AFFILIATE NETWORKS AND OFFERS: HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH NATIVE ADS (FEATURING THREE CASE STUDIES)

Note from Ngo: “This is a guest post by MGID with a bunch of editing by me. I normally don’t feature guest posts on this blog, but the information they provided is gold. “

If you’ve ever advertised with Facebook / Google, then you’ve probably had your account banned at some point (or you’re fearing it).

If you’re doing anything remotely shady, then you have to be ahead of their technology to sneak under their radar with your cloakers.

It’s like playing cat and mouse, and it’s never enjoyable worrying about you accounts AND marketing at the same time.

If you’re doing whitehat, you have to constantly adapt to their constantly changing policies.

And even if you do everything right, you STILL might get your account banned because:

• Ads and landing pages are reviewed manually by people. One person may say it’s ok, while another will ban you.
• They use A.I. and algorithms to detect suspicious activity. Log in from a new location? Too bad. Ban!

I mean, these are the two biggest companies in the world.

They can afford to ban pretty much anyone and yet still have millions of advertisers on their platform.

Your options?

You can either adapt to their strict policies or switch to a less-strict traffic source like Native Ads.

Most Native Ad networks WORK TOGETHER with affiliates to make things work.

But we at MGID do it even better than the other networks.

We adopt a more customer-focused approach.

In this article, you will:

• Learn insider tips about how to use MGID’s features to maximize your campaign profits.
• Gain valuable insights into MGID’s current profitable verticals within specific geos.

We’re also going to include case studies to help you better understand these concepts.

Tip #1: Work Closely with a Dedicated MGID Rep

Is it a MUST to have a rep in your traffic source?

No, but having one that works WITH you on your campaign definitely speeds things up.

Here’s why: An experienced MGID dedicated rep can help you with almost all your campaign settings.

They can:

• Help you place the best bids to get the most amount of quality traffic
• Help you optimize campaigns on the fly
• Help you adjust the traffic flow to focus on the most effective publishers
• Help you cut out non-performing publishers
• Help with your ad creation. They even have designers that can create/upgrade your ad units for better CTRs. Higher CTR = Lower CPC = Higher ROI.

Remember, it’s in our best interest to help you.

• A rep helps you get better ROI, which means YOU are happy.
• You become more profitable, and you spend more with MGID, which means WE are happy.

Unless you’re a reputable company with high ad spend on Google / Facebook, the chances of you working with a dedicated account manager are low, or almost impossible.

In MGID, you only need $500 in your ad account to get the full-serve campaign management option.

This guarantees you get a dedicated account manager to work with you.

Note: In MGID, there are two types of campaign management:

1. Self Service: You manage the campaigns by yourself.
2. Full-Serve: Have a personal experienced account manager work with you.

If you’re on the self-service option, email MGID support and get them to switch you to full-serve for all of the above benefits.

Once the campaign’s profitable, it’s like you have a media buyer mercenary helping you out.

Tip #2: Speed up Your A/B Testing with Symlink Integration

Symlink Integration allows you to set up tracking in one click.

This makes split testing ad units and landing pages fast and easy.

MGID is well aware of the needs of performance marketers and ensures that major trackers such as Kochava, Cake, Voluum, Hasoffers, Adsbridge are all seamlessly integrated.

Contact your rep for more details.

Tip #3: Always Make Use of Extensive Targeting Options

Let’s face it.

Google / Facebook are the kings when it comes to precise targeting.

Native ad networks can’t compete with these giant social networks.

The good news?

Not all native networks are created equal.

Look for the ones that can provide more extensive targeting in the industry.

MGID allows you to target precisely by:

• OS (Operating Systems)
• Browsers
• Browser Versions
• Languages (Both Search & Browser Language)

Here’s why this is important.

Imagine you’re promoting a Swiss offer which only allows takes in iOS traffic.

If you can’t target by OS, you’ll be wasting money on Android traffic.

That’s a pretty obvious example, so let’s go one step higher.

Did you know Switzerland has four national languages?

Here’s the breakdown from Wikipedia:

• German (63%)
• French (22.7%)
• Italian (8.4%)
• Romansh (0.6%)
• Others

Imagine what happens if the Swiss offer page is ONLY in Italian.

If you can’t target by Browser Languages, you’ll waste money buying German traffic.

You get the point.

Tip #4: Start Off with HIGH Bids, Then Optimize Downwards

To acquire high-quality inventory, you should always be one step ahead of your competitors.

There’s no sense starting a campaign with low bids since you’ll end up buying only remnant traffic, and not be able to truly test quality placements.

Note from Ngo:
I always advocate starting off with high bids for most traffic sources. If you bid low then you’re only going to get the doo-doo traffic that no one else wants.

Bidding high at first gives you access to the premium inventory that converts.

Setting optimal bids (or even a bit higher) at the beginning will allow you to get good volumes of traffic right away.

Thus, you’re able to gain high CTRs and slightly decrease the bids/set coefficients on the go based on the overall performance of specific placements.

It’s the most efficient way to squeeze more ROI on profitable placements while paying an optimal price to have a fair profitability on lower performing once.

Combine this with Selective Bidding (next tip), and you’ll be able to maximize ROI from every cent invested.

Tip #5: Use “Selective Bidding” to Maximize Profits

If you have a campaign that’s doing well at $1.50 CPC and want to get more traffic, you would increase that bid from $1.50 to $1.80, or so.

