Company founder Jay told XBIZ that under the old system, websites were qualified by the level of top-tier traffic generated from developed countries with English as a primary language. This allowed specific sites to show adds to their entire audience.
However this also meant entire websites frequently went ad-free, regardless of traffic numbers.
Jay said the original system was built specifically for direct-buy ads and never intended to do a pay-per-click model and sort traffic according to country, but times have changed and he and the company have responded to the market’s evolution.
“We respond to the needs of our clients, and country-specific was what they were asking for,” Jay said. “Under the old system, campaigns were starting to see a real influx of clicks from undesirable countries, which reduced client ROI.”
Jay said for example, an influx of clicks was coming from Vietnam, a country he said is one of the least desirable among his clients. The number of clicks now has slowed, as clients can choose to block countries that prove to be less profitable.
“Advertisers will receive clicks from the countries they want,” Jay said. “They can block countries that that they don't want [for billing or other reasons]. Publishers will get ads that are specific to their surfers’ language or country, and will be paid more per click for the ‘right traffic’ that our advertisers want.”
Jay said the platform upgrade came from client request. The former model worked, but not for everyone, and the new system will ensure country-specific traffic regardless of bid price. The tier system now works primarily as a sorting and pricing method.
“Tier 1 traffic is full price [their bid] while Tier 2 [primarily Europe] is 25 percent discounted and Tier 3 is 50 percent discounted off of the advertiser's bid price,” Jay said. “Many Tier 3 traffic sources actually have capped costs. The tiers are irrelevant except for pricing discounts and sorting purposes.”
He also specified that JuicyAds still offers discounted traffic from Tier 2 and Tier 3 sources, and the minimum bid for Tier 1 traffic is 2 cents per click.