Anna Voluum DSP
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7 Advertisers’ Mistakes to Avoid
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Making mistakes is an inevitable part of the learning process. They can cost you money and be the source of frustration, however, learning about them will give you a head start. In this article, we describe the most common mistakes that advertisers make – so you can avoid them.
Getting Discouraged Quickly
Huge expectations and the “get rich quickly” stereotype may result in disappointment. Affiliate marketing requires dedication and investment. Be ready for the fact that your first campaign may get rejected! Or that your offer choice was not the best one. It happens even to the most experienced marketers.
The Approval Team in Voluum DSP does its best to wipe away the tears of disappointment and provide you with valuable feedback on what to improve in your campaign. Whether it is about adding or removing some elements, the final result should lead you towards stable performance and maximizing the lifetime value of your campaigns. Following our advice makes it less likely that the campaign will be rejected in the future due to publisher complaints. In short – by investing a bit more effort during creation, your campaign will remain approved for months, instead of days.
This is only the beginning of the journey. Further stages require testing and optimization! Better fasten your seat belts and don’t be afraid to get help from our support team and your dedicated Account Manager if you’ve encountered some obstacles or need some tips. Account Manager is always assigned as soon as you join our platform.
The Approval Team in Voluum DSP does its best to wipe away the tears of disappointment and provide you with valuable feedback on what to improve in your campaign. Whether it is about adding or removing some elements, the final result should lead you towards stable performance and maximizing the lifetime value of your campaigns. Following our advice makes it less likely that the campaign will be rejected in the future due to publisher complaints. In short – by investing a bit more effort during creation, your campaign will remain approved for months, instead of days.
This is only the beginning of the journey. Further stages require testing and optimization! Better fasten your seat belts and don’t be afraid to get help from our support team and your dedicated Account Manager if you’ve encountered some obstacles or need some tips. Account Manager is always assigned as soon as you join our platform.
Not Making Use of Documentation and Guidelines
Voluum has prepared a comprehensive set of guidelines. You can get to know how to set up a campaign and configure your tracking. You can find optimizing, compliance tips and… much, much more. Click here to visit our documentation page and select a section of your choice to become an expert in a given field.
If you decide to start advertising with Voluum DSP, bear in mind that every Traffic Source requires a different, individualized approach. Some Ad Exchanges offer in-app, some desktop or email traffic; these are completely different stories.
Traffic Sources also differ in compliance – there are various verticals and geo restrictions. There are mandatory content requirements on the landing page, quality requirements related to images and headlines. For detailed information, you should visit the compliance section here:
If you decide to start advertising with Voluum DSP, bear in mind that every Traffic Source requires a different, individualized approach. Some Ad Exchanges offer in-app, some desktop or email traffic; these are completely different stories.
Traffic Sources also differ in compliance – there are various verticals and geo restrictions. There are mandatory content requirements on the landing page, quality requirements related to images and headlines. For detailed information, you should visit the compliance section here:
Not Double-Checking your URLs and Set Up
One of the most common rejection reasons is ‘Tech Issue’. You can see it when the Moderation Team finds an error and is not able to review the landing pages, offer pages or the Voluum DSP campaign URL. The most typical errors are 404 (Page not found), 403 (forbidden) and Privacy Error. The latter can lead to false-positive flags/alerts from browsers.
Some landing pages may be overloaded with images or have some issues with the hosting provider and website loading takes a really long time. It can trigger some problems during the approval process. You should also consider potential users who get easily discouraged while waiting for the page to load.
Sometimes the redirect from the landing page to the offer page might be broken, and then you will see appropriate comments with advice on how to fix it.
It may also occur that the URLs are working, but for some reason the campaign is still rejected. It could be caused by using an offer that is not related to the landing page – for example, the landing page is describing a weight loss topic/product, but it redirects to a skin care or another not-related product. Sometimes, by accident, you may use the wrong creatives that are not associated with the campaign topic. In these cases, you will be asked to unify your campaign elements – all campaign elements have to be related to one campaign topic.
So before sending a campaign for a review, we highly recommend you check twice if all campaign elements match. You should also make sure that the content will be visible for users in targeting countries: check for errors, lack of SSL etc. Make sure that there are no rotations of the landing page/offer page (this practice is not allowed). Also, never forget to make sure that all click URLs on your landing page work properly.
What’s the best way to check if your campaign works properly?
Just test it by copying the campaign URL and firing it in your browser. By doing so, you will essentially follow the user journey and be able to check if everything works as expected.
Sometimes the redirect from the landing page to the offer page might be broken, and then you will see appropriate comments with advice on how to fix it.
It may also occur that the URLs are working, but for some reason the campaign is still rejected. It could be caused by using an offer that is not related to the landing page – for example, the landing page is describing a weight loss topic/product, but it redirects to a skin care or another not-related product. Sometimes, by accident, you may use the wrong creatives that are not associated with the campaign topic. In these cases, you will be asked to unify your campaign elements – all campaign elements have to be related to one campaign topic.
