Justin Dupre » conversions

PPV Tip of the Day: Kill the Deadbeats

Justin Dupre — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:46:04 +0000

We all know you cut out the URLs and keyword targets that have done significant amounts of traffic, yet provide a negative ROI. You’d be one broke hustler if you didn’t. I’d also be slightly inclined to call you stupid.

However, what about the stuff that just picks up a few views per day. You’ve had the campaign running successfully over 1 month, but you’ve got 1000 or so targets that just sit there, trickling in traffic that have converted maybe once or twice, or not at all, in 4 weeks. Do you wait till you spend 1 – 2 times the payout before pausing them to see if just maybe they are profitable?

Well, you could, but how much fun would that be when you find out 90% of your targets will never be profitable? If I have 1000 different targets on a 4 dollar dating niche offer, I’d have to spend $4000 – 8000 just to test all those targets, and some targets may take a year to even get that amount of traffic. Sure, I might find 10 – 20 more targets that give 30 – 50 more conversions per month, but that is only 6 extra bucks a day.

I say, if they don’t have conversions after 7 days and haven’t reached your spend limit, just kill them. I do it to my campaigns, and I’ll notice a small increase in ROI just because I don’t have these 1000s of small insignificant targets creating 10 cents of pops each (That would add up to a minimum of $100 extra ad spend going to testing that just wouldn’t give you enough data unless you waited a month or so to collect it all). It just isn’t worth the mini-management you’ll have to do.

Mini-Contest – Win a Free CUSTOM Landing Page!

Justin Dupre — Mon, 10 May 2010 08:24:59 +0000

Alrighty! Who’s ready for another little contest here? It’s been a while, I believe.

The idea behind this contest is pretty simple. I’m looking for some ideas to help build my subscriber list with a new giveaway. As you know, I now give away about 700+ female images that work great for Facebook dating. However, the niche is very saturated. Unfortunately, I don’t feel the images are of much help to anyone anymore. Too much competition, click costs soaring, and a lot of scrubbing equals no profit for the affiliate.

So, I’m looking for something new to replace those images. My question to you is: What?

I need something that will generate conversions on my list, be interesting and unique to most affiliate marketers, and not be some rehashed ebook that every other affiliate guru and their mom has put out. Some general ideas I’ve come up with are:

PPV Case Study
Facebook Case Study
PoF Case Study
Small Media Buy/Display Banner Case Study
5 – 10 Free Landing Pages
A coupon for some services or landing page in my store

None of these are truly unique and creative enough, so I thought I’d come ask for help. Whoever comments or contacts me with the best idea here by Friday wins a custom made landing page design (A $97 value). 2 runner ups will get a 50 images from my Facebook/PoF image service from my store. You can take my ideas and extend them, or come up with your own great idea.

And whatever turns out to be the winner, I will send it out to my whole list, so even those already subscribed will get it!

Deadline for entries is this Friday!

EDIT: 1st place winner now gets 2 custom designed landing pages. 2nd gets 1 custom landing page designed!

Tracking Solution for PPV Campaigns

Justin Dupre — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:56:23 +0000

Here’s a simple question that requires a simple answer with an extended explanation. If you have any questions you would like answered, ask them here.

“Hey bro, this is great! So i wanted to know what do you mostly use to track you ppv campaigns such as know which url thats paying and stuff?”

I use the same tracking I use for everything else. Prosper202. There are a lot of reasons you may or may not want to use Prosper202 for your PPV campaigns, though.

Let’s go over a few cons – Prosper obtains a lot of data. It’s a lot and it can stress out your VPS or server fast if you aren’t properly equipped for a massive PPV/CPV campaign. Honestly, all the data you need to collect is sub-ids, keyword, time of day and landing page the hits came from (assuming you are using one). Traffic source might be important, too, if you are running over multiple networks. If you’ve got the know how, you might want to create a light, stable tracker specifically for PPV.

PPV traffic can easily crash a server. I’ve had campaigns that give me upwards of 50 clicks a second. Sending millions of� hits to your server, even just a simple redirect script to an offer page, can kill you. I’m well prepared for this with my Wiredtree server, though. You might want to check them out if you need a dedicated platform for tracking. Prosper has no trouble or hiccups running on it.

To use Prosper to track conversions on PPV campaigns, all you need to do is ussually check the tickbox that says “Target Pass-through” or “Pass target/keyword data”. Note – If you are targeting URLs, this will not show up in referral data. This will show up under the keyword column. You can then use the Analyze >> Keyword section to figure out where your conversions are coming from. Make sure to grab sub-ids from the network to see if your pixel may have missed firing on some conversions.

