Grieve's Affiliate Marketing Journey into Success or Squalor. Most Likely Squalor.

grieve

Banned
Aug 23, 2011
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I've read a bit of WiredNiko's journal, and it seems to be a pretty decent way to catalog your own progress/thoughts. I'm about a week or two into my own adventures of internet marketing, more specifically, Affiliate Marketing through Facebook advertising.

For starters, I guess I'll introduce myself to any brave souls willing to wade through all of my newbness and read along. My name is George, 21, and I'm from the Chicago-area (random suburb 5 minutes outside of it.) Like a lot of kids my age, I was basically raised by the internet. Got my first computer at 5... obsessively online posting/browsing/gaming ever since. Past couple of years I've been utterly confused as to what I want to do with my life. Even though I knew I loved the internet, I was pretty clueless as to how people make a living off of it. The extent of my knowledge of making money off the internet was : Think of some godly, kick-ass idea that no one else has, make a website out of it, SIT BACK AND WATCH THE CA$$$$$HHHHH ROLL IN!!!!
Sure, a few people have done that, but as we all know now - there are millions of other ways to make money online. I was in school for Political Science, but I'm taking a break this semester to do a bit of "soul searching."

Once I discovered Affiliate Marketing/Internet Marketing in general via Nickycake's newbie guide (luv u nicky ~~~<3), it felt like the entire world opened up to me. I love the internet, and being able to make a living off of something involving the internet was a gigantic dream to me (and it still is.) The one thing I have always had going for me is my obsessive desire for success, no matter what it is. If I want to complete something, or if I set some goal for something - I can't think about anything else until I do it. Sports (GO FUTBOL), work, gaming, you name it. To give an example that all basement-dwelling nerds such as myself can identify with - anyone play Starcraft 2? When it first released, I was a complete scrub. Played a bit of SC1 on dial-up back when I was 12 years old, got raped by some Korean, and quit... for a very long time. As soon as SC2 released, I decided that I wanted to get good at it. I started out as bottom of the barrel bronze, not knowing what the fuck I was doing. 2 months later of 10-hours-a-day gaming? High-level Diamond (back when Masters/GM didn't exist.) This type of extreme fervor basically applies to every single aspect of my life. I try, try, and try, until I do. I realize I'm rambling along a bit, and I don't want to seem too much like a pre-teen spilling their guts on their livejournal, so I'll try and cut this short.

Basically, I've chosen Facebook as my "learning" platform for affiliate marketing. My girlfriend and I are working on this together, although she's a bit busy with work/school, so she just tries to help when she can. I was told by my AM that the easiest newb-friendly vertical is dating, so that's what I've chosen. I plan on going pretty in-depth with my day-by-day strategy because :


1. It seems like it would be smart to be able to try and track my thought process as the days go along, and

2. I'm pretty lost at the moment. My girlfriend (we'll call her Grievette... okay, maybe not) and I are pretty much scratching our heads at this point wondering what else we can do. We've got decent conversion rates, decent epc, but we can't get our CPC down to profitable levels for the life of us. CTR is a bitch.


If anyone has gotten this far into my first post - thanks. I really appreciate it, and I appreciate anyone that posts with some constructive criticism. I can't sleep, eat, or work without thinking about marketing, CTR, and CPC. I've spent months reading, researching, and learning this business, and as of 8/28,11, I finally sacked up and started doing it. I want to make this work more than anything else I've ever done in my life. Thanks for reading.
 
