Traffic has the power to make you rich, and the ability to shut you down. We’re all at the mercy of it. WWWPromoter affiliate traffic expert Atousa Toufighjou will run you through the myths, common misconceptions, and facts about traffic: the single commodity that drives our industry.
Speech by Atousa Toufighjou | Sales Account Manager, WWWPromoter
Atousa Toufighjou Speech Transcript
Hello, everyone. First of all, I want to thank every single one of you guys for sitting in here. There’s a lot of familiar faces which is amazing.
I’m not gonna stand up here and you know, talk about why we’re the greatest. And why you guys should buy our products and services. I’m just here to give you guys some myths, misconceptions, and facts about traffic.
Even the people that are sitting next to you right now have some disagreements when it comes to defining traffic. I’m just here to give you guys a reality check.
Reality Check
My name’s Atousa. And I’m from WWWPromoter. We are a traffic source network that specialises in banners and pops for mobile and desktop.
Traffic is king. What do I mean by traffic is king? Hot girls, yachts, Lamborghinis?
We all know traffic can make you rich. That if you can make it convert.
Every one of you in this room needs traffic in some form or shape to get your conversions. Whether it’s from email, search, display or other means.
Without traffic where would you guys be getting your conversions from today? This? Traditional marketing? I don’t think so.
Holding up a sign, billboards, TV ads? Why would you guys wanna go this way when we can leverage the new era of traditional marketing?
Fact: Traffic = $$$
Traffic equals money. What do I mean by traffic equals money?
We make money from traffic, we monetise traffic. And, we get conversions from traffic.
Without traffic, none of this would even exist.
Who here has made a ton of conversions from traffic? Got some hands up here, good!
Let me ask you guys this. Who here has a quality traffic source? Nice.
Once the offer stops converting, is the traffic no longer quality?
Traffic: Either Real Or Fake
Myth – There’s no such thing as quality and traffic.
Traffic is either real or fake.
Is it when the traffic converts? Does it mean it’s quality?
When the traffic doesn’t convert, does it mean it’s not?
When you were doing all those conversions initially, and now those conversions are declining, does it mean that the quality of traffic is declining?
Reality check. There’s no such thing as quality traffic. Traffic is traffic. It’s either real or fake.
Every single day I have clients that tell me, “Atousa, you have the greatest traffic.”
At the same time I have guys that tell me, “Atousa, your traffic is sh*t.”
How is it that they’re both buying the same traffic but I’m getting different feedback. Let’s look at the next slide.
Who here likes the yellow Lamborghini? You would.
Who here likes the yellow Ferrari? And, who here likes the Rolex? Who here likes the AP? Who here likes the Yeezys over the red bottoms?
Every single one of you in this room has different preferences and interests of what turns you on.
Just because one of you guys like one thing over the other, doesn’t mean one of you guys is high quality and the other one is low quality.
Everyone Is Unique
Exactly.
Everyone is as unique as your fingerprint. Just because it did not convert, it doesn’t mean it is low quality. It just means the user had no interest in your sh*tty landing page.
Simple as that.
So, instead of blaming the traffic for not converting, why don’t we get to work and make more attractive landing pages and creatives to drive conversions.
Traffic Is Made Of You
Remember this. Traffic is made of you. This is what I mean by no such thing as quality traffic.
Because it’s either real or fake.
When it comes to quality, we have to look at users that we are all different. And we like different things.
So, let’s talk about real vs fake. Real breasts vs fake. And no, these are not mine if you’re wondering, Vera.
Real money vs fake money. Bot vs human.
Bot Traffic
So, what exactly is bot traffic? How do you determine what is a bot, what is real?
There are different traffic verification such as third companies that you can use to help you determine.
But at the end of the day, teaching yourself and educating yourself would be the best way to determine them. There are multiple variables that we can look at to determine that the traffic is a bot.
And I always say, a person should look at multiple variables before they come to their conclusion. I, personally, I would personally leverage a mix of technology, analytics and user behavior.
So, why don’t we use the tools that were given to come to our conclusion?
Fact: Every Traffic Source Has Bot Traffic
Fact – every traffic source has bot traffic. Guys, this is a never-ending battle in the industry. And we probably face it all the time.
You know, sometimes I meet other traffic sources. And obviously, they all trying to up one each other.
You know, they tell me that they don’t have bot traffic. I called them bullsh*t on it. I actually laugh in their faces half the time.
Because everybody has bot traffic. Even Google has bot traffic.
Are all traffic sources the same?
Let’s look at these. Voss vs Fiji. Both of them are water but different taste.
Belvedere vs Grey Goose. Both of them are vodka but different taste.
Cognac. Both of them from France, different taste.
That’s like traffic sources. Just because they sell you banners and pops, it doesn’t make them all the same.
Every traffic source works with different sources, placements, and sites. And now variable such as ad rotation.
The performance can differ even if two traffic sources get you on the same site.
The industry is fast pacing and things change on the daily. User behaviour varies, day in and day out. Just because it did not convert yesterday, it doesn’t mean it won’t convert today.
