To buy or not to buy
You can, of course, just buy the channel. But even here, not everyone will be able to start earning right away. There are a lot of channels on sale now, and it is very difficult to find a really high-quality product from this sea of offers. The exchanges are full of fake channels, and it is very difficult to check the quality of the audience. By the way, I wanted to do just that at first, and for this very reason I refused. And I do not regret it at all. I've already seen enough channels that had a drop in reach after a purchase and stopped updating. Among them were those on which my eyes fell at first.
In the end, I decided to make the channel from scratch. I didn't have to think about the subject for a long time, since I have many quizzes on Google Play, and I decided to use the same content in Telegram, at the same time advertising my mobile quizzes. This is how my channel appeared@TriviaGames , in which I decided not to invest a big sum right away, but to promote gradually, but more effectively. As a result, in 4 months I managed to reach the boundaries of 10k subscribers and 2k coverage. This is certainly not so hot what indicators, but at the same time my costs amounted to about $ 500, some of which I have already won back. And in this hub, I decided to share a case study of channel promotion and give some tips on how to buy ads with maximum efficiency and avoid bot bots.
Open or closed
Having filled the channel in a few days, which it was decided to make open, I subscribed to it all my contacts from Telegram so that there were at least some subscribers on it and began to carefully purchase in small channels. The first pancakes, as usual, turned out to be lumps. The first two ads were unsuccessful. But gradually I managed to find effective posts, and things went much more fun. Most of the advertisements brought me subscribers for 5-7 rubles. But out of inexperience, I used to run into the channels that bots poured into me, and those resources from which almost no one came.
I made the first thousand subscribers by spending about seven thousand rubles. After that, as some admins advised me, I decided to close the channel and began to buy ads in more expensive resources. And then the effectiveness of my advertising fell sharply. I rarely managed to get a subscriber for less than 15 rubles. I guess this was due to the fact that many simply refused to subscribe to a channel with a small number of subscribers to see the answer to a question from the advertisement. Then it was still impossible to open closed channels without first subscribing to it, as can be done now.
Thus, in my case, the open channel turned out to be much more efficient. It should be mentioned here that all the advertising posts presented questions from my channel. As they say - clickbaits. These were not the riddles that can now be found in abundance in advertising posts, but my own questions. At the same time, with an open channel, the advertisement contained a link directly to the post itself. And after the user pressed the answer button, he was shown an alert, which said that in order to find out the answer, you need to subscribe to the channel. This, as it turned out, gave a much greater effect than a closed channel with a response to an advertising post in a fixed position.
Moreover, everyone was allowed to vote, and only subscribers could see the answer. This scheme allowed me to immediately calculate the bots. Those who, after placing advertisements, pour bots on the advertised resource. In this case, there were more subscribers than responses, and sometimes even more than post views. While, as usual, no more than 30 percent of those who click on the reply button subscribe to the channel.
First advertisement
Having received only 300 pdp for 4000 rubles on a closed channel, I made it open again and continued cautious purchases. I bought 2-3 posts a day at a price of 300 to 600 rubles. I carefully wrote down and analyzed all the feedback statistics in order to finally determine the most effective posts with which it would not be scary to enter large channels. And at the same time I tested various topics. It turned out that I was badly received from historical or geographical channels. But my audience turned out to be in literary channels and learning with facts. Here it was sometimes possible to buy subscribers for less than 5 rubles. Finally, I decided on a few large purchases, which fit into 2 days. As a result, in the first 1.5 months, having spent a little more than 30 thousand rubles, I received about 4200 subscribers and 1.5k coverage.
By this point, I have already made several VPs and sold a couple of ads. I was looking forward to the effect of my first advertisement with special impatience. It was incredibly interesting to know the feedback from my channel. It turned out according to the VP, and they gave me a post with a selection on 4 channels. I thought a little, not asking for a separate one, but I decided to take a chance and made the right decision. Almost 100 people came to the first site from the selection (literary). The second (poznavalka) scored almost fifty dollars, and the other two about 35 pdp each. The following ads turned out to be more than successful.
Summer, oh summer
Having received a good status in the telemeter, I started selling ads even more expensive than 300 CPM. But, despite the good returns, they took it from me somehow reluctantly. It seems to me that many admins do not even analyze the feedback, but evaluate the channel solely by coverage. But my coverage suddenly stopped growing. July has begun - the most unseasonal month for TG. And then the quarantine ended. Yes, and my tactics of placing ads directly on old, but effective posts affected, in terms of coverage statistics. Unlike closed channels with daily purchases, on my purchases they had a much lesser importance on coverage, since not everyone, after answering the question, looked at the last posts on the channel. Advertising posts were gaining coverage regularly, only in the Telemeter, which calculates the coverage for the last 2 days, this was not reflected in any way.
I had to go through this difficult time, and I decided to make the channel self-sufficient. I started doing a lot of VP, often with my own surcharge. This allowed me to cut my ad costs (and very seriously), fill my ad slots, and keep me in positive status. After the first week of July, my channel had 6,000 subscribers. My expenses were just over 40 thousand, and my income was 6 thousand. And this was the largest negative balance in the entire history of the channel. By the end of July, I had already gained 7.5k subscribers, spending a total of 48k and getting 14. Now @TriviaGames has 10.3k subscribers and 2k reach. During all this time, about 60 thousand were spent and 35 thousand were earned. The minus is gradually decreasing.
