Playing the game of getting traffic from one or maybe two sources is a surefire way to fail in a landscape where unexpected changes can eliminate months of hard work in one fell swoop. The biggest cautionary tales are businesses who have thrown all their eggs into one basket, and that basket seemingly becomes unreliable or, even worse, astronomically priced overnight. The safest investors have figured this out. While others scramble to reallocate their budget and efforts to fix what’s broken, or lost, those who already had a stable portfolio barely felt the loss.
How Do You Value Your Traffic and Sources?
For as long as social and search networks have existed, they have operated peacefully to a point where businesses truly believed their current traffic-growth methods would last forever. Yet change is dynamic across all platforms. Facebook iOS 14.5 decimated conversion tracking, allowing an astonishingly low amount of audience impressions for any active ad campaigns (by time of creating a Facebook ad, observing its active/active reach, and losing time and money). Google constantly announces algorithmic updates that destroy previously strong SEO gains. Facebook costs are going up; TikTok’s regulations are down. You want to believe the graphics will forever be steady, but at any moment, an unexpected bomb drops, and the only answer is to scramble.
Things are becoming too drastic and too often. If it’s not a global pandemic, it’s a significant brand competitor that sways how these platforms operate. Or it’s regulatory agencies who gain power over control too, whatever it is, a risk is never assumed, for those who assumed great growth from highly trafficked channels are finally realizing they’re standing on thin ice.
Where is This Ice Thinnest?
Not all traffic sources have the same thickness to the ice. However, the thinner it becomes, the more educated marketers need to be about traffic-source vulnerabilities. The highest risk for leverage and vulnerability comes through social platforms, marketers don’t own their audiences; they merely rent them on Meta, Google and TikTok. The algorithms change seemingly daily, creating a situation where what reaches organics today could falter tomorrow without explanation or accountability.
Paid platforms similarly increase rates; while most advertisers understand the cost of living and time escalates competition costs over time, there’s no guarantee for acquisition-based scales years down the line. So what’s once an affordable platform could become ridiculously expensive as audiences become segmented due to new compliance regulations with privacy and platform selections.
SEO feels more tangential; however, while they don’t cross over into paid arenas at first, keyword rankings drop when algorithm updates reflect newer trends based on what no longer appeals to the masses. Those who use AI generating capabilities need to pay attention—real-world generating efforts trump algorithmic ones that pose vulnerabilities against these powerful security controls.
Developing a Diversified Traffic Response
It’s clear you need to diversify your traffic sources to ensure you can keep your heads above water when impact occurs. But developing a response isn’t as easy as switching gears. In fact, it’s about making sure your traffic comes from various channels/formats across the board—not merely a test run everywhere where investments will get lost in translation.
For example, assess how many major traffic sources currently account for more than 50% of your total traffic? There should be 3 major sources maintaining your overall appeal; otherwise, either one is jeopardizing your credibility or two is borrowing vulnerable platforms for subpar acquisition benefits. Research each source, you want reliable sources where you own most of the content that’s engaged with.
Traffic source involvement comes in three levels and risked categories:
- HIGH RISK—with no access to own the audiences involved (social media), constantly changing capabilities that funnel people into easy-to-use platforms without user discretion.
- MEDIUM RISK—either you’re dependent on someone else’s good graces (you own the channel but not necessarily the content to make it work—email marketing with compiled/owned lists requires quality audiences; SEO dependent on Google rankings means more educated decisions than mere efforts without testing/responsiveness).
- LOW RISK—dependable sources like word of mouth referral means you directly control the access/content/channel equity.
Ultimately, you want to get no more than 50% traffic from any major source you’ve identified and diversified throughout your growth/progression timeline.
Hidden Gems Worth Considering
Once you’ve established categories and where risk might be avoided better with alternative strategies, consider what sources might not seem obvious but have superior performance by not being widely sought after.
Display-ad networks allow for audience acquisition across thousands of platforms—even if one network’s payment protocol fails to pass, subsidiary channels might pick up the slack. Display advertising networks often rely on Google ownership, but this means less dependency on connection-based regulations.
For example, popunder traffic has been successful over time when advertisers boast strong visibility across countries that utilize Google-fueled resources but allow uniqueness within display advertising networks to appeal naturally. This opens up another tab behind whatever content users are looking for at guaranteed visibility, too many advertisers have found randomly beautiful results through popunder traffic populations because whatever intricacies occur within social media or search engines need not apply here.
Similarly, email is still one of the strongest platforms through which businesses can generate appropriate equity (you own the email distribution list—as long as you create value content). It builds upon retention through blogs and other entry forms to grab attention but ensures your list is valuable enough over time for audiences to stay engaged.
Content marketing is strong as well, a good SEO article will trump any algorithmic update as people dive deeper into the content itself instead of surface-level marketing campaigns that define paid equity. So blogging gives you real-world content over time that builds momentum/get’s better with content creation in addition to proper intros.
Testing these new approaches is crucial, not at once, but plenty of advertisers make the mistake of launching too soon without understanding nuance across multiple channels. To truly determine what’s optimal for new avenues, you need to assess what’s feasible compared to what can replicate previously successful results through excelled-related efforts.
Transitioning Between Multiple Sources
When connecting between channels without one definitive source, required organization increases (often without an organizational system), break down unified channels that can track performance across channels regardless of how many incidents occur per channel throughout your research/testing endeavors.
Standardized testing procedures are needed so that fair competition on one source is similarly applied to another source that’s been in play successfully for quite some time; any deviations are challenging to understand if this isn’t a regulated effort across all channels they’ve had fairness extended to before.
Budget allocation needs allowances too, even if some are unnecessary/new sources should not operate simultaneously since competitors eat up existing marketing resources, budget transparency must occur so those reliable champions/staples can continue bringing success and new additions should be given enough funding/freedom testing value before enough reliable data (and investment) brings results worthwhile.
The best channels which are owned (not rented) come as security nets over time, generally, your emails constitute an owned avenue you’ve built up from personal effort/steps over time with audience build-up tracking their permission along the way. Rented channels are third-party platforms that rely on your good graces/rules along the way, this means you have constant stabilization efforts championed on an international scale you need personal backups when agencies fail.
Develop Back-Up Solutions Before Crisis Strikes
Don’t create backups when they’re already switched off; this gives you ongoing equity before vulnerabilities become apparent; those who never have backups successfully implemented find themselves scrambling last minute when everything on their backup days fails, instead, reach out to multiple vendors/partners so if one presents complications, you’re equipped with another strong compromise solution rapidly approved with previous discussions made before.
Companies that expect traffic will always exist to neglect the reality that traffic sources require constant development, it’s not a project but a lifestyle over time that allows for active longevity development every step of the way garnering credibility statistics with consistent input results turning easily into links/publications.
When unexpected changes occur within unexpected sources, disrupting reliable equity gained over time based on hard work becomes too overwhelming. Don’t put yourself in a position where you have no choice but to fight against the tide. It’s easier to swim upstream from a calm position than play catch-up during hurricane-level efforts when nobody wins or has access left apart from established agencies promising red tape evolution efforts deeper than what’s easily accessible tomorrow without history involving even appealing relationships beyond immediate struggles noticed previously.
*This is a collaborative post
