Automating Facebook Groups

Alright well I already have a bunch of projects on my plate I figured why not add one more.

Plan is pretty straightforward. Make a bunch of accounts look legit and provide value to groups and throw in some promotional stuff. Tweak till it converts then scale it up.

I expected to have to code some stuff to get it to do what I want but it looks like, for the most part, MP handles everything I want.

So let's get this started.

Day 1 - Bought 10 accounts, 10 proxies, MP with a couple of modules and loaded it up on one of my servers.

The vendor wasn't the best and the profiles were really, really not as advertised. I'm going to give it a go but I'm not really expecting much from this first batch. The software seems to be running fine and I've got the accounts "warming up". Doing the usual Facebook things on a random schedule.

I'm splitting it into 5 accounts per niche. My first niche I know pretty well and can get a lot of easy content for it. The second niche... I haven't actually chosen yet. I might split that down into smaller niches of 3 and 2.

Still torn between the idea of trying to maintain a legit looking account and providing actual value to the group - or just going to town and like jacking everything to boot since I don't know if I trust this vendors accounts.

Progress will be a little slow to start with. Going to take it easy on the accounts and get them ready to start pushing some traffic.

I'll be setting up the domain for at least one of the projects either tonight or tomorrow. It'll be a domain needing setup for a separate SEO project anyway so when I'm done with it I'll just pull my CPA/Affiliate links and swap it over to my SEO projects.

I've got the accounts doing the usual Facebook actions and some of them joining groups in my niche.

I put together the "news" post with an interesting hook. No split testing but I've got some basic tracking setup at least. I'll maybe start split testing at a later date.

No promotional links yet. I'm going to post some useful niche related content stuff to the groups. Not sure how soon or often to post promotional stuff to the groups but I'm not really in a rush.

First set of accounts joining groups daily. Picked a niche I like the look of for another account or two. Lots of users, minimum spam in the niche and I can think of a bunch of promotions which might work.

Fleshing out the accounts to act like actual people and fleshed out the profiles to look better.

So far I've 5 accounts in one niche. Two in another and another account in a third. Picking a fourth niche for the last two accounts.

Tried to filter through the groups better to make sure there will hopefully be a good response rate. Trying to avoid niches where the pages are getting spammed too much.

Ordered a stack of SIM cards to start a bunch of accounts myself. Going to get some more proxies and a stack of accounts tomorrow to start in different niches.

I've got domains ready for SEO projects anyway. Going to write the content up on Monday and then start preparing he other accounts.

I know most of these will fail but I don't really want to spend too much time trying to tweak a competitive niche I know nothing about. The plan is to scattergun into niches to see what happens. If something seems like it's working I'll start scaling it up and testing in that niche.

Do u use any software to manage the accounts actions?

mariaz said:

Do u use any software to manage the accounts actions?

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Mass Planner though I'm building something a bit more custom for a part of it.

Updates so far:

Ordered 100 new SIM cards. When they come through in a few days I'll order a bigger stack of proxies and have a bunch of accounts warming up.

The accounts are now adding friends as they go. Whether or not this is needed is probably up to dispute but I'm aiming to get to around 150~ and let an account or two go wild with the joining to see if it survives.

I beefed up the profiles a bit more to look normal.

Manually posted 4/5 links. Traffic wasn't great but the niche isn't the most spam free so response rate is never going to be too wonderful and there was an issue with my lead in as well. The CTR to the offer was alright though so that's good.

Next steps:

Well I'll wait for those SIM cards to get in before registering a ton of accounts. Going to fix up the lead in and some code on the site and run another test. Step up one or two accounts to joining 100 groups a day and see what happens. Other than that leave the other accounts just warming up.

Test 2:

Manually posted to 10~ groups with the improved lead in.

Traffic to site: 201 UV's
Hops to offer: 34
Conversions: 0

Firstly there's been a lot of talk about numbers being high or low in these journals. It's daft. Traffic statistics have variables. Lot's of variables. I've had LP's get me around 50% CTR for barely anything before and tiny 5% CTR's been passive four figure sites.

With the competition in the niche I'm pretty surprised at the traffic number I thought it'd be a a lot lower so I'm pretty happy with the lead in. It's not that I'm not going to test it but it's higher than I'd expected.

The CTR to the offer is lower but for a first draft it could be a worse. It's not a submit offer or anything and it's not the best landing page either but it's an offer I like. Going to try swap it to something with a higher EPC but don't think I'll post on them again tomorrow.


