Whether you’re just starting in the affiliate marketing business or you’re an old hand who could preach the subject, have you ever actually wondered where the heck does domain redirect traffic come from? Well, now you don’t have to. We here at Zeropark got you covered.

Answering this question needs some professional insight — publishers, domain owners, regular domains, parked domains, domain parking services… well, as similar as it all sounds, there are some crucial differences that come handy for every clever affiliate to know of.

Who are publishers and domain owners (domainers)?

If you want to know who the publishers are, and what their role in the whole process is, then it’s not just pure curiosity, it’s sanity — you’re betting your money on it after all. A publisher, before being fully entitled to cooperate with an ad exchange like Zeropark, needs to go through detailed verification and approval process. This is to ensure high-quality service and avoid any fraudulent attempts. Ad exchanges (platforms facilitating the buying and selling of ad inventory) aggregate ad traffic from many sources — ad networks. The two main feed types in the case of domain redirect traffic are XML/JSON/OpenRTB or Domestic/Redirect URL feeds.

When it comes to domain owners, as the name rightfully suggests, they’re the clever folks who either came up with some brilliant and catchy domain name and registered it first, or the ones who later bought it. Domain owners may create and keep their domains for various reasons. It’s sort of like real estate — you buy a cheap parcel outside of a town that everybody thinks is miles away from any kind of civilization, and a couple of years later people are dying to get into that neighborhood. The clever investor gets to enjoy drinks by the pool while thinking about his next plans to take over the world. 

A domain owner may buy and keep their precious, or not yet so precious, domain for multiple purposes. They may already have a vague idea of how they want to use it in the future, and so they keep it ‘parked’ for later use and development … or pure monetization. In this way, they make sure nobody’s gonna snitch it right from under their noses. Also, parking domains with URLs similar to well-known brands or well-searchable phrases is a good practice if you’re looking for highly targeted traffic. This makes ‘misspelled’ domains ready for use and able to perform right away, as whenever a user types in a misspelled URL they might get redirected to your page.

What are parked domains? 

Allow us to give you some handbook explanations — you know us well, we do love glossaries. So what’s worth remembering?

• Domain: name/address of a page which links/directs users to a particular website.
• Parked domain: having a domain name already registered with a domain registrar, yet not linked to any particular hosting service (email or website). It is as if paused and waiting to be used later — parked. Also, this prevents cybersquatting or may serve ad traffic monetization. 
• Domain registrar: a company responsible for managing reservations of/selling Internet domain names. 
• Hosting service: a website’s ecosystem needed for the page to actively exist. Such ‘hosting space’ can be bought from hosting providers.
• Domain parking: can easily be done ourselves. Invest in unlimited web hosting (it only costs a few dollars a month), then assign the domain to an account on your hosting service. It is possible to include some info about the domain so as to make your audience aware of what might be expected. Monetization is optional. If we park domain ourselves, we get to control and oversee the whole process, which may be a better option if we plan on utilizing the domain at a later stage.
• Domain parking service: once we parked a domain, but don’t have time to monetize it ourselves, trying out a domain parking service is a good idea. The service monetizes the domain traffic for us, so it’s easy and effortless income. The downside is the fact that in such cases we have little control over what happens to our page, which may result in risking the domain image.

So, we’ve already established that registering a domain name before having specific plans or ideas for a website’s content is good practice. It keeps the domain name reserved for later use without the risk of losing the particular name to another domain owner; may turn out to be profitable if sold, or generate profit through ad traffic monetization.

What is domain redirect (zero click) traffic?

As we already know who provides us with the traffic and where it comes from, let us answer the question – What is zero click traffic?

With Domain Redirect Traffic (also domain redirect or zero click traffic) users get redirected to a given page (landing pages mostly or directly to an offer) via redirects triggered by users themselves. When a user types in an unused/parked domain URL (for example by misspelling) in the address bar of a browser, as the website loads, a real-time bidding (RTB) auction among the advertisers begins. The user immediately gets redirected to the highest bidder’s advertised website, with the entire process taking less than a second. 

The reasons affiliate marketers all around the world choose to buy domain redirect traffic include its speed, low-cost, scalability and the fact it is simply easy to set up. Again, there’s no need for you to be a domain owner yourself — Zeropark provides the supply for an affiliate like you. All that’s left is to make use of it.

How do publishers connect with Zeropark?

Now we can talk about how to use the resources and knowledge we have and put it into practice. If you’re looking for ways to monetize your domain or somebody else’s, as you do not need to be a domain owner yourself to get into the traffic network business, Zeropark offers you a smooth solution. If you’re interested in Zeropark domain traffic monetization, here’s a  brief explanation of how publishers can do that.

