In part one of our conversation with Raanan Rosenbaum, we explored his unconventional journey from the jewelry industry to success in performance marketing, his insights on emerging platforms like AppLovin and TikTok Shops, and his framework for selecting authentic UGC creators.
We also covered his strategic approach to ad tracking and platform selection and the importance of understanding customer lifetime value metrics.
Now, in Part Two, we delve deeper into the tactical aspects of performance marketing.
Raanan shares his non-negotiable stance on ad tracking infrastructure, reveals his systematic approach to conversion rate optimization, and explains how he maintains the patience to analyze countless VSLs while optimizing them for maximum performance.
We’ll also explore his perspective on AI’s role in copywriting, the evolution of affiliate marketing through platforms like TikTok Shops, and his practical advice for newcomers entering today’s competitive landscape.
Whether you’re a seasoned media buyer looking to refine your approach or someone just starting in performance marketing, this continuation offers actionable insights from someone who has successfully navigated the industry’s rapid evolution while building meaningful relationships with top performers across every aspect of the space.
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Q: What about ad tracking? I know when we talked last time, you said that it’s non-negotiable. For media buyers who still rely on spreadsheets, what would you say to them?
Raanan Rosenbaum: I mean, I think spreadsheets are fine. I think it’s just a way of looking at the bigger picture from a smaller perspective, because you won’t be able to grasp everything that’s going on if you can’t track everything.
Spreadsheets are great, and I definitely think they’re good, but it’s important to have some sort of professional ad tracking.
I believe that one of the most beneficial aspects of the current GDPR landscape, along with the changes in ad tracking due to iOS 14 updates, is setting up server-to-server postback links, especially if you are using a Facebook pixel or any type of JavaScript.
Server-to-server postback links are always going to be the most accurate way to track things. If you are using a mobile device and opting out of ad tracking, there is a very good chance that you will lose that sale.
Suppose you’re a new affiliate media buyer. You’re doing five to ten sales a day on a few different campaigns. In that case, if one of those campaigns has 50-plus affiliates working on it and you lost the ad tracking, there’s a good chance that it’s not going to be attributed to your bank account. You’re basically doing the work for others.
I think it’s really important to be making sure you’re up to date with everything so that you can help attribute properly what’s going on. If there are pixel limitations and people are opting out of ad tracking, this method allows you to effectively manage server-to-server postback links, ensuring everything is tracked efficiently.
Q: You said that your agency specializes in helping companies with CRO improvements. What are the top CRO changes you and your team make that consistently improve performance?
Raanan Rosenbaum: For sure. There are several things, but for instance, I’m always looking at mechanisms and what works. For example, it’s essential to ensure that clear and direct CTAs (calls to action) are above the fold so they don’t get missed in the ad or placement, allowing people to engage and click through to the product.
I think it’s essential to consider shortening the load times on your landing page.
When people are entering information, it’s crucial to understand that this reduces friction.
If someone goes onto a mobile device, for example, and it takes four to seven seconds to load the page, but it could be done in two or three seconds sooner, that can make a huge difference in terms of performance rates.
It is essential to continuously examine these factors, as well as competitors’ offers and activities in the market, to understand their strategies.
I think highlighting testimonials or reviews early on is essential and can be highly beneficial, especially since in this new day and age, people are increasingly seeking authenticity. They’re not always looking for that shiny, glossy Nike sign. They’re looking for something that says, “My mother would use this as well.”
Most important, I think, is ensuring that it’s mobile-optimized in layout and has a fast checkout process. Mobile optimization is really important because, as you know, most people are on their phones, and that’s where they’re doing shopping these days, especially if you’re using an app like TikTok.
I think it’s also essential to focus on things like urgency, staying within the lines of compliance, but if it makes sense, whether it’s a timer, limited stock, or whatever it is, really taking shots at seeing how that converts with the customer and how the buyers respond to that.
It’s essential to simplify forms and remove unnecessary fields.
So, if you have an opt-in page where you’re capturing emails or if you have a quiz funnel, really look at where drop-offs occur and where people are.
Quiz funnels are a huge thing these days in terms of paid media. Most of the top campaigns I’m aware of on Meta, for example, utilize a quiz funnel.
However, the quiz funnel may consist of nine to ten steps, and individuals are dropping off at two specific steps. To keep things moving, you must know what people don’t want to fill out and where they don’t want to engage.
Those are the primary factors I’m examining in terms of CRO performance. There are others, but that encapsulates a lot.
Q: After tracking where users drop off on the opt-in forms, do you remove those fields and test again?
