Finding the right CPA offer that brings in good profits is like the holy grail for media buyers and affiliates. With so many offers out there across different verticals and networks, trying to find the winners can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack.
But by using a strategic approach and learning from key insights, it is possible to consistently find CPA offers that generate good profits.
In this article, we'll look at a case study shared by an affiliate in a popular affiliate marketing forum. The affiliate was able to earn over $2,100 in a single month (April 2024) by promoting mobile content CPA offers. We'll explore the exact steps they took, the challenges they faced, and the optimization techniques they used to achieve this result.
Whether you're an experienced affiliate or just starting out, this case study will provide valuable lessons and actionable tips to help you succeed in the competitive world of CPA marketing.
Campaign summary:
- Period: April 2024
- CPA Networks: Mobidea & GG (Golden Goose)
- Tracking Tool: Binom
- Traffic Source: PropellerAds
- GEOs: +8
- Extra monetization: ProPush.me
Choosing the offers
The first critical step in a successful CPA campaign is choosing the right offers to promote. Since the focus was on mobile content and cost-per-install (CPI) offers, the affiliate took a targeted approach to narrow down his options:
Geo-targeting: He focused on specific countries where he had found success before or had landing pages ready to use. This targeted approach let him prioritize offers with higher profit potential.
Talking to account managers: Recognizing the value of expert guidance, he reached out to account managers at various CPA networks. These experienced professionals provided invaluable insights into the top-performing offers in his chosen areas, saving him time and effort on research.
Monitoring top rankings and new offers: In addition to talking to account managers, the affiliate kept a close eye on the offers featured prominently in each network's top rankings. He also made sure to test new offers as soon as they became available, giving him a competitive edge before others caught on.
Rigorous testing: Once he had identified a pool of promising offers, the real work began. Each offer underwent thorough testing, with no second chances given to those that failed to deliver results despite ad spend. This ruthless approach ensured that only the most profitable offers made it to the next stage.
The initial testing phase
With a solid list of mobile content and CPI offers, the affiliate launched his initial testing phase. His process was straightforward yet effective:
- Popunder testing: He started by running Popunder ad campaigns for each offer. This allowed him to see the conversion rates and identify the offers with the most potential.
- Scaling winning offers: For the offers that had satisfactory conversion rates, he expanded his efforts. He launched additional campaigns using Push notifications and Direct traffic sources. Diversifying his traffic sources helped him maximize lead generation and profits.
- Bid optimization: To further optimize his campaigns, he experimented with different bid amounts for the same offer. This helped him find the sweet spot where he could generate the most leads without overspending.
After the initial 24-hour testing period, the affiliate had tested 17 offers, but only 3 showed promising returns on investment (ROI).
Undeterred, he spent the first week compiling a list of about 25 new offers to test. He also carefully analyzed his ongoing campaigns to identify the factors contributing to poor conversion rates.
Optimizing for success
With the data from his initial tests, the affiliate took several strategic steps to optimize his campaigns for maximum profitability:
- Asking for a higher conversion cap: He reached out to his affiliate manager and negotiated a higher conversions cap tailored to his needs. This allowed him to scale up his winning campaigns without hitting any limits.
- Offer customization: Through communication with the advertiser, he got the Wi-Fi offer modified to target LTE/3G traffic specifically. This customization helped him reach a more relevant audience and improve conversions.
After two weeks of implementing these changes, his optimization efforts started paying off. He then applied some rules to streamline his offer selection even further:
- Offers with a payout higher than $0.20 were cut if they spent more than 1x their payout without converting.
- Offers with a payout lower than $0.20 were cut if they spent more than 2x their payout without converting.
By eliminating the non-performing offers based on these criteria, he could allocate his budget more efficiently and focus on the successful ones.
Scaling
With a group of profitable offers identified, the affiliate worked to grow his campaigns and try different approaches:
- Multiple ad formats: For offers that were converting well, he launched new campaigns using different ad types. While his main Popunder campaigns for each offer targeted multiple languages or carriers, these new campaigns focused on a single carrier or language. This more targeted strategy allowed him to reach specific segments of his audience more effectively.
- Continuous campaign monitoring: He regularly reviewed his campaigns to find any areas that were spending money without generating conversions. He quickly removed these underperforming areas from the rotation to optimize his ad spend.
For campaigns that weren't converting, he set a $10 spending limit. Once a campaign hit this limit without any conversions, he paused it temporarily and re-evaluated it the next day. This approach balanced giving offers a fair chance and cutting losses when necessary.
Maximizing profit with additional monetization features
To squeeze every last bit of revenue from his campaigns, the affiliate implemented several additional monetization features:
- ProPush.me integration: By adding a special tag from ProPush.me on his landing pages, he encouraged users to subscribe to push notifications. This allowed him to retarget and engage with those subscribers, generating more revenue from his existing traffic.
- Back button script: He used a script that triggered when users clicked the back button in their browser, redirecting them to another offer. This smart monetization tactic, provided by ProPush.me, helped him capitalize on user intent and increase overall conversions.
- Popunder script: Whenever a user clicked a link on the landing page, a popunder was loaded, presenting a new offer in the second tab. This additional touch point increased the chances of engagement and conversions, further boosting his campaign's profitability.
Results and key takeaways
After implementing these optimization techniques and additional monetization features, our media buyer's campaigns began to generate profits. By the end of the month, he managed to make over $2,100 in profit.
Key takeaways:
Strategic offer selection: By focusing on specific countries, getting advice from account managers, monitoring top rankings, and thoroughly testing offers, he was able to quickly identify the most profitable offers to work with.
Continuous optimization: Regularly reviewing his campaigns, collaborating with affiliate managers, and customizing offers were all crucial steps in optimizing his campaigns to be as profitable as possible.
Diversification and scaling: Launching campaigns with different ad formats, targeting specific audience segments, and implementing smart monetization features allowed him to scale up his successful offers and diversify his revenue streams.
Even when facing challenges and offers that didn't perform well, he remained adaptable and persistent. He kept testing new offers and refining his approach until he found the winning formula.
