Yestrday was a useless day advertising on Facebook. The CPC got absurd, with some starting at $3.50 and up. I am wodering if the price has to do with my low CTR. A better ad would probably get a better CTR, and maybe Facebook would then quote me a lower CPC. I just don't know how that works. But my problem is that getting a new ad approved is very stressful and destroys my attitude, so I have to choose my battles carefully.
I also got the mods done to allow pass-trhu of source code from the calling URL to the AWeber database. This is good, because I can now track each ad without creating a new landing page each time. The downside is that between the high CPC, the low CTR, and the low number of ads being run, I had only 4 clicks yesterday and no one subscribed to the newsletter.
I also spent a bunch of time and built a second landing page for bizopp leads. http://www.PlayExpertPoker.info/biz.php Eventually it needs it's own domain. But I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, if someone fills out the form they have committed to the webinar. It is straightforward about what I want. The downside is that there is no compelling offer, which traditional thinking says is what you need to get clicks.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Facebook Ads continued
It is really surprising to me to see ad pries change radically. I started a new ad group this morning targting Jim Rohn fans. When I started running that ad, the suggested range was 1.40 to $2.xx, so I bid $1.40. The ad ran for a short time, and then stopped. Checked the bid range and it had climbed to $1.70 to $2.40ish and I was getting zero impressions. Now a couple of hours later it is at $1.97 to $3.60. The MLM group is at $2.73 to $4.53 per click. WOW !!! Something is fishy here.
3pm Jim Rohn group now at $2.44 - 4.88. I wonder if there is some way to get hourly profiles of ad costs ?
3pm Jim Rohn group now at $2.44 - 4.88. I wonder if there is some way to get hourly profiles of ad costs ?
Monday, November 15, 2010
Today's projects
I got an idea to donate a one month Poker-Tel membership to a couple of local charity/ fundraising events. As a byproduct of that, I need a membership-only PTN brochure. I posted an RFP page to let people quote on doing the graphics for me.
I did some analysis on the Facebook ads I have done so far.
I also got the idea to target subsets of the MLM group, and am running an ad targetted at people who like Isagenix or Monavie. I will look at others later. The suggested bid on these groups is about 1/3 of what the MLM CPC would need to be. I also looked at people who like Jim Rohn or Brian Tracy. A bit more than Isagenix/Monavie, but still WAY cheaper than targetting the MLM/Network marketing group.
Signed up as a Rakeback.com member/affiliate and added their link to my PEP Blog. An addiitonal revenue source from poker players.
I did some analysis on the Facebook ads I have done so far.
I also got the idea to target subsets of the MLM group, and am running an ad targetted at people who like Isagenix or Monavie. I will look at others later. The suggested bid on these groups is about 1/3 of what the MLM CPC would need to be. I also looked at people who like Jim Rohn or Brian Tracy. A bit more than Isagenix/Monavie, but still WAY cheaper than targetting the MLM/Network marketing group.
Signed up as a Rakeback.com member/affiliate and added their link to my PEP Blog. An addiitonal revenue source from poker players.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Facebook Ad Results #3
It is now 10pm. he CPC on the MLM people has been at 1.75, and I have managed to squeak out 13 clicks today on 77,000 impressions. But I only got one subscription out of 14, at an ad cost of $20.00. That tells me that the one subscription I got right after changing the landing page was probably a fluke. I also think I need to work on my landing page a lot more before I spend more money on traffic. I decided to drop back and regroup. When I went in to change the CPC bid to 0.05 (thus disabling the ad), I saw that the suggested range is now 2.73 to 4.62. Clearly weekdays is when to go after this group, and advertisers know it and bid up the price. I guess I should not call the landing page a complete failure yet, but need to do some cheaper testing. It may be that the weekend Facebookers are just genral tire kickers or who knows?
I may go after the generic poker community next, just to get some cheaper CPC and see if the landing page works at all. The suggested bid range is 0.76 to $1.16 so I am bidding 0.50 to start. I will see in the morning how that is working, and if my conversion rate on the landing page improves.