So before sending a campaign for a review, we highly recommend you check twice if all campaign elements match. You should also make sure that the content will be visible for users in targeting countries: check for errors, lack of SSL etc. Make sure that there are no rotations of the landing page/offer page (this practice is not allowed). Also, never forget to make sure that all click URLs on your landing page work properly.
What’s the best way to check if your campaign works properly?
Just test it by copying the campaign URL and firing it in your browser. By doing so, you will essentially follow the user journey and be able to check if everything works as expected.
Here’s an article about Testing a DSP campaign
Putting Quantity Over Quality
Whether you’ve created a great deal of creatives or plenty of different landing pages, think about balancing their number. One or three creatives won’t give you an opportunity to find the winning one, but on the other hand, large numbers of ad copy versions is going to make it too difficult to handle the optimization process.
Quantity and quality also matter in offer and landing page content. Never-ending scrolling or long videos can be discouraging for potential clients. Instead of lengthy stories you should take care of user experience – make sure that the website is trustworthy. For example, consider adding confirmation of product safety issues by scientific evidence, or disclosures to your nutrition campaign. Add “Advertorial” at the top of the page, don’t forget about reliable Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy and Contact us sections. Polish and shine your content!
Just Repeating what Others Do
Due to spy tools, you can easily learn which types of offers and creatives work well. You may want to use the same elements while creating your own campaign – it is a good idea! However, remember that internet users get bored quickly: the same content on the same sites eventually stops performing as people ignore the widgets they ‘ve seen before.
If you’ve chosen a popular offer, you must realize that to be successful, the landing pages and creatives need to stand out. The media-buying market is very saturated! While some people are attracted by the possibility of making money from home, others cure their boredom by killing time on the web, especially due to the pandemic.
Try to find your own, unique creatives that will catch people’s attention. There is a huge possibility that your creative is going to be even more interesting and will perform even better. Are you wondering if it is worth putting some more effort and looking for nice images that are not very popular yet and try them? Of course! It will pay off!
Try to find your own, unique creatives that will catch people’s attention. There is a huge possibility that your creative is going to be even more interesting and will perform even better. Are you wondering if it is worth putting some more effort and looking for nice images that are not very popular yet and try them? Of course! It will pay off!
Promoting too Many Offers Simultaneously
Keep the site as simple as you can. Adding random offers will definitely confuse the visitor, who’s going to eventually leave the website. The visitor’s attention was dragged by a specific topic he is interested in, so you should focus on a solution or product that they are looking for.
Alternatively, if you believe that more offers will make you profitable, use well-organized listicles with eye-catching descriptions, pictures and headlines. This may work with e-commerce vertical e.g. “Top 5 Cool Tech Gadgets for Your Car” or similar angle.
Alternatively, if you believe that more offers will make you profitable, use well-organized listicles with eye-catching descriptions, pictures and headlines. This may work with e-commerce vertical e.g. “Top 5 Cool Tech Gadgets for Your Car” or similar angle.
Poor Tracking Solutions
Without tracking, you can’t gather valuable data about visitors, clicks and conversions. Consequently you may miss out on revenue, or you simply won’t get to know what your real profits actually are.
With Voluum DSP you can use our built-in tracker to scale the campaigns with the support of our experts. It allows you to analyze data for multiple selected dimensions. If you have any questions, or you are not sure how to optimize your campaign, you can ask your dedicated Account Manager.
Promoting Suspicious Products and Services
Choose an offer carefully. Study and make sure that the offer is confirmed by the affiliate network or that the direct provider of the offer is a legitimate entity. Verifying is quite important as annoying pop-ups, new windows opened in unprotected browsers, flashy banners and more shady practices will likely cause domain flagging and will eventually lead to such content getting blocked.
You can join one of the many affiliate programs promoted by some well-known brands like Amazon or ClickBank.
You can join one of the many affiliate programs promoted by some well-known brands like Amazon or ClickBank.
Final Remarks
These are the typical mistakes that advertisers make. We hope that you are not going to make any of them! Before sending your campaign for approval, make sure that it meets Voluum DSP documentation and publishers’ guidelines. Check if the content will be visible for internet users in the country selected by you. Don’t be like everyone else! Consider finding a unique offer and creatives that will perform great and focus on quality of the offer instead of quantity. Make sure that the offer that you are going to use is confirmed by an affiliate network or a legitimate entity and is not using any suspicious practices.
And don’t get discouraged when your campaign gets rejected! It happens to everyone. The Moderation Team does its best to provide you with tips on how to have it approved. Try to follow their tips! Once your campaign is approved, remember to track its performance and optimize it.
You already know where you should be careful while creating a campaign to avoid the most common mistakes. The next step is to find an offer, creatives, and you are ready to go!
And don’t get discouraged when your campaign gets rejected! It happens to everyone. The Moderation Team does its best to provide you with tips on how to have it approved. Try to follow their tips! Once your campaign is approved, remember to track its performance and optimize it.
You already know where you should be careful while creating a campaign to avoid the most common mistakes. The next step is to find an offer, creatives, and you are ready to go!
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