Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Newer Mobile & Social Media Traffic Sources to Check Out


As a media buyer and overall performance marketing enthusiast, I'm always interested in the next "big" thing and keep my eyes and ears open to traffic sources and ideas that can produce money for me, my company, or you - our partners.  Although I haven't tested these new sources out yet, I thought I'd pass them on to you so that if you get to them first, or have tested them already, you can provide some feedback that we can leverage and learn from as a private community. 

The first category to highlight are mobile traffic sources.  Of course most of us already use Google, Admob, Mojiva, Adfonic and more, but have you heard of these?  I haven't.  So, assuming they haven't been inundated yet, using newer unknown networks can lower your traffic costs thereby increasing your volume and profitability.

- MobFox.com:SELF SERVICE for performance marketers.  In addition to a ads that can be targeted quite well, they just launched MobFox:vAd (beta).  This is a new ad format that allows you to show Premium Interstitials and Video Ads on iOS and Android. Cool, huh?

- MKMob.com: SELF SERVICE; Great targeting capabilities; geographically, by keywords, manufacturers or device; capping allowed; global reach.  It's easy to get started and they have a low minimum funding amount to start.

- HuntmAds.com; NOT SELF SERVICE (as far as I can tell)  Noted as the leading mobile network for Latin America.  A great place to begin marketing Hispanic offers.  Get an account manager and give it a try.  Media kit online for campaign and creative requirements.

Next, social media.  Most of us have tried Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Plenty of Fish.  Pintrest.com is growing and shows promise and then there are 15 million (LOL) others I could go on to share with you.  But have you ever heard of Staree.com? I never had until our long time affiliate and well known internet marketing guru Zac Johnson (zacjohnson.com) presented it on his website (http://zacjohnson.com/?s=staree) and at a local conference recently.

Endorsed by Mario Lopez, EXTRA host and TV personality and owned by IZEA, a huge social media company, Staree links to favorite social media accounts with a click of a button and claims to make you money from photos and videos shared withing the community. Since May 17th they've had over 1.1 million visits. So, have you tried this yet?  Is it for real? How much money are you making? What kind of campaigns work here? Is this the next "big" thing?

Finally, what offers work best on these new sources?  Take a look below at what REXTOPIA & REXCONNECTS has added over the last week or two.  In an effort to drive quality traffic to our lead buyers, I encourage you to explore new sources and new ways to increase conversion rates and profitability.  Should you need support to take the next step, let us know.  We would love to help you and share our results as we explore this ever changing and growing world of traffic sources.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Rex Direct Net, Inc. was recently named Top 100 Women Owned Businesses in New Jersey [Rank:47] by Diversity Business.

Top 5 Lessons Learned at LeadsCon


Last week Vito and I went to LeadsCon in Las Vegas.  The show was invigorating - we learned a lot and met people we'd only spoken with before.  Here are my top 5 takeaways from the conference.

1.  It's important to go to industry shows that are relevant to you.  Because we do business with so many people we've never met, it's essential to get out there and foster relationships in a way that can only be done in person.  I encourage everyone to participate in at least one show per year.

2.  Slowly but surely, the performance based marketing industry is getting legitimized.  Agencies are beginning to appreciate and buy media on a cost per acquisition basis. Lead generation companies have gone public and are successful.  Examples include Quin Street and Bankrate.

3.  High growth verticals are projected to be or continue to be:  education, insurance, home services, legal services and senior care.

4.  Transparency, supported by new technologies, is a growing trend within the space.  New innovations are allowing clients that buy media to review precise site placements, creatives, and data real time.  With these new intelligence tools, it will become easier to weed out bad sources of data, penalize fraudsters, and grow relationships aggressively with quality providers.

5.   The performance based marketing industry is a fun, super smart crowd.  They work hard and play even harder.  Creativity is clearly evident and optimism is prevalent.  We all agree that this is a great space to be in and want to see it grow.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

REXCONNECTS - Pay Per Call Update


Did you know that you can now build your own landing pages for ppcall offer using REXCONNECTS (if the campaign allows it)?  It's easy.  Just login to your account.  Select a campaign.  Goto advanced links. Then open landing pages and applications. Add new landing page.  There rest of the details are self explanatory.  Have fun and try it out!

Here's to your creative juices flowing....
Jennine

Predicting the Performance Marketing Trends for 2012

Happy New Year!  Here are my predictions for performance marketing trends in 2012.  As a special bonus, I share with you the top 3 ideas on how REXTOPIA can be a source for you in leveraging these opportunities.