At 6am I bumped up the CPC on my poker community ads to .75 (bottom of the range). By 9:30 (now) I have gotten 44,639 exposures and 13 clicks at an avg cost of .68 and a CTR of 0.03%. Even better, I have 4 subscribers out of 13 clicks. So somehting is working now. I will have to determine if the lack of success with the MLM group was a weekend vs weekday thing.
But here is what else I know. Out of 4 subscribers, one did not confirm his subscription yet, and one has already cancelled it. I guess I need to work on that welcome letter a bit.
Final Numbers for the Poker group on Monday morning. I spent $12.44, got 67,482 impressions and got 18 clicks at 0.69 each CTR was about 0.027%. Out of those 18 clicks, I got six subscribers. But three did not yet confirm their subscriptions and one cancelled. The one that cancelled requested a subscription, confirmed it 8 minutes later, and the cancelled it 6 minutes after that when he got his first issue, with a comment "Why did you send me this ? " . WTF ??? I am wondering about this double opt-in approach.
I may go after the generic poker community next, just to get some cheaper CPC and see if the landing page works at all. The suggested bid range is 0.76 to $1.16 so I am bidding 0.50 to start. I will see in the morning how that is working, and if my conversion rate on the landing page improves.
At 6am I bumped up the CPC on my poker community ads to .75 (bottom of the range). By 9:30 (now) I have gotten 44,639 exposures and 13 clicks at an avg cost of .68 and a CTR of 0.03%. Even better, I have 4 subscribers out of 13 clicks. So somehting is working now. I will have to determine if the lack of success with the MLM group was a weekend vs weekday thing.
But here is what else I know. Out of 4 subscribers, one did not confirm his subscription yet, and one has already cancelled it. I guess I need to work on that welcome letter a bit.
Final Numbers for the Poker group on Monday morning. I spent $12.44, got 67,482 impressions and got 18 clicks at 0.69 each CTR was about 0.027%. Out of those 18 clicks, I got six subscribers. But three did not yet confirm their subscriptions and one cancelled. The one that cancelled requested a subscription, confirmed it 8 minutes later, and the cancelled it 6 minutes after that when he got his first issue, with a comment "Why did you send me this ? " . WTF ??? I am wondering about this double opt-in approach.
Facebook Ad Results #2
It is noon on Sunday. My ad has been running for 16 hours at $1.00 and I have only 2448 impressions. And ZERO clicks. I think today I am just going to spend the whole $20 budget one way or another. Bumping the CPC bid to $2.00 now. Until I get some clicks, I won't know if the rest of the system is working. And with it being the weekend, it may be that all the MLM people are just relaxing like good MLM people should be doing. After all, for them facebook is WORK.
Wnen I went to change my CPC bid, it gave me a new suggested range of $1.56 to $2.43, Being ever the tightwad, I bid $1.75. That puts me squarely in the range, but not at the top. We shall see.
1:30pm
Well, $1.75 broke loose the exposures. I now have 31,000 exposures and 4 clicks, for a CTR of 0.013%. But none of those 4 have subscribed, so I need to work on my landing page a bit more. I was honestly hoping for at least 50% of clickers to subscribe, since my ad says "Subscribe today". Once someone clicks, they should be ready to put in an email address. Need to think...
2:30pm
I changed the landing page to have more "teaser info" on it of the various topics to be covered by the newsletter. I have now had 37,000 impressions, 6 clicks, and one subscriber. So I got 1 of 2 after the landing page change. Now I feel like I am on the right track.
Wnen I went to change my CPC bid, it gave me a new suggested range of $1.56 to $2.43, Being ever the tightwad, I bid $1.75. That puts me squarely in the range, but not at the top. We shall see.
1:30pm
Well, $1.75 broke loose the exposures. I now have 31,000 exposures and 4 clicks, for a CTR of 0.013%. But none of those 4 have subscribed, so I need to work on my landing page a bit more. I was honestly hoping for at least 50% of clickers to subscribe, since my ad says "Subscribe today". Once someone clicks, they should be ready to put in an email address. Need to think...
