Online Advertising: Remaining Traffic
BusinessWhat is “residual traffic” and why is it good for advertising?
Myths of ‘remnant traffic’.
There are a multitude of myths and misconceptions about different aspects of online advertising that continue to mislead Internet users and advertisers alike. One of these misconceptions is the definition of ‘remaining traffic’. Some ad networks and agencies have their own glossary open for public use, where remnant traffic is often defined as “cheaper ad inventory traffic from disreputable sites or empty ‘parked domains’ advertising inappropriate content.” Is carryover traffic really as bad as we are led to believe?
To understand what remnant traffic really is, let’s take a closer look at what remnant traffic is.
Premium Traffic: The easiest way to understand is to imagine a famous brand banner on the home page of a major website. In fact, premium traffic is the “cream” of a website’s audience. Websites that provide premium traffic guarantee the advertiser that the ad will be noticed by the audience. They will primarily display the banner in conspicuous places for ALL site visitors to see.
This gives us our opposite definition of ‘remaining traffic’. First of all, this term had been considered as the unsold inventory of our previous large brand advertiser. Another stereotype is that historically residual traffic was thought to be sold only by low traffic ‘unpopular’ websites as they have no hope of attracting big brands as advertisers. In the absence of alternatives, these low-traffic sites place banners from blind networks, offering cheap ads, often of dubious content and quality.
Thus, a situation was formed where premium traffic is considered to be traffic from top websites, and remnant traffic is traffic from other, less popular online resources. That would sound reasonable enough if it weren’t found to be largely untrue under detailed consideration. To separate fact from fiction, let’s look at the closest relationship to online advertising: advertising on television, radio, and traditional print media.
It turns out that there was already a very close definition of ‘remnant advertising’ in television, radio and print media.
Is there ‘remnant advertising’ in the other media?
Remaining TV advertising is advertising at any time except prime time. The further away from prime time an ad is shown, the more discounts a channel offers advertisers. TV discounts can be as high as 90% for unsold inventory. Radio discounts are also common and depend on airtime and typical audience listening figures. These discounts can range from 25% to 75%.
Another rule operates for print media as they are selling physical ad space. Ad space closer to the middle of the paper is priced very differently than the cost of a front-page ad. In this case, a direct comparison can be made between advertising on the front page of a newspaper with a banner on the home page of a popular website.
The win-win nature of remnant advertising has long been accepted in traditional media advertising, and therefore the approach to premium and remnant ads was shaped as the market matured. It is obvious and logical that these media can offer discounts of up to 90% for unsold time or space. This is called remnant advertising. In this case, both the channel and the advertiser are winning. The channel covers 100% of the scheduled advertising inventory; the advertiser is placing their ad with the required resources at a deep discount. So, as we can see, the place for the remaining publicity was found in traditional media. In addition, the remnant advertising is working effectively and does not cause rejection from potential participants, whether they are advertisers, advertising agencies or publishers.
‘Remaining traffic’ as it is.
Now back to the Internet. If you look through the home page of any major website, you’ll usually see only big-brand advertising in all the most noticeable places. Obviously, this is premium traffic, something analogous to prime time on television or on the front pages of magazines or newspapers. However, if you leave the page and return to it once or twice, the displayed advertising begins to change before your very eyes from a big brand to smaller or lesser known advertisers or brands.
It turns out that just as TV channels sell their prime time, big websites sell impressions with ‘first show’ privilege. By refreshing a page multiple times, we skim premium ad traffic from big brands and now, in fact, we can actually see true ‘remnant advertising’ on a popular website. That means the top sites have carryover traffic too, doesn’t it? They certainly do and monetize it just as well as traditional media do with their ad monetization through deep discounts. Separately, it should be noted that this is the same mythical remnant traffic, which some networks and agencies associate with something cheap, negative and full of inappropriate content. Obviously, these terms do not match the reality of remaining ads on major websites. On these top websites, the remaining inventory can still be very expensive and high quality for both placement and ad content. Thus we have dispelled this particular myth.
But what should small, low-traffic sites do? They do not attract large numbers of site traffic and therefore cannot place top-notch brand advertising. Are there any alternatives, except placing cheap ads on sometimes very dubious content, as described at the beginning of this article?
Can we benefit from the use of ‘remnant traffic’?
There are currently four main alternatives, each with different pros and cons:
(a) You can place contextual advertising from one of the big search engines. Such services also offer display advertising. Among the advantages we must mention the flexibility and adaptability of the configuration of ads, rotations, location, etc. Disadvantages include delays with site verification and authorization to cooperate with this program and delays with revenue payments for displayed ads. Example: Google AdSense
(b) You can place a banner from one of the ‘blind’ advertising networks. The main advantages are that it is fast, simple and will generate money for anyone without exception. The downsides are lower revenue and the very real possibility of inappropriate or scandalous advertising content. Example: Clickor
(c) You can sign up for a specialized remnant traffic ad network. These networks specialize solely in the monetization of remaining traffic. Medium and high traffic sites use their services to fill their remaining ad inventory. The main advantages are generally high performance compared to alternatives and guaranteed clear and appropriate advertising content. The main disadvantage is the current inability to sufficiently monetize Chinese, Korean or Indian traffic using these ad networks. Therefore, this alternative should be chosen for sites with predominantly European or American traffic. Example: FidelityMedia
(d) You may place social (or philanthropic) advertising. The perks are worthwhile ads, totally appropriate content, and you can improve your karma by doing social good. Disadvantage: It is usually free and therefore not for profit. Example: AdCouncil
Hopefully, after considering these options, there will be an obvious conclusion, so feel free to experiment. Earn money from your website and don’t be fooled by pseudo-authoritative claims that your traffic is worthless to advertisers. In most cases, it is simply not true.