[SURVEY] Your Experience With Traffic Sources ❓

[zeropark]

Dear Affiliate Community!

We've decided it's high time we asked the biggest experts on the market about their experience with different traffic source platforms... and naturally, that's you!

The primary goal of this survey is to discover the affiliate community’s trends and preferences when it comes to the process of trying out new traffic sources.

What are the obstacles? Which features are essential for you? What kind of resources help you the most? We’re calling all affiliates to paint the picture of the most frustrating and rewarding elements of working with ad platforms.


☞ What’s in it for you?

The more you share, the deeper insight we gain, the better your experience at the traffic source of your choice.

Yes, we’re not limiting this to Zeropark. We will publish a detailed report with the outcome of the survey, so even our competitors can see those insights and hopefully provide you with a better platform. We definitely will!

Filling this anonymous survey shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes, so grab your bottle of water, a shot of espresso, or a cup of favorite tea and have a short break while helping us out.


☞ Also, to thank you for your time and insights, there are some treats waiting for you:

➤ If you haven’t yet tried Zeropark but would like to give it a go, then there's a 10% first-time deposit bonus waiting for you + a two-week personal onboarding with Adam, our Onboarding Manager!

➤ If you’re already on Zeropark, upon completing the survey, you will have a chance to win a 45-minute 1-to-1 coaching session with one of our Key Account Managers [10 slots available].

So sit back, relax, and answer the survey!

TAKE THE SURVEY ​

Magda

 

[zeropark]

Hi guys!

Bumping the thread just to let you know the survey is still open!

We really want to hear some feedback from you guys, so if you have 5 mins to spare, we'd really appreciate you taking the survey.

Thanks!
Magda

 

[aleksifa]

Survey submitted

Can't wait to see all the results

 

[Erin Ashford]

i need this plz i cannt wait to apply

 

[zeropark]

Heyy guys!

This is just to let you know that the survey will be closing tomorrow end of day, so if you still want to win some prizes that's your last chance to participate!

Magda

 

[zeropark]

Your Experience With Traffic Sources — Survey Findings

A few weeks ago we decided to ask the affiliate community about their experience with different traffic source platforms... and naturally, the community responded!

The survey was completely anonymous and meant for approximately 5min of respondents’ time. Still, we’re happy to note that some of you took it very seriously providing us with super detailed answers and insights that surely took longer — amazing job, guys!

As promised, for those curious to learn more about the community preferences and the biggest pain-points, here is the compilation of answers and insights we’ve collected.

Survey details:

The survey was fully completed by over 50 respondents, comprising 5 categories, 25 questions, and took between 5-10min. The categories included:

• General traffic source information
• Onboarding experience
• Communication
• Additional affiliate marketing tools
• Traffic source features

I. General experience with traffic sources

1. To begin with, we wanted to learn more about our respondents to better understand their experiences. That’s why we started off by asking them to rate their level of familiarity with affiliate marketing on scale form 1 (meaning a total beginner) to 5 (already an affiliate pro!).

Here’s the split:

2. The group was then asked how many traffic sources they are currently using, to which the response was mainly between 2-4.

3. The next question, which many affiliate marketers may relate to, regarded the biggest obstacles in trying out new traffic sources. Here are the answers:

The top 3 challenges are:

• Understanding the features offered by a traffic source
• Communication with traffic source representatives
• Making an entry deposit

4. Then, to understand what’s actually a deal-maker for trying out a new source of traffic, we’ve asked about the opposite. Here are the answers:

The top 3 deciding-factors are:

• Available volumes of traffic
• First-time deposit bonus
• Targeting and campaign optimization features

II. Onboarding experience with traffic sources ‍

1. Naturally, the first question regarded receiving any or none at all onboarding when joining a new traffic source.

2. Then, we asked to rate the onboarding sessions on scale from 1 (the least useful) to 5 (the most useful). Most of the respondents claimed to find them useful or very useful, if received at all.

3. Next, we moved on to the educational resources that affiliate advertisers find essential for getting started with a new traffic source. The split shows the following results:

The top 3 most useful materials are:

• Step-by-step documentation
• Video tutorials
• New feature updates

4. The next question allowed us to gather information on what’s the most difficult area to understand as a beginner affiliate.

