What Is Smartlink and How to Apply It in Traffic Arbitrage?

A referral link is a link to an offer with an identifier that allows you to determine which partner it is attached to. A smartlink is also a referral link, but it has several offers attached to it.

The easiest way to understand how a smartlink works is based on the user's geolocation. For example, an arbitrageur brings in traffic from all over the country. Geographically, visitors can be divided into three categories:

• City A;
• City B;
• The rest.

Accordingly, using smartlink visitors from City A will be redirected to Offer 1, from City B - to Offer 2, and the rest - to Offer 3.

Everything is in an automatic mode, you just need to set it up once.

From a technical point of view, this is possible thanks to the execution of a script in JavaScript. Thanks to this technology, a collection with a number of parameters is available. These are, for example, the operating system, browser, browser language, device, screen size and so on.

Thus, it is possible to select, for example, visitors from city B who use the Safari browser on an iPhone.

Benefits of Smartlinks in Traffic Arbitrage

Smartlinks provide incredible flexibility. An arbitrageur does not need to create a large number of landing pages and monitor a large number of traffic sources. They provide not only automation, but also time saving.

Deep analytics. With the help of smartlinks an arbitrageur can analyze the effectiveness of both traffic sources and different offers. 

Risk reduction. This is probably the most important parameter. For example, an arbitrageur is working with an offer that is designed to be targeted for all countries except the US. Instead of just screening out random users from the United States, he can redirect them to another offer that is allowed in that country.

Of course, smartlinking is kind of a forced measure. It is always better to carefully analyze traffic sources and forward to the offer only the target audience that initially shows interest in advertising.

How Do I Use a Smartlink?

First, you need to choose a platform where you can create smartlinks. There are many different options, such as Voluum, Binom, Thrive, RedTrack and others. With their help, you can create a smartlink and monitor analytics.

To make everything work properly, you need to define the rules by which traffic will be redirected. Do not hurry, because if you miss something, you can simply lose some of the traffic, sending it to the wrong offer. Segmentation is carried out by geography, operating system, device, geolocation, but it should not always be performed. It is up to the arbitrageur to decide whether it is worth it to go so deep into segmentation. Perhaps in some cases (for example, when it comes to an app for cleaning iPhone memory) it is reasonable to segment only by device type.

This is followed by choosing an ad network or other traffic sources, customizing and adding a smartlink to the ad.

How Do I Test the Effectiveness of a Smartlink?

In order to understand whether the use of smartlink is effective or not, it is mandatory to conduct testing. The following approaches will assist in this:

A/B testing of different offers, creatives and redirect rules. This will help to determine what actually works. Based on the data obtained, you can make changes to advertising strategies.

Prioritizing target audience segments. Smartlink will help you determine which users convert better into buyers, which will help you focus your efforts on that particular audience segment. For example, you might determine that UK users are the ones who are most active in installing the iPhone memory cleaner app. This in turn will help you make changes to your content and design creatives to further emphasize the pains of your target audience.

Define different key metrics. These are conversion rate, cost per conversion, ROI, clickability and others. Depending on the platform where you are creating smartlinks, other monitoring tools may be available.

Which Traffic Sources Are Better Suited for Working With Smartlink?

To answer this question, you need to initially understand why arbitrageurs use smartlinks. We know that the key to success in traffic arbitrage is to understand the pains of the audience. In this case, you can choose the most appropriate offer. This is what helps to understand what the essence and meaning of using smartlink is.

It becomes especially relevant when you have to work with large volumes of traffic and promote offers that have a global reach. 

Thus, we can distinguish the advertising formats for which it is best to use smartlink.

• Popunder - these are pop-ups. This is the easiest advertising format for a novice arbitrageur. Usually popunder ads have huge volumes of traffic all over the world, so you can't manage without segmentation to exclude untargeted regions or filter them competently using smartlink.
• Push notifications are an advertising format that mimics notifications from social networks, messengers and apps. Initially, users will have to provide their consent to receive this notification, which is generally a good thing as it expresses interest and willingness to read the marketing materials.
• Native Ads are ads that are integrated into content, which helps to make them feel unobtrusive and as effective as possible. Native ads evoke trust from users, plus they are able to attract the target audience due to their relevance to the content. But native advertising has a disadvantage: not all users who click the link may be interested in the promoted offer, so it is reasonable to use smartlink to segment them and redirect them to different advertising offers.
• Banner ads. A large number of subject-specific banners can be seen on websites and apps, with some of them targeting a global audience (e.g., selling cars or apartments). They are usually published on the sites of general topic media and other projects with high traffic. Banner advertising has flexibility, wide coverage, and the ability to target by interests and demographics, but smartlink simplifies these processes and offers even more precise and targeted segmentation.
• E-mail marketing. Database mailings are considered one of the most effective ways of marketing, as they provide direct contact with the audience. The use of smartlinks allows you to further divide the target audience and offer different groups of users different offers.

How Do Proxies Help to Work With Smartlinks?

In order to effectively use smartlinks and earn without worrying about the safety and security of your funds, it is crucial to not only manage your traffic, but also to ensure anonymity and security. Proxies allow you to hide your real IP address, protect yourself from IP blocking, and scale your campaigns by adding new IPs and increasing traffic volumes.

The best proxies for arbitrageurs are offered by KeyProxy. These are mobile proxies with uptime of 99.8% and speeds of 3-20 mpbs. It offers time-based IP changing, unlimited traffic, and HTTP(s) and SOCKS.

Conclusions

Smartlink is optional to use. But it is an effective and progressive technology that can't be avoided by those who work with large volumes of traffic or for other reasons need more accurate segmentation of the target audience.

Use smartlink and proxies from KeyProxy!