A Direct Link (also known as “Direct”) is probably the most flexible traffic monetization solution which you can choose when working with Propeller Ads as a publisher. With this ad format a publisher can generate profit by sending his traffic to our advertisers’ offers in any way and by any means. Read the article to know more about the most flexible monetization solution for site owners and media buyers from Propeller Ads.
Actually, Direct Link ads are suitable for all kinds of sites and media buyers. As our feed consists of thousands of different landing pages and offers we can provide almost 100% traffic monetization. For each ad channel we pick the most profitable offers to suit your audience’s interests and your site’s type.
As a publisher, you’ll quickly see the advantages of the Direct format if you have ever worked with CPA / PPI / PPD affiliate programs. You no longer have to manually sort out and test offers. Our optimization system will do it for you, along with selecting the offers with the best conversions to maximize your profit.
If you monetize via PPC (pay-per-click) affiliate programs our Direct ads can be a great alternative. Note that we use only legit technologies, but our publishers still get higher CPC rates than with traditional PPC.
The direct link format works perfectly with mobile and online games, as it can easily be integrated in those products and activated by triggers or events.
Pay attention to the placing of the ad unit, text and banners which you will use to attract audience. Not sure what areas of your website get the most clicks? You can see this easily with heat map services like CrazyEgg or Yandex.Metrica. Below are some more tips and examples of Direct Ad placements.
If there aren’t enough unique visitors on your site, don’t forget to renew and occasionally rotate your creatives to avoid the “banner blindness” effect.
Don’t forget that final eCPM revenue rates depend not only on your audience GEO, but also on many other factors like user’s device, OS, browser and performance. Read this article for details.
Here you can find some real screenshots of publisher’s statistics.
1) Website related to mobile apps
2) Website related viral videos (YouTube)
3) No website (media buying)
4) Popular streaming video service
As you can see, PropellerAds accepts and monetizes not only traffic from tier-1 countries like US or GB, but also traffic from Asian countries like India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and others.
A: Propeller Ads has one of the biggest base of advertisers. This allows us to monetize traffic from almost every country and region at industry leading rates.
Q: How much traffic should I have to generate significant income?
A: We recommend direct ads for websites with at least 500 unique visitors every 24 hours. If you don’t have enough traffic, try our top-performing Onclick Pop-Under ad unit, specially optimized for small sites.
Q: I’ve sent some traffic to your direct link. But my revenue = 0. Why does this happen?
A: The amount of traffic was probably not enough for our system to select the best offers. Please wait until the general number of visitors reaches 1,000. If your statistics don’t change, contact our support team.
Q: My profit isn’t meeting my expectations!
A: Please, be a bit more patient!
One of the most common mistakes among publishers is a very short testing period. Our optimization system needs 2-5 days to gather all the offers which show the best results on your traffic.
Remember: the less traffic you send, the more time it will take our system to find the most profitable offers for you.
Q: I don’t have the time\opportunity to create promo-materials. Do you have some?
A: If you can send 10,000 or more visitors in 24 hours we’ll create promo materials for your site, and help with finding the best place for them. Contact our support team or your account manager.
Actually, Direct Link ads are suitable for all kinds of sites and media buyers. As our feed consists of thousands of different landing pages and offers we can provide almost 100% traffic monetization. For each ad channel we pick the most profitable offers to suit your audience’s interests and your site’s type.
As a publisher, you’ll quickly see the advantages of the Direct format if you have ever worked with CPA / PPI / PPD affiliate programs. You no longer have to manually sort out and test offers. Our optimization system will do it for you, along with selecting the offers with the best conversions to maximize your profit.
If you monetize via PPC (pay-per-click) affiliate programs our Direct ads can be a great alternative. Note that we use only legit technologies, but our publishers still get higher CPC rates than with traditional PPC.
The direct link format works perfectly with mobile and online games, as it can easily be integrated in those products and activated by triggers or events.
How does it work?
- Firstly, login to your account and create a “Direct” ad channel. Get your link.
- Now you can start sending traffic to this link by any means you prefer (clicks from sites, users from your mobile app or software, buying from 3rd party sources, using your own pop-up / pop-under scripts, blind links, redirects etc.)
- Our system automatically selects and tests the most suitable offers so that you get the highest possible price for your visitors.
Get access to thousands of advertisers with just a single link and send traffic any way you like! What could be easier?
Advantages of the Direct Link ad format
- Use your own creatives of any size and content to attract maximum visitors.
- Direct link can be integrated with any design or navigation element on your site.
