Do adult traffic networks cheat their clients?

[Deenius]

Hey, everybody.

I would like to share with you my experience with buying advertising from adult traffic networks.

I have been testing different affiliate offers for the last two months and I'm not satisfied with the results at all.

Let me give you an example of one of my campaigns.

I was promoting Cunt Empire with a simple landing page and video ad.

It was a very simple LP. I only ask visitors if they are over 18 years old (YES and NO options). You would expect LP CTR to be greater than 90 %. However, the actual CTR was only 11 % (TrafficStars) and 9 % (Exoclick)! In total, there were around 3,000 LP visitors.

This is ridiculous. I suspect that most of the traffic must have been fraudulent (probably bots). I've also had similar results with other campaigns.

I analyzed the data and looked to see if I had made a mistake somewhere in the process. However, I didn't come up with anything.

I wonder if you have similar experiences? Thank you.

 

[T J Tutor]

Have you screen shots of your trackers data?

 

[Deenius]

Have you screen shots of your trackers data?

Why do you need it? What exactly do you want to see?

 

[Graybeard]

It was a very simple LP. I only ask visitors if they are over 18 years old (YES and NO options). You would expect LP CTR to be greater than 90 %. However, the actual CTR was only 11 % (TrafficStars) and 9 % (Exoclick)! In total, there were around 3,000 LP visitors.

not necessarily ...
How long have you been doing this?

At any rate; you would need to see the server log --and not your tracker or the offer's stats to determine the quality of the traffic. You need the IP address and the user-agent name and version.

What ad format were you using? more than 80% of pop type ads are closed without a CTR --even more with in-page push.

 

[Rauldd]

The fact you using a simple 18+ bot check doesnt mean all user will click, has you tried using other kind of prelander? Did you check if all those click came from 2-3 zones, probably bad ones?

 

[Deenius]

not necessarily ...
How long have you been doing this?

At any rate; you would need to see the server log --and not your tracker or the offer's stats to determine the quality of the traffic. You need the IP address and the user-agent name and version.

What ad format were you using? more than 80% of pop type ads are closed without a CTR --even more with in-page push.

It was an eight-day test.

I use CPV Lab. So, I'm able to see IP addresses and user agents. What should I look for?

As I mentioned, I was using a video ad (In-Stream Video).

 

[Graybeard]

a simple 18+ bot check

Newer bots read code and follow links some will generated a 'click' on a JavaScript onClick
Headless Chrome (or Selenium) will act like a browser and load the .js and .css files too.
You can change the user-agent string too. Thing is; most forget to update that --busted

 

[Deenius]

The fact you using a simple 18+ bot check doesnt mean all user will click, has you tried using other kind of prelander? Did you check if all those click came from 2-3 zones, probably bad ones?

I used only one LP. However, it was really simple. Please, see for yourself.

 

[Deenius]

if the user agent is older than Chrome > 100 or Firefox > 100 is a bot
Modern browser update automatically now.

As for the IP that is not so easy --you have to look at the AS lookups and see if they are residential and not server farms (data centers) or known proxies.

Thank you. And what about Safari? Is it also possible to detect bots?

 

[Deenius]

Why would you close the window? You just watched a 30-second video that caught your eye and you clicked the CTA button.

Now you have to just click the YES button and play!

This isn't a hard process. It should definitely have LP CTR over 50 % very easily.

 

[Graybeard]

if the user agent is older than Chrome > 100 or Firefox > 100 is a bot
Modern browser update automatically now.

As for the IP that is not so easy --you have to look at the AS lookups and see if they are residential and not server farms (data centers) or known proxies.

 

[Deenius]

I mentioned two times it is a video ad. Never mind. Maybe you are tired of helping people like me

How could I get a report like that? I currently use CPanel and it offers Awstats statistics. But yours are certainly more detailed. I like it.

 

[Deenius]

Thank you for your answer.

I would have the last question.

I understand that it is super important to keep track of site traffic. However, why is it good to ban selected IP addresses? You already had to pay for the traffic, right? This does not affect the final profitability of the campaign. Or am I missing something? Thank you for your clarification.

