5 Traffic Acquisition Pitfalls You Can Avoid: Risk Management for Media Buyers
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2024 10:53 am
risk management for media buyers
This post is also available in: PT ES
What if I launch my first media buying campaign and it fails? What if I invest my last bit of money into digital media buying and lose them — and my wife, who begged me never to do it? What if I promote a product with affiliate marketing, and it turns out to be the scam of the year?
This might sound a bit funny for seasoned marketers, but they also lose money, by the way. All these questions are more than legit — and can be combined into this one:
— How to avoid risks when you do media buying or affiliate marketing?
The answer is risk management — russia mobile phone numbers database a very standard procedure for any business, including digital marketing. To give you the most insightful information on risk management in media buying, we asked those who know the ropes of it: seasoned marketers!
So, meet our mutual work with Serge Abramov, media buyer — and also the most experienced marketers from our fav Telegram Chat!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is Risk Management?
Risk 1. Losing Your Budget
Risk 2. You Picked the Wrong Offer
Risk 3. Your Bundle Was Spied Upon!
Risk 4. Good Offer Gone Bad
Risk 5. Your Partner is Not Reliable
To Sum Up
What is Risk Management?
Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and controlling…wait, stop; we are not here for Wikipedia definitions.
In simple words, risk management is about predicting some possible pitfalls on your way — and doing your best to avoid them.
Just a real-life example, clear for anyone: a clothing shop always has a chance to lack customers at some point. To manage this risk, many brands offer evergreen goods that never go out of style and trend.
PropellerAds_How_not_to_fail_your_your_campaign_Afflift.png
Affiliate Marketing
And some examples of media buying mistakes
Of course, this was over-simplified. The classical risk management strategy involves four steps:
1. Identifying a potential risk
2. Analyze the risk
3. Evaluate how severe the risk is
4. Monitor the risk and consider possible solutions
Obviously, life is not a student book, and we can’t always manage and count all of the risks. Especially when it comes to media buying and affiliate marketing — very big and ever-changing industries.
media buying vs affiliate marketing
Advanced Tutorials
And what’s the difference, by the way?
So, we have consulted with industry professionals to reveal some of the most common affiliate marketing risks — and share the best practices for avoiding them.
Risk 1. Losing Your Budget
As Svetoslav, the owner of Sublime Revenue network, said —
— When the aff is a newbie, there is the only risk: not having a solid media plan and not using metrics to develop it. Everyone who is more experienced very well knows this is not the 1990s anymore, and without research and knowledge in the field, there is no money in advertising. At least not in the long run.
What he meant is that, in a nutshell, you can’t just send some cash to a network and become rich overnight (like it was about possible when affiliate marketing just appeared).
So, the risk: You will spend all your budget and get no conversions.
Besides being mentally ready for that, remember several tips from Serge — this might make your first (and all the following) attempts much less painful.
So, the risk management:
Define your budget. According to Serge, it makes sense to begin with the amount you are ready to lose if this is your first time — but not less than a few thousand dollars. Besides spending on testing and traffic, you will also need to invest in creatives and instruments like trackers and spy tools.
PropellerAds - $5 Budget to Test Campaigns
Guest Expert
An opinion on budgeting from our partners Voluum
If you have a strictly limited budget (most likely you will), avoid too expensive offers when you are just beginning. If your conversion price is, say, $200, you’ll need much bigger budgets to test and earn than with a $10 payout offer. The same is true for top popular verticals: they have high competition, and you’ll also need considerable budgets to fit in.
Use automated tools for bidding: for example, PropellerAds CPA Goal allows you to avoid overspending because it doesn’t allow you to spend more than your desired bid.
Remember the 3 conversion price rules. Many affiliate marketers advise: if you spend three payouts of the conversions, and there is no single conversion yet — pause the campaign and try to change its settings significantly. For example, you can take another offer, bidding model, or targeting.
For example, your offer has a $30 payout. Spent already $90 and got nothing? There is no sense in continuing with this campaign. Test alternative GEOs or formats instead — and keep following the 3 conversion rules!