That makes sense.

However, most Native Ad networks only allow you to change bids on a campaign level.

That would mean you’re bidding $1.80 on unprofitable placements as well.

Ideally, you only want to increase bids on profitable placements.

MGID allows you to bid on a placement-level with their “Selective Bidding” feature.

You’re able to better control traffic volume from better performing websites without affecting the default bids on other placements.

This highly customizable traffic source management allows affiliates to intelligently manage their diversification and distribution of traffic between publishers within the campaign.

You can preserve reach and customize bidding strategy to optimize cost/profits.

Here’s a scenario to better illustrate:

At $1.50 CPC:

• Placement “ABC”: gets you 100% ROI
• Placement “DEF”: gets you between -20% to 30% ROI
• Placement “XYZ”: gets you -100% ROI (And already spent 3x Offer Payout)

You would want to:

• Increase bids for placement “ABC” from $1.50 to maybe $1.80
• Decrease OR maintain your “default” bid for placement “DEF” to monitor the situation
• Kill placement “XYZ”.

In MGID’s context, you wouldn’t specifically increase the bid amount.

You would play around with the bid multiplier in the “Selective Bidding” feature.

• Increase bid multiplier for placement “ABC” from the default 1.0 to 1.5
• Decrease bid multiplier for placement “DEF” from the default 1.0 to 0.7

That’s how you tell MGID that you want:

• MORE traffic volume from BETTER converting placements
• LESS traffic volume from UNDERPERFORMING placements.

Better bid optimization = Better ROI.

Here’s a before/after case study on selective bidding:

If an affiliate understands this concept, he/she can completely dominate a campaign to maximize ROI.

Speak to one of MGID’s experienced account reps and they’ll be able to help you determine the best bids.

Tip #6: Ride the 2018 Wave: PUSH Notification Ad-Format

This is one of MGID’s newest ad-formats.

Push notifications are clickable messages that pop up within an app or website.

They provide convenience and value to customers.

Users can receive any real-time information via push notifications, from weather reports to special offers.

For affiliates, push notifications is a way to speak directly to these users.

Here are some main benefits of PUSH Notifications:

• They don’t get caught in spam filters or forgotten in an inbox. Click-through rates can be twice as high as email.
• They help generate a large volume of traffic at a reasonable price, allowing you to define and reach your target audience accurately.

Currently, push notifications are working well for our advertisers in the following verticals:

• Sweepstakes, Vouchers & Coupons
• Online dating
• Gambling & Entertainment
• Health & Beauty

Here are some case studies to help you understand.

Case Study #2: Binary Options in the Philippines

Background:

• Vertical: Binary Options
• Geo: Philippines
• Devices: Desktop & Mobile
• Goal: Lead Gen + CPL reduction.

With the help of MGID‘s optimization tools and with the expert assistance of the affiliate’s dedicated account manager, the campaign’s CPL was reduced by 75% (from target $10 per lead to $2.43 per lead).

Case Study #3: Loans in Sri Lanka

Background:

• Vertical: Loans
• Geo: Sri Lanka
• Devices: Desktop & Mobile
• Goal: Lead Gen + CPL reduction

With MGID’s Optimization Tools, MGID was able to significantly improve the campaign’s performance and lower the CPL to $1.89, when the client’s goal was $2.50.

Should you need help with any optimization, speak to one of our experienced MGID reps.

It’s in our best interest to help you reach your optimization goals.

Tip #7: Use “Traffic Insights” to Uncover Potential Goldmines

Stop guessing which GEO to launch on.

Instead, use MGID’s new Traffic Insights feature.

You’ll be able to discover three specific things:

• Best Performing Geos: These are geos that are doing very well. Outbid these competitors to get a slice of that pie!
• Low Competition Geos: You may uncover profitable geos that not many are running yet. There are many reasons for this.For example:
  • Some of these geos require translation. That’s extra work. Most affiliates are lazy – and that’s where you strike!
• Hot Opportunities: These are popular geos that had a recent drop in competition. You’ll be able to buy traffic cheaper than usual.

Each of these categories will let you know:

• What’s the average daily impression you’ll be getting?
• What’s the average CPC to shoot for?
• Which platform should you be targeting?
• Etc…

Instead of running your campaigns with random bids, this data helps you better estimate your test/optimization budget.

BONUS: Top Geos and Verticals In MGID

Here’s an exclusive insider section for Ngo readers. We’re going to let you in on our best-performing verticals and geos, as well as give you a quick case study.

Best Performing Verticals:

• Healthcare
• Biz Opps
• Dating
• Gambling
• Desktop Gaming

Best Performing Geos:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Vietnam
• India
• Indonesia
• Mexico
• Italy

I know what you’re thinking…

You want even more specific details, right? 

The Best Performing Verticals By Geo:

• [Tier 1] Investments and bitcoin trading, Consumer products, Health and beauty, Dating, e-commerce
• [Thailand] Weight loss, Binary, ED
• [Germany] Online games, Gambling, Dating
• [Spain] Dating, Nutra
• [Romania] Weight loss, Health and beauty
• [Indonesia] Forex, Anti-age creams
• [Vietnam] Weight loss, Money making, ED
• [India] Hair loss, Casino, Money making
• [GCC] Moneymaking, bitcoin trading

Here’s the average CPC you should be shooting for to outbid your competitors.

And…