Integration can be done via XML, JSON, OpenRTB or Domestic/Redirect URL. It has to be remembered that Zeropark works only with verified and trustworthy publishers so as to ensure high-quality traffic. 

See our documentation to find out more details. It’s also crucial to send all the parameters correctly, so Zeropark Account Managers can match the traffic source with the right demand. They need either the correct domain name or domain id, though both would be preferred. For Domain, only a CPV (cost-per-visit) model is possible. 

The system will then generate a unique feed id, which has to be used to send us traffic. If you do not want to allow certain ad content, do let the AMs know! In the Zeropark panel, you can track the number of requests sent, number of impressions, clicks, and payout. If API reports are needed, let the AMs know so they can activate them for you.

Read The Ultimate Guide To Domain Redirect Advertising Here!

10 Steps to Displaying Your Zero Click Ad

The question of how it actually happens that a person approaching a search bar ends up on the page you want them to see may be answered in the following 10 steps to … and yes, affiliate’s journey to an ad impression is much easier than Dorothy’s stroll down the yellow brick road.

How to target specific URLs and Keywords in Domain Redirect Ads?

Now that we’re almost there, the Emerald City of $$$ lies ahead and all you, as a clever affiliate, have to do is to set up the right targeting for your campaign. There are many tricks to get the best out of it, depending on the ad exchange platform you use.

At Zeropark we offer you four traffic targeting options. They are available after selecting the traffic type during the campaign creation process. Not all options are available for each traffic type, though with domain traffic all four (RON, Target/Source, Keyword, Multi-Geo) are possible to go with. 

Target/URL is a single traffic placement — A publisher’s particular website, where each publisher’s domain may be a different target. By running RON campaigns, you’re able to distinguish the best performing targets (meaning websites) for your campaign. Thus, target campaign requires submitting the list of site URLs or hashes of top-performing targets (placements) that you have identified from your keyword and/or RON campaigns. 

The same goes for KEYWORD targeting — you shouldn’t aim at everything, only the keywords (be it long-tail keywords, domain names, misspelled URLs, etc.) that are relevant to the particular domain, in order to match the content of your ads as closely as possible. 

With the domain traffic ad campaign we recommend going for Target(URL) and Keywords due to the very nature of the traffic. Thanks to those, you are able to select best performing URLs and keywords that match the content of your ads with the place they’ll be shown. By understanding where the traffic comes from, we believe you will be able to make the most of it, without wasting your time and resources in places that are not fully worth it. Once you wrap your head around it, it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to recreate such campaigns in the future. 

To set up proper targeting when creating your domain redirect campaign in Zeropark, select New Campaign and Domain as your traffic type. There you have four targeting options. So, as recommended, go for Target/Source (and then choose Target again) or Keyword. 

1. After completing your selection, you will be directed to the Campaign setup interface. Here you can specify a Campaign name, the desired Country and the value for the Bid (per visit).
2. Set up advanced Traffic Filters. Click on the Show tab to view the available parameters. You can choose between browser, OS and mobile device type.
3. Set the Frequency Filter — the filter allows you to cap how often an ad is shown to a single visitor. The default setting is one visitor per IP/ user agent combination per hour.
4. Set the Visitor Type (Adult/Non-Adult). Select Adult for adult-only traffic or Non-Adult for non-adult only traffic. Both can be checked; however, in this case, make sure that the lander does not contain any adult content.
5. Select when a campaign will be active (which days and hours).
6. Enter your destination URL, which will define where traffic will be sent.
7. After selecting from the options and filters Zeropark offers for campaign creation, click Save and continue.

Depending on the targeting you chose to pursue, complete the action in the following way. 

If targeting by TARGETS/URL:

• You will receive a notification that: Your campaign has no active targets so you will not receive any traffic. Please add targets to start receiving traffic. Paste all high-conversion targets identified by the RON campaign in the window and click the Add targets button to save changes. When done select the Save button. 

If targeting by KEYWORD:

• Enter keywords to be targeted, you can bulk add keywords, also use domain names as keywords — these do not need to be single words only, domain name keywords may be a perfect way of driving traffic and targeting potential users. When done select the Save button.

The zero click advertising campaign with the targeting of your choice is now fully set up and awaiting approval by the Zeropark compliance team. 

Have YOU mastered the zero click advertising class?

We are happy to see you here with us. It means you figured out where domain redirect traffic comes from — from the moment of domain creation to user redirection. Again, there’s no need for you to be a domain owner yourself — ad exchanges provide that supply for affiliates. One needs to know where the most profitable traffic awaits, buy domain redirect traffic, and make the best choices for your zero click campaigns. All that’s left to do now is to make use of it.

Check out Zeropark’s Domain Redirect Traffic

Kinga Gawron