We ran the same explicit lander and the same 5 creatives through three different TrafficJunky setups to isolate the effect of targeting and bidding. Same offer, different audience routing. Here is how the results diverge.
Everything below shares the identical lander and creatives. Only the three levers in the top rows change.
Lever
Keyword
Segment · Cams
Segment · Dating
Targeting
Keyword list (AI theme)
Audience: Intent to buy Cams
Audience: Intent to buy Dating
Geo / device
CA · Android mobile
CA + US · mobile
CA + US · mobile
Bid strategy
Top bid
Balanced
Balanced
Daily budget
$100
$50
$50
Status now
Paused
Active
Active
Headline numbers
Best CTR
0.049%
Dating segment, ~3× the keyword setup
Cheapest click
$0.10
Dating segment (vs $0.70 keyword)
Cheapest signup
$4.14
Dating segment (vs $12.24 keyword)
Payments
1
$4 total, on Dating, out of 94 signups
Full comparison
Metric
Keyword
Segment · Cams
Segment · Dating
Impressions
535,310
3,838,737
4,137,618
Clicks (TrafficJunky)
87
1,492
2,047
Clicks (Everflow, deduped)
74
1,260
1,738
CTR
0.016%
0.039%
0.049%
Cost per click
$0.70
$0.18
$0.10
Spend
$61.22
$261.63
$211.16
Signups
5
38
51
Cost per signup
$12.24
$6.88
$4.14
Payments
0
0
1
Revenue
$0
$0
$4.00
Note on terms: a signup is a registration (what TrafficJunky loosely labels "conversions"). A payment is real money charged. The one payment is confirmed in TrafficJunky, Everflow, and our own database (a real US customer on the Dating segment).
Where they diverge
CTR
Segments engage ~3× better
Cost per click
Lower is better
Cost per signup
Lower is better
What we read from it
Audience targeting beats keywords, clearly. Same creative and lander, the two segment setups pull ~3× the click-through rate of the keyword setup at a fraction of the cost per click. The keyword setup was the weakest and most expensive, and is paused.
Dating is the clear winner. Best CTR (0.049%), cheapest click ($0.10), cheapest signup ($4.14), the most clicks (1,738), and the only paid purchase. Cams is a solid second on volume but did not convert to money.
The ceiling is monetization, not traffic. $534 spent, 94 signups, but only 1 payment for $4. The ad buy works and Dating is efficient at the top of the funnel; the value is lost between signup and payment. More spend will not fix that, it is a product/paywall problem.
Recommendation: the targeting question is answered, so pause and shift focus. We know Dating is the winning audience and that segment targeting beats keywords. Continuing to spend at ~$0.007 return per dollar just burns budget. Pause now, fix the signup-to-payment path, then relaunch leading with the Dating segment.