Alternatively, you can completely skip tracking and use the networks integrated conversion tracker. These aren’t always the most reliable, though, and I certainly don’t recommend that, especially if you are rolling out a heavy campaign.

Tight Advertising on Facebook

Justin Dupre — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:52:49 +0000

This was emailed to me in response to my Ask Away! post. Feel free to ask me any questions about affiliate marketing there or contact me via email.

When targetting groups of people at a tight level [on Facebook] (City+single age+Keywords+Gender), how many individuals would you consider as being ‘too low’?

I’ve found that when I try and target groups that are too small I don’t get any impressions.

Or do you create multiple highly targeted ads tailored for each group?

I know this is pretty broad but do you have any sort of rule of thumb?

There are few decent questions there that deserve answering.

As far as how many people is too few to target, when I ran campaigns like this, I would target 100-200 people some times. I’d run it at CPC because I knew CPM would burn through them too fast. I’d be getting about ~1% CTRs making my click cost only a cent or two. Of course, either way, I’d burn through that demographic really fast. It usually only took me 1 minute to set up the ad for them, and I’d make 1000 – 2000% ROI on my investment, so it was completely worth the time. It wasn’t a campaign that was sustainable for a long time. I could normally run it a few days every month and make conversions from it, then pause it for a month and open it again.

Also, I’d take a large demographic and just break it up into highly targeted ads. Custom images, ad title and ad body were included in this. It would drop my average CPC on these ads by about 20-30 cents on some campaigns.

I’m not too sure whats wrong with Facebook impressions. Rather than give impressions to the highest bidders, they like to split up impressions instead. So if 100 more advertisers enter the same demographic on the same day, you’re up against them. It’s a wonky (shitty) system that needs improvement. Some days you’ll get millions of impressions, the next day you’ll be like “Facebook doesn’t want my online monies today or what?”

As for a rule of thumb, Hey! As long as its making you a decent amount of money, and its worth the amount of work you put in to it, go for it. Some days I’d work on campaigns all day that would make me 4 figures a day, some days I would build small Facebook campaigns that took 10 minutes to set up and make me 20 bucks a day on each ad.

Money is money, and how you make that is completely up to you!

How to Target Races on Facebook

Justin Dupre — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:26:08 +0000

Here’s a pretty good question I got from the Ask Away post -

“Are there any techniques you could share for targeting specific races of FB? If I have an offer that’s demographics lie within a specific race, what can I do to target on FB?”

This really shouldn’t take long to explain. There are a couple ways you can go around doing this.

Number 1 is keywords. If you don’t know what keywords your race is that you’d like to target, I’d suggest going in to Google and typing in something like “(race) forums” or community, social network, website, blog, etc. Take a look at the keywords in the meta-tags. Target those. Also, take a look at what is being discussed on the website. If they are talking about ex. Fishing, add fishing to your keyword list. Target one keyword per ad and track conversions by that keyword level.

Another simple way is to take a look at census data. Target on the city level. Check this out: List of U.S. cities with large African American populations. Target cities that contain a high percentage of the race of people you are trying to target. Or, target home countries if the offer allows international promotion. That’s a no-brainer, though.

Colleges often publish demographic data as well. If you find a college with a high density of one race, chances are the surrounding area/city can also be included there.

There are also “work places” you could probably target, as well.

And that is how you racially target. I’m sure there are others out there that know some better tactics, but I’ve found this usually works for me. I’ve heard people turning large ROI running racially targeted campaigns with LPs built specifically to that race.

Asking for Help

Justin Dupre — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:11:05 +0000

Constantly, on a day to day basis, I get asked for help. The way it is asked for is usually in one of the following forms:

Yo Justin! I saw you do a lot of stuff on (traffic source). I’m trying to get started there now. Can you share some tips? Thx man peace -Bob
I’ve spent 12 dollars on this offer on (traffic source) and I still don’t have any conversions. What gives!?
Hey. Just wondering if we could chat. I do a lot of stuff online and want to make more money. Hoping you could help me. Thanks
How much do you charge for coaching? I want to hire you.

Alrighty. You’re probably wondering why I won’t reply to you. Here’s why: I don’t work with freeloaders. I won’t help people that aren’t willing to spend some time (and a reasonable amount of money) to get results. I don’t have much time to sit back and chat. And I’m no ho (I don’t sell my body, huns).

If you want an answer from me, let me know who you are. I honestly don’t give a rat’s ass if you read my blog and love it, but thanks for that comment anyways. Be direct. Be specific. If you want me to be able to answer any questions, you’ll need to give me details. I hate broad general questions with answers you can probably find on Wickedfire. In fact, run a search there before you come running to me.

