5 Things to Test on Native Ads in 2019

[TLDRMoney]

Over the past 3 years I've noticed many offers come and go on Native ads. One day you will see a few ads for a specific offer/vertical... Within a month you are seeing a massive influx in people running the same offer. Within 3 months all you see is ads for this specific offer. The market becomes saturated and click costs go through the roof. By the 6 month mark people are falling off and start moving to the next big thing.

This is expect and a typical cycle for an internet marketer... BUT... What if some ads/offers/verticals NEVER die? I'm not getting into "Evergreen" niches in this post but rather some unsuspecting ads/offers/verticals that have been running strong for at least 3 years and have NO sign of dying anytime soon. Most of these are in the form of VSL offers.

What is a VSL offer?

For those of you how don’t know, VSL’s (Video Sales Letter) are videos that do the selling for you on a sales page for an offer Direct linking is rarely a good idea when testing however VSL offers do the selling for you. It is still sometimes a good idea to have some form of a landing page to add a layer of data to your campaign and root out bots/undesired clicks. We will see an example of this later in the list

Here is my list of things to test on Native in 2019.

1.) Weight loss VSL Offers

Weight loss is obviously an "Evergreen" niche but it's actually the VSL style offers that have been running consistently for years (On Native). I personally have done over $60k in sales on a weight loss VSL named "Flat Belly Protocol".

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LANDING/OFFER PAGE (VSL)

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2.) Male Enhancement

Erectile dysfunction is hard to deal with... or so it seems by the looks of the Native landscape and the longevity of advertising "Blue pills" online. These offers are not typically VSL offers however, I'm sure Male Enhancement VSL offers exist and therefore are worth testing.

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LANDING PAGE

OFFER PAGE

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3.) Diabetes

Like weight loss, diabetes is another vertical that is not going anywhere anytime soon. In fact they also share the same target demographic. Here is another VSL style offer worth testing. This time there is a "Pre-landing" page that helps qualify the viewer with a few questions.

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PRE-LANDING PAGE

OFFER PAGE

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4.) Skin Care

Weight Loss & Skin are the "Never Dying Duo". The major difference between them is that there are few "Digital" products for skin care. Weight loss can occur by having the "Right" knowledge and action plan which is often sold in Ebook form (digital). Skin care issues typically need a physical product and are rarely sold via VSL.

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LANDING PAGE

OFFER PAGE

5.) Casino

Casino has been profitable for the past 3 years on various native platform. This is probably the most saturated out of the list but with multiple Casino offers and MANY different geo locations, this is certainly worth testing.

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LANDING PAGE

OFFER PAGE

This concludes the list.. Feel free to ask how to get started testing! Do you have a better list? Post it below!

 

[wamaithakim]

How can I get started on this Bill?

 

[TLDRMoney]

wamaithakim Have you run Native ads in the past?

 

[mohamed1986]

So for the weight loss VSL you just direct link without a landing page? Is that VSL offer the same Flat Belly offer you guys have on Vault Media? It's surprising that the flat belly offer and its variations are not saturated by now. There are so many affiliates running those ads in the English speaking Geos like the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK according to my spy-tool. Also that offer probably wouldn't work in other Geos where English is not spoken because the VSL is in English? Also the advertorials on the other offers that say Shark Cage instead of Shark tank and people still whip out their credit cards and buy those products? All of the offers listed here only convert on Credit Card submit right?

 

[joeybabbs]

So for the weight loss VSL you just direct link without a landing page?

So for the weight loss VSL you just direct link without a landing page?

You can always test both but you shopuld always use a landing page or you will never get data on the traffic quality, and a landing page gives people a micro commitment.

Is that VSL offer the same Flat Belly offer you guys have on Vault Media?

There are many VSL diet offers. We can get more if there is a strong demand for more or direct you where to find some. (Clickbank has several)

It's surprising that the flat belly offer and its variations are not saturated by now. There are so many affiliates running those ads in the English speaking Geos like the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK according to my spy-tool.

I have been running one offer in Canada for 10 years and the population is 30,000,000 - Every year more and more people enter into the demographic...diet industry will never be saturated.

Also that offer probably wouldn't work in other Geos where English is not spoken because the VSL is in English?

That is correct you need translated offer pages which do exist. .


Also the advertorials on the other offers that say Shark Cage instead of Shark tank and people still whip out their credit cards and buy those products?

People whip out their credit cards more so when the article appears to have "authority". This is why advertorials and native ads work so well when you find the right placements.


All of the offers listed here only convert on Credit Card submit right?

Pretty much all offers in diet and VSL offers require credit cards for a conversion.