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8/28/11

After enough research, I decided August 28th was going to be the day I'd start. I decided on a Jewish dating offer, rather niche, but in my mind I figure that the more targeted the demographic, the better my conversion will be. Little did I realize, small demographics make the suggested bid fucking retarded. Following some advice I saw posted on wickedfire, I decide to start bidding at .10, and going up accordingly until I start receiving impressions at a rate I'm comfortable with. At this point, I'm only looking for images that are licensed for commercial use...so needless to say, my images suck. Some of them are professional looking, and the “real” looking pictures aren't that great either. Some not smiling, etc. Another big mistake, looking back, is that I'm targeting males and females. My interests are very specific, but I broaden my demographic stupidly in other ways such as targeting both genders, and not clicking “specific age range.” As expected on day one, problems all around. I spend 35 dollars, with 48 clicks total spread across 30-40 ads. CTRs range from miserable to less miserable. .03 to .058 at best. I consider this a very successful day, because I'm starting to familiarize myself with the Facebook advertising platform. I come out of this day thinking that perhaps I didn't raise my bids fast enough, so I decide that the next day I'm going to instead be much quicker with raising my bids.
 
8/29/11


Day 2, much of the foolish mistakes from day 1 persist, although I learn on some. I stop targeting males and females generally, although I do continue to market to women seperately. Single women images for the men, couple pictures for the women. I start instead at 1.20 cpc for my ads, since I notice that it is generally where I started receiving impressions from the night before. Images are still too professional looking. 76 dollars spent, 62 clicks. Decent conversion rate, but my CTR is terrible. Ranges from about .03 to .06. CPC never goes below 94 cents.
 
9/1/11

After speaking to my AM, we realize that “real pics” are the way to go, with cleavage if possible. Along with this, I am told to always bid suggested, so I do. Really scary for me, considering the lead is around 4 dollars, and with anything but a PHENOMENAL conversion rate, it is going to be impossible to make a profit. I decide to try it out, just to see what kind of cpc facebook will be charging me. Ends up being around 1.82 actual CPC, although I cut tonight's campaign short because family issues come up.
 
9/5/11

After doing more research, I discover that giving yourself a bigger budget will give you more impressions right off the bat, giving your ads lots of exposure. I've also learned by myself at this point to wait for 5k to 10k impressions MAX to judge on whether or not an ad has any chances of having a “good” CTR, although at this point I am far too lenient. Ads with .07 CTR or above at 10k impressions I let run, and it of course ends up costing me money as the CTR either stays at a bad .076 or tanks further down. I put up a lot of ads this day, and remain at suggested bid, which is a whopping 4 to 4.75. Again, it doesn't feel right, but I've seen “bid suggested” suggested by a LOT of people. CPC's range from 1.50 to 2.00. CTR is at .094 for one ad, but falls to .07 within an hour. I spend 142 dollars on this day, although I don't feel bad about it at all considering a.) it takes a good sum of money to learn what you're doing in this business and b.) I feel like I've learned a lot this night.
 
9/6/11

I don't do any marketing this day, but I speak with 2 Affiliate Managers which both suggest a very strong course change, given my recent progress with the Jewish dating niche offer. They're shocked to find out that suggested bids go from 4.20 to as high as 10 or 11 dollars. This is most likely because of how small and targeted my demographic is, and although they don't suggest this often, they suggest that I switch up campaigns to a more generalized dating site, with an FB app install. Higher demo, but lower cpc, and higher conversion rate typically. I'm not one to give up on things, but I completely see where they're coming from, and I make the switch. By now, I've done lots of testing with the right images, including using borders, trying to get cleavage in, etc, so I think I know how to properly split test images at this point, although I have yet to receive a single consistent CTR of .1 or above, with any image. I decide to spend the next 2 or 3 days planning out this new campaign, and using the fake facebook account I've created to see what other facebook app installers are doing in their campaigns.
 
9/9/11

My first truly disappointing day of marketing. I make a gigantic mistake by having my budget immediately set to 200 dollars, especially with such a gigantic demographic. I bid suggested, which is still relatively high, in the 3 dollar range. Within 20 minutes, I get raped. Spend 162 dollars, and I don't even get to see any of the stats due to the facebook advertising platform lag. One second I'm at 0 dollars spent, the next refresh I'm at 162 dollars spent. I was tracking clicks on prosper/report section of my network, but I was hoping to track CTR as the night went on. I pause the campaigns, seeing as how CTR is .07 or below on all images, and call it a night, a bit frustrated, but no less determined to make it work. Up until this night, I considered every night a success, not based on financial gains, but because I would learn something new every night. This was the first night I considered a failure, because it was just something that should have clicked in my head. 200 dollar budget, gigantic demo, high suggested bid = money DRAIN. It should have clicked in my head. Not all is lost though, because I figured out that I need to fucking THINK before I do.
 
