Guide The Complete Guide to Setting up Your First Ever Affiliate Campaign.

[nitin]

Most people when just getting started in affiliate marketing are overwhelmed with the amount of work they need to do/learn. And it definitely looks a little hard when just getting started.

So I thought to create a guide on how to set up your first campaign. You will find it useful only if you are entirely new to affiliate marketing.

So lets dig into the journey.
We will be using propellerads as our tracking source, bemob as our tracker (because it is free) and advidi as our affiliate network (because I use it..though most are same).

But first.

Why do you even need to track a campaign? Can I not link directly to offer without a tracker?
Yes you can but that would be like trying to hit bull's eye with your eyes closed. You might hit the target but you would never know what was the reason behind it. And if you miss the target by a little margin, you would never know what to do. In short, we use a tracker to have all our data at one place and also to better control our funnel. (Remember: This is performance marketing and you make only data-based decisions).
So yes a tracker is absolutely necessary.

Now lets get to the next part. How don we transfer information from traffic source to tracker to affiliate network and vice versa?
We use a unique key called clickid. Every click is given a unique id and it is used to transfer information. The traffic source passes the unique id to tracker and tracker to the affiliate network. If a conversion occurs, the affiliate network informs the tracker that this particular click id has converted with this payout and that is how we get that value in our tracker.

If you fail to pass clickid, there would be no-way for affiliate network to tell you which clickid converted.

The information is transferred through postbacks. We will get into how to set up postbacks but first let us see our tracker.
These are the main sections of bemob.

This is another tracker @Landingtrack (which I personally use)

What you will observe is all trackers have similar major functions (like adding offer, adding network, adding traffic source etc), just different User Interface (and yes a few functions too but we can ignore those for now).

So to create your first campaign, first of all you will have to set up your traffic source in your tracker. (This is one-time thing).

So got to traffic sources section (in bemob) and click "New from template" and search and select "Propellerads".

You will get a screen like this:

So the good part is most tracker have almost all the fields prefilled to make it very easy for us. Here in the postback url, you need to add your aid, pid and tid. The tokens are prefilled but you can add more of them.

Follow this guide by @servandosilva to get to know more tokens for each traffic source:

The Token Bible - PPV Edition

The Token Bible - PPV Edition provides a comprehensive list of all the tracking tokens available in PPV sources. This is an invaluable resource for new affiliates trying to understand tracking, and for experienced affiliates who want to stay up-to-date on the latest tokens.

afflift.com

Now where do you find aid, pid, tid?
Go to propellerads>tracking and you will see a link like this:

http://ad.propellerads.com/conversion.php?aid=123456&pid=&tid=11111&visitor_id=${SUBID}&payout=${PAYOUT}

So here 123456 is your aid, 11111 is your tid that you need to add in your tracker above (in place of replace). You can let pid be blank.

Once added, click on save and you will see a new traffic source called propellerads added in your tracker.

Next we need to add your affiliate network. (This too is one-time).

This is extremely easy. All you need to do is go to "Affiliate networks" section in your tracker bemob, click on new from template, and search for your affiliate network name. You will see something like this:

Copy your postback url and give it to your affiliate manager. Ask him to add this postback in your network. He will add this. This will make it easier for you.

Then click "Save" and we have added our affiliate network.

Now to create a campaign, we will need 2 more things: An offer and a lander.

How to decide which offer to run?
Ask your affiliate manager which is the top performing offer in the network for pop/push traffic (whichever traffic type you are running) and he will come up with a list of few offers. Select the best one and we have our offer ready.

Read this amazing guide by @akahma for a detailed explanation on how to choose an offer:

https://afflift.com/f/threads/how-t...o-start-with-newbie-friendly.2806/#post-28348

Now we will need a lander. The fastest and easiest way is to spy the lander using a spy tool, rip it and clean it (Or hire landing page rip clean service - thelanders.club )

You can read this amazing thread by @Nick on how to clean a lander:

How to Clean Ripped Landing Pages

afflift.com

Once you have your html-css-js lander ready either by cleaning it manually or by creating it using purelander, you need to host it somewhere.

Follow this thread/tutorials by @Tyoussef. These are the best.

Tutorial Step-By-Step: how to create and host your landing page, the right way on amazon AWS.

Learn how to build and host your own landing pages with PureLander, the best landing page builder for affiliate marketers!

afflift.com

Btw..remember: In your landing page call to action button (in short cta) you do not enter your offer url. Instead you enter a url called click url.

You will get your click url from your tracker bemob. Go to settings>Tracking Url and you will see your click url something like

https://www.click url.club/click

I hope you managed to follow everything. Now you have your lander hosted (and you will have a link of your lander, let's say https://www.lander.com for this tutorial). The affiliate manager has already implemented your postback for you. And you also have a link of the offer.

