Publishers searching for an answer to their traffic woes appear to be including deep pockets and purse strings as part of their search.
According to research by Similarweb, “media companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars every month to buy the search traffic they used to get for free,” with paid-search spend amongst publishers in its Top 100 index up 41% more YoY … and up 274% over the last 3 years.
(Photo Source: Adweek)
“The spending increase is more targeted than it might appear,” writes Adweek’s Mark Stenberg, “focusing on specific corners of digital publishing where the economics of buying traffic make sense.”
Paid-search traffic “climbed in tandem” with that spending, up 39% YoY and 148% over three years.
“The strategy is certainly not novel,” writes Stenberg, “as publishers have used paid ads and traffic arbitrage for years. Last November, executives at a Digiday Publishing Summit told attendees that they ‘need to get good at buying traffic, because that’s going to be essentially one of the biggest ways of getting traffic.’”