40 YO Journey To Mobile

[rogerramjeet]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for taking a look (and offering advice ) with my follow along. I've been involved in digital for a little while now but decided it's time to move into mobile.

Here's some background on my setup;

Hosting : Beyond Hosting
Network : F5 Media
Tracking : CPV Lab
Traffic : Mobile PPC
Offer : Mobile download
Payout : $1.20

The aim (like everyone) is to turn this campaign into profits as quickly as I can. I don't have time to dick around and have funds to throw at it (in reason; I'd prefer spending with purpose/knowledge rather than spending cash blindly).

So to my first day stats 13/12/14;

As you can see, my mobile lander/angle was a disaster. (My aim is to spend $20 on each angle/lander and move on.) The lander load time is under 1 second and simple (as I think it can be - Header, Pic, Call to Action). I'll create a stronger Call to Action with my next Lander. I was thinking about adding "FREE" to the lander, but understand quality issues creep in when adding this - therefore, I'll leave it out for now.

Today I'll create 2 more angles/landers and load them up, ready to collect data.

Regarding my ads, I decided to cut those ads where I've spent over $3.60 without a conversion and where ads have an ROI less than -50%. I'll continue to rotate at least 10 banner ads, cutting them on the basis above.

If there's anything I'm missing, feel free to let me know. And if you can help me turn this bad boy into profits, I'd be forever in your debt!

 

[rogerramjeet]

Hey everyone,

Here's some stats from 16/12/14. I created 2 new angles/landing pages.

As you can see, both angles are pretty similar in conversions/ROI. The good news is that Lander/Angle 3 ROI is -43% (Compared to Lander/Angle 1 ROI of -93%). My thinking; if I can improve LP CTR, I feel there's a chance to get this into Profit (although, I understand my biggest KPI is Profit/Loss).

A couple of questions which I thought I'd throw out to those with experience - please feel free to help ;

a. As there's no clear winner in terms of Lander/Angle, should I spend more on data from $25 to $30-$35 per angle? At what point do you stop running with an Angle (ie. Any angle with/above -50% ROI, -40% ROI, -70% ROI, ect)? At what point do you begin to optimise an Angle via LP's, Call to actions, pics, ect?
b. Considering direct linking converts at -17% (and using this as a benchmark), should I split test Lander/Angle 3 (with 2 completely different LP's) - and add another Lander/Angle into the mix?

My To Do List (or What I Think I Should Do);

1. I'm currently running 4 ads after pausing any ads which have zero conversions. I'll increase the pool back to 10 ads.
2. Create a new Lander/Angle and run that as a split test with Angle 3.
3. Make an improvement to Lander/Angle 3 via header. (At present, I'm calling out the viewers city location via a geolocation script purchased via Fiverr - but I'd like to upgrade to Maxmind Web Service and go one level deeper and call out town/suburb (if anyone can help me set this up, I'd appreciate it!)
4. Test calling out the mobile device via new Angle 4 - ie. Have a <MOBILE>? This App is *especially* designed for you! (If anyone can help me set this up, I'd greatly appreciate it) (Need to nail the Copy for this angle! )
5. Test campaign in a new Country.

Any other ideas/info - feel free to chime in!

P.s I've edited to include my Ad data;

As you can see, there's 2 ad's which generate the most revenue. Those Ads highlighted in red are now paused.

 

[church]

This is awesome please keep it coming.

 

[rogerramjeet]

So yesterday, I created a new angle and split tested it with my previous best Lander/Angle 3 (As you may recall, Lander/Angle 3 had an ROI of -43%). I named the new angle Lander/Angle 4. (I didn't get any help with "Mobile device" call out - so I went with another angle).

I also created two new landers based on Lander/Banner 3.

In the lander I named Lander/Angle 3A, I change the background color and added a countdown script to the Lander. (I've named this this lander - Lander/Angle 3A).

In the lander I named Lander/Angle 3B, I changed two words in the Headline and changed the color of the background. (I've named this Lander/Angle 3B).

I also uploaded 4 new ads but they weren't approved at time. This is frustrating, but I understand it's part and parcel of advertising with smaller networks. Therefore, I had 6 ads running.

Here's the stats from today;

Insights From Stats

a. One thing which surprised me (a little) is my LP CTR increased by around 2% from yesterday, but it didn't increase the conversion rate (In saying that, the offer pays on app open, so leads may convert 1-2 days later).

b. As you can see, Lander/Angle 3B was the best today, with an ROI of -35.16% (That's an 8% improvement from Lander/Angle 3). As I mentioned above, Lander/Angle 3B didn't contain a countdown clock - I wonder if it's too early to say urgency doesn't work for this offer? Maybe I should change the position of the countdown from just above the Call to Action button, to just below the headline?

c. The new angle I tested (Lander/Angle 4) has a similar ROI as the first two angles I tested. Nothing special. What I'd like to see is one of two outcomes; (i) it smashes ROI making it easy to optimise and to make profits, or (ii) ROI is abysmal so I can delete it and test another angle. I feel at 59.36% the angle is in no-mans land.

