Case Study: Results of Pop-Under Dating Ad Campaign on Adsterra

In an interesting case study published by Adsterra advertiser Ravi Ahuja, Ahuja looks at the performance of pop-under ads for adult dating site offers on the Adsterra network. Although limited in its scope and duration, the study yielded some potentially useful tips for advertisers, particularly those who already advertise on the Adsterra network, or are considering doing so.

As explained in the case study, Ahuja chose a double opt-in dating offer with a $3.80 payout for each approved registration, targeting the German market.

“The offer is mobile, and competition is high, it sounds like a challenge,” Ahuja noted.

Observing that Europe is a “highly competitive region,” Ahuja identified a need to “to invent some workarounds to push in a new offer into an oversaturated market.”

“In my case, I decided to run a campaign with a high bid, to get, if not the first, then at least the second or third impression,” Ahuja explained in the case study. “That sounds risky, but anyway, you will get your traffic and your conversions, but in a smaller amount. I decided to set the bid at $2.25.”

An important aspect of the campaign, Ahuja wrote, was selecting the creatives used as pre-landers – something which was dictated in part by the terms and conditions set by the affiliate program whose dating offers were included in the campaign. Naturally, the program in question prohibits the use of misleading creatives and Ahuja also noted the need to use “very soft solutions” to avoid having a campaign terminated for violation of terms.

“In such cases, I usually recommend choosing pre-landers with questionnaires that don’t say that you are guaranteed to find yourself a couple for a night, love of all your life, etc.,” Ahuja wrote. “Try to make such a questionnaire that will attract users to give information about their preferences so that in the future, you can correct pre-landers.”

Ahuja added that while it’s important to try out different creatives and to refresh a campaign periodically, it’s also “important to understand that changing creatives too often can also carry a threat.”

“You may not have enough time to get those converting users who really like your pre-lander,” he observed. “Therefore, you should do everything in moderation, wait some days, change, wait again, and so on, until you find the perfect option for this or that offer.”

In terms of optimizing the campaign, Ahuja warned it is best not to overdo things, or to “pinch targeting too hard” as he puts it, because “you can lose a large piece of traffic.”

The upshot of Ahuja’s campaign, in which he spent $238.50 advertising on Adsterra, was $402.80 in income, for a profit of $164.30 – and ROI of 69%.

While limited in scope, Ahuja was pleased with the outcome and predicted that other Adsterra users could generate similar results by following his approach.

“To be honest, that was quite a risky and challenging campaign,” Ahuja wrote. “I had some difficulties with campaign settings because I underestimated bids for Europe and spent a couple of days determining the perfect bid. As you can see, you can work even with difficult Geo’s if you follow the plan and action order. I advise you to try adult yourself on a small budget, and I think you will like it.”

To read Ahuja’s full case study, click here.