AWESOME Case Study! Meet MGID Or How Not To Eat Shit.

[Anastasia AdCombo]

AdCombo How-To

Meet MGID or how not to eat shit



Hey there, dear friends.



Possibly, some of you, guys, have already seen our special activities like Traffic Hunters and ChocoLead in AdCombo. These splendid events are about to be finished, thus, the only thing we are to do is to award the winners. But we want to have more fun with you, mates. That is why we’ve launched one more super-contest Teaser Challenge with our colleagues from MGID.

What’s the deal?



Any affiliate, having joined our agency in MGID, receives a 10% of money spent in MGID during the event BACK! I mean, you have the traffic 10% cheaper in fact. Moreover, every 100 of approved cash-on-delivery leads in AdCombo will be awarded with a bonus $100 on your balance in MGID platform.



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This really looks interesting, but the fact is we’ve faced an unexpected problem.

Lots of either newbie or experienced affiliate marketers still do not know what MGID traffic is, where it’s from and how it works.

So, today’s How-To will be about MGID and how not to eat shit when dealing with it. It is time to fill gaps in your knowledge, friends. I will disclose some secret facts about MGID, show you an actual case-study and give you a little useful hint. So stay focused while reading.

Let’s go!



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So, MGID itself insists that it provides NATIVE DISPLAY traffic.



Everybody knows that Display traffic is the most delicious and most wanted for the majority CPA-offers. When this Display clicks are also native – such stream of traffic must really bomb!

But not so fast! We know that every Ad Platform declares its traffic to be of the highest quality. At the same time they trade you bots (you can read about it here).



And, please, let me be boring, as I will never stop repeating: Before having even a single click of traffic in an Ad Network purchased - investigate its quality and origin, find the reviews of your colleagues.



There is an interesting graphic in MGID blog. Let us have a look:



Splendid values. But the very important thing about traffic is its origin. Don’t get yourself fooled with such numbers.

As MGID uses its domain (mgid.com) to track and redirect traffic, it is possible to investigate the traffic via services like SimilarWeb and Ahrefs without using any spy tools.



This trick will not work with e.g. Zeropark or Exoclick, as they use tracking domains different from their major one.

Have a look at the main sources MGID get traffic from:



Truth be told: that is a good portfolio! Most of the sources are video-sharing websites, news websites, and some minor Ad Networks (MGID arbitrages traffic from them at higher bids). As huge number of networks have Adult Websites in their list of sources, news and videos are good news (sorry my tautology ^_^ )



Got it? Moving further…



What are the top Geos? Have a look:



Top geos of MGID are OK. I like that 5.46% of traffic coming from Spain. It is much promising for AdCombo. We have a lot of offers for this region.



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Now let us check the promos MGID uses.

As they name themselves a Native Display Ad Network, I think it’s rather controversial. Now, have a look at the contents MGID provides. These are the most popular examples of a network:



And such creative bring you traffic when you deal with MGID. You may look through this top-list here:

MGID



The very NATIVE DISPLAY ads look exactly like this:



I do not know why this Russian ads is displayed to me ^_^


Such kind of Ads is called teaser. The aim of a teaser is to attract the attention of a user. The teaser itself does not promote the offer (nevertheless it should be relevant to a product you promote). In this way, it should consist of the contents inducing the interest of the user.

The teaser itself usually sends the user to a prelander website. Prelander motivates him to follow the Landing Page. And it is quite obvious when the elements of combo teaser+prelander+landing page do not 100% match each other.

There is no need to be a genius to find out that such a scheme provides the affiliate with not well targeted traffic. Such clicks need to be targeted with additional options that the affiliate could find the right audience. But unfortunately, MGID doesn’t have such options:



You are allowed to choose from the Country/Region, web-browser, default language and platform. A truly bad thing, indeed. But the chance when the affiliate marketer outplays himself with targeting audiences is gradually decreased.

By the way, every piece of the information needed to target campaigns in MGID you may request from your Affiliate Managers. They will not be opposed to share such data.



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Now it’s time to test MGID ourselves.

Opinion makers usually share a good idea: None of the manuals or guides is true until they are tested.

Any voodoo with SimilarWeb magic and dances around the Ad Platform will not test the source of traffic for you.

According to the top list of teasers, one of the most popular niches in MGID is nutra-products. There are dozens of banners with weight loss contents. If they are used, then they work. That is why diet offer was chosen.

I’ve already noticed that Spain is a top Geo in MGID. Cash-on-Delivery model is rather popular there. The cost of nutra CPA-products in AdCombo is lower than other “classmates” have. So we are in.



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MGID works on the basis of eCPM model in RTB (real time bidding) mode. The crucial fact you should know about eCPM is => you may get traffic cheaper, when your promos have high rates of CTR. And that is the reason why top teasers are not completely relevant to the products they promote. Using this method affiliates get cheaper traffic to the offers.

To tell the truth – you’ll start shitting bricks before CTR climbs to the good values. Seriously, this is spadework, because usually good CTR is achieved after multiple restarts of dozens of teasers until it “catches the wave”.

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We tested the following combo: MGID traffic + AdCombo Affiliate Network + Chocolate slim – ES offer



Here is the lander of the offer itself:



To get traffic at a lower price we had to produce a HUGE amount of tests with promos. Have a look:







Sorry, but we have censored the most effective teasers, as some swift boys may use them and make it competitive.

The campaign is active at the moment, the affiliate is making money on it at THIS VERY MOMENT.

There had been totally purchased more than 20 k of clicks and $1380 spent:



What are the results? Let us see:



*Please, bear in mind, that traffic managers in AdCombo have lower payout rates (75%) than the affiliates (100%) That is why the payout in the screenshot is $13.5 instead of $18.00.



Of course, there will be the guys telling this case-study is a trash as $1417 of profits minus $1380 of money spent => is only a $37 of profits. BUT HUSH!

It is a running campaign and 64 of leads are still waiting to be handled. I predict that at least half of them will be approved sales and the total profit will grow.

What is more! Remember, that the traffic is purchased via our agency account in MGID, so it is 10% cheaper. By the end of the month, $138 will be refunded to affiliate’s account. And do not forget about the $100 bonus per every 100 of approved leads. Summarize the total benefits, and there will be a good profit indeed.

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Now let us think it over and give you the brief review:

First – Traffic from MGID definitely works, no matter what others say

Second – The quality of this traffic is not, well, excellent. 50% of cancelled leads on COD offers is a really baaaaaad value :)

Third – The only chance to make money on COD offers in MGID is to be a hardworking boy. You have to play with CTR rates of promos to get traffic at low prices.

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And no more lyrics for today. There is money in MGID for affiliates, but most of you will not even try to take it. For now, I’m going to give you the most effective piece of advice: Do it! Grab all the traffic, make a try!

0% of the efforts that hadn’t been made brought any profit. So, make a try then!

That’s it. Bye!