Discontinuation of our Cooperation?
- Thread starter efeezy
- Start date
I realize it's nothing personal and I don't even care about it that much. It's already been taken out of rotation. (If I don't get paid, then I'll care a bit more)
I'm trying to get one of the experts here to explain to me how "quality" is determined. When does a lead become bad quality? Is it a bad lead before they even get to the sales pitch, or does a shitty sales pitch turn it into a bad lead? Chicken or the egg right?
Example. I offer people on my site a free 10 point brochure on how to lose weight when they sign up for my newsletter, but I can't get them to buy my weight loss products in subsequent efforts. Say I have 400 people who sign up, yet not a single one of them buys a darn thing? The people were obviously interested in losing weight, or they wouldn't have wanted the free info. So is it probable that I just didn't have a good sales page or I was presenting the offer poorly? Or is it more likely that the people were probably never interested buying a product to help them lose weight.
That's all, I'm trying to learn something from this so I can improve on it in the future.
I'm trying to get one of the experts here to explain to me how "quality" is determined. When does a lead become bad quality? Is it a bad lead before they even get to the sales pitch, or does a shitty sales pitch turn it into a bad lead? Chicken or the egg right?
Example. I offer people on my site a free 10 point brochure on how to lose weight when they sign up for my newsletter, but I can't get them to buy my weight loss products in subsequent efforts. Say I have 400 people who sign up, yet not a single one of them buys a darn thing? The people were obviously interested in losing weight, or they wouldn't have wanted the free info. So is it probable that I just didn't have a good sales page or I was presenting the offer poorly? Or is it more likely that the people were probably never interested buying a product to help them lose weight.
That's all, I'm trying to learn something from this so I can improve on it in the future.
For games, there are different ways to determine quality. The most common way to determine is a simple ROI test. How much did they pay for your leads? How much revenue did they generate from your leads? If the revenue generated is higher then you are worth it.
Some games use different models. I know one very popular game that considers a "good" lead as when the user gets their character to level xx. This is usually when the game already makes money and they want to gather active users to keep the people already spending money more entertained.
It's almost impossible for affiliates to influence this, you're right. If your site is a high quality site in general, that usually produces the best traffic. A lot of the time affiliate sites are not (not judging, just saying).
Basically, keep rotating offers. There are literally DOZENS of games out there. I've promoted games in the past and could literally run a banner for one game and send them to another game and get basically the same result. Those "Can you beat level 1?" Facebook ads, yep, that was me. Good luck!
[PROTIP] Rotate 10 different games in the same position so you don't get on the radar for any of them in particular, and probably won't get kicked off for a long time.
Gotcha. This offer was for a MMO sports game. After the user signed up to play for free, they could buy credits to purchase equipment upgrades which let's them perform and score better on the game. The problem is the game is totally playable and fun without upgrading anything, so that's most likely the reason why the leads I sent didn't buy any credits. I'd really be curious to see how leads from other affiliates are converting and at what type of ROI. I'd be willing to bet it's not that high across the board, because I think their setup is a bit flawed.
My site is solely based on this particular type of sports game and the traffic is all organic search, so I always felt it was extremely targeted. I've got a couple other similar offers in the rotation that do well also, so I won't lose too much from it. I've done the same thing, had one banner and send them to a totally different game. Didn't matter, still got plenty of signups.
If you want to run that offer again, you can do something shady: Ask your favorite affiliate network to get that offer.
From their perspective:
They can't convert ... therefore they can't continue paying affiliates ... therefore you got the boot.
Understand their needs better, all leads aren't equal
But this is likely a non-issue if they can't monetize. No leads are glengary for them
I'm signed up with one that already has it, in fact I was running it with them before I contacted the game company to run it direct. I think it pays 50 cents less. I may just send the leads elsewhere. I have other similar offers that pay as much or more, I was just trying to keep the offers on my site as diverse as possible.
When dealing with a company directly I get a contract made outlining payment terms and I regularly ask them what they think of the quality and what can be done my end to help with their conversions.
So in future you could try asking them. I wouldn't run anything for 3 months without getting paid.
I understand what you're saying with the offer being a free game, and as some have pointed out, it's normal for a company to discontinue work with an affiliate if the quality is low.
It could be that your website is attracting the wrong demographic, such as little kids that have no money, and therefore they won't convert.
It's a terrible idea to run the same offer when you've already been told they don't want your leads.
