Do Pops Still Work in 2020? Q&A with Experts

Introduction

Some will say that pop ads are too annoying. But isn’t it one of a few ways to overcome banner blindness and succeed in the world where advertising is everywhere?

Popunders’ advantages speak for themselves: low prices and huge traffic volumes, which definitely makes them still alive in 2020. And now it’s one of the easiest formats for converting.

The RichPops team has asked the affiliate marketing experts on how to gain profits with this format, and, especially:

• What challenges you may face and how to avoid common pitfalls.
• How to choose an offer for your pop ads campaign.
• How to choose the right GEO.
• Tips on landing pages for popunders, and more.

Launch Pop Ads

Challenges and Mistakes

Pop ads are believed to be a good option to start with thanks to their low bids. So in the first place, we asked the affiliate marketers what challenges of pop campaigns they faced and how they dealt with them.

Luke Kling, the founder of affLIFT, says the largest obstacle may be the format itself.

As people don’t really expect to see a popunder you need to have a landing page that can quickly catch their attention before they close the window.

He also adds that one of his common mistakes was setting up inaccurate targeting settings.

With a pop campaign, traffic can come in really quick so it’s essential to double-check your settings before the campaign’s launch not to blow your budget on a wrong device, for example.

The RichPops experts recommend setting extended targeting options like GEO, OS, Device, Browser language, New subscribers, and more depending on your goals for a smarter budget spending.

In turn, Nick Lenihan, an affiliate media buyer for 8+ years, is sure that one of the most serious problems with pop ads is receiving a lot of bot traffic. But there are solutions for that.

You can set up so-called bot traps on your landings or use solutions provided by many trackers.

Built-in anti-fraud solutions of ad networks are also becoming quite common.

They are aimed at detecting sources with bot traffic and their immediate ban.

Affiliate marketer with 7+ years experience Servando Silva thinks it’s hard to find a really good offer sometimes.

The reason is that the offer needs to perform well with this particular traffic, to have a profound back end payout, or else the campaign will be stopped.

With KJ Rocker who is a full-time performance marketer and mentor, we also talked about his first mistakes.

Some of them included launching pop ad campaigns without any advance research, not focusing on one vertical, and expecting immediate success.

Colin Dijs is a founder of Dijs University, and at the start, he recommends avoiding spending too much too fast.

It’s best to keep slow and steadily work with a 3-day average on earnings.

Test Recommendations

Offers and GEOs

Despite the fact that pops can work in all GEOs, obviously, cultural and educational
differences may have an impact on the success of a particular offer.

So, our affiliate marketing experts shared their approaches on how to choose GEOs and offers properly.

KJ Rocker suggests asking an ad network manager for offers or verticals working best and then check what offers your affiliate network can give you.

Alternatively, you can take unique offers that are promoted not so often.

Servando Silva like many other professionals, in order to validate the data, prefers to check any spy tool like AdPlexity.

This way, you’ll find out which verticals and landings are being launched at the moment.

Speaking of particular verticals working best with popunder ads, we’ve developed the ultimate list from the answers we’ve got:

• Sweepstakes
• Casino
• Dating
• Gambling
• Apps
• Adult

The secret is simple: all of these verticals are mass appealing which with necessary for pop ads. And basically, you need to remember “what you are selling and who you are selling to.”

As for the GEOs, the views varied. For example, KJ Rocker says that if you have a unique offer (far from so-called proven ones), Tier 3 countries can convert perfectly, and they have huge volumes.

Colin Dijs agrees that Tier 2 and Tier 3 countries work well due to relatively low costs and good conversion rates, with Sweepstakes as the most relevant vertical.
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On the contrary, Nick Lenihan prefers Top Tiers because generally, campaigns can be scaled more here, although all tiers can do well to some extent.

All in all, Tier 2 and 3 stand out by the huge traffic volumes and can be easier to work with. Tier 1 is often a choice by more experienced marketers: it’s often associated with less traffic and more complex conversions.

Run Pop Ads

Landing Pages

When it comes to landing pages, there are some points you need to pay attention to: how to choose a host for them, how they should look like to convert well, and if to make a pre-lander or not. We collected quick tips from our experts as well below.

Landing pages should load fast, be simple, engaging and if possible, also make the user take action right away, Servando Silva says. To make landers load as quickly as possible, use a CDN or locate them close to the location you’re targeting.

Most direct linked campaigns on pop traffic are much more difficult to make profits with. It’s easier to make more money with a pre-lander or simply spend less money while testing because they can give you more information about the traffic.

Alternatively, Luke Kling prefers to just direct link good offers due to the time limits he has. But if you are a full-time affiliate marketer or want to be, building pre-landers is more recommended. You can use PureLander to start.

When you get a lot of traffic fast your server may get slow and kill your conversions, and these services help to avoid the problem.

One of the best strategies for pop landing pages is gamification because it gets the user engaged.

Aggressive landing pages can also work well, but not all traffic sources will allow you to use them.

Nick Lenihan thinks a VPS close to the targeted GEO sometimes may be slightly faster. Though, it takes efforts and time to set up.

Simple pages that have a clear call to action without the user having to scroll can work great.

Interactive pages (quizzes, survey, spin wheel, etc.) are also very effective for sweeps even if the offer pages already have these elements.

That’s not all the tips about running pop ads that we’ve put together. Once you learn more about all the pitfalls at the start, you can move to a detailed campaign setting, advanced testing strategies, and optimization.

All of these are topics which were discussed further with even more affiliate marketing experts and reflected in the free e-book dedicated to making a marketer’s life easier.

Learn more, test recommendations, and get profits with RichPops. To launch pop ads, start here!