To Do Next;

1. Test New Angle - Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'll be replacing Lander/Angle 4 with a new Angle. I just think with a good Angle, your ROI from the get-go could be lower than -40% - (how I got that figure is based on gut rather than hard data - More experienced affiliates would have better data or heuristics than me). I'm also thinking because I've tested only three angles, it's probably too premature to make a decision on which angle to optimise.

2. Split test Lander/Angle 3B and try and beat -35.16% ROI. What I plan is to test a different Call To Action.

Conclusion

There's still lots of optimising (I believe) I can do. However, they seem like the icing on the cake compared to getting the Lander/Angle/Ads right. Also, the art of mobile seems to me about how quickly you can get campaigns to run into profit. Maybe this comes with experience?

I'm always interested in opinions/advice if you have any to share. So fire away.

**Fast Read**

What I Did tested;
1. Added a new angle to the mix and called it Lander/Angle 4
2. Split tested Lander/Angle 3 with two landers (Landers/Angle 3A had a background color change and a countdown script added to create urgency.)
3. Lander/Angle 3B was based on Lander/Angle 3 but I changed 2 words in Headline and change background color.

What's to do;
1. Test new angle
2. Split test landing pages

 

[rogerramjeet]

Ok. So it's a little quiet here. But my update for 18/12/14.

I tested a new angle today and created 2 different versions. They are labeled Lander/Angle 5 and Lander/Angle 5A. The difference between the two are pics rather than copy.

I also added a new lander into the mix inspired by my winning lander from yesterday (As you know, yesterday's winner was Lander/Angle 3B at -35%). The new lander included a new Call to Action, and improved on the geolocation (I've labeled this Lander/Angle 3A).

Here's the stats;

Insights From Stats

(a) New Angle - Lander/Angle 5
As you can see, the new Angle (Lander/Angle 5) has an ROI of -48.25%. The alternative didn't do as well at -77.46%. But I see signs of life. What I like is that LP CTR is at 12.33% which is the highest LP CTR I've had with mobile. Now, high LP CTR doesn't mean crap. I realise PROFITS is all that matters here. However, keeping in mind that direct linking resulted in a ROI of -17%, I believe there's still some opportunity here (Maybe it's in combining elements of this lander into other landers).

(b) Lander/Angle 3B and Lander/Angle 3A
It looks like my best ROI lander (Lander/Angle 3B with an ROI of -46.42%) didn't beat yesterdays ROI. (A few percent worse than yesterday but I'll run with it). The alternative (Lander/Angle 3A) wasn't much of a hit with an ROI of -65.84%.

To Do Next

1. I'll stick with these 2 angles for the time being.
2. Still waiting for ads to be approved. Way to slow!
3. Let's combine elements of Lander/Angle 5 into Lander/Angle 3 and vice versa.
4. Let's run with this over the weekend.

Conclusion

I feel like I'm driving a stick shift Toyota Camry with this campaign and grinding 2nd gear. Maybe I should add qualifiers in my ads to reduce CPC? Maybe I should increase CPC to see whether it generates more traffic and conversions? Maybe I should try a different offer? Lots of testing and action. Let's see.

**Fast Read**

What I did;
a. Tested new angle called Lander/Angle 5 - ROI wasn't bad at -48.25%. The LP CTR was 12.33% - I'll use elements of this lander in Angle 3B.
b. Maintained Lander/Angle 3B which stayed roughly the same ROI as yesterday - 46.42%

 

[rogerramjeet]

A quick update for the last 3 days.

Here's the stats and an explanation;

19/12/14 - I decided to pause my campaign while ads were approved. As you can see, very little traffic was generated. While there's a positive ROI for Lander 5 and a small negative ROI for Lander/Angle 3B, it seems statistically insignificant for fist pumps!

20/12/14 - Lander/Angle 5 ROI improved from - 48.25% on 18/12/14 to -17.15% ROI today. What I liked was Lander/Angle 5 had the highest conversions (18) from this campaign too. From these stats, I thought I'd gather some more stats before I made any changes. As for Lander/Angle 3B, you can see that ROI dropped from the previous day from -16.08 to -44.90%.

21/12/14 - As you can see, today was somewhat of a disaster. I'd planned to pause my account midway, but thought I'd ride it all the way. There's a big variance from yesterday. Revenue was $22.80 and cost was $69.54, leaving with a loss of -$46.74. As you can see, Lander/Angle 5 bombed at -75.82% ROI, while Lander/Angle 3B dropped to -58.63%. It feels like I'm back at square 1!

Where To From Here

While it's not great losing money, I'm seeing that I have no weekend data. Maybe some days are better for conversions than others? Maybe it's too close to Christmas? While it seems like common sense to say Christmas may have something to do with this, it's not based on data. I'm trying hard to base all decisions on data.

To Do List

With Christmas in 4 days, I plan on pausing this campaign starting 23/12 and resuming again on 27/12. In the meantime, I'll create another landing page based on elements I see working for both Lander/Angle 3B and 5.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.