Raanan Rosenbaum: Yeah, like for example, let’s say you have a field where someone’s filling in their information: it’s their name, email, date of birth, X, Y, and Z, whatever they’re asking for. You can’t ask for date of birth on certain platforms for compliance reasons, but just for information’s sake, if you have a few fields that are maybe optional but always being left blank, I would be looking at, if they’re not completely necessary to have that on the form, taking them out because they just become excess noise.
It becomes another distraction that people are looking at, whereas you want to simplify to deliver the product that they ultimately want.
So if it’s a form that people are filling out and there’s a field or two that’s not as relevant that’s always being left ignored, I would simplify and remove that and test again and see if there’s a better conversion rate once you remove that, because chances are there’s going to be.
Q: For the landing pages, do you test other elements on the page, like headlines, buttons, colors, and things like that?
Raanan Rosenbaum: There is no doubt in my mind. This involves ensuring that you have clear and direct CTA buttons positioned above the fold, adding new visual elements, and making adjustments based on whether you have a text sales letter on your landing page, experimenting with fonts, accent colors, and other strategies to evaluate customer conversion rates.
Q: You mentioned that you help your clients with VSLs. How do you have the patience to watch all those long VSLs? How do you optimize them?
Raanan Rosenbaum: I sometimes get tired of watching television in the evening because I’m watching VSLs all day!
VSLs really come down to testing, testing, testing. It’s critical that you test different leads and different hooks and experiment with where you draw—different VSLs, for instance, will reveal the product at various points in the 40 to 50 minutes, let’s say, of the VSL or however long it is.
It’s essential to understand the changes regarding where you display the product and where people are engaging or losing interest. It’s essential to understand what hooks, leads, or openings are really going to connect with people.
That’s why, for example, when I refer copywriters or when we do copy for anyone, I make sure that it’s someone who is going to not just do the job and walk away but who’s going to be willing to work with you to really make sure that you have enough leads, enough hooks, and enough openings that you can find something that works.
Sometimes, even when working with the best talent in the space, they may try something 30 times and still find it unsuccessful. And on the 31st try, it just pops off. Whether you’re working with an internal team member or an external partner, it’s crucial to set everything up for success.
Q: Do you use AI, or do you think AI is useful for creating these VSLs and improving them by changing elements in them?
Raanan Rosenbaum: For sure, I think most of the top copywriters in the space that I know utilize AI for things. It’s crucial to use AI rather than allowing it to take control.
For example, I’ve seen people rewrite a lot of things with AI, but they’re also spending almost the same amount of effort they would in writing something, adding in all the best prompts and making sure that the AI understands their tone of voice, their cadence, and everything properly.
I think it’s important not to get lost in that. Like I was saying with affiliates, most of the media buyers I know check with their friends whom they trust on certain angles and things, especially if they’re not in competition.
If I am focusing on fungus and you are concentrating on e-commerce, we could exchange perspectives and discuss ideas. It’s crucial to examine what’s out there and understand what works thoroughly.
You don’t know things until you try.
If you’re working with AI and you’re really going into full rewrites, it would be great to then have a friend that you trust in the space who does their own copy, to have a copy chief look at it. It’s important to thoroughly review and fine-tune the content after returning from AI to ensure it is coherent, effectively tells the story, and remains on brand.
Q: You mentioned earlier TikTok Shops, and you recommend TikTok Shops to media buyers. Is there a budget they should start with, or how does it work?
Raanan Rosenbaum: TikTok Shops can be more complicated for media buyers because most relationships are directly between creators and brands.
However, I know several affiliates in the space who have essentially created their own social media armies with creators, where they manage them and handle brand deals and other matters.
Again, the evolution of media buying and affiliate marketing depends on your approach, as you are managing a whole group of creators, which differs from simply managing links and their placements.
It’s a different business, but it’s still the same, if that makes sense.
If you were offering your services, for instance, you might be creating all of the videos with your creators that you’re working with, but then also facilitating TikTok Shops Live, the live access on TikTok.
That’s a huge access point for TikTok Shops. Most brands that are scaling are spending a significant amount of time on TikTok Lives, where a substantial portion of their revenue comes from. So not every brand is set up for lives. They don’t have the studio in-house. They may not have the right presenters or other necessary elements. So you can really make a play as an affiliate if you have those capabilities to get something like that set up on your end.
TikTok Lives have become an integral part of the biggest brands scaling on TikTok.
Q: What about Google Ads? Are people still using Google Ads?
