Few PoF Questions?

EricVonDoobie

FAQ it
Dec 23, 2009
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Sunnyvale Trailer Park
If anyone can help me out with this I'd really appreciate it, got a few questions I can't really seem to figure out/would love some advice with.

1.) When exactly do I determine an ads CTR? I know that a CTR can vary over a period of time but at which point when testing a campaign do I decide to stick with an ad? After what number of impressions do I know it's running smoothly?

2.) Should I be bidding high CPM at first then lowering it once I get the CTR leveled out? Is it retarded to bid extremely low (.19,.23 cents) or should I just start higher and stay higher?

In case it isn't obvious I'm still feeling my way through PoF and I blow at paid traffic sources, so any input would rock.
 


1.) When exactly do I determine an ads CTR? I know that a CTR can vary over a period of time but at which point when testing a campaign do I decide to stick with an ad? After what number of impressions do I know it's running smoothly?

There's no absolute on this (obviously) but if an Ad isn't doesn't have any clicks after 1,500 to 3,000 impressions, I generally cut it. Bad image, poor targeting, wrong time of day...? After 10,000 impressions, if an Ad doesn't clear %0.100 CTR, then I cut it.

EDIT: take this with a grain of salt, because if an Ad has a CTR of %0.033 CTR but has a consistently high CVR, then it's worth keeping, provided it's ROI positive.

2.) Should I be bidding high CPM at first then lowering it once I get the CTR leveled out? Is it retarded to bid extremely low (.19,.23 cents) or should I just start higher and stay higher?

In case it isn't obvious I'm still feeling my way through PoF and I blow at paid traffic sources, so any input would rock.

When running tests, I want to get as much data quickly as possible, so I don't fret too much on this. How to scale without over bidding on PoF... I don't know yet, I'm still figuring that one out. :-)
 
1. Usually after ~20k impressions you will have an OK idea of how an ad will perform. But with PoF CTR's of ads die very quickly, my CTR has dropped in half before after running an ad for a day. If you are testing an ad to see which has the best CTR then ~10k impressions is what I usually go to.

2. I would bid in the middle at first (.4c-.55c) so you don't spend out the ass for testing ads. Once you have a winner bid higher so your ad hits the inbox page.
 
When running tests, I want to get as much data quickly as possible, so I don't fret too much on this. How to scale without over bidding on PoF... I don't know yet, I'm still figuring that one out. :-)

If you haven't yet you could also increase your frequency cap, or just double up your campaigns. When I did this I didn't notice a drastic decrease in my CTR.
 
lot of variables to tell if you should keep an ad.. make sure to take advantage of the cross tab reports to improve your targeting ...

i have a lot of ads that do less than .15% on broad demos but with targeting adjustments they do .500% and higher..

generally if its a smaller demo type ad ill give it about 2-5K impressions but that's just me.. if your targeting males 25-40 in the USA who are single you may want to give it more time because 2-5K isn't even a fraction of that demo size.

.19-.23 is very low especially if your targeting in the US or UK.. i would just increase your bid .10 cents at a time until you get a steady flow of impressions.
 
I've gathered the following from talking to everyone that advertises with us:

1) 15k-30k impressions is the neighborhood where you should be making your decisions.
2) Do NOT bid high CPM's when you're testing, do NOT bid extremely low CPM's either. You want your bids to be competitive to get the best representation of how an ad will perform. I've seen the average bids as follows:

US $0.50 CPM
UK/Canada $0.35 CPM

Remember your CPM will have an effect on your CTR/CVR because we serve ads based on CPM price. The highest bids get their ads shown to the user first, followed by the next highest and so forth. So if your bid is too low, then the impressions you receive will be from people who have already seen 20 ads (thus the likelihood of clicking and converting are low).

Knowing this, you should use the 1 penny tip to maximize on traffic: The 1 Penny Tip | Mr Green
 
We Need a Bid estimator!!:D Would help alot instead of blind bidding!

@Ben...0.50 for US & 0.35 Uk/Ca...are those bids for 18-24 males with not so much targeting(country, age, gender, marital stat) appearing on first pages? How do you estimate your bids if you go for older people, 0.05$ per added targeting criteria? lol
 
I've gathered the following from talking to everyone that advertises with us:

1) 15k-30k impressions is the neighborhood where you should be making your decisions.
2) Do NOT bid high CPM's when you're testing, do NOT bid extremely low CPM's either. You want your bids to be competitive to get the best representation of how an ad will perform. I've seen the average bids as follows:

US $0.50 CPM
UK/Canada $0.35 CPM

Remember your CPM will have an effect on your CTR/CVR because we serve ads based on CPM price. The highest bids get their ads shown to the user first, followed by the next highest and so forth. So if your bid is too low, then the impressions you receive will be from people who have already seen 20 ads (thus the likelihood of clicking and converting are low).

Knowing this, you should use the 1 penny tip to maximize on traffic: The 1 Penny Tip | Mr Green
Ben, with that price, what pages are the clicks likely to come from? Which are the highest costing pages?
 
We Need a Bid estimator!!:D Would help alot instead of blind bidding!

@Ben...0.50 for US & 0.35 Uk/Ca...are those bids for 18-24 males with not so much targeting(country, age, gender, marital stat) appearing on first pages? How do you estimate your bids if you go for older people, 0.05$ per added targeting criteria? lol

Generally speaking so you're right, the more targeted (smaller pool of impressions available), the more you'll have to bid to maximize on that traffic. Unfortunately, there's no rule of thumb to follow so you'll have to test different bids to see results.

Ben, with that price, what pages are the clicks likely to come from? Which are the highest costing pages?

No idea man, sorry :(
 
Generally speaking so you're right, the more targeted (smaller pool of impressions available), the more you'll have to bid to maximize on that traffic. Unfortunately, there's no rule of thumb to follow so you'll have to test different bids to see results.



No idea man, sorry :(
Damn. No worries. How do I find out if I'm bidding too little?
 
If you're not hitting your desired spend. You know you've bid too much when increasing your bid has no effect on traffic. You can always hit me up with an email too :)




Btw, what's with the "so gay" icon for this thread? Bullshit! LOL
 
If you're not hitting your desired spend. You know you've bid too much when increasing your bid has no effect on traffic. You can always hit me up with an email too :)




Btw, what's with the "so gay" icon for this thread? Bullshit! LOL

Sometimes, many times you can up your bids, get alot more traffic but still have overbidded.

I still think a bid & demo reach estimators would be great for our campaigns! and the idea of someone here who said we'd only need a max bid is pretty good, that would actually be a real bid opposed to now being what we bid is what we pay...never lower.
 
Now all noobs will start using 1 penny trick. No prob though I'll use 2 pennies counter trick it'll work like a charm till they catch on to it