Also, chances are if I don’t know you very well, I won’t be the most willing to help you out. If you have something you’d like to share with me, go for it. I like to build relationships with people that know what they are doing. If you have lots of experience in one area, and need a leg up in a newer area, then maybe we can trade intelligence. But like I said, I’m not open to much to random people just saying they know stuff. Trust is something I don’t do something fast anymore.

Those people that ask me questions like why they aren’t making money on $X – $XX spend a day, obviously don’t have the budgets to split test every possible variable. That is why you aren’t making money. If you don’t have the experience to set up a campaign and have decent ROI, you need to gain that experience and data yourself. Myself, and most others, are not going to hand out our knowledge free. We spent thousands to get it, and you should too if that is what you want.

So if you still feel like you have a decent reason to contact me, do so, but know the above reasons might be just some of the reasons I won’t reply.

FTC Steps in on Sponsored/Paid Endorsements and Testimonials

Justin Dupre — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:47:11 +0000

Here comes the FTC to the peoples rescue… again. In order to better protect consumers, the FTC has updated its 30-year old never since updated “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”.

What they are now requiring is a clear statement letting website visitors know they were paid to post, or get some sort of payout for transactions made from their blog. The FTC update can be read here.

�The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that �material connections� (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers � connections that consumers would not expect � must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other �word-of-mouth� marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement.�

Other “word-of-mouth” marketers include affiliates and our flogging/farticle ways. Unfortunately, the FTC doesn’t make it clear how this must be stated on websites. So for now, I’d have to guess a * and text in the footer amongst the other disclaimers would be enough.

Those that don’t comply may face charges up to $11,000. This is just a drop of water in the bucket for most affiliates making money with fake testimonials, but this rule could end up lowering conversions significantly if the FTC required truly clear statements (say in the header, next to all claims with a *, in a pop-up).

Who’s scared and who could care less?

Take Your Eggs Out of One Basket Through Multiple CPA Networks

Justin Dupre — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:13:06 +0000

One thing that you will hear in the affiliate and internet marketing industry is to never keep your eggs in one basket. If that basket drops, your eggs break and you are back to square one. I’ve been there and it wasn’t fun.

I was only just starting to get into affiliate marketing when I finally had a decent campaign running. I had it up for a month, and all I would do was sit on those eggs and try to optimize my ROI. I learned a lot about optimization from it, like how I could gain an extra .5% on conversions. While I was doing that, I could have been breaking into another niche, not worried about that extra .5% and probably have made more profit with two different campaigns. In the end the campaign I was running was dropped from the network and I was pretty screwed. Back to square one.

So we all know that you need to break in to multiple niches. But one thing a lot of people don’t talk about too much is splitting your traffic across multiple networks. Most of the time, people will do this to see which network will give them the best conversion rate, and I still do this at the beginning. Most of the time, I find there is never really much of a difference (but if there is I knock that network out of my rotator, of course). If not, I’ll always keep rotating. Why?

You need to keep your eggs in multiple baskets. The basket is the network, and networks like to do weird things. Sometimes an offer will be pulled from a network while you are sleeping. Leads get capped and your clicks get redirected to another offer that might not convert so well. Sometimes the whole damn network goes down (CX Digital anyone) and sometimes, the tracking provider of 100s of networks decides to go down, as well (DirectTrack!).

There are countless things that can happen. If I keep my clicks going to different networks A) I can constantly split test different sources B) I can constantly keep at least a few of my affiliate managers happy with a decent amount of traffic C) If one network takes the offer down (or the network goes down completely) while I’m not around my computer, I can still probably break even driving the traffic across a few other networks D) Who doesn’t love getting 5 wires in one day to their bank account?

Of course there are cons to what I do. Wires cost you money, and getting 5 wires might cost you 50 – 200$ depending on your bank or where you are. You might not be making enough to get wires if you aren’t sending enough traffic to each network (most require you make $1000 a week to get weekly wires). Also, it can be kind of time consuming to manage so many links and all your accounts.

What do you think about splitting your traffic like this? If you could get the volume, would you take 100% of your traffic and give it to the best converter despite the risk, or split it and perhaps lose 5-10% off your daily ROI (That’s what I am guesstimating I’m losing by doing this).

Tracking Your Affiliate Revenue on the Go

Justin Dupre — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:59:06 +0000

Stats202

We all know tracking your affiliate stats is important. If you’re running any affiliate offer, and not putting it through a tracking system like Prosper202, Tracking202, or your own custom solution, well… you’re retarded. These systems allow you to see just how, when and where you are getting your conversions from.

