Facebook AffiliatePPC The Lazy Way

2008 is out, 2009 is in! Here’s to hoping that this year treats us all as well as the last. After all, we (well, most of us) haven’t been killed by global warming yet - thats a definate win!

As it’s New Years Day I think that we should all make resolutions for this year. Your resolution can be whatever you want it to be - make xxxx amount of money a day, buy a house, get the new porche convertable (Damn you Cam!), quit your job and venture into AM full time.

My personal goal for this year is to reach $5k profit per day consistantly by the end of this year and buy myself a BMW M5 (I love that car). Obviously my two resolutions go hand in hand - if I’m making near $2mill a year - my wife won’t have any reason to rip my head off for buy a car worth that much

Some people might think I’m living in la la land with the cooky toones from smokingcrackville with how high I set the bar and I agree - the bar is infact set high, but not so high that it is unreachable/impossible. I entered 2008 unemployed and on EI (Employment Insurance) for 8 months prior then with a friends help and some give’r I turned around and made enough to make one of the higher tax brackets in Canada. 

So whats your resolution? Lets here it!

What up, my name is Alexander Tsatkin and this is a guest post on my call with a Facebook Account Manager.

Most Facebook publishers know how frustrating it is to have no support, getting ads denied with vague reasons, and overall lack of answers. After getting some BS internal error for over 72 hours I decided to contact my Affiliate Account Manager who was able to get me in touch with a Facebook rep.

I got a call at about 7:00 PM his time, which suprised me. I asked as many hard questions as I could, and here are the answers I got. Some of these will be obvious to people who have doing Facebook for a while, and for others it will helpfully save you the headaches the rest of us experienced.

Is Acai/Wu Yi Dead?

Yes, too many Facebook users were complaining about these “negative” charge diet offers, so Acai and Wu Yi ARE dead. The ads you keep seeing are legacy ads, so if you don’t have an acai ad, chances are you won’t get one through.

Are Ringtones Dead?

Yes… they have been dead for a while.

Are Quizes Dead?

Yes, Facebooks goal is to only allow quizes that do not require any personal information at the end… no credit, zip, or email.

How to get dating ads through?

Do not use the words single, reference the users age, reference to users location, or use provocative language. The ad is more important than the landing page in terms of skin being shown, but neither can be to too reveling. Mention the offer in the ad text itself. Do not make the condition of “being single” as being negative.

How to get health related ads through?

Do not use quantitative numbers that cannot be verified (loose 10 Lbs in 10 Days). Do not put down persons with a condition.

Here are some other nice tid bits I learned…

Their system does assumes your ad has a CTR of .07% when launching, so getting a higher CTR should be your goal. Your bidding does not effect what position you are in when three ads are being shown at the same time. They do not take into account time of day when launching, so the best way to split test is launch the same set of ads at different times of the day.

Here is the best thing I learned “intern.facebook.com” DOES NOT stand for “intern”… but instead stands for “internal”. So here we were bashing Facebook interns, when apparently its a separate team all together. No such thing as an intern nazi party?

If you are running Facebook and need someone to talk to to understand EXACTLY why your ads are not getting through then shoot me a note on my blog and I will hook you up.

Shameless Plug : Google Sucks

In my last post I said I would talk about the changes Facebook has made to it’s Social Ads platform, but I’ll forego that subject and in place give you all a technique that I’ve been using over the past week to improve my CTR on MySpace Ads.

Just over a week ago, I decided to give Myspace Ads another go. I had used Myspace Ads when it first opened and spent about $4,000 to make $200 in profit - not exactly what I would call worth it. That coupled with all the bugs and  ad approval time problems they were having - it just wasn’t for me at that time.

Well this time around I decided I would take things a little more seriously and work at it TILL it works. I started off by porting over some campaigns from Facebook that I had been running with an EPC of over $1.00 and was instantly satisfied with the results. On the first day I had spent $2000 and got $3000 back ($1k profit). Unfortunately, that was it. The next day my ads apparently just didn’t have a high enough CTR to show at all and therefore the money train was over (or was it!).

It was obvious to me that it was my targeting that was the issue. Now what is the easiest way to tell what demographic is clicking on ads for that products. Here’s a hint: FACEBOOK TELLS YOU.

As many of you are aware, a month or two back Facebook created demographic ad reports so you could improve your CTR on their Social Ads platform. If you are not aware in you ad manager select “Reports” and then select “Demographic Responders” on the drop down menu of Report Type. It will break down what percentage of people are viewing your ad and what percentage of people are clicking your ad based on age, location and gender.

So, if you are struggling with getting a high enough CTR on Myspace Ads, the solution is easy - run the campaign on Facebook and see EXACTLY who is interested in the offer you are promoting. Using this method I’ve taken a campaign on Myspace that had a 0.03% CTR all the way over 0.8% CTR - trust me, it pays to put in the extra time.

