How To Master Your Affiliate Marketing and Not Give Up [Interview with Bob, a Media Buyer]
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❗ Disclaimer: The views expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect those of PropellerAds Ltd.
You know we love speaking to really seasoned media buyers and affiliate marketers and bringing you very precious insights from them. Today, we changed the game a bit: Bob Zhang has been into media buying for less than a year now, but he has much to share, too!
Thanks to a thread Bob created at the Afflift forum, we could all witness Bob’s first successful campaign in real-time. How did he achieve these green numbers, what pitfalls did he face on his way, and what advice can he give to beginners?
Hello, guys; I am Bob. The first B in Bob stands for Body, and the second stands for Bed, So the name Bob means “Body on Bed.” It’s my hobby: sleeping. I’ve been in affiliate marketing for over half a year. A Chinese Guy Who Wants to get money and freedom with affiliate marketing.
— Hi, Bob! Your latest results with PropellerAds are really inspiring! But we guess it wasn’t always so smooth, right? Can you please share your very first affiliate marketing experience?
The first experience was full of surprises and worries. But, I was lucky to come across PropellerAds at the beginning of my journey — Propeller support became a real rescue for me. As a newbie, I was careful with every step I took. After I set a campaign wrongly, I archived it, but later, I wanted to see some of its other settings. However, I couldn’t find it anymore.
After some struggle, I finally decided to ask for online support help. The agent was very patient and told me to modify the filter with screenshots.
From that time on, whenever I encounter difficulties, the support team of PropellerAds always gives me timely and effective help.
This was not the only example!
One day, when I was checking data, I found a zone in the Philippines where traffic suddenly increased dozens of times at four or five in the morning. However, there was no corresponding increase in conversion — and I lost money.
I suspected something might be wrong with the traffic, and I shared my suspicions with the support team. They asked for a lot of additional details — and finally, the optimization team corrected the data and returned the money.
This experience made me like Propellerads even more.
— You are always welcome to ask anything about your campaigns 🙂 And how did you choose PropellerAds and decide to try it, by the way?
Thanks to Nick, who mentioned PropellerAds in his AffLift Intermediate Guide, I got the opportunity to know such an excellent traffic source.
But you know, accepting a new thing is like falling in love — it’s not always smooth sailing. I started using PropellerAds but also tried many other traffic sources — and after losing a few thousand dollars, I finally learned that PropellerAds was the right one.
The most important reason why I wasn’t very successful at first is my inexperience in affiliate marketing.
Many times, it just happened like that:
- I heard about a traffic source that offered a deposit bonus or some new functionality
- I immediately jumped into testing multiple offers with various GEOs — almost without any prior research and preparation.
For example, I once tried a new traffic source just because I heard the CPA bidding model was good. In the end, I didn’t see any profit after launching a dozen campaigns and using up hundreds of dollars.
— So, you seem to have chosen your favorite network, right? 🙂 And what about your favorite ad formats and probably PropellerAds features?
I’ve run mostly Onclick (Popunder) ads so far, and I’ve found that, generally, Direct Click performs better for me than Popunder. However, Onclick usually offers more traffic.
Speaking about features, one thing I like about PropellerAds is that my campaigns are approved very quickly! Although PropellerAds promise to review campaigns within 24 hours, they are usually approved within a few minutes.
Whether it’s early morning or late night, a weekday or a holiday, my campaigns are always approved within minutes. So I can do tests and get test results very quickly! In many cases, I have Propeller test results even before other traffic source campaigns are approved.
— As still a pretty new person in affiliate marketing, you must remember it — what was your first successful campaign?
At that time, PropellerAds and Afflift held a contest with a prize pool of $10,000. So, I decided to restart my PropellerAds campaigns to win the participation award for the contest. To be honest, I didn’t think I could make a profit: I’d spent close to $1,000 on other traffic sources, and it was still hard for me to get a little bit of profit.
So I wanted to spend up to $100 and stop once I met the contest requirements. I created a campaign with the CPA 2.0 pricing model, and this campaign brought me $0.57 profit after running for three days.
I will never forget June 13th — the first time when I saw profit after I started affiliate marketing for over three months and spent almost $8.000.
Thanks to PropellerAds for giving me hope to keep going before I was about to give up on affiliate marketing.
Comment from PropellerAds: One of Bob’s keys to success was thorough testing. At first, he was trying to test as many offers, GEOs, and traffic sources as possible — but later, he learned how to find and focus on the most promising options. This balance between accurate testing and leaving out everything unnecessary led him to his first stable income.
— You are not that novice anymore — we even used your experience as one of the Six Best Lessons from Afflift Contest. What advice would you give to other media buyers, especially those who are just making their first steps?
Affiliate marketing is like rowing upstream — If you don’t go forward, you will go back. So, you need to keep learning and improving.
An inspiring thing I personally learned is that when you’re a beginner, it’s hard to make money. When you’re an expert, it’s hard not to make money.
So, the general advice is to try, fail, and learn again! A more personal tip I can give from my own experience is that mastering one traffic source is more important than understanding multiple traffic sources.
At the moment, Bob has reached the Gold level of PropellerAds now and told us he wouldn’t test other traffic sources until he reaches Platinum Level.
How about you?
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