Buying traffic · also called pop-under, pop-up traffic, pops, PPV traffic
Pop traffic (pop-under)
Pop traffic is visits created when a website opens an advertiser's page in a new window or tab, usually behind the page the person was actually using.
With pop traffic nobody chooses to visit. A site, often a streaming or download site, opens the advertiser's page automatically when the user clicks anywhere. The buyer pays per thousand such page loads (CPM), which works out to a fraction of a cent per visit.
Pop traffic matters to search arbitrage mostly as a warning. Because the visitor did not ask for the page, there is almost no search intent. Any clicks that follow are disproportionately accidental or automated, and advertisers downstream see few sales. Feeds treat this as low-quality or invalid traffic, and feed policies generally do not accept ads being loaded in pop-up or pop-under windows.
Historically some operators mixed pop visits into better traffic to pad volume, a practice called traffic blending, and it is a classic reason for feed termination. A related format, domain redirect traffic, is sold by the same networks. The honest summary for a newcomer: the cheapest traffic on the market is cheap for a reason.
Think of it like this
It is like a leaflet slipped under your windscreen wiper while you were in the shop. You did not ask for it, and you will probably bin it without reading.
Related terms
Push notification traffic
Push traffic is clicks bought on browser or phone notifications sent to people who previously agreed to receive alerts from a website.
Domain redirect traffic
Domain redirect traffic is visitors who typed or followed a link to an unused domain and were automatically forwarded to an advertiser's page.
Traffic blending
Traffic blending is mixing cheap, low-quality or invalid traffic with good traffic so that the average looks acceptable and the bad part goes unnoticed.
Invalid traffic (IVT)
Invalid traffic is any click, search or ad view that does not come from a real person with genuine interest, whether caused by bots, fraud or honest accident.
Accidental click
An accidental click is a click on an ad that the user did not mean to make, usually because of where or how the ad was placed.