SmartLink Best Practices: 5 Examples From Monetag Publishers
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Direct Links (SmartLinks) are one of the easiest ways to start monetizing your traffic — at least because they don’t even require a website! You can share a Direct Link in your social networks or forums without any extra effort.
However, if you want to make the most of this ad format, you should think of ways how you can motivate users to interact with ads a bit more. And this is where a content website or a simple landing page can help.
What should be on these websites and landing pages, though? How do you get users to engage enough to want to follow the link and interact with what’s offered?
Our publishers shared some of the best examples of what they do.
Engage Users With Super-Bright Content
Content websites are classics of traffic monetization — but this content must be really worth seeing some ads. Here is one example:
Such publishers regularly post unique articles but stay consistent with the topics — this one, for example, is dedicated to gadgets and tech novelties.
Where is the SmartLink?
It can be added to the ‘Read More’ buttons — not in every post, but some of them will open the ad pre-lander first, and only the second click will lead to the article. Some publishers add these links to the articles’ headers.
Why does it work?
The articles have engaging banners and previews — so users are inspired enough to click the ‘Read More’ button twice. And, the Direct Link’s nature implies a user gets the most relevant offer — so there is a big chance they will also be motivated to convert, bring profit to an advertiser, and increase your CPM rates.
Another popular option is a news website — and if you keep posting fresh news or, say, add push notifications to remind users of your content, your Direct Links will also perfectly fit in the post headings.
Create Lists and Rankings
This one is about hotel booking — but it’s not another standard lodging search engine. Instead, the publisher creates articles with hotel selections on various topics: top pet-friendly hotels, the best ten beautiful hotel options in Phitsanulok, etc. Besides, there are some travel articles and news.
What is peculiar about this website is that Direct Link appears only in its mobile version. The desktop site doesn’t have any ads: it is used only for better organic growth via Google Search.
At the same time, the publisher knows that mobile traffic brings him the best monetization results and successfully integrates Direct Links to the mobile version of his site.
Where is the SmartLink?
The links are natively added to particular places inside the posts and are only available for mobile users.
Why does it work?
The ‘Top-10’ rankings are popular searches in Google, so the website has great organic traffic with already engaged users, and Direct Link’s offers are relevant for most of the visitors.
Motivate Users With Rewards
What can engage people more than a chance to win something, especially when they need to do just a couple of simple actions for this? Here is a very popular and evergreen strategy that only requires a landing page with your raffle rules.
For example, this publisher created a landing page where he offered a user to fill out a survey and become a raffle participant in return.
Where is the SmartLink?
It is added to one or several of the survey buttons. When a user clicks, say, Yes or No, a Direct Link offer opens in a separate browser window. The main concern is not to overdo it and prevent a user from going mad with too many ads.
Why does it work?
Pretty obviously, a reward is one of the most motivational things. However, you must stay fair to users: your story won’t last long if you just promise and never send any gifts.
This workflow is enough for successful monetization, but you can go further. For example, this publisher also monetizes his app with the same survey landing page. In his case, it’s the last step of the survey:
Finally, you can invest a bit more and boost your page visits: offer users a gift for sharing the link at messengers or social networks:
Give Them Some Fun
An alternative to a survey is a quiz or a fun test. Something like this:
The idea is the same: you add a Direct Link to one of the buttons — for example, the last one, which is ‘Get the Result.’
Again, you can encourage users who passed your quiz to share their results on social networks and messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram). This way, you will attract more people to your website — so do your best to make the results look relatable, hilarious, or even crazy enough to share them.
Get the Most Out Of Website Forms
Suppose you organize or promote an event or have any other form users should submit to your website or landing page. Make it work for your earnings — add a direct link to the Apply button:
Where is the SmartLink?
In the Submit Form button.
Why does it work?
Users will definitely click this button if they fill out a form, so you are sure they will see the ad from Direct Link.
To Sum Up
The more you engage your users, the higher CPM rates you receive when showing them Direct Link ads. It happens because people motivated by some rewards, entertainment, or useful content are more likely to take action and convert.
Just a couple of final tips:
- Be careful and don’t overwhelm users with Direct Link or any other ads
- If you share your Direct Links or websites on social media or some messenger groups or channels, make sure you follow all the rules of these groups
- And, the last but not least —