 

[Graybeard]

I used only one LP. However, it was really simple. Please, see for yourself.

omitted

To be brutally honest --I would just close that as a nuance. But that's me --some did click.

Safari version history - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

<15.x

Are you dealing direct Affiliates

 

[AfMaster]

Hey, everybody.

I would like to share with you my experience with buying advertising from adult traffic networks.

I have been testing different affiliate offers for the last two months and I'm not satisfied with the results at all.

Let me give you an example of one of my campaigns.

I was promoting Cunt Empire with a simple landing page and video ad.

It was a very simple LP. I only ask visitors if they are over 18 years old (YES and NO options). You would expect LP CTR to be greater than 90 %. However, the actual CTR was only 11 % (TrafficStars) and 9 % (Exoclick)! In total, there were around 3,000 LP visitors.

This is ridiculous. I suspect that most of the traffic must have been fraudulent (probably bots). I've also had similar results with other campaigns.

I analyzed the data and looked to see if I had made a mistake somewhere in the process. However, I didn't come up with anything.

I wonder if you have similar experiences? Thank you.

Hey Deenius,
I think using one LP is not profitable, you should use minimum 2-3 LP's to understand what your traffic prefer the most, and then you can compare it and use that kind of LP's which will be the most sutable for your traffic source

 

[mattheusbuz]

I'm going to launch an advertising project, it was useful for me to read your discussion, thank you.

 

[Graybeard]

Well I didn't see that it was a video --but you don't say what the ad format is
If it is a pop over/under or in-page push your dreaming ---the bounce rates are 90%+ --part of the game.
If it's a clicked landing (push/native/banner )the bounce rate will be less.

Sort your traffic first --
these were the worst --one week for me all pops about 17K mainstream ...
this is based on my web-server log and IP filters
200,30x,4xx

 

[AfMaster]

I'm going to launch an advertising project, it was useful for me to read your discussion, thank you.

what do you mean by advertising project, you want to create your own product?

 

[Graybeard]

video ad on what format?
ad : pop, push, banner, native, PPC (SEM), other
**didn't notice >>>in stream. >>>where on a tube site?

You can't --that is my sql database from my webserver response codes made against my own IP and Proxy ban lists (about 30 Million ips now in CDIR notation /2 /4 -- /24).

It's all custom code based on your server's logs.

/*first*/
LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE '/home/barry/aff-inf/us5-xxxxx/logs/all-sites-xxxxx-2022-05-11'
INTO TABLE  traffic_sorts
fields terminated by ',' lines terminated by '\n'  (ct, site, status);
/*then*/
SELECT DISTINCT  * FROM (
SELECT "625379" AS `Site ID`
    , (SELECT ct FROM traffic_sorts WHERE site='625379' AND status='NO') /
    (SELECT ct FROM traffic_sorts WHERE site="625379" AND status='OK') *100 as `Bots & Junk %`
    , (SELECT ct FROM traffic_sorts WHERE site="625379" AND status='OK') as `Valid Clicks`
    , (SELECT ct FROM traffic_sorts WHERE site="625379" AND status='NO') as `Bot Count`
   
    UNION ALL ...

I am not interested in making tools and being responsible for their updating and customer support issues --that would be like a job for a team

But if someone wants to pay me enough, and is doing a huge volume, I might work as a consultant for them.

But it's not fool proof --bots can use a residential proxy --a backdoor in a free VPN program and you could never detect it. Unless there is an abuse pattern and you can match the user-agent.

 

[Graybeard]

What do the bots and junk do for you? Not a damn thing.
Your LP CTR is low because you are counting all of the garbage that does nothing but distort your true epc ...

KPIs
CTR cost of the traffic
=landed cost
mine has been $0.15 - 0.40 depending on the affinity of the offer (US,CA,GB, DE other Tier1)

KPI: Over 15% tutorials should result in a sign up. anything below that will only be paid partly. % of payout will be discussed personally with every partner.

((0.15 + 0.40)/2)/0.17 =$1.617
offer pays $2 -$3 (in theory anyways)
CuntEmpire CPA (for tutorial finish, Desktop Only)

I need a DE translation --they have it but for Desktop only
Wonder if they pay (@_@)