They can easily track based upon your aff id and it won't be long before they ask the network to disallow that pub from running the leads. Your time is much better spent trying to find an offer that does work for you AND them.
They can easily track based upon your aff id and it won't be long before they ask the network to disallow that pub from running the leads. Your time is much better spent trying to find an offer that does work for you AND them.
It's a terrible idea to run the same offer when you've already been told they don't want your leads.
They can easily track based upon your aff id and it won't be long before they ask the network to disallow that pub from running the leads. Your time is much better spent trying to find an offer that does work for you AND them.
They can easily track based upon your aff id and it won't be long before they ask the network to disallow that pub from running the leads. Your time is much better spent trying to find an offer that does work for you AND them.
Why leads sources go cold is sometimes a complete mystery. It's no fun going to a guy who has been sending you good leads for months and saying "look it's stopped converting for the last few months we gotta cut you off."
Then the guy always says "do you know why it's stopped converting?" and lots of time we try to analyze the lead funnel but you know what, lots of times we just don't understand why. So we feel a bit bad and feel a bit stupid that we can't figure it out.
Just to tell you how it looks on the other side of the mountain. Sure there is a lot of fraud in this industry, and a lot of guys who don't pay invoices (LOL I could choke my shredder with the amount of unpaid invoices in my cabinet).
But sometimes there is a great big WTF just happened to this sweet, sweet revenue source?
And you cut your losses and move on.
Then the guy always says "do you know why it's stopped converting?" and lots of time we try to analyze the lead funnel but you know what, lots of times we just don't understand why. So we feel a bit bad and feel a bit stupid that we can't figure it out.
Just to tell you how it looks on the other side of the mountain. Sure there is a lot of fraud in this industry, and a lot of guys who don't pay invoices (LOL I could choke my shredder with the amount of unpaid invoices in my cabinet).
But sometimes there is a great big WTF just happened to this sweet, sweet revenue source?
And you cut your losses and move on.
Red flag right there, hope you get paid. I have yet to see a network IO that doesn't prohibit advertisers from forming direct relationships with pre-existing pubs running their offers. This may indicate their headspace regarding the value of a contract.
But you do have it wrong regarding monetization in a free-to-play model. It's not about converting every user, it's about average revenue per user, which is derived from far more than just buyers. Factor in brand partnerships, advertising, user sponsorships (offer walls) just to name a few. All of these live off eyeballs.
But sounds like they called you out on only one simple KPI, cost per buyer, which is calculated via cost of acquisition and length of association. They know how long it takes (on average) for users to convert and how much they spend over time for every given acquisition channel, subchannel and finally, you.
Evidently your users were sub-average, and you should ask them why on a granular level. The intel will prove useful to you moving forward.
Don't just assume that they don't know what they're doing. For them, your traffic geo could be garbage (no access to funds, etc)... maybe your traffic isn't sticking around long because you misrepresented the gameplay. Tons of reasons I can think of would effect the overall result of your traffic.
If they're only trimming out certain affiliates, clearly it's not their backend. In order to say your leads are weak, they have to have a baseline to compare to. Apparently your leads converted shittier than other peoples. Else they'd be getting rid of all their affiliates.
push for a detailed feedback on your leads right away.
don't wait 3 months to understand what your client is looking for
don't wait 3 months to understand what your client is looking for
They want gamers with ability to make purchases. If you are advertising the game to bunch kids under 18, it is a no brainer your leads are going to be shitty quality.
And of course kids under 18 are the easiest demo to convert for a free game offer, therefore you need to find the golden demo for your game offers, gauge the amount of quality leads you can produce, then mix some of the crappy leads to even them out, so you can get the most ROI.
And of course kids under 18 are the easiest demo to convert for a free game offer, therefore you need to find the golden demo for your game offers, gauge the amount of quality leads you can produce, then mix some of the crappy leads to even them out, so you can get the most ROI.
What can you do to ensure that your leads back out for the advertiser?
A big one - don't mention the word "FREE" on your creative. This can put a modality of non-payment into the propspective's mind, meaning they have no intention of eventually paying up for the full versions - hence making the leads back out for the advertiser.
Just my $0.02
A big one - don't mention the word "FREE" on your creative. This can put a modality of non-payment into the propspective's mind, meaning they have no intention of eventually paying up for the full versions - hence making the leads back out for the advertiser.
Just my $0.02