How to avoid bot bots
During these four months I have already gained enough experience to clearly plan advertising campaigns. From time to time I turn to the already proven channels in which I have effectively purchased (in some, more than once or not twice). With some admins I periodically repeat the VP. And I carefully analyze all new placements, which allows purchasing as efficiently as possible. The main assistant in this, of course, is the Telemeter. And here's what I look for to avoid bot bots.
The main page of the channel can tell a lot. First of all, I hover the mouse over the number of mentions in the TG and look at the subscriber cost calculated by the telemeter. If here I see a figure of less than 10 rubles, then the channel immediately begins to cause me to mistrust. Yes, it is quite possible to buy a subscriber cheaper, and the telemeter also determines the cost of PPP based on CPM 300, while in the summer there were plenty of offers for CPM 200. And yet, when this figure is too low, there is a great suspicion of bots. For me, for example, it is 14.39 rubles, although much more often subscribers cost me less than 10, and sometimes 5 rubles. But there were also unsuccessful placements, there were many VPs. Hence such a figure. Of course, I am not saying that with a number less than 10 there will necessarily be a bot channel. But as a rule, further analysis after such a figure,only increased suspicion.
Further on the same page, I see how actively the channel is being purchased lately, and I glance at the right column, where you can see more recent purchases than in the detailed statistics section. If I see frequent mentions of the channel on the sales or advertising exchanges, then this reduces my desire to buy ads here. As for the main section, I have more trust in the channels. which have a telemeter bot and you can see how many of the subscribers left at once in a certain hour. Although, everything that is written specifically in this paragraph only improves or worsens my opinion about the channel, but is not a reason for making a decision.
The main thing that I now look through without fail is the "Post Views" section. Recently, a very handy chart of the number of subscribers and the reach has appeared here. And now, some channels immediately see a markup, which is expressed in a sharp rise in coverage with insufficient subscriber growth for this. For example, I will never buy an ad if I see something like that.
It is very clearly seen here that in a few days, the channel's coverage suddenly increased from 0.6 to 2k and continues to hold, while the number of subscribers has increased less significantly. By the way, this is how a similar graph looks for me.
Below are the scopes of individual posts. Here you can also draw conclusions on the activity of the audience. if it is really live, then the posts that came out at 18-19 o'clock (or even earlier) should not gain more views the next day. At least for channels with coverage of 1-5k.
Do not be lazy to click on the hourly coverage of at least one post. Here you may sometimes see such a picture that the channel analysis can be finished immediately. Here's an example.
Here, as can be seen from the graph, the post got less than 700 views in the first hour and 15 minutes after the release, and twice more in the second hour. At the same time, there was no advertising of the channel, so conclusions about the honesty of coverage in this case can be made unequivocally. Interestingly, according to the general table of reach and subscribers, the cheat was clearly not read here.
In general, a look at the coverage of some channels can give a definite idea even without a telemeter. For example, I calculated that about 25% of my daily coverage is gained in the first hour, and 50% in 2.5-3 hours. And when on some channel I see significant deviations from these indicators both in one direction or another, and at the same time the channel did not have large purchases (so you still have to look into the telemeter), then this is already a weighty reason right away go to the next channel.
And finally, "Advertising feedback". Here, I first of all look at the availability of successful returns (less than 10 rubles per PDP) and their number. If there are none at all, then the channel is not interesting to me. Although I always look at which channels were advertised, and how the subscribers were coming in by the hour. The latter often helps to calculate whether the admin of this channel is pouring bots. And the reason for suspicion can be approximately the same arrival of subscribers in the first 3 hours. Always in the first hour, much more arrives than in the second, and even more so in the third (by the way, the main thing here is not to forget to see the exact time of the advertising post). It is also worth paying attention to the number of channels that left at once, where such statistics are available. If a given channel has very few of them, and let's say another one who advertised the same resource, at 30 percent,then taking risks and buying advertising here is extremely dangerous.
It's also worth looking at the number of ad posts per day. Here it is clear that the less, the better. And if a channel has 4 or more ads every day and they go through one post, then it should be borne in mind that this will greatly affect the effectiveness of your placement.
Here are the main indicators that I look for when choosing advertising sites. Such a thorough analysis allows avoiding twisted channels, but, however, not 100%. I've made a couple of mistakes over the past month. In the first case, I closed my eyes to unsuccessful returns when there were successful ones, and as a result, almost no one came to me. In the second, I looked inattentively at the dynamics of coverage. On closer inspection, I would have noticed that posts on that channel gain 1k reach too quickly and then the growth practically stops. As a result, either bots or referrals came to me, who did not answer questions and did not view the advertised post.
Fortunately, I lost a little on this, since in the first case it was a VP for a burning place, and in the second the price of advertising was only 200 rubles. And by the way, lately I rarely buy ads for more than 1000 rubles. And not at all because there is not enough budget. It's just that from larger channels the subscriber is almost always more expensive, and it is more difficult to analyze them. For me, it is much preferable to place yourself in already proven channels or look for new and fresh ones. The disadvantage of this approach is a large amount of time spent (often it takes me several hours to buy ads). But the end, as they say, justifies the means.
I hope my advice will help many to avoid financial losses due to bot channels. Good luck to everyone and great feedback!