Many companies fail to notice they’re dealing with a traffic issue until it becomes critical. Whether due to a sudden algorithm change, an ad account suspension, or even just a poorly timed product launch, it’s extremely common for nearly half of a company’s revenue to disappear literally overnight. And since there are rarely any obvious signs of this issue occurring (aside from the last-minute panic as it does), the problem quietly destroys the business from the inside out.
The Single Point Of Failure Problem
A major update from Google could nullify years of SEO efforts within days. Missing a Facebook snippet in a policy violation – or receiving a perceived violation, conflicting signal, or some other vagary – can halt an account with thousands in spend just like that. These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re part and parcel of running a modern business. And invariably the most painful hits are taken by companies that spend almost all their acquisition budget in one place.
That’s the single point of failure issue. It’s the same reasoning that’s used for supply chains and financial portfolios: the more you concentrate something, the more fragile it becomes. DTC companies are particularly susceptible to feeling it because, unlike the old guard, they only have one channel to depend on for access in the first place.
That also means they have no revenue buffer when something goes wrong. And while it might sound grandiose, one algorithm shift can and has sunk companies. They’ve popped up seemingly every week over the past year, in fact.
Balancing High-Intent and High-Volume Traffic
All web traffic doesn’t have the same value. So a reasonable media mix should take that into account. For instance, “high-intent” traffic – that is, people looking for exactly the product you’re selling – tends to convert well. However, it’s expensive and can make up only so much demand. “High-volume” traffic – for instance through display and pop formats, or programmatic ads – typically has a lower CPM but, since it’s a top-of-funnel approach, it requires a more general message.
Both are essential: search-based channels are great for letting “high intent” traffic find you, “high-volume” acts as a way to create demand for your products.
Multi-channel strategies typically have a 250% better engagement rate than single-channel ones (Wolfgang Digital). The reason is simply that different people spend their time in different places. If yours is a paid strategy, you’ll want to be in each of those places.
The right question here isn’t “Which channel works best?” as per the last-click model, but more “Which role does each channel play?” Often, a channel meant to bring you to your next customer is excluded when its discovery role doesn’t show up in the final numbers. But there’s no doubt you are missing out if you decide to switch it off.
Finding Cheaper Reach With Alternative Ad Formats
Ad fatigue is a common issue every marketer faces. When a specific audience is exposed to the same type of ad over and over again, its engagement toward the ad decreases substantially. This results in the decrease of return on ads spend (ROAS) and increase in the cost per action (CPA).
The same principle applies to any ad format. Running the same display, video, or search ad for months will lead to ad fatigue making your target audience oblivious to your ad. Given that search engine and social media platforms are the biggest competitors out there and ads on these platforms might cost a fortune, a winning solution might be to explore popunder traffic advertising and other ad formats not many competitors use.
A Framework For Testing Without Overcommitting
An appropriate budget allocation for traffic testing is generally 70/20/10. 70% is spent on channels with a track record – you know the cost to acquire a customer and that hasn’t changed much recently. 20% goes to a couple of channels that you’re intentionally scaling up because the preliminary results suggest they’re strong performers. 10% is for experimental stuff – brand new networks, brand new ad types or channels, things where you can’t even measure impression share.
That 10% is how you escape your local maximum. But you don’t want to spend enough that failing tests brings down your whole acquisition house of cards. The key discipline here is patience. New traffic sources almost never perform as well as established ones in the first 30 days. The benchmark shouldn’t be “did this beat our best channel immediately” but “does the trend suggest this is worth moving into the 20% bucket.”
Landing Pages Are Not Optional Infrastructure
Having diverse sources of traffic is great, but it’s not enough. It won’t generate growth or positive ROI if all those streams of visitors are feeding into a single, non-optimized destination. A homepage can’t possibly be exactly right for everyone you want to attract. They’ll all bounce and wonder what your ad was thinking.
Each entry point needs a tailored landing page. A visitor arriving from a display ad has no context. Someone coming from a retargeting campaign already knows the brand. Someone from a search ad typed a specific query. Sending high-volume traffic to a generic page wastes the spend – not because the channel was wrong, but because the landing experience didn’t match the visitor’s starting point.
One dedicated landing page per traffic source or campaign type isn’t excessive. It’s the minimum that makes diversification actually work.
Build The Redundancy Before You Need It
Diversifying your sources of traffic helps protect your revenue stream. You should invest in building and nurturing different traffic sources before it’s too late. After your primary source dries up, the cost and effort of getting others flowing will skyrocket. It’s not impossible, but a well-diversified portfolio takes time to build.