In 2024, search arbitrage has gained significant popularity. The principle of its work is similar to traditional affiliate marketing: first you buy traffic, and then resell it to search engines at a higher price. It sounds simple, but in reality, everything is serious here, there are already established players and, as usual, the webmaster finds himself at the bottom of the food chain. Nevertheless, it is possible to make money from search arbitrage and we will tell you how.
What is Search Arbitrage and what is its essence
The brief essence of search arbitrage is that when advertisers use the SPN (Search Partner Network) setting in advertising campaigns, for example, on the Google Ads platform, the search engine automatically includes the option to place ads not only on search engines, but also on affiliate resources, including those that attract traffic through affiliates.
In general, it looks like this:
How Search Arbitration works
Search arbitration is based on interaction with intermediary providers, which, in fact, perform the functions of partner programs, providing access to feeds. These providers receive funds from advertisers such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, drive traffic to feeds, and pay arbitration fees if the attracted traffic meets their quality requirements.
The most popular providers in Serch are SEDO and TONIC. They control both the volume and quality of your traffic (in fact, they act as a control point).
Example of a page with search feeds
When choosing a provider, it is important to take into account the level of payouts, as the conditions of all of them differ significantly: some offer more favorable rates, others - less. It is also worth paying attention to their compliance with compliance requirements.
As a result, the arbitrator ends up at the bottom of the financial chain. To work, you will need to register a legal entity in foreign countries and a budget of at least $150,000. And, if we believe profile chats, only tests and search for a good bundle will cost $10,000.
☝️ But the good thing is that there are resellers on the market - companies that already have access to providers and offer it to others for a percentage of profit. This option requires less starting capital, but the profit in this case is also minimal.
In other words, search arbitrage is primarily a story about working on volume and profit on distance (and not as marginal (at the level of 30%) as some gambling).
How the budget is allocated in Search Arbitrage
What you need to get started in Search Arbitrage
Most providers work ONLY with traffic from platforms like TikTok, Meta, and native networks like Taboola. But to successfully launch Search Arbitrage campaigns, you still need to consider the following points:
- Vertical and niche selection. This could be healthcare, finance, legal, marketing and their subcategories. The competition in a particular niche and audience affects the cost per click, as well as how much advertisers are willing to pay for conversions.
- Keywords. It is by the selected keys that users find the pages to which the arbitrageur directs traffic. The more accurately selected keywords, the higher the earnings per click or display.
- Agency accounts. To pour on volume (which is what providers will demand from you) you need high-limit accounts. At RentAcc.Agency, we offer instant access to agency accounts on such popular advertising platforms as Google, Meta, Bigo and others. With us, you can launch campaigns immediately and scale quickly, bypassing the micro-limits of private accounts.
And of course, the budget! It will take at least $10,000 to fully enter search arbitration. If you don't have one, it may be worth considering other arbitration niches or joining a team where you can start with less investment.
Vacancy for a media barrister in the Search Arbitrage team
Features and risks of search arbitrage
The main disadvantage of search arbitrage is the necessity to test mappings all the time. The dynamics of EPC (earnings per click) keys often change. So, for example, a typical story when:
- You pour in a bundle, and at the initial stage it goes to the plus side. Let's say your EPC is $0.6, and you get $0.3 in purchases.
- After a couple days, your EPC drops to $0.2 due to changes in the auction, recloser budgets, or CA burnout. But your cost per conversion is still $0.3, in other words, you're already pouring in minus.
- In such conditions you have to pick up new keys and test new bundles again.
☝️ In addition, you should not forget about holds - the time delay of payments, which is usually 30-45 days. During this period providers check the quality of traffic.
Nevertheless, search-arbitrage has its own obvious advantages. One of the main ones is that you don't need to use cloaking, there are no eternal problems with moderation and in general it is absolutely white label (for some people it is important).
How to work effectively with traffic in search arbitrage
To succeed in search arbitrage, it is important not to just launch a few creatives and wait for results. The focus should be on working with hypotheses, constant optimization and deep data analysis. This approach allows you to flexibly respond to changes in return per click (EPC) and adapt your strategy based on facts rather than guesswork.
The step-by-step launch process can be outlined by the following points:
- Analyze competitors and target audience through SPY services. Use monitoring tools to see what promotional materials and formats your competitors are using. This will help you understand which approaches and creatives work in your niche and get the maximum response from your audience.
- Creating an Approach. When targeting a specific niche, such as orthodontics, it's important to pick a few key approaches. This could be emphasizing low prices, exclusive technology, or special offers for certain procedures. Pick 3-4 approaches, such as benefit-focused creatives, before-and-after results, or expert testimonials, and start testing. Ideally, you should start with static promos as this will allow you to shed more bundles with less budget and time.
As said above, launching your search arbitrage traffic should be sharpened for scaling, which will require you to take a systematic approach. Here, for example, is how you can scale effectively on FB:
- We take 10 promos and 10 1-5-1 ad campaigns, which gives us 50 adsets, each with a budget of about $20.
- We start all adsets, immediately disable those that do not show results, without waiting for their optimization.
- Those adsets that give good results, duplicate, keeping the original budget.
- Successful duplicates gradually increase the budget by 15-20% during the day, and ineffective ones are turned off.
- By the end of the day, we stop all campaigns, returning the budget to the starting level. The next day we repeat the process.
This method allows you to create multiple campaigns, which reduces the risk of blocking and increases volume by duplicating working bundles, increasing the chances of scaling.
👉 As a reminder, you can find Facebook Ads agency offices at RentAcc.Agency.
Mistakes to avoid in search arbitrage
Search Arbitrage requires not only experience but also care, as mistakes can cost you wasted time and budget. Here are the key points to avoid problems:
- Don't cheat ISPs. Activities such as click-baiting, foraging, incentivized traffic, or mixing streams lead to negative consequences. Google tracks activity, and if you try to artificially boost ROI - it almost always results in a ban.
- Be honest with your audience. Creatives should be relevant to the feed. Misleading leads to complaints, which again will reflect badly on your account.
If you violate the rules, the risk of losing income is high: platforms may not pay out funds for the time in which the violation was recorded, block the account and cut off the payment. Just like in this illustrative case study:
A brief summary
Search arbitrage is a promising niche that requires constant attention and careful optimization. Success in it depends on the right choice of providers, competent budget allocation, as well as regular testing and analysis of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Despite the high start-up costs and constant risks, this method can bring stable income over a long distance, especially if you approach the process systematically.
For those who are ready to learn, adapt to changes and work for results, search arbitrage offers many opportunities to earn money online. And we remind you that you can find Search Arbitrage accounts to get started at RentAcc.Agency!
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