Before we dive in to the individual lessons, let’s start with the 30,000′ view and answer three clarifying questions:
- What is paid traffic?
- What is a ‘traffic engine’?
- Why should you care?
When I use the term paid traffic, I am referring to any environment / platform where money is exchanged for awareness or action. For example, Google Ads (formerly AdWords), Bing, Facebook and LinkedIn are paid advertising platforms. In exchange for money, we can reach audiences that each platform has aggregated.
Email co-registration, affiliate promotions, paid email placements, CPA networks, smaller ad networks, retargeting engines … all of these are ‘paid traffic’ because they have a pay-to-play model.
The exchange of money is critical in my definition of paid traffic. I often hear the question “why should I pay for traffic when I can get it for free?” Let me be very clear about something — there is no ‘free’ traffic — we pay for awareness and engagement with money, time, or both.
A ‘traffic engine‘ is a system for consistently, reliably, and predictably creating and growing awareness, interest, and desire for a business or other venture.
Paying for traffic with more money than time has many benefits. The major traffic platforms are accessible immediately (hours/days). Demographic, psychographic, and intent-based targeting can be very granular. Performance data can be segmented and analyzed for insights. Traffic volume/spend can be increased or decreased quickly. And user behavior can trigger specific actions to create more personalized engagement with prospects.
At the same time, paid traffic remains a “black box” for many businesses and marketing professionals. Each platform has its own best practices (and specific challenges). Wasted ad spend is rampant. Results often are unpredictable. Broadly useful training is rare. Tactics are taught at the expense of principles (and tactics change quickly).
NEXT: Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?