A variety of traffic sources: From SEO to social networks

A traffic source is an entry point for your target audience, which is a place or platform from which users come to your landing page by clicking on links. Traffic sources can be various channels and means, such as websites and blogs, social networks, advertising networks, e-mail, SMS and messengers, as well as physical media.

In addition, there are other resources, such as webinars, online courses, podcasts, where links to your site can be placed. All these traffic sources can be divided into paid and free. Paid traffic sources include those that need to be paid for in order to attract users. These include paid advertising on social networks, contextual advertising in search engines, sponsored posts, etc. Free traffic sources, in turn, do not require direct costs and include organic traffic from search engines, publications on social networks, word of mouth, etc.

Thus, the traffic source can be almost anything that directs users to your landing page, whether it's online channels or offline events.

Free traffic

Free traffic sources include websites, social networks and applications, from where users independently find your site or profile and click on the link. Such organic traffic is generated without direct advertising costs. Users find your content themselves through search engines, recommendations, or discussions. Links and organic-disguised advertising posts that are not paid for as advertising can also be a free source of traffic. They can be posted on forums, social networks, and bulletin boards.

For example, if you attract followers to your Instagram profile and place a link in the profile description, clicks on this link will be a free source of traffic. Or if your landing page is found by customers in Google organic search results, and you do not pay for their clicks or clicks, this is also considered free traffic.

Many people do not really believe in the effectiveness of free traffic, emphasizing that this type of traffic requires significant labor. It takes a lot of time and effort to attract organic users without paying for ads. Free traffic as a source is more suitable for novice arbitrageurs without a budget who are willing to invest their personal time in attracting buyers one at a time.

Paid traffic

Paid traffic includes any attraction of buyers for money. Traffic arbitrage is based on buying traffic at a lower price and converting it into profit. In traffic arbitration, there are many sources where you can purchase traffic. Let's look at the main types of traffic sources available today.

Advertising networks play a key role in attracting paid traffic. First of all, this is contextual advertising, which is shown in search engines such as Google AdWords. Ads are displayed in search results and on partner sites. Display advertising is also popular, including banners and videos posted on various platforms such as the Google Display Network and social media advertising networks.

Social networks provide many opportunities to buy traffic. Facebook Ads allows you to customize ads based on user interests, demographics, and behavior. Instagram Ads includes photos, videos, carousel ads, sponsored posts and stories, which allows you to reach a wide audience. LinkedIn Ads is aimed at a professional audience and is especially useful for the B2B segment. Twitter Ads offers promo tweets, accounts and trends, which allows you to attract the attention of users of this platform.

Advertising platforms and exchanges also provide opportunities to buy traffic. RTB (Real-Time Bidding) platforms such as Google Ad Manager and AppNexus offer automated auctions where advertisers can buy traffic in real time. DSP (Demand-Side Platforms) such as MediaMath and The Trade Desk allow advertisers to manage multiple advertising exchanges through a single platform, which provides flexibility and efficiency in managing advertising campaigns.

Thus, paid traffic can be purchased through various channels and platforms, including advertising networks, social networks and specialized advertising platforms. Arbitrageurs use these tools to attract traffic at a low price and then convert it into profit.

Advertising networks

An advertising network is a tool for placing ads on multiple sites at the same time. Usually, such a network has its own permitted advertising formats, traffic volumes divided by country and subject, its own payment model and requirements for advertising materials. Recently, the term "advertising network" has expanded to include advertising in applications, programs, browsers, as well as the delivery of advertising push notifications. The advertising network is a multifunctional platform for sellers and buyers of traffic who connect to the system and work inside it.

A teaser network is an advertising network with a teaser advertising format. She places a series of advertising banners on websites and accepts ads of any subject, including shock content. Teaser is one of the cheapest types of advertising networks.

An email newsletter is an automatic mailing of emails. The content of such letters can be diverse: news, advertising, promotional offers, invitations to webinars, sometimes threats and warnings about danger with an offer to pay. Email mailing is one of the ways to communicate with users. Databases of email addresses are purchased or assembled manually, after which a chain of promotional emails is created, which attract traffic. One of the easiest ways to get email databases is to parse email addresses from platforms such as LinkedIn.

