ZeroPark weird traffic source URL

[Mimini0147]

I'm new at ZeroPark, I started some campaign to collect data, then I realized that many traffic are very weird with a very strange {target_url}.

It's like it's bought from other ad networks like popcash, or others are not validated url at all.

here are some examples of weird {target_url}:

7bnsid 7d_nty3nw%% == _ 51_1547
248251.popcash.net
5wu83wzzcbe5mjla_multi_005
5wv_ujzoe_multi
rzswdgwskkecvuuvwcdwwji_multiabra
pbhaatha6dghjkbuas7655
pbhdatha6gvbc357uysrtyu78awet6shas
pfytyucrtatha6eqx76578dgd


These "URLs" are what I collected from ZeroPark in {target_url} parameter.

Does anyone know better what all of this means?

 

[Graybeard]

it's an encrypted string
Someone is trying to hide something -- that's obvious ...
you cannot encrypt a domain name in a URL -- the domain name has to be in plain text for the initial connection to work ( called a handshake) the same way that you need and address to get somewhere .

• multi is not encrypted in that sting and maybe is some sort of parameter or delimiter possibly.
• Wild guess is that is remnant traffic bought from popcash?
• == is probably a comparison operator PHP: Comparison Operators - Manual

 

[tyoussef]

@Mimini0147 one thing you should know is that all these guys are buying and selling traffic between each other.
so it's normal.

 

[Mimini0147]

it's an encrypted string
Someone is trying to hide something -- that's obvious ...
you cannot encrypt a domain name in a URL -- the domain name has to be in plain text for the initial connection to work ( called a handshake) the same way that you need and address to get somewhere .

I also get traffic from other {traget_url}, they seem more "legitime"
.....

And also traffic from other in-build browsers in Android APP like:
com.cardfree.adt
com.youtube.viewer
com.inapp.incolor
.....


But I didn't get any conversion from ZeroPark for now, did anyone know more about bot traffic from ZeroPark ?

 

[Mimini0147]

@Mimini0147 one thing you should know is that all these guys are buying and selling traffic between each other.
so it's normal.

But as I know these traffic bought need visitors must click on the page for the popup to appear. in order to earn money at ZeroPark or other Ad Network.
Unless using malware that forces the clique, if not I dont really see how it can be profitable.
And AdNetwork like ZeroPark or PropellerAds (they have a bunch of fake/bot traffic too) dont do anything?

 

[Mimini0147]

I filter and do counts on my own servers -- servers100% under my control and some bots inevitably get through.
Then there is the definition (or defining of bots) issue. Some are obvious some are more steathy ...

No conversions does not mean bad traffic or too many bots necessarily -- the offer may just have no affinity with the traffic or maybe be *shady* for some reason.

I'm using VPS + Cloudflare for hosting and Mysql database for data, for now I just send traffic to my php page, log them and then redirect to Offer link, no landing page.
I think I have to setup some simple landing page in order to filter low quality source

 

[Graybeard]

I filter and do counts on my own servers -- servers100% under my control and some bots inevitably get through.
Then there is the definition (or defining of bots) issue. Some are obvious some are more steathy ...

No conversions does not mean bad traffic or too many bots necessarily -- the offer may just have no affinity with the traffic or maybe be *shady* for some reason.

 

[Mimini0147]

My filters are on the Nginx (webserver) access control configuration before the landing pages -- the landing page is 100% marketing ...
I sort (display) content on the landing page with PHP scripting.
403,444 if filtered out --- done

Thanks for sharing this service... but Nginx is too expensive for me(2500$ a year)

After some small analyze, it's obvious that some traffic source is full bot, i think i have to exclude these very low-quality traffic source, especially those with very low valid view or very few ip diversity rates like "vitellary-lion" or "morel-bovine",
:

And most of {target_url} from these sources are also very weird...

 

[Mimini0147]

IP diversity? OMG!

Normal might be 1-4 views per IP/day and normally you have control of that..
Excessive reloaded view? Some of those numbers are out of line. Problem is you are paying for that useless traffic even if you block it on your server. That is a quality control problem.

If you say that some domains you will blacklist for reason of 0 productivity then it may the the traffic coming from that domain or source. If they are domains with excessive ip/view then what are you waiting for?

Actually I am using the free open source Nginx and have spent the time to learn how to map bots/user-agent names and how to used conf.d/ files to allow or deny access (or redirect possibly) from a common set of files and configure the right file to each virtual domain. No control panel and no point and click. SSH and a lot of time learning.

