Reader Experience | Nutra SS/Trial 2023 in USA: from poor landing pages and apartment sales to the first million

For the last few years, I’ve been living in the USA, working with supplements and nutra. I trade online on American Amazon and other platforms. On a good month, I sell 20 000 bottles only with a white-hat approach. I work with many advertisers, webmasters, and affiliate programs, so I can brag about my expertise. In this article, I want to talk about a huge problem with the approach of many CPA webmasters, as well as the difference between supplements and nutra. 

 

Material from reader @ilovesddd (Telegram)  

 

 

Due to my long stay in the USA, I’ve seen enough of how people build a business with a white approach. I call it supplements. On Amazon and other platforms, BAA/vitamins are called just that - supplements. Registered!

 

And now some statistics: the supplement/nutra market in the US is 3 times the volume of US gambling. $165 billion in 2022 versus $50 billion from gambling. Nutra is sold everywhere in America, costly and professionally! And I'm not talking about call centers, ointments for intimate parts, old school design of landing pages, lead approvals and strange GEOs that you’ve only seen on the map. Online sales are transforming. Competition, fashion, and society dictate new wishes and approaches.

 

Just look at this horror from the last century: 

 

 

Supplements and nutra in the USA

Now a bit of backstory. Last year I decided to figure out how to increase website sales, because frankly there were almost no sales. People switched from Amazon to my inferior websites and sometimes bought something. The brain-twister was to find a way of selling bottles that cost $20-25 on Amazon through my website in order to be less dependent on the marketplace.

 

 

Luckily, I had experience of driving traffic to white e-commerce products: started experiments with FB, which were unsuccessful. But thanks to this, in SPY services I came across an affiliate marketing scheme. I've seen enough of lookalike landing pages with Keto Gummies and other magical potency products among other things. That is the niche we call nutra. You should distinguish between supplements and nutra, those are different things.

 

As Americans say, to make a long story short, a year later I launched ME/CBD and Keto offers, for the USA GEO, SS and Trial. For a year I struggled with the development, opening of a bunch of companies, testing different technical solutions and niches. This endeavor cost an apartment in the center of Kyiv and a lot of nerves.

 

 

But my work wasn’t in vain. In the first month, we made a turnover of $300K, followed by $500K in the second, etc. All by using traffic from various affiliate programs, media buying + our efforts.

 

 

Despite these decent results, I declare that nutra SS/trial is dying due to clumsy approaches of CPA webmasters. What cannot be said about Supplement - $ 165 billion in 2022 and growing, again this reference. Webmasters everywhere are crying out that “it doesn’t convert” and continue to actively seek for an offer paying $ 20 more but shave 20% off them after the first days of launching campaigns. They never heard what EPC is.

 

Having experience as a CPA, nutra advertiser and white-hat seller, I decided to share my insights from across the ocean. I’ll write solely about nutra SS/Trial because COD doesn't work here.

 

Customers who buy nutra have a specific psychotype, so it makes it easier to sell, pitch, deceive them. Call it what you want. But yesterday I was outside and there really are a lot of normal people! They all have the same issues as the rest of us: they dream of losing weight, want something bigger in their pants and to be a little more beautiful. So how do we convert a larger audience? 

 

Approaches, drugs, designs, and funnels change. But why not in the nutra!

Look at this story not from the affiliate marketing side, but more broadly. Look at the niche as nutra and supplement. Let's take US GEO as an example:

 

Amazon.com. Skip the popular, cheap, “drugstore” brands. We are looking for a vitamin supplements category with BSR (best seller rank), below 10000, price over $30, more than 300 reviews. Or search by keywords - Weight loss, Male Enhancement, etc. Pay attention to Phytage Labs, 1MD, Gundry MD, Colonbroom, Pure Man, etc. Then find how they are being sold outside of Amazon, pay attention to landing pages, funnels, retargeting.

 

 

Review the articles. Google “brand” + review/compare. There will be a bunch of SEO articles with “comparisons” of our miracle remedies. For example, here is the link. This way you can spy on competitor brands and check out their approaches, landing pages and funnels.

 

Or here's the link.

 

 

Google. Find the niche giants and study them. For example, nutra (and pharma) adult/ME represented by forhims.com, ro.co and so on. They have dozens of different landing pages, quizzes, and funnels. Here’s the Hims report. Guys made a turnover of almost $200 million in Q1 and aimed at $800 million + by the end of the year. There’s a lot to learn.

 

 

Landing pages: Overview

Nutra/supplements are additives, complexes that are added to the diet. Legally, in all countries of the world it’s not considered a medicine. But we, webmasters, sell these vitamins as a remedy that will cure, enhance, or vice versa reduce something. White-hat brands do this just as well, but they are 5 years ahead of us. So, let's take their approaches and modify them to our advantage. Here are the landing pages, pre-landings, and creatives that, probably all SS/trial webmasters use. I’m sure those who are in the know will recognize something familiar, a similar landing/pre-landing they were uploading just the other day.

 

 

Why is that? Typical story, we steal from each other in SPY services, but don’t have enough time and creativity to think of something new.

 

 

The same pre-land used by everyone who was only able to put their hands on it. 

 

 

Design from 2016, order form, text - it’s hard for a normal person to read without a smile. They play on insecurities and concerns, promise a quick fix to any problem. And this scheme really works. But why not take a slightly different approach? 

 

 

Creatives are the Everest of creativity, the golden branch. They provide a good ctr but are distrusted and highly misleading.

 

 

As you can see, most of the creatives are nothing interesting. 

