9 Ways Declining Traffic Kills Revenue.

80% of publishers saw search traffic decline in 2023.

The publishing landscape is in flux. Algorithm shifts, AI, and Google updates are creating more headaches than a migraine clinic for publishers.

And it's not just news publishers. Coupon sites, content sites, review sites, and many others are all losing traffic.

Danny Goodwin from Search Engine Land says "Google's search results are dominated by big brands. SEOs for smaller sites are complaining. It's like 2003 all over again."

Arc XP partnered with Digiday to survey 115 publishers to understand how they've been affected by shifts in search and referral traffic within the past year, and what they expect will happen in the future. 

They found that most publishers have experienced a significant drop in search and referral traffic

Click here to read the report.

How does declining search impact publisher revenue?

There are 3 ways to make money from readers.

1. You get more readers - more traffic.

2. You make your readers worth more - if you run ads that means higher CPM's, or increase subscriptions.

3. Or you make them visit your site more often - increase loyalty, repeat traffic, drive habit forming behaviour.

Naturally, if you depend on ads, and you have less traffic, then you earn less money.

There's a saying: your website is like your house, you own the land. But Google owns the property around and they decide who comes in and out of your house.

If you revenue is dependent search results and Google pulls the plug, you're in trouble.

Publishers that rely on advertising, or affiliate marketing rely on traffic. When search engines and social media sites stop driving traffic then you start losing money.

Check out Anthony Vargas's article about how News Corp earnings illustrate the news industry’s ad woes.

In Arc XP's Report, see the screenshot below, you can see how publishers are affected by loss of search traffic.

9 Ways Declining Traffic Kills Publisher Revenue.

Declining search traffic significantly impacts commercial teams in several ways. It directly affects their ability to generate revenue, retain clients, and meet performance targets.

Here's how.....

1. Loss of Advertising ROI

• Challenge: Commercial teams rely heavily on search traffic to drive ad impressions and clicks.

• Impact: With less traffic, ad views and engagement drop, leading to lower CPM's (cost per thousand impressions) and CTR's (click through rates). This directly reduces the revenue that commercial teams can generate from advertising deals.

• Solution: Pubishers need to find ways to increase CPM's and CTR's. Focus on building better cohorts for your advertisers. And building direct relationships with advertisers to create customized packages that deliver value beyond the traditional advertising model.

2. Loss of Affiliate Revenue

• Challenge: Affiliate marketing is a major revenue stream for many publishers.

• Impact: Fewer visitors means fewer clicks on your affiliate links. That means a significant drop in your affiliate revenue. Commercial teams need to work hard to make up for the loss of affiliate commission.

• Solution: Focus on increasing your EPC (Earnings Per Click). If you are losing traffic you need to maximize the revenue from the traffic you have. Partner with top-performing affiliates and use software that will maximize your affiliate revenue.

3. Loss of Quality Leads and Audience

• Challenge: Advertisers and partners expect a certain level of traffic and engagement.

• Impact: Lower traffic leads to underperformance on campaigns, causing dissatisfaction among advertisers. This can result in strained relationships, renegotiation of contracts, or loss of clients altogether.

• Solution: Focus on engagement. Quality over quantity. Provide detailed performance reports highlighting engagement metrics and the quality of traffic. Offer value-added services like audience insights and reader focused content.

4. Loss of Marketing ROI

• Challenge: Publishers invest heavily in marketing to drive traffic and generate revenue.

• Impact: When search traffic falls, the effectiveness of these marketing efforts falls too, resulting in a lower ROI.

• Solution: Reallocate budgets towards more effective channels. Use 1st-party data-driven insights to refine marketing strategies and optimize campaigns for better performance.

5. Loss of Reader Engagement

• Challenge: Reader engagement metrics such as page views, time on site, and interactions are critical for publisher success.

• Impact: Reduced traffic leads to decreased engagement metrics, affecting ad revenue and the publisher's ability to attract and retain loyal readers.

• Solution: Create high-quality, engaging content tailored to audience interests. Utilize interactive elements such as polls to boost engagement. Foster two way communication with your readers. And use that data to fuel your content and revenue strategy.

6. Loss of Ad Revenue

• Challenge: Display and programmatic ads generate significant income based on impressions and clicks.

• Impact: A drop in search traffic leads to fewer ad impressions and clicks, directly decreasing ad revenue.

• Solution: Diversify ad placements and explore advertising formats, with higher CPM's. Build direct relationships with advertisers to create customized packages that deliver value beyond traffic metrics.

7. Loss of Brand Engagement

• Challenge: Consistent search traffic is essential for maintaining a advertisers brand presence.

• Impact: A decline in traffic reduces brand exposure, making it harder to attract new advertisers and generate revenue.

