How to Make Money with One Link: Traffic Monetization with SmartLinks (Direct Links)
Being a publisher comes with a lot of ups and downs. From developing awesome content to attract your target audience all the way to monetization. If you’ve been in the publishing game for a while, then you know that setting up a solid monetization scheme is just as hard, if not harder than getting traffic.
Luckily, the Monetag team developed a simple solution to solve your traffic monetization problems as much as possible!
That solution?
SmartLinks for publishers.
What’s a Direct Link?
A flexible solution to traffic monetization, direct links, AKA “SmartLinks”, or “directs”, are links that contain multiple offers. In simpler terms, once someone clicks your SmartLink, they will automatically be directed to the best offer that suits their targeting information (e.g. demographic, geo, device, etc.)
In essence, your Monetag SmartLink utilizes all the traffic on your site in one click. No wasted traffic here! 😉
How Direct Links Work
The SmartLink that we provide leads to a feed that consists of thousands of different landing pages and offers. Once you place this link in your content, our optimization team will choose the most profitable offers based on your niche and specific channel.
We continue optimizing the landing pages and offers until we find the most profitable match for your site.
The Big Benefits of Using SmartLinks
Direct links are one of the most powerful tools in a publisher’s monetization arsenal! Here are some of the advantages of using our SmartLinks.
- Convenience: You only need one link to monetize your traffic.
- Versatile: Direct links can be used with your own banners, buttons, and text.
- Flexible: You can place as many direct links as you like on one page. They will always direct your traffic to the best offer/landing pages.
- Easy: Direct links don’t need any manual sorting or testing.
- Profitable: Direct links have the potential to be more profitable than standard linking because of their innovative targeting.
The leader of Monetag’s publisher’s department expands on the utility of these links on any type of content:
“Direct links can be used to monetize traffic regardless if a publisher actually owns a page or website. For example, an app developer can use directs to monetize remnant traffic. The same goes for any organic traffic that comes from Facebook, WhatsApp, or any other source.”
Placements & CTA’s
Where should I place my SmartLinks?
Choosing the right placement for your link isn’t an exact science. It depends on the nature of your platform and the volume of traffic on different parts of your site.
With that in mind, you can place your SmartLinks anywhere on your site, including banners, CTA buttons, and simple hyperlinks.
We recommend reviewing the traffic volume on your site for the most clickable areas and placing your links close to them. Additionally, you can also test different placements to see which gets the most clicks.
Leader of Monetag’s traffic acquisition team adds,
“SmartLinks are like watered-down versions of our pop ads. This is because SmartLinks send users directly to offer pages, so you need to ensure that the visitors you attract are interested in the offer.”
Should I use CTA’s with my SmartLink?
Including a CTA can definitely help direct traffic to your preferred offer or page. In general, it’s best to make sure your CTA is clear, concise and useful for your audience, so they understand what they are being directed to. According to our expert, this approach can provide great results for publishers:
“It’s worth noting that these links usually produce the best results for publishers that already have CTA buttons organically in their sites. The reason for this is that users are motivated by clicking on CTAs like ‘start watching’ so publishers that have these buttons will likely get better results” says our expert. “Our goal is to find offers that align with the publisher’s content, so the clearer it is, the better.”
With the above in mind, the Leader of Monetag’s traffic acquisition team also warns us that “placing giant banners that have phrases like ‘click here’ can seem suspicious, so publishers should avoid doing that at all costs.”
Instead, publishers can place links directly on the website elements like “watch now” buttons. In these cases, users will click on the button because they want to get the content and trigger the SmartLink into action.
How to Choose the Right Geo
Just like other ad formats, tier-1 countries like Canada, the USA, the UK, Europe, etc., are usually the best GEOs for direct links.
Monetag accepts traffic from tier-1 countries, but we also work with traffic from Asian nations like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and India, among others, so don’t hesitate to contact us today if this is your main traffic demographic.
The Numbers: How Much Money You Can Make with Direct Links
Let’s get down to the numbers – we are talking about monetization schemes here, after all!
Direct Links stand to be a more profitable alternative for publishers in a variety of different industries. That being said, some industries will benefit more from direct links than others.
Our expert gives us insight on this topic:
“Direct Links aren’t suitable for everyone, but the right publishers can expect 30% to 60% of the revenues that they would with pop advertising.
For instance, if you usually generate $100 from pop, you’ll make between $30 and $60 with directs. Remember, these can run simultaneously because they don’t interfere with each other, so you can have both on your site at the same time.”
Before Getting Started…
Lastly, some of the main elements you want to keep in mind include:
- Direct links don’t tend to work well with ad blockers. If you want to monetize ad block traffic, we suggest using popunder ads.
- If you get traffic through direct channels rather than search engines, users will get used to the elements that trigger ads. If this is the case, you need to optimize constantly.
Ready to test direct links?