The top 3 challenges are:

• Campaign optimization
• Selecting a proper bid
• Setting up tracking (tokens & postbacks)

Closely followed by working with whitelists and creating winning ad materials.

III. Communication

1. To make the communication process as efficient as possible, we thought learning advertisers’ favorite ways of talking to traffic source representatives would be the simplest solution.

• Most respondents claimed they prefer communicators like Skype, Whatsapp, Messenger or Telegram).
• In-panel chat is also a favorable solution.
• As well as plain email communication.

2. Next, we thought to ask if there’s anything that could be done to make the communication process smoother. The three main issues raised were:

• Time-zone differences which may cause delays in replies.
• Receiving answers to questions that do not fully answer the question asked.
• Campaign approval time.

3. The last issue led us smoothly to the next question of how important is the account/campaign approval time for affiliate advertisers, to which 85% responded it’s of the highest importance.

4. That question was then followed up with an inquiry for how common is the issue of having your campaigns rejected by a traffic source. The answers state that:

• it’s not too common but does happen, indeed.
• happens mostly due to misunderstandings.

5. Next we’ve asked about the most common issues with payments processing, which clearly pointed at a service fee being too high (92% responses).


IV. Additional affiliate marketing tools

1. Naturally, starting with a question of who uses an affiliate tracker, to which the answer was quite unanimous.

2. Since affiliate ad trackers are not the only extra tools for making your business profitable, we asked about your other choices.

3. And, naturally, the source of your offers.

4. We also wanted to know how much advertisers are willing to invest in a new traffic source. Although with that question there wasn’t one winning answer, $500 seemed to work for most as an acceptable sum.

5. Next came the bidding process and a question of how our respondents calculate their winning bids. The answers can be summarized as follows:

• Testing RON campaigns starting slightly above minimum bids and going up or down from there.
• Based on the whitelisted and blacklisted sources and their bids.
• Traffic source recommendations.
• Traffic calculator and bid estimators.

V. Traffic source features

1. Since all traffic sources keep on delivering new features and improvements to their platforms, we asked our respondents to tell us how they usually find out about new additions.

2. Then we wanted to know the most cost/time/energy-saving features of their current traffic sources. The answers identified were:

• Auto-optimization tools
• Traffic estimators
• Being able to duplicate existing and tested campaigns/set-ups
• Whitelisting and blacklisting

3. We also asked if there are any features advertisers miss from their traffic source that would vastly improve the experience. We found out that the most wanted are:

• More auto-optimization features
• Fraud-detection tools
• Identifying top bids for current placements

4. The next question referred to the scale 1-5 of how easy it is to set up a campaign in the respondents’ current traffic source, which came out as easy for 85%.

5. We were also dying to learn the biggest pain-points of working with traffic sources, so we simply asked.

The top 3 challenges being:

• Traffic quality
• Lack of automation features
• Competition and high prices (usually due to tight competition).

6. Since whitelisting always seems to be a hot topic for advertisers when dealing with campaign optimization, we asked for the preferred way of obtaining such data.

• The answers came as 50/50 for receiving ready-made whitelists and advertisers creating them by themselves.

7. In the last question (yes, it’s the final one!) we asked advertisers to name 5 top qualities of their favorite traffic source. The most commonly mentioned items were:

• Quick approval and response time
• Converting traffic that makes money
• Big volumes of traffic
• Targeting options
• High-quality traffic
• User-friendly interface
• Auto-optimization tools

Conclusions

Again, we need to emphasize that every feedback is valuable. Especially when it's detailed and gives us a chance to learn more about advertisers’ experiences with traffic sources.

What the survey tells us is that:

1. Onboarding is crucial for advertisers of all levels of experience to make the most of any traffic source.
2. High-quality communication and support are a must — even if time-zones don’t allow for 24/7 support!
3. Auto-optimization tools are what makes affiliate advertisers happy!
4. Tracking & postbacks are essential for whitelist optimization.
5. Regular communication on traffic source development is welcome.

Naturally, these items are already thought to be essentials to making advertiser-traffic source cooperation fruitful, but it’s worth reminding nevertheless. In this way, we get confirmation that although many new features, tools and items have been developed throughout the year, there’s still a place and demand for more. Just as digital marketing is a thriving and buzzing business, so have to be the available tools to make it so.

Thank you all for participating and taking the time to provide us with valuable insights!

Magda