 

 

You probably see those driving traffic for nutra every other day for several years. I sorted these landing pages into blocks, text, and approaches. Here’s the link to one of the boards with analysis for those who’s interested (only for Mac, sorry). I do this regularly to create something fresh for my offers. 

 

Sources and metrics to strive for 

Let’s touch on the topic of sources a bit. Not to make the article too long, we’ll be only talking about Facebook. Nutra SS/Trial is promoted on Facebook, and Supplement brands are doing that. Over the course of six months, enough traffic and different webmasters have passed through me to see the approaches and how FB converts for nutra.

 

A common situation: different partners/teams launch throughout the day, some have 3-5 sales from 100 clicks, others have none. When we look at the funnels of those with “none”, my lip trembles and I want to hug them. Why are you wasting your time on this? Maybe it's better to work at the factory?

 

The strongest in terms of traffic for nutra SS/Trial are webmasters from the USA and Canada. They understand how Keto Trial or ME SS (male enhancement), or some Skin cream should convert. The funnels for all advertisers are +/- the same and those who work with traffic realize what to expect in terms of statistics from potency pills in BM FB.

 

Everyone working in nutra SS/Trial are guided by EPC (earnings per click), this is the primary metric. Don't overcomplicate it, EPC is the ultimate measure, and it's simpler that way. Nutra in the USA is sometimes CPMs of $20-30 and clicks costing as much as two liters of 98 gasoline. You need to approach it wisely! If you are doing everything +/- correctly, your EPC should be at least $2. You should look for an approach/offer with an EPC of $3-4+; that will already be good, but perhaps you should aim for an EPC of $6-10, then there will be smiles and the sound of coins ringing.

 

 

GEPC

There's a concept called GEPC - Guaranteed EPC. 90% of the folks who drive traffic for nutra might not have even heard of it. Here's a link explaining what it is. When strong webmasters come in, I often propose to run offers based on GEPC.

 

How it works: For example, last week, we agreed with a webmaster to deliver 5000 clicks (clicks directly to my landing page, not their pre-landers) at a GEPC of $6. We've worked together before, they know my offer, and I know their traffic. So, if the EPC is less than $6, I pay them the difference. To put it simply: I pay them $160 for a sale, and from 100 clicks we aim to see nearly 4 (3.75) sales. Based on GEPC, I owe them $30K for these 5K clicks, and they owe me a minimum of 187.5 sales. If there are 150 sales, I still pay them $30K, if there are more sales, I pay them the remainder on a CPA basis. For me, as an advertiser, it's minus a headache in terms of finding traffic, and it provides peace of mind to the webmaster. However, it only works when there's some relationship or mutual trust.

 

I can't help but remember other TOP sources for nutra SS/Trial that many folks don't fully understand:

 

• Native 
• Google/Bing
• SEO/review articles
• Adult-networks

 

These are ranked from best to worst. We'll describe them in more detail in upcoming materials. You need to know how to work with something other than FB; when there's a storm there, it might be calm here, and vice versa. Google offers that you run through American proxies, explore adult websites (for work purposes), and you'll find a lot of interesting things.

 

Facebook and white-hat

Above, we've taken a brief look at how black-hat marketers promote nutra products on FB. However, since we've touched on white-hat methods, let's take a closer look at some major brands like Hims, Skinnyfit, and my favorite AG1. This info can serve as a source of inspiration for your thinking, to gather ideas and approaches, analyze and adapt them for nutra.

 

There's much to learn from the white-hat approach, as it focuses on customer satisfaction and long-term LTV (lifetime value). Supplement brands don't generate profits from the first purchase and they need to convert customers repeatedly to make the economics work. Their advertising accounts are not subject to bans, which allows them to refine their approaches and optimize their campaigns. This is why they meticulously develop funnels, designs, and creatives.

 

Nutra advertisers also aim to sell more than once; this is referred to as rebilling. However, our approach tends to be more arrogant and black-hat. Working with nutra we mostly don’t care what customers might think of us. I may describe these processes in another article. Let's return to discussing the white-hat approach.

 

There are many advertisements, so you won't need to spend a lot of time searching:

 

 

The first one is Hims. It’s a brand targeting male customers. Hims is quite prominent, has clever approaches, designs, and funnels. While it's the pharma rather than the supplement, there are still valuable ideas to glean. Hims is known for using quiz funnels. Partners that run my offers also use quizzes in their pre-landers, and it works. Quizzes engage customers, and by asking questions, you can tap into their pain points effectively.

 

 

The second is Skinnyfit. It’s an Amazon brand that transitioned into online sales. It might not be as well-known, and you probably haven't heard of it. Skinnyfit focuses on weight loss products, including superfoods and Gummies, but their approach is almost identical to CPA. Thousands of their ads can easily be found in SPY or directly within FB library.

 

 

The landing pages are similar to Keto offers, but there are differences. You can steal.

 

 

The third one is AG1. It's considered a superfood, not even available on Amazon, but highly popular in the United States. Again, you can go to SPY or their websites and let their advertising inspire you, it's also a useful exercise. Here are a couple of creatives from SPY:

 

 

They have excellent funnels and designs. It looks trustworthy, and customers in 2023 are accustomed to this, especially Americans. These brands have invested heavily in marketing.

 

 

Outro

Take a broader look at the nutra. Study white-hat brands from similar niches. White-hat brands often invest millions of dollars in marketing campaigns, and entire teams of experienced Americans come up with enticing strategies for customers. While I have faith in webmasters from Europe and Asia, it's essential to have a global perspective and extract the best approaches from all sources. It's been proven to work.