TrafficStars - Adult ad network review (1)
Hey guys! Continuing our reviews on different traffic sources, this time we'll talk about TrafficStars.
[Disclaimer: This post was originally published on mobidea Academy. All the missing information can be found in the full version.]
TrafficStars is positioned as a self-serve premium ad network for high-quality adult traffic.
WARNING: at this point, the platform’s traffic is not available to everyone! In order to create an account on TrafficStars, you need to be officially registered as a company.
That being said, the selection process brings some advantages for all affiliates that do get accepted – one major plus is the fact that all accounts get an assigned account manager right away.
These managers will help you understand which are the ad network’s top segments and spots, provide you with the top bids to be successful, and will give you many other useful clues.
Regarding ad formats: TrafficStars supports 6 banner sizes and popunders. Especially in 300x250, we’ve found that one of the best-performing spots tends to be the xHamster interstitial – the actual performance depends on your offers, banners, etc.
TrafficStars offers worldwide traffic, with a notable concentration of high volumes, especially in tier 1 GEOs. Even so, you can also get other classic low-payout GEOs such as India, Brazil or Thailand showing high volumes.
The number of impressions and available ad spots can vary a lot, depending on the carriers and ad formats (e.g. we found there’s only one premium spot available for 300 x 100 in BR Claro).
You should always talk to your Account Manager to get the freshest numbers before launching a campaign. Because the ad network’s traffic estimator is inaccurate, to say the least!
A higher number of premium sites also means tough restrictions on banners. Many of the real premium spots (e.g. several spots on xHamster) don’t allow any fake players or text buttons. This is where you should really be in sync with your Account Manager so as to get useful insights!
Let’s now get down to business and dive into the campaign creation process.
Campaign Creation
Just like the whole platform’s interface, the campaign creation process is equally easy and intuitive and as simple as possible. This allows you to get your things organized, making sure you can monetize faster.
Settings
Select your campaign’s general features: Campaign name, Categories (to start, we recommend you select “All”), Ad format, Country and Ad Group (to organize your campaigns.)
Targeting
This option offers all the basics you need to get to create a nice targeting:
- Languages
- Devices
- Operating Systems
- Browsers
- Carriers
- IP ranges
Scheduling
Just like other networks, TrafficStars allows dayparting and gives you the chance to schedule the dates in which you want your campaign to run – always nice to have these options!
Audience
The most interesting part is the websites targeting, or “Audience” as it’s called on TrafficStars. You can choose between a classic RON campaign or a Prime one.
Prime is the cream of the crop: top websites + spots combination!
It’s the best in the market. Very appealing and definitely worth testing.
Don’t hesitate and “annoy” your Account Manager, asking for the top bids for those premium spots and the banners compliance. Apparently, some of those spots allow you to go for more “aggressive” banners.
In that case, we suggest you create two separate campaigns: one for the more restricted spots, and a second one for the others. You can upload all your creatives on the “Ads” tab.
Pricing
You’ve got two common pricing models available: CPC and CPM. You’ll pay a fixed amount of $ for each occurrence.
As an advertiser, we have no info regarding our position while launching the campaign – and not even while running it.
The small campaign summary (see image below) claims to help us estimate it, showing the total traffic available – which is usually never accurate for the chosen targeting. Plus: the “Top CPM” = 0.03 $ shown below is the suggestion we got when targeting a BR TIM 300 x 100 Prime campaign for the xHamster Mobile header.
Once confirmed without an AM, it turned out that the actual top bid was much higher.
Final tip: once your campaign is fine-tuned and ready to kick off, save the ID and give it to your Account Manager – it’s gonna be approved much faster.
Tracking
If you’re already using a tracking service, the good thing is that TrafficStars is probably already there with all the predefined settings for Traffic Sources – time saving, indeed!
In case you don’t use a tracker yet, here’s a quick guide on how to set the postback directly with Mobidea: on every advertiser’s account in the “Tracking & API” section, you’ll see a short text regarding the link you need to use, just like the one below:
The framed link http://tsyndicate.com/api/v1/cpa/action/{{DATA3}} is the one you paste on the Mobidea Postback setting, just like in the following example:
After you save the changes, don’t forget to add the dynamic parameters you’d like to track in your Smartlink/Offer link. As an example, we’re gonna track the campaign ID on data1 and creative ID on track2.
Then, at the end, you’ve gotta add the data3={click_id}, just as shown below:
http://www.videosondemand.eu/?sl=000000-000×0&data1={campaign_id}&data2={creative_id}&data 3={click_id}
TrafficStars is definitely an ad network you should add to your list of adult networks. It offers a very clean, intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate.
With several well-known premium sites, the ad network offers good quality and great volumes of traffic. Remember: individual volumes can depend on the segment and ad format.
Banner regulations are a bit tough. This is where you should work with your Account Manager and come up with solutions.
You can also think about launching several campaigns in one segment, depending on the individual restrictions of the premium spots.
In this network, scaling up can be a bit tricky, since the performances among the available premium spots seem to vary a lot. This means it’s all about finding as many gold mines as possible and squeezing them as much as you can by working on banners, operating systems, etc.
Believe us: there are ways to find those sweet spots and TrafficStars has got a whole lotta cash waiting for you to grab!
To know more about advantages and disadvantages of this network, check the full article on our Mobidea Academy!
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