• Solution: Invest in multi-channel marketing strategies to build a diverse traffic portfolio. Explore partnerships that maximize brand engagement. Improve engagement and maximize the value of your current ads to reduce the impact of algorithm changes.

8. Loss of Accurate Analysis

• Challenge: Publishers rely on data to understand their audience and optimize content strategies.

• Impact: Lower traffic skews analytics, making it difficult to draw meaningful insights and make informed decisions.

• Solution: Implement advanced data collection tools. Invest in 1st-party data collection to get a better ROI from your current traffic.. Provide comprehensive date collection and build cohorts that focus on user behavior, intent and socio-demographic data.

9. Loss of Conversions

• Challenge: Conversions, whether it's subscribing to a newsletter, purchasing a product, or signing up for a service, are critical for revenue generation.

• Impact: Reduced traffic means fewer opportunities for conversions, impacting overall revenue generation.

• Solution: Optimize conversion funnels by improving user experience and reducing friction points. Use targeted campaigns to drive high-intent traffic to conversion pages. Implement retargeting strategies to capture and convert previous visitors.

How can publishers regain lost revenue despite declining search traffic?

Declining search traffic doesn't have to spell doom for publishers. While it poses challenges, relying solely on search engines limits growth potential. In reality, publishers can also focus on maximizing their revenue from current traffic. Even amidst changing algorithms and market dynamics, there is hope.

Introducing 2 Game-Changing Publisher Monetizazion Tools:

1. Opinary: The No. 1 Tool That Turns Engagement into Revenue

Opinary is a polling software tool that revolutionizes how publishers interact with their readers.

Opinary polls drive a whopping 60X engagement rate versus traditional engagement metrics. When you ask your readers interesting questions mid-aritcle they feel obliged to respond. Opinary helps you turn that engagement into conversions and revenue.

Here's How Opinary Helps You Monetize Your Engagement:

1. Integrate A Short Snippet of Code To Add Polls To Your Articles.

You log into the dashboard and create a poll. Then you simply copy and paste a snippet of code into your article template. This process takes 1-2 minutes.

An algorithm automatically adds relevant polls to your articles from a poll library(managed by a dedicated publishing team). The polls can be evergreen (like speed limits), seasonal (like Christmas), or related to current events (like the coronavirus).

This simple system means no extra work for you or your team. And makes sure your articles always have relevant polls.

2. After the poll, readers are shown how they compare to their peers.

People have a natural tendency to compare their opinions to others. When readers see how their answers compare, it satisfies their curiosity and provides them with a sense of validation or uniqueness.

This fun experience rewards readers for giving their opinion and results in them staying longer site.

3. After the polls engaged readers are automatically prompted to answer further questions.

Once someone agrees to a small request (answering one poll), they are more likely to agree to a larger request (answering more questions).

Readers who have already participated in one poll are primed to continue answering further questions, increasing their engagement.

That is why 30% of readers answer follow-up intent and sociodemographic questions.

The data collected is high-volume, high-accuracy, user declared first-party data.

4. Publishers send the 1st-Party data to their DMP. And build highly targeted segments for their advertisers.

First-party data allows publishers to create detailed audience segments based on actual reader preferences and behaviors, providing precise targeting capabilities.

Advertisers can precisely target their campaigns to these specific cohorts, increasing relevance and effectiveness compared to broader, less accurate third-party data.

5. Opinary Data Gets 60%+ CTR's and 80%+ Brand Engagment?

Advertisers value publishers that use Opinary because they get a rare source of high-quality, high-volume first-party data.

Publishers use this data to cultivate strong relationships with advertisers because first-party data enables them to create high performing cohorts.

These cohorts get an unparalleled 60% higher Click Through Rate (CTR) and drive an impressive 80% increase in brand engagement.

6. Publishers Sell Their Ad Space for 40% Higher CPM's?

Publishers leverage Opinary's first-party data to create highly valuable audience cohorts, resulting in ad space selling for 40% higher CPMs (Cost Per Thousand impressions).

By selling ad space at higher CPMs through the use of Opinary's first-party data, publishers can easily boost their revenue. And enhance ad quality, increase advertiser satisfaction, and strengthen their position in the market.

Why Do Publisher Teams Love Opinary?

Opinary is a game-changer for all teams, providing top-notch data, skyrocketing engagement, and boosting revenue.

• Data Teams: They love Opinary because it provides the highest quality data.

• Editorial Teams: They love Opinary because it increases engagement by 60 times.

• Sales and Commercial Teams: They love Opinary the most.

Why Sales Team That Use Opinary Data Are The Biggest Winners

Sales and commercial teams are the real winners when they use Opinary. The data helps sales teams negotiate more proftiable deals.

That means:

• Winning More Briefs and RFPs: Better-performing cohorts mean more successful proposals.

• Higher Revenue: The best part is that publishers can create cohorts that sell for 40% higher CPMs, helping sales teams meet their revenue targets.

