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How does this TikTok arbitrage work? (5)

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Hi everyone,

I've been in the affiliate game ( working direct with companies rather than through an intermediary ) for the last 6 years.

Industries include:

Internet
Energy
Auto Finance
Auto Insurance

I'm keen to explore TikTok as an acquisition channel for our current business as well as other opportunities and I came across this ad:

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSdpRThnX/?k=1

When you take action you end up on a page which kinda looks like a SERP with 5 - 6 calls to action.

Eg.

Best SUV of 2022
Best 7 seater SUV
Fastest SUV
etc etc

I selected one at random and got pushed through to another SERP of 3 options.

One of the links is below;

https://www.toyota.co.nz/our-range/t...E&gclsrc=aw.ds


I'm curious as to how the commercials work for the entity running this campaign. From the last link(one above) does it give any clues to how this crowd make money from this?

Another similar example is for loans.

The final step of three options is via this link:

https://better.co.nz/personal-loans?...SAAEgKwQ_D_BwE

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The basic concept of arbitrage is the same regardless of what traffic source you decide to use.

This particular type is called SEARCH arbitrage. The core idea is simple, you get traffic that is interested into a specific area/niche, usually based on some keywords and you direct these clicks to a small SERP page with related results on it. When someone clicks, you make money.

For this to work, you need to be able to buy targeted clicks at a low-enough price.

I haven't seen a lot of these Ads on TT, as the price per click tends to be a bit higher, but a lot of folks are running this on native for example.
@platinum has started several great threads on native arbitrage that have great info, including the search feed networks to work with.

Here are some you might find interesting:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...igns-on-Native
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...arch-Arbitrage

And one more from the same person, they've just held a webinar about Native arbitrage, the replay video is embeded in this post: https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...gns-on-Taboola

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Thanks for the explanation @matuloo

How does the underlying system work?

eg if we were to have a source of traffic that was $0.10 cpc and the revenue per click was $0.20 for a given niche who / where do we go to get the links to set this up?

The reason I ask is that we have organic traffic that we allow to flow freely to companies we do not work with.

https://www.glimp.co.nz/car-loans/car-loans-calculator

We don't have a commercial relationship with ASB but we still send traffic there. I'm wondering if we can use search arbitrage to generate some kind of revenue in this niche?

Cheers!

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Check the article I linked above, platinum mentions a few networks that provide these search feeds and he is way more knowledgeable in the field than I am. It's right at the top and below is a quote from that part:

These are 3 top networks that provide search feeds I believe, so you would have to signup with them.

But it's not that easy. Let's say you buy traffic at 10 cents a click and you send it to a page with the search feed on it, the users have to click the actual link in order for you to make money. And it's not like everyone would do that. Some people won't click on anything and leave, some might click 2 links etc... there has to be a direct match between their intent and what links you show them.

In case your traffic volumes are high, this might be an option. You could place something like "Explore more options" into the ASB box and link that to a page with related search feed on it.

But in this particular case, it might be easier to simply find more loan providers that you can directly sell the clicks or leads to. There are affiliate networks that have car loan offers, maybe some would have NZ offers.

BTW: here is another article about arbitrage that was posted just yesterday and it provides quite a nice overview of the vertical:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...26%23128640%3B

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@acquisitionlab as @matuloo already mentioned, the concept of running search arb or arbitrage campaigns is fairly simple.

You buy traffic for $XX and you monetize it through ads to generate $YY in revenue, with the ultimate goal of having $XX < $YY.

There are two standard well known models:

1. Content Arb - where you buy traffic from various placements and traffic sources and monetize the content website using various ad networks.

2. Search Arb - where you buy traffic from various placements and traffic sources to send the visitors to a parked domain with related sponsored search results.

Although at first all looks fairly simple, in reality it is not. Here's why:

When running content arb campaigns besides focusing on blocking under-performing placements and tweaking bids on the buying side, you also have to make sure you are serving the right ads from the right network on the monetization side. Plus, on top of it, you should aim for great engagement rates on the websites. When I say engagement, I mean having considerable Page Views per Session, Time on page, etc.

When running search arb campaigns, according to the official rules, you can only direct-link when running through an approved native ad network (taboola, outbrain, revcontent, yahoo gemini, mgid). In case you would like to run social traffic from like FB and TT, or even Display traffic (Google Display Ads), you have to pass through a content site. This means that according to the rules, you have to pass through a content site that lists search ads in the article [example below].



Keep present that whoever is running direct-linked on social or display has either agreed to take the risk of having payments withheld if caught red-handed, or they are pushing enough volume to get treated differently.

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