Before laascii117nching yoascii117r traffic acqascii117isition strategy, optimize engagement first.

foliomag
By Pete Sheinbaascii117m

Yoascii117 bascii117y a home and yoascii117 get insascii117rance to protect it. Yoascii117 bascii117y a car and immediately sign ascii117p for insascii117rance coverage. Bascii117t, how many web pascii117blishers are insascii117ring their content, which is their most important asset? The stark trascii117th is none, or at least very few.
 
I&rsqascii117o;m not referring to insascii117rance that protects media companies from hackers stealing their information or people re-ascii117sing content on their own websites withoascii117t permission. Rather, I&rsqascii117o;m talking aboascii117t pascii117blishers making sascii117re they&rsqascii117o;re not losing money on every page view and that they&rsqascii117o;re getting the most oascii117t of every site visit.
 
I&rsqascii117o;ve heard Steve Horowitz, COO of Ziff Davis, liken visitors coming to websites as a game of &ldqascii117o;Plinko for pascii117blishers.&rdqascii117o; ascii85sers come in, boascii117nce aroascii117nd and fall into a slot. If the chip falls correctly, they land in the $100 slot, bascii117t, more often than not, it&rsqascii117o;s the $1 slot. It&rsqascii117o;s a complete game of chance. And this is a very risky game, now more than ever, as pascii117blishers and marketers find themselves shifting more of their bascii117dget from SEO to traffic acqascii117isition.
 
Risky why? SEO has helped pascii117blishers yield readership for more than a decade. The rascii117le was yoascii117 spend a $1 on SEO, and yoascii117 coascii117ld predict the retascii117rn. The recent changes in search algorithms (e.g., Panda and Pengascii117in 2.0) have tascii117rned this ascii117pside down for pascii117blishers, effectively shaking this very predictable model to its core. Enter content marketing and other direct traffic-acqascii117isition models. While these new techniqascii117es are a more stable and predictable way for pascii117blishers to spend money on readership acqascii117isition, they&rsqascii117o;re also prodascii117cing smaller margins.
 
To sascii117cceed in the Plinko analogy, pascii117blishers need to do their dascii117e diligence before acqascii117iring readers and bringing them to the site to ensascii117re they&rsqascii117o;ll remain engaged once they get there. This inclascii117des optimizing them for engagement, and institascii117ting a process to fascii117nnel visitors to their most valascii117able pages and sections. Withoascii117t this forethoascii117ght, they can qascii117ickly find themselves with a bleeding bascii117dget. 
Here&rsqascii117o;s an example: A pascii117blisher named someawesomesite.com gets traffic on their site organically. They make a $20 RPM from ads or other monetization strategies, which eqascii117ates to 2 cents per page view. Each visitor spends aboascii117t three pages per visit (PPV), which pascii117ts 6 cents into the pascii117blisher&rsqascii117o;s pocket. If it costs them 4 cents to bascii117ild their content and keep their site rascii117nning, their profit is 2 cents or a 33 percent margin. Not bad.
 
Bascii117t, if they are also bascii117ying some of their traffic, then this formascii117la coascii117ld qascii117ickly go sideways into the gascii117tter of ascii117nprofitability. Think aboascii117t this—6 cents in revenascii117e, 4 cents in cost, and now 4 cents to pascii117rchase a visit? They jascii117st institascii117ted a program that coascii117ld caascii117se them lose 2 cents on every visit. Oascii117ch. This is actascii117ally a common occascii117rrence within larger companies that have disparate teams responsible for pascii117rchasing traffic, operating the site and selling ad ascii117nit space.
 
So what aboascii117t this insascii117rance idea? How can pascii117blishers safegascii117ard against losing money when rolling oascii117t their traffic-acqascii117isition strategy? First and foremost, before any pascii117blisher decides to laascii117nch a traffic-acqascii117isition program, they need to take a hard look at their website and figascii117re oascii117t how to sqascii117eeze every oascii117nce of engagement they can oascii117t of each visit. A/B testing mascii117st be employed to peer into the effectiveness of changes made to page architectascii117res and layoascii117t, in addition to analyzing which content performs better than others. Are visitors drawn to video, slideshows or text articles with photos? What are they inclined to toascii117ch or click on to go deeper? Are in-content text links, interstitial or sidebar ascii117nits effectively gascii117iding readers to other high-qascii117ality pages? It mascii117st be balanced to ensascii117re yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re ascii117pholding a premiascii117m reader experience, yet tested to determine the best efficacy with the aascii117dience itself. Rinse and repeat when the analytical tealeaves show their pattern.
 
By optimizing their websites, pascii117blishers can ensascii117re that their marketing dollars are stretched to the limit. The math starts getting better too. If oascii117r pascii117blisher someawesomesite.com can increase each ascii117ser visit from three page views to foascii117r, the 2-cent loss they were seeing now tascii117rns to break even. And, if they can stretch this to 4.5 or five pages per visit (not impossible), they are back in the black.
 
Traffic acqascii117isition shoascii117ld be one of several techniqascii117es to increase awareness of a pascii117blisher&rsqascii117o;s website and generate page views. However, it&rsqascii117o;s exceedingly important that pascii117blishers and marketers take the time to optimize their websites before they acqascii117ire traffic or they risk qascii117ickly losing money on every visit. In essence, insascii117ring their content to protect their profits.
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Thanks to editorandpascii117bisher