Traffic Marketplace Review
Traffic Marketplace
Traffic Marketplace - http://www.trafficmarketplace.com/
At first glance, Traffic MarketPlace (TMP) appears to be good site for your third tier choice. Dig deeper and the issues begin to emerge, including rampant problems with site functionality and poor customer service. Add in a higher threshold of clicks required before you actually see any revenue and Traffic Marketplace may not be worth your time.
Considering about five years ago TMP was one of the triumvirate of best and able networks I used, the other two being Fastclick and Advertising.com, they have managed to descend a fair amount of altitude in the ensuing years. TMP was purchased in July 2007 by Connexus. Since the purchase the new owners have admirably purged the old Vendare management and now seem to be building out a decent top tier executive team and cutting out the extensive rot from the previous regime. TMP had been notorious for under reporting impressions & revenue and horrible customer service, but had excellent advertiser relationships and strong media buying bench. These relationships are what allowed TMP to climb as high as it did. It would seem with the new team and new attitude the transition is underway, but it’s way too soon to tell if they are making significant headway yet.
Interface: 5.5/10
Positive:
Passable design
Negative:
Poor functionality
Land on the Traffic Marketplace site and it all seems inviting enough. Core functions are there and presented in a way that should be easy to navigate. Begin to browse around and you’ll find the pages don’t always load. Not a quality that produces confidence in for publishers who expect seamless delivery of ads. Even in the most basic functions, the site performs less than required for even a startup network. The company needs to invest both time and money into some serious upgrades if they ever hope to return to the top tier.
Support services: 3/10
Positive:
Email support available
Negative:
Unresponsive or simple form-letter response
Two things matter most for publishers when it comes to customer service: a timely response and one that addresses and solves the issue at hand. (…Seems obvious) Publishers have routinely complained that emails to Traffic Marketplace have gone unanswered, or the reply that does eventually arrive is a cut-and-paste answer that lacks any personal touch or specific resolution to the often not cut and paste nature of the problem. The prevailing consensus is, you’re on your own when it comes to technical support. Not good enough in today’s three hundred ad network universe.
Payment schedule and payment options: 4/10
Positive:
They do pay, if you call them and ask when did they send the check.
Negative:
Payment record and rate
The long tail of poor payment history is not easily repaired. Vendare did a commendable job at killing this company when they bought it from Vivendi, and from what I can see Connexus is working hard at resurrecting it, but with the current baggage and nothing really positive to report, I would suggest a rebrand and a significant PR budget might be a worthy investment.
eCPMS: 4/10
Traffic Marketplace has eMarketmakers, once the shining star of the affiliate market universe. Like TMP, eMarket is a shadow of it’s former self. Making the CPA campaigns make money for you is a whole another issue. Direct eCPM are usually low, and TMP gets relegated to a default network choice as a result. I would recommend avoiding them for eCPM until they provide demonstrable evidence of getting better.
Overall Rating: 4/10 - Below Average
With a history of shoddy publisher treatment and payment issues, publishers have branded TMP with the scarlet letter of shame. Despite new management, I would avoid them- unless you have a serial problem getting accepted by mainstream networks.