Opinary helps you retain and expand your audience with high engagement, making your ad space more valuable.

Why You Should Be Using Opinary

Opinary helps you retain and expand your audience with high engagement, and makes your ad space more valuable.

Key Benefits:

• Increased Engagement: Boost reader interaction and keep your audience coming back.

• Higher Ad Revenue: Create valuable cohorts that sell for higher CPMs.

• Future-Proof Strategy: Adapt to the end of cookies and declining search and social media traffic.

Forward-thinking publishers are using Opinary to build reader-focused products and turn engagement into revenue. This is why Opinary is trusted by the world's leading publishers.

Don't get left behind. Start using Opinary today and transform your reader engagement into increased revenue.

2. Nucleus Links AI: 2X Your Affilate Revenue in 30 Days.

Another tool for driving revenue is Nucleus Links. A new AI affiliate automation software that has revolutionized affiliate marketing.

Nucleus is a powerful AI tool that automatically finds you the network with the highest earning per click.

If you're like most publishers, you have spent decades building a website with multiple traffic sources and diverse revenue streams.

You mastered the game of SEO and social media marketing, and churn out helpful articles and engaging content.

But lately, Declining Search Traffic threatens to undo your hard work. Less people are visiting your site, and with it, you are losing affiliate revenue.

Publishers of all sizes are feeling the pressure. Budgets are tightening, performance targets become harder to reach, and the stress of maintaining revenue is harder than ever.

You've tried everything – SEO tactics, new content formats, new channels. Yet, the challenge persists. Traffic is drying up.

You're not alone in this fight. But there is a new powerful AI tool that can help you double your affiliate earning per click. That tool is Nucleus Links.

Think of it as your AI auto-pilot. It's simple way for you to maximize revenue from your existing traffic. And it's a simple way for you to combat your lost search traffic.

Here's how Nucleus Links Can Help You Maximize Affiliate Revenue:

1. Effortless Affiliate Management: It's super easy to set up. You can ditch the endless spreadsheets and data entry. Nucleus Links streamlines your affiliate program into a single platform, slashing manual work by 87%. Imagine the time you'll save!

2. Error-Free Link Management: Most affiliates see 10%. manual error rate. Human errors happen, but with Nucleus Links, they become a thing of the past. It ensures every affiliate link is accurate and optimized, maximizing your earnings potential. No more leaking revenue from broken or poorly placed links.

3. Automated Data-Driven Decisions: Nucleus Links automatically optimizes your affiliate program performance without you lifting a finger. Nucleus Links provides actionable reports in minutes, allowing you to make informed decisions and identify the most lucrative affiliate partnerships. Knowledge is power, and this data is your weapon.

4. Double Your Earnings: Nucleus Links works its magic by automatically identifying and promoting the most profitable affiliate links. Imagine doubling your revenue without needing more visitors! That's the kind of firepower you need to defeat the declining search traffic villain.

5. Boost Your Productivity: Stop wasting time creating affiliate links one by one. Nucleus Links cuts the creation time from 30 seconds to a mere 3 seconds. That's a massive productivity boost, freeing you up to focus on what matters most – crafting amazing content for your audience.

AI Is Changing The World. Don't Get Left Behind

AI can connect and analyze vast amounts of data, offering insights and solutions to complex problems in real-time. Many of the manual tasks that are normal today will be a thing of the past. AI is changing healthcare, manufactuing and every other industry at a faster rate than you can imagine.

Nucleus Links AI is transforming affiliate marketing. By integrating Nucleus Links you can transform your affiliate marketing into a more efficient, error-free, and more profitable channel. So you can maximize your revenue, get rid of manual works and focus on what's important - strategic growth.

Try Nucleus Links for free and discover the power of AI Affiliate Automation.

Take Control of Your Revenue: Try Opinary & Nucleus Links Free!

You wouldn't buy a car without bringing it for a test drive. So why should you test a software without trying it first?

You can try both Opinary and Nucleus Links for 100% FREE. We guarantee you will boost you revenue by 40%-112%. If you don't then we'll work with you until you do.

Let us help you stop losing revenue because of dwindling search traffic. And help you grow revenue sustainably despite the challenging digital landscape.

DM me to Get started today!

P.S. For further reading on search and publisher revenue check out the following:

Permutives The State Publisher Revenue 2024

Digiday + Arc XP: The state of publisher traffic

Piano: The state of publisher revenue 2024

A Future For Publishers - Lindsay Valdez

Google Privacy Sandbox Testing Results Show Shortfalls To Meet CMA Requirements

Mastering Media Buying - Evan Weber

Check Out All of John Coulson's Post on Affiliate Marketing

Global Savings Group Post on coupons and cashback price elasticity

World Association of News Publishers: Diversifying Revenue Streams

6 Alternative Revenue Streams For News Publishers