Archive for April, 2012

Spy on Facebook Ads with SocialAdNinja

SocialAdNinja Review
The following is a paid review of SocialAdNinja. Although I am getting paid to write this review, this is my honest opinion of the service and I would not write the review if I did not think it would be helpful in some way to your affiliate marketing or attempts to make money online. Enjoy!

Facebook is growing at a rapid pace and with nearly a billion users and a $100 billion valuation it’s safe to say it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. It’s been a great traffic source for affiliates for years and although the price to advertise has gone up, there are still great opportunities and a lot of money to be made advertising using Facebook Ads. I’ve discussed promoting PeerFly offers on Facebook and even posted a case study, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions you probably have about advertising on Facebook. What offers work best? What ad copy works best? What banner images get the highest CTR? Well, all of those things can be answered using one service, SocialAdNinja.

What is SocialAdNinja?

SocialAdNinja is a service that allows you quickly and easily search through thousands of Facebook Ads on many different Facebook profiles. One of the main benefits to advertising on Facebook is the great targeting, which makes it so your ad is being viewed by people who are the most likely to click it and engage in whatever your call to action is. So, if you open your Facebook you are probably being bombarded by ads about marketing, advertising, and so on. If you’re setting up a dating campaign, you don’t have a lot of examples of what your competitors are doing in that space on Facebook unless your single and actually are getting dating ads displayed to you. SocialAdNinja can solve that problem. They have a huge database of over 100,000 ads being displayed on Facebook to about 50 different Facebook profiles from different countries, ages, genders, marital statuses, and interests.

Here are some of their great selling points:

  • Massive Ad Database
  • International Ads
  • Search by gender, age, martial status, and location
  • Search by keywords in ad creatives
  • Interest targeting
  • Smart internal connections between ads and profiles
  • Custom profile suggestions for new niches
  • Affordable price
  • Fast search interface
  • Constant support
  • Profitability factor
  • Tutorials and case studies to help you make money

SocialAdNinja Features

The interface once you are logged into SocialAdNinja is pretty easy to use. They have 4 main features:

  • Ad Search
  • Profile List
  • Target Profile Suggestions
  • Tutorials and Case Studies

Ad Search
The Ad Search page allows you to search through the 100,000+ ads SocialAdNinja has in it’s database. They have some great search options so you can find exactly what you are looking for.

Screen Shot 2012 04 25 at 11.48.27 AM 550x523 Spy on Facebook Ads with SocialAdNinja

With just a glance at that screenshot you can see the opportunities this tool provides. For example, if I wanted to setup a Facebook campaign for our Mature Dating 40+ offer on PeerFly I could simply type Mature in the search on ad title and body, select United States as the location, and it returns some great ads other affiliates are using to advertise offers similar to Mature Dating, if not the same one. Here are some examples of ads returned:

Screen Shot 2012 04 25 at 11.52.43 AM 550x132 Spy on Facebook Ads with SocialAdNinja

If you click on the ad title for any of the ads shown in the results you can see the profiles that are displaying that ad (probably a good demographic to start in your testing) and how long it’s been showing on the profiles for SocialAdNinja. I don’t suggest completely stealing campaigns, but this information could definitely be helpful in setting up your own.

Profile List
As I mentioned, there are about 50 different profiles that SocialAdNinja is monitoring. You can sort and look through those on the profile list page.

Screen Shot 2012 04 25 at 11.58.16 AM 550x499 Spy on Facebook Ads with SocialAdNinja

If you are looking for a specific demographic and they do not currently have a profile that covers it, they are open to suggested and willing to add new profiles for you (see below), which is great! The support provided by SocialAdNinja is one of their selling points and from my interaction with them I can see why. They are very responsive and helpful.

Target Profile Suggestions
This is the page where you can submit suggestions for target profiles. You can view profile requests by other SocialAdNinja users and create your own target profile suggestion.

