We were discussing in a chat who could spill which secret. I will spill a few super-secret angles.
What should you watch in traffic arbitrage? What is the most important metric? The most important metric is absolute profit. The higher, the better. It is formed by:
- the cost of a conversion;
- the sale price of a conversion;
- volume.
Inside that is a huge pile of parameters: payout bumps, transaction losses, redirect losses, angles, landing-page optimization, tracker reports, landing-page dynamics, priority at the traffic source, and so on and so on. If the conversion is an order, this metric is called CPO, cost per order.
I will not systematize all of it here, otherwise everything becomes too easy.
Yes, I have everything systematized. Every move that can add even 1% to absolute profit is written down and used whenever possible.
No, I will not share it. It is quite valuable. Think for yourself; everything is on the surface.
What can 1% do? What is even 15% next to a total ROI of 300%? Let us see.
Note: here and below I use ROI assuming the volume is sufficient and none of the actions materially affects it. Every +N% also means +N% ROI, to avoid complicating the math.
Suppose Vasya runs traffic at 70% ROI. He stole several landing pages, drew several banners, stole several more, and did basic optimization while barely touching the source. He is happy: decent volume and tolerable ROI.
Then Kolya arrives. He does the same thing. Almost. Here is what Kolya has:
- A 10% bump from the start. Kolya is not a lazy ass and talked to the manager.
- A 5% source discount. No, Kolya is not a lazy ass. Kolya called his manager and said he wanted a 5% discount.
- Lower transaction costs. Kolya has organized the movement of money properly, adding 3% to ROI.
- Hosting. Kolya’s hosting is close to users and does not fall over at peaks, adding 20% and 5% to ROI.
- An optimized landing page. Yes, Kolya stole landing pages, but he got around to optimizing them. His pages weigh 15 KB rather than 150 KB and do not glitch in Opera, adding 30% to ROI. A recent forum post showed that this kind of optimization can add much more than 30%.
- Analytics and reports. Kolya has custom tracker reports, knows how to use Excel, and is not too lazy to configure several redirects, adding another 30% to ROI.
I could keep extending this list of small ways to add 5% ROI at a time.
The figures are deliberately understated so we do not end up arguing that “you cannot gain that much on this item.” Some items can produce much more than shown.
What did Kolya get? Kolya got 173% ROI compared with Vasya’s 70%. Yet he did nothing magical. He did not invent a super-angle, he is not running some secret traffic source, and he did not drink with managers. He simply did everything carefully.
What can Kolya do now?
- Outbid Vasya and increase volume.
- Enjoy the high level of profitability.