9/10/11

I learn a lot of new things, thanks to some friendly posts on wickedfire. I learn that suggested bids are inflated as all hell on Facebook, and that Facebook is basically taking advantage of newbies like me and making bank. Fair enough, even Facebook has to hustle. Two things are an ENORMOUS help to me this night, these two posts:

http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/50450-new-facebook-ads-162.html#post1444748

and

Facebook Bid Lowering Strategies: How To Get Cheaper Clicks | Scotch & Sales

I also decide to try putting up 15 images at a time as opposed to 40 or 50, especially considering I'm new, its a lot of information to process, and I'm trying to extend my budget throughout the night so I can learn as much as possible per every dollar I'm spending. I run a few ads this night, starting at around 1.20 cpc bid, and I'm spending around .60c to 1 dollar per click. After 35 or so clicks, I don't have a single conversion, so I suspect Saturday is either a terrible night to run dating offers (much to my surprise) or something else is up. Perhaps my title? Copy? No clue. CTRs are below average as always, .07 and below. Spent 28 dollars before I decided to investigate things on Monday and discuss with my AM.
 
9/11/11

I have work all day today, so no chance to run any campaigns. My girlfriend runs a few ads for half an hour or so on her own, spends around 25 dollars, CTRs suck, and bids are about the same as the day before. Same issue, around 30 clicks, and not a single conversion. Is something up, or am I just not giving the ads enough time? This is where I leave this journal off for today. I'm utterly perplexed as to what the issue is. I figured that I maybe fucked up pixel tracking which is making my ads not track the conversions properly, but on 9/9/11 I was tracking sales just fine. Could something have gone wrong overnight with it, or am I just being too cautious?

At this point, I'm pretty confused about everything. I'm debating changing up my copy, and of course trying 15 or so fresh ads at a time for tonight, but I've had absolutely zero luck with a decent CTR after testing hundreds of images over the course of my “career,” and it feels odd to just keep blindly trying to get my CPCs down to profitable levels. Especially with this recent trend the past 2 days where we've had 60 to 70 clicks and not a single sale on a $1.40 lead. For this campaign to be profitable, I'm going to need to get my clicks down to really cheap levels, 30 to 20 cents, and seeing as how I haven't even seen below 70 cents at this point, it is definitely going to be though. I'm craving a profit more than ever. Going to discuss things with my AM tomorrow morning, and see where I'll go from there.



Total money spent: $471
Money made: $75 dollars
 
Something I've noticed after posting these journals - I've grown to be a little insecure about where I'm at right now. With how much money I've spent, am I supposed to know more than this? I know its all relative, and everyone is different, but I can't help but feel like everyone else probably knew way more about what they were doing at the 400 dollar point. I'm not going to let it shake my confidence, though. I need as few distractions as possible.
 
9/12/11

After speaking with my AM, and reading a few recommended case studies, I decided that I'm going to rework my title, and tweak my copy. Image is what catches people, but it really is amazing how much influence the ad's text has over conversion rates. Tonight, I plan on submitting brand new images, along with my reworked title/copy combo. I've lost a lot of money so far, but I feel it, somewhere deep down inside, that I can make this work. This isn't a business for pussies. Will post an update later tonight.
 
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9/12/11 - Part 2


I've re-done my title and copy completely, incorporating elements that I believe can increase my CTR and Conversion. At this point, that seems a bit optimistic, but I refuse to give up. After learning so much today, I was a bit hesitant to start up another day of my offer so quickly(FB app install, dating site, 1.40 per install) but my girlfriend gave me the ol' "SACK UP AND DO IT PUSSY, WHAT IS WAITING A DAY GOING TO DO?!?"

I love that woman.


