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Having Fun Trialling CPA With 7Search

by the_icon
28 replies
Ok, took the plunge into CPA via PPC and have a few campaigns running at the moment. Learning all the time and here are findings so far.

Dating niche offer. Had 57 clicks at a cost of 6.64, no conversions. About to end in next couple of days.

Auto insurance. Mammoth 25k in impressions since last night. No clicks. At all. And I am in 2nd position for the keywords with all the hits lol. Maybe its the address they see and would rather click on a link that has auto insurance in the address?

Motorola Xoom. Less said about that the better.

Game email submit. Started it around an hour ago. Got 11 clicks so far. No conversions but having a chuckle refreshing my MB report page and seeing the clicks going up on it every 10 minutes or so, even if the actions number is still at zero.

Verdict. I really like the useability of the 7search platform. The way you can change your bid to ensure top ranking etc. I know everyone goes on about the quality of traffic etc but with them giving you a promo bonus I would highly recommend it to people starting out in CPA.
#7search #cpa #fun #trialling
  • Profile picture of the author Mahmoud Selman
    Hi the_icon,
    Its good to take the step and start testing with PPC. Always look at your CTR and the search phrases that getting the clicks.

    Good luck
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    • Profile picture of the author the_icon
      Update. Well going to ditch the dating niche. Although I am getting clicks they arent going thru with it. The keywords I was targetting was match.com and eharmony. The offer was for a rival dating site, though nowhere the level of the other two.

      The gaming niche I entered into last night is what I am going to concentrate on at the moment. Woke up this morning to find a few conversions in there. Woohoo.

      So, to anyone new to CPA or struggling, just know that it is possible to make money, even if its a small bit. It does dishearten you when you dont make anything but it does cheer you up when you do, like I say, even if its only a few dollars.

      P.S Tried to copy and paste a screen print of my account for proof to show you all but no go. Apparently got to resize it. Will do it after work today.
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  • Profile picture of the author zazinteractive
    Useful info. Keep us updated please
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  • Profile picture of the author iampiz
    nice step by step share
    keep update please
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  • Profile picture of the author the_icon
    Update.

    Back in from work to check on stats and got around 24 more clicks but no more conversions. Seen on another thread about someone hitting day 3 and the clicks stopping. Though he was at the 600 click stage, I am 20% there now lol but the offer has been on for less than 24 hours so will let it run till the weekend and see if it picks up.

    Started the campaign around 6pm my time, got conversions at 6.53pm yesterday, 1am and 1.08am this morning. Strange tho because I was checking all the time and didnt have any conversions before I went to bed. Do the clicks go thru any kind of vetting process before they appear on your reports? The clicks go on str8 away.

    The CTR is around the 5% mark so can complain too much, unlike the auto insurance campaign. Still cant believe I was number 2, got around 25K impressions and not one click. Any thoughts?

    Started another campaign where there is no competition for this particular offer, according to 7 search KST and the keywords searches are into the thousands. So heres hoping.
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  • Profile picture of the author affiliatemoin
    with 25k and no clicks (if not leads) is stranger than anything that i have ever heard of. You can simultaneously try with miva.com and use addf.ly (not sure how it will convert for CPA offers).
    My best suggestion would be to go with a Youtube video (and sign up with tubemogul.com and send across to other video networks). Because videos convert like crazy and in less than a week you can find a hero and dump all the zero campaigns. I will tell you another trick later but don't want to get you distracted with too much info first up.
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    • Profile picture of the author the_icon
      Update.

      Well woke this morning to find another batch of clicks and one conversion. 199 clicks, 4 conversions total. Working at a slight loss on this one but learning all the time. Though wondering, when people say scale it up, what would they mean for this offer?

      Currently I am number one for all keywords. Heres the top 3.

      Keyword 1 - 2023 imp, 72 clicks
      Keyword 2 - 1742 imp, 64 clicks
      Keyword 3 - 379 imp, 27 clicks

      Obviously Keyword 3 has the best CTR by far but how can I get a better return from it if I am number ! already? Try different traffic sources?