 

[mohamed1986]

So basically after you optimized for the best widgets and placements as long as you keep refreshing your ads and split test different ads and landing pages continuously you can keep an evergreen diet offer like that alive for that long? Also if that offer gets pulled you can just replace it with another flat belly VSL offer that you can find at another work. In that case do you split test the offers as well? Also when it comes to conversions what is better to promote a flat belly VSL or a form submit like the Cambogia offer you guys have on Vault media?

 

[joeybabbs]

My point was that saturation takes a long time and a huge industry like Diet, it will not get saturated.

There will always be people wanting to lose weight
There will always be people wanting to make money
There will always be people in relationships
There will always be people looking to improve their health.

These “evergreen” industries will never get saturated. If you focus on a niche within these industries you stand a good chance to earn money long term.

As for what is a better offer, looking at the data, the form submit straight sale offers of physical product convert better than the VSL which is an info product.

 

[TLDRMoney]

mohamed1986
"So basically after you optimized for the best widgets and placements as long as you keep refreshing your ads and split test different ads and landing pages continuously you can keep an evergreen diet offer like that alive for that long? "

One thing to consider is that placements and widgets are not static either.. I've had killer profit widgets just stop delivering traffic because the actual website removed the ads. Maybe they changed from Outbrain to Revcontent. There are new widgets always coming into the system as well.. Widgets that were not there yesterday. So yes, you will have a solid whitelist but without testing and farming new ones, that list will eventually die over time. The point Joey is making is this... Weight-loss itself will never die. It may come in different forms and different angles but there will ALWAYS be an existing market.


"Also if that offer gets pulled you can just replace it with another flat belly VSL offer that you can find at another work. In that case do you split test the offers as well?"

Yes you could totally do that. However, It doesn't mean you will have the same results. The product is different, the video is different, the offer page is different.. The price point could be different as well. All these factors could play into performance when changing offers.

Pro Tip:
Once you have a stable & profitable campaign, find a few other diet VSL offers.. Split test them.. You might find a better offer than you currently have.. Also, if one offer dies, you will have a back up offer that you have already tested.


"Also when it comes to conversions what is better to promote a flat belly VSL or a form submit like the Cambogia offer you guys have on Vault media?"

Here is the thing.. Garcinia Cambogia/Green Coffee/etc are supplements... Bottle of pills. The most effective means of promoting them is through a trial offer.. But here's the catch..

The Trial offers normally promote a "Risk-Free" trial.. The consumer pays $5 for a bottle and if they DO NOT cancel within 14 days, they are hit with a rebill of $80+ each month! It's a very shady means of selling a product and they are almost ALWAYS a ticking time bomb. If you can show me someone with a Diet trial that has processing up and running for more than a year, I'll be extremely surprised. Even if they have been active for a year, I would bet that they have gone through 2+ processors in that time frame.

What this means to you is that the offer has an expiration date.. It will die sooner or later.. and probably sooner.

VSL offers are normally promoting digital products.. Ebooks and content that give people the ability to lose weight.. Diets, methods, etc. VSL offers are 1000X more stable and are not ripping off their consumers or using shady rebill tactics.

 

[mohamed1986]

So the big takeaway is that a trial offer of a physical product converts better than a VSL which someone has to sit through for 10 minutes. But a VSL is far more stable in the long run because these trial offers get found out by the payment processors due to their shady tactics when it comes to re-billing and they have to constantly switch payment processors until they eventually run out of payment processors. So how come new trial offers keep popping up then? Aren't payment processors getting hip to the fact that these trial offers are high risk and come with a huge amount of charge-backs? So it shouldn't be long before these trial offers altogether disappear because no payment processor wants to work with them except for those payment processing companies who specialize in high risk merchant accounts? Also the traffic sources will eventually crack down on them as well. I'm assuming running a trial offer on Facebook will get your account banned whereas most native ad networks for now are pretty lenient because they want as many people spending money on their platform whereas Facebook because of it's huge size and power can be more discerning. Also when it comes to these trial offers your Pre-sell Advertorial has to be on point for someone to convert on the offer page but with a VSL you can pretty much have a simple landing page and the VSL will do the selling for you. Also another question when it comes to those Erectile dysfunction offers have you guys tried running them on Adult ad networks? I'm assuming they convert better there and the traffic is much cheaper on there per click because most major brands shun adult ad networks?

 

[TLDRMoney]

Well trial offers don't always convert better than VSL offers.. It really depends on how they are being promoted. There will always be new trials. The processors are in the game to make money like everyone else.. They will allow you to continue as long as they are not receiving complaints, charge backs and refunds. Once it becomes their problem, then the offer usually dies. There will always be trial offers out there, merchants are not going to stop allowing them.