2:30pm
I changed the landing page to have more "teaser info" on it of the various topics to be covered by the newsletter. I have now had 37,000 impressions, 6 clicks, and one subscriber. So I got 1 of 2 after the landing page change. Now I feel like I am on the right track.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
The Math of Advertsing.
Here is the PTN math. Every subscriber is worth $2.50 a month, or $30 a year. So anything less than $30 per member acquisition cost has a one year payback. With the binary concept, each member could be worth as high as $5 per month, or $60 a year. From the asset value side, it would take $2000 invested in a bank at 3% to earn $60 a year, so a new subscriber has a value of $2000 (assuming they subscribe forever, which will never happen). So I can invest somewhere between $30 (worst case) and $2000 (fantasy best case) to get a single PTN member and still a be profitable business. All of that ignores the much higher value of bringing in an associate who will add to the members of the team. If they bring in 10 people, multiply $60 times 10. and you can pay $600 to find that person and still break even in a year But even $600 does not include the value of the third level people and beyond.
So that is why I am testing the acquisition proess in such detail and why learning the numbers is so important.
One theoretical example. Lets assume that if I go to $3.00 per click, I can get serious exposure to the 288,000 FB members that have MLM in their interests profile. Like enough exposures to get 200 clicks and 20 new subscribers a day. That would cost me $600. a day. and in a year I will have 7200 subscribers, all from the MLM industry. And the lets say 2 of those 20 become PTN associates, and each one brings in 10 people in the next year. Thats 22 memberships with $60 per year value to me, or $1320 annual return on my $600 one-time iunvestment. I would go mortgage the house and make it happen as fast and as big as possible.
Investing $600 a day in clicks is $220k a year, and that is too much for my bank account. 10% of that or $22,000 in a year is more realistic plan/target. So to maintain that pace, I can aim at getting 20 clicks a day, and can maybe bid $2,00 to get that level of exposure. At $2,00 per click with all the previous assumptions, I would get 2 subscribers a day (at a cost of $20 each), have 730 in a year, and 150 would be PTN members (each with 10 sub-members) generating me $8200 a month ($100,000 a year) in income for an investment of $40 a day or $15,000 for the year). And of course much of that money for the later months would come out of earnings in the early months.
All of this assumes that those subscribers only have value to me if they become PTN associates. But some will just get memberships, and some will buy other things through affiliate links in my newsletter. So non-PTN members will generate some amount of money as well. I have no idea how much yet.
But I have to learn what the real numbers are first. The rest is just a math exercise
So that is why I am testing the acquisition proess in such detail and why learning the numbers is so important.
One theoretical example. Lets assume that if I go to $3.00 per click, I can get serious exposure to the 288,000 FB members that have MLM in their interests profile. Like enough exposures to get 200 clicks and 20 new subscribers a day. That would cost me $600. a day. and in a year I will have 7200 subscribers, all from the MLM industry. And the lets say 2 of those 20 become PTN associates, and each one brings in 10 people in the next year. Thats 22 memberships with $60 per year value to me, or $1320 annual return on my $600 one-time iunvestment. I would go mortgage the house and make it happen as fast and as big as possible.
Investing $600 a day in clicks is $220k a year, and that is too much for my bank account. 10% of that or $22,000 in a year is more realistic plan/target. So to maintain that pace, I can aim at getting 20 clicks a day, and can maybe bid $2,00 to get that level of exposure. At $2,00 per click with all the previous assumptions, I would get 2 subscribers a day (at a cost of $20 each), have 730 in a year, and 150 would be PTN members (each with 10 sub-members) generating me $8200 a month ($100,000 a year) in income for an investment of $40 a day or $15,000 for the year). And of course much of that money for the later months would come out of earnings in the early months.
All of this assumes that those subscribers only have value to me if they become PTN associates. But some will just get memberships, and some will buy other things through affiliate links in my newsletter. So non-PTN members will generate some amount of money as well. I have no idea how much yet.
But I have to learn what the real numbers are first. The rest is just a math exercise
Facebook ads - Results #1
I started my ads at about 8pm last night.