If you are using a GUI 'tool' for the ads just blacklist -- obviously there is no transparency so that you could whitelist sources/domains based on some parameters/or algorithm you could devise.

I find that bothersome -- and will not do business blindly.

Yes;
I have already excluded these weird domains , then I added a simple landing page to filter more finely.

Basically I do 2 times filtering, first a little code javascripte with redirect after 100ms, those who do not redirect are considered invalid visitor [javascript: settimeout (function () {window.location = "my landing page"}, 100); ]

And then a landing page with a simple button to find more "human" visitors like that:

Hoping that it can help me find high quality domains.

But maybe all thes bad quality domains is because of my bid, I always bid as cheapest as possible, I do not want to bid too expensive since many offers do not convert at all ...
And when I bid too high without filtering poor quality domains, these domains will eat all my budget in no time.

 

[Graybeard]

My filters are on the Nginx (webserver) access control configuration before the landing pages -- the landing page is 100% marketing ...
I sort (display) content on the landing page with PHP scripting.
403,444 if filtered out --- done

 

[tyoussef]

I think I have to setup some simple landing page in order to filter low quality source

that's going to help for sure, adding a boot trap in your landing page, and also it will increase the conversion rate if the lading page is good.

 

[Mimini0147]

that's going to help for sure, adding a boot trap in your landing page, and also it will increase the conversion rate if the lading page is good.

Yes,
I also added a bot click trap, a clickable 1 pixel image .

But if you know other techniques of how to find the bot; could you please share with us?

This is the last state of my traffic, I buy pop traffic from ZeroPark and the state seem now more "normale". I'm running adult dating smartlink offer, But For now I have not received any conversion, not very sure where is probleme

Did anyone has any advice or remark ?

 

[Graybeard]

IP diversity? OMG!

Normal might be 1-4 views per IP/day and normally you have control of that..
Excessive reloaded view? Some of those numbers are out of line. Problem is you are paying for that useless traffic even if you block it on your server. That is a quality control problem.

If you say that some domains you will blacklist for reason of 0 productivity then it may the the traffic coming from that domain or source. If they are domains with excessive ip/view then what are you waiting for?

Actually I am using the free open source Nginx and have spent the time to learn how to map bots/user-agent names and how to used conf.d/ files to allow or deny access (or redirect possibly) from a common set of files and configure the right file to each virtual domain. No control panel and no point and click. SSH and a lot of time learning.

If you are using a GUI 'tool' for the ads just blacklist -- obviously there is no transparency so that you could whitelist sources/domains based on some parameters/or algorithm you could devise.

I find that bothersome -- and will not do business blindly.

 

[tyoussef]

But if you know other techniques of how to find the bot; could you please share with us?

you can also black list based on very bad ctr.
but i think since you are using a smartlink, you can't use a landing page.

 

[Mimini0147]

It may go back to being the offer affinity or the business practices involved.
what is the CAC and CLV?

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): how much did we pay to get John Doe to a) visit our website, b) register to our newsletter, c) view the personalized offers until he decided to buy?
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): the cashflow coming from John Doe’s purchases. In this case, if he were to spend an average of $100, monthly x 24 month = $2400. But these are not all ours. Just the margin. Oh, and there will also be discount costs and other variables, but we’ll get to that, soon enough.

Test until you have spent $X % of the CLV * ? <<<your call-- your risk

Thanks, I will try to apply these concepts in optimization

 

[Graybeard]

sometimes you get what you pay for and sometimes you don't -- go with the flow ...
I have raised my bids only to feel I am just paying more for the same thing

 

[Mimini0147]

you can also black list based on very bad ctr.
but i think since you are using a smartlink, you can't use a landing page.

I'm using landing page for smart link, after blackliste some weird source and very low CTR domains, I'm getting some conversion now:

Total Spend: 10.87
Total Conversion 7
Total Revenue : 14.19
Result : +3.32

Next step I will create some landing page from different perspective and see if I can get better result

 

[Mimini0147]

Total Spend: 21.85
Total Conversion 8
Total Revenue : 16.58
Result : -5.27

Didnt get conversion today and yesterday,
And website that convert are all very small website with low traffic.
Same happened for others offers I tested before, the big sites often convert very bad.
Does anyone have an idea/explanation about this phenomenon?

