Paid Traffic Sources 101: An Introduction to Paid Traffic for Site Owners
Do you get enough traffic to your blog or website? This is a rhetorical question in a way because you can never really have enough traffic. However, the key that you should be focused on is obtaining quality traffic. The people who come to your site should not do so by mere accident. The key to success in getting targeted traffic is to get the attention of the people who are most likely to purchase from you or to engage with your content.
For many bloggers and website owners, this is a challenge. How do you get the right people to your site without getting a lot of “junk traffic” that just accidentally come to your page?
Some people try to solve this problem by buying traffic. But the problem with this is that these traffic generation sites are often not on the level or their algorithms that they use may get your ranking dropped by Google or YouTube. Some could even risk getting your YouTube account banned for good. Don’t risk this with traffic buying views from non-trustworthy sites.
There’s a better way to generate paid traffic than with paid views. Instead, consider the following types of paid traffic that you can get for your blog or website that will not cause you problems with Google or YouTube or get you penalized in any way.
1. Google AdWords
Google AdWords is the brainchild of Google, Inc. In fact, it is how they make 97% of their revenue! This unique method for advertising online allows business owners and blogger to get their ads out in front of the people who are the most likely to purchase or engage with your brand by using their powerful algorithms on Google to discover what people are clicking on. Then they match the people with your ad who are the most likely to act. Google wins when your visitors click on the ad because they get a cut of 32% of each ad click.
You are probably already familiar with the Google Ad Network from the other end of things. If you have ever posted Google Adsense ads on your site to make revenue from the ads, what you are doing is to allow the ad to run on your site for a small percentage of the profits. Google AdWords is the tool you use if you are the advertiser or business owner who wants to place the ads on various sites to promote their message. Your ad could end up on Google searches, on the pages of other site owners, or a host of other places where your potential customers may be.
2. Social Media Advertisement
As you know, Facebook has billions of users who look for interesting posts every single day. Placing ads on Facebook or Twitter or other social media can pay off in a big way. This is because the algorithms that Facebook and Twitter use to find potential customers is very accurate and it takes all of the guesswork out of digital advertising for you, the blogger or business site owner. Look into Facebook ads or Twitter ads to get started. Don’t forget about the video ads you can do on these platforms, too.
3. Pay Per Click Ads
Pay-per-click ads are one of the most effective ways to generate business and views for your website or blog. That’s because it uses the techniques we talked about under the Google Adwords section where you place ads in or near where your potential customers are and place your offer on the platform where they are. In other words, they do not have to be searching for your products or service type to find you. But any keyword or visit to a link or site that is related will allow your ad to be displayed.
The algorithms involved in these advertising platforms are very “smart”, and they use the latest AI (artificial intelligence) engineering to produce the effects that you need. PPC ads can be done through a variety of platforms including Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Microsoft ads, to name a few. You will be charged using the same model as Google Adsense pays you when you display ads for others on your site. You will only be charged when people click on your ads so you can bet that Google and the other platforms will place them where they are most likely to be clicked.
4. Pay Per View
PPV or pay-per-view type ads are different in that it is only required that there is an “impression” on your ad rather than a click. You can do this through Facebook when you place an ad on their site, and it allows you to get down to the nitty-gritty regarding exactly which behavior you want to create when paying for your ads. Facebook, Google, and Bing all have the technology to place your ad in the best places where the behavior you want will most likely occur.
5. Banner Ads
Displaying banner ads is a bit more of an overt technique to use but it is often effective when placed in the right places. One of the reasons this method works so well is that they are placed on some of the highest authority publisher websites. Therefore, you will get your ad displayed on a high traffic site that should greatly boost your views. Taboola.com is one platform that allows you to do this. Another one you may want to check out is Kissmetrics. It evaluates your current targeted traffic, and you can add new behaviors that you want to encourage or increase activity on your website.
6. Facebook/Twitter Ads
As discussed earlier, one way you can increase your potential audience and conversions is to utilize the power of Facebook and Twitter ads. Both of these platforms allow you to create many types of ads including video ads, boosting a post, and many others that will help you increase your views, clicks, and level of engagement. Pay close attention to the specifics when you are posting an ad on Facebook since they offer a wide variety of techniques that you can use to increase your engagement.
7. Ad-focused Content
Ad-focused content is, as its name implies, focuses primarily on the ad content that you want to offer to your targeted customers. This involves a process of studying your audience’s behaviors, doing customer interviews, and narrowing the audience that you want to present the content to. This analysis aspect is important to get the best results. You can hire a professional digital marketing team to help you with this, or you can use free tools such as Google Analytics to achieve this. There are several experiments and analytical tools you can use on the Google Analytics site to create the results you want. With some practice, you will be a pro at this in no time.
8. Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is another word for “native advertising.” This type of advertising is subtle because it appears alongside news and published content that is subject-related to the content people are reading. Native ads can be included in the news item itself that is displayed beside content that the visitors are already engaged with, thereby increasing their likelihood of engagement.
Example of Paid Traffic Sources
Amazon is another great example of paid traffic in action. Many Amazon millionaires report that the difference between four figures per month and six figures per month was to create paid traffic campaigns with Amazon. Amazon, like other sites, offers a PPC ad campaign technology that will allow you to launch a campaign that is designed to locate people who are most likely to buy and placing the ad in front of them when they are already on Amazon shopping.
This is tied into Amazon’s superior algorithm machine that is considered the best in the world by most tech experts. It is also considered a type of “customized” ads that are geared to finding the people most likely to purchase. It works with the “suggested products” feature as well as with the viewing history to promote products Amazon predicts they will want to buy based on their previous buying history.
You can only use the Amazon PPC system if you are a seller on the Amazon platform but other systems mentioned above like Facebook, Twitter, and Bing or Google work similarly.
Why paid traffic?
You may wonder why you need to be paid traffic to succeed online. You may or may not need it, but it has proven to be the missing link of success for many site owners who were only using organic traffic generation through SEO before. While SEO (keywords and optimization of site content) is critical, it becomes more powerful when coupled with a paid ad campaign that is custom-designed to find the people most likely to buy from you!
Most internet experts agree that a combination of customized ads through PPC with smart SEO and high-quality original content is the key to being successful online. If you want to generate an income on your site, you will want to look into the options for paid traffic to maximize your impact on your target audience.
If you are a blogger or website eCommerce owner, you need to look into paid traffic sources if your goal for your blog or website is to make a living (or at least a good side revenue) from your efforts.
Don’t have a blog yet?
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Check out their platform and see if you think this would be a good way to get started. Then find some PPC advertising or other paid traffic methods to boost your site and make sure your audience notices! Who knows? Your passive income may be just a few clicks away when you use Bluehost web services and utilize the tools that you need to promote your message to the world!