Newb Facebook Questions

[tjdaz]

Alright, so I know I posted a few days ago about getting into Google Adwords, but after reading up on Facebook it seems to be a little bit easier to jump into. I've read through lots of info here, but some of it was a little bit dated so I just wanted some clarifications to make sure I'm doing it right before blowing $1,000 dollars.

So here it is, I'm waiting on approval from a few affiliate networks right now and loading up $1,000 dollars on a prepaid card so I don't fuck my credit to start. I'm going to focus on leads as oppose to sales as it seems those are complete fail on Facebook.

Here are my questions:

1. When they give me a suggested bid range, where should I be bidding to start? I realize that I will have to bid high, but should I start a few cents under the suggested range to start? (ex: bid range is .24 - .36, should I bid .20?)

2. What is a decent click rate at this point of time? I read .2 was minimum last I checked, wanted to make sure this stands.

3. At how many impressions with a decent click through rate should I start dropping my bid?

4. When I do start dropping my bid, should it be in .05 cent increments? I'm assuming I would do this slowly, but how rapidly should I start declining my max bids? I'm thinking this will most likely be trial and error.

5. What should I set my daily limit at for testing on say a $1.50 payout zip/email submit? I was thinking about $5.00 to start.

6. With $1,000 start up budget I doubt that I will be breaking $1,000 a week for weekly wires, do affiliate networks ever do bi-weekly payouts until you hit that mark to allow for scaling?

7. I'm googling coupons and it seems everything that was previously out there has expired in the past few months. I am fucking pissed I missed the one that let you start with a $300 credit. Are there any coupons active that you can point me to?

Any other help and advice is appreciated, thanks in advance for your answers. Sorry for the tldr.

 

[Volume10]

Prepaid card isn't going to work. Not sure how you would fuck your credit running FB ads.

1. It depends on the offer. Some verticals I bid below, some in the middle.
2. It depends on the offer. I have CTR that are below .1 and get more volume then on some that I have .3.
3. It depends on the offer. I have campaigns where I don't drop it at all as it typically hurts conversions of that specific campaign. The first concern should be getting the right eCPM so that you are going to continually get impressions.
4. It depends on the campaign. If I had to put an avg. on it I would say in increments of .03. You will have to wait and see how it effects your volume and how it effects your conversions.
5. Wow. Don't do email/zip submits but lets say you do. Even if I was starting out with only $1000 to spend I couldn't imagine a $5/day cap. What could you learn from that? Remember you are not suppose to be spending money you can't afford to part with or you are in the wrong business. Here is an example of why $5 is just incredibly worthless - let's say some how you luck into getting clicks at $0.15/click right out of the gate without having to try 50 different copies/offer combos. $5/day gives you only 33 clicks (and again that is with a eCPC you are prob not going to get). With that few clicks look at how just 2 or 3 conversions can change your ROI. If you hit a run of 10-20 clicks and no conversions the offer may look like shit but the next 10 clicks all might have converted.
6. No. Not going to happen unless you are a girl and you are fucking the boss.
7. No coupons. FB doesn't want any more affiliates.

In an environment that is filled with people thinking it is an easy quick buck it is important to take to the time to find an offer that you can target very aggressively. Facebook's and Myspace's platforms are really easy to jump on and get started with but backing them out is a totally different story.

Good luck bros.

 

[tjdaz]

Prepaid card isn't going to work. Not sure how you would fuck your credit running FB ads.

1. It depends on the offer. Some verticals I bid below, some in the middle.
2. It depends on the offer. I have CTR that are below .1 and get more volume then on some that I have .3.
3. It depends on the offer. I have campaigns where I don't drop it at all as it typically hurts conversions of that specific campaign. The first concern should be getting the right eCPM so that you are going to continually get impressions.
4. It depends on the campaign. If I had to put an avg. on it I would say in increments of .03. You will have to wait and see how it effects your volume and how it effects your conversions.
5. Wow. Don't do email/zip submits but lets say you do. Even if I was starting out with only $1000 to spend I couldn't imagine a $5/day cap. What could you learn from that? Remember you are not suppose to be spending money you can't afford to part with or you are in the wrong business. Here is an example of why $5 is just incredibly worthless - let's say some how you luck into getting clicks at $0.15/click right out of the gate without having to try 50 different copies/offer combos. $5/day gives you only 33 clicks (and again that is with a eCPC you are prob not going to get). With that few clicks look at how just 2 or 3 conversions can change your ROI. If you hit a run of 10-20 clicks and no conversions the offer may look like shit but the next 10 clicks all might have converted.
6. No. Not going to happen unless you are a girl and you are fucking the boss.
7. No coupons. FB doesn't want any more affiliates.

In an environment that is filled with people thinking it is an easy quick buck it is important to take to the time to find an offer that you can target very aggressively. Facebook's and Myspace's platforms are really easy to jump on and get started with but backing them out is a totally different story.

Good luck bros.

First, thanks for the advice, it is all very helpful. Right now I'm willing to part with $1,000. From there I will scale with profits (hopefully there are profits) however if not, it is lost, and that is fine. About my credit, I just didn't want a large amount on it that puts it close to capping out, but that is fine as well, I can just use my debit card and manage it a little more closely.

It makes sense that $5.00 is low for testing. What would you recommend I set the max daily budget at initially for testing? Or how many clicks should I get to initially judge a campaign?

Lastly, I plan on targeting the fuck out of my first project (at least), but why do you recommend against zip/email submits? Thanks for the heads up, but what would be the best type of offer to promote on Facebook?

 

[dewme5]

The first concern should be getting the right eCPM so that you are going to continually get impressions.

Is that a suggestion to use CPM instead of CPC on facebook? What's the strategy behind that?

 

[Volume10]

I like to help when I can. I come to the Noob section every once in a while and see what I can give back. I have been in internet marketing since 01 so I have alot of useless knowledge I like to let out every once in a while.

Unless you are direct with a major player it is hard to make zip/email submits work in social media. IMO Not going to get direct with a major player until you can bring teh volume. That being said if you find any offer email submit or other lead offer that you can seriously target then it is worth a test.

@dewme5 - def not a suggestion to use CPM. I am saying that Facebook is looking at the eCPM that you bring them. Why wouldn't they. There surely are other factors but at the end of the day if it is not making money for FB it gets no play. So that's the first threshold you must consider. I rarely buy on CPM anywhere including FB. Your eCPM is listed in your ads manager on FB. It converts your CTR and avg CPC right there for you. But you should really get as familiar as you can with the metrics so you can figure out what in your campaigns might need tweaking.