THE UNITED STATES OF … CONVERSIONS – Part 1

The American Dream …

Wanna live the Dream?

As all advertisers will be aware, the understanding of your choice target audience is paramount to the eventual success of any online marketing campaign. Fortunately, overtime, targeting options and parameters have become even more concise allowing pin-point precision of your desired target market. This has greatly helped advertisers but what some forget is the need to understand the audience or country/ geo that they are targeting.

It goes without saying that targeting the USA can be one of the most potentially lucrative sources of traffic available. The two main factors contributing to this are:

  • Gross Average Financial Income
  • Level of population

Though, with any positive must come a negative. To the budget conscious advertiser, running campaigns in the USA will without a doubt cause an increase in your campaign budget and spend. The levels of competition are fierce from other advertisers as are the actual levels of traffic available due to the sheer size of the population (and the continued success of our publisher network). 

The importance of knowing the habits of your audience is vitally important. Making use of tools on offer such as setting Daily Budget Limits, Day-parting options and even the Geo-Location tool will help keep control of where and how your budget is being spent.

Vertical Consumption …


 

Decisions, Decisions …

The array of different verticals currently offered to advertise on the market is huge. The current verticals achieving success within the USA market range from Dating, Gaming and Male Enhancement to name but a few. The recent leniency of certain cannabis laws in some US states has also led to an increase of Cannabis or CBD based promotions. 

Though the choice of vertical in itself will not guarantee success! The method in which the advertiser makes use of strong creatives coupled with a concise impression strategy for the running of the campaign will be the key to that success!

Don’t Bullsh*t (Well, as little as possible) …


 

Sure, anyone with a good method of judgement can work out that a single pill will not help in your quest for an extra 15cm (Although your partner may be praying for as much) Of course, most consumers will be able to judge reality from false prophecy and why not have a bit of fun creating your banners! But please, don’t over-exaggerate as the American market will see straight through your lies and a vote of no confidence will ensure. 

A quick word to some of our more exotic clientele, please verify your texts and grammar! If a user sniffs a scent of foreign play, unfortunately/ fortunately they will have no confidence in clicking that creative. In no way is this deemed racial, see this as more of a vote of confidence. A user is more likely to click or convert a “familiar” resounding banner than one which looks/ feels estranged to their perceived norm. This not only goes for the USA, current social times have unfortunately led to a rise in patriotism with an increasing number of consumers looking for “Made in USA” products.  

It’s a Big Old Country…


 

Body-Clock Mess …

Timezones – EST vs. PST … Quick geography recap lesson – the USA has multiple time zones!! 

At 9pm in New York, it’s 6pm in Los Angeles – internet trends and consumption will differ! Know when your vertical/ promotion works best/ achieves greater success in order to convert. Test different times and different frequency rates!

  • Be prepared in terms of Budget – You may have brought Virgil Abloh aboard to create your banners and have the product of the century but without a good pre-determined budget – this can all go to waste! Remember, minimum bids are raised in the USA and bidding at the minimum is sure to get you the strict minimum of market share!
  • Choose your vertical wisely – Research your market and vertical, do they match? Is it worth promoting cannabis in a state such as Arizona where the law restricts recreational use? Is promoting Washington discount coupons in the state of California? (To those that have answered YES to both – have a word with yourself and judge whether advertising is really your future!
  • Make sure your creatives are familiar to the audience – A vote of no-confidence will be apparent to oddly phrased or grammatically incorrect creatives. The audience have greater faith in regional/ national products. Any whiff of foreign play or the possibility of no confidence will make sure that your campaign falls quicker than ENRON or MySpace…
  • What time is it? – Make use of the different time zones available. Know when your audience is online and when they are most receptive to advertising! Targeting them first thing in the morning when they are getting ready to leave for their daily chores is not recommended!

