The Man and the Traffic: In Search for Profitable GEOs

Hi everyone! This is the editorial team speaking. After a short break, we are continuing with our reports on how the Man, a hero of our experiment, is getting along.

In the last couple of weeks, Oleg was analyzing all the data he had already gathered and even came up with his own formula for calculating a campaign’s profitability. What’s more, he also tested and launched new campaigns.

By the way, the Man has some new questions to ask, and we hope that you will be able to help him.

Oleg, we give the floor to you!

Good time of day to all of you!

This issue of our experiment is a little bit belated, which stems from the fact that I have been rather busy lately as we have just moved to our new office. Today, I’m going to discuss how I launched test campaigns targeted at HU, CZ, SK and enrolled in a course on push traffic by Kote and Mr.Braun. I’ll also take stock of my finances and draw up a plan for the next time period.

How I chose a GEO to test

I didn’t choose GEOs for a test randomly. During my stream [The stream was held in Russian on September 3 — Ed.], I mentioned that my initial idea had been to run extensive testing: I wanted to test a score of countries using the same creatives and pre-landers. However, having tested out a few Tier-3 countries, I realized that I had to use another approach. I combined all the data into one single worksheet and analyzed the stats on dating Smartlinks (they are available for all those registered in affiliate network ClickDealer).

I also included the data from Traffic Chart in ad network PropellerAds.

Then, I deleted GEOs with low traffic volumes and the negative difference between a Smartlink’s eCPM and a traffic source CPC for each particular GEO from the worksheet. As a result, only 30 countries were left that were supposed to generate a positive ROI. Undoubtedly, this is only an approximate calculation, as the data concerns only Smartlinks and average volumes.

Test results

So, when I tested HU, CZ, and SK, I only targeted mobile devices and used English-language creatives and some generic pre-landers.

Spy tool Anstrex helped me find ideas for my creatives and pre-landers:

I created and launched campaigns on ad network PropellerAds that I have been working with from the very outset.

Creatives:

Landings:

Hungary

Offers:

• 72800 [MOB] TitkosViszony /HU SOI
• 66147 [MOB] WantMatures /HU 35+ SOI

Results: 408 clicks, 1 lead, ROI -68%, $4 spent.

The campaign plunged into the red right away, and a single lead came in only after I had stopped it. I can presume that the problem lies in the English-language creatives. I’m going to relaunch tests with new creatives and survey landing pages.

Slovakia

Offer:

• 70564 [MOB] Rychle-Kontakty /SK DOI

Results: 2,719 clicks, 17 leads, ROI -54%, $21 spent.

At first, the campaign was in the green zone but plummeted into the red later. Optimization didn’t save the situation. Again, I’m going to run tests once again using Slovak-language creatives and new pre-landers.

The Czech Republic

Offer:

• 70590 [MOB] INSTASEX /CZ [SOI]

Results: 2,449 clicks, 135 leads, ROI -24%, $9.4 spent.

The test campaigns brought a negative ROI but were generating leads in a sustained way. After optimization, the campaign climbed into the green zone and brought a 61% ROI.

I created separate campaigns based on the user activity level and a GEO’s region (a capital or some major cities and the rest of a GEO). As a result, I launched 6 campaigns for each GEO. This approach allows you to find a campaign that will generate a positive ROI:

I also set up a test campaign targeted at the Czech Republic on MegaPush:

Moreover, I continue running traffic to ZA, MX, and HK: after I thoroughly analyzed each campaign and found some well-performing creatives through Anstrex, I managed to start generating some profit. If you would like to know what offers I drive traffic to and what landings I use, you can always contact me.

You can find the most well-performing creatives for ZA with an 8-9% CTR below:

Push notification course

As I have mentioned before, I’m also going to say a few words about a Russian-language push notification course by Kote and Mr.Braun. Why did I enroll in it? Because I wanted to make sure I was going in the right direction and learn something new.

I liked this educational course very much and received lots of useful practice-oriented information, which is great for newbies. As for now, I haven’t studied all the lessons. It seems to me that before taking this course, you’d better try launching at least one push campaign on your own. Some perks for newbies: you will be able to register in a foreign network and you will have free access to a push spy tool and a tracker. Also, you will get timely answers to all of your questions.

Mentors’ advice

Mikhail Funk

A push traffic expert

 

---

Does ClickDealer provide you with the stats on the EPC your push traffic has brought? In my opinion, the method you’re using makes no sense: you can drive Facebook traffic to Mexico and have a conversion rate of 1 to 5, while somebody else will drive popunder traffic to France and have a conversion rate of 1 to 500. The EPCs will be totally different and they won’t reflect even the approximate conversion rate.

Advice

A single campaign must involve lots of offers. It’s actually worth buying the stats and test a score of GEOs at once. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Create a spreadsheet with GEOs and state payouts for a registration.
2. Calculate the overall conversion rate for each traffic source.
3. Divide the payout by the average number of clicks that generated a lead.
4. Calculate CPC and add it to your spreadsheet.
5. You should also add traffic costs for each source.
6. Compare these figures.
7. Delete all the GEOs with a negative ROI and start driving traffic to those in the green zone.

Roman S.

An affiliate marketing expert at PropellerAds

---

It’s a pity that you don’t heed my advice.

The texts you’re using in your creatives are ok, but the banners itself are a total disaster. From a distance, it’s impossible to figure out that your push notification shows a girl: the image is blurry and not eye-catching at all. It won’t work.

Your CTR rate is 0.2%, which is a poor result. You should definitely change your approach and use high-contrast images. For instance, a photo of a big-breasted girl in bright clothes against a white background. Have a look at this image, for instance. Try to find something like this.

I’ve already recommended you not to test the low user activity level, as this is a mistake. Test your creatives using the high user activity targeting option. You can start targeting lower-activity audience segments using creatives with a high CTR rate after testing. The high user activity level targeting will enable you to see whether a campaign is working or not much faster.

It’s too bad that you don’t use pre-landers and only have “18+” landing pages. You obviously lack different landing page types for testing. I’m not going to recommend any pre-landers now. At first, you should figure out what creatives to use.

As for now, I can’t answer your question regarding the scale-up process. If a campaign is not working, there’s no point in scaling up. Good luck!

Plans for the next time period

1. Finish the push notification course.
2. Launch a test dating campaign targeted at Poland, France, and Italy.
3. Relaunch dating campaigns targeted at Slovakia and Hungary.
4. Launch sweepstake campaigns (iPhone, Samsung).
5. Figure out the scaling up issue.
6. Test out some creatives with various girl types, try to use national flags.

Yours faithfully,
the Man.