 

[zeropark]

Hey @Mimini0147

If you bid the lowest possible amount you will be bidding on the lowest quality segment of traffic, the traffic that was not picked up by campaigns with more competitive bids, it is made up of random sites and long cycle visits. The {target_url} token is designed to work with keyword campaigns where you are bidding on a specific site and will pass back the URL when it is available. If you use this on a RON campaign you will more then likely get encrypted visits from our traffic sources.
The best tactic for a broad campaign is to focus on Zeroparks subid's {target} and {source}. firstly you will need to narrow down the sources you are buying from to the ones with conversions by blacklisting, as you were doing in a previous post, then bidding up on the sources that work to be more competitive in the auction and buy higher quality visits. If you need any help working out a bid our volume page can give you estimates for most settings

There is nothing wrong with starting with a low bid, but you will have to buy a lot of traffic to get the conversions, even then if a target starts to perform on the network people will start bidding on it more competitively and it will be taken out of the pool of the cheapest visits. Our RBO can help you with this if you track conversions on the platform, you can set rules for it pause, bid up or bid down based on a performance metric. Here is a blog on how to set it up and its uses.

If you would like some help getting started with better quality sources you can write to support@zeropark.com and ask for a whitelist based on campaign vertical!

Hope this was helpful!
Zeropark

 

[Graybeard]

It may go back to being the offer affinity or the business practices involved.
what is the CAC and CLV?
Customer Acquisition Cost and Lifetime Value | Sailthru

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): how much did we pay to get John Doe to a) visit our website, b) register to our newsletter, c) view the personalized offers until he decided to buy?
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): the cashflow coming from John Doe’s purchases. In this case, if he were to spend an average of $100, monthly x 24 month = $2400. But these are not all ours. Just the margin. Oh, and there will also be discount costs and other variables, but we’ll get to that, soon enough.

Test until you have spent $X % of the CLV * ? <<<your call-- your risk

 

[Mimini0147]

Hey @Mimini0147

If you bid the lowest possible amount you will be bidding on the lowest quality segment of traffic, the traffic that was not picked up by campaigns with more competitive bids, it is made up of random sites and long cycle visits. The {target_url} token is designed to work with keyword campaigns where you are bidding on a specific site and will pass back the URL when it is available. If you use this on a RON campaign you will more then likely get encrypted visits from our traffic sources.
The best tactic for a broad campaign is to focus on Zeroparks subid's {target} and {source}. firstly you will need to narrow down the sources you are buying from to the ones with conversions by blacklisting, as you were doing in a previous post, then bidding up on the sources that work to be more competitive in the auction and buy higher quality visits. If you need any help working out a bid our volume page can give you estimates for most settings

There is nothing wrong with starting with a low bid, but you will have to buy a lot of traffic to get the conversions, even then if a target starts to perform on the network people will start bidding on it more competitively and it will be taken out of the pool of the cheapest visits. Our RBO can help you with this if you track conversions on the platform, you can set rules for it pause, bid up or bid down based on a performance metric. Here is a blog on how to set it up and its uses.

If you would like some help getting started with better quality sources you can write to support@zeropark.com and ask for a whitelist based on campaign vertical!

Hope this was helpful!
Zeropark

Thanks for your advise, I will ask for some Whitelist

 

[Mimini0147]

Still in the process of optimizing campaigns, at the same optimizing landing page trying to shake every penny from traffic

Total Spend: 53.6
Total Conversion : 27
Total Revenue : 35.7
Result : -17.9

 

[Mimini0147]

Total Spend: 83.79
Total Revenue : 69.79
Result : -14.01

It's like a hunting game, spend always run a bit faster
Need to find a profitable way

 

[Mimini0147]

Total Spend: 141.54
Total Conversion : 81
Total Revenue : 124.21
Result : -17.33

 

[Graybeard]

Congrats >>heading in the right direction

 

[Mimini0147]

Well, the offer is selling -- most of the people (the 'traffic') ain't buying.
so;

1. you are not able to segment the people in that 'traffic'
2. much of that traffic is not people that might buy

Yes , you are right, some country ate a lot of traffic but got 0 conversion, and some traffic network / country perform better on one spécific ad network's smartlink but not others. But maybe it's too early to start segment the traffic because of no enough conversion per traffic/country/domain/device/offer.
But I will start to create some new campaign with best perform parameter "Traffic source & Country & Domain & Offer & Device"

 

[Mimini0147]

Landing page 1:
Spend : 64.60
Conversion : 28
Revenue: 28.62
Result : -35.98

Landing page 2:
Spend: 57.45
Conversion : 34
Revenue : 54.18
Result : -2.65

Landing page 3:
Spend: 6.27
Conversion : 1
Revenue : 1.98
Result : -4.29

Landing page 4:
Spend: 17.1
Conversion : 17
Revenue : 32.81
Result : +15.71

I think I have to stop Landing page 1