Follow Along Propeller Ads Push Notification + Max Bounty (Weird Start)

[ColdAndDark]

CPA isn't a new idea to me. Back in 2018, it caught my interest, I did a low of research but couldnt start because I didnt have any money to spare. I spared 10 usd for PopCash and called it a day when I didnt see conversions (I was too scared to spend more). Then I got a job, worked for a few years, now, I want to give it a fresh start!

Alright, let's go:
Ad network: Propeller
Affiliate network: Maxbounty
Offer: Paid online surveys
Geo: NL
Tracker: BeMob
Payout: $1.8 (Would ask more if I get enough conversions)
Targeting: Broad, didnt select any of the "interest" as I thought this is a pretty mass market stuff

Started the campaign, got 2k impressions in an hour and 1 click.
But here's the weird thing:

Propeller ads is showing that I got 1 click.
But Bemob is showing that I got 40 clicks!

Alright, I thought it was "late clicks" from campaigns, but no, it's been like 8 hours and it's still stuck at 1 click.
So, I though, ok why not check Maxbounty for reports. And things got even weirder!

It's 4 other GEO versions of the same campaign! The thing is, I never started the other GEOs or ever built tracking links for them! I didn't even know they existed! I only built the affiliate tracking link for NL and ran it on propeller ads. It's understandable that it's 13 click as I clicked on it myself to test and the moderation team did that too.
But then the question is:
Why Bemob shows 40+ visits?
And what in the name of god is going on in Maxbounty!

I will keep updating.

 

[ColdAndDark]

I contacted my AM about the weird Maxbounty Report, but it's almost weekend, so no luck. Have to wait till Monday

Also, I didnt use landing page since the offer already has a quiz section before opt in

 

[Graybeard]

1. All your traffic was redirected through a cloud hosted bemob or an installed bemob on your server?

2. I didnt use landing page

3. Instead of trapping the bot clicks you may have not counted them in your tracker?

4. Targeting: Broad, didnt select any of the "interest" as I thought this is a pretty mass market stuff

   Was the GEO actually set right at Propeller ?? Or was it really a RON campaign?
5. All guesses here as I don't have the real data (from the servers involved).

 

[ColdAndDark]

1. All your traffic was redirected through a cloud hosted bemob or an installed bemob on your server?
2. 
   
3. Instead of trapping the bot clicks you may have not counted them in your tracker?
4. 
   Was the GEO actually set right at Propeller ?? Or was it really a RON campaign?
5. All guesses here as I don't have the real data (from the servers involved).

1. It was the cloud hosted bemob
3. Could be that they were bot clicks since I didn't have landing page and my tracker counted them but propeller didn't count them. That makes sense
4. Ya, I chose the Geo in the campaign. I rechecked it it's fine. Plus, on max bounty, Survey X (US) and Survey X (NL) are 2 completely different offers with different tracking links. It's not like if I send US traffic to NL campaign it will count in the US offer/campaign. It's something weird with Maxbounty for this offer maybe.
I didn't use the broker traffic from Propeller it was purely Propellers own Traffic

 

[ColdAndDark]

Also guys, be very careful when looking for your affiliate manager on Skype. There is at least 1 fake profile with picture of your manager.
They will try to say something like your account needs verification as it detected suspicious login, and then try to fish your password. I didn't fall for it because I knew that you shouldn't be giving any password or verification code to anyone!

 

[Graybeard]

What are you buying (the ad format) and what are you paying; CPM or CPC?

Propeller ads is showing that I got 1 click.
But Bemob is showing that I got 40 clicks!

Talk to Maxbounty and ask/inform them of what is going on. Where the hits are coming from is unknown ...

 

[ColdAndDark]

What are you buying (the ad format) and what are you paying; CPM or CPC?


Talk to Maxbounty and ask/inform them of what is going on. Where the hits are coming from is unknown ...

Classic Push notification, CPC high bid start
Ya, paused the campaign and informed my AM

 

[Graybeard]

well

1. push ads that are linked to the tracker? Then redirected to the offer URL?
2. or, you are buying push ads direct to the offer URL?

1 or 2??? Define the funnel ...

 

[ColdAndDark]

It's 1
I am using a custom domain on bemob too.

 

[Graybeard]

If someone else was using your linkID at Maxbounty this would occur --that is a long shot but a remote possibility-- is the traffic source broken down in your Maxbounty stats?

 

[bmcm]

How to check if there are robot clicks

 

[Graybeard]

How to check if there are robot clicks

You get the hostnames of all the ips used --after the fact --you stop the traffic while you do this.
hostsnames that resolve to; NXDOMAIN or SERVERFAIL or data center AS blocks (server farms) are usually `bots`
I do this programmatically --manually pasting 1000's of IPs in a tool will not work out well.
Then you need to relate that data with your clickdata --database and some tables maybe.