      My new campaign hit the average daily impressions but as yet no clicks. Trying different ad variations now.

      Finally emailed my AM re the whole click thing not appearing on my MB report str8 away although the clicks do. She said something about time zones. Apparently, when someone converts at 5 hours behind me, ie its 10pm my time, they sign up 5pm their time, it wont show up on my report until it hits 10pm their time.

      Can anyone shed any light on this?
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  • Profile picture of the author the_icon
    Another update.

    Well someone has cottoned on to the offer and bid above me to the number 1 spot in the search results. I noticed a drop off in clicks coming through and couldnt figure out why until I checked and seen someone above me paying 0.07c per click.

    Cant really fathom why that would be or if indeed it has anything to do with it. Could just be a timing thing I suppose. So my record of 211 clicks and 4 conversions looks like its hit its peak. Dont really think I will be upping my bid to compete because I have had 211 clicks so far and only 4 converted and I dont reckon that I will get clicks from people who are more inclined to sign up.

    I needed 1 in 45 at 0.05c to convert to break even so slightly outside that though I did have a number of 0.03c clicks.

    Onwards and upwards.
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    • Profile picture of the author the_icon
      Ok.

      So it turns out being number 1 and number has a massive bearing on CTR. Like I said in the previous post, I noticed the clicks drop off and it turned out someone pushed me into 2nd place.

      I then paused the campaign however noticed this morning the person that had pushed me to number 2 had then paused/stopped his ad. So I put in bids of 3c and it put me number 1 again. Then it was 10-15 clicks per hour as normal, until he popped up again and put me to number 2.

      I have since stepped back up to number 1 by going up to 7c in the last few hours and again starting getting clicks. Got $14 of my initial $25 and have $15 in MB.

      For this offer in this niche, it looks like being number is very important.
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  • Profile picture of the author mtmjohn
    Good stuff and nice share. Thanks the_icon. Please keep us posted.
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  • Profile picture of the author imback
    Thanks for the live case study! Great share!


    CHAD
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  • Profile picture of the author golf69
    thanks for sharing this...learned from it
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  • Profile picture of the author the_icon
    Ah well, things not so good through the night. Around 70 clicks but no conversions. Looks like this offer may have run its course. Paused for now. Will see if competitor puts his bid down. If so will jump back on at lesser bid rate.

    Time to find another offer to promote.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kent Hopkins
    Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for the great live case study that you have graciously shared with the community here. You have atleast given a lot of readers here (including myself) some help. I am glad I am not the only one going threw this stuff. Frustrating sometimes, but rewarding at others. I have tested several different offers on many PPC. Most of them just flat out do not work at all. It is my personal opinion that the golden days of PPC are behind us. They were in the early 2000's. I made a lot of money in those days with PPC. Nowadays it seems that it is nothing but a cash vacuum. Just my two cents.
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    Doubts Kill More Dreams Than Failure Ever Will.
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    • Profile picture of the author the_icon
      No probs at all. Most of us here are in the same boat with trying new things to get a little bit more income and once we find a way, then its about finding a way to make it bigger etc.

      I knew nothing about PPC and now know about 2%. Its not all about learning etc, you have to live and learn imo, but also within your financial means.

      I deposited $25 and got a welcome bonus. Gonna have a word with the guy at 7search and see if we can extend it to the next deposit as well lol. Went on to 7search kst and found related offers to mine, looked at their copy, bidded above them and that was it. For the gaming niche it worked great, as I have detailed above, for other niches it didnt do so well.

      But remember as well this is just using 7search as PPC platform, there are tons of other ones out there too.
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  • Profile picture of the author FrankRumbauskas
    I've found 7Search to be pretty poor quality traffic so if you can make it work you will do even better with other PPC engines!
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  • Profile picture of the author the_icon
    That seemed to be the case for most of the niches I had chosen to promote. Even the gaming one I got around 265 clicks with only 6 conversions.

    The ones with no conversions still had plenty of clicks.

    I think I will probably still use 7search for the gaming niche but have to look elsewhere for the rest. But I will still keep trying.

