Analytics in Pop Advertising: Tracking Traffic Anomalies and Spikes

This brief guide for advertisers discusses how real-time analytics help identify traffic anomalies and react to unplanned click spikes when working with popunder ads.

Real-Time Analytics in Popunder Ads: Why It Matters

Popunders generate up to 120 million clicks per day. This makes the format different from push ads and native ads. For an advertiser, this means popunder traffic requires intensive management. As data is changing, yesterday’s metrics no longer reflect the situation today.

More importantly, if you collect pop traffic statistics infrequently or incorrectly, you risk missing fraud and serious anomalies, ultimately draining your budget.

Popunder Traffic Spike Patterns

Popunder is a cheap advertising format, with placements costing from $0.0002. It provides a 100% CTR and delivers high ROI.

Popunders automatically open for users who fall into the target categories. Any clicks on the ad landing page will generate pop traffic. Occasionally, traffic flows may spike.

Traffic spikes can be:

Positive, if you have attracted a high-quality audience from a large publisher during scaling. You’ll notice conversion stability or growth and fast lead generation.
Negative, if there’s an issue with the landing page, fraud and a bot influx, or a technical failure on the source side. This will not result in any conversions.

In both cases, spikes require immediate reaction. You may either need to increase limits and volumes or urgently disable the site and stop investment.

Important Metrics to Track in Real Time

In your Kadam account, you should monitor the following indicators:

CR. In pop ads, a normal landing page CR is 3–8%, depending on the niche (for example, conversions are often higher with iGaming traffic).
CTR. This reflects the number of users who clicked the button on the page. The baseline you set during testing shouldn’t change in any way.
EPC and eCPM. Make sure that the money made per click or per thousand impressions is greater than the costs. The higher the quality of the web traffic, the more stable these metrics will be.

Anomaly Detection in Popunder Traffic

To help you track traffic spikes, the experts at the Kadam ad network have prepared a checklist of best practices for live analytics and CR/CTR monitoring.

Possible Causes of Sudden CR and CTR Spikes

If the CR drops suddenly, it might be targeting the wrong audience. You should consider a new campaign setup, retargeting, or changing the GEO.

If the LP CTR rises unexpectedly by 30–40%, you may be dealing with fraud. The main threat is bots and botnets. These are programs that click on everything on the landing page. Technical problems with the popunder code can also result in spikes.

Which Traffic Sources Are Suspicious?

Keep an eye on sources that start delivering abnormal traffic volumes out of nowhere. For example, if a site delivers 10,000 clicks in 2 minutes with identical user data or network IPs, it could be farm traffic or a DDoS attack. Log in to your Kadam account to promptly disable the source.

Setting Up Monitoring Tools for Real-Time Metrics

To work effectively, you may need:

Trackers. Integrated tools gather and update campaign statistics. However, if you are interested in professional traffic arbitrage, integrate external software.
Auto-rules. It’s not possible to monitor traffic around the clock, so leave it to software. For example, send ineffective sources to a blacklist automatically.
Tracker alerts. Set up email notifications so you can regularly receive a summary of clicks, visits, and leads.
Postback verification (pingback, s2s). Configure the transmission of conversions to the tracker. Tracker setup is crucial for proper algorithm operation.
Spy Tools. Use competitor analysis tools to evaluate whether your traffic is normal.

Responding to Traffic Spikes and Protecting Your Budget

Disabling sources is your #1 course of action when an issue is detected. Just add the Site ID to the blacklist. However, if the anomaly allows you to earn money, focus your efforts on this opportunity.

Expert tip: If a source is high-quality but expensive, create a separate campaign with slight bid adjustments, just make your bids lower. This can preserve volume and raise ROI.

Fraud Prevention: How to Protect Your Campaign

To protect yourself:

Use anti-detect browsers and proxies.
Block IP ranges in the campaign settings (if you see spikes from one data center).
Filter out outdated browsers or strange User Agents.

Kadam uses multifactor source validation and traffic quality control mechanisms. The system filters known botnets and viruses, keeping network users protected.

Recommendations for Stable Work with Popunders

We know how important it is for our clients to make money from push and pop ads. To do this, they:

Segment ad campaigns by device type and OS;
Start with minimal bids and budgets before CPC optimization;
Conduct split testing of 2–4 landing pages;
Configure auto-rules in the tracker to eliminate anomalies.

👉🏻 Ready to launch a popunder campaign safely? Register with Kadam and start today!

FAQ

Which metrics are used to track popunder campaigns in real-time?

For campaign monitoring, keep track of CR, LP CTR, budget expenditure, and eCPM.

How can I identify anomaly spikes in popunder traffic?

You’ll notice a rapid increase in the number of clicks (by 30–100% above your established norm) in a short period. At the same time, there will be no conversion growth.

What tools help detect anomalies?

Enable email notifications to receive regular summary reports on your pop case studies. Don’t forget to set up postbacks so that algorithms work properly.

How should advertisers react to sudden CR or CTR spikes?

Any negative anomalies, whether bots or cyber threats, are valid reasons to send the local or international traffic source to the blacklist and stop investments.