 

 

 

Traffic Factory – Payment Solutions

traffic factory - Payment method

Being the world’s premium ad network, the need to cater to our worldwide clients requires constant adaptation. The need for precise, safe and international performing payment solutions is not to be underestimated. We understand that from country to country, financial rules and obligations differ. But certain payment factors are common to our extensive worldwide clientele:

  • Safe and reliable payment solutions.
  • Reduced time delays between the payment and crediting of your Traffic Factory account.
  • Low/ reduced payment handling fees.
  • The ease of use of a payment solution/ processor.

Payment Solutions available

Traffic Factory currently offers a selection of different payment solutions to credit your account:

  • Paxum
  • Wire Transfer
  • Vendo

As previously mentioned, certain factors such as safety, rapidity, low processing fees and ease of use are common to our solutions but how do they differ from each other.

The table below shows the different methods currently used, their delays in payment reception and their fees:

Upon making reference to the table above, the various different methods have been installed in order to cater to our worldwide clientele.

Paxum

Paxum offers instantaneous payments to fellow Paxum clients and at the unbelievable rate of $1 (Yes, it’s not a typo… it truly is $1 – the price of a McDonalds Cheeseburger)

An account has to be created with a validation through security and documentation. Paxum accounts can be credited and then easily debited to top-up your Traffic Factory balance.

Wire Transfers

The oldest method of payment available remains Wire Transfers. Low payment processing fees and highly secured transactions remain its focal point whilst time delays will vary. Generally speaking, we advise our clients to use this method of payment with prior anticipation needed. The delays will range from 1-5 business days (Monday-Friday) but can exceed this timescale during busy periods. European based clients should note that this form of payment incurs virtually no charges!

Vendo

Instantaneous and predominantly used for credit card payments by many of our clients, Vendo claims to be “THE AI BILLER”Account setup is required in a similar manner to Paxum and Paypal. Growing in stature as a preferred method of payment by our advertisers, this method of payment is not automatically offered to all advertisers. To enable this method of payment, please contact your Account Manager for further details.

 

Tips 

  • Like with your advertising campaign budget, make sure to calculate the cost of deposits from each of these providers. Small and quick transactions will not occur large processing fees but if depositing large sums – it is imperative that this is taken into account for your global advertising budget.
  • Prior planning and anticipation are paramount for the savvy advertiser out there. Traffic Factory allows you to be notified by email once your account balance reaches a certain threshold. This is customizable in your account. Make use of this to plan ahead if you wish to use a method of payment such as wire transfers. We can’t stress enough the importance of this as we regularly receive a Friday rush of panicking advertisers who have overlooked their budgets until it’s too late!

Still undecided or require further information? Don’t worry, your Account Manager will be more than happy to help and advise you on the best method for your particular situation!

SPOT OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE END OF JUNE

traffic factory - Spots opportunities june

Continuing on from last month’s selection of Spot Opportunities, the month of June has seen a vast rise of traffic for many ad spots.

Last month’s placements included a host of Tier 1 countries (France, Germany and Italy) with the inclusion of two Tier 2 countries (Japan and Vietnam)

Congratulations to the lucky advertisers who got onboard quickly to take advantage of these spots; significant success was reported back to our Account Manager team.

For those you may have missed last month’s article, here’s a recap of what we consider a Spot Opportunity at Traffic Factory.

What is a “Spot Opportunity”?

Traffic Factory’s definition is an ad spot which potentially receives vast levels of traffic but currently has the least amount of competition. This is a combination of several factors – country, device and ad spot.

Each ad spot has a minimum bid price but the amount that you bid determines the position you obtain. Based on the principles of supply and demand, fluctuations in pricing differ due to the level of competition between advertisers for an ad spot.

So, for the month of June, what do we have to offer?

Current Traffic Factory Spot Opportunities

 

COUNTRY
SPOT OPPORTUNITY
FRANCE
DESKTOP HORIZONTAL
BRAZIL
FOOTER MOBILE
SPAIN
DESKTOP SQUARE
CHINA
NATIVE
JAPAN
DESKTOP SQUARE

 

Similar to last months opportunities, the above results again prove surprising with two Tier-1 countries featured.
 
