The Man and the Traffic: Approaching the Finish Line

Hi everyone! This is the editorial team speaking. In this volume, Oleg decides to draw some preliminary conclusions. He discusses what did and what didn’t work out, touches upon the campaigns that he launched and that already started generating profit and shares his plans for the future.

The Man has been driving traffic for four months already. Despite the fact that he can dedicate only a few hours per day to affiliate marketing, he had already gained a lot of experience and knowledge in this field. We don’t know whether this expertise will be of any use in the future, but it’s reassuring to see Oleg launch profitable campaigns. Of course, we are not talking big numbers now, but success comes with tenacity.

Oleg, we give the floor to you!

Introduction

Good time of day to all of you!

October 21 marked the first birthday of ZorbasMedia. On this occasion, I would like to take stock of what I have accomplished (and what I haven’t) in the affiliate marketing field so far. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to drive traffic to all the GEOs I mentioned in the previous volume. On the advice of my mentors, I focused only on certain countries. My choice fell on France and South Africa as I had already gained some experience driving traffic to these GEOs. The ROI fluctuated every day, but still the campaigns were running for two weeks or so in a row.

Just a brief reminder: I dedicate only 2-3 hours a day to affiliate marketing, and that’s why my journey to a positive ROI has proved to be so long and tedious. Nevertheless, I am heartened by the fact that still there is a positive dynamic: the quantity has finally transformed into quality.

Drawing preliminary conclusions

I’m going to provide data only for the PropellerAds traffic source, as it enabled me to secure a positive ROI for some campaigns.

I haven’t managed to get the same results working with MegaPush as yet because I lack expertise and budget to find a well-performing campaign taking into account feed optimization:

Since the launch of the project, Binom Tracker processed 294,000 clicks and 3,053 conversions. Overall, I spent $2,978 on traffic and received $2,295 from the affiliate network ClickDealer. The overall ROI remains negative: -$683 (-22.93%). 

Note that I haven’t accounted for the tracking, hosting and spy tool costs and for the traffic source top-up commission.

Statistics on GEOs I worked with

Below, I’m going to list all the countries I’ve driven traffic to. Initially, all my campaigns immediately plummeted into the red. In this sheet, however, I brought together all the data for the entire period from 16.07 to 24.10.

As my campaigns targeted at France and South Africa performed rather well, the general campaign results turned out to be positive. As for the overall ROI by month, I got the following figures:

A few words about France and South Africa

France

• Campaign time period: 9.10-23.10
• Money spent: $257.55
• Payout: $297.70
• Profit: $40.14
• ROI: +15.59%

ClickDealer offers:

• 74622 [WEB+MOB] Fuck Moi /FR SOI with pre-lander 207713
• 11310 [MOB] 4CLUB /FR SOI – CPA with pre-lander 134969

Pre-landers:

• Age Verification 18 ENG
• DIRECT 

The best creatives:

At the end of the day, I’m satisfied with the results, especially considering that it’s my first campaign that has been running for so long. I separated campaigns by cohorts, GEOs inside the country and the availability of BL and WL. The latter didn’t work out very well, and so I think it makes sense to separate your campaigns only by cohorts and GEOs inside the country (Paris and the rest of the territory). Time targeting is also worth using: the campaign demonstrated the best conversion rate from 21:00 to 23:00, while the best time to launch a campaign is from 19:00 to 24:00 local time.

South Africa

• Campaign time period: 14.10-24.10
• Money spent: $394.76
• Payout: $489.63
• Profit: $94.87
• ROI: +24.05%

ClickDealer offers:

• Clickdealer – 44856 [MOB] BeNaughty /ZA SOI 25+ with pre-lander 154420
• Clickdealer – 67985 [MOB] EBONYFLIRT /ZA SOI 25+ with pre-lander 195155 

Pre-landers:

• Age Verification 18 ENG
• DIRECT 

The best creatives:

Again, blacklists and whitelists didn’t work out well. To climb into the green faster, I’d recommend separating your campaigns by cohorts and major cities. I have also noticed that it’s better to use different creatives for different cohorts to boost performance. The campaign converted best from 24:00 to 07:00 Moscow time, but it continued to generate leads and demonstrate a positive ROI during other hours. I also tried to mention cities in my creatives, but I didn’t notice any boost in the conversion rate.

What’s next?

I’m planning to secure a +20% ROI at the very least, scale up my campaigns properly and start working with other verticals. Currently, my daily spend accounts for $60-100. Given these numbers and an average ROI of +20%, my monthly income will constitute around $400. Whether it is a lot of money or not is a matter of perspective, as everything depends on how much time and effort you put into it. Anyway, I can say with full certainty now that affiliate marketing is not an easy thing.

Summary

The resources spent so far:

Money spent from October 7 to October 24: ad campaigns in push networks: $1116

Money earned from October 7 to October 24: $1123

ClickDealer balance: $840.06

Balance: $1112

Time spent: 266 hours.