Follow Along ZeroPark Contest - Thinking outside the box - Desktop Push

[jonte]

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Hi all,

I've been doing push ads since the original Chrome update came out. 99% of my focus has been on mobile push as desktop didn't perform well for the types of offers I generally promoted, namely cc submit sweeps. Since the whole COVID situation, I was thinking of the types of offers that could be popular and have been testing different verticals outside my comfort zone. This particular offer has done quite well on a number of other push traffic sources and GEOs, I am focussing on getting the highest AOV and user-retention possible as to continue to get my payout increased overtime. I'm running completely whitehat with strict rules surrounding creatives, LPs, terminology and advertisement techniques.

Without further delay, let's jump into this follow along. Shout out to ZP for the contest!

Traffic Source : Zeropark
Tracker : Voluum
Offers : CPS Utilities/Software
Payout : $45-$60
Budget : $20k+
Geo : T1 & T2
Network: ?

I launched this campaign on ZP yesterday and have been seeing some promise. I've been running this particular offer for almost a month now in 5 or 6 different GEOs and on many other traffic sources so I have a feel for LP and offer combination has the best performance, although I do still split-test on each new source.

Initial Optimization Rules
​

I developed my own private automated optimization platform which integrates with the majority of push sources I buy traffic from, so long as they have an API. ZeroPark is a great source for my optimization platform as I can rest assured the statistics my platform uses to optimize are 100% accurate due to the bridge between ZP and Voluum.

1. IF {target} clicks > 75 & LP clicks == 0 THEN pause {target}
2. IF {source} clicks > 130 & LP clicks == 0 THEN pause {source}
3. IF {target} cost > $27 & conversions == 0 THEN pause {target} & mark "?" {target} (mark it so I can manually assess it and decide based on other KPIs whether to resume)
4. IF {source} cost > $50 & conversions == 0 THEN pause {source} & mark "?" {source} ""
5. IF {target} conversions >= 1 & {target} spent > $50 THEN adjust {target} CPC to 50% of {target} EPC

My reasoning for the above rules are simple. Since I don't do direct-linking, if visitors from a specific target click my notification over 75 times but not a single one of them clicks-through, I class that as a relatively low-quality placement. Same for the source, although I give it a bit more leeway to allow lower-volume targets within the source to have a chance to register some click-throughs.

As for rules 3 and 4, since there is so much volume available in the GEOs I'm targeting - I'm using an aggressive strategy of pausing sources when they reach 55-70% spend of the conversion value. Those recently paused sources/targets marked with a "?" marker, I will analyse manually to see if they are worthy of resuming (higher than 3-4% CTR, 0% suspicious visits, more expensive CPC, etc.

Rule #5 is just for controlling the higher-spending targets to ensure they don't get out of control with a high-CPC winning all the traffic.

Let's see how these rules work when applied to Desktop campaigns as I don't have much experience targeting this platform, as I mentioned my main focus was previously on CC submit sweeps on mobile.

Results
​

Campaign 1 (T1 GEO):

• Day 1 - 4th May:
  • 
    
    
  • Launched the campaign towards the end of my day, got a couple quick conversions and was able to identify 3 or 4 targets to blacklist right-away. I let it run with $200/daily budget set and woke up the next day (5th of May) to about breakeven. I also saw my optimizer was able to pause another few targets with 0% LP CTR.

 

[jonte]

Campaign 1 (T1 GEO):

• Day 2 - 5th May:
  • 
  • Playing around with the bid as I noticed I was averaging only 15% win-rate. Ended the day negative but overall about breakeven which is pretty good considering I only launched it a day ago.

 

[amazone]

Amazing budget. Nice follow along.

I have a question

1. IF {target} cost > $27 & conversions == 0 THEN pause {target} & mark "?" {target} (mark it so I can manually assess it and decide based on other KPIs whether to resume)
2. IF {source} cost > $50 & conversions == 0 THEN pause {source} & mark "?" {source} ""

in the target why you choose the number $27? and also for source why it's $50?

thank you. Wish you have this campaign huge ROI

 

[jonte]

Amazing budget. Nice follow along.

I have a questions



in the target why you choose the number $27? and also for source why it's $50?

thank you. Wish you have this campaign huge ROI

Cheers mate! I decided on these numbers based on my previous campaigns/offers performance. I noticed that out of the placements/site IDs that were profitable above $100+ spend were those that got their first conversion at ~$25 spend or less. Those publishers/site IDs that received their first conversions/sales at ad spend above $25-$30 were unprofitable at $100+ spend ~75% of the time. This same thinking was applied to the $50 {source} cutoff limit as well by the source/publisher of other campaigns. Simply put, it's mostly based upon my collected analytics from the statistics I have from running the same/similar offers.