Raanan Rosenbaum: Yeah, yeah, yeah. YouTube, of course, is still its own animal, and it’s great.
But with Google, you have Google Discovery Network. You have all these different Google Search options. I know a lot of people doing that, especially depending on the vertical and what you’re doing. When you create an information product, Google works remarkably well.
If you are engaged in activities related to manifestation or personal development, those approaches work very well in that context. If you’re trying to promote something that doesn’t have a video element, like a VSL or a text sales letter, Google is really great.
So it depends. It really is about your capabilities and where you want to try.
I would advise any media buyer trying to focus on one or two platforms to really limit their efforts to one or two platforms, rather than trying to do everything.
If, let’s say, you start on Meta and Google and you have some really amazing success on Google, I would maybe turn off Meta until you get things scaled on Google, because once you have a scaled product on one platform, it gives you a lot of leverage to do a lot more things.
When you have more cash flow coming in, you become more appealing to other offer owners and vendors, which gives you the opportunity to potentially partner with another media buyer or create something for yourself.
Q: What offers do you work with now? Do you help brands, or do you also run your own companies?
Raanan Rosenbaum: Not at the moment. I am strategically collaborating on various campaigns with media buyers and the brands themselves, facilitating many processes to ensure everything is set up properly. Primarily, I’m working with several different brands in the health and wellness niche, including supplements and a fitness campaign, as well as numerous e-commerce projects.
I focus a lot on my business these days on e-commerce, mostly originating from Eastern Europe in terms of the brands, but it’s actually being run primarily in North America. So there’s a little less of a visual element.
A big thing we focus on is really the branding, which we help a lot with in getting set up from a creative perspective, and also to get then connected with the right media buyers to take it from there.
Q: How do you find winning creatives? What’s your process, and how can smaller affiliates replicate that on a limited budget?
Raanan Rosenbaum: I think the important thing, like I said, is it’s not reinventing the wheel, it’s seeing what’s working. So it’s essential to look at all the different things in the same category and to really understand.
For instance, if you’re trying to get into a certain niche, like let’s say you’re working on weight loss and blood pressure, I wouldn’t go beyond that. I would only start with one or two niches to really specialize in them. I know media buyers who can scale three to four niches, and that’s it. And that’s more than enough. If you can do it well, there’s a lot there. You don’t have to do everything.
I believe it is crucial to examine all the competition in your specific brand or product category. And not just looking, if you’re focused on Meta, let’s say, and you’re developing a weight loss supplement, I wouldn’t only look at Meta, even though that’s going to be a gauge for creatives. I would also start looking on Snapchat, for example, and Google, because there may be things that you see in an angle they’re using, an ingredient, or an aspect to the product that then amplifies your Meta ads.
I think it’s really important to see, on the actual platform you’re running, what the best-performing options are.
For instance, if you’re on Facebook, it sounds so simple, but the Facebook Ads Library is like the greatest gift of anything. I spend all day, every day, in the Facebook Ads Library, looking at brands, getting inspiration, and seeing what people are doing.
Again, you don’t want to copy what the top brands are doing, but you want to understand the mechanisms and what they’re doing so that you can replicate that in your own voice.
I do it all day long. Really, sometimes I get up around 6 a.m., I go to the gym for an hour, and then I’m just stuck at the computer until six or seven at night.
Q: You do that after you finish watching VSLs?
Raanan Rosenbaum: This is how it works sometimes.
Q: What’s your top advice for affiliate media buyers who are just starting in today’s landscape? What should they focus on?
Raanan Rosenbaum: I think the best advice is to connect with people who are doing what they want to do in the space. There are numerous Facebook groups. There are so many different communities. If you’re attending a network like ClickBank, for example, or Digistore, consider attending their events at affiliate shows and meeting other like-minded individuals. Find out, share information, and learn from people.
When I entered the space, there was no blueprint for things. Most of what I know, I was taught by someone, not because they were paid to, but because they were helpful and they were kind (#weAreInThisTogether). I think it’s important to look for who your resources or your anchors are in the space to really learn from. I’d say that first and foremost.
I think it’s essential to understand where you’ll be running ads and what you’re targeting. For example, suppose you’re entering the VSL landscape and building relationships with BuyGoods, ClickBank, or Digistore. In that case, it is important to identify those who share your language and can provide the most assistance with your needs, as this will be the training that facilitates progress.
Similarly, if you were looking at e-commerce or e-commerce nutrition, and you’re not in the VSL landscape, you might consider options like ShareASale or the Offer Club. There are many options available, including CJ Affiliates. There are so many different avenues. I think it’s important to understand what you’re trying to do and where you need to go.
