Contents
We understand that texts on traffic arbitrage can seem like gibberish to beginners. To save you some time googling, here’s a handy dictionary of the basic terms used in traffic arbitrage.
General terms
Traffic arbitrage
Traffic arbitrage involves buying traffic from one source (often at a lower cost) and then directing that traffic to another destination, profiting from the margin.
Arbitrage trader
The intermediary responsible for attracting clients to an advertiser’s offer. Essentially, this is you — the middleman who analyzes traffic sources, offers, GEO and target audience, sets up advertising campaigns and monitors their effectiveness.
Advertiser
A company or brand that partners with affiliate networks and arbitrage traders. These networks are compensated by advertisers for hosting offers on their platforms, and affiliates are subsequently paid for promoting these offers.
Affiliate network
Affiliate network acts as an intermediary between the advertiser and the arbitrage trader. It connects clients to the advertiser for a commission, assists the arbitrage trader with technical issues, and handles payments to them.
Affiliate program
A partnership model between a specific company or brand and affiliates, designed to promote goods and services in exchange for a fee.
CPA (Cost per Action)
The compensation received for driving a specific action, as outlined in the offer’s terms.
Offer
A product or service that an advertiser lists on a CPA network. Affiliates receive a reward for promoting it.
Traffic
Internet users directed to the landing page by the affiliate through advertising efforts.
Target audience
A category of people more likely to visit a specific offer’s landing page and perform a desired action. For instance, the target audience for Forex trading typically includes men aged 18-50 from developing countries.
Target action
A specific action by a client that earns a webmaster a reward, such as placing a product order, registering on a website, or making a deposit with an online broker.
Landing page
A web page designed to receive advertising traffic, with the primary goal of encouraging visitors to perform a specific target action.
Lead
A potential client referred by an affiliate through an affiliate link who completes the desired target action.
Affiliate link
A unique link used by affiliates to direct customers to a landing page. It serves as a special identifier for the affiliate, enabling them to track transition and conversion statistics. Synonym: referral link.
Conversion
A target action completed and paid for through an affiliate program, brought in by an affiliate. Simply put, it is the process of transforming traffic into a monetary reward.
Creative
An advertising image or video used in an ad campaign. Its primary purpose is to briefly convey information about the offer and encourage the user to take action.
GEO
Geographical regions on the world map, including individual countries or parts of the world. These are commonly categorized by economic wealth into three tiers:
- Tier 1 — USA, Canada, Australia, Western and Central Europe
- Tier 2 — Eastern Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Turkey
- Tier 3 — countries in Asia, Africa, and Central and Latin America
Advertising & sales
Targeting
Advertising settings that enable detailed selection of target audience parameters such as gender, age, GEO, interests, and more.
Retargeting
The practice of showing ads again to users who have previously shown interest in an advertising campaign but did not complete the desired action.
Targeted advertising
Advertising that utilizes detailed targeting to reach specific audience segments.
Native advertising
A form of advertising that is integrated into the content and matches the context of the hosting site. For example, an article titled “How to Choose a Hosting for Your Website” might subtly recommend a specific service provider.
Clickbait
Eye-catching advertising designed to attract as much traffic as possible, (not necessarily targeted).
Split testing (or A/B testing)
A method to evaluate the effectiveness of different variables in a campaign. For instance, a webmaster might run two identical campaigns with different creatives to see which one performs better, based on the analysis of collected data. Similarly, advertising settings can also be tested this way.
Sales funnel
A set of tools that guide a user towards completing a target action, from viewing an advertisement to making a purchase.
White page
A page containing “compliant” content that adheres to a site’s rules. They are often used in cloaking to substitute the real offer pages, allowing the advertising campaign to pass moderation. Typically, these are used to discreetly promote offers that fall into a grey area.
Black page
The landing page where the actual offer is promoted. It is shown to the public as the main content of an advertising campaign.
Instruments
Cloaking
A technique designed to evade a platform’s moderation, often used for promoting products like gambling, betting, and cryptocurrencies. It utilizes specialized scripts and software to show compliant content (the “white page”) to moderators, while the real, often non-compliant content (the “black page”) is displayed to the public.
Anti-detect browser
This type of browser is designed for managing multiple accounts simultaneously. It maintains user anonymity and alters digital fingerprints to prevent account blocking.
Tracker
A tool or service that monitors statistics across various offers and affiliate networks at once. It enables the analysis and optimization of traffic management strategies.
SPY services
These services track advertising links from multiple traffic sources, allowing users to observe competitors’ strategies. Users can replicate and tailor these links to fit their own marketing needs.
Pre-landing page
A transitional page that prepares the client before they reach the main landing page. It serves as an intermediary step between the traffic source and the landing page where the advertisement is initially placed.
Metrics
Conversion Rate (CR)
The percentage of ad clicks that result in a targeted action. It measures the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. For instance, if there are 1,000 unique visits and 20 targeted actions are completed, the CR would be 2% (20 divided by 1,000, then multiplied by 100).
ROI (Return on Investment)
This metric measures the profitability of an advertising campaign, calculated as the ratio of invested funds to sales revenue. For example, if $1,000 is spent on advertising and it generates $2,000 in sales, the ROI is 100%.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
The ratio of the total number of ad impressions to the number of clicks, indicating the effectiveness of an advertisement in attracting interest.
ERR (Engagement Rate by Reach)
This metric reflects user interest in content, measured through likes, shares, views, and overall audience reach.
LPO (Leads Generated per Offer)
This indicates the number of users who have completed a purchase under a specific offer.
LTV (Lifetime Value)
This represents the total revenue generated from a single customer throughout the duration of their relationship with the company.
Bid
The maximum price you are willing to pay per click or per ad impression.
FTD (First-Time Deposit)
The initial deposit made by a new trader.
Payment models
Payments for traffic
CPC (Cost per Click)
The cost an affiliate pays for one click on an ad to the advertising platform.
CPM (Cost per Mille)
The cost for one thousand impressions of an advertisement.
CPV (Cost per View)
The cost for one view of an advertising video.
CPT (Cost per Time)
The cost for a specified duration of advertising exposure.
Payments for target actions
CPA (Cost per Action)
A payment made by an affiliate network or direct advertiser for a specific targeted action, such as a product purchase or registration, brought in by an affiliate.
CPL (Cost per Lead)
Payment for a referred client (lead) who has provided contact information. CPL differs from CPA in that it doesn’t require the lead to make a purchase; merely obtaining their contact information is sufficient. CPA payouts are generally much higher than those for CPL.
CPS (Cost per Sale)
Payment is made after the actual sale of the product, once the client has completed the purchase.
CPR (Cost per Reg)
Payment for the registration on the advertiser’s website.
CPO (Cost per Order)
Payment for each order placed by a customer.
CPI (Cost per Install)
Payment is made to the webmaster for each installation of a mobile application or desktop program.
DOI (Double Opt-In)
Payment is made for a lead only after the registration is confirmed via email, SMS, or a follow-up call.
SOI (Single Opt-In)
Payment is received for a lead just after they fill out a registration form, without the need for confirmation as required in DOI.