My First CPA Ad Buy *Follow My Case Study**

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I'm about to let you guys know what I've just done and I'll be updating this thread over the next 7 days to report the outcome.

Before I start though, I just want to mention that this thread hasn't been created for people to tell me how bad my idea is, or how it's not going to work - blah, blah.

I'd appreciate it if you just follow along and chip in with some words of wisdom and general morale support :-)

Ok,

STEP 1

I went over to BlogAds.com and scrolled through the available ad slots and chose one that fitted by budget ($60 per week and gets 216,197 Ad views)

The blog ad description stated that the visitors of this particular site (NFL Blog) had an appetite for fantasy football and team gear.

STEP 2

I then went over to Quantcast.com and entered the URL of the blog I just chose to advertise on so I could find out the demographics of the visitors.

I told me that the blog gets mostly US traffic, the average age of the visitor is between 18-35.

STEP 3

I then proceeded to my CPA Network (Maxbounty) and searched for a suitable offer based on the data info I had.

I found what seems to be a perfect offer which offers a free $500 NFL Store giftcard (Team Gear) - one page submit at $2.60 per lead.

STEP 4

Went ahead and booked the Ad placement for 1 week ($60), uploaded banner and input my affiliate link into the destination URL field.

STEP 5

I'm now waiting for advert approval by the site owner and my ad will begin running.

Now, this is my first ad buy and I've probably got it ALL wrong but I will update this thread every day of the remainding 7 days to let you guys know how it's doing.

I'm not saying I will make a profit, I just wanted to try it out...I've just matched an offer with a blog that caters for that audience.

Wish me luck...

~Russ "CPA Optimist" Smitheram
#ad networks (cpm/cpl, display) #buy #case #cpa #follow #study
  • good luck! I hope you make epic bank.
  • Hey

    That's precisely what's needed in this game: GUTS! Whethe ryou makea profit now or not is irrelevant. 1-2 things out of 10 you try turn into a profit and are scalable ... the biggest hurdle most guys have is having enough balls to start in the first place.

    Good job for sticking out your neck and putting your butt on the line, we need more of that!

    Nick
    • [1] reply
    • You are right! I was cringing as I hit the 'pay now' button in paypal. I hate tha fact that I could make a loss, but it's the only way I'll move forward in this game!

      Thanks for the words ;-)

      Thanks for the support! :-)
  • I think you will get a few conversions. My only worry is that internet surfers are prone to add or banner blindness. It seems big crappy looking "ugly banners" seem to work best these days. It draws people's attention more than the professionally designed network banners. Just something I have experienced.:confused:
    • [1] reply
    • Absolutely... the ones which have a blinker too get good CTR... or you can pretty much create image looking like text links with some side image... the ones that you can find on file sharing sites..... those get really good CTR..
  • Thanks for your input, guys.

    I'm still waiting for my ad to be approved before it'll start displaying.

    Nail biting times lol
  • Good luck, I'll be following your progress
  • please update with progress....

    about the banner...
    ugly & funny banners win...

    u can also tempt the audience with words like 'Don't click here...' 'Do not enter...' . People are like cats, we are curious
    • [1] reply
    • This is great.. I love seeing stuff like this!

      It helps me to motivate myself to grow a pair when I'm sitting on the fence with an idea.
      • [1] reply
  • russells did you create the banner yourself or did you have someone do it for you?

    Best of luck - hope you succeed!
  • Good Luck! I am also starting on Maxbounty and currently promoting dating offers with one page submits. Please let us know how your creative will be perfoming with BlogAds.com
  • subsribed to this thread and looking forward for your success & updates. Good luck
  • Good luck man!

    And , I hope that already have used high CTR banner . It is also advisable that your banner size is placed in highly visible area.

    Mike
  • Hoping to see the end results. No matter it's profit or not.
    • [1] reply
    • Excited about seeing how this one turns out I was actually reading about media buying the other day - plotting and scheming about doing a similar thing.

      Best of luck dude, hopefully you'll be able to scale the hell out of it!
  • Best luck to you. I love that you're willing to 1) do it, and 2) lay this one all out here.

    Even if this one doesn't work as well as you'd like (I have no idea but I hope you do great) you've done something wonderful: started.

    And that's the REAL secret.

    Because now the time from idea to implementation will be noticeably shorter. You'll be quicker to see things you didn't see before when you were just an armchair guy debating the best route to take.