- The number of links you can use on the same page is unlimited.
- The format works perfectly with any other ad units, for example, Mobile Interstitial. You can easily combine it with other networks’ ads and even AdSense.
- If you have your own traffic management solutions (pop-up/pop-under scripts, content lockers, traffic management scripts etc.,) you can use Direct Link as a destination url.
- When using the direct link format you don’t paste any javascript onto your site. So, there is no risk of getting a malware alert from Google.
- The direct link format can be used everywhere where you can’t place traditional ad units: social media, free video hostings, forums and others. You can use it even if you don’t own a site.
- This is a 100% cross-platform solution that can be used with any mobile app or desktop software. Developers can combine our direct ads with any event inside their app (for example, open link if a user completes a level in a game or clicks any buttons).
- You can also mask our direct link with any url shortener service or link masking plug-in. Your visitors will see it as an internal link.
- If you buy traffic you can send it directly to our link. By this means you minimize possible traffic loss that can occur when using a pre-landing page. In return, provide automatic optimization and 100% fill rate. Our advanced advertisers’ campaigns testing system, along with automatic optimization algorithms, find the best match for each of your visitors.
Some placement tips
With the direct link format you get paid for every visitor who goes to an advertiser’s site. So, your aim here is to get the maximum click-throughs from your audience. Keep this in mind when choosing the place for your direct link ad.Pay attention to the placing of the ad unit, text and banners which you will use to attract audience. Not sure what areas of your website get the most clicks? You can see this easily with heat map services like CrazyEgg or Yandex.Metrica. Below are some more tips and examples of Direct Ad placements.
- If your site contains streaming video content (including Youtube videos) you can place a button under each video saying, for example, “Save video to disk” and use our direct link as a destination URL.
- For video sites, it’s a good idea to place a fake player, with a static or animated image, that is linked to our direct ads, above your real player.
- If your site contains any downloadable content (software, mobile apps, photos etc.) then put the direct link on a “call-to-action” button (graphic or text based) above or below the content.
- Put the direct ad on an intermediate page with a “Skip to content” button between your main page and the page with content.
click to enlarge
Things a Publisher should remember
As long as their profit from a direct link depends on the amount of click-throughs, a publisher should always pay attention to increasing CTR. Aside from optimization, it’s important to pick and use creatives which generate the biggest number of clicks.If there aren’t enough unique visitors on your site, don’t forget to renew and occasionally rotate your creatives to avoid the “banner blindness” effect.
Don’t forget that final eCPM revenue rates depend not only on your audience GEO, but also on many other factors like user’s device, OS, browser and performance. Read this article for details.
Here you can find some real screenshots of publisher’s statistics.
1) Website related to mobile apps
- Audience top countries: IN, BR, US
- Main traffic sources: search engines (69%), bookmarks (23%)
2) Website related viral videos (YouTube)
- Audience top countries: US, IN, PH
- Main traffic sources: search engines (27%), social (34%), bookmarks (19%)
3) No website (media buying)
- Audience top countries: US, IN, DE
- Main traffic sources: purchased traffic
4) Popular streaming video service
- Audience top countries: US, PH, MY
- Main traffic sources: search engines (72%), bookmarks (18%)
As you can see, PropellerAds accepts and monetizes not only traffic from tier-1 countries like US or GB, but also traffic from Asian countries like India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and others.
FAQ
Q: Which countries can I monetize traffic from with the “direct ad” format?A: Propeller Ads has one of the biggest base of advertisers. This allows us to monetize traffic from almost every country and region at industry leading rates.
Q: How much traffic should I have to generate significant income?
A: We recommend direct ads for websites with at least 500 unique visitors every 24 hours. If you don’t have enough traffic, try our top-performing Onclick Pop-Under ad unit, specially optimized for small sites.
Q: I’ve sent some traffic to your direct link. But my revenue = 0. Why does this happen?
A: The amount of traffic was probably not enough for our system to select the best offers. Please wait until the general number of visitors reaches 1,000. If your statistics don’t change, contact our support team.
Q: My profit isn’t meeting my expectations!
A: Please, be a bit more patient!
One of the most common mistakes among publishers is a very short testing period. Our optimization system needs 2-5 days to gather all the offers which show the best results on your traffic.
Remember: the less traffic you send, the more time it will take our system to find the most profitable offers for you.
Q: I don’t have the time\opportunity to create promo-materials. Do you have some?
A: If you can send 10,000 or more visitors in 24 hours we’ll create promo materials for your site, and help with finding the best place for them. Contact our support team or your account manager.