Traffic types

This article outlines the various traffic types on the Travelpayouts partnership platform.

How to check what types of traffic are allowed in the program

Allowed traffic types are different for all travel brands in the catalog. To check the conditions of a particular program launch its page, go to the About tab and scroll down to the Allowed brand promotion methods and channels section.

In this section you will find the following information:

Whether you can use paid search ads when working with the program;
What Project types are allowed: content creation, cashback services, coupons or promo codes, media buying, travel agencies, and personal bookings. If the Project type is completely not allowed, you will see a caption: The program doesn't allow this Project type.
Types of traffic that are allowed for each type of Project. If the traffic type is not allowed, you will see a red cross next to its name, if it is allowed - a green tick.

You can find more details in the Program Terms on the About tab of the program profile page:

Placing tools using not allowed traffic types is a violation of the program rules. Accounts of partners violating the rules will be disconnected from the program and can be blocked.

Traffic types in affiliate programs

Brand ads — Use of the name or its derivatives in advertisements (for example, tickets on #Aviasales#). You can allow or forbid partners from bidding on and/or making use of the travel brand's brand name or its derivatives. You can also mention forbidden derivatives/keywords in the other section.
Teaser advertising — Teaser advertising is a term used for an advertising campaign whereby a series of ads are presented to the consumer without revealing the complete identity of the product or brand until the final ad. Teaser advertising campaigns consist of two parts: a series of teaser ads (one or more) and a revealer ad. Typically, the ads are placed on websites with mainstream traffic (news aggregators and so on).
Click-Under — Aggressive advertising. The window with the travel brand's website opens under the current user’s window after any click on the original website, regardless of the will of the user.
Pop-Up — Aggressive advertising. A pop-up window opens above the current window after you click on any area of the original website.
Pop-Under — Aggressive advertising. While the user views the page a new window opens in the background without disturbing the user. This window loads the advertised website.
Email marketing — Using affiliate links in email marketing through your own email address database. SPAM is forbidden by default.
Groups and pages in social networks — Advertising on pages on Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks.
Targeted ads in social networks — Display ads on Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks using the features of the advertising network to target the ads, for example, sending ads to a specific audience like men aged 18–26 in New York.
Display ads — Display ads on websites or apps mainly through banners. The main purpose of display ads is to deliver general advertisements and brand messages to site visitors. In this type of ads is impossible to bid on the keywords of the advertiser, ads are targeted only on geographical and demographic parameters of users.
Applications in social networks — Display ads in Facebook applications. Built-in advertising or advertising via ad networks.
Messengers (Telegram, Viber and others) — Distribution of advertising links and other advertising materials in messengers like Telegram, Viber, and others. You can place links in your channels/groups (if their content does not contradict the law). Advertising is allowed in other people’s channels/groups with prior consent from their owners. Spam is forbidden by default.
In mobile apps — Display ads (in various formats) in mobile applications. Built-in advertising or advertising via ad networks.
Doorways — Doorway pages are web pages that are created (or generated) for the deliberate manipulation of search engine indexes (spamdexing). They often involve low-quality traffic, but are able to generate sales nevertheless.
Motivated traffic — Users who are motivated to go through advertising and perform an action for something in return, which is usually cash or a bonus — for example, buy insurance or a tour and get something extra as a bonus.
Cashback — Return part of the paid amount to the buyer. For example, a partner promises a refund of 4% to everyone who buys insurance via his link. The partner reimburses 4% of his revenue.
Iframe — This often includes fraudulent traffic. An "invisible" iframe is usually used to allocate a cookie to the maximum number of visitors.
Toolbar — This often includes fraudulent traffic. Partner A distributes its Toolbar (browser plugin), which changes the cookie of the original partner B, who actually attracted the buyer. As a result, revenue on the basis of the cookie goes to the wrong person.
Retargeting / Remarketing — A user who has already shown interest in the product, but hasn't made a purchase, and can be "found" by Retargeting/Remarketing. Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a form of online advertising that can help you keep your brand in front of bounced traffic after the user leaves your website.
Type-in — A term describing when visitors land at a website by entering a keyword or phrase (with no spaces or a hyphen in the place of space) in the web browser’s address bar rather than following a hyperlink from another web page, using a browser bookmark, or a search-box search.
Typosquatting — For example, the partner creates a website: hotelook.com (original: hotellook.com), and places affiliate tools in the hope that the user enters the name of the website (type-in) in the browser incorrectly.
Promotional codes — Use of promotional codes of the advertiser for other marketing activities to attract users.
Adult traffic — Traffic from adult websites.
YouTube traffic — Organic traffic driven from YouTube; e.g. content project on a YouTube channel.