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As an internet marketer, there is a continuous battle against ‘campaign dupers’. On Facebook especially, due to the nature of the platform and simplicity of ads, it is extremely easy to duplicate a campaign.
Personally, I feel very angry when somebody copies my work entirely, but then I am quickly flattered that somebody thinks I know what I’m doing.
Anyways, here are 5 reasons why you should not copy someone’s Facebook campaign.
Why to Not Copy a Facebook Campaign
When you first enter a new market or traffic source, it’s second nature to research what is going on and try to determine what is profitable for other people. However, many people are lazy and decide to carbon-copy campaigns that are running and think they just struck gold. More often than not, you are very wrong if you decide you will be successful doing that.
1. Drastically decreases your chance of success
This is quite possibly the most important of all. When you launch a new campaign, your goal is generally to make profits from it eventually. You decide to start doing dating on Facebook and see a great picture and ad copy.
- Why not make a few ads using that image and/or ad text?
- What if that image has been running for 2-3 months and is only profitable because the other person has a higher payout?
- What if their click-through-rate was incredibly high to start so they are paying much less per click than you would be (since the ad has been running for so long)?
All of these are factors that are drastically reducing your chances for success when duplicating a campaign word-for-word, and using their picture.
My suggestion: Improve on what is working already. It’s generally safe to assume that an ad you have seen time and time again is making money. What are they doing with the ad/picture that you can do better? How is the language? Is it a blonde or a brunette for a dating ad? Seriously – think outside the box and differentiate yourself from the pack.
2. Your competitor may have more power than you
I have personal experience with this. I was running a campaign on Facebook and my ads were copied 100% word-for-word, using the exact same picture. I told my affiliate manager and he asked me to pull links for him so he could talk to the copy-cat. However, I didn’t even care because the campaign they copied wasn’t even profitable for me! (See #3) Also, many advertisers are extremely shady, if you haven’t found that out already. Many people in the business will do anything they can for a dollar. It’s very sad, but it’s true. If you copy a campaign, and it is the actual owner/advertiser of the offer that you copied, chances are they will kick you off the offer, and/or forfeit any/all commissions you have generated, especially if you are cutting into their margins. Some advertisers won’t care as long as they are still making similar numbers, but it’s better to be safe than sorry if you ask me.
My suggestion: Build relationships. The more people you know, the more power you have. If people know you are an honest person/marketer, they are much more likely to believe you and help you if something like this were to happen. Also, see the suggestion I gave under #1.
3. It might not be profitable
This is hilarious to witness. Like I said above, I’ve had many campaigns copied entirely. I notice them running for a day or two while they test it, and then it stops completely. Well, moron, don’t copy my campaign, especially when you have no idea that it was or was not working! It’s definitely good for my ego when people think I know what I’m doing, but it’s just not intelligent on the other side of the coin. If you are that lazy where you can’t come up with a 25 character title, a 110×80 pixel image, and 135 characters of body text to create your own ad, you really shouldn’t be doing affiliate marketing.
My suggestion: Don’t be lazy. Hard work pays off almost every time. Start with what you see (even though you have no idea how it is performing) and make improvements. Somebody decided it would be a good idea to try the ads that are currently running, so use that as a starting point and build on it. However, it might be ideal to do a completely flip-flop and start by testing ads that are the complete opposite.
4. You don’t even know how it is targeted
This is another big issue I notice. I have multiple Facebook profiles, and unless you are broad targeting, you really have no idea how the ads are targeted. Just because you see the ad on your 23 male profile, you have absolutely no idea (unless you have other profiles and have done extensive research on where else you have seen the ad) how it is targeted. Also, if you see ads on your actual Facebook page, you probably have some sort of keyword list (interests, TV shows, movies, etc.) that might be how the ad is targeted.
My suggestion: Start small. If it’s a matter of stealing somebody’s hard work, or building your own from the ground up, I will tell you every single time to build your own. Not only do you increase your chances for success, but you will probably be more proud of something you built than something you copied. I would be.
5. It’s not nice
Business as a whole, and more specifically affiliate marketing, is definitely cutthroat. However, you can build on and improve current technologies/campaigns without completely duplicating them. The idea that it is extremely simple to copy an entire campaign (with or without knowledge of the first 4 points I listed) can be demoralizing. People are building tools to mitigate the risk of having your campaigns stolen, but there’s always ways to work around these tools. I read a post awhile ago called Work Smarter, Not Longer Hours, and the best way to relate that to this post is this quote:
I stopped doing so much competitive intelligence. I used to make it my job of knowing who was running what offer, where they were running it, etc. When I started focusing on my stuff more, I started to do better.
My suggestion: Stop worrying about what he or she is doing, and build your own business. It’s nice to get ideas, but don’t waste time on extensive research when you could be spending your time and resources elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Don’t be lazy. You are doing nothing positive for yourself, or the person you are copying when you copy a campaign. Why not improve on their hard work and make it better? To me, that sounds like a much stronger recipe for success.
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