What is Traffic Acquisition Marketing (TAM)?

New industries have a habit of ushering in new buzzwords, and internet marketing now has a new one - following 'traffic acquisition', we now have 'traffic acquisition marketing'. But what is traffic acquisition marketing?


New York based Forward Branding & Identification, reference it a list of job requirements for a Web Project Manager:

"Experience in online consumer media, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, with success in online traffic acquisition marketing."

So, it's clearly something to do with social marketing and Web 2.0, and Miami, Florida's Apparent Internet Marketing would seem to agree:

"Apparent offers an array of white hat online traffic acquisition marketing services, in addition to strategic website and landing page optimization efforts, to help our clients build a loyal audience following."

So, what do we glean from these? Firstly, traffic acquisition marketing seems to be about generating traffic through a marketing message geared towards awareness and loyalty over advertising and traffic purchase.


It's also clear from Apparent that it's not about search engine optimization or landing pages, nor is it about straight up advertising. It's about generating (or acquiring) traffic because that traffic wants to visit the site, out of loyalty or brand attachment, and not just because they need to buy something.


Google returns around 13,000 pages that use the exact term, and using their Keyword Tool to research around the topic, another well-known phrase comes up : customer acquisition marketing.


Suzanne Taylor, a marketing consultant with clients including Adobe, Yahoo! and PayCycle, and member of Stanford University's faculty, defines customer acquisition marketing as having three main aspects:

• Awareness - does the target market know you exist?
• Learning - what does your market know about your benefits?
• Persuasion - do they want to buy from you?

She also notes that it's part of a model that she calls the 'Customer Experience Model', and notes that:

"It is driven by the other two elements of the Customer Experience Model—Product Wow and Customer Retention."

Putting all this together, we have a workable idea to answer the leading question - what is traffic acquisition marketing?


My summary would be as follows : Traffic Acquisition Marketing pulls in the target market by giving the marketing message an online personality, that can draw in, delight, and retain a loyal following online.


It's no longer just about the product. Now you also have to deliver a reason.

Techniques to Drive TAC Costs Down

TAC, or Traffic Acquisition Cost, is a measure of the amount of money required to buy in traffic. It is usually calculated on a percentage basis, using either revenue or visitor numbers to yield a figure that can be measured over time.


For example, if you pay out $5 to Google in AdWords fees, and receive 1,000 visitors, then the cost per visitor is 0.5 cents (actually, it's more common just to say that the cost is $5 per 1,000 visitors, otherwise known as CPM).


Others may choose to measure it in terms of revenue - if you sell an eBook for $15, and pay $100 in advertising fees to sell 500 copies, then you have generated $7,500 for $100 of advertising. That's quite a margin!


Actually, these numbers might be a bit optimistic, and so helping reduce TAC costs is usually high up on the list of priorities for online entrepreneurs.


One method might be to hunt after JV's (Joint Ventures) where partners each get something out of the relationship. An eBook can be exchanged for the traffic that this might bring, for example - one partner offers the eBook to their list, and the eBook contains links to the other's online store.


Or, a software manufacturer or online service provider might pay a third party to pre-install software on a piece of hardware, or even supply software with certain settings that provide an opportunity for third party promotion.


This last example is use by advertisers to buy advertising in applications (so-called adware), which is a method that works, but can be costly and obtrusive to the end user.


When formulating your TAC cost reduction strategy, remember one thing - it's much better to offer something of value if all you're after is traffic; otherwise it may end up costing more than it brings in.

Reducing Traffic Acquisition Costs using Destination Sites

Traffic acquisition costs are probably one of the highest direct costs for online businesses. Anything that you can do to reduce traffic acquisition costs must, almost by definition, be a good thing - but there's a right and a wrong way to do it.


Like the hotel industry, the web is split into two kinds of page - destination and everything else. Budget hotels that people use whilst traveling offer a very different experience to so-called destination hotels, which have to give customers more than just a bed for the night.


Likewise, destination sites are places people go to for something, unlike 99% of the other random search results which are just places people find themselves almost by accident.


Look at your own mental bookmark list. The chances are that you have a favorite site for social networking, video sharing, even email. There's also a good chance that these don't need to be in your browser bookmark list. You know the URLs by heart.


Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment that you try to become a destination site. That's part of the misconception that people have about the web - everyone wants to be the next big thing, the next mental bookmark, but very few people reach that status.


Mostly, we're all part of the 99% of pages that people visit on their way somewhere else. And that's okay, because it's what makes the web tick.


However, despite the fact that Google AdSense is available on many of these destination sites, and despite the fact that you might be paying for prominence on them, what happens when traffic acquisition costs outstrip the earning power of the target site.


We're in a world wide recession, after all, and people are cutting back spending in the so-called power niches of health, money and sex. Never mind hobbies, dating, and suchlike.


However, the power of the destination sites can still be harnessed by offering content in return for traffic, thereby significantly reducing direct traffic acquisition costs.


Right now, for example, there's a WSO (Warrior Special Offer) that uses the power of YouTube to drive traffic. It's called the Royal Affiliates Banker, and seems to be a process, coupled with some software which purports to drive traffic to a web site with only 15 minutes of real work.


(Disclaimer - that link makes me no money. Zero. I have NO affiliation with the product, and am just citing it here as an example.)


If the Royal Affiliates Banker works, it could significantly reduce traffic acquisition costs, and boost profits. And, it's likely that a very similar process can be applied to other destination sites - it's all about giving potential customers valuable content, and a reason to click through to the target site.


Just like a promotional blog, but potentially with much more power, and certainly a lot more fun to put together!