    And you'll have gotten over the first big hurdle - fear. That "just-get-started" monster isn't so big anymore, huh?

    Great job.

    Now take that momentum, and keep sharing. A lot of us (me) can really use newbie success stories. You really help to motivate m-...ah, the rest of us.

    Thanks for your post.
    • [1] reply
    • I wish you all the best, will be following the thread.

      Moruf
  • Great, man! The process is correct!

    When doing this type of media buys (to promote short form submits), the CTR is the most important thing. Most people won't complete the offer, but some will, so the higher your CTR the better.

    Try to create an eye-catching banner that contrasts with the layout of the site, use a border and add a blue call-to-action that looks like a link (e.g. ). These things are not hard rules, but they use to work for me.


    William
  • Thanks for all the input guys, it's much appreciated :-)

    ***UPDATE***

    Ok, so the banner was approved about 8 hours ago. Here are the results:

    13879 Impressions
    3 Click-Throughs
    No conversions :-(

    Running at a $60 loss at this point.

    This is rubbish at the moment but still 6 days 16 hours to go.

    Will update again this time tomorrow.

    ~Russ
    • [1] reply
    • Did you try to make different versions of your ads and see which one perform the best?
      • [1] reply
  • DAY 2 UPDATE

    Hi guys,

    Unfortunately, my ad ISN'T above the fold. (That's my first error on this, I think LOL).

    Ok so it's day two and here are the results:

    52140 Impressions
    0.046% CTR
    25 click-throughs
    no conversions

    I don't think I'm going to break even on this!

    Never mind it's all about the learning curve. Next time I'll do an ad above the fold.

    Anyway, I'll keep updating the thread for everyones benefit.

    Russ
    • [3] replies
    • Hitting the jackpot the first time is more luck than skills.
      Keep going and you will get there
      • [1] reply
    • Don't let this 1 experience stop your momentum...looking forward about hearing what happens in your next campaign.
    • I think that is why your CTR is very low .

      But , the point is you are going to learn lots of things from this experiment .

      As banner advertising is all about CTR , it is always advisable that you position your banner above the fold .

      Mike
  • This is good thing. You are honest and open mind to others' input.
    I wish you all the best, and i am following your thread. I hope you can do this steps:
    Plan (without knowing where you will go, you will lost)
    Do (do your plan)
    Check (check what are went wrong)
    Action (what should we do for the bad news we got).

    Keep doing this...
  • Good luck man
    I hope you start converting some of the visits
  • I am also starting a similar experiment like @russells but I am buying from clicksor some interstitial ads with an email submit offer, until now spent $8.17 with 1352 impressions and made two conversions worth $2.42. I will wait for some more conversions to come and pick up the sites from where they are coming. The bad thing is that at clicksor you don't have the actual url from where the views are coming so you can not contact the owner of the site directly.
  • good luck i hope this works for you
  • I'm interested how this turns out in the end - you never know!

    Did you check what the blog is about? I mean is the blog topic the same or a similar field to your ad? This is crucial in my opinion.

    GO on, you'll learn a lot from this experience - it is more valuable than the money you paid for the ad
    • [1] reply
    • The site I'm advertising on is a NFL Blog and the CPA offer I'm promoting is to win a Free $500 NFL giftcard for the online store.

      So they match up...

      UPDATE

      Ok, here is the latest...

      115239 Impressions
      65 Clicks
      0.056% CTR
      NO CONVERSIONS! :-(

      Still running at a $60 loss.

      BUT I've learnt a lesson - never put an ad below the fold!! :-D

      Still 3 days to go...

      Russ
      • [4] replies
  • I hope something good happens. Sounds like you did everything right. Keep us updated.
    • [1] reply
    • Hey Russells,

      There are lots of things that you should learn from this test.

      1. One thing that you should learn is the positioning of the banner. It is always recommended to position your banner above the fold.

      2. The second point is about conversion.

      Even though you have lots of clicks, you got Zero conversion. This indicates that there was also a problem in some part of your campaign.

      Some of the reasons could be :

      • Due to Selection of Low converting offer
      • Miss match of the offer with your audiences demographics and psychographic behavior
      • This also happens if there is inconsistency between what is claimed in the banner ad and the offer

      Hope it helps .
      Mike
  • id work on the banner. that ctr is really low... can you show us example of the banner youre using? can you change the banner?
  • That's right, I would stop campaign already. Something is very wrong, see from which country are this clicks, cause they may not be from that offer accepts, banner can rotate with others on some unrelated theme and so on. Plus CTR is not that good at all, but that is very common thing.