1.  Pay Per Call Will Be a Growing Trend This Year:
As most of you know, we've been supporting ppcall for over 2 years via our REXCONNECTS platform.  It can be accessed via your REXTOPIA interface - top right - if you want to see what offers are available.  We are focusing this year on bringing in new exclusive offers, like LaserSpineHelp, and direct ones like Total DUI.  If you haven't begun exploring ppcall because you are unsure how to go about marketing them, please visit MOBILEMONEYBANDIT.COM.  Justin Elenburg has done a great job explaining the process in his new course available 1.12.12.  Because Justin is a friend and associate, I had the opportunity to preview the training materials.  If you are serious about learning the RIGHT way generate revenue from ppcall offers, please consider his course.

2.  Mobile is a Ripening Opportunity:
Justin also covers in his course, the basics of mobile marketing and optimization techniques.  Over the next few months you will be seeing more mobile offers in REXTOPIA to take advantage of the growing mobile inventory available.  We have partnered with a mobile landing page optimization engine and will be building exclusive landing pages to leverage the growth of the mobile marketing industry.  This technology along with the back end validation resources we've instituted as a company will ensure quality leads to our buyers. For an example of our initial offering check out (EXCLUSIVE) DUI Mobile, more to come soon!

3.  Demand for Quality Leads with Increase CPL Payouts: There is tremendous emphasis on lead quality.  Rex Direct Net has spent considerable time, money and other resources building out processes to ensure our clients receive the best available.  We are already seeing the benefits of this strategy as we get rate increases that we pass on to you.

Thank you for your continued support of our company and solutions.  We wish you all the best in 2012 and look forward to helping you reach  your financial goals.

Happy New Year,
Jennine

Let's Talk Mobile for a Minute


Mobile Madness has finally hit.  I've been anticipating it since 2004!  Here are a few thoughts on how to take advantage of this trend (that is here to stay) and how Rex Direct Net can support you.

There are variety of ways to get and monetize mobile traffic.  Let's start with the getting...

The easiest way to get traffic is to leverage mobile ad networks. Some are better than others, you will need to decide for yourself. These are a few I've tested. They are not listed in any particular order.

1. Mojiva.com
2. Admob.com
3. Adfonic.com
4. BuzzCity.com
5. Webmoblink.com
6. Google.com
7. Jumptap.com
8. Airpush.com


How do I decide which network is best? Here are a few things I look for when evaluating them:
- How fast they approve my ad
- How responsive customer service is
- How well does traffic perform
- How effective are their targeting capabilities
- Do they have variable insertion for my links
- How transparent is their reporting. 

It takes money, patience and meticulous organization to make these campaigns profitable, but once you find the magic formula you will be set for a long while.

What is the magic formula - well...here are few hints:
- Make sure you track using subid variables in cake to ensure you know what the formula is when you find it!  - Test and track variations in: source, carrier, and handset (to name the most important in my opinion).
- Test various ad copy to boost click through rates.

Rextopia helps you find the magic formula by giving you these tools you need to start and by optimizing landing pages associated with our exclusive offers.  In this way we can increase your conversion rates real time.

Creatives are typically text or image. Test at least 2 creatives at once. Separate campaigns by creative type. Optimize based on performance until click through rates are where you want them to be (typically .1 or higher.)  We have loaded a few banners in REXTOPIA, but if you want to create your own, feel free.  Just pass the designs by your affiliate manager prior to promoting.

What about the click to call options in these mobile ad networks? How do they compare with sending traffic direct to landing pages? I've played with click to call via mobile on some of these networks, but have had limited success.  Maybe you can do better?  Seems that people are more responsive to filling out a form, than clicking and calling.  Perhaps in the near future that will change.

Real tracking with mobile offers can be tricky for some affiliates that have their own systems.  The only way to know if a transaction went through is with a S2S pixel or post back URL.  That is why some mobile pubs prefer to host their own landing pages.  Our exclusive mobile offers can be hosted by our publishers provided that the landing page is approved prior to going live.  If you fall into this group, ask your affiliate manager for more information.

We don't have a TON of mobile offers right now, but we DO HAVE A FEW.  Join REXTOPIA to get more information on the latest available.

Here's to a super successful 2012 in the mobile space.
Jennine