My first campaign

SFTB Warrior

New member
Mar 16, 2013
4
0
0
Melbourne, Australia
Hi everyone!

I'm new to affiliate marketing and I'm in the process of setting up my first campaign. I'm approaching this campaign as a learning exercise. To be honest I'm not expecting to make money off it (although it would be nice) but rather to understand what is involved in setting up a campaign. I can then build on this knowledge in future campaigns.

Before I begin I just want to say thanx for all the guidance ... there's some incredibly useful stuff on here!

My campaign...

I'm a member with Maxbounty and have been advised to start with a dating offer. So I have found Christiancafe.com (EPC = 0.02, Payout = $4/lead)

1. I've identified my target market:
- Christian singles
- Female: 28+
- Male: 40+
- USA and Canada

2. I've researched/brainstormed where they go online:
- Other Christian dating sites
- Bible discussion groups
- Christian events pages
- Dating advice websites
- Christian social clubs
- Christian music pages (bands, etc)

3. Banner Ads
My plan is to direct link to the offer page (keep it simple for my first campaign). I have created 4 banner ads to be split tested. I've been told Optimizely is a good service for split testing. Can anyone recommend a better one?

4. Traffic Source
I want to choose the websites my banner ads will appear on (from step 2). I'm a little stuck here. My understanding is that I have 2 options:
- CPC = Google Display Network
- CPM = Sitescout, WAM CPC

Are both traffic sources relevant to me? I've spend a fair bit of time reading up on media buys (CPM) and from what I gather it is not for newbies (like myself). Does that mean my only option is Google Display Network? and is this a good choice?

5. Tracking
Once I have sorted out my traffic source, I will be using Prosper202 for tracking.

Are there any other steps I have forgotten?

Do I need to register a domain if I am direct linking?

Any advice/guidance would be much appreciated

Thanks for taking the time to read this and help me out :bigear:
 


Since you're focused on display advertising why don't you try Bluagile. I tried their platform and I think that they can fulfill your needs for this campaign. Since it's a display then you can access their brand safe inventory where you can fulfill your number 1&2. They are a DSP that has their own RTB which gives you traffic on CPM basis