I should also mention that this doesn’t work always work because:

1) Some campaigns you won’t be able to get approved on Facebook to see the click demographic

2) Users are often in a different mindset on Myspace as compared to that of Facebook. Myspace and Facebook share the same userbase, however their purpose (dispite being a Social gathering place) is completely different.

3) Sometimes life sucks.

While on the topic of achieving a higher CTR, I was talking with one of my readers who also has a blog himself and he made a killer post on how important it is to start your ads off with a bang to achieve a lower CPC. Click here to read Alex’s post on PPC Is Like The GRE - it’s quite worth it.

Most affiliates that use Facebook Social Ads as their primary traffic source will slap up a landing page and get ads approved and hope for the best. Seems pretty basic and it can have quite a decent return, however there is more money to be made with a little more time and effort.

Creating review sites of several affiliate offers in the same niche can let the user decide which offer they want to sign up for. Not only do you have a higher chance of getting a sign up, but you may even have the occasional multiple sign up.

I’ll provide one of my Facebook review sites as an example: Paid Surveys

Things To Do When Creating A Review Site:

1. Pick out offers based on geographical location and niche.
2. Use a CMS (I use Wordpress) to speed things up and either make or download a visually pleasing template.
3. Research each and every offer, providing basic content on the company itself but more importantly focusing on what a user will receive for signing up.
4. Remember, you’re essentially combining multiple landing pages into one while not making it look spamy.
5. Entice users to sign up for more than one offer.
6. Get your Facebook Social Ad’s approved prior to adding your affiliate links. It will improve your success of getting an ad approved.
7. Again, if you have any questions, hit my up on AIM as removed. Please leave a comment on the blog and I’ll answer you.

Sorry for not writing for a while but I’ve been at my cottage quite a bit and my internet has been going up and down more than a vegas stripper.

Anyways, enough with the excuses and on with the post.
As many of you are probably aware, in two weeks collage students (and therefore the Facebook key demographic) will be going back to school. This means more traffic and different offers to promote.

How does this effect you?

Prior to school letting out for the summer, my average ROI was about 80% - Since then it’s been floating around 40%. I attribute this to my heavy promotion of “get paid to” offers and the fact that most school students have summer jobs and therefore MONEY during the summer.

With kids going back to school and abandoning their summer jobs, it opens up the “Get paid to” market again as most collage kids are so piss pour at managing their money that they will be broke in a matter of weeks. It’s almost time to capitalize on it.

My Suggestions:

1. Start Looking For Good “Get Paid To” offers.
2. Start creating landing pages for all the offers. Make sure you read my previous posts on landing pages and take your time creating them. You’ve still got about two weeks till school is back in.
3. Once you get your landing pages complete, get ads submitted. Pause all your newly created social ad’s prior to them receiving traffic. Your CTR and therefore what you pay for clicks will be better when the kids are back in school. There is no sense dive bombing your CTR at the beginning, otherwise it’s an uphill battle that gets rather pricey.
4. Research when kids will be back at collages in the countries/states you will be promoting the offers. Different U.S States let school in at different times and same goes from country to country. The easiest way to research it is by looking at the big schools in the countries/states and looking for an online calender. Save the information to a *.txt document and you’re good to go.
5. Add me on AIM if you have any questions. My AIM is removed. Please leave a comment on the blog and I will answer your questions.

Facebook finally launched their new layout yesterday which moved the Facebook Social Ads display over to the right side of the screen. Two ad’s will now be shown at a time, so it is important more now than ever for you to have the BEST ad text and image.

Along with Facebook’s new look, they also put out new advertising guidelines which I have copy and pasted below for quick reference. Any of you that read through the old guidelines will automatically pickup on what has changed and what has stayed the same.

It would seem that Facebook is turning the way of idiocy (even more so) and want to have their cake and eat it to. They want large revenue’s however they want to keep their user base protected. I understand their reasoning for most of these rules, however it seems quite ludicrus to baby their userbase via sensorship. If we can make money off of promoting things to people, they obviously WANT it.

What’s New For Facebook Social Ad’s:

1) Make Money or Get Rich Quick offers are OUT. This content is strickly banned on Social Ads.

2) Ad’s may not discriminate or advocate against any person/people.

3) You may not incent someone into click on an ad or for filling out a form. Aka no “Sign up and you could win $1000″

4) Ad’s may not make assumptions about a persons health condition and cannot portray health conditions in a negative way.

5) Ads containing personal information such as gender or age need to be directly relevant to that group of people.