Group joining and keeping the accounts looking normal continues. Picked a new niche which either one or two accounts will start joining into.

I've got a pretty big piles of notes and the list is growing. I've thought of some interesting twists to try based on what I see happen on Facebook often enough anyway.

But so far it's looking good. I'm tempted to pull the caps and post/join more but it's automated and I have other things to work on anyway. But I'm liking the looks of this so far.

SEOMadHatter said:

But so far it's looking good. I'm tempted to pull the caps and post/join more but it's automated and I have other things to work on anyway. But I'm liking the looks of this so far.

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I've had better results hand picking the groups I join. It not only increases my CVR but it also helps me avoid posting to a group with a bunch of spammers.

Good luck OP.

Sorry for the lack of updates I've a bunch of projects going on at the moment and this one has been mostly a waiting game while the accounts warm up.

Paper-Boy said:

I've had better results hand picking the groups I join. It not only increases my CVR but it also helps me avoid posting to a group with a bunch of spammers.

Good luck OP.

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I'm working on a custom script to help make the scraping a little faster. So far I've filtered manually through two niches but the test one I'm currently posting to I just let it join whatever. It doesn't matter if it screams into the void with a bunch of other spam if it drives traffic - except perhaps from a account livelihood standpoint.

Ran a second test but I lost the stats (because I've been that on the ball last two days).

Rough Test 2 Stats:

Groups posted to: 30~
Unique views to site: 99
Hops to offer: 42
Conversions: 0

This is for a several hundred dollar product not a $1 CPA offer. There's interest there (and a good % clicking the buy button) I'm considering an auto responder series in there somewhere but it might convert cold 42 hops is nowhere near enough of a sample size. The big problem with this one is that either I posted at a worse time or (more likely) the lead in just wasn't as catchy. It got a lot more likes/shares/comments on my post but I don't think as many clicked through.

I've left the accounts to do their thing a little while. Lining up a small campaign to post useful, related links to the groups which are not my own and considering stepping up the group joining rate. Planning to change a lead in or two and run another test. I think another one of my niches is in a bunch of groups now so I might run a quick test in there as well.

None of these numbers are a good indicator yet. I'm in about 10% of the groups I want to be and I've throttled down the number of posts as well because I'm trying to start it slowly. I'm seeing the potential though.

Still waiting for my batch of SIM cards to start scaling up. The plan is to have a ton of accounts warming up while I'm testing with these ones. I have some interesting twist ideas to try (which will coincide nicely with my current SEO projects as well) and I'm liking the idea of building a list to try and sell some bigger ticket items.

The warming up continues.

Looking at scaling up on several fronts at the moment.

My desk is currently covered in SIM cards I think about 50 came in today. Going to order maybe another 20 accounts and leave them to do their thing a while. I don't want to burn too many too fast while learning the ropes here.

Picked out some more niches. One is pretty spammy but it's not marketer spam so I'm wondering if I can get their attention. The other doesn't seem to have much spam at all so far and it's a niche I know but it might take some work to find a good hook with them on Facebook.

Writing a small tool to help me find the groups to post to easier and trying a twist on the method which might make it easier to post more with (while providing better content to the groups at the same time).

I've struggling with not opening it up and posting a lot more. I'm not good with patience (an interesting trait for an SEO) but I'll keep my tests slow and paced out and focus on getting everything ready for when I can pump the traffic out a lot more.

Some accounts ordered and the first script finished which should really speed things up. Looking at the difference it's going to make I should of made this on day 1.

Starting some brand new accounts as well. They'll take longer before I can post on them but I'd like to see how they do versus ones bought from a vendor to reduce another footprint.

Working on a bit of a reverse engineer scraper to find competitors doing this next. Maybe it's the SEO in me but if someone else finds a profitable niche/offer combination I want to see how they're doing it.

Got the rest of my first batch of accounts started in two new niches and put together a bit of a twist to run for the next test.

That's about all the productivity I can take. Time for some sleep.

No more mister nice Hatter.

We're currently up to about 30 accounts. Important note: the vast majority of these are not currently posting links. I just wanted to get the ball rolling in their warm up period so they're ready to start pushing traffic.

I'm changing the way I do accounts a bit. Even the better reviewed providers have footprints I don't like. They look fine on the front end and Facebook doesn't seem to be actively looking at the moment but it's a red flag I don't like.

