, so you followed the 3rd recommendation but what about the first couple ones?
You didn’t mention if you’re split testing offers and if they are proven from your managers/network.
Also, let me put this clear. Please don’t direct link as you’ll only lose more money this way. Grab 2-3 landers and get started after that.
Thanks Mr. Servando!
I am presently split testing the offer with two landing pages now, was using only one landing page previously.
I will update you on the performance.
As for the direct linking, I was only direct linking a Mobile App for download on Google Play store(Payout 0.80cents/download), when I also experienced that, I had over 650clicks with almost 7000impression, and not even 1single lead. I didnt use a Landing page for this, since its a Mobile App, I dont know if am doing it right, or should i still use a lander for this?
and please what is the best way to promote Mobile App Downloads?
Thanks for Your help.
When you’re in doubt if you should you a landing page or not, always use a landing page.
For like 95%+ of the cases a landing page will perform better and will allow you to do some extra stuff that you will later learn.
Also, you didn’t mention if the offer is proven or a top converter in the network, which is the most important thing when you’re starting up.
As for what’s the best way to promote them, check adplexity and other tools. Adplexity has Startapp in their library so you can see what everybody is running and how.
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Gratias!
You can even do $100 a day in “small countries” as well… so long as it’s on a large source.
Back in 2014 both me and 3 other affiliates were all doing over $3-5k days in both Colombia & Argentina. The only way we were able to do that kind of volume however was because we were on Facbeook & Adwords.
Teir 3 sources + teir 3 countries however, will in fact be much more difficult to constantly make a profit of over $100, since there is more competition and a smaller pie in most cases.
Yeah. The biggest social networks and google are able to provide huge volumes even for small countries.
I don’t consider Argentina small, but even if you run in a country like Puerto Rico or Kenya you can do 4 figures per day with the biggest traffic sources around.
Hi Servando, thank you for this great blog. You share useful information for newbies as myself.
Little info about me: I have bachelor’s degree in marketing, i work as webdesigner and data specialist.
I started running mobile CPA campaings month ago and i’m struggling to get my first conversion. As traffic sources i use Zeropark, Airpush and Selfadvertiser. Aff. CPA networks Clickdealer / Mobair. For tracking AdsBridge. I tried some CPI’s with direct linking like battery saver app or some app for saving money. I tried US, DE, Europe traffic. NO CONVERSION. Testing clicks in Clickdealer works okay so i think i have everything setup correctly. I have send totally 60 000 clicks to CPA offers for aprox. $300. NO CONVERSION!
I know it’s not scam but it looks like it is. My only 2 coversions was on Cj.com with local FB ads (i blew up few hundred $ for $2 revenue). But i want to do Mobile CPA. My budget is now $1000 and i really like this style of affiliate marketing but i need to see some proof. 🙁
Should i continue with CPI’s with direct linking as i undestand this should be newbie friendly or try some different type of CPA offers? Or should i try landing pages? But i don’t see any point creating landing pages with CPI’s. There is so manny options and it is really hard to figure out what works…
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you, Daniel.
Hello Daniel.
Here are a few things that will help you get your first conversions:
1. NEVER Direct Link on traffic sources like Zeropark or Selfadvertiser use landing pages. You can check a few tools i use in the resources area of my blog. Whoever told you direct linking was newbie friendly got it wrong, or maybe you understood something else. You can direct link apps on Facebook, but with pop traffic it’s a different story. No landers = no conversions there.
2. USA is probably too competitive for you at the moment. Try tier 3 countries from Asia, Africa and South America.
3. If you’re learning with Zeropark, try redirect traffic first. The quality is higher and you’ll get more conversions per visits.
Thank you, Servando.
Hi Servando…
Let me ask you something. You have mention that direct linking apps on facebook is fine but how do you post it on facebook with a affiliate link. I’m trying to create a ads for a app that I’m promoting but the only link that facebook seems to accept is the actual link from googleplay or Apple app Store. Could you please explain how it would be done. Nice article BTW
Thanks
That implies using a tracker or URL shortener and setting up redirection tools to avoid being banned. It would require a whole article to explain this but I’m sure there are a few tutorials in the STM forums.
Which countries are you working on?
1 traffic source with just 1 campaign (if the geo has the right volume) can easily do more than $100 per day.
Of course you won’t do it in a small country like Etiopia or Colombia, but there are many tier 2-3 countries that can do that.
Hola Servando! Haven’t spoken to you in a while but still read your posts.
Can you go further into this? “Don’t forget the payouts of the offers define your campaign budgets. If you’ve got $1,000 to test don’t go for a $20 or $50 payout offer. You can’t get much data out of it. This is one reason native traffic is not recommended for new people and why so many mobile offers with low payouts are popular.”
Why don’t you recommend native traffic?
Hello.
Native traffic is not a source recommended for beginners or people with tight budgets because the offers that convert well there usually go from $20 to more than $100 payouts.
You don’t see offers if $0.5 working on Native normally, so imagine if you have to spend $20 per website and there’s thousands of them, just for a quick test you should pour at least a thousand or more.
He does mention that care of a small campaign takes similar time to a huge campaign, so you should focus on your 80/20.
When I mentioned having dozens of campaigns I wasn’t talking about $X or $XX, but more like $XXX and above though. It depends on the traffic sources and how much you can scale.
Also, I remember some of the members at the AWA panels doing $50k per day mentioned one of their strategies to reach that was having dozens or hundreds of “small” campaigns doing $X,XXX per day.
Managing 500 campaigns is definitely imposible for a one man army, but not nearly as much with a team of 20, for example 🙂