New Facebook Social Ad Guidelines:

1. Accounts
   • Advertisers are not permitted to manage multiple accounts.
   • Advertisers must not programmatically automate the creation of accounts or ads.
2. Landing pages / Destination URLs
   • Ads that contain a URL or domain in the body must link to that same URL or domain.
   • All users must be sent to the same landing page when the ad is clicked.
   • Landing pages that generate a pop-up (including “pop-overs” and “pop-unders”) when a user enters or leaves the page are not allowed.
   • It cannot use “fake” close behavior (ie. when a user clicks the ‘close’ icon on the page, the page should close down and no other behavior should result).
   • It cannot utilize “mouse trapping” whereby the advertiser does not allow users to use their browser “back button” and traps them on their site and/or present additional/unexpected behavior (for example: another ad or page).
   • No ad may require viewers clicking on the ad to submit personal information (cell phone numbers, physical addresses, or email addresses) on the landing page in order to obtain the information promoted in the ad.
   • A secure server connection (https) must be used when collecting personal information from users.
   • Landing pages cannot contain Facebook trademarks or logos, or otherwise reference Facebook in the content of the landing page or its URL.
3. Accurate ad text
   • Advertising copy must directly relate to the content on the landing page.
   • The ad title and body must clearly state and represent the company, product, or brand that is being advertised.
4. Grammar, spelling, and capitalization
   • Ad text must be in logical sentence form and contain grammatically correct spacing.
   • Ads must use correct spelling.
   • Ads may not include unnecessary capitalization (such as ‘FREE’). Acronyms may be capitalized.
   • Ads may not include excessive repetition.
5. Punctuation and symbols
   • The use of all symbols, numbers, or letters must adhere to the true meaning of the symbol.
   • Repeated and unnecessary punctuation or symbols is not permitted.
   • Symbols may not be used to substitute for letters (e.g., “$ave” instead of “save”).
6. Language and image content
   • Provocative images will not be accepted.
   • Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote adult content, including nudity, sexual terms and/or images of people in positions or activities that are excessively suggestive or sexual.
   • Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote offensive, profane, vulgar, obscene, or inappropriate language.
   • Ads may not contain, facilitate or promote defamatory, libelous, slanderous and/or unlawful content.
7. Content restrictions
   • Liquor, beer, or wine
   • Tobacco products
   • Ammunition or firearms
   • Gambling, including without limitation any online casino, sports books, bingo, or poker
   • Ringtones
   • Software downloads, freeware, or shareware
   • Scams, illegal activity and/or illegal contests, pyramid schemes, or chain letters
   • Uncertified pharmaceutical products
   • Adult friend finders or dating sites with a sexual emphasis
   • Web cams or surveillance equipment
   • Web-based non-accredited colleges that offer degrees
   • Inflammatory religious content
   • Politically religious agendas and/or any known associations with hate, criminal and/or terrorist activities
   • Political content that exploits political agendas or uses “hot button” political issues for commercial use regardless of whether the advertiser has a political agenda
   • Hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group, and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation or language of such individual or group

We do not accept advertising referencing, facilitating or promoting the following:

8. Facebook references
   • Ads are not permitted to mention or refer to Facebook, its site or its brand in any manner, including in the title, body, image, or destination URLs.
   • Ads must not use Facebook logos, trademarks, or site terminology (including Facebook, The Facebook, FacebookHigh, FBook, FB, Poke, The Wall, and other company graphics, logos, designs, or icons).
   • Facebook site features may not be emulated.
9. No incentives
   • No ad may offer incentives to viewers for clicking on the ad, for submitting personal information (cell phone numbers, social security numbers, physical addresses, or email addresses), or for performing any other tasks.
10. Prices, discounts, and free offers
    • No ad may be deceptive or fraudulent about any offer it makes.
    • If an ad includes a price, discount, or ‘free’ offer, the destination URL for the ad must link to a page that clearly and accurately offers the exact deal the ad has displayed.
    • If an ad includes a price, discount, or ‘free’ offer, the advertisement must clearly state what action or set of actions is required to qualify for the offer.
11. Copyrights and trademarks
    • In both ad text and image, you must not include any content that may be deemed as infringing upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary right, or that is deceptive or fraudulent.
    • Advertiser must have intellectual property rights to the creative and be permitted to display such creative as advertising on the Facebook Site.
12. Spam
    • No ad may contain, facilitate or promote ’spam’ or other advertising or marketing content that violates applicable laws, regulations or industry standards.
13. Downloads
    • No ad is permitted to contain or link, whether directly or indirectly, to a site that contains software downloads, freeware, or shareware.
    • No ad is permitted to facilitate or promote (or contain a link to a site that facilitates or promotes):
      (1)
      Collection of demographic and usage information from a user’s computer without the user’s express consent,
      (2)
      Collection or request of usernames or passwords from any user,
      (3)
      Proxying user names or passwords for the purpose of automating logins to the Facebook site,
      (4)
      Containing or distributing any software that (i) “sneaks” onto a user’s system and performs activities hidden to the user, (ii) may alter, harm, disable or replace any hardware or software installed on user’s computer without express permission from the user, (iii) is bundled as a hidden component of other software whether free or for fee, (iv) automatically downloads without Facebook’s express prior approval, (v) presents any download dialog boxes without a user’s express action, or (vi) may violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, patent or any other proprietary right