It is rare to find a spot opportunity in the Spanish market due to the consistently high levels of advertisers targeting. Do not miss this opportunity to create your advertising campaigns! The square desktop ad spot is visible and we guarantee that you will see the quality of the traffic.
The horizontal desktop spot, for France, is another well-positioned option. We remind our advertisers that this is a good option for the budget-minded CPC advertiser looking for precise clicks and an on-going promotion.
 
The three Tier-2 countries, Brazil, China and Japan, need no introduction.
 
Both Brazil and China allow advertisers to target increasingly large populations with high and steady traffic. Financially, both of these countries are from the emerging BRIC countries, with Brazil being a particularly strong source of traffic for our publishers.
 
Brazil features the footer mobile ad spot as an opportunity so again, the budget conscious CPC based advertiser should jump on this opportunity. But make sure that your creatives are catered to the Brazilian market, the use of Portuguese is a necessity.
 
Both Japan and China have fantastic opportunities for the desktop square ad spot & native. We remind advertisers of their prominent position beside the users’ video content. Make use of strong and attractive creatives to allow your promotion to stand out. We also remind advertisers to adapt creatives for those particular markets. Language and cultures should be respected.
 
Make sure to take advantage of these opportunities and to test out markets/ audiences which you would possibly not have entertained in the past.
 
We guarantee that the results will prove surprising. 
 
 

How to Set the Right Target Filters

traffic factory - targeting filters

In terms of importance for any advertising campaign, the selection of the correct target filters can never be underestimated. Along with the design of the creative, making sure that you have selected the right target filters will be the difference between a successful or a failed campaign. The guide below is designed to make sure that you optimize your campaign fully by making use of the different targeting filters available at Traffic Factory.

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Target Filters Available

To begin, the target filters made available are targeting by Country (Geo), by Device and then by Category. 

Country (Geo)

Upon reaching the ADD TARGET section when creating your campaign, the first target for selection deals with the location. On offer are the 7 different continents which are then broken down into the individual countries within the continent. As shown, North America comprises a multitude of countries but you may not wish to target all of these. Individual countries can be selected making sure that the right audience views your advertisement.

The development team at Traffic Factory has also mastered a GEO-FENCE targeting option. This feature is specifically for local offers and allows an advertiser to select a particular city/ area and create a bounding circle of up to 50km. By setting this option, advertisers will have their campaigns shown to the audience within that particular area. Particularly successful for set- specific promotions where jurisdictions differ from one city/ state to another, this guarantees the advertiser that their promotion will only be viewed by the desired audience within the specific locality promoted. Please note that this option is not automatically setup on all accounts. Please contact your Account Manager to discuss the implementation of this option.

Device

The second targeting option made available deals with the type of device to be targeted. Our publishers’ websites are viewed via a multitude of different Internet capable devices. The three main device types to target are DESKTOP, TABLET and MOBILE. Please note that Traffic Factory also allows the targeting of FEATURE PHONES (Internet capable telephones inferior to smart-phones) This option will not be set in the targeted devices as we do not allow filtering of countries for feature phone. If you are interested in purchasing the entire Traffic Factory feature Phone traffic inventory, please contact your Account Manager for further explanations.

Over time, access to the Internet has evolved purely the use of a desktop computer. The implementation of 4G networks and with Wi-Fi now readily available throughout the world, consumer patterns have changed with a dramatic rise of users accessing content from the comfort of their smart-phones. Current network statistics show the following breakdown of users preference of device types:

Knowing your target audience’s device preference will be imperative to make sure your advertisement is served correctly. It is also important to take into account that devices have different ad spots. Make sure to create the correct creative available for the particular device type! Below is a reminder of Traffic Factory’s ad spot inventory by device.

Category

Precise category targeting is made available to directly target your audience via their choice of content chosen. Broken down into three separate main categories, certain sub-categories are then made available for choice in order to target with pin-point precision the taste of your audience.

By selecting the relevant categories of choice, the advertiser’s campaign(s) will only be made visible to users interested in a particular category of content.

