My Media Buying Nightmare... Thoughts?

(I dont know if this is considered CPA or Media Buying)... But anywho, so where do I start? 3 months ago I had no idea what media buying and CPA stuff was. I actually was talking with a super affiliate, (who does $20K a day in profit through media buying), about a project of mine, getting his input. So he said "To be honest, I would just give up on this, and do media buying like me". And thats where it started.

At first I thought, heck no, I have no idea what that is, how to get started, what to do. Theres a million sites and books, and suggestions about it, way to overwhelming! But eventually gave it a shot. It took me weeks to learn all this stuff, from learning the tracking script software, to coding landing pages, to understanding traffic sources, a/b testing, how to get banners, What networks to use, ripping, traffic sources, placements, what niches, etc... Very time consuming to get to where I am now.


Spending:
So I started with the tracking software recommended, ImobiTrax. Its just a script you install on a server, and The software recommends you get a dedicated server. So I dropped $200 on a Bluehost Dedicated server. Which I never really needed, VPS would of been fine, so I learned the hardway.


I started off with running adult offers on TrafficJunky. Multiple landers, multiple banners, tried different placements and bids, different porn sites. Also did foreign offers like Denmark, Norway, & Germany. I would always get a conversion or 2, but would lose way more than I made. I would spend $50 on TJ, make $10 back. Spent about $275 total before giving up on TJ.

So I moved onto other things like JuicyAds. Started with a $250 RON campaign for an adult dating offer. Juicy requires special tokens to be inputted in your tracking software, but my JuicyAds affiliate manager told me there was nothing I needed to do for tracking on my end, that JuicyAds would track it all for me, and its good to be started. Well ended up he was way wrong, so the campaign did not track correctly. $250 down the toilet!!! On top of that, JuicyAds has a terrible engineering dept, account budget is only updated every few hours, so the campaign went to -$76 before shutting off. So the total loss was $325. Sure, its my fault for not knowing better and adding tracking tokens in my tracking software, but this idiot guy assured me multiple times I didnt need to do anything, and never even apologized. I had told him I was new to this and would need his help... pff w/e. -- So I fixed that issue, and added another $110, started a new RON campaign, made $25 back. Then used those stats to optimize it, only used the highest converting ads and landers, blocked bad site sources, and Added another $100. But still only made $31 back. Added $50 more, optimized the stats more, and made $15 back. I narrowed down the stats and optimized it as much as possible, I got to the point where I was hardly getting and traffic cause I narrowed it down so much. So after $675+ on JuicyAds, I said screw that. Its over.

Searched around, & found Exoclick. Found a good offer my CPA network recommended. So gave it a shot. I used 10 Banners, 5 landers, 5 bridge landers, etc... Well after a week of optimizing, I blew through $150 with maybe $20 to show for for.

And that was it, I was done. $1300 spent in 3 months, made like $120 back. Pretty much a complete waste. Dont know how you media buying guys do it, doing CPA offers and making big money, cause gosh, it seems like gambling, you either make a ton of money, or lose a ton of money. Definitely put everything I could into it, but is what it is! One thing I really hated is when people would tell me "Its your network" you need a better network. Thats BS & irrelevant, cause whenever I compared payouts, the network I was using was very high, and legit. Even if my payouts were 3X what I was getting, I would still be losing money. And the offers I used were really good offers, with great landing pages, recommended by many. So its irrelevant. I think its all about getting high converting traffic, which I failed at. Hopefully I can get back into it one day....

What a shame i always thought that media buys was the way to go although personally i've never tried it because people on here have said you really have to know what you're doing, but hey how do you learn unless you first fail? I think you gave it a good shot but you just need a better coach.

Don't give up on it yet, it can be extremely lucrative. Keep trying when you can and eventually you'll hit a sweet spot
and you won't be wanting to tell people your exact method because of the struggle you went through to finally achieve it.

Trial & Error.

hateandbreak said:

Don't give up on it yet, it can be extremely lucrative. Keep trying when you can and eventually you'll hit a sweet spot
and you won't be wanting to tell people your exact method because of the struggle you went through to finally achieve it.

Trial & Error.

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Ehh, I know what you mean. But I just dont see that possibility, it would cost so much to do enough testing to find something that works. I dont think its really something you can just put $5 into every now and then, yuh know?