Next part in comment below to keep it easier for me.

 

[nitin]

Continued..

Now you need to add your lander in your tracker bemob.

For that go to "Landings" section in your tracker, click "New". You will see something like this:

Keep a name for your landing page. You can keep any name but will be easier for you if you name something like country-offer-landernumber. In the URL, enter your landing page url which was https://www.lander.com, select the country and click save.

You will have a lander added in your tracker.

Now we need to add our offer. But first we need to make sure that our offer url has clickid as part of the url (or else our network won't be able to point out which click exactly converted.) So I will select an arbitrary offer and show you.

So most likely our offer url will be something like this (this is in affiliate network):

All you need to do is, enter {clickId} (curly braces included) in subid 2 field (I will shown you later why did we use the word clickid) and you will get your offer url like this:

https://trackeruniverse.com/?a=11111&c=58819&s1=&s2={clickId}

Now our offer url is ready. All we need to do is add this to our tracker and then create our first-ever affiliate marketing campaign.

For that, go to "Offers" section in your tracker, click "New" and you will see a screen like this:

For "Name" field, enter the name of your offer. Select your offer country, choose your affiliate network (We already added the affiliate network some time back) and enter your offer url which is:
https://trackeruniverse.com/?a=11111&c=58819&s1=&s2={clickId}

If you scroll the right part of above image (I mean your tracker screen), you will see something like this:

Notice the word {clickId} in available tokens. That is the reason we added {clickId} in our offer url.
If you were using landing track, you would have written {{PIXEL}} instead of {clickId}

So if you are using a different tracker, you can know the exact token from here.

Click "Save" and your offer is created.

Now the final part. We need to create a campaign. Since this is our first campaign, I will not write about rules, flows, paths etc but you can later read about that in this amazing thready by @Journey66. I would recommend it to read it a little later though to not be confused (but do read it for sure!)

https://afflift.com/f/threads/setting-flows-rules-paths-in-bemob-tracker.2529

Now to create a campaign, go to "Campaigns" section in your tracker click new and you will get a screen like this:

Enter your campaign name, select your traffic source which is propellerads we added some time back and select country.
Then on the right, under destination click "Built-in-flow" and you will see something like this:

In case you are direct-linking, turn that landing off and it will show red. But here we are using a lander. So click on "Add landing" and select your landing name from the drop down (the same that we added some time back). At the moment we have only one landing page but in-case you want to rotate through different landers, you can click on "add landing" again and add the second one.

Now to add your offer, click "Add Offer" and select your offer from the drop-down. At the moment we have only one offer but in-case you want to rotate through different offers, you can click on "add offer" again and add the second one.

Finally click save and you will get your campaign url. This campaign url will go to our traffic source @PropellerAds.

Congrats! You have done most of the work involved in creating your campaign. Now in the next comment, we will use this to create our first ever campaign (and likely get a conversion too ;-) )

 

[nitin]

Creating campaign in propellers is quite easy. Click on create campaign.
You will get something like this:

Eventually it all boils down to testing but for now, enter the campaign name, click on-click (or push if you are using push), select smart-cpm instead of cpm. In cpm, you will pay same-cost for all the zones, in smart-cpm propeller will make sure that you do not over-pay for zones. So select smart-cpm for now.
In target url, add the url we got from tracker (campaign url)

Turn frequency capping to 1 in 24 hours, select your country, assign a smartcpm (give a little below recommended- don't bid too low or you will get just the junk traffic-You can test with this too later), give a daily budget and a campaign budget and the select all the targeting requirements of your offer (mobile/desktop, 3g/wifi etc).

Finally press the "Start Campaign" button and you will have created your first campaign.

I personally love propeller for its amazing fast approval time. Most likely it will take less than an hour for it to get approved.

Congrats! You have finally created your first ever campaign.

Further you can follow these threads by @Luke to learn how to optimize your campaign to move from creating your first campaign to actually making money.

You WILL NOT be profitable on your first try. Learn to OPTIMIZE.

Learn how to optimize your affiliate marketing campaign in this example.

afflift.com

Optimizing a ZeroPark Campaign (Sources / Targets) with a Week of Data

afflift.com

Hour Long Lesson on Deep Optimization with ZeroPark

afflift.com

Thats it! Let me know if I missed something. Would add it later

 

[Akahma]

nice work @nitin , also nice subject line

 

[nitin]

nice work @nitin , also nice subject line

Too many people nowadays asking "I don't know anything. How do I get started". So thought to fill the gap

 

[Luke]

Great work Nitin

 

[nitin]

Great work Nitin

Thanks @Luke
I will be linking other guides too in this thread so that it makes it very easy for anyone to maneuver through the journey and not be confused on what to read (and not miss good threads)

 

[Nobledroid]

Continued..