Tips

  • Know your target audience! Without knowledge of the habits and internet consumption of your audience, your campaign will go nowhere! Research, revise, question your target audience. The better knowledge you have, the better choice of the right target filters will become apparent.
  • Test different devices! Indeed, a majority of users are accessing the internet via the use of their smart-phones (80% here at Traffic Factory) But this does not mean that you should solely target these devices! Research the habits of different demographics. Your promotion may be more suitable for the user accustomed to desktop or tablet usage from the comfort of their homes. Put yourself in their shoes (Not literally!) Think logically!
  • Select precise target filter combinations! Be as precise as possible with your selection. The more concise a filter, the better chance of conversion of your offer as your campaign will be seen by your ideal audience.

AFFILIATE MARKETING – What’s working in 2019?

traffic factory - affiliate marketing community

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With the midway point of 2019 readily approaching, we can’t say that we haven’t been busy since the turn of the year.

Many changes have been implemented on our platform with many new features and adjustments having been introduced.

We began with the return of Gaming and Dating offers being made available for both Pop-Under and Pre-roll ad spots. The reaction has been astounding with many of our advertisers jumping at the opportunity of these highly lucrative spots.

Carrying on from this, the month of March saw the implementation of a new frequency cap, a new button for Pre-roll ad spots and the obvious success story that is the Native ad spot. Both Japan and Indian target categories have been added to our arsenal and the most recent addition, our brand new dashboard display for all advertisers at Traffic Factory.

So why are we repeating the obvious when most of our readers will already be aware of all of this?

Simple! Because we listen and pay attention to what the affiliate community has to say.

The good guys over at STM FORUM somehow found the time to collect valuable insights from the affiliate marketing community’s most powerful players. Being the generous souls that they are, they have compiled a concise report with over 200 pages covering all angles imaginable!

The guide makes brilliant reading and has helped Traffic Factory in gaining further knowledge of what our peers have to say and what to predict for 2019.

It sure has helped to gain a different perspective of current issues whilst guiding us to make the necessary decisions on how to continuously improve our operation here at Traffic Factory.

This is sure to help all levels of the affiliate marketing world.

Be sure to find the time to learn from the industry’s finest whilst gaining an advantage for the many different verticals currently available to promote.

Take our word for it; you won’t be disappointed!

Download your PDF copy here, learn from the best and watch your campaigns grow with success!

How does a Real Time Bidding (RTB) platform works?

Real-Time-Bidding is an auction setting where ad impressions are bought and sold.  Once an advertiser bid wins an auction, his Ad is instantaneously shown on the publishers’ website.

There are two sides to any ad and media buying interaction, we have publishers and advertisers, who follow the rules of supply and demand in their negotiations and trades. Publishers offer their websites. (ad locations on their pages)

How does Real Time Bidding work?

The actual process of how RTB platforms work is pretty straightforward in principal.

  • An advertiser visit our platform and set a bid.

  • The advertiser generates a BID REQUEST that contains specific information relating to the user. This will consist of their type of demographic, information relating to their location, their type of browser/ device and into which category they fall.

  • With all this information to hand, Traffic Factory passes this Bid Request to its list of advertisers.

  • A Bidding Auction begins in real-time for the ad impression to be served on the publishers’ webpage.

  • The winning bid has their impression served in 1st place on the publisher’s website.

N.B: From the generating of the Bid request to the serving of the ad impression, this entire RTB process takes place within a 100 milliseconds!!

This process is repeated for every available ad space on the publisher’s webpage; now that’s an efficient advertising Traffic Factory platform.

Bear in mind that it doesn’t have to be the same ad, just at the same location, and this is exactly what publishers are selling as their inventory (ad impressions).

When it comes to RTB marketing, there are several key values that both media buyers and sellers need to understand:

Bid price, winning price, and frequency cap.

The Technical Side to our RTB model

It would be fair to assume that the principal of ad position allocation is served on a maximum bid principal meaning that the highest bidder gets position 1, the 2nd highest bidder gets position 2 and so on.

But… this is not always technically the case!

