Traffic arbitrage

Traffic arbitrage is the process of reselling internet traffic to make a profit. The goal is to purchase traffic at a lower cost and resell it at a higher price.


The popular verticals for arbitrage are iGaming (casinos, betting), Dating, Nutra (supplements, weight loss), Finance (loans, brokers, crypto), and E-commerce (goods).


How does the arbitrage process work?


  • Buying traffic.
  • Setting up a funnel or landing page.
  • Redirecting to an offer.
  • Action tracking.


If the action is accepted, the system registers a lead, and the arbitrage specialist receives a reward.


Types of traffic arbitrage


It is an entire system of strategies, depending on traffic sources, tools used, and the extent of "grayness" of the methods. To earn effectively, it is crucial to understand what types of arbitrage exist and how they differ.


Types of arbitrage by traffic sources include:


  • Facebook/Meta: popular, but difficult in moderation. It requires auto-registered accounts, anti-detect browsers, and proxies.
  • TikTok: characterized by fast responses, cheap traffic, and gray schemes. It is suitable for nutra and dating.
  • Google Ads: includes search, GDN (Google Display Network), and YouTube. It is often used for finance, white-hat e-commerce, and apps.
  • Push traffic: cheap and massive, but of low quality.
  • Popunder/Clickunder: an aggressive type of advertising for gambling, adult content, and subscription services.
  • SEO arbitrage: long-term, brings stable organic traffic.
  • Telegram arbitrage: channels, bots, and mailings. A good option for gambling, crypto, and e-commerce.


When dividing by work models, arbitrage can be:


  • White Hat: transparent advertising, honest landing pages. Works long-term.
  • Gray Hat: mild deception, clickbait, exaggerations. Popular, but can lead to bans.
  • Black Hat: fraud, fake offers, cloaking, multi-accounting. It burns fast but dies out quickly.


How to make money on traffic arbitrage?


Earnings are built on proper ad setup, correct audience targeting, and constant optimization. A specialist must test creatives and monitor metrics to identify and turn off non-working bundles promptly.


You should start by choosing an offer, launching ads on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Google, or through push notifications, and directing traffic to the target site. Payment is made if users perform target actions.


What does an arbitrage specialist do?


An arbitrage specialist turns ads into money. They work on attracting an audience that performs the required actions. This role requires knowledge of marketing and analytics, as well as the ability to work with ad accounts, anti-detect browsers, proxies, and trackers. The list of tasks may include selecting offers, analyzing the target audience and traffic sources, creating creatives, as well as optimizing and scaling ad campaigns.