 

[Nick]

This follow along sounds interesting. I rarely target desktop nowadays so I'm excited to see how this turns out.

 

[Akahma]

Interesting
I will be following this
Good luck

 

[Voluum]

Voluum + Zeropark in a follow along? I'm definitely following this.


Karolina

 

[Luke]

As for rules 3 and 4, since there is so much volume available in the GEOs I'm targeting - I'm using an aggressive strategy of pausing sources when they reach 55-70% spend of the conversion value. Those recently paused sources/targets marked with a "?" marker, I will analyse manually to see if they are worthy of resuming (higher than 3-4% CTR, 0% suspicious visits, more expensive CPC, etc.

Yes. Someone else that is more aggressive and uses a similar strategy. Love it. I made an optimizer for PropellerAds that does something very similar to what you've outlined Now, I just what's built into Voluum or Landingtrack if I use it instead.

Excited to see how this goes for you

 

[jonte]

Campaign 1 (T1 GEO):

• Day 3 - 6th May:
  • 
  • I narrowed it down to 1 creative that was outperforming the others (Creative 1) which has a $22.90 CPA, not bad at all. However I'll be monitoring for any performance decreases and won't hesitate to resume Creative 3 and Creative 4. I paused #4 before I had done a lot of blacklisting of bad targets/sources so it definitely has potential for lower CPA. I'll have a think about it.
    • 
  • Also I started bidding much higher on my top converting target. $72 spend and $534 revenue! 642% ROI - not too shabby!! Let's hope this target sticks around and is only converting for me so others don't start bidding higher too. Regardless, at this performance I could easily bid up to $0.65 CPC and still be in profit.
    • 
  • Happy with performance overall. Additionally I looked through all the sources/targets my optimization rules have blocked so far and from my manual analysis I decided only 1 target was worth resuming, the rest didn't show much promise. I prefer being aggressive, especially on sources like ZeroPark that have a huge amount of volume. Also having run probably hundreds of campaigns with ZP, I already have an idea which targets and sources to blacklist right away and the behaviour exhibited by sources that I will need to inevitably blacklist.
  • After my past experience with Desktop push campaigns being terrible, it seems if you pick the right offer, optimize your LPs for desktop devices. Interesting fact - I'm not using push collection scripts on any of my LPs for this campaign. Opt-in rates on desktop, at least in my experience, are upsettingly low - not worth the small drop in CTR that comes with having a push opt-in prompt on the landing pages. I need all the CTR I can get considering the strict regulations imposed on promoting this offer.
  • I'll check back in tomorrow, hopefully I keep seeing green and a ROI increase wouldn't go unmissed either! Push can be a strange beast, that's for sure - consistency is not a word I'd associate with push traffic anymore. However, so far so good on this campaign! Let's get this bread $$$$$$$

 

[servandosilva]

I think I know which campaign is this and I know it definitely works

Keep scaling it!
The rules you've shown you use to optimize are a great example of why using landing pages is very useful besides increasing CR.
Without them, you wouldn't be able to apply filters 1 and 2 and your budget spent to gather data would be higher per target.

 

[Arif]

Now this is one hell of a follow along, its rare to see this type of case study.

Also a great example of how amazing high paying offers are and why I personally prefer them.

Keep up the good work.

 

[jonte]

Yes. Someone else that is more aggressive and uses a similar strategy. Love it. I made an optimizer for PropellerAds that does something very similar to what you've outlined Now, I just what's built into Voluum or Landingtrack if I use it instead.

Excited to see how this goes for you

Aggressive squad! Yeah exactly, I have better results cutting aggressively on these huge sources - especially dealing with T1 traffic. I could blacklist at 3*payout but let's be honest, most of the time an offer is not converting - or especially not getting LP clicks - your budget is better spent elsewhere. Good sources tend to show themselves early-on as a general rule.

I think I know which campaign is this and I know it definitely works

Keep scaling it!
The rules you've shown you use to optimize are a great example of why using landing pages is very useful besides increasing CR.
Without them, you wouldn't be able to apply filters 1 and 2 and your budget spent to gather data would be higher per target.