The traffic sources don't typically care about the offer as long as it's being promoted within their guidelines. So I doubt traffic sources will crack down on them but more the way they are advertised...

Celeb+Diet trial = $$$$

Many people use false Celeb endorsements with trials and that tends to piss off the traffic source. Facebook would love to turn a blind eye to what you are doing no more than Native networks.. They allow what they can and crack down on what the FTC tells them.

Yes you're right about the Pre-sell vs VSL landing page. The video does the selling for the VSL offer. The Landing page just gives you a metric to evaluate traffic quality.

I don't really mess with adult traffic to much but it could be worth testing.

 

[mohamed1986]

Does the Celeb+Diet trial still work on Native? I assume the landing page would be a celebrity endorsement advertorial. I'm assuming the FTC can crack down on you in the United States and the network can pull your ad, but what if you're running those ads in Canada, Australia or the UK? Does the FTC hold sway in those Geo's?

 

[TLDRMoney]

It's up to the traffic source to police this type of thing.. They could contact the product owner and complain as well. I assume Celeb+trial still works but it most certainly has to be cloaked. Not a method I would recommend. I had fun during the prime of trial days but it was never a long term thing.

 

[joeybabbs]

Aren't payment processors getting hip to the fact that these trial offers are high risk and come with a huge amount of charge-backs? So it shouldn't be long before these trial offers altogether disappear because no payment processor wants to work with them except for those payment processing companies who specialize in high risk merchant accounts?

Payment processors are usually just as shady...its VISA and MASTERCARD who really need to uphold their brands...IMO

Also the traffic sources will eventually crack down on them as well. I'm assuming running a trial offer on Facebook will get your account banned whereas most native ad networks for now are pretty lenient because they want as many people spending money on their platform whereas Facebook because of it's huge size and power can be more discerning.

Facebook also just as shady...they are publicly traded and need their share price to remain high. At certain times of year it is easier to get blackhat ads approved. Of course accounts get banned, and every now and then FB does a "sweep" and kills a bunch of BH accounts to show government they are "doing their best". .i mean lets be honest FB is smart enough to completely wipe out Blackhat ads...BH ads are run on fake accounts and FB has the ability to know which accounts are fake....they have so much F'ing data that you cant tell me they don't know when an account is farmed.

Also another question when it comes to those Erectile dysfunction offers have you guys tried running them on Adult ad networks? I'm assuming they convert better there and the traffic is much cheaper on there per click because most major brands shun adult ad networks?

Yes that is where most affiliates and advertisers buy traffic for ED. (Adult Traffic)

 

[itjik7]

Very insightful, thx for the detailed post!

I just signed up to MGID yesterday through PA's link. After skyping with Jason the account rep they gave me, I realized you can't "target by widget" like the webinar Bill showed as he did with Revcontent.

So if you're starting out trying to test the waters with Native, what is the best way to test without blowing through hundreds of dollars with RON and BOT traffic?

I'm ok with dropping some coin to buy data but for someone just starting in Native using MGID, what's the path with least resistance?

(e.g) CPL offers? Targeting Tier 2 countries instead? etc...

Thanks in advance!

 

[joeybabbs]

Yes that certainly is a challenge with mgid. Hopefully soon they get that issue resolved because many of the other native ad networks are blowing past them in terms of allowing users to have more control over their targeting. However mgid is a great source in terms of cheap traffic and it does convert. You can really narrow down your targeting in terms of devices and browsers and Country. If you have a small budget then yes CPL is probably a great way to start. They do have a lot of traffic from the tier two countries as well.

 

[itjik7]

Thx Joey - will give it a go!

Also Revcontent keeps denying my only USD credit card after multiple tries so I can't fund the account.

Do you or Bill have any contacts there that can help me get funded on RC?

I heard on the webinar you guys talked about if there's any trouble for funding, just reach out. Thx in advance!!

 

[joeybabbs]

Hi my only contact doesn't deal with the accounting side, but have you tried sending them an email or contacting support?

 

[itjik7]

Hi my only contact doesn't deal with the accounting side, but have you tried sending them an email or contacting support?

Yes I emailed them and their response was the copy and paste found on their knowledgebase:

"It is our sole discretion to decline the use of any credit card to be used within our network. However, you are still welcome to attempt to utilize another card you own or if you prefer you can submit payment through a Wire Transfer or ACH. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Please see the following FAQ with more information related to this process: https://intercom.help/revcontent2/ad...it-card-denial

-- Support from Revcontent