Buying Traffic
Buying Traffic Isn't the Same as Buying Ads
The Internet collapse of the 90's came about through advertisers paying way to much for ad space.
Banner advertising at a cost per thousand was something every rising start up at the time thought was a must-do, in order to succeed.
Unlike Publishing, Radio or TV, There Was No Performance Tracking.
Advertisers were paying extraordinary rates to have banner ads pressed onto a page with no idea what it could, let alone what it would yield in terms of ROI.
In much the same way as mobile phone advertising is today, ad networks were in their infancy of establishing creditable transparency for advertisers that allow them to buy ads for traffic at costs that sustain a measured probability of profitable returns on their investment.
Sure, large ad agencies will always get multi-nationals to part with massive amounts of money in the name of brand advertising, as is fueling the current mobile advertising market.
However it wasn't until direct mail marketers came to the internet after the .com crash of the 90's that we learnt that ad buying without tracking is for fools or Fortune 500 companies only.
These Guys Had Been Tracking for Years.
Split testing direct mail and sales letters in magazines using coupons or different names, or numbers for prospects to inquire through to track inquiries.
It's just that on the internet it didn't take weeks or months to know the answer, it could happen in hours and monitored 24/7 applying constant incremental improvements to ad campaigns.