Screen Shot 2012 04 25 at 12.00.41 PM 550x138 Spy on Facebook Ads with SocialAdNinja

Tutorials and Case Studies from SocialAdNinja
SocialAdNinja is a tool that was developed by Facebook marketers for Facebook marketers, so it only makes sense that they would provide tutorials and case studies on ways you can improve your Facebook marketing. As the site and community of marketers continues to grow so will the case studies and tutorials, but they have a few good articles setup on there now that may be helpful. Unfortunately, I can’t share their content so if you want to take a look you’ll have to pay for it :)

SocialAdNinja Coupon

One of my stipulations for doing this review for SocialAdNinja is that they give me a coupon code for my readers to use. In my opinion, the price of the service is a bit high. However, with my 15% off coupon it’s well worth a look :)

SocialAdNinja Coupon Code: LUKE15

By using my 15% discount code, LUKE35, you can get your monthly subscription for $124.95 ($22.05 off). They also offer a weekly subscription, but I don’t suggest it (view Membership options). If you’re a serious Facebook marketer the $124.95 to try it out for a month would be well worth your investment. I’ve found some very interesting information just based on a few searches that I think I could use to put together a pretty solid dating campaign.

I’ve embedded the video that can be found on the SocialAdNinja homepage below. It has a lot of great information and also walks through some of the features I mentioned above. Check it out and let me know what you think. Let’s get some Facebook campaigns up and make some money!

Affiliate Manager Responsibilites

Affiliate Manager Responsibilities

Every affiliate network you join is going to assign you to an Affiliate Manager. When you apply to PeerFly and your publisher application is approved you will be assigned to me. But, what exactly is the purpose of my job and what are my affiliate manager responsibilities?

I’ll give you one underdog then you gotta swing by yourself
When I’m Gone by Eminem

This is one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite songs and although the context is completely different, the idea is along the same lines as what I consider my responsibilities as an Affiliate Manager. I will help you out, but overall managing your campaign is your job. It’s not my job to hold your hand and build a successful campaign for you. Yes, I want your campaigns with us at PeerFly to be the best you’ve ever run, but it’s impossible for me to spoon feed you everything you need to know to setup a successful campaign. That’s why the affiliate marketing motto is test, test, and test some more :)

However, I do have some things that I absolutely am responsible to help you with. I’ve outlined them below.

Questions about PeerFly

Although our Publisher backend at PeerFly is pretty easy to use, I still get quite a few questions about how to use or navigate through different features. It’s my job to answer any question a publisher will ask about PeerFly. This is the main reason I started writing my PeerFly FAQ series on this blog.

Questions about Affiliate Marketing

Some of the most common questions I get are related to different affiliate marketing methods and traffic sources. Because of this, I have taken the time to create and test my own campaigns on pretty much all of the popular traffic sources. Although I am not the best at seeing a huge ROI on my campaigns, I do know how to setup a campaign on pretty much every ad network and know the ins and outs of most traffic methods.

Be Available

If one of my publishers is ready to setup a campaign and they have a question that needs answered before they can get it started I have to be available to answer that question. Because of this, I am required to be available throughout the day on several different mediums:

  • Instant Messenger – I am available on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Skype for the most part of the day.
  • Email – I check my e-mail very often (at least once an hour if I’m not already answering e-mails).
  • PeerFly Live Chat – I have to be available on our live chat that publishers can use directly on PeerFly to chat with me.

Help with Offers

If a PeerFly publisher has a question about an offer or traffic method I am the guy they contact. I am also responsible for helping them find or get creatives for our offers as well. I created an offer search to help out with this.

Pay Bumps and Payment Schedule Changes

If a publisher is running good traffic to an offer and you would like a pay bump I can provide it for them. Also, I can try to beat any other network’s payout on any offer we have on PeerFly.

If a publisher has run quality traffic and enough volume to move up in our payment schedules then I am the guy to contact to get moved up.

That pretty much explains what exactly my job as Affiliate Manager details. It’s more of a summary and I have to by pretty dynamic, but overall that gives you the idea. So, next time you want to complain to me that your PeerFly account was denied or you want me to setup your campaign for you, think again :)

Generating $1,000+ in WSO Sales

wso featured

In November of last year I started promoting a WSO my buddy Browie had created called Fanpage Commissions. Browie and I have been good friends for a couple years now and when he told me he had released a WSO (WarriorForum Special Offer) I immediately was interested. He has always been a good PeerFly publisher and having had the opportunity to meet up with him on a few occasions at different Affiliate Summits, I knew he knew his stuff so I purchased the WSO for $14 and went to work building up my own fan page to see if I could get his method of promotion to work in building up a solid fan base. It did.