An example of this would be:

  • Bids are collected for a specific ad spot
  • The highest bidder gets the 1st position, the 2nd highest bidder is allocated the 2nd position, etc…

Now, if the highest bidder has certain parameters such as:

  • Campaign budget limits
  • Dayparting options
  • Frequency cap even though their bid is the highest, certain selected options can have an effect on their position.

They may have the highest bid but their budget limit will not allow them to bid that amount so the next highest valid bid receives the better position.

Their dayparting and frequency cap options may also vary and hinder their “high” bid so the next highest “valid” bid will get the 1st position.

Even though their bid is the highest, certain selected options can have an effect on their position.

At the end of all this process your YAP (Yesterday Average Position) gives your approximate position.

Every time a user sees an ad, that instance is considered as one impression. For example, when they see a top banner ad on the first page they visit, that is “a first impression for that particular ad placement”. Obviously, for the second page, it would be a second impression, and so on.

GLOSSARY

Bid price: the amount in USD that an advertiser pay for his final bid.

Winning price: the amount in USD of the winner bid.

Frequency cap: length of your unique user session.

Traffic Factor Ad Spots – Square Banner

traffic factory - Square banner
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One of the most important and critical decisions when preparing a campaign will be the choice of which particular ad spot to use. Different ad spots will produce different results. Indeed, certain ad spots will appear to be more effective than others due to their prominent visibility but certain factors should be taken into account depending on the aim of the advertiser and their promotion.

Over the coming weeks, we shall demonstrate and explain each of the ad spots available in the Traffic Factory inventory.

The Square Banner Ad Spot

We begin with one of the most traditional and recognisable spots available, the Square banner. This is sometimes labelled as NTV (Next To Video)throughout the advertising world and, as the name says, indicates its prominent position besides the video content of the publisher’s website.

This ad spot is available for both Desktop and Tablet devices via our network. Our usual banner rules apply.

Each time a user watches video contents on our publishers’ websites, two seperate square banners will be shown to the right of the video. Instantaneously shown upon the loading and play of a video, their dominant positioning is hard to miss.

The dimensions of our square banner spots are 338×235. A little uncommon in comparison to other networks but these dimensions prove to be ergonomically fitting to both parties; the user and the advertiser. The spot is efficient in its role of conveying the advertisers promotion (Visibility) whilst maintaining a high quality user experience (Unintrusive).

Considered to be one of the most popular spots in our inventory, advertisers must bear in mind that such a position will logically obtain a higher CTR than the less prominent positions. Taking this into account will be important in choosing the appropriate bidding method (CPC or CPM) whilst running a square banner campaign. 

CPC or CPM?

Whilst choosing which bidding campaign to use, the first question that should be asked is – What is the aim of my campaign? Is it to obtain targeted clicks towards the offer? Or is the campaign being used to build an audience/ convey a particular message in mass? 

The highly visible position of this spot is sure to generate interest and logically, a high number of user clicks (High CTR) should be expected. Obviously, the target filters (Country/ Geo-Fence, Device, Category) chosen will add to the level of visibility of the spot. An example being: A USA desktop square banner should logically generate greater interest than the same banner targeting the Vatican!

So bear in mind your budget allocation for such a spot!

Upon testing this spot, the choice of using the CPM bidding model would be recommended. The advertiser will pay a set price for 1000 impressions of the banner whereas using a CPC model, each click will incur a charge. A high CTR spot will generate a larger amount of clicks thus a larger budget if using CPC. 

Tips

  • The use of attractive creatives is important in order to obtain interest from the user. Bear in mind that the user will have selected video content in order for the creative to be shown so its attractiveness is important to grab the attention of the user.
  • The choice of bidding model is important. This is a spot that generates a consistently high CTR so your budget will increase. Test new creatives and campaigns via a CPC model but do not hesitate to revert to a CPM model if the CTR proves to be high!
  • This is a popular spot for the majority of countries so competition with other advertisers will be higher. Minimum bids for each spot are an indication but it should be noted that for the higher positions, advertisers should be prepared to bid significantly higher than the minimum!
  • Currently, certain countries have very good opportunities for the square banner ad spot; there is less competition than usual! Make sure to get in touch with your Account Manager to get a better knowledge of current prices for particular countries.