Don’t rely on a single offer. It’s a good idea to distribute your budget between several offers or campaigns. For example, you can take one CPA offer and spread your $1,000 between five different bundles like this:
This post is also available in: PT ES
What if I launch my first media buying campaign and it fails? What if I invest my last bit of money into digital media buying and lose them — and my wife, who begged me never to do it? What if I promote a product with affiliate marketing, and it turns out to be the scam of the year?
This might sound a bit funny for seasoned marketers, but they also lose money, by the way. All these questions are more than legit — and can be combined into this one:
— How to avoid risks when you do media buying or affiliate marketing?
The answer is risk management — russia mobile phone numbers database a very standard procedure for any business, including digital marketing. To give you the most insightful information on risk management in media buying, we asked those who know the ropes of it: seasoned marketers!
So, meet our mutual work with Serge Abramov, media buyer — and also the most experienced marketers from our fav Telegram Chat!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is Risk Management?
Risk 1. Losing Your Budget
Risk 2. You Picked the Wrong Offer
Risk 3. Your Bundle Was Spied Upon!
Risk 4. Good Offer Gone Bad
Risk 5. Your Partner is Not Reliable
To Sum Up
What is Risk Management?
Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and controlling…wait, stop; we are not here for Wikipedia definitions.
In simple words, risk management is about predicting some possible pitfalls on your way — and doing your best to avoid them.
Just a real-life example, clear for anyone: a clothing shop always has a chance to lack customers at some point. To manage this risk, many brands offer evergreen goods that never go out of style and trend.
PropellerAds_How_not_to_fail_your_your_campaign_Afflift.png
Affiliate Marketing
And some examples of media buying mistakes
Of course, this was over-simplified. The classical risk management strategy involves four steps:
1. Identifying a potential risk
2. Analyze the risk
3. Evaluate how severe the risk is
4. Monitor the risk and consider possible solutions
Obviously, life is not a student book, and we can’t always manage and count all of the risks. Especially when it comes to media buying and affiliate marketing — very big and ever-changing industries.
media buying vs affiliate marketing
Advanced Tutorials
And what’s the difference, by the way?
So, we have consulted with industry professionals to reveal some of the most common affiliate marketing risks — and share the best practices for avoiding them.
Risk 1. Losing Your Budget
As Svetoslav, the owner of Sublime Revenue network, said —
— When the aff is a newbie, there is the only risk: not having a solid media plan and not using metrics to develop it. Everyone who is more experienced very well knows this is not the 1990s anymore, and without research and knowledge in the field, there is no money in advertising. At least not in the long run.
What he meant is that, in a nutshell, you can’t just send some cash to a network and become rich overnight (like it was about possible when affiliate marketing just appeared).
So, the risk: You will spend all your budget and get no conversions.
Besides being mentally ready for that, remember several tips from Serge — this might make your first (and all the following) attempts much less painful.
So, the risk management:
Define your budget. According to Serge, it makes sense to begin with the amount you are ready to lose if this is your first time — but not less than a few thousand dollars. Besides spending on testing and traffic, you will also need to invest in creatives and instruments like trackers and spy tools.
PropellerAds - $5 Budget to Test Campaigns
Guest Expert
An opinion on budgeting from our partners Voluum
If you have a strictly limited budget (most likely you will), avoid too expensive offers when you are just beginning. If your conversion price is, say, $200, you’ll need much bigger budgets to test and earn than with a $10 payout offer. The same is true for top popular verticals: they have high competition, and you’ll also need considerable budgets to fit in.
Use automated tools for bidding: for example, PropellerAds CPA Goal allows you to avoid overspending because it doesn’t allow you to spend more than your desired bid.
Remember the 3 conversion price rules. Many affiliate marketers advise: if you spend three payouts of the conversions, and there is no single conversion yet — pause the campaign and try to change its settings significantly. For example, you can take another offer, bidding model, or targeting.
For example, your offer has a $30 payout. Spent already $90 and got nothing? There is no sense in continuing with this campaign. Test alternative GEOs or formats instead — and keep following the 3 conversion rules!
Don’t rely on a single offer. It’s a good idea to distribute your budget between several offers or campaigns. For example, you can take one CPA offer and spread your $1,000 between five different bundles like this: