The case for and against publishers buying paid traffic 

Publishers are quietly leaning harder on paid traffic to offset referral traffic declines, treating it as a lifeline for audience growth in a world where search referrals may eventually “go to zero.”

For many audience development teams, the question is no longer whether to buy traffic, but how far they can push it without tipping into the kind of arbitrage that buyers and made-for-advertising (MFA) blocklists now punish.

Publishers haven’t forgotten the paid-traffic reckoning of 2023, when the ANA’s report on MFA sites prompted agencies to slam the brakes on arbitrage inventory. That crackdown cast a long shadow over paid traffic in general, and even reputable publishers now approach the tactic far more cautiously for fear of being swept onto MFA blocklists. 

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Overheard: Revisiting the K2 Report on media agency practices like rebates and principal media

It’s been a decade since the infamous K2 report was issued by the Association of National Advertisers, which blew open the longtime opaque practice of media agencies holding onto rebates from publishers (instead of passing them back to their clients) as well as pursuing principal media under unclear contracts with clients.

And just as its longtime executives (including CEO Bob Liodice) are leaving, the organization decided to revisit the topic, and as Bill Duggan, ANA’s soon-to-depart evp said, get the band back together again. That included Jon Mandel, the legendary head of media for Grey Advertising, who in 2015 delivered a speech that laid bare the practice of agencies holding onto media rebates rather than passing them back to clients. 

But also showing up for the webinar were Richard Plansky, who was with the K2 organization when it assembled the report, Keri Bruce, a partner with Reed Smith who specializes in helping marketers with agency contracts, and finally Nick Manning, who’s been helping Richard Foster with his unlawful dismissal case against WPP Media. Manning has been an outspoken critic of the practice of principal media. 

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