In this lesson, I’ll walk you through the fundamentals of analyzing data in a CPA affiliate campaign. This is a critical step if you want to understand how your campaign is actually performing, which traffic segments are profitable, and how to gradually optimize over time.
To keep things simple, I’ll use a real-world example: a campaign running on PropellerAds, tracked with BeMob. Even if you’re just getting started, you need to understand these core metrics so you can properly evaluate your campaign’s performance.
Think of this part as getting familiar with your “control panel” before you move on to optimization and scaling for profit.
Campaign Approval and Launch Process on PropellerAds
One of the things I really like about PropellerAds is how fast the approval process is. After you create a campaign and hit “Submit,” it usually takes around 2 minutes for the system to approve it.
This is a big advantage, especially if you’re testing multiple offers. You don’t have to wait for hours—or even a full day—like you might with some other traffic sources.
However, there’s an important detail you need to understand: approval does not mean your ads will start running immediately. In most cases, your campaign will begin delivering traffic about 30 minutes after it gets approved.
The reason is that PropellerAds needs some time to:
- Analyze different placements (Zone IDs)
- Identify suitable websites and ad positions
- Calculate and balance your bid before sending real traffic
If you’re targeting high-population countries, pay close attention when the campaign starts getting traffic. Volume can come in very quickly. If you’re not ready to pause non-converting placements early, you can lose money fast.
Two Key Data Sources for Campaign Analysis
When you start running a campaign, you’ll see a lot of different numbers. The key is understanding where your data comes from so you can analyze it correctly. In practice, there are two main data sources you need to work with:
1. Data from BeMob (Tracking Tool)
This is the data recorded by your tracking system.
BeMob shows detailed user-level information such as where visitors come from, what device they use, their browser, operating system, and more. The strength of this data is its granularity—you can break things down to a very detailed level, even down to IP, device type, or phone model.
To view BeMob data, simply right-click on your campaign name and select Report. This will open the campaign report dashboard.
From there, you can choose different dimensions at the top to explore the data in more detail.
For example, in one campaign, most conversions might come from Chrome Mobile users—this is the kind of insight you’re looking for.
2. Data from PropellerAds (Traffic Source)
This is the data coming directly from the traffic source you’re buying.
PropellerAds provides information such as placements (Zone IDs), carriers, and traffic distribution. However, they don’t reveal the exact domains to prevent advertisers from bypassing the platform and working directly with publishers.
The strength of this data is that it reflects the actual traffic delivery—how PropellerAds distributes and sells traffic to you in real time.
To view this data, click on your campaign name in PropellerAds, then go to the Targeting section.
How to Open Advanced Reports in BeMob
Opening reports in BeMob is very straightforward. Just follow these steps:
- Right-click on the campaign you want to analyze
- Select Report
Once you do that, BeMob will display a report dashboard with multiple data tabs. Here are the most important ones you should focus on:
- Offer
This shows performance by each offer. If you’re testing multiple offers within the same campaign, this is where you identify which one is converting best. - Country
Displays the user’s country. This becomes especially important if you’re running campaigns across multiple geos. - ISP (Internet Service Provider)
This tells you whether users are coming from WiFi or mobile carriers (e.g., Smart, Globe, etc.). This is extremely useful for cutting unprofitable connections and keeping the ones that generate profit. - Device / Device Model / Vendor
Shows the type of device and specific models users are using (e.g., Oppo, Samsung). This data helps you identify high-converting devices. - OS and OS Version
Indicates the operating system and its version (e.g., Android 15). In many cases, newer versions can perform better than older ones. - Browser Name / Version
Shows which browser users are using (e.g., Facebook Browser, Opera Mini). - Hour of Day
Displays the time of day when conversions happen. This helps you identify “golden hours” to optimize your budget and bidding.
With just a few simple steps, you can access and understand BeMob reports. This is the foundation you’ll rely on later when optimizing your campaigns for profitability.
3-Level Drilldown Feature in BeMob
In my workflow, I usually combine data from both PropellerAds and BeMob to analyze campaigns. However, one thing BeMob does better is its Drilldown feature, which allows you to go deeper into your data and uncover more precise insights.
At the top-right corner of the report, you’ll see three empty boxes.
This is where you select dimensions for your Drilldown analysis—basically, how you want to break down your data step by step.
I typically analyze data in layers.
For campaigns running in multiple countries, I usually go with:
Countries → OS → Browsers
For single-country campaigns, I might use:
Carrier (ISP) → OS → Browser
That said, there’s no fixed formula. You should experiment with different combinations to find the most accurate and actionable insights.