Now you need to add your lander in your tracker bemob.

For that go to "Landings" section in your tracker, click "New". You will see something like this:

View attachment 6172

Keep a name for your landing page. You can keep any name but will be easier for you if you name something like country-offer-landernumber. In the URL, enter your landing page url which was https://www.lander.com, select the country and click save.

You will have a lander added in your tracker.

Now we need to add our offer. But first we need to make sure that our offer url has clickid as part of the url (or else our network won't be able to point out which click exactly converted.) So I will select an arbitrary offer and show you.

So most likely our offer url will be something like this (this is in affiliate network):

View attachment 6173

All you need to do is, enter {clickId} (curly braces included) in subid 2 field (I will shown you later why did we use the word clickid) and you will get your offer url like this:

https://trackeruniverse.com/?a=11111&c=58819&s1=&s2={clickId}

Now our offer url is ready. All we need to do is add this to our tracker and then create our first-ever affiliate marketing campaign.

For that, go to "Offers" section in your tracker, click "New" and you will see a screen like this:

View attachment 6175

For "Name" field, enter the name of your offer. Select your offer country, choose your affiliate network (We already added the affiliate network some time back) and enter your offer url which is:
https://trackeruniverse.com/?a=11111&c=58819&s1=&s2={clickId}

If you scroll the right part of above image (I mean your tracker screen), you will see something like this:

View attachment 6179

Notice the word {clickId} in available tokens. That is the reason we added {clickId} in our offer url.
If you were using landing track, you would have written {{PIXEL}} instead of {clickId}

View attachment 6180

So if you are using a different tracker, you can know the exact token from here.

Click "Save" and your offer is created.

Now the final part. We need to create a campaign. Since this is our first campaign, I will not write about rules, flows, paths etc but you can later read about that in this amazing thready by @Journey66. I would recommend it to read it a little later though to not be confused (but do read it for sure!)

https://afflift.com/f/threads/setting-flows-rules-paths-in-bemob-tracker.2529

Now to create a campaign, go to "Campaigns" section in your tracker click new and you will get a screen like this:

View attachment 6176


Enter your campaign name, select your traffic source which is propellerads we added some time back and select country.
Then on the right, under destination click "Built-in-flow" and you will see something like this:

View attachment 6177

In case you are direct-linking, turn that landing off and it will show red. But here we are using a lander. So click on "Add landing" and select your landing name from the drop down (the same that we added some time back). At the moment we have only one landing page but in-case you want to rotate through different landers, you can click on "add landing" again and add the second one.

Now to add your offer, click "Add Offer" and select your offer from the drop-down. At the moment we have only one offer but in-case you want to rotate through different offers, you can click on "add offer" again and add the second one.

Finally click save and you will get your campaign url. This campaign url will go to our traffic source @PropellerAds.

Congrats! You have done most of the work involved in creating your campaign. Now in the next comment, we will use this to create our first ever campaign (and likely get a conversion too ;-) )

Absolutely AWESOME tutorial, exactly what a noob like myself needed for my learning journey. Thank you so much for this, and this is why I stay a happy member. Ever consider maybe doing a "first campaign consulting?" Make some money for your efforts? I would gladly pay to be guided through my first campaign, and man what a boost it would be for me. Let me know, dont feel obligated.

Warm regards,
Carson

 

[nitin]

Absolutely AWESOME tutorial, exactly what a noob like myself needed for my learning journey. Thank you so much for this, and this is why I stay a happy member. Ever consider maybe doing a "first campaign consulting?" Make some money for your efforts? I would gladly pay to be guided through my first campaign, and man what a boost it would be for me. Let me know, dont feel obligated.

Warm regards,
Carson

Glad you like it. I don't do consulting. But wherever you are stuck you can post in the forum. Someone or the other would answer it.

Save your money for buying traffic

 

[Nick]

Epic guide man It should help many people.

 

[nitin]

Epic guide man It should help many people.

Thanks @Nick

 

[PureLander]

@nitin thanks for sharing brother .
really amazing.

 

[nitin]

@nitin thanks for sharing brother .
really amazing.

Thanks @Tyoussef

 

[belrican]

Excellent guide @nitin
A big THANK YOU for this..

 

[nitin]

Excellent guide @nitin
A big THANK YOU for this..

 

[servandosilva]

Wicked!
Thanks for the guide @nitin !

 

[nitin]

Wicked!
Thanks for the guide @nitin !

 

[Millie]

Brilliant guide. Thanks!

 

[nitin]

Brilliant guide. Thanks!

Thanks @Millie

 

[eduaffiliates]

Thanks for sharing this amazing guide!