Hahaha sshhhhhh!!!!
I've got it running on at least 10 other sources too. I got a paybump because my AOV was higher than the other affiliates which has definitely helped me out. Now let me tell ya, if I could run this offer with aggressive creatives and LPs - holyyyyyy $$$$$$$$$.

And yeah, LPs are the way to go and the ability to identify crappy sources with these rules is a lifesaver. You're 100% right, if I was direct-linking I'd be wasting a lot of money.

Now this is one hell of a follow along, its rare to see this type of case study.

Also a great example of how amazing high paying offers are and why I personally prefer them.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you kindly! But what do you mean "this type of case study"? Desktop push case-study?

And you're spot-on there. I wish I promoted cc-submit sweeps when push first came out. I was doing pops SOI/DOI offers at the time and naturally tested push with the same offers. I saw good results, as did most people when push was fresh, but nothing compared to what higher-payouts would've given me.

Cheers guys!

 

[jonte]

I'll be posting my day 4 and 5 update tomorrow (Aussie time). Apologies, I've been extremely busy with a consulting project these last couple of days. Stay tuned..

 

[Shifu]

This is a really great FA. The way you have set filters.. importance of LP CTR, importance of NOT keeping push sub script.. wow.. eye opener in many ways

 

[Akif]

This is a really great FA. The way you have set filters.. importance of LP CTR, importance of NOT keeping push sub script.. wow.. eye opener in many ways

Definitely. My vote is for your follow along @jonte

How many creatives and LPs are you using? You have rules based on creative performance?

 

[Likeaboss]

Good sources tend to show themselves early-on as a general rule.

agree I just wanted to double mention that again...

 

[jonte]

Ok here we go! I've been focusing on a lot of campaigns on a lot of traffic sources recently. Obviously I direct most of my attention towards my highest volume/highest profit campaigns, which this campaign currently isn't. However, it definitely has potential and I have plans to launch similar campaigns on ZeroPark so stay tuned.

Campaign 1 (T1 GEO):

• Day 4 - 7th May:
  • 
  • Not much to say here, didn't make any real changes but it seems the competition against my bids is rising. Increased the bids on profitable Targets.
• Day 5 - 8th May:
  • 
  • Much the same story as above. The campaign is feeling neglected despite my custom auto-optimisation rules constantly monitoring the Targets/Sources. Need to create some bid-increase rules for profitable Targets with decreasing winrate%.
• Day 6 - 9th May:
  • 
  • I've identified the current best Target and have been incrementally increasing the bid each day to see how it affects my win-rate % on the Target. It's currently sitting at $207 cost and $762.90 revenue. Noice!
  • 
• Day 7 - 10th May:
  • 
  • So today I created a new LP using a fresh angle I haven't seen before. I try to think of new angles and create new LPs/creatives at least weekly - especially if campaign performance isn't great. I added the lander about halfway through the day today and it finished the day at 223.72% ROI. Not bad! We might have a new winner, let's see how it goes tomorrow.
  • 
    
    
  • Additionally the top Target I mentioned in the Day 6 report above is still going strong. Considering creating a Target campaign specifically for that 1 target. Perhaps I'll add the top 2-4 targets into the new Target campaign and blacklist them in this main campaign. Pictured below - Top 3 Targets overall (Check out #2 - $1.30 spend, $149.94 revenue!):
  • 
  • Also as a note, the first Target in the screenshot above is the one I posted yesterday. It's sitting at 280% ROI overall now.
  • I admit my attention has been directed to my more profitable campaigns on other sources but I'm determined to get this campaign to its full potential. Let's do it!

 

[Luke]

• 
• Also as a note, the first Target in the screenshot above is the one I posted yesterday. It's sitting at 280% ROI overall now.
• I admit my attention has been directed to my more profitable campaigns on other sources but I'm determined to get this campaign to its full potential. Let's do it!

BOOM! Looks amazing. Nice work

 

[PureLander]

Ok here we go! I've been focusing on a lot of campaigns on a lot of traffic sources recently. Obviously I direct most of my attention towards my highest volume/highest profit campaigns, which this campaign currently isn't. However, it definitely has potential and I have plans to launch similar campaigns on ZeroPark so stay tuned.

