Which is the best way to buy traffic? (6)

Hi there,

I would like to know which is the best way to buy traffic?

1. RON traffic - Wifi+ALL carrier+All OS
2. Segmented traffic - WIFI+IOS, Carrier 1+Android etc.

which one will give the best price and have the most traffic?

Harrison

You will get the most traffic when you use very broad targeting or no targeting at all. It will also be the cheapest. However, it will also be the hardest to monetize and your EPV will be low.

The more you target, the higher price you will usually pay, but the EPV will also be the highest. Precisely targeted campaigns are also easier to optimize as you pre-filter the segments at the traffic source and you can set more accurate bids.

The best way of doing this is to find the sweet spot as usually. Don't target too much, because you will kill the volume and will end up with a ton of campaigns to manage. But don't go too broad either, because you will be overpaying for certain segments. I split it up by the most obvious segments : wifi VS carriers, smartphones VS tablets, android VS iOS ... etc

Hey Mat, thanks for your info. Really helpful

Hey Harrison!

Hope everything is going great with you!

I wanna start by saying that there’s no magic formula to decide your traffic purchases. This will depend a lot on several parameters, such as segment, budget, ad size/type, ad network and, most importantly, your knowledge of the segment you’re working on.

There are, nonetheless, some important guidelines it’d be wise for you to follow.

When launching a RON campaign in a country you’re not totally familiar with and that you’re only beginning to test, you should launch with the widest target possible, regarding devices, OS etc. However, I definitely wouldn’t mix WiFi traffic with carrier traffic. Why? Because they have totally different characteristics, especially regarding conversion flows. Therefore, pretty much everything will be different, such as payouts and conversion ratios - for example. Additionally, you could start targeting all the carriers on a single campaign. Even so, later on, it’s very likely that it’ll be better - or necessary- to split them, having one campaign for each carrier. This will obviously allow you to better optimize each campaign according to each carrier’s specificities.

You should only segment your traffic in a more detailed way after you have gathered enough trustworthy data. This means that, if you know that a specific OS doesn’t work for a segment, you can exclude it when launching a campaign and so on and so forth. You can end up having campaigns just for one device, one carrier and one browser that can be very profitable. Again: there’s no shortcut to get there, you’ve gotta collect data.

As for your main question: it’s not possible to give you the answer you were looking for, as you can now probably understand. The “best price” is a very abstract concept. Indeed, it depends on countless parameters, including what you yourself consider to be a good price. Of course that - the wider your target - the most likely the chances you’ll pay more. Even so, you need to have a wide target so as to check what does/doesn’t work. Furthermore, the prices fluctuate a lot between ad formats, for example.

As for volumes of traffic: it seems obvious that – if you’ve got a very wide target - you’ll get more traffic. Nonetheless, volumes also depend a lot on different things, especially the vertical and the ad format, not forgetting to mention the source of traffic. Additionally, there are other things to take into consideration. For example, WiFi traffic can have lots of volumes, but a very poor conversion ratio or payout. It’s worth mentioning that a wider target (as well as WiFi) may have lower costs and high volumes, while a more segmented target can be more expensive. Why? Because - if you’ve discovered the good parameters and you're having a good performance there – it’s probable that (sooner or later) there’ll be a lot of competition, exactly because this targeting works. Remember: everybody wants the sweet spot!

Summarizing: I believe you’re beginning your journey in the affiliate marketing world and you’ve asked some questions that were troubling you, but that are not possible to answer as you intended, because they involve an infinity of parameters and aspects that you’ll only learn by doing three crucial things: a) reading like there’s nothing else in your life; b) studying what others have done before; c) practicing, something you’ll gain with experience in the business.

What I’ve tried to do is make some things a little bit less confusing for you. I hope I've been successful.

I suggest you read a lot on the subject. Trust me: the more info you get, the more these things will start making sense!

If there’s something else I can help you with, let me know!

Good luck on your AM journey!

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Mobidea

Hey Harrison!

Hope everything is going great with you!

I wanna start by saying that there’s no magic formula to decide your traffic purchases. This will depend a lot on several parameters, such as segment, budget, ad size/type, ad network and, most importantly, your knowledge of the segment you’re working on.

There are, nonetheless, some important guidelines it’d be wise for you to follow.

When launching a RON campaign in a country you’re not totally familiar with and that you’re only beginning to test, you should launch with the widest target possible, regarding devices, OS etc. However, I definitely wouldn’t mix WiFi traffic with carrier traffic. Why? Because they have totally different characteristics, especially regarding conversion flows. Therefore, pretty much everything will be different, such as payouts and conversion ratios - for example. Additionally, you could start targeting all the carriers on a single campaign. Even so, later on, it’s very likely that it’ll be better - or necessary- to split them, having one campaign for each carrier. This will obviously allow you to better optimize each campaign according to each carrier’s specificities.

You should only segment your traffic in a more detailed way after you have gathered enough trustworthy data. This means that, if you know that a specific OS doesn’t work for a segment, you can exclude it when launching a campaign and so on and so forth. You can end up having campaigns just for one device, one carrier and one browser that can be very profitable. Again: there’s no shortcut to get there, you’ve gotta collect data.

As for your main question: it’s not possible to give you the answer you were looking for, as you can now probably understand. The “best price” is a very abstract concept. Indeed, it depends on countless parameters, including what you yourself consider to be a good price. Of course that - the wider your target - the most likely the chances you’ll pay more. Even so, you need to have a wide target so as to check what does/doesn’t work. Furthermore, the prices fluctuate a lot between ad formats, for example.

As for volumes of traffic: it seems obvious that – if you’ve got a very wide target - you’ll get more traffic. Nonetheless, volumes also depend a lot on different things, especially the vertical and the ad format, not forgetting to mention the source of traffic. Additionally, there are other things to take into consideration. For example, WiFi traffic can have lots of volumes, but a very poor conversion ratio or payout. It’s worth mentioning that a wider target (as well as WiFi) may have lower costs and high volumes, while a more segmented target can be more expensive. Why? Because - if you’ve discovered the good parameters and you're having a good performance there – it’s probable that (sooner or later) there’ll be a lot of competition, exactly because this targeting works. Remember: everybody wants the sweet spot!

Summarizing: I believe you’re beginning your journey in the affiliate marketing world and you’ve asked some questions that were troubling you, but that are not possible to answer as you intended, because they involve an infinity of parameters and aspects that you’ll only learn by doing three crucial things: a) reading like there’s nothing else in your life; b) studying what others have done before; c) practicing, something you’ll gain with experience in the business.

What I’ve tried to do is make some things a little bit less confusing for you. I hope I've been successful.

I suggest you read a lot on the subject. Trust me: the more info you get, the more these things will start making sense!

If there’s something else I can help you with, let me know!

Good luck on your AM journey!

Cheers!

Keep in mind too that it will differ for each niche/traffic source. I was able to make a lot of money by going direct to the publisher for site ids/widgets that were killing it in an RON campaign. It's not always as straight-forward as checking the referrer if they are using a general URL, but being able to go direct for flat rate buys gave me a huge edge. Many times we'd buy their entire inventory for specific placements several months at a time.