Traffic Source: What Kind of Beast Is It and Where Does It Live?
Traffic sources to a website are the channels through which visitors come to a web resource. There are several types of traffic: paid and free. Free traffic means that the resource owner does not pay for the visitors. For paid traffic, a certain fee is set. Warm and cold traffic can also be distinguished. Warm sources are those from which interested people arrive at the site. A user clicks because they are genuinely interested in a particular topic and are already familiar with it. Now, to make it easier for us to understand this issue, we will consider traffic sources specifically in the context of these 2 groups. We will go through each group and explain everything in detail.
First, the warm sources:
SEO. Search engine optimization is one of the most powerful channels for promotion and attracting visitors. What’s important! – you need to correctly set up the semantic core (the wider it is, the more traffic). Try to improve your rank. If someone enters a query, they are already interested in what you offer. Bad!! Do not make it so that when searching for wholesale flowers, someone ends up on a weight loss powder – it’s very frustrating.
Search context advertising. Yandex Direct and Google Adwords are here to help. You can really attract a lot of traffic, but clicks are sometimes very expensive due to high competition. However, users are really ready to get acquainted with your offer. They are initially interested in the topic, which is why they entered the query.
Targeted advertising in social networks. Facebook, Instagram, and many others. It’s important to set up your target audience properly. Clients are, of course, colder! But if you segment the audience correctly, conversions will definitely happen. Sometimes people don’t fully understand what they need. You have to make an offer they can’t refuse. It’s important to target as narrowly as possible – then such traffic will be interested.
Advertising in social media groups. This one’s trickier. We’ve put this type of traffic in both columns. Why? On one hand, of course, you need to look for thematic groups where the audience might be interested in a particular offer. On the other hand, it’s not guaranteed that they will find it interesting. But!! Such advertising absolutely increases company recognition. Make an interesting post that explains why the user needs you. Add useful pictures. Describe your strengths – it will work.
Your own accounts in social networks. This is the next level)) Here, it’s important to first attract people to the group, and only then to the site. The group itself doesn’t necessarily have to be fully dedicated to the brand, you can write articles and posts on more or less unrelated topics. Initially, people may be quite skeptical, but ultimately, when they come to you, they will be “ready”.
Promotional post by an opinion leader in social networks. Take an opinion leader and ask them to talk about the brand. Important! – find the right leader, with an active and responsive audience that trusts him. The higher the audience’s trust, the higher the conversion – a simple but effective law. Those who follow the leader always try to test what he offers, so this method is quite reliable.
Email marketing. This is simple – sending emails to a potential client base. Why might it be interesting? Because it’s served “on a silver platter”, no need to search or look for anything. Just thought about it, and there it is. (Excluding spam)
External Content Marketing. Articles in blogs and on thematic websites with a link to your site. Works great on the “problem – solution” scheme. A person who, for example, spends 20 minutes reading about how to get rid of hypertension, ultimately just can’t help but visit the site selling the very medicine for it. But the article needs to be truly informative, so it doesn’t feel amateurish. Only then will the user understand that you are exactly what they need.
Crowd Marketing. Participating in discussions, mentioning the brand, and placing links on forums and communities – all natively. Conversion can be quite decent. Important! – to be believed and not be taken as an “outsider”. Initially, users are not ready to visit your site, BUT no one knows it’s yours. Blend in. And then you can subtly recommend where to go and what to do, and, voila, they’ll believe you!
Product Aggregators. Quite a useful topic for online stores. Payment per click or purchase. Users are very warm, and it’s important to just make your product stand out.
Youtube video channel. Just like with a public page, you will have to promote it first. You can make reviews, interviews, record feedback, etc. This is a useful type of traffic. Psychologically, people like to watch a review or feedback “live”, i.e., to see both the product and the person recommending it. The site stops being impersonal; it gets a voice and sometimes even a face.
Website Branding. Not always a cheap pleasure and more aimed at recognition, but it has its place. You need to negotiate with a thematic site to replace the background of the site with your clickable one. Again! Not guaranteed to have a high conversion, but the next time thinking about some service or product, people may remember you.