I'm also changing the way I join groups. The first batch I basically joined anything the scraper found. This is a mistake. I don't honestly mind posting in among a bunch of spam but I'm only joining x amounts of groups per day I'd rather be joining ones which are actually worthwhile. So I've a tool to help me find more groups and filter through for the ones I actually want.

This means I'm able to get into niches faster and test them out with less waiting around before I'm able to push some traffic.

I'm also changing how I post to groups. It does (likely) mean I'm going to get a lower click through but the hope is I can post more often without losing accounts or groups getting bored of me in the long run so I'm hoping being able to post more often beats the cost of the lower click through.

One of my niches I think is just too spammy. It's not bots spamming but just players constantly spamming each other and there's not enough groups to make it worthwhile. It drives some traffic but I don't think there is enough to make it worthwhile. Might give it one last shot but I think I'm pulling out of that one.

Running some more tests tomorrow and preparing a few new niches.

Alright so the test results are a little screwed for today because I messed up the setup and probably just wrecked an account or two. Oh well, live and learn.

Broke 600 UV's for one niche it would have been more but for the massive screw up. The different hook doesn't work so well though with just over a 10% CTR. It did make its first conversion today - but on a small $1.50 CPA offer not the three figure products I've been trying to sell. This wasn't a major focus of the LP and was a banner link sitting on the site I've been promoting a three figure product I sell elsewhere for that niche.

In total I've had 200 hops onto the sales page without a conversion yet. That's still way too low a sample size to get anything from. But I don't think this niche is going to buy three figure products with cold traffic. So I think I need to take a different tact with this niche for sure. Probably a good idea to let those accounts lie low for a while anyway but I'm going to change the funnel around.

I'm ditching the second niche. There's a little traffic there but I don't think they'd be worth the work trying to convert them. I've found a more professional version of that niche with CPA offers to test with. Probably a better idea.

I picked out two other niches and improved my group finding setup a bit more. One niche is pretty big. Huge in fact. The other is much smaller than I was hoping but I know both of them so I'll run a few tests and see what happens.

I might run one smaller test run tomorrow but for the most part I just need to scrape and filter a ton of group lists for different niches and make some site content to post for them. I want to be posting to 10 different niches by the end of next week.

Any accounts that got banned so far?
Is the domain you are using a warmed up or a new domain?

I am setting up my own network of sites but its facebook I just don't get. Even with my own handmade profiles I always end up with that annoying prove your friends pictures thing.

At 50 accounts isn't that going a bit overboard?
At 50 accounts isn't there a danger of posting to the same groups, the same url?

Thanks coz this is one journey I shall follow with a lot of interest.

markantos said:

I am setting up my own network of sites but its facebook I just don't get. Even with my own handmade profiles I always end up with that annoying prove your friends pictures thing.

At 50 accounts isn't that going a bit overboard?
At 50 accounts isn't there a danger of posting to the same groups, the same url?

Thanks coz this is one journey I shall follow with a lot of interest.

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Outside of the group postings the accounts act like normal accounts throughout most of the day doing the normal Facebook user thing.

I wouldn't say 50 accounts is going overboard. The more accounts I have the more niches I can test. The more I can test the sooner I'll find one which produces good results. Proxies are cheap and SIM cards are easy.

And no not unless I really screw up - that won't happen.

Spawnie said:

Any accounts that got banned so far?
Is the domain you are using a warmed up or a new domain?

Click to expand...

No accounts banned so far though after a mishap with the testing I do expect to lose a small couple of them. Really though the stuff I'm posting gets liked, gets shared and starts discussions in the comments. It's not the usual spam stuff these groups are used to seeing. That's not to say I don't think accounts will get banned. But I do expect them to last long enough for me to decide if I want other accounts to replace them in that niche. The goal is to constantly have more accounts warming up as I go.

The domains are a mixture. Some old, some new and I use a couple in each niche.

Be *very* wary of account providers on the forums here. Even if their sale threads have been running for months I've been getting crazy delays, horrible footprints on the accounts (one account banned without even doing anything) and a flat out lie telling me a 3 day old account is the six month + one I paid for.

Sigh.

Ordered more accounts from my original source they seem to do a far better job. Still creating my own as well but it's a dull job I'm looking to get a VA to handle that part.

Scraped and filtered some new group lists for different niches. Will have to work on some other projects for a few days while I get in to some groups then I'll run a couple of tests in different niches.

This is very useful and good for many different people. It helps you control you Facebook without any of the effort that it takes. Handy and easy to use and understand!