DEADZ - THE "POOLS" APPROACH

This article is part of #💡Pro-Tips...

This article will cover an (more advanced) approach for working with "Big Data Campaigns"...

This will mainly be applicable to more ever-green/long-lasting campaigns, where you can re-use the data to (re)create campaigns over & over.

Verticals I consider evergreen are (mainly) Dating, Utility, Casino, COD... (& some unique E-Com, LeadGen, Gaming, Sweepstakes)...

And I also think this strategy is most useful for Display-type traffic - Banners, Native, Push, Interstitial, etc...

Campaigns like these usually require good data-retention (on your tracker), big budget, & a good amount of skill/experience...

And we'll use this "(Big) Data Pool" approach to build a...

#BLACK-LIST - Applied on the main campaign. This is just the standard rules you use according to your offer payout/vertical, etc (pause zones @1-2x offer payout & 0 conversions, etc). This campaign should run at whatever bid gets you at least 30% of the available traffic (winrate). As you continue to blacklist on (& extract other lists from) this campaign, you can slowly increase your bid to find more & more opportunities.

#WHITE-LIST - Gathering targets/zones/etc that convert (at least) 2x each & creating a seperate campaign for this list, where you can bid higher & aim for more optimal performance (better win-rate, CTR, CVR, etc). This campaign run simultaneosly with the main (blacklist) campaign & you should exclude the targets you add to this list from the blacklist campaign.

#HIGH-EPC-LIST - Based on the traffic opportunities on the specific traffic source you're using, you'll look for specific targets that show EPCs above certain "treshold" bids (according to the traffic source). You'll create seperate campaigns for each "treshold" bid (you can also call these bid tiers, bid pools, bid ranges, whatever makes more sense to you). I'll show a clear example on how to determine these bids later.

#LOW-CPC-LIST - This is any target that has low EPC (below your standard/average), but still better than minimum bid allowed on the traffic source. You'll usually only just a few targets for this list. You'll create another seperate campaign for these & bid the minimum amount (the lowest bid that still brings in a good amount of traffic).

Since most of these campaigns will be running at the same time & feeding data to one another - I like to think of this approach as the "Pools" approach, but you can call it whatever makes the most sense to you...

You can do more with "Big Data" campaigns - like create breakout/child campaigns focusing on specific os versions and/or carriers and/or browsers and/or cities, (combinations) etc. Or setup filters within the campaign itself to redirect traffic based on a combination of data, etc. But for this article, we're mainly focusing on creating lists...

Now, I would only consider a campaign that has (at least) 100x offer/average payout to be a "Big Data" campaign.

Your main campaign should still be optimized - mainly through blacklisting targets/zones/etc on the traffic source itself. But the broader your targeting (as in: no specific focus on a specific os version and/or carrier and/or browser, etc) is = the better (data for re-use) in the longrun.

The main goal is to have (broad) data on a specific Vertical + GEO + Traffic Type that you can always use in the future to (re)launch campaigns in the same Vertical + GEO + Traffic Type.

Remember - (As Performance Marketers) We're mainly working with Demographic & Psychographic user data & behaviour - a.k.a. If today you have a big chunk of data showing: users in Germany using Samsung Galaxy S, & OS Version 9, & Vodafone Carrier, & Chrome Browser are converting during 22:00 on a Friday for Dating offers... You can be sure of it that this (Demographic & Psychographic) data will continue to convert for years to come for Dating offers...

In the longrun, you should be able to look at your data just like when you're researching opportunities on Affiliate Networks (like on Monetizer's snapshot tool) - but now you're just using your own (past) data as an opportunity indicator, instead of using the networks...

And this is why the Data-Retention on your tracker is very important - I recommend having at least 12-months of data storage (the more = the better) on your tracker plan. Because of this (& many other reasons) I recommend Binom or Redtrack...

Keep in mind - My main campaign's bid is $0.003 here...

We'll start by looking at the bid data from our traffic source (in this case that's Evadav).

We want to look for the bid amounts that make the most significant difference in volume...

Notice that with each of these bids there's a significant increase in traffic (at least 50k) - that's what you should be looking for: a significant enough increase in traffic in order to be considered a good opportunity for White/EPC list campaigns.

The amount of volume increase will vary per GEO, but it should be very clear what bids are worth it to consider & which ones are not. For example (based on the above screenshots), the increase from o.oo3 to 0.004 is not as siginificant as going from 0.003 to 0.005...

Now, using this information we'll look at our big data campaign for opportunities to create a classic whitelist, create specific whitelists based on EPC ranges ("High-EPC-list"), & create a whitelist for targets/sources/zones/etc that have EPC below our current bid, but would still be profitable on minimum/lower bid ("Low-CPC-List").

Binom makes it easy for us to filter our stats based on the criteria we fill in (but you should able to set filters like this on any tracker). In the example above, I'm looking for sources that have an EPC above my current bid ($0.003), but still below the next bid range ($0.005).

For the "High-EPC-Lists"...

Now, based on these results, I can use this data to create whitelists for $0.003, $0.005 & $0.01 bids (& remember these are according to researched bids on the traffic source).

The main thing I look for is 2+ conversions (in this case "Leads") - so for example, in the "Filtered by EPC > 0.01" screenshot you see a lot of these sources only have 1 conversion, so I (personally) wouldn't consider this a "confident decision" to include those in the 0.01 whitelist, but I will include them in the 0.005 whitelist. And in the future, I will continue to check back for any source that has 2+ conversions & EPC > 0.01 to include in the 0.01 whitelist.

Your campaigns should run simultaniously & feed off of each others data - So when you create the whitelists, blacklist them in the main campaign. And you should continue to check (all the data) for sources that have 2+ conversions & add them to the correct whitelist according to their EPC.

Pro Tip - Your whitelist campaigns can overlap on sources (targets/zones/etc). So a source that's included in the 0.01 whitelist, can also be included in the 0.005 & 0.003 whitelist (as long as you keep your frequencies low).

It's always important to make sure to keep your frequencies on all these campaigns low - 1/24h or 1/72h. So that when they do overlap with each other (still not a big issue) it doesn't conflict.

For the "Low-CPC-List"...

Remember - The low bid (researched) for this example was $0.002, so only the sources that have an EPC above 0.002 will be considered for the ("Low-CPC") list.

Also keep in mind that this is still broad data & any converting sources with EPC below 0.002 can still be optimized through better targeting.

Again, I mainly look for the ones that have 2+ conversions (in this case "Leads").

And now, by using a Low-CPC list, I can focus on optimizing the targeting & scheduling on the lower performing targets/zones/etc. And I wouldn't have to worry about over-optimizing my main campaign. So now I can focus on getting these low-cpc campaigns green, even if it means running them on just 1 (best) hour of the day, or just one os version, etc.

Quick example of one of the resulting campaigns...

Now, I hope this article helps you in any way.

Keep in mind - This is just an example of one of my own approaches. It should serve (mainly) as a inspiration point for you to use & build your own approach.

Pro Tip - You can combine this pools & the phases approach (mentioned in DML) for even more advanced budget & campaign management - as long as it all makes sense to you.

And, keep in mind - You can always ask me anything in our private Discord.

Stay Awesome 🤘,

Darnel a.k.a DEADZ @ ADMYTHIC