If we know anything about starting out in affiliate marketing, it’s this: don’t plunge head-first. There are easy verticals to start out with and appropriate traffic sources to promote them on. One of such promising offer-traffic source combinations is sweepstakes offers on pop ads.
We have prepared a short guide that you can use to embark on this journey (as advised by affiliate marketers with years of experience in this field).
1. Choose the type of sweepstakes. There are two main categories available in our network – gadgets (iPhones, Samsungs, etc.) and gift cards (Walmart, Costco, etc.) You will want a type with multiple geos available, such as iPhone 7. Ask your AM to recommend some well-converting offers and select 2 or 3 similar ones with rather low payouts. The low payouts will make sure you don’t overspend on testing.
2. Prepare prelanders. Sweepstakes ALWAYS require prelanders, direct-linking will not work here. There is a debate going on whether you should create your own ones or just subscribe for spying tools and use what’s already been used successfully by other affiliates. If you are a complete newbie, using those that already exist seems a better option. However, you will have to clean up each prelander a little and make sure it includes no redirect scripts and other junk. It is recommended to prepare as many prelanders with different angles as possible – it will help in testing. (!) Note: if the spying tool shows that a certain prelander works well in several translations, you can then translate it into other languages and count on similar results. Grab 5 – 10 prelanders to test.
3. Choose a geo to start with and a traffic source. Since you are only starting out, aim for a non-competitive geo and an ad network that will provide enough traffic for such geo. PropellerAds and Zeropark are best to start with. A smart move is to sign for both or even more, which will broaden your perspective.
4. Set up a campaign and start testing prelanders. Since there are two variables in the offer-prelander combination that you are looking for, you need to lock at least one of them. That is, you can test multiple prelanders with the same well-converting offer, or you can test different offers with a prelander that you know works well. We here chose the prelander-first approach, as it’s easier to find a good prelander (with spying tools) than a good offer.
5. Cut the prelanders that perform worse than others. This calculator will help you identify what’s worth further efforts and what is not (based on impressions and conversions). Cut until you have a single prelander left. (!) Note: If you are seeing a huge number of clicks and zero conversions, it’s likely there are errors in tracking.
6. Once you have identified a winning prelander, find and test more similar offers with it. Cut those that underperform.
When the best offer-prelander combination has been found, continue testing with staggered bids, i.e. duplicate the campaign and set slightly higher and lower bids to see how it will impact the ROI. Continue with the campaign that performs better than the other two.
7. Repeat the sequence for other geos and scale it to other traffic sources.
Pop traffic is good for sweepstakes as it allows to identify trends at a relatively low cost. You will then be able to proceed with more budget-intensive sources such as Facebook ads.
There are different formulas to calculate your testing budget. Some affiliates spend ten times the offer payout, others multiply the average payout by two and then by the number of offers you are testing. Others yet factor in the number of landing pages being tested. Whatever you choose, keep in mind that the money you spend on testing will definitely pay back in the long run.
We have prepared a short guide that you can use to embark on this journey (as advised by affiliate marketers with years of experience in this field).
1. Choose the type of sweepstakes. There are two main categories available in our network – gadgets (iPhones, Samsungs, etc.) and gift cards (Walmart, Costco, etc.) You will want a type with multiple geos available, such as iPhone 7. Ask your AM to recommend some well-converting offers and select 2 or 3 similar ones with rather low payouts. The low payouts will make sure you don’t overspend on testing.
2. Prepare prelanders. Sweepstakes ALWAYS require prelanders, direct-linking will not work here. There is a debate going on whether you should create your own ones or just subscribe for spying tools and use what’s already been used successfully by other affiliates. If you are a complete newbie, using those that already exist seems a better option. However, you will have to clean up each prelander a little and make sure it includes no redirect scripts and other junk. It is recommended to prepare as many prelanders with different angles as possible – it will help in testing. (!) Note: if the spying tool shows that a certain prelander works well in several translations, you can then translate it into other languages and count on similar results. Grab 5 – 10 prelanders to test.
3. Choose a geo to start with and a traffic source. Since you are only starting out, aim for a non-competitive geo and an ad network that will provide enough traffic for such geo. PropellerAds and Zeropark are best to start with. A smart move is to sign for both or even more, which will broaden your perspective.
4. Set up a campaign and start testing prelanders. Since there are two variables in the offer-prelander combination that you are looking for, you need to lock at least one of them. That is, you can test multiple prelanders with the same well-converting offer, or you can test different offers with a prelander that you know works well. We here chose the prelander-first approach, as it’s easier to find a good prelander (with spying tools) than a good offer.
5. Cut the prelanders that perform worse than others. This calculator will help you identify what’s worth further efforts and what is not (based on impressions and conversions). Cut until you have a single prelander left. (!) Note: If you are seeing a huge number of clicks and zero conversions, it’s likely there are errors in tracking.
6. Once you have identified a winning prelander, find and test more similar offers with it. Cut those that underperform.
When the best offer-prelander combination has been found, continue testing with staggered bids, i.e. duplicate the campaign and set slightly higher and lower bids to see how it will impact the ROI. Continue with the campaign that performs better than the other two.
7. Repeat the sequence for other geos and scale it to other traffic sources.
Pop traffic is good for sweepstakes as it allows to identify trends at a relatively low cost. You will then be able to proceed with more budget-intensive sources such as Facebook ads.
There are different formulas to calculate your testing budget. Some affiliates spend ten times the offer payout, others multiply the average payout by two and then by the number of offers you are testing. Others yet factor in the number of landing pages being tested. Whatever you choose, keep in mind that the money you spend on testing will definitely pay back in the long run.
