Article by Joey Babineau
Joey Babineau has been a full-time media buyer for over a decade. He runs an active YouTube channel, and is the owner of Powerhouse Affiliate, a web-based training platform for performance marketers.
Popunder ads can be an effective way to reach potential customers, as they are often more noticeable than other types of online advertising.
Popunder ads can also be used to target specific audiences. They can be customized to appear only to users who meet certain criteria, such as being in a certain country or region.
Affiliates can greatly benefit from this type of advertising since Popunder ads work really well with lead generation and CPA affiliate offers.
Why are Popunder ads good for lead generation?
Popunder ads are nothing new but they have become increasingly popular in recent years for affiliates in performance marketing especially.
There are a number of reasons why pop-under ads are popular. The most common reasons are the low cost per click in tier 1 and 2 countries and the leniency in advertising rules. Moreover, they are less intrusive than the popup ads that distract and interrupt users.
What are the top verticals for lead generation with Popunders?
It is no secret that many verticals work well in the popunder space. The most common types of offers generally are promoting in Dating, Sweepstakes, Finance, iGaming, Software/Utilities, and Entertainment products.
Just use any of the spy tools and you will find that many of the landing pages are using some type of “engagement tactic” to quickly get the users to interact.
Here is an example from one of my recent dating campaigns where I was collecting leads for a German dating website.
Using Adsterra, I was able to get this campaign profitable.
As you can see, the use of a survey with very simple questions works well. This is just one example of an engagement tactic.
To Contents ↑8 tips for better lead generation with Pupunders
1. Competitive intelligence
As mentioned above, the use of popular competitive intelligence tools will help you find new marketing angles and landing page ideas for your popunder campaigns. It also helps you to find suitable CPA offers that are working for others.
While there are not many spy tools that work specifically to popunders a lot of the promotional methods are very similar to what you will find on push and native ads. It should be very easy to find landing page examples using tools like Anstrex or Adplexity.
2. Develop unique angles based on your offers
There are many marketing angles that can be used when promoting a product or service however with popunder ads, you only have a split second to capture that user.
The most important thing is to find one angle that best suits your product or service, and then use it to your advantage.
For example, with Dating it is pretty easy to come up with angles. People are usually looking for singles close to their location. This means your landing page should really make people believe this is a local offer, so consider using a dynamic city insertion.
This is not as important when pitching products like online gaming or investments. Users don’t really need those services to be local. So for better success, try different approaches for different types of offers.
3. Super speedy interactive pages
In order to keep your visitor engaged it is important that your elements work extremely fast.
For example, in the survey page example above, when users click on a response, it does not load on a new page. It instantly loads a new question and keeps the user active. The same applies to games like the example below:
In the example, when the user clicks the spin wheel they stay on the same page as it spins and notifies them they are a winner. This type of approach is captivating but also very common.
Keep in mind that these approaches are ever-changing, and the marketers who get the most leads are the ones who come up with new ideas before everyone else burns them out.
4. Create a variety of ad versions
With popunder ads, your ads are your landing pages. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The only way to really know what will work best for your company and your products is to test, test, test.
For example if you are running a “Utilities” type of offer you might want to test different ways to deliver the same message without breaking the offer terms. Many BH affiliates use aggressive tactic like “You have a virus!” but this can be done more compliantly.
Rather than saying they have a virus try something like this:
Some things you might want to test include:
- Overall design of the page — keep everything above the fold
- Copy on the page
- Call to action on the page
- Images on the page
- Dynamic personalization
By testing different versions of your landing page, you can figure out what works best for your company and your products. You might be surprised by the results!
To Contents ↑5. Keep a close eye on your metrics early on
With popunder ads, you will immediately start seeing thousands of visits to your landing page. One thing I have found with this traffic type is that the quick flood of traffic makes it possible to start optimizing early on.
Some of the things you can immediately see are the landing page click-through rates, and publishers that are weighing heavy on delivery and even which operating systems are converting best for you.
By keeping an eye on these things early you can increase your odds of being profitable faster. Watch your metrics in your 3rd party tracker. Then, adjust your campaign on your traffic source to target what is proven to convert.
You should be able to identify a “control page” that becomes your best lander, and set that to run at 75% vs your test page at 25%.
6. Target CPA (in some cases CPM)
The bidding is definitely something you need to test on separate campaigns.
From my experience, the CPA target works well with easy Single opt-in offers (SOI.)
On Adsterra, you can choose from CPA or CPM.
As you start pitching more complex offers like double opt-in or sales offers, you should consider scaling to a CPM bid once you have identified what is working well in your other targeting options.
7. Test placements in separate campaigns depending on goals
Adsterra allows separating traffic to Mainstream vs Non-mainstream (or explicit.) You can also choose to select both in the same campaign.
In the dating example above my campaign performed better when running on Non-mainstream traffic. But in order to find this out, I had to separate the campaign and test each separately.
If your goal is to get leads at a specific CPA then definitely separate your campaigns based on important targeting options. This also includes countries and operating systems and bid strategies.
8. Don’t ask for too much
When using popunder ads for lead generation, the trick is to get the visitor to engage quickly.
If you want immediate leads, then the offer has to be quick and painless and, preferably, SOI.
If you plan to have an elaborate funnel, then you should really be using popunders as a top-of-funnel approach and either pixel the user or capture some minor info first, like an email or phone number.
Bonus tips for increasing engagement and lead gen on your Popunder ads:
- Popunders are all about engaging users before they close the browser window.
- There are many tricks that can be tested depending on your goals.
- Timers — these work well to catch attention and can be used effectively for eCommerce campaigns to promote coupons or sales.
- Personalization. This works well in my dating campaigns since I can personalize my pages based on user information such as city or country. Other info you can use is device type (this works well for security offers), browsers etc.
- Flash sales work well for branded offers where users are familiar with a product or service already and want to get the deal before it’s over.
- Surveys, spin games & scratch cards — are just examples of what works well in capturing users’ attention in niches like dating, gaming, finance, and more.
Hopefully, these tricks for getting more leads help you in your next campaign. Thanks for reading!