Campaign 1 (T1 GEO):

• Day 4 - 7th May:
  • View attachment 10951
  • Not much to say here, didn't make any real changes but it seems the competition against my bids is rising. Increased the bids on profitable Targets.
• Day 5 - 8th May:
  • View attachment 10952
  • Much the same story as above. The campaign is feeling neglected despite my custom auto-optimisation rules constantly monitoring the Targets/Sources. Need to create some bid-increase rules for profitable Targets with decreasing winrate%.
• Day 6 - 9th May:
  • View attachment 10953
  • I've identified the current best Target and have been incrementally increasing the bid each day to see how it affects my win-rate % on the Target. It's currently sitting at $207 cost and $762.90 revenue. Noice!
  • View attachment 10956
• Day 7 - 10th May:
  • View attachment 10954
  • So today I created a new LP using a fresh angle I haven't seen before. I try to think of new angles and create new LPs/creatives at least weekly - especially if campaign performance isn't great. I added the lander about halfway through the day today and it finished the day at 223.72% ROI. Not bad! We might have a new winner, let's see how it goes tomorrow.
  • View attachment 10955
    
  • Additionally the top Target I mentioned in the Day 6 report above is still going strong. Considering creating a Target campaign specifically for that 1 target. Perhaps I'll add the top 2-4 targets into the new Target campaign and blacklist them in this main campaign. Pictured below - Top 3 Targets overall (Check out #2 - $1.30 spend, $149.94 revenue!):
  • View attachment 10957
  • Also as a note, the first Target in the screenshot above is the one I posted yesterday. It's sitting at 280% ROI overall now.
  • I admit my attention has been directed to my more profitable campaigns on other sources but I'm determined to get this campaign to its full potential. Let's do it!

what ana amazing FA.
Your new lp seems amazing.
keep scaling bro

 

[jonte]

Hey guys! Time for another update. Since last time I have actually launched another campaign. It's in a T3 GEO this time with a slightly lower payout and in a different vertical. ZP traffic wasn't performing too great with my original campaign so I have started shifting my focus over to this new offer with more potential. However, the offer from my original campaign is still performing great on most of my other traffic sources - bringing in consistent revenue with good ROI. Since this is a ZeroPark follow-along though, I will only talk about my ZeroPark campaigns. Let's get into it!!

Campaign 1 (T1 GEO):
Day 8 - 11th May

• 

Day 9 - 12th May

• 

Day 10 - 13th May

• 

Decided to ax the campaign altogether after Day 10. Whilst I know I could've probably made it profitable by putting in more work - considering I have the same campaign on other traffic sources with much higher volume and ROI - it's a much better use of my time to focus on those sources instead of ZP for this particular campaign.

As far as my plan for this ZeroPark follow-along, I am going to be diverting my focus towards my new ZP campaign outlined below!

Campaign 2 (T3 GEO):
Day 1 - 13th May

• 
• Launched this new campaign right before the end of the day. I got a conversion straight away after less than $1 ad-spend! I'll take it as a very good sign that this campaign could be huge $$$$. I know from past-experience that there is a lot more volume available in this GEO and the CPV is generally quite low.

Day 2 - 14th May

• 
• Good start for the campaign's first full day. I left it on unlimited budget overnight after I saw that first conversion come in with less than $1 ad-spend as mentioned above. Luckily nothing went wrong. Good stuff!

Day 3 - 15th May

• 
• I realised I had forgotten to link my auto-optimization scripts to this new campaign so today I added some relevant rules and made them live. I also blacklisted some targets and sources as well as increased the bid on a couple of targets with $5 or less spend that had generated $50+ in revenue already!

Day 4 - 16th May

• 
• Getting up there, just letting my optimization script do its thing. Using 2 of my own custom LPs for this which have proven performance from a similar campaign I ran in the same GEO a couple of months ago. Before launching this campaign I made a few required edits on the LPs to match the new offer - they're both about even performance-wise at the moment.
• Definitely seeing more promise in this campaign than the last one already.

Day 5 - 17th May

• 
• Going quite well if I do say so myself! Still split-testing 2 LPs, performance is pretty even so I'm not able to pick a winner just yet!
• For this campaign I'm using the Voluum flow optimizer function with the setting on "Auto" mode. It's super helpful especially when I'm trying to manage close to 100 different flows. Before I switched trackers, I was spending so long adjusting the weights of my offers and landing pages by tiny increments all the time. It's also good how it will recognise if I add a new LP to the flow and direct the majority of the traffic towards the new LP to give it a chance to catch-up to the others statistics-wise.
• 

Campaign 2 - Current Overall Stats:

• Cost: $1312.13
• Revenue: $1977.73
• Profit: $665.60
• ROI: 50.73%

Cheers guys! Stay tuned for the next update.