    BSA do not allow to refund it seems anyway. $60 not much, forget about it.
  • Congrats on the courage to do this publicly Russ. Ive launched many wildly profitable campaigns this same way- simply browsing BlogAds, BuySellAds, and a few other self serve networks that will go unnamed here, then doing my homework and launching a campaign quickly.

    You'll hit on some duds, as Quantcast and DoubleClick aren't 100% accurate but you will hit on some home runs as well.

    My advice for anyone doing this is:

    1. Check the ads already running. What niche are they in? Are they brand advertisers or affiliates? Is there adsense on the site? If so, where is it located? This will clue you into how "clicky" the audience is.

    2. Where is YOUR ad going to be run? On the top? Left hand side? Right hand side? Halfway down the page? You want to go for an ad as close to the content as possible. And yes... below the fold ads can print you several $100 bills if they are in the right spots.

    3. How tech savy is the owner and the audience. This right here is going to vary wildly but I tend to profile using my own stereotypes here... and profit off those stereotypes as well. Think about it... if the site is a basic wordpress theme and only monetized by Adsense and a new fresh BSA account chances are that the guy running the site isn't tech savy, nor are his readers. You can definitely use this to your advantage (with a flog) .

    Those are just my 2 cents on this and once again good work Russ!

    I may start my own live case study thread of this sort.
  • any updates?
  • Nice try man atleast! I hope your next venture will be a success. If not the next one, then by doing constant training and gaining experience and not giving up you will eventually succeed
  • I'd say the problem is the offer 65 clicks and no conversions is bad
    I would expect 10% to convert

    I am interested in this method of traffic generation but as mentioned its expensive to learn
  • Is this PPV really works? I always feel annoyed seeing pop up under and always close it before even get the chance of reading it.
    • [2] replies
    • This is not PPV it's a media or banner buy. It has nothing to do with pop-ups or pop-unders, he just placed a banner ad on a very high traffic blog. Two completely different things.
    • PPV really works and it is really effective .

      Check this post to get some info

      http://www.warriorforum.com/ad-netwo...real-good.html

      You also have to be informed that this thread is not about PPV . It is about Media buying in the form of banners .

      Hope it helps .
      Mike
      • [1] reply
  • ^ thats probably a geo redirect; are you hitting in from the uk ?
    maxbounty's international redirect usually defaults to ipad offers
  • I'm wondering now you know if the offer has actually expired. I've had 102 clicks now and no conversions. The ad has ended now of course, but maybe that's why I had zero conversions.

    If so that's pretty annoying that MaxBounty still have it on their system.

    If you're outside the US you will be re-directed, by the way.

    ~Russ
    • [1] reply
    • Yeah, it's annoying. But doesn't really have anything specifically to do with MaxBounty. I've seen email submits with many other networks do exactly the same thing. Usually they send you an email when an offer expires though.
  • Normally the link will still be live and redirect but normally the network will take off their network when its expired. Weird
  • All do the same they redirect to some other offer so in the end they still make money. I guess you should rather go with USA targeted offer.
  • I will try your method since I'll make my first 1k online
  • Greetings russells,

    It's to see somebody putting their neck out so to speak, you have learnt a lot in this thread.

    I have done something similar with PPV - found an item on clickbank for sports bets, and running some PPV - it's broken even so far - but the items are rebills which is great.

    But do you know what? I have blown around $400 on ppv so far testing, but in the end, not everything is going to work, if you can workout why if failed, and try to avoid the same mistakes, you'll get one or two that will work in the long run,

    If you get 9 that fail, and 1 that works, and you've spent $60 each on the 9, but making 100/week on the good one, you will make the cash in the long run. Keep at it, you will succeed.

    - justin
  • Thanks Russell ans Justin and others for some valuable tips, I will chip in.

    Spent about $300 on buysellads and about $50 on Projectwonderful. Nothing to show for it. BSA is still running because its a monthly deal but no luck so far.