However, try to connect with like-minded people, as that’s the best way to learn. And look at ads all day long. That’s what I do.
Q: How important is it to be cautious about people exaggerating numbers in this space?
Raanan Rosenbaum: 100%. Exactly. You must consider the entire picture and not trust everything. Pick your models and surround yourself with the great ones that we have.
Q: If you could fix one big problem in the performance marketing space, what would that be?
Raanan Rosenbaum: The biggest problem is a lack of transparency and information.
It’s exactly like you said about people inflating numbers. I have clients and people that I speak with all the time who say: “Look at their funnel; look at what they’re doing.” And sometimes you have insider knowledge to understand that that person is not doing anything. So it’s sometimes a bit of a facade in the space of what’s really happening. Not with everyone, there are a lot of really honest, great people in the space.
I think it would be great to have more of a rule book to understand how things work because there isn’t a roadmap with all of that. That’s one of the most significant issues, indeed. I think it’s also essential to understand the fundamentals of what you’re doing.
Sometimes people get excited by something, such as when they are working with a brand and don’t have to take the extra step of creating creatives, as the brand handles it for them, and they’re mostly just running the traffic. In this scenario, you can become lazy and stop learning new things. It’s vital that people are always in the space, continuing to learn and understand what’s going on.
Before I understood ad tracking, I tried running a few campaigns a few years ago, and I lost a lot of money because I didn’t know what I was doing.
It’s essential to keep learning. Things change every day. A year and a half ago, no one had ever heard of AppLovin. TikTok Shops have only been scaling for the last year or so.
There are so many different avenues that aren’t the way they were six months ago or three months ago. I think the most important thing is for people to start really trying to learn and investigate. That’s something I’d love to change—just further education on how things work.
Q: How would better support for smaller media buyers help the entire space?
Raanan Rosenbaum: Exactly. More of a streamlined creative feedback loop, so to speak. I think that would be helpful, and I believe better support for smaller media buyers actually benefits the space more because it enables more small media buyers to become larger media buyers. They have to start somewhere.
Conclusion
This insightful two-part interview with Raanan Rosenbaum reveals a performance marketing landscape in constant evolution. Success increasingly depends on authenticity, proper infrastructure, and genuine industry relationships rather than quick hacks or shortcuts.
Raanan’s journey from the jewelry industry to founding MNR Strategy illustrates how diverse backgrounds can provide unique advantages in performance marketing.
The key themes that emerge from our conversation include:
Infrastructure as Foundation: Raanan’s unwavering stance on proper ad tracking setup reflects a fundamental truth, without accurate attribution, even the best campaigns become unsustainable. His recommendation for server-to-server postback links addresses the ongoing challenges of iOS updates and privacy regulations.
Specialization Over Diversification: Rather than trying to master every platform and vertical, Raanan advocates for deep specialization in 1-2 niches and platforms. This approach allows for pattern recognition and relationship building that generalists cannot achieve.
Authenticity in the AI Era: While embracing AI as a tool, Raanan emphasizes the irreplaceable value of human insight, authentic content creation, and genuine customer testimonials. The most successful campaigns still require human creativity and strategic thinking.
Platform Evolution: From AppLovin‘s emergence as a major player to TikTok Shops’ creator-driven model, Raanan demonstrates how staying ahead requires constant learning and adaptation while maintaining core principles.
Transparency and Education: His call for greater industry transparency and mentorship reflects a mature perspective on building a sustainable ecosystem where smaller players can grow into larger ones.
Perhaps most importantly, Raanan’s story shows that performance marketing success isn’t about finding secret formulas. It’s about developing pattern recognition, building genuine relationships, and maintaining the discipline to track, test, and optimize continuously while staying true to authentic value creation.
For those looking to follow in his footsteps, the message is clear: invest in proper ad tracking, specialize deeply, build real relationships, and never stop learning. The industry’s constant evolution isn’t a bug—it’s a feature that rewards those willing to adapt while maintaining fundamental principles.
Connect with Raanan Rosenbaum:
- Agency: MNR Strategy,
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/raanan-rosenbaum/
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/raanan.rosenbaum.79
- Instagram RonanLR.
Watch the complete interview on our YouTube channel
In our next episode of Champions of Performance Marketing, we’ll explore how other industry leaders are navigating the challenges of privacy updates, emerging platforms, and the increasing demand for authentic, performance-driven content.
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