Bestindabiz said:

What a shame i always thought that media buys was the way to go although personally i've never tried it because people on here have said you really have to know what you're doing, but hey how do you learn unless you first fail? I think you gave it a good shot but you just need a better coach.

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Yeah, Im not an expert at it, but I definitely would not recommend it until you have money, or have 1 on 1 coaching by some friend or something, who's willing to help you out

Dont give up, there's plenty more money you can lose if you just stick with it!

Your problem is that youre expecting everyone else to show you the ropes and help you make money, doesn't work that way buddy boy.

lol, not sure where in the post I said I expected others to do stuff for me. I did & learned everything on my own. Occasionally asked a few questions here and there, who doesnt? Never had anyone show me the ropes for anything else. Considering I didnt even know what "media buying" meant 12 weeks ago, I think I did a pretty good job learning.

The only only time I ever expected someone to show me something, was the JuicyAds guy to show me how their tracking system worked, as its different from others. But that was nothing, just tracking tokens.
I could go on the thread you posted asking for help with php coding, and say "your expecting others to fix your coding problems, it doesnt work that way buddy boy." See what I mean? Not being rude, just pointing it out.

phatzilla said:

Dont give up, there's plenty more money you can lose if you just stick with it!

Your problem is that youre expecting everyone else to show you the ropes and help you make money, doesn't work that way buddy boy.

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Sorry thats just what i gleaned from reading your post.

Don't give up man - sounds like you have a good understanding of how it works. Now you need to work on optimization and you should start seeing a profit.

Not to sound mean, but you sound like the "cattle" Ruck described verbatim in the foreword of IMGrind's Adult Media Buying Guide.

If you can't figure it out, cut back by half, and if you can get it working double forward, always works for me.

dabandit said:

Not to sound mean, but you sound like the "cattle" Ruck described verbatim in the foreword of IMGrind's Adult Media Buying Guide.

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I haven't read his guide. But Im sure its referencing the 99% who try media buying and fail at it. There's a lot of guides and forums out there. Even if you read them all, still only a small percentage make it. I think $1300 though is a pretty darn good attempt at it. Just gonna have to wait till I can get back to it in a few months.

HalfHumble said:

I haven't read his guide. But Im sure its referencing the 99% who try media buying and fail at it. There's a lot of guides and forums out there. Even if you read them all, still only a small percentage make it. I think $1300 though is a pretty darn good attempt at it. Just gonna have to wait till I can get back to it in a few months.

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I had the same experience with adsense, i'd research keywords, find excellent low comp keywords, spend $500 on quality hand written articles, maybe another few hundred on seo and I'd make $20 back before the site completely tanked. I kept researching and I started to get the hang of it. Good luck, I hope you will have success next time.

Numbuh362 said:

I had the same experience with adsense, i'd research keywords, find excellent low comp keywords, spend $500 on quality hand written articles, maybe another few hundred on seo and I'd make $20 back before the site completely tanked. I kept researching and I started to get the hang of it. Good luck, I hope you will have success next time.

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Jeeze! Thats a ton. Pretty good you still stuck with it

Have u taken a look at wasted's threads here?

he's the godfather of media buys.

thats a ton of money down the drain. It does take allot of money, time, research, trial and error to get it right.

and hateandbreak is right. I realize why people don't put out much info on this niche. This is where the real money is at.

Yeah, I have read that. Im sure he does huge money. He makes good points though, that its all about optimization.

Cratos said:

Have u taken a look at wasted's threads here?

he's the godfather of media buys.

thats a ton of money down the drain. It does take allot of money, time, research, trial and error to get it right.

and hateandbreak is right. I realize why people don't put out much info on this niche. This is where the real money is at.

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If you guys want to get in touch with the big boys,

here is Wasted's BST thread: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ystem-create-campaigns-minutes-free-demo.html

It's virtually impossible to find since it is closed. And Wasted is busy taking care of business it seems.

Good Luck Guys. Let us know how it goes.

Media buying is big boy teritory. I suggest finding something more manageble and keep it as a side hustle for the moment. When the other thing will start working you can get back to testing it. I think 1.3k is a decent test sum but if you though you were going to see results with that kind of money you were optimistic. But never give up on it because thats where the big money is

@OP, at least you made a little bit of money. Some people thousands yet have a hard time getting 1 conversion.

It takes time to profit from media buys. Stick to 1 traffic source and try to do everything you can to master it.