Entry-level FB#2 - Campaign Beginnings

[TheBoss]

[b][b]Verticals to Avoid[/b][/b]


Note: vertical = general category of an offer, product or service.

Let’s first recognise that many verticals are [b]not[/b] safe entry points for Facebook. The obvious one is dating. Facebook recently made dating whitelist only. For those of you whom are new to FB, it means dating is well outside your viable options.

Steer clear of:

• Multi-level marketing, get rich quick and bizopps. Some such offers do get through - guru products on CB and so on. It’s not a great place to start.
  
  
• Drugs/tobacco/pharmaceuticals.
  
  
• Rebills and products that use negative response marketing, suck people into subscriptions and so on.
  
  
• Diet/weight loss, skin care, muscle building, etc. These are not prohibited per se but you will have trouble running them if you don't know what you're doing.
  
  
• Toolbars and software downloads.
  
  
• PIN submit offers, email submits, crap that starts billing people and has a lengthy disclaimer at the bottom of the page.
  
  
• Gambling/lottery/bingo offers, penny auctions.
  

[b][b]Safe Verticals[/b][/b]

The following can be considered as generally safe. Of course always check against MyWoT and against Facebooks advertising guidelines. The first 3 are what likely make up the majority of affiliate-run ads.

• Gaming (MMORPGs, browser-based games, FB apps and mobile games e.g. from the Android/Apple app stores). This doesn't include bingo-related games and shitty rip-off downloadables where the user is asked to download super-mario-installer.exe
  
  
• Daily deals. Groupon, LivingSocial, etc. These have broad appeal and can scale well but generally have very strict offer terms, particularly with Facebook.
  
  
• Retail/Shopping, e.g. virtually anything on CJ affiliate. CPS/revenue share offers for legitimate products/services. Teespring is a topical example. Books, media, computer hardware, clothing, shoes, gifts and flowers, etc.
  
  
• Travel, e.g. Atrapalo, travel bookings, flight packages, etc.
  
  
• Entertainment. Netflix/Blockbuster memberships, game hires, events, etc.
  
  
• Unique Lead Gens. A broad category but there are so many random things that come up. Laser eye surgery. Contact lenses and glasses. ISP subscriptions i.e. to new local providers or cell carriers. Sky TV. Fiverr. USell. Random sites that offer affiliate programs.
  
  
• Some Clickbank offers, eBooks, gaming guides and so on. Lots of Clickbank offers are poorly rated on MyWoT and FB can be iffy about sending people to email submit pages.
  

[b][b]Vetting Offers[/b][/b]


So, with that list in mind, you should also investigate all offers before you consider running them on Facebook. You want to get comfortable with the platform and learn; getting your first account banned doesn’t facilitate this.
The first thought on your mind should be “Is this type of offer considered OK by Facebook”. If it is blatantly prohibited, leave it alone.

Your second thought should be “How is this rated by [b]MyWoT[/b]” *cringe*

[b]There are two ways to check this.[/b]

1. Go to mywot.com and manually type in the domain name > check.

2. The easier method, use a bookmarklet (in FF or Chrome) to test the current page. Make a bookmark (to anything). Edit it and for the URL, replace http://blahblah with the following:

Code:
javascriptfunction%28%29%7Bvar%20f%3Ddocument.getElementById%28%27wot-bookmarklet%27%29%3Bif%28f%29%7Bf.parentNode.removeChild%28f%29%3Breturn%3B%7Dvar%20l%3Dlocation.hostname%3Bif%28l%26%26l.length%29%7Bf%3Ddocument.createElement%28%27iframe%27%29%3Bif%28f%29%7Bf.setAttribute%28%27id%27%2C%27wot-bookmarklet%27%29%3Bf.setAttribute%28%27src%27%2C%27http%3A//www.mywot.com/bookmarklet/%27+encodeURIComponent%28location.hostname%29%29%3Bf.setAttribute%28%27frameborder%27%2C0%29%3Bf.setAttribute%28%27scrolling%27%2C%27no%27%29%3Bf.setAttribute%28%27style%27%2C%27position%3Afixed%3Btop%3A10px%3Bleft%3A10px%3B%27+%27width%3A135px%3Bheight%3A235px%3Bborder%3A0%3Bmargin%3A0%3Bpadding%3A0%3Bz-index%3A10487575%3B%27%29%3Bif%28document.body%29%7Bdocument.body.appendChild%28f%29%3B%7D%7D%7D%7D)()
Save. When you click the bookmark link it triggers a MyWoT check and a small box with ratings will pop up in the top left corner of the page.

Green = good. Red = bad, don’t run. Yellow = hard to say, might turn red eventually = retro-disapprovals of ads, might be OK. Utilise your brain here.

Facebook also vets URLs with other 3rd party providers (e.g. Websense I think!) but you don’t have access to these.

Google Chrome also has an addon - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...egjjndpbikblnp


[b]Other things to avoid:[/b]

Using Facebook UID scrapers to make custom audiences.

Facebook has really clamped down on this.

Now, if you try to upload UID audiences it asks you for an app - and if the UIDs aren't connected to your app >> DENIED.



However, be aware, you will probably red-box (destroy) your FB ads account using this before it even makes it out of infancy. The saga of scraping custom audiences for TeeSpring is largely over.