Variables That Matter
So, let’s talk about what affects your conversions.
The variables that matter. Your creatives, your landing pages, offers, different sources, and optimisation.
There are a ton of variables that we need to be on the lookout for. When it comes to a traffic source, we should definitely be on the lookout for your creatives and landing pages.
Who here likes the black Lamborghini? And who here likes the orange Lamborghini? I’m sure every single one of you guys prefers one over the other.
This is what I’m just trying to get at. They’re different variables that entice and attract every single one of you in this room, differently.
We as individuals don’t want to be bothered. These ads can be annoying. The user just wants to go on whatever the hell they initially went on the site for and browse. And get right to it.
So, what you need to do, is entice that user. Do your best to entice them and sell them whatever the hell it is that you are trying to sell them.
You need to hit them where it counts.
As we discussed earlier, we are all unique as our fingerprint. We have different preferences even in the colours that we like. This is the same for your creatives and your landing pages.
So, have an open mind, think outside the box and show it some love. Because your creatives play an important role in your conversions.
Split Testing
And this is why we split test. Test different variations of your creatives and landing pages to see what works and what doesn’t.
This goes for every traffic source you test. Don’t assume because you split test with one source and that applies to the rest of the sources.
Because as I stated above, every traffic source is different. Some other variables are, loading time. So, is your ad loaded in seconds or is it loading in 10, 20 seconds?
The mood of the user.
The timing of the day and week. And such as also targeting options.
Optimisation
We all forget what the real power of marketing is. And that is collecting data.
So, why aren’t we leveraging the data that we paid for and drive profits? Marketers spend billions and billions of dollars every year collecting data.
Let’s look at this guy. A.C Nielsen. All they do is collect data. They provide clients with valuable insights into consumer behaviour and marketing information.
By optimising your campaign, you will only drive your ROI much higher. So, let’s implement pixels. Let’s track conversions. And, let’s optimise out the sources that are not performing for you.
Golden Rule To Optimising
Is there a golden rule to optimising?
I have clients that tell me, “Atousa, I got 50,000 impressions and 0 conversions. Should I change up the landing page, should I change up the GEO? And, should I X out some sources that aren’t performing.”
There is really no right answer to this.
Think of it like this. Every business, every company has its own business model and metric that they think is right.
And, think about all the different investment banks and hedge funds. All of them in the financial industry and they’re all investing into the same product.
But they use different business models and metrics to help them determine what will yield the highest ROI.
So, again, there is no golden rule when it comes to optimisation.
Every traffic source, or every single one of us in this room, works with different models.
If there is one golden rule to optimisation that everyone follows, then it’d be way too easy. And we sure as hell know this isn’t realistic. Money doesn’t grow on trees. If only it did.
Misconception: Every Offer Convert
Misconception. Does every offer convert?
No, every offer does not convert.
Eventually, offers will die down due to saturation. Because it’s been out for months.
Is there a magical source? The answer again is, no.
As I brought up earlier, traffic is made of you and me.
Different things appeal to different people. Just like how different offers appeal to different users online.
So, remember, the next time you decide to blame the traffic source, think about this guy, Charles Ngo. He even says himself, don’t blame the traffic source.
So, let’s think about the previous things that I listed above and why something didn’t convert.
A traffic source’s job is to deliver you the traffic that you pay for matching your criteria. What the user does when they see your ad, is entirely up to them.
The traffic source has no control over that.
So, why are we still blaming the traffic source when something doesn’t convert?
Think of it like this. You own a restaurant. Me, as the traffic source. I literally go to people’s houses, pull them out of their homes, and teleport them to your restaurant.
Whether they purchase something inside your restaurant or not, that’s entirely up to them. I did my job by providing you with that potential customer.
How much the user decides to order, that’s even if they order anything at all, is now up to your restaurant. These are the variables that determine whether people will eat there or not.
It’s the same concept when you apply it to media buying.
If your restaurant isn’t appealing, change it up. And, if your landing page looks like sh*t, change it up.
Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
And this is the reality check for you guys.
I hope that through my speech, we can all understand more of this complex industry whether you’re advertisers, affiliates or networks.
Because if you don’t, you really need to start to. And you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself.
The industry moves fast and often times we got caught up in it. You need to slow things down and dumb things down if you need to.
Because it seems like everyone forgot about business and marketing 101. At the end of the day, everyone doesn’t realise affiliate marketing is marketing.
You’re marketing products and services to users.
Look at media buying as a business because it is a business.
You need to manage risk levels, cash flows and all the other goodies that come with running a business.
If it was that easy, guys, none of you would be in this room. And I sure as hell would not be in this room. I’ll probably be on a yacht, on the way to the Mediterranean Sea and drinking Hennessy.
Profit = Conversions
I’m gonna leave you guys with one last thing, profit.
We all need profit, we all need money. I don’t know how’re you gonna get it but it’s probably through your conversions.
How do you guys get profit? Through conversions.
How do you get your conversions? Through traffic.
And how do you guys get that traffic? Through WWWPromoter.
And that’s a wrap, guys.