For example, in a multi-country campaign, after analyzing the data, you might find that Cambodia and Zimbabwe are profitable (green), while Venezuela and Bangladesh are losing money.
When you drill down further, you may discover that browsers like Chrome, Phoenix, and Twitter Browser are generating the most profit.
If you go even deeper, you can identify specific Zone IDs—which ones are profitable and which ones are not.
Once you have this level of clarity, optimization becomes straightforward.
You can create a new campaign that targets only Zimbabwe + Chrome + the best-performing Zone IDs, and then increase your bid (CPA) to capture more high-quality traffic.
That’s how real campaign optimization works—driven by data, not guesswork.
Practical Tips for Analyzing Your Campaign
When monitoring a CPA campaign, you need to adjust your analysis approach based on the volume and speed of traffic:
Low Traffic Scenario
If your campaign is only getting a small amount of traffic (a few dozen or a few hundred clicks), there’s no need to optimize too aggressively.
At this stage, it’s better to let the campaign run and collect more data. Early optimization with limited data can easily lead to misleading conclusions.
High Traffic Scenario
If you’re pushing large volumes of traffic (for example, 1,000 clicks per minute), you need to monitor your campaign closely.
As soon as you identify unprofitable segments, pause them immediately to prevent losses. In high-volume environments, speed of decision-making is critical to maintaining profitability.
General Principle
Always remember: data needs volume to be reliable.
The first few dozen clicks don’t tell you much. Be patient and wait until your campaign has gathered a meaningful amount of data—typically thousands or even tens of thousands of clicks—before making optimization decisions.
Important: Early-Stage Optimization Insights
After getting your initial campaign results, you’ll typically evaluate performance based on ROI and profit to decide whether the campaign is worth continuing.
From my experience—especially with mobile traffic campaigns—once you’ve spent around x10 to x20 payout, it’s time to pause and evaluate.
“x10 payout” is a common industry benchmark. For example, if an offer pays $0.10 per conversion, then:
- x10 payout = $1 spent
- x20 payout = $2 spent
At the x10 payout mark, you should start paying close attention to your ROI.
If your campaign is at -50% ROI, this is actually a promising campaign. With proper optimization, you may be able to turn it into +50% ROI—transforming a losing campaign into a profitable one.
If your campaign is at -70% ROI or worse, it’s usually a weak campaign. In most cases, it’s better to cut it. Even with heavy optimization, it’s unlikely to become profitable—and at best, it may only recover your previous losses, which isn’t worth the effort.
If your campaign is at around -25% ROI, that’s a strong signal. With some light optimization, you can often turn it profitable fairly quickly.
If your campaign is already at 0% ROI during the initial test, that’s a very good sign. These are often high-potential campaigns that can scale into strong profit.
And if you’re seeing 50%+ ROI early on, that’s rare—and extremely valuable. These are the campaigns that can “carry your portfolio,” generating enough profit to cover losses from other test campaigns and still leave you well ahead.
Important Note for Low-Traffic Campaigns
I once had a campaign that hit 1500% ROI within the first few hours of testing. But shortly after, it completely died and dropped back to 0% ROI.
What happened?
PropellerAds detected that the campaign was performing extremely well and started sending a large portion of traffic to it (win rate reached 88%). The problem is, when too much traffic is concentrated into a small segment, you quickly run into ad fatigue.
Users convert once—but they won’t convert again. As a result, performance drops sharply, and the campaign loses profitability.
At that point, you’ve essentially “exhausted” that traffic segment. The best move is to pause the campaign and wait for the traffic to recover. This usually takes 1–4 weeks, after which you can relaunch the campaign.
The root cause here was targeting a segment that was too narrow.
So when you’re testing campaigns, pay attention to your win rate. A good rule of thumb is to keep it around 20%—this helps you avoid over-saturating your traffic and killing your own campaign.
Conclusion
Everything I’ve shared above is a general framework for beginners. As you gain experience, you’ll naturally develop your own optimization style and decision-making process.
In some cases, an experienced affiliate can take a campaign that starts at -80% ROI and still turn it into a profitable one.
For example, imagine a campaign that spends $200 and generates only $40 in revenue within 30 minutes (−80% ROI). A beginner might panic and shut it down immediately—but an experienced marketer might see opportunity instead.
Why? Because generating $40 in just 30 minutes means there is real conversion happening. With proper optimization—such as improving the landing page and identifying profitable traffic segments—this could potentially scale into a $500/day campaign.
That’s why you also need to consider traffic volume. When the traffic pool is large, the room for optimization is much greater.