A push grid is an advertising network specializing in buying or selling traffic from push notifications. This is a new kind of advertising network and a fresh source of traffic. The "auction" payment model is often used in push grids - the higher the click rate, the more traffic is allocated to the campaign. CPC or CPM models are available to arbitrageurs, as well as the ability to target mobile or desktop traffic. The user receives a short push notification, upon clicking on which he clicks on the link.

A push subscription is a user's subscription to receive push notifications. It is found in both computer and mobile traffic. In advertising grids and affiliate programs, you can find the "push subscription" offer — the advertiser receives a reward for each subscribed user.

A banner advertising network is a platform or advertising network focused on displaying banner ads. Banner advertising networks differ in the volume of traffic and censorship of acceptable banners. Before paying, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the rules of the selected network.

Clickunder and Popunder in the advertising network are aggressive types of advertising. Clickunder is a few lines of code that, when clicking on any area of the page, throws the user to an advertising resource, opening it in a separate tab or browser window. Clickunder ads attract a cold audience and convert worse than other sources. Nevertheless, it is one of the cheap traffic sources that allows you to get a large user reach for a small budget. To reduce the bounce rate, it is recommended to offer gifts or bonuses to the user, use catchy pictures and catchy headlines.

Organic traffic

Organic traffic is the flow of users that come to your website from search engines such as Google, without paying for clicks. Users find your page by key queries and get a list of all pages that match the selected phrases in the organic search results.

When users enter certain keywords or phrases into a search engine, algorithms analyze and rank pages based on the relevance of these queries. As a result, the most relevant pages are shown in organic search results — this is a list of unpaid search results.

Organic traffic is considered valuable because it indicates that users have found your site naturally, relying on the relevance of your content to their queries. To improve organic traffic, it is necessary to optimize the site for search queries (SEO), improve the quality of content and monitor the technical aspects of the site.

You can check your organic output in Google Analytics using Google Analytics or Google Search Console. These tools provide information about which pages attract organic traffic, which keywords bring users to your site, and how they interact with your content.

In-app advertising

In-app advertising is advertising placed inside mobile applications. Traffic in mobile applications or in-app is an effective source for advertising installations, games, applications or Pay Per Call offers.

In-app advertising can include various formats such as banners, videos, interactive ads and advertising integrations that are displayed to users while using mobile applications. This type of advertising allows advertisers to reach the target audience at the moment of their interaction with applications, which makes it especially effective for promoting mobile products and services.

To launch an in-app advertisement, you can contact the application developers directly or use the services of in-app advertising networks. Advertising networks such as Google AdMob, Unity Ads, Facebook Audience Network and others provide platforms for placing ads in applications, offering a wide range of formats and targeting capabilities.

The use of in-app advertising allows you to attract high-quality mobile traffic, contributing to an increase in the number of app installations, increase user engagement and achieve other marketing goals.

Native advertising

Native advertising is a form of advertising that integrates into content in such a way that it looks like a natural part of it. This type of advertising is especially popular among marketers and SMM analysts, as it attracts the attention of users without irritating them. Arbitrageurs do not often resort to native advertising, as it requires significant time and effort. Nevertheless, it is a full-fledged traffic source that can be effectively used in CPA (Cost Per Action) marketing.

There are two main approaches to using native advertising in arbitration:

Advertising on blogs or on the personal pages of "Internet stars". This approach involves ordering advertising from well-known bloggers or influencers. This method is suitable for promoting gray and white offers, since buyers are likely not to react negatively to the blogger, and in case of negative reviews, they will send them to the manufacturer of the product or service.

The "black" approach. This method involves creating native articles masquerading as a talk show, a famous person, or a brand to advertise little-known offers. By passing traffic through such a page, you can convince the buyer of the reliability of the information and stimulate sales. This option works not so much to get traffic, but to warm up the audience and increase its trust in the promoted product.

Native advertising allows you to create content that fits seamlessly into the consumer environment, which makes it an effective tool for attracting and retaining an audience. There are two ways to go in arbitration: to order an advertisement on a blog or on the personal page of the Internet star. This way is suitable for gray and white offers, as it assumes that buyers will not react negatively to the blogger, but in extreme cases will direct the negative at the manufacturer. Or choose the path of "blackness" and advertise a little-known offer under the guise of a native article about a talk show, a famous person or a brand. By passing traffic through such a page, it is possible to convince the buyer of the reliability of the information and stimulate sales. This option is more suitable for warming up the audience than for getting traffic.