Will post later, hopefully with some positive results.


Edit: And a big thank you to Scheme and wiredniko, I really appreciate it.
 
9/12/11 - Part 3

Received a notification today that my Facebook daily spend limit has been increased to 2000.00. Lol. It is my DREAM to be spending that much a day on Facebook profitably. I know if I keep at it, I will be at that point eventually. That can't come soon enough.

Was planning on putting up ads tonight, but of course Facebook took about 4-5 hours to approve my ads, while disapproving 4-5 images that have already been approved before. Typical Facebook!

Included a prompt in my title, to get the user to click on my ad, as well as expanding upon that in the copy in hopes of improving my conversion %. I'm being super-strict on images - "real looking," smiling, doesn't obscure the girl's face in any way, etc. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm DYING for my first profit.
 
9/13/11


Gigantic roadblock today. Put up my ads as planned, all of them got denied, citing improper content or however way they phrase it. I had made a title change to the group that got accepted last night, so I figured that it was the issue. Resubmitted this batch, but with the title of the batch that got initially accepted. Ads were again disapproved, received this e-mail shortly after:

"Hi,

We've noticed that you are currently running Facebook Ads that violate our Terms of Use or Advertising Guidelines, despite having been previously warned to stop running such ads.

We do not allow ads for dating aggregate services, such as LoveScanner.

You'll need to delete any ads that do not comply with our policies within 24 hours. Failure to do so will result in your accounts being permanently disabled and the termination of all account management services. If you have questions about ad content that may violate our guidelines, feel free to reply to this email. We appreciate your cooperation.

Thanks,

The Facebook Ads Team
"



In summation:

"-_______-"



Fuck. That. Back to the drawing board? Picking up another FB dating APP from Peerfly, looks solid, and it doesn't seem to be an aggregate site. Waiting for approval, and I'll hopefully be running some stuff tomorrow night. Really eager to get back into this, and really eager to make a profit. I really hope Facebook deems this offer "acceptable," as I'm pretty sure that was another strike against my account. Would hate to get it banned, but I know it's not the end of the world.
 
STOP DOING FACEBOOK DATING ADS!!!!

Its the mistake that every single one of these journal threads seems to make.

Find a niche to start out with. Don't jump right into one of the most competitive ppc fields you can possibly find.

~~End rant
 
STOP DOING FACEBOOK DATING ADS!!!!

Its the mistake that every single one of these journal threads seems to make.

Find a niche to start out with. Don't jump right into one of the most competitive ppc fields you can possibly find.

~~End rant


Any suggestions from your own experience? As soon as I jumped into this I was told by a few reliable people that Dating is one of the best for beginners because its relatively easy to figure out. Considering that I'm struggling for the time being even getting my CTR/CPC down to manageable levels... do you have any better suggestions?
 
Try something other then dating. The ppc I didnt lose money on was the vistaprint free business cards offer, I dunno if thats open still though.

Look for a none major traffic source where you dont have to compete tooth and nail with a bunch of big pubs. Buy sell ads or one of the b run ad networks is a great way to get a ton of really cheap impressions to learn on.


* I don't run much ppc, and lost money 3 out of 5 times. Was just tired of reading dating journals.
 
Try something other then dating. The ppc I didnt lose money on was the vistaprint free business cards offer, I dunno if thats open still though.

Look for a none major traffic source where you dont have to compete tooth and nail with a bunch of big pubs. Buy sell ads or one of the b run ad networks is a great way to get a ton of really cheap impressions to learn on.


* I don't run much ppc, and lost money 3 out of 5 times. Was just tired of reading dating journals.

I appreciate your input, thanks. I think I might try and research some alternative, cheap traffic sources for a bit, in addition to different verticals. Mostly though, I think I'm still going to focus on Facebook/Dating, because I truly feel like I can make it work. Maybe I'm just being naive? Probably. Its hard to just switch verticals so quickly, especially in the beginning, because I feel like I'm finally starting to establish a foundation of "What works" in my head in regard to Facebook and Dating.