6 ms·

LaunchBit Launches Email Ad Network

24 points by FluidDjango 15y ago

bemmu 15y ago
Signed up to try it as an advertiser. $300 minimum spend made me reconsider.
- kposehn 15y ago
  You'll find this minimum spend, or minimum deposit, to be typical in advertising outside of Google. These minimums are often in place to make sure you spend enough - and get enough clicks, to have statistically significant data in order to make a decision. At a $3 CPC that would give you 100 clicks, about the minimum you would need to know if you even moved the needle. In general, when testing a platform or medium you need to dedicate $1-3k to testing. With an email distribution, you often need to push even more. If you stop running your ads before you have enough data to make a decision, you will miss out on most opportunities. For example, I ran a campaign on one of the major RTB platforms about 2 months ago with a $500 minimum deposit. The campaign got about 650 clicks at a $0.94 CPC costing me $611 in one day. I grossed $434 in total, for a $177 loss. However, this told me something: this campaign could be a winner eventually. I kept at it, capping my spend at $1k/day. Within 5 days I was spending ~$900 and grossing ~$2k+. The campaign ran for about 6 more days before the offer I was running expired (limited time deal with the client). Basic stats were this: $19,434 revenue ($10,340) spend --------------- $9,094 profit If I had paused out the gate I wouldn't have found the sites and ad creative that succeeded. This is typical in online advertising and why very few players manage to stay in the game: you have to have staying power and the will to keep at it, not to mention the credit. Be careful when dismissing that minimum spend - if you aren't willing to test, you will rarely ever find the success. _Note: I'm not some big player in this industry, but I have found my methods and have a better ROI than most, allowing me to compete where others often can't. Yay :)_
  - ryanwaggoner 15y ago
    I would love to chat about this if you could spare me a few minutes. Can you email me at ryan@dailypath.com?
- hippo33 15y ago
  yeah -- we actually started without a minimum and it was a disaster for everyone. advertisers would try very small amounts $20 or $50, which to kposehn's point, you need a good sample size to know if the channel is valuable to you, and if you don't get that, then it's just a waste of $20 or $50. when you take out a campaign with LaunchBit, you're not just getting your ad in one newsletter. we get you impressions in multiple newsletters. so, if you're just trying $20, then effectively, we're trying your campaign in just a couple of newsletters, which is just kinda a crapshoot if it works. in order to know if this channel really works for you, we need our platform to get you in a lot of newsletters and adjust from there based on what's working and what's not.
kposehn 15y ago
Testing this out right now. I've been buying email traffic for years and one of the biggest hurdles has been getting the best targeting possible. I doubt that they will be able to duly compete with the major bulk mailers (Reliant, etc.) but they look to be providing a good option for targeted ads inside current lists and distros. Suggestions: 1. Finer category targeting 2. Conversion tracking (gimme!) 3. Let me upload ads with tracking url's before making a campaign 4. Let me choose down to the newsletter if possible (I do understand this entails some risk) Outside that, looks interesting and I'll be testing a chunk of my testing budget here.
- hippo33 15y ago
  Thanks -- let me know if you have any qs and would love your feedback: elizabeth [at] launchbit. Re: #1 and #2, what we have right now is just the beginning. We certainly have a lot more work to do re: these two pts. #3: you can add tracking urls. Is there something that you see is a blocking pt from using a tracking url? we also automatically add GA tags if you use Google Analytics. #4: the newsletter directory that we're rolling out over the next few days is part of the answer to this. a # of people have asked for this -- stay tuned.
  - kposehn 15y ago
    Consider yourself pinged :) And thanks for the quick reply! Looking forward to making some cash/money/flow/bank/scrilla ;)
dsr_ 15y ago
This sort of thing is why I don't read HTML email by default. There might be people who want advertisements in their email that they didn't explicitly ask for (explicit: NewEgg's daily sale announcement) but I don't think I know any of them.
- kposehn 15y ago
  You aren't exactly the target market then ;) In my experience, tech savvy readers do have html on but only respond to well designed, catchy and succinct ads or CTAs. CTR is often 1%+ to a well targeted and scrubbed list, with a very high EPC, so it is definitely worth it for advertisers like me to have an accessible platform. The issue is reach - ideally, I want to hit 5-10mm people in a drop to a large list, but with a narrowly targeted list set I can probably get a better ROI, thus why I'm testing Launchbit.
AJ007 15y ago
Why is this a jpeg? http://www.launchbit.com/marketplace/ http://www.launchbit.com/marketplace/
twakefield 15y ago
Congrats guys. We've had a few Mailgun customers ask about a service like this so we'll be sending them your way. We may want to implement a tighter integration going forward, as well.
- hippo33 15y ago
  thanks @twakefield! yep -- def want to talk :) elizabeth [at] launchbit
timjahn 15y ago
Woot! We've been a beta tester of LaunchBit for a while now and their team has been super communicative. Excited to see them continue to evolve!
- hippo33 15y ago
  thanks so much for all of your ongoing feedback and support, Tim!