But how about when you are on the go? There is no F5 button on my Blackberry, and its pretty difficult to even get past the login screen of P202 with it. The solution? Stats202, from the same guys that brought us their innovative tracking solutions.

Go ahead and check it out. All you have to do is have your Tracking202 username and password ready. It is very simple to use and access with most any smart phone. You just set up your accounts with login data from your CPA affiliate networks, and they will aggregate all the data – clicks, revenue, and EPC – into their simple to use platform. It won’t give you details on individual campaigns, but it will give you some idea of whether you are on track with an average day’s revenue.

If you’ve got an iPhone, they’ve got an app ready and set up for you to download and use. Unfortunatly, no Blackberry app is available, but it only takes a few clicks to manage all your data through the Blackberry web browser.

So here’s a cheers out to Wes and the whole Tracking202 team. They’ve just got no end to how hard they work their asses off for us affiliates.

Giving You a Facebook Campaign – DO IT!

Justin Dupre — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:24:30 +0000

Alright, you know what!? I’m tired of you little punks signing up with Tatto Media and not doing jack-shit with them. They are an excellent network and I’m surprised to see I’ve got a total of 8 affiliates all together that have pushed a total of $8 in conversions. You think that 8 dollars is gonna pay for the prize Tatto Media is giving away with me? Well, here it is. I’m gonna give you a campaign that you should go out and just try.

The offer I’m looking at is Top Colleges – University of Phoenix. Check it out. It’s got a decent offer that could probably do okay direct linking, but pre-selling it with a landing page will do you a lot more. I think this offer starts out at around $16, but I know if you ask your AM nicely, you can get a bump over $18. That’s some nice money for this easy converting 1-page offer.

First of all, you are going to need to figure out who your demographic is for this offer. We’ll just promote this on Facebook since you can target who you want pretty easily. So, what kind of people are gonna want an education online? Most young kids are already signed up for colleges on state campuses and what not, so stay the hell away from 18-year olds and such. The economy is in piss poor shape, and people are worried about their jobs. You want to target older 30+ aged people that already have decent business jobs, but want to get ahead in their free-time at home so their ass doesn’t get laid off.

I’d just start off by targeting college grads 30 and up. I already tried this just targeting anyone 18 and up to test if it would convert. I spent $50 and got one conversion. That means that there is a chance this can go somewhere if you target it right. Make sure to try out different ad copy. Here are some you could try:

Extend your education and get a better job in our economy with a Master’s degree from the University of Phoenix. Study online from home anywhere in the world!
Worried about losing your job in this economy? Keep it with a degree in higher learning at the University of Phoenix. Study anytime, from anywhere with an Internet connection!
Get your FREE information package about how you can extend your degree at the University of Phoenix, all while learning from the comfort of your home living room!

For pictures, test a bunch out. I just jacked the school logo, extended it to 110 x 80 pixels and went with that. CTR was low, but I wasn’t worried about that as I was just gathering data. Other images you might want to try out are pictures of people in pyjamas on the computer (study at home in your pyjamas!), successful looking business people, money, computers, degrees, students, teachers (sexy teachers to male demographics… you know you want to try it), etc. There is so much you can split test. Make sure you name each ad with its own sub id so you can track which one will give you the highest EPC (CTR is important, too. Just don’t let it drop below .05. Aim for .08% and above if you can.) Bid CPC and if you can get any ads at .1% and above CTR, switch it over to CPM. You’ll end up paying probably have the CPC cost.

If you have trouble getting the ad up by direct linking, it might be because there are too many form fields to fill out on the offer page. Facebook hates that for some reason. Try, A) using a landing page (hell, it will probably increase your conversions if you know how to sell it enough) or B) cloak. I had to cloak to get it up. You can find a cloaking tool and other useful Facebook tools in this post. I cloaked to the University of Phoenix official website. That got it by without any problems whatsoever.

So once you get these ads up and running, keep split testing and toss out the shit that doesn’t work. This offer is already a proven converter, and I’ve seen lots of online educational offers on Facebook. So get with the frickin program. Sign up with Tatto Media, and get your chance to win a free netbook or computer monitor while you are at it!

For you wondering why I’m just giving out a whole campaign that will convert to profit for some (with enough testing) is because I don’t think many of you will actually try it or put in enough effort to actually make it profit. You almost always will lose money in the beginning of every campaign. Get a bunch of credit cards while your credit is still good and just work it till it sticks. I’d think you’d be able to make money off this after losing maybe just 100 – 200 dollars. Not too much! Also, I’ve got other campaigns I’ve been building on that I just can’t be bothered scaling into other niches until I’ve got other things managed. Looks like I’m gonna need a couple more employees with me soon!