If you want to buy web traffic then you have a ton of options. There really is no hard and fast rules for what “the best” traffic is because it all boils down to conversions and ROI. While many advertisers buy traffic for branding purposes, we want to buy traffic to make money. Think of it as a funnel. you throw traffic into the top, it moves through your webpages and money comes out at the end. Its really quite simple. If you make more than you spend, its good traffic.

Testing different traffic sources is really important to continuously expand your reach and to find new markets. Every traffic source can potentially help grow your business. Some will be good, some will be bad while other will blow it up or bomb out completely. Test, test and test some more. That is the key. Lets quickly look some of the main sources where you can buy web traffic.

Search Traffic:
Search traffic is probably the oldest form of traffic you can buy and the big daddy of search traffic is Google Adwords where you can buy sponsored ads based on search terms. Its commonly referred to as PPC (Pay Per Click) and is one of the most expensive traffic source because of how focused and how targeted it is. Search traffic is generally considered high quality because it is so targeted to specific search terms.

Contextual Traffic:
As the name implies, contextual traffic is usually sponsored words or phrases that appear “in context”. The majority of contextual traffic sources offer hover ads that appear when a user moves their cursor over the sponsored phrase. Its generally considered a low quality of traffic because clicks are generally quite low although with the right targeting you can get some decent conversions. Contextual traffic is cheap which makes up with low conversions and you can see great volume with this.

Web/Banner Traffic:
This is probably the most important and most popular way to buy web traffic. You can buy banner positions from virtually any website and with more advanced targeting available, its a great way to reach specific demographic markets. Standard IAB banner sizes are available on most high traffic sites and you can either buy direct or buy through an ad server. Google Adwords serves banner ads and so does thousands of other networks. Its usually priced bet CPM which is a price based on the amounts of views your banner gets.

Pop Traffic/CPV/PPV:
Pop traffic as its commonly known is based on a cost per view (CPV) basis and you can serve your ad as a pop-under or pop-over based on certain targeting criteria. This traffic is also known as Pay Per View (PPV) and the 2 biggest networks are TrafficVance and MediaTraffic that allow you to target website URL’s as well as keywords to trigger your pop. This is “cheap traffic” but the quality is not always up to scratch. It can potentially be a huge source of traffic and will allow you to reach a very specific audience.

Social Traffic:
Social networks are dominating the internet at the moment and if you want to buy website traffic from some of the most high traffic sites on the web, then Social Networks is the way to go. Facebook is now the most popular website on the planet and when you buy traffic through their self-serve network you can get very specific in your targeting – which means that your ads are very focused and the results are often a very good ROI.
.

Not all forms of traffic is equally valuable. Targeted website traffic is traffic that is specifically targeted to your website, offer or products. While most marketers spend all their time trying to get more traffic, smart marketers are spending their time on finding targeted website traffic. The significance of targeted traffic boils down to your audience.

Targeted traffic cuts off a segment of a particular audience that is more likely to buy your products. The wonderful thing about paid search traffic is that you can buy your traffic based on keywords and the keywords in themselves represent a level of targeting. This is why certain keywords are more expensive than others. Targeted keywords convert because its targeted.

Attracting highly targeted traffic is not just about picking keywords either. A very powerful way to look at it is to find out where your ideal customer hangs out online and then advertise to them there. Whether it be an online forum, a Facebook Application, an online game – if you can reach your ideal audience then half the work is done. If you show an ad to someone who is likely to be interested in what you’ve got to offer then your response will be far better than just going after random traffic.

Targeted website traffic has the benefit of improving your ROI. In the world of online marketing its ALL about ROI. Even if you have to pay $5 per click – if it returns $15 per click then its so worth it. So many people shrug away from PPC these days when they see click costs in excess of $10, but there are a lot of people seeing great returns even with the ridiculous click prices.

This idea does not just apply to paid traffic sources either. It’s the same for SEO and even for email marketing. You can go and find website owners with email lists that fit your ideal prospect and get targeted web traffic by doing a JV with them. It can be the best traffic you will ever find because its pre-qualified AND its targeted. Doing JV’s is an art in itself but it has immense potential for anyone who needs targeted traffic quickly. Not even buying PPC traffic is as effective and the risk is relatively low because your JV partner takes on a portion of the risk.

Think outside the box and always think about that IDEAL CUSTOMER.
.