Now, let’s go through the cold sources.
The very first option – advertising in groups of different social networks – we’ve already discussed. Let’s start with the second one.
Advertising in blogs. Advertising with top bloggers is not always cheap, but sometimes you can negotiate. Those who post constant ads stop being interesting to the audience. Important! – find a good blog with a well-known author! Unlike an opinion leader, you’ll not only reach your target audience but this method also allows you to find new users and clients. Here, as with the opinion leader, if the audience is responsive and communicative, the blogger can significantly affect the conversion.
Teaser networks. With well-set targeting, they can have a positive effect. Important! – with this method of obtaining traffic to the site, it should be taken into account that the audience is not set to transition to external resources. The most intriguing ads and banners are required for the user to make the transition.
Coupon sites. Works very well for those selling something or providing services (hot air balloon flight, water park, etc.) You can really get a decent conversion by making an enticing offer, BUT! Don’t count on customer loyalty at all; everyone wants to snag something super beneficial on sale.
Affiliate program with companies from another industry. Here you need to be creative, come up with something that can interest clients. For example, getting a discount on something by using your resource. Users are cold, but if the offer is tempting, they can well become yours.
Sponsorship. You can become a sponsor of an event, photo shoot, etc. For this, your logo will be placed on the event site and, of course, mentioned in the event report. The cooler the event, the more likely you’ll garner interest.
Traffic from doorways. Buy on exchanges and from private doorways operators. Users are redirected to the online store. Carefully monitor the quality of traffic – if it’s off-topic, there will be no conversions. Even with thematic traffic, conversion is low; reach is important.
Clickander. One of the old methods of attracting traffic. The user does not realize there will be a transition. A tab opens under the active window. Generally, a relatively pleasant method for the user. Because the user might not even notice the window at first, so it won’t annoy them. And they can read the information whenever it’s convenient.
Popunder, Popup. This is a more tedious topic. Upon entering the site, an additional window with your site opens in the browser. The user has to close the window, and if they also have to confirm their desire to exit – it starts to seriously annoy. In the case of Popup, a small pop-up window appears, advertising anything. To close it, you usually have to click on the cross, and then answer why you decided to close the ad. Such methods can annoy, and….be memorable to users.
Traffic exchanges. Traffic from doorways, clickunders, popunders, mobile traffic, etc., is sold on exchanges. If you need to quickly get traffic to your site and convert it into orders, but you don’t have time to attract it, this option is the best solution. However, note that it’s often adult-themed traffic and its quality is not very high.
Buying mobile traffic. All simple and also quite annoying – the site redirects its mobile traffic to you. Annoying? Oh yes!! Why? To attract the audience’s attention. (Again, it’s important to understand that you might not be perceived very positively)
Traffic from prerolls and overlays in videos. If it appears before thematic video – quite annoying, but there’s a chance. If it appears before any other video – likely to cause a very negative reaction. BUT! You’ll be noticed and remembered.
Contextual advertising. Text-graphic ads in Yandex Advertising Network and Google Display Network. Although they belong to contextual advertising, in fact, GDN and YAN, in terms of mechanics and traffic quality, are more like regular teaser networks. Traffic is as cold as in teaser networks and shows similar behavior. Cheaper than in search, but conversion is lower.
Targeted advertising in social networks. As with advertising in social media groups, this type of traffic falls into both columns. Targeting needs to be set as narrowly as possible. Otherwise, it’s more like teaser networks, and you need to entice with a really cool offer.
Conclusion
Today, we’ve looked at the main sources of traffic, options for working with them, as well as their main characteristics.
Depending on the target audience you need to reach, different approaches are needed. For example, if you need to make your brand recognizable, you can confidently use cold traffic sources, but remember, they are not always perceived positively. However, cold traffic is cheaper and can yield results in quite short terms. Warm traffic works more qualitatively, but it’s more expensive and requires more effort, however, in the case of gambling, it gives more quality leads. Try different sources, analyze and approach the process creatively, the results won’t make you wait. And the GamblingPro team will help you with this!
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