We see more and more publishers buying traffic in bulk. Filling your website with purchased traffic isn’t inherently bad, but it’s not always sufficient for long-term profitability.

The smartest move isn’t just buying more traffic but bringing back users who have already shown interest. Although retargeting is a more popular strategy among advertisers, publishers can also make use of it, and we’re here to tell you how.

The math behind a successful website

The fundamental math is simple. If you pay $1 CPM for Popunder traffic and your ad RPM from those visitors is $1.50 or higher, you’re profitable and can scale. If it’s below that, there’s a risk the profit might dip, which could result in losses. And before things go this way, it’s a good idea to optimize your traffic acquisition.

In general, smart publishers don’t treat every click the same. Instead, they focus on improving the landing experience and then re-engaging the most promising users through retargeting.

Improving Popunders for maximum performance

To maximize the performance of your Popunders (or any other ad format), you can start with the following steps:

• Send users directly to a relevant video page instead of the homepage. Video content keeps users on the page longer and increases the chances of further interaction.
• Make sure your site loads fast (especially on mobile). At anything above 5-second page load time, you’re talking about roughly half the conversion rate of a fast website.
• Target specific niches and direct users to matching content. Relevance dramatically improves engagement and reduces bounce rates.
• Ask your network about remnant campaigns on Tier-1 and Tier-2 for better pricing.

Retargeting done right

Install our retargeting pixel and start collecting data with a low-bid or remnant campaign. Make sure you’re focusing on the right audience; some of the best indicators are:

• Users who watched more than 60 seconds of a video (clearly engaged)
• Visitors who browsed 2+ pages
• Visitors who stayed for more than 2 minutes

At the same time, exclude users who bounced in under 10 seconds: they’re almost never worth retargeting. You can even segment retargeting by niche to make your messages more relevant and increase engagement.

Done right, retargeting helps you spend your budget more efficiently, make the most out of every click, and start building a base of returning users. These users are far more valuable because they convert better, stay longer, and often become loyal bookmark traffic.

Recent studies show that retargeted users can have conversion rates 2-5 times higher than cold traffic. In some verticals, the return on ad spend (ROAS) for retargeting campaigns can exceed 400%.

Practical tips for publishers in 2026

• Start small. Test retargeting on 10-20% of your traffic to see what works.
• Use dynamic creatives. Show users content related to what they have already viewed.
• Monitor frequency caps. Don’t annoy users with too many ads.
• Track everything. The more data you feed into your retargeting strategy, the better the results.

Retargeting is a budget-saver, but only as long as you know how to use it properly. When publishers opt for it, they generally see higher overall RPM and more stable revenue streams.

If you want help setting up retargeting, installing the pixel, or creating a custom strategy for your website, just reach out to us. Our team will review your current setup and help you turn more of your traffic into loyal, high-value users.