Within the first week of promoting my fan page I had over 5,000 fans. Browie’s methods of promotion had proven to be successful so I signed up for the WarriorPlus program so I could promote his WSO and earn commission on my affiliate sales. I created two posts on this blog over the course of the next two months and sent out two email blasts to my mailing list showing the results of my ad campaigns on Facebook promoting my fan page. From those two posts and two email blasts, I generated 75 sales and $1,100 in revenue!

Posts about Fanpage Commissions

Browie and I had agreed to a 50% revshare, so that means I made $550 from those sales. The really cool part about the WarriorPlus program is that instead of getting one payment a month for half the sales or something like that, they just have half the WSO sale payments sent to the affiliate’s PayPal. So, if someone purchased the WSO and it was my turn to get credit for the sale the money was sent directly to my PayPal.

Screen Shot 2012 04 19 at 10.08.36 AM 550x72 Generating $1,000+ in WSO Sales

Browie has decided to take down his product and is no longer selling it because it would need updated for the new Facebook Timeline, but it was a great product and I saw great results from it. I spoke with a lot of the people who purchased the WSO from my articles and I know that many of them have successful fan pages up from the information they learned in the WSO. My fan page is still growing and I am still making money off my fans!

A few “take aways” I have gotten from this experience:

  1. Promoting a product or service that you have experience with is much easier than something you do not know anything about.
  2. Not all WSO products on the WarriorForum are garbage.
  3. Advertising on Facebook is cheap if you can setup an ad that gets a high CTR (0.1%+) with the right demographic targeting.
  4. Email marketing is really effective.
  5. You can make money with Amazon Associates, even though the commission percentages are low.

I really appreciate the opportunity to promote this product and I am very happy with not only the $550 I made from the sales I generated, but the money I’ve made from my fan page and how this WSO opened my eyes to the opportunities to funnel traffic on Facebook.

Want to be the first to know about the next great product I find? Subscribe to my newsletter, Affiliate Manager Exclusive :)

Short Form Registration vs. Email Submit Offers

short form vs email submit

If you have read any of my posts that mentioned a PeerFly offer, then you know I am a big advocate of email submit offers. Email submit offers have been our “bread and butter” at PeerFly since we started, but as we continue to grow we’ve noticed more and more of our publishers are running our short form registration offers rather than our email submits. There are many reasons for this and as I outline them I think you will see that, although email submits are great converters and we’ve seen a ton of very profitable email submit campaigns at PeerFly, there is definitely reason to split test those campaigns with our short form registration offers as well.

What is a Short Form Registration offer?

A short form offer is simply a lead offer that converts with a short form (not many fields required). A short form registration offer converts on the 2nd page submission. The first page will look a lot like an email submit. Usually with just a single form field required (email or zip code).

Screen Shot 2012 04 13 at 10.46.36 AM 550x403 Short Form Registration vs. Email Submit Offers

Once the user puts in their zip code or email (as shown above) they will be taken to a page asking for their shipping information. This is the case with nearly all short form registration offers. If the user enters their information on that page and submits it you are paid for the lead.

Screen Shot 2012 04 13 at 10.47.49 AM 550x616 Short Form Registration vs. Email Submit Offers

What are the benefits to running a Short Form Registration offer?

As you can see, the advertiser that owns the offer is getting quite a bit more information about the user that is generating the lead (who is interested in getting the product). With more information comes a more qualified lead and that means you are going to get paid more for that lead. Most of our short form registration offers pay $2+ and about $1 higher than the exact same email submit offer.

So, you’re sending the advertiser better leads and you’re getting paid more. Sounds pretty good right? You’re probably thinking, that’s great, but your conversion rate will decrease because more information is required of the user. Believe it or not, that may not be the case!

Let’s use our Apple iPhone 4 Verizon offer as an example. The email submit pays $1.30 and the registration version pays $2.00. If you have a 10% conversion rate with the email submit your EPC is $0.13. If you have a 7% conversion rate with the short form your EPC is $0.14. Depending on how well your ad copy is written and your traffic source, you could see a majority of your users completing that 2nd page on the email submit and unless you’re promoting the registration version of the offer you would never know.

Split test!

