Referral traffic boasts large volume and reasonable price

Affiliates and advertisers tend to avoid websites, which have a large portion of referral traffic. However, among those websites, you may find diamonds in the rough. In this article, we want to explain what referral traffic is and why you shouldn’t steer clear of it. Specifically, referral traffic can be a huge inflow of users that are willing to convert here and now, but many advertisers simply ignore this bountiful opportunity.

Referral traffic explained

Imagine relocating to another town, you want a cup of fresh, strong, and rich coffee to wash away all the pains of the long journey. You might start looking for a generic international chain like Starbucks — that’s Direct traffic. If the town has no Starbucks in its vicinity, you start exploring your neighborhood in search of any coffee shop — that’s Organic Search, you’re engaged and ripe for a coffee banner. However, instead of cruising the town, you can locate a mall and go there, knowing they are bound to have coffee shops. Once you find a map of the mall, read it, and follow the instructions, you are redirected — that’s Referral traffic. This is what we are talking about today.

Well-established websites function similar to malls — they aggregate tons of links and redirect their visitors to appropriate websites, according to what the user wants. A website receiving those redirected users doesn’t become of poor quality because of it. In fact, it might perform very well, which is why it’s inadvisable to cut off traffic from websites with a large share of referral traffic.

Referral traffic advantages

Referral traffic involves two parties: the referrer and the referred. Their work in tandem provides certain advantages, specifically:

Better ad exposure — the referring site has its own established audience with unique tastes and preferences, which can align with yours if calculated correctly. When this audience gets to the referred site, they might turn into Organic Search or even Direct traffic later on.

Pre-engaged audience — referral traffic usually comes from high-ranking websites, enjoying an action-driven audience. These people know what they are getting into and willing to do so, which is why they are ready to take their time and explore what you have to offer.

Affordable traffic — placing an ad on the referred site is relatively inexpensive, while maintaining the original site’s brand awareness; reap the rewards of quality traffic from this influx audience for a bargain price.

A prudent proving ground — by monitoring referral traffic, you can discover new profitable niches, products, and customer segments. Plus, while the others steer clear of the referred traffic, you can harness its potential and skim all the cream.

Tried & true website bases — in general, sites with a large portion of referred traffic tend to be well-structured, contain an extensive list of categories, and have an average visiting time of 2+ minutes. They are the signs of a well curated site, geared to capture a user’s engagement.

Referral traffic dominance is… not a bad sign

A large portion of referral traffic does not make a website bad. If anything, it is an indicator of a strong brand that can be piggybacked off of. Why not profit from the residuals of a strong and established website?

Considering that many marketers steer clear of the websites with a large volume of referral traffic, you should think about testing them and let the data speak for itself. Being referred has little-to-do with the quality of the users themselves: they are still engaged, have a low bounce rate, and are ready to spend some cash on thematic products.

Referral traffic improves brand’s exposure & recognition, eases networking & user database creation, and helps to tap into new audience segments affordably. And while the others turn their blind eye to referral traffic, you can start capitalizing on it, reaping all the rewards for doing so.

Contact us if you have any questions, and remember — TwinRed cares.