24 points by FluidDjango 15y ago

bemmu 15y ago

Signed up to try it as an advertiser. $300 minimum spend made me reconsider.

kposehn 15y ago
You'll find this minimum spend, or minimum deposit, to be typical in advertising outside of Google. These minimums are often in place to make sure you spend enough - and get enough clicks, to have statistically significant data in order to make a decision. At a $3 CPC that would give you 100 clicks, about the minimum you would need to know if you even moved the needle. In general, when testing a platform or medium you need to dedicate $1-3k to testing. With an email distribution, you often need to push even more. If you stop running your ads before you have enough data to make a decision, you will miss out on most opportunities. For example, I ran a campaign on one of the major RTB platforms about 2 months ago with a $500 minimum deposit. The campaign got about 650 clicks at a $0.94 CPC costing me $611 in one day. I grossed $434 in total, for a $177 loss. However, this told me something: this campaign could be a winner eventually. I kept at it, capping my spend at $1k/day. Within 5 days I was spending ~$900 and grossing ~$2k+. The campaign ran for about 6 more days before the offer I was running expired (limited time deal with the client). Basic stats were this: $19,434 revenue ($10,340) spend --------------- $9,094 profit If I had paused out the gate I wouldn't have found the sites and ad creative that succeeded. This is typical in online advertising and why very few players manage to stay in the game: you have to have staying power and the will to keep at it, not to mention the credit. Be careful when dismissing that minimum spend - if you aren't willing to test, you will rarely ever find the success. _Note: I'm not some big player in this industry, but I have found my methods and have a better ROI than most, allowing me to compete where others often can't. Yay :)_
- ryanwaggoner 15y ago
  I would love to chat about this if you could spare me a few minutes. Can you email me at ryan@dailypath.com?
hippo33 15y ago
yeah -- we actually started without a minimum and it was a disaster for everyone. advertisers would try very small amounts $20 or $50, which to kposehn's point, you need a good sample size to know if the channel is valuable to you, and if you don't get that, then it's just a waste of $20 or $50. when you take out a campaign with LaunchBit, you're not just getting your ad in one newsletter. we get you impressions in multiple newsletters. so, if you're just trying $20, then effectively, we're trying your campaign in just a couple of newsletters, which is just kinda a crapshoot if it works. in order to know if this channel really works for you, we need our platform to get you in a lot of newsletters and adjust from there based on what's working and what's not.

kposehn 15y ago

Testing this out right now. I've been buying email traffic for years and one of the biggest hurdles has been getting the best targeting possible. I doubt that they will be able to duly compete with the major bulk mailers (Reliant, etc.) but they look to be providing a good option for targeted ads inside current lists and distros. Suggestions: 1. Finer category targeting 2. Conversion tracking (gimme!) 3. Let me upload ads with tracking url's before making a campaign 4. Let me choose down to the newsletter if possible (I do understand this entails some risk) Outside that, looks interesting and I'll be testing a chunk of my testing budget here.

hippo33 15y ago
Thanks -- let me know if you have any qs and would love your feedback: elizabeth [at] launchbit. Re: #1 and #2, what we have right now is just the beginning. We certainly have a lot more work to do re: these two pts. #3: you can add tracking urls. Is there something that you see is a blocking pt from using a tracking url? we also automatically add GA tags if you use Google Analytics. #4: the newsletter directory that we're rolling out over the next few days is part of the answer to this. a # of people have asked for this -- stay tuned.
- kposehn 15y ago
  Consider yourself pinged :) And thanks for the quick reply! Looking forward to making some cash/money/flow/bank/scrilla ;)

dsr_ 15y ago

This sort of thing is why I don't read HTML email by default. There might be people who want advertisements in their email that they didn't explicitly ask for (explicit: NewEgg's daily sale announcement) but I don't think I know any of them.

kposehn 15y ago
You aren't exactly the target market then ;) In my experience, tech savvy readers do have html on but only respond to well designed, catchy and succinct ads or CTAs. CTR is often 1%+ to a well targeted and scrubbed list, with a very high EPC, so it is definitely worth it for advertisers like me to have an accessible platform. The issue is reach - ideally, I want to hit 5-10mm people in a drop to a large list, but with a narrowly targeted list set I can probably get a better ROI, thus why I'm testing Launchbit.

AJ007 15y ago

Why is this a jpeg? http://www.launchbit.com/marketplace/ http://www.launchbit.com/marketplace/

twakefield 15y ago

Congrats guys. We've had a few Mailgun customers ask about a service like this so we'll be sending them your way. We may want to implement a tighter integration going forward, as well.

hippo33 15y ago
thanks @twakefield! yep -- def want to talk :) elizabeth [at] launchbit

timjahn 15y ago

Woot! We've been a beta tester of LaunchBit for a while now and their team has been super communicative. Excited to see them continue to evolve!

hippo33 15y ago
thanks so much for all of your ongoing feedback and support, Tim!