Online advertising: remaining traffic

What is “carryover traffic” and why is it good for advertising?

Myths of ‘remnant traffic’.
There are a multitude of myths and misconceptions about different aspects of online advertising that remain misleading to both Internet users and advertisers. One of these misconceptions is the definition of “remnant traffic”. Some ad networks and agencies have their own glossary open for public use, where remaining traffic is often defined as “the cheapest ad inventory traffic from disreputable sites or empty ‘parked domains’ advertising inappropriate content.” Is carryover traffic really as bad as we are led to believe?

To understand what remnant traffic really is, let’s take a closer look at what remnant traffic is.

Premium Traffic – The easiest way to understand is to imagine a famous brand’s banner on the home page of a top website. In fact, premium traffic is the “cream” of a website’s audience. Websites that provide premium traffic guarantee the advertiser that the ad will be noticed by the audience. They will mainly display the banner in prominent places for ALL site visitors to see.

This gives us our opposite definition of “remnant traffic”. First of all, this term had been considered as the unsold inventory of our previously mentioned big brand advertiser. Another stereotype is that, historically, remnant traffic was thought to be sold only through “unpopular” low-traffic websites, as they had no hope of attracting big brands as advertisers. In the absence of alternatives, these low-traffic sites place blind network banners, which offer cheap ads often of questionable content and quality.

Therefore, a situation was formed where the premium traffic is considered as the main traffic of the websites and the remaining traffic is the traffic of other less popular online resources. That would sound reasonable enough if it were not determined to be largely untrue under detailed consideration. To distinguish fact from fiction, let’s look at the closest relationship between online advertisements: advertising on television, radio, and traditional print media.

It turns out that there was already a very close definition of “remnant advertising” on television, radio, and print media.

Is there ‘residual advertising’ in the other media?
Remaining television advertising is advertising at any time, except during prime time. The further an ad is shown from prime time, the more discounts a channel offers advertisers. Discounts on television can be as high as 90% for unsold inventory. Discounts on radio are also frequent and depend on airtime and typical audience figures. These discounts can range from 25% to 75%.

Another rule applies to print media, as they sell physical ad space. Ad space closer to the middle of the newspaper is priced very differently from the cost of a front page ad. In this case, a direct comparison can be made between advertising on the front page of a newspaper and a banner on the home page of a popular website.

The win-win nature of carryover advertising was long accepted in traditional media advertising, so the focus of premium and carryover ads formed as the market matured. It is obvious and logical that these media can offer discounts of up to 90% for unsold time or space. This is called carryover advertising. In this case, both the channel and the advertiser are winning. The channel covers 100% of the scheduled advertising inventory; the advertiser is placing his ad with the necessary resources at a great discount. So, as we can see, the place for the remaining advertising was found in the traditional media. Additional carryover advertising is working effectively and does not result in rejection from potential participants, whether they are advertisers, ad agencies or publishers.

‘Remnant traffic’ as is.
Now let’s get back to the Internet. If you look through the home page of any major website, you will generally see only big brand advertising in all of the most notable places. Obviously, this is premium traffic, something analogous to prime time on television or on the covers of magazines or newspapers. However, if you leave the page and return to it once or twice, the advertising that is displayed begins to change before your very eyes from a large brand to smaller or lesser-known advertisers or brands.

It turns out that just as TV channels sell their prime time, big websites sell impressions with the “first show” privilege. Refreshing a page multiple times, we skim through the premium ad traffic from the big brands and now we can actually see a real ‘carryover ad’ on a popular website. That means the top sites have carryover traffic too, doesn’t it? They certainly do and monetize it just as well as traditional media do with their remaining advertising through deep discounts. On the other hand, it should be noted that it is the same mythical remnant traffic, which some networks and agencies associate with something cheap, negative and full of inappropriate content. Obviously, these terms do not match the reality of the remaining ads on the major websites. On these top websites, carryover inventory can be very expensive and of high quality for both ad placement and ad content. Thus we have dispelled this particular myth.

But what should small, low-traffic sites do? They do not attract large amounts of site traffic and therefore cannot place first-class brand advertising. Is there any alternative except cheap ad placement for sometimes very questionable content, as described at the beginning of this article?

Can we benefit from the use of ‘remnant traffic’?
There are currently four main alternatives, each with different pros and cons:

(a) You can place contextual advertising from one of the big search engines. These services also offer banner advertising. Advantages include flexibility and adaptability of ad settings, rotations, location, etc. Disadvantages include delays in site verification and authorization to collaborate with this program and delays in revenue payments for displayed ads. Example: Google AdSense

(b) You can place a banner from one of the “blind” ad networks. The main advantages are that it is fast, simple and will generate money for anyone without exception. The downsides are lower revenue and the very real possibility of inappropriate or shocking advertising content. Example: Clicksor

(c) You can register with an ad network specialized in remnant traffic. These networks specialize in monetizing remaining traffic only. Both medium and high traffic sites use their services to fill their remaining ad inventory. The main advantages are generally high performance compared to alternatives and guaranteed clear and appropriate advertising content. The main downside is the current inability to monetize Chinese, Korean or Indian traffic sufficiently using these ad networks. Therefore, this alternative should be chosen in the case of sites with predominantly European or American traffic. Example: Fidelity Media

(d) You can place social (or philanthropic) advertising. The advantages are valuable ads, totally appropriate content, and you can improve your karma by doing social good. Disadvantage: It is generally free and therefore not for profit. Example: Ad Council

Hopefully, after considering these options, there will be an obvious conclusion, so feel free to experiment. Make money from your website and don’t be fooled by pseudo-authoritative claims that your traffic is worthless to advertisers. In most cases, it is simply not true.