What is “remnant 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 continue to be misleading to Internet users and advertisers alike. One of these misconceptions is the definition of ‘remnant traffic’. Some ad networks and agencies have their own glossary open for public use, where remnant traffic is often defined as “cheapest ad inventory traffic from disreputable sites or empty ‘parked domains’ that advertise inappropriate content.” Is the remaining 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 traffic remnant is.

Premium Traffic – The easiest way to understand is to imagine a famous brand banner on the homepage of a top website. In fact, premium traffic is the “cream” of a website’s audience. Websites that provide premium traffic guarantee to the advertiser that the audience will notice the ad. They will mainly display the banner in noticeable 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 previous big brand advertiser. Another stereotype is that leftover traffic was historically thought to be sold only by ‘unpopular’ low-traffic websites, as they have no hope of attracting big brands as advertisers. In the absence of alternatives, these low-traffic sites place banners from blind networks, offering cheap ads, often of dubious content and quality.

Thus, a situation was formed in which premium traffic is considered the traffic of top websites, and the remnant traffic is the traffic of other, less popular online resources. That would sound reasonable enough if it weren’t found to be largely untrue on close consideration. To separate fact from fiction, let’s look at the closest relationship of online advertising: advertising on television, radio, and traditional print media.

As it turns out, there was already a very close definition of ‘remnant advertising’ in TV, radio and print media.

Is there ‘remnant advertising’ in the other media?
The remaining TV advertising is advertising at any time except prime time. The further away from prime time an ad is shown, the more discounts a channel offers advertisers. TV discounts can be up to 90% for unsold inventory. Radio discounts are also frequent and depend on airtime and typical audience listening figures. These discounts can range from 25% to 75%.

Another rule works for print media as they are selling physical ad space. Advertising space closer to the middle of the newspaper is priced very differently than 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 with a banner on the home page of a popular website.

The win-win nature of holdover advertising was long accepted in traditional media advertising, and thus the focus of holdover and premium 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 required resources at a deep discount. So, as we can see, the place for the remaining advertising was found in the traditional media. In addition, the remnant advertising is working effectively and does not cause rejection by potential participants, whether they are advertisers, advertising agencies or publishers.

‘Remnant traffic’ as it is.
Now let’s get back to the Internet. If you look through the home page of any major website, you’ll usually see only big-brand advertising in all the most notable places. Obviously, this is premium traffic, something analogous to prime time on TV or on the front pages of magazines or newspapers. However, if you leave the page and return to it once or twice, the advertising 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 primetime, big websites sell prints with ‘first showing’ privilege. By refreshing a page multiple times, we skimmed through premium ad traffic from big brands and now we can actually see true ‘remnant advertising’ on a popular website. That means the top sites have remnant traffic too, right? They certainly do, and they monetize it just as well as traditional media do with their advertising remnant through deep discounts. Separately, it should be noted that this 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 remnant ads on major websites. On these top websites, the remaining inventory can still be very expensive and high-quality for both ad placement and ad content. So we have dispelled this particular myth.

But what are small, low-traffic sites to do? They do not attract large numbers of site traffic and therefore cannot place high-class brand advertising. Are there any alternatives, except for the placement of cheap ads of sometimes very dubious 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. Such services also offer display advertising. Among the advantages we must mention the flexibility and adaptability of the configuration of ads, rotations, location, etc. Disadvantages include delays with site verification and authorization to support this program, and delays with ad revenue payments. Example: Google AdSense

(b) You may place a banner from one of the ‘blind’ ad networks. The main advantages are that it is fast, simple and will make money for anyone without exception. The downsides are lower revenue and the very real possibility of inappropriate or scandalous advertising content. Example: Clicker

(c) You may register with a specialized remnant traffic ad network. These networks specialize solely in monetizing remnant traffic. 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 disadvantage is the current inability to sufficiently monetize Chinese, Korean or Indian traffic 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 perks are worthwhile ads, totally appropriate content, and you can improve your karma by doing social good. Disadvantage: It is usually free and therefore not for profit. Example: AdCouncil

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

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