    Some mistakes :

    1. opting for small banners ads that sell cheap (125x125) when there are many such small ads running at the same time

    2. below the fold (although some that are below the fold got some good ctr, so it depends)

    3. rotating banners that reduce the impressions drastically

    4. topic of the website or blog is not closely related to my offer although the demographcs seems is what I wanted

    The result? A dismal ctr of 0.08 %. I read that PlentyofFish boasts a ctr of 0.15% so there is some room to improve. Before this, I thought I could get at least 1% ctr but that was wishful thinking

    I also find that Quancast does not always give the demographic details and if it did, it may not be accurate anyway. So it is really trial and error.

    Some things I intend to do after this:

    1. try various networks until I get a winner, then go direct and scale
    2. only go for bigger banner ads that are above the fold or close to the content or flows with the content
    3. avoid rotating ads
    4. only buy ads on sites that are closely related and of the right demographics
    5. create banners with text that lure the viewer to click. Eg offering a few top secret tips and then create a email capture page
    6. display my site URL on the banners for branding purposes so even if there are no clicks, I get some branding

    This is not going to be easy but I vowed to get it right. After getting slapped by Google so many times, I cannot keep turning the other cheek anymore
  • greetings Garyt,


    I think Cash37 Hit the nail on the head, And even google will back it up.

    If you look at google adsense help, they recommend where you should put their ads for maximum return, the best place? with the content, after that it's above the fold.

    If you can't get an advertisment in with the content itself, then above the fold is a must. English readers read left to right, so left hand side will get their attention first, then right hand side (but there's content inbetween!).

    To sum up some of the recommendations and suggestions in here

    1) ads with content and/or above the fold
    2) bigger is better (more screen space means more attention)
    3) make sure your advertisments match up with the site content and demographics, (ie your not going to get a 16yo ready to buy betting guides for the NFL or horse races).

    and 4->4040939) TRACK TRACK TRACK!! =)

    If you can't work out what is making you money, how are you going to stop what is costing you money?
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Hi,

    Learnt 2 important lessons here from Russell.

    1. Never buy Ads below the fold
    2. Make sure Ads doesnt read like a scam

    I hope you get back your investment soon in another endeavour.
    • [1] reply

    • Ads that read like a scam attract stupid people, and those are the people who are MORE likely to take action; buy the eBook, sign up with the trial offer.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • good luck dude
  • Maybe it's also possible to contact the owner of the site and ask him in what is the CTR in general for the ads in that position something like an average! Are there any sites that let you buy ads on blogs based on Pay Per Click?
    • [1] reply
    • any update? I've been reading this thread and it's edifying, thanks for sharing your experience
  • I am also from Maxbounty and currently promoting dating offers a hand did. Tell us how your creation will be on stage with BlogAds.com
    • [1] reply
    • there's lots of good infomrmation in this post.

      however, what's a good CTR to shoot for when doing media buys? does it vary by niche?
      • [1] reply
  • I used to have the exact same problems as you do.
    I would like to make some recommendations.

    You can try creating a landing page that will go to the offer.
    A good fake blog is a good example, or even a simple squeeze page.

    Then you should use userfly.com to monitor visitors.
    Also see how long they spend on the site.

    Some traffic sources will convert well. some traffic sources will convert poorly.

    I've sometimes been unable to get conversions to my zip/email submits
    but converted paid trial offers!

    But try and use a landing page to pre-sell the next offer, because a lot of them
    have become more savy and are skeptical.
  • Thanks for posting this, it's good to see you're taking risks as it is the only way to succeed. I was also thinking of doing this but I think I may steer clear now
  • Good luck with your method. Hope you will do well. I will follow your progress. Thanks for sharing
  • Unfortunately the fatal flaw here was that NFL offers should most definitely be targeted to the USA, you'd be hard pushed trying to find someone in the UK interested in American Football, and on that website. If US residents were redirected to random offers it's not surprising you got 0 conversions.

    At least you can learn from this and try again. I'd say this campaign would actually work with the right offer, and in the right place on the website. I would also never promote offers giving away things like free gift cards, as the vast majority of people would assume this is a scam. Maybe one of those TV products, with American Football channels in particular might work.
  • @jeffrey73 are there any chances to have problems with google if we promote this kind of offers? Can you please suggest what kind of offers are doing good on google content network!
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    My First CPA Ad Buy *Follow My Case Study**

    I'm about to let you guys know what I've just done and I'll be updating this thread over the next 7 days to report the outcome. Before I start though, I just want to mention that this thread hasn't been created for people to tell me how bad my idea is, or how it's not going to work - blah, blah.