But thanks to Selenium and Google Headless, automated browser programs and residential proxies --25% (maybe) of bot referrals will get through anyway.

After you determine a ratio for each traffic source that is acceptable for your situation, you build blacklist and whitelists.

I don't know if filters like Clickease can relate the bots they catch to network siteIDs and clickid --that is one way to index your traffic apart from siteid in database or other methods.

Follow my AI mindmapping How to Check for Robot Clicks

 

[ColdAndDark]

If someone else was using your linkID at Maxbounty this would occur --that is a long shot but a remote possibility-- is the traffic source broken down in your Maxbounty stats?

Ya. My account is secure for sure.
No, it doesnt show traffic source.
I told my AM about it, she said it's very unusual and interesting and she will look into it

 

[ColdAndDark]

Update: So I paused my Maxbounty campaign because of this anomaly as I am not confident it can properly register conversions. Also I dont have too much money to burn and test out that it doesnt work.

I picked a campaign from Golden Goose. I liked that the CPA was 0.24 and it was Kenya where clicks were 15 times cheaper. So in theory I can learn at 15 times less cost!
The campaign started out good, I started in evening and got 2 conversions in first 2 hours and a lot of data at little cost! I paused the campaign and went to sleep. Next morning, I woke up and started again. It kept going and going but no conversions. That was weird, I thought maybe it's a bad day so I stopped it and planned to launch it again next day. Next day I saw that the offer was closed by the company. I lost about $5.7 Spent 6.5 and made like 0.8 3 conversions. I wish they had the campaign up for longer because I did find one very good zone for this campaign! I tried finding similar offer on GG but no luck.
So CPA is a lot about luck, skills matter too ofcourse.

 

[ColdAndDark]

Update: So I paused my Maxbounty campaign because of this anomaly as I am not confident it can properly register conversions. Also I dont have too much money to burn and test out that it doesnt work.

I picked a campaign from Golden Goose. I liked that the CPA was 0.24 and it was Kenya where clicks were 15 times cheaper. So in theory I can learn and test at 15 times less cost!
The campaign started out good, I started in evening and got 2 conversions in first 2 hours and a lot of data at little cost! I paused the campaign and went to sleep. Next morning, I woke up and started again. It kept going and going but no conversions. That was weird, I thought maybe it's a bad day so I stopped it and planned to launch it again next day. Next day I saw that the offer was closed by the company. I lost about $5.7 Spent 6.5 and made like 0.8 3 conversions. I wish they had the campaign up for longer because I did find one very good zone for this campaign! I tried finding similar offer on GG but no luck.
So CPA is a lot about luck, skills matter too ofcourse.

 

[ColdAndDark]

It could also be that the offer was just not working properly on the next day and I just burnt money on it. I had no way to test that since I need a mobile phone with Safaricom carrier which is impossible to get unless you are in that country

 

[ColdAndDark]

I am wondering what to do next.
I am looking to test something with CPA about $0.2-0.5, tier 3 GEO, and converts well with Push/pop ads.
@Graybeard Can you recommend a good Aff network maybe?

 

[Graybeard]

I am looking to test something with CPA about $0.2-0.5, tier 3 GEO, and converts well with Push/pop ads.

Sorry I can't. I don't work low value and hopefully high conversion.
When you say your offer was withdrawn/or closed that is very concerning to me.

1. If you had built a funnel with a bridge page, and;
2. had invested substantial money in advertising, then;
3. building data around that offer
4. --your loss of ad money and your time would be a real loss.

So in cases where the offer is unsure --shoot from the hip and direct link I guess.

This also may be an unusual event, I haven't heard this exact complaint in the recent past.

 

[ColdAndDark]

Sorry I can't. I don't work low value and hopefully high conversion.
When you say your offer was withdrawn/or closed that is very concerning to me.

1. If you had built a funnel with a bridge page, and;
2. had invested substantial money in advertising, then;
3. building data around that offer
4. --your loss of ad money and your time would be a real loss.

So in cases where the offer is unsure --shoot from the hip and direct link I guess.

This also may be an unusual event, I haven't heard this exact complain in the recent past.

Ya it kinda sucks. But I am sort of wary of these situations.
So I didnt build a landing page around it, from the data of the affiliate network seems like no one did.
I also didnt lose much, $5.
Probably that offer got old and got taken down, I was too late to the game maybe.
Anyways, I am testing another offer from ZA with this network, if it doesnt work. I will look for a different network for sure