    Any recommended PPC platforms to aim for next?
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    • Profile picture of the author jordanberg2311
      yes, yahoo,bing if you want to live happier

      there are others 2nd tier you might wanna try is acknowledge/miva (they're big), looksmart, adside, pulse,adblade....
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by the_icon View Post

    Ok, took the plunge into CPA via PPC and have a few campaigns running at the moment. Learning all the time and here are findings so far.

    Dating niche offer. Had 57 clicks at a cost of 6.64, no conversions. About to end in next couple of days.

    Auto insurance. Mammoth 25k in impressions since last night. No clicks. At all. And I am in 2nd position for the keywords with all the hits lol. Maybe its the address they see and would rather click on a link that has auto insurance in the address?

    Motorola Xoom. Less said about that the better.

    Game email submit. Started it around an hour ago. Got 11 clicks so far. No conversions but having a chuckle refreshing my MB report page and seeing the clicks going up on it every 10 minutes or so, even if the actions number is still at zero.

    Verdict. I really like the useability of the 7search platform. The way you can change your bid to ensure top ranking etc. I know everyone goes on about the quality of traffic etc but with them giving you a promo bonus I would highly recommend it to people starting out in CPA.
    7Search seems ok, however the quality can sometimes be hit and miss, but still is much better than most 2nd tier ppc networks
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  • Profile picture of the author John Galt
    Good stuff icon. You asked earlier how to improve your ROI. Did you ask your network for a pay bump? It might help to split test the offer out too, if anybody else carries it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Halmac
      Awesome info and inspiration to fellow PPC newbies. I have a potentially stupid question. These campaigns you are running...are they direct linked to the CPA offers or do the clicks go to a landing page?
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      • Profile picture of the author the_icon
        Originally Posted by Halmac View Post

        Awesome info and inspiration to fellow PPC newbies. I have a potentially stupid question. These campaigns you are running...are they direct linked to the CPA offers or do the clicks go to a landing page?
        Basically, I just created a domain and set up redirects to go to the direct link, ie mydomain.com/gaming_offer is what the potential conversion sees but when they click it, it goes to the actual offer. Makes it look more professional than say hovering over your ad and seeing mb01.com/????????/id???? etc etc
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        • Profile picture of the author bqpennell
          Originally Posted by the_icon View Post

          Basically, I just created a domain and set up redirects to go to the direct link, ie mydomain.com/gaming_offer is what the potential conversion sees but when they click it, it goes to the actual offer. Makes it look more professional than say hovering over your ad and seeing mb01.com/????????/id???? etc etc

          Just create a page and 100% iframe the offer page by using your aff link, this way page looks professional and they don't have to wait on the slow redirect,

          This is what i do with facebook since they deny 90% of direct linking so i just turn my LP into the direct link

          Be sure to read offer restrictions, I only seen a very few but some do not like this, Most don't mind as long as your using 100% Iframe.
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          • Profile picture of the author mraffiliate
            Originally Posted by bqpennell View Post

            Just create a page and 100% iframe the offer page by using your aff link, this way page looks professional and they don't have to wait on the slow redirect,

            This is what i do with facebook since they deny 90% of direct linking so i just turn my LP into the direct link

            Be sure to read offer restrictions, I only seen a very few but some do not like this, Most don't mind as long as your using 100% Iframe.
            How do you 100% an iframe the offer?
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  • Profile picture of the author skwish
    hey thanks for this thread! i love live case studies, it really helps others. including me!
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    • Profile picture of the author the_icon
      Originally Posted by skwish View Post

      hey thanks for this thread! i love live case studies, it really helps others. including me!
      Thats what its all about. You gotta try and see what works. I have lost money on this but I learned a lot. Obviously have more to learn but its all about taking action.
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  • Profile picture of the author Delarox
    I never had much luck with 7search..have you tried any other ppc?
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Q
    Banned
    Great job! We know that PPC is a high risk method (even for testing purposes), but its really worth losing such money....consider that as an investment for your online campaigns. No one is totally perfect here.
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