Started Poker community ad at 0.10 versus suggested range of .80 - $1.31. At 2am I had zero impressions, so I bumped up the CPC to .20 This morning at 8am I still had zero impressions.
Started the MLM-targeted ad at 0.25 CPC. Suggested range is 1.81 to 2.91. This is expensive. Must be too many people chasing the MLM crowd. At 2am I had zero impressions so I bumped it up to 0.40. This morning at 8am still zero impressions, so I bumped it up to 0.75. I will hate going much above $1 until I know the net revenue per subscriber of this type.
I also bumped my daily budget back up to $20. The question in my mind is are there more or less MLM-ers on Facebook on the weekends? I am guessing less. Just checked Shelley's profile. She SEEMS to have posted less last weekend than during week. Very unscientific sample size, but I may try bumping bid again today a couple of times, then letting it sit Sunday & Monday. Extra Monday Facebookers may get my ad run at cheaper rates?
Ran the ads at the rates above until 4pm. Poker players group had zero impressions still, which is fine for now. MLM group had 823 impressions and zero clicks. Bumped CPC up to $1.00, just topump up exposure rate. When I last ran an ad (different situation), I only got one click for every 10,000 impressions. So I want to drive the exposure rate up, and see where it starts getting clicks. Gotta start somewhere, and sometimes you have to pay up for knowledge. Once I start getting clicks, I will be able to see landing page conversion rates. That is the final part of the puzzle that determines new subscriber acquisition cost. Paying $1 per click is high, if I only get 1 in 10 conversion that would mean $10 per subscriber. OUCH. Gotta know though.
In 1 hour at $1, I am now at 1445 impressions, still no clicks though. Thats about 600 in an hour, or 10,000 a day. I think I will stop raising rates here if that pace continues. At 0.01% CTR (Click Thru Rate) that would be 1 click a day. Pretty weak, but I can adjust it in 24 hours. In the meantime Facebook may give me more exposures to try to spend my entire $20 budget. Then it will ultimately depend on how many I can convert to PTN associates.
Started Poker community ad at 0.10 versus suggested range of .80 - $1.31. At 2am I had zero impressions, so I bumped up the CPC to .20 This morning at 8am I still had zero impressions.
Started the MLM-targeted ad at 0.25 CPC. Suggested range is 1.81 to 2.91. This is expensive. Must be too many people chasing the MLM crowd. At 2am I had zero impressions so I bumped it up to 0.40. This morning at 8am still zero impressions, so I bumped it up to 0.75. I will hate going much above $1 until I know the net revenue per subscriber of this type.
I also bumped my daily budget back up to $20. The question in my mind is are there more or less MLM-ers on Facebook on the weekends? I am guessing less. Just checked Shelley's profile. She SEEMS to have posted less last weekend than during week. Very unscientific sample size, but I may try bumping bid again today a couple of times, then letting it sit Sunday & Monday. Extra Monday Facebookers may get my ad run at cheaper rates?
Ran the ads at the rates above until 4pm. Poker players group had zero impressions still, which is fine for now. MLM group had 823 impressions and zero clicks. Bumped CPC up to $1.00, just topump up exposure rate. When I last ran an ad (different situation), I only got one click for every 10,000 impressions. So I want to drive the exposure rate up, and see where it starts getting clicks. Gotta start somewhere, and sometimes you have to pay up for knowledge. Once I start getting clicks, I will be able to see landing page conversion rates. That is the final part of the puzzle that determines new subscriber acquisition cost. Paying $1 per click is high, if I only get 1 in 10 conversion that would mean $10 per subscriber. OUCH. Gotta know though.
In 1 hour at $1, I am now at 1445 impressions, still no clicks though. Thats about 600 in an hour, or 10,000 a day. I think I will stop raising rates here if that pace continues. At 0.01% CTR (Click Thru Rate) that would be 1 click a day. Pretty weak, but I can adjust it in 24 hours. In the meantime Facebook may give me more exposures to try to spend my entire $20 budget. Then it will ultimately depend on how many I can convert to PTN associates.
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