Definition
"Pop" describes what happens, a new window pops, and the suffix says where: a popup opens in front of the current page, a popunder behind it, and a tab-under is the modern variant in which the publisher page itself moves to a new tab while the advertiser page takes over the original tab. All three count one impression per window opened and are priced in CPM.
How pop traffic is bought
A buyer picks a GEO, a device and operating-system mix, a bid per thousand impressions and a landing page. The network's script on publisher sites fires one pop per visitor per frequency-cap window and sends the visitor to the highest bidder whose targeting matches. Reporting is by source ID (the publisher placement), so the buyer's first week is spent reading which sources convert and moving them to a whitelist, and which do not and moving them to a blacklist.
- Choose GEO, device, OS and browser targeting.
- Set a CPM bid at or above the network minimum for that GEO.
- Add the landing page URL with the click-ID macro for your tracker.
- Launch, then optimize by source ID after the first 1,000 to 2,000 clicks per source.
What decides pop traffic quality
Three things: where the script runs, how often it fires, and whether the click that triggered it was genuine. Networks control the first through publisher moderation, the second through frequency capping and the third through fraud filters that drop clicks from data-center IPs, headless browsers and known bot signatures before they are billed. For the buyer the practical quality signal is conversion rate by source ID, which is why pop networks expose that ID in reporting and in the destination-URL macros.
Who buys pop traffic
Affiliates and in-house teams in verticals where a landing page converts cold traffic without a creative in front of it: VPN and utilities, mobile subscriptions, iGaming, dating, sweepstakes. The same buyers often add push or in-page push later for the same offers, because those formats reach the visitor at a different moment.
Related terms
| Term | Relation | Where defined |
|---|---|---|
| Popunder ads | The dominant format in the family | Term page |
| CPM | Pricing model | Term page |
| Traffic source | Where pop traffic comes from | Term page |
| Frequency capping | One pop per visitor per period | Glossary entry |
FAQ
Is pop traffic the same as popunder traffic?
Almost. Pop traffic is the family name; popunder is the format that makes up nearly all of it today, because browsers block classic popups by default.
Why is pop traffic cheaper than other formats?
The advertiser supplies no creative, the publisher gives up no layout space and the impression is counted per window opened, so the supply is large and the cost of producing it is low.
How much should I spend to test a pop source?
Enough clicks per source ID to judge it, which in practice means a few hundred to a few thousand clicks per source depending on the offer's conversion rate. Decide on a per-source basis, not on the campaign total.