Spot Opportunities for May

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A question that we often get asked here at Traffic Factory is, which are currently the “best” spot opportunities available?

Similar to many open-ended questions, there are many ways to answer this but let’s define what we consider as “Spot Opportunities”

What is a “Spot Opportunity”?

Traffic Factory’s definition is an ad spot which potentially receives vast levels of traffic but currently has the least amount of competition. This is a combination of several factors – country, device and ad spot.

Each ad spot has a minimum bid price but the amount that you bid determines the position you obtain. Based on the principles of supply and demand, fluctuations in pricing differ due to the level of competition between advertisers for an ad spot.

Current Traffic Factory Spot Opportunities

 

COUNTRYSPOT OPPORTUNITY
FRANCE (T1)DESKTOP HORIZONTAL
GERMANY (T1)DESKTOP POP-UNDER
ITALY (T1)DESKTOP HORIZONTAL
JAPAN (T2)DESKTOP NATIVE
VIETNAM (T2)MOBILE HEADER

 

The results above prove quite surprising with three Tier-1 countries featured, all three with strong ad spots available.

The Pop-Under is sure to get your promotion seen as it is activated on the very first click of a user. Those with the need to give a special promotion across quickly should take up this opportunity. 

The horizontal desktop spot is another well-positioned option. This is a good option for the budget-minded CPC advertiser looking for precise clicks and an on-going promotion.

Followed by two emerging Tier-2 countries, Japan and Vietnam, both consistently obtain very high levels of quality traffic respectively.

We point out that Native Banner spots and Mobile Header banners are notorious for their high CTR. Very rarely do these popular ad spots make an appearance on Traffic Factory’s list of opportunities.

Mobile Header banners are arguably one of the most popular and sought after positions. Their prominent position to the user make them highly attractive with strong levels of success to many of our advertisers.

Those with good video creatives should make use of the current opportunity for Native ads in Japan.

How long will these opportunities remain?

Be sure not to miss out, get onto these opportunities quickly and avoid disappointment!

FOLLOW YOUR TF ACCOUNT MANAGER

Wanna get BIGGER with the guidance of your Account Manager?
You should know that we have a specific Account Manager team per continent and per country as well, so if you want to get the best advice from them, follow yours inside our social networks.

GET IN TOUCH WITH OUR INTERNATIONAL TEAM

WE SPEAK 10 LANGUAGES

TEAM AMERICA

Romain

Account Manager

English - Français

Rafael

Account Manager

English - Português

Marion

Account Manager

English - Français - Español

TEAM EUROPE

Alla

Account Manager

English - Pусский

Helena

Account Manager

English - Deutsch - Česky

TEAM ASIA

Anand

Account Manager

English - Hindi

Peter

Account Manager

English - Chinese

Taka

Account Manager

English - Français - Japanese

TEAM AMERICA

TEAM EUROPE

TEAM ASIA

Romain

Account Manager

English - Français

Alla

Account Manager

English - Русский

Anand

Account Manager

English - Hindi

Rafael

Account Manager

English - Português

Helena

Account Manager

English - Deutsch - Česky

Peter

Account Manager

English - Chinese

Marion

Account Manager

English - Français - Español

Taka

Account Manager

English - Français - Japanese

Traffic Factory – Releases from 2018 (Video)

It was a long year, full of changes, growth, and success!
In this video, you will find a short story of our 2018 together.

Our video features:

  • Our contests including the TF World Tour & our Halloween contest
  • The numerous features that have been added to the platform including CPM Custom Frequency Cap, Duplication Tools, Geo-Fencing for local offers, banners in mp4 format, etc
  • A recap of new services such as a Dedicated Review Team, New Tutorials in both classic & video format and our new marketing materials. 
  • Our numerous appearances at Trade Shows across the globe including European Summit in Lisbon, Web Master Access in Amsterdam as well as Affiliate World in Bangkok.

 

We thank you for making 2018 the success that it proved to be!

Let’s keep making this story last long and making the best for both sides!