Traffic sources you might have overlooked

There might come a time when the best-known traffic sources will not be enough to reach your target audience. Or maybe it will be more prudent to invest your effort and budget into less popular sources than fight for the spotlight on Google, Facebook, or TikTok.

Today, we will take a look at some region-specific ad networks, messengers, and search engines that might be a better shot for ad campaigns targeting a narrower audience. Also, we will cover several traffic sources, such as Snapchat and Pinterest, that are well-known to affiliate marketers but still tend to be overlooked when it comes to media buying.

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Local traffic sources

Let’s take a look at local traffic sources that have all chances of elevating your ad campaigns. Here we have a breakdown of sources by three big regions: Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Before you start, there is one important matter you must consider if you wish to work with smaller local traffic sources: the payment options. Make sure to research the available options beforehand: cryptocurrencies, e-wallets, wire, or virtual cards. Also, pay special attention to the transaction fees and payment terms as they can differ between networks.

Advertising platforms

Europe

• Content Exchange is a native ad network that monetizes customizable widgets.
• EasyPlatform this platform is mainly used by people in Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia. The main ad formats — HTML5 banners (interactive or static) and native ads. 
• Etarget operates in Central and Eastern Europe and focuses on such verticals as sports, automotive, travel, and medical (this is not an exhaustive list).
• Midas Network is a native ad network that is popular in Croatia. Midas Network serves 10+ bn monthly recommendations and has a reach of 6 million users.

Asia

• AdvertNative is a platform that works with news websites and is popular in Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.
• Dable and Popin are two Asian platforms that work with native ads.
• Macaw is a pan-Asian multi-vertical native platform that works predominantly with publishers from Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Yengo is a teaser network that servers 20 bn ads impressions every month.

Africa

• AdFalcon is an ad platform for the MENA region, serves mobile Rich Media ads.
• EngageYa — a North African native ad network that serves somewhat 40 bn impressions per month. The main focus — health and beauty products.
• Jubna is a native ad network from the UAE with 25 bn monthly impressions.
• NG Adverts is an ad platform that will be a great choice for campaigns targeting users from Nigeria.
• Speakol — native ad network that serves ads to users from the MENA  region as well as Arab States of the Gulf.

Social networks

• XING —  is a German social platform for professional networking similar to LinkedIn. XING is also popular in Switzerland.
• Viadeo — is another social network for professionals, only this time is it French. The audience of Viadeo is about 17 million users.
• Netlog is a social network for users from Belgium, mostly for younger people. Currently, the platform is merged with Twoo, another network from the same holding, and now it is more of a “find more friends” and dating website.
• Weibo or Sina Weibo is a Chinese social media platform that is focused on microblogs, similar to Twitter.

Messengers

• WhatsApp owned by Meta is more popular than Facebook Messenger in the CIS region, the UK, India, Singapore, the states of Asia-Pacific, and some Latin American countries such as Brazil, Chile, and Argentine. The app is available in 53 languages and has about 2+ billion active users.

• Viber is another messaging application that is popular in the Eastern Europe, also in Iraq, Libya, and Nepal. This app has some 260 million monthly active users.
• LINE is a popular messaging app from Japan. LINE had 178 million active monthly users from Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand in 2021. The app is available in 250 countries.

• WeChat — a messenger from the Chinese IT giant Tencent. It is the main messaging app in China, also popular in India, Latin America, and Hong Kong.

Search engines

• Ananzi — a search engine for users from South Africa and African business. Allows searching for general information, employment, automobiles, and property.
• Baidu — the most popular search engine in China. It holds about 63.56% of the Chinese market, allows for text, video, and image ads.
• CocCoc is a search engine for users from Vietnam. 
• Naver — the “Korean Google”, in South Korea it is more popular than Google and Yahoo. 
• Sogou is the second most popular search engine in China. Mostly shows content in Mandarin, offers text ads, banners, and branded search queries.

Overlooked social platforms

Twitter

This microblog platform has been around since 2006 and has attracted 229 million daily active users. The audience is 71.2% male and 28.8% female. Most users come to find news or entertainment, fewer choose Twitter for networking and following brands. Twitter is mostly used in the United States (77.75 million active users), Japan (58.2 million), India (24.45), Brazil (19.05 million), and the United Kingdom (19.05 million).

The main available advertising formats include:

• Image Ads
• Video Ads
• Carousel Ads
• Moment Ads — a collection of Tweets.
• Text Ads — sponsored Tweets.
• Collection Ads — one main  image that remains static and five thumbnails beneath.

Snapchat

This entertaining platform may have seen its ups and downs, but still has over 332 million daily active users globally. The app is most popular among people in the United States (106.2 million users), France (24.1 million), the United Kingdom (20.1 million), and Saudi Arabia (19.7 million). The audience is 54.4% female. Also, Snapchat it more popular among people from 15 to 25 y.o. (48% of users) and 26-35 y.o. (30%).

Snapchat offers the following ad formats:

• ‎Single Image Ads
• Video Ads
• ‎Story Ads — a series of 3–20 Single Image or Video Ads.
• Collection Ads — four tappable tiles with multiple products.
• Commercials — video ads up to 3 min in length, impossible to skip for the first 6 seconds.

Pinterest

This visual discovery engine for finding ideas is ranks 14th among the most popular social networks and has 433 million monthly active users worldwide. According to Pinterest, users mostly search for non-brand-related information (97% or queries) and come back for more inspiration in 85% of cases. The audience is balanced: 60% female, 40% male users. Also, the platform reports that the share of gen Z users (roughly 30 y.o.) grows by 30% every year.

The ad formats cover:

• Static images
• Animated images
• Video Pins
• Max. width video pins — videos that take up two columns of the feed.
• Carousel Pins — Pins that contain several images.
• Collection Pins — posts with up to 3 products.
• Idea Pins — a set of videos, lists, or texts.

Conclusion

Diversifying your traffic sources to include local or less popular platforms can be an opportunity for growth and development. Regional traffic sources have better reach of specific audiences, as well as a deeper understanding of local peculiarities (both legal and cultural). Specialized platforms such as Snapchat or Pinterest may have a smaller audience than TikTok, but they also feature less stringent moderation (even with strict content policies) and lower competition from fellow marketers. Venture out to conquer new traffic sources, while the Yep Ads team supports your endeavors!