Everyone says test, test, and test some more and this is no different. If you’re running an email submit and it’s profiting or close to profiting you would be crazy not to split test a similar registration offer with that traffic. It does not need to be the exact same landing page. If you’re running an iPad email submit you will have no problem finding an iPad registration offer. This is the case for most niches. Also, if you were blacklisted on an email submit usually you can run a short form registration and won’t run into that problem.

We are working to get more short forms up on PeerFly so keep an eye on our new offers. These are great offers and for affiliates who love running email submits it’s a small change that can have large benefits. You’re going to get a higher payout and will be sending higher quality of traffic so if you are sending volume there will be more room for a pay bump. I’ve included a list of some of our top short form lead offers below. Take a look, let me know if you have any questions, and let’s make some money! :)

Top Short Form Lead Offers

Name Payout CR
2 Barnes and Noble Nook Color – Registration $2.00 23.53%
Macbook Pro (Premium) Short Form $2.75 18.18%
Apple iPod Nano (16 GB) with Multi-Touch $2.00 16.67%
HTC Flyer Tablet – Registration $2.25 15.38%
Keurig Brewing System – Registration $1.80 14.29%
Apple iPad 2 32GB and Apple Gift Card – Registration $2.25 12.50%
Clarins Restorative Gift Set – Registration $1.80 12.31%
Clearblue Easy Fertility Bundle – Short Form $1.80 12.24%
Nicorette Mini Lozenges Quit Plan – Registration $2.00 11.61%
Motorola Droid RAZR $2.00 10.53%
Apple Mac Mini 120GB $2.25 10.34%
Apple iPhone 4S Holiday – Registration $2.00 9.87%
Pink iPad – Registration $2.00 9.64%
Toshiba vs. Gateway vs. Compaq – Short Form $2.25 9.44%
Lockout is Over – NFL Jersey $2.00 9.40%
Apple iPhone 4 with Bumper Case $2.00 8.92%
Apple Macbook Air 13 $2.25 8.72%
Avon Anti-Aging Set – Registration $2.00 8.58%
Apple iPhone 4s Mobile $2.00 8.54%
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition with Nintendo 3DO – Registration $2.00 8.17%
$250 Gas Cards – Registration $1.80 7.97%
Samsung Galaxy Tablet – Registration $2.25 7.77%
Apple MacBook Air 11.6 $2.25 7.42%
iPhone4 (Premium) Short Form $2.75 7.27%
Apple iPad 2 with Smart Cover – Registration $2.00 6.75%
White iPhone & Macbook or Black iPhone & Macbook $2.25 6.65%
Apple iPad – 64 GB Wi-Fi, 3G, & iLuv Case $2.25 6.62%
NBA Store Gift Card and Jersey – Registration $1.80 6.60%
Apple iPod Touch 64 GB $2.25 6.25%
Star Wars: The Old Republic with $250 GameStop Gift Card – Registration $2.00 6.10%
Acer Iconia 6120 – Registration $2.25 6.10%
Will the economy recover? – Registration $1.80 5.99%
iPhone 4S – Registration [Exclusive] $2.00 5.68%
Playstation Move Bundle $2.00 5.44%
Apple iPhone 4 – Verizon Registration $2.00 5.26%
Halo 4 & $250 Gamestop Gift Card – Registration $2.00 5.06%
Motorola Droid X vs iPhone 4 $2.00 5.06%
It’s Linsanity – $250 Gift Card – Registration $2.00 5.04%
The New Apple iPad and iPhone 4s – REGISTRATION $2.25 4.92%
$250 in Sally Beauty Supply Gift Cards – 2nd Page $1.80 4.88%
Pajama Jeans – 2 Pairs – Registration $1.80 4.87%
Apple iPad 2 64GB – Registration $2.25 4.85%
Apple iPad 2 with $100 iTunes – Registration $2.00 4.51%
Apple iPhone 4S vs Motorola Droid – Registration $2.00 4.41%
NBA Lockout – NBA Jersey – Registration $2.00 4.02%
Kyocera Echo Smartphone – Registration $2.00 3.99%
Gamestop Gift Card with Console – Winter Theme $2.25 3.88%
Jersey + HDTV – Short Form $2.75 3.85%
Gift Card for Shop.NHL.com and NHL Jersey $2.00 3.81%
$150 in YoVille Game Cards $2.00 3.76%