Ways To Get the Best Out of Your Paid Website Traffic
Most of us have seen adverts and sites selling website traffic to online businesses. If you simply click on the top right-hand cross as they cross your path, you are probably making a snap decision.
This is precisely the action you try to prevent your own website visitors from taking; this article will attempt to do the same.
Paid website traffic has its place in any marketing journey, as long as your expectations match its true potential.
Types of Paid Website Traffic
Paid traffic comes in two major forms – human and bot. For obvious reasons, bot traffic will not convert and is, on the whole, useless for marketing purposes.
Human website traffic, however, is composed of real people – and potential conversions.
100% human web traffic can be converted into three distinct categories:
- Targeted
- Undifferentiated
- Geographic
Although geolocation is a subdivision of targeted traffic, this group is more applicable to companies and websites that do not benefit from global or language-based outreach. It can be considered a separate entity for local, district and national businesses.
Reputable human website traffic providers – of which there are many – have the capability to supply hundreds of thousands of daily, weekly or monthly visitors. They manage extensive domains that gather data from millions of real people – often on a daily basis. It is interesting to note that many website traffic providers also use competitor services to expand their own outreach.
Disreputable website traffic providers – of which there are also many – are more likely to offer bot traffic (sometimes touting this as human traffic) that will never convert. Others promise to supply traffic after waiting times of weeks to a month. This gives them the opportunity to take your money and run.
It is, therefore, extremely important that you do your research. Highly recommended is Web Traffic Experts – a popular choice for businesses across the world.
Your Online Presence
The greatest mistake entrepreneurs make when considering paid traffic is having the wrong expectations. Just as you would (hopefully) never consider starting a campaign without a well-designed, responsive, attractive, and engaging website in combination with an interesting product or service, there is no point in buying web traffic and sending it to a low-grade domain.
In fact, paid website traffic is harder to convert than organic traffic. Its true power lies in sheer numbers. If your organic traffic enjoys a conversion rate of 4% and generates 10,000 visits, you make 400 sales. If paid traffic produces a conversion rate of 0.5% but you pay for 200,000 visitors, you can expect 1000 transactions. Even more interesting, the cost of organic marketing strategies is high in comparison with paid website traffic prices.
Even so, no transactions or conversions can be expected if you are sending targeted individuals to a website that is slow-loading, boring and hard to navigate. Before you even consider buying traffic (or beginning organic strategies), your online presence must be impeccable.
AdSense and Paid Traffic
If you have signed up for AdSense, beware. Google AdSense matches business-personalized ads (not always perfectly) to your website and generates extra income. Too many ads can overwhelm your audience, but the continuous use of AdSense might cause problems with paid traffic.
The above-mentioned and other reputable website traffic providers are able to guarantee 99% AdSense-safe traffic – often as a separate package – but never 100%. They advise that websites displaying large quantities of these ads take a short break from AdSense. This will ensure that every paid visitor lands on your site. Once there, it is up to your online presence and product to convince them to stay – just as with your organic traffic.
Human Web Traffic for Analysis
One use of paid traffic is much lesser-known outside of marketing agencies. This is its use in A/B testing. Startups especially fail to generate enough traffic to make A/B testing worthwhile. Once again, your online presence must be close to its final draft.
By ordering two batches of 5 to 10 thousand visitors from single or grouped niches and sending them to two different versions of your selected page, you can compare data and so fine-tune your design.
Using paid traffic to define your targets is also an intelligent move. By selecting targets from a broad range of niches, you might discover groups you never imagined would be interested in your services or products.
Website Traffic and Google Ranking
The Google search engine far outperforms its competition on a global scale. Much work has been done to this engine’s algorithm; the latest metrics for the 2020 version include enhanced customer experience. The question here is, if I am sending paid traffic to my website and this has a high bounce rate, will it negatively affect my Google SERP ranking?
SemRush tells us that
Older factors such as page age, keyword density and exact match domains are becoming less important for ranking. In 2020, customer experience counts and this includes the notorious bounce rate. This is part of RankBrain – Google’s third most important ranking signal. It calculates results based on multiple factors including bounce rate and dwell time.
To lower bounce rate and increase dwell time, the red thread through this article once again applies – how attractive, fast and navigable your website is. If you purchase 100% human traffic targeted to your location(s) and sector(s), you have an opportunity to convert them or at minimum get their attention for a few seconds.
If you have already put in a lot of work to move your domain up the SERPs, never opt for undifferentiated paid traffic; select your targets, age-groups and source countries with care.
Boosting Traffic for Other Channels
Paid web traffic can give a much-needed boost to more specific online channels. Pages on digital marketplaces and YouTube can be linked to from a separate website. Any paid traffic interested in your website content is more likely to click on a follow button or link to your store. This also applies to your social media accounts.
For example, use a separate website to generate traffic for your Etsy store. Competitive marketplaces such as this are well known for their rapidly-changing internal search algorithms and, like Google, are turning more and more toward personalised search results. What appears top of the list for one person will not be the same for another.
This makes Etsy-based
Know Your Target
Naturally, insights into the groups most likely to convert drives both traffic and conversions, no matter whether the source is organic or paid.
Any campaign that targets niche groups can be attenuated with paid traffic. The combined effects of organic and paid can highlight brand name, a new product, the latest news, or other website updates. For every campaign, an additional batch of thousands of visitors is worth the minimal outlay.
Alternatively, many reputable web traffic providers offer continuous traffic plans that increase Google rankings based upon site popularity. As visitor numbers remain consistent, the algorithm will not see this as suspicious activity. Don’t forget the red thread of website design and content, however to increase dwell time and so simultaneously boost RankBrain rankings.
When Doesn’t Paid Traffic Work?
Paid traffic won’t work for your business if:
- Your provider sends bot traffic
- Your online presence is unattractive
- Your product or service is not priced competitively
- You have earned yourself bad reviews
- You cannot keep up with demand (in terms of sales)
- Your website is unable to cope with high visitor numbers
- You select undifferentiated traffic for a niche product/service
- You use AdSense but do not order 99% AdSense safe traffic
- You use it as a single strategy and neglect organic marketing methods
- You expect miracles
When you accept paid traffic for what it is – a marketing enhancer rather than a stand-alone marketing solution – it is well worth your while not clicking on the upper right-hand cross and placing your first order, instead.
Web traffic conceptual meter -DepositPhotos
