Ad exchanges. Your thoughts?

[DavidLG]

Hello, all! 

Looking to get some opinions on ad exchange apps. The ones available in the Shopify store have several thousand users between them, so I figure they may be on to something.  Just started experimenting with Varinode, but not really feeling it yet. Love the idea, but my biggest gripe is the ads themselves, that can be a bit off-brand or link me to poorly designed websites.

Anybody have experience with these? Appreciate you sharing. 

[SarahAtCarro]

Hi David, 

I would not recommend ad exchanges. For every ad that you allow on your site, you are running the risk of losing traffic to this ad when potential customers click away from your site. Also, I've found that the only businesses that use these are poorly designed, and scrambling for sales. Definitely would not recommend it. Instead, you can install an ad serving plugin and work to find partners. Yes, it will take a little bit longer to find these partners, but you can hand-pick the content that they display on your site. For example, a sock company could pair with a shoe company for ads, a tech accessories business could partner with the tech seller, etc. It would take longer to setup, as you'll have to write up contracts and pitch to other brands, but it is definitely a solid strategy for growth.

This would allow you to close the loop on the customer's entire shopping experience by offering related products that complement your catalog. 

[Felicia_Nguyen]

Hello @DavidLG ! Thank you for voicing your concerns and put up an interesting topic.

First of all, for ad quality, a good traffic app should allow you to block ad categories that you don't want to show up on your site - say if you have a fashion store and you don't want ads in the same niche, you should be able to block that category.

The worry of poorly designed website is very real, too. But I doubt that if the owner does not bother to care about their store, they would not make an effort to create appealing ads that get clicks either. Traffic app help with impression, but whether the visitors click on the ad or not still depend on the ad content - like any other ad platform.

The majority of merchants I work with really care about their webs. Below is one of the legitimate store using our Instant Traffic ad exchange. It does not look bad at all, does it?

It's true that a large number of stores joining ad exchange are of small and medium size. But that is one of the very reason they join ad circle: to help each other out at no cost. That being said, shops with great budgets still consider ad exchange because the traffic from this source is of higher quality: these are visitors willing to at least browse so you don’t have to try to get their attention from whatever they are doing.

Since the best of traffic app comes with free plan, may I suggest you give it a try? 

Hope that helps address your question.