Popunder advertising remains one of the highest-volume traffic formats for many verticals. However, campaign performance depends on traffic quality, audience targeting, frequency management, and the ability to reach users across different browser environments. In this guide, we explain how popunder advertising works and what factors to consider when choosing a traffic source.
What Is a Popunder Ad?
A popunder ad is an advertising format that opens a new browser tab or window after a user interacts with a webpage. Unlike traditional pop-up ads, a popunder remains behind the active tab, allowing users to continue browsing without immediately interrupting their experience.
Popunder advertising is commonly used by advertisers looking to reach large audiences and drive additional website traffic. Campaign performance often depends on factors such as traffic quality, audience targeting, frequency settings, and landing page relevance.
Popunder network connects relevant website publishers with advertisers and thus can be an effective way to advertise products or services online. However, they can also be annoying to users if they are not apt to the content of the website they are visiting. This is why it is important to choose the right popunder script with an anti ad-block solution.
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How Traffic Quality Affects Popunder Campaign Results
HilltopAds has developed its own popunder script and ad delivery technology, which helps your ads reach the target audience across different browsing environments, including cases where users rely on content-filtering tools.
The level of user activity also matters and depends on how many times they have been exposed to your popunder ads. If a user has seen an ad fewer times, their activity is likely to be higher. HilltopAds offers popunder traffic segmentation that allows you to target users based on their activity level, with three options to choose from: high activity traffic (higher CTR, lower volume, and above-average cost), medium activity traffic (average CTR, volume, and cost), and low activity traffic (lower CTR, higher volume, and lower average cost).
Choosing the Right Traffic Activity Segment
HilltopAds has implemented a new unique development in the system that eliminates traffic sources if bots and cheats were detected, and distributes the remaining sources into 3 segments:
High activity
This segment contains the highest-quality traffic sources and is designed for advertisers focused on engagement and conversions. By choosing this segment, your ads will be shown to a highly active audience that is generally more likely to interact with offers The system continuously monitors traffic quality and automatically adjusts traffic sources when quality signals change.
Medium activity
This segment contains users with an average activity and quality score. It can be a good choice for advertisers looking to expand their reach while maintaining a balance between traffic volume and performance. It is also suitable for campaigns that use Blacklists and Whitelists.
Low activity
This segment contains users with lower activity levels but still represents valid traffic. It is typically chosen by advertisers who prioritize reach and traffic volume while keeping costs lower.
Improving Popunder Campaign Performance
It is very important to consider the relevance of the advertisement to the content of the website. If popunder ads are not apt to the content of the website, then users are more probable to find them irritative and may be more likely to use an ad-blocker to block content locker or popunder.
To ensure that your ads are relevant to the content of the website, you should consider using contextual advertising. Contextual advertising uses keywords to match advertisements to the content of the website. This provides that your ads are relevant to the user and are more likely to be clicked on.
In addition to using contextual advertising, you should also consider using retargeting. Retargeting allows you to target users who have already visited your website or have shown an interest in your products or services. This ensures that your ads are more likely to be clicked on and can help to increase your conversion rate.
Best Practices for Popunder Campaigns
When using popunder ad, it is also important to consider the user experience. Like any advertising format, popunder campaigns tend to perform better when they are relevant to the audience and used with appropriate frequency settings. To ensure a positive user experience, you should consider the following:
Use frequency capping
Limit the number of times your popunder ads are displayed to each user. This ensures that your ads are not too intrusive and do not annoy the user.
Use appropriate ad sizes
Use ad sizes that are appropriate for the content of the website. This ensures that your ads are not too large or too small and do not interfere with the user’s browsing experience.
Ad formats
You can choose desktop or mobile ad formats when setting up a campaign. If you need both, then you should create two campaigns for each format.
Here is a quick guide to set up a popunder campaign inside your personal account. This is the top ad format for many verticals and is chosen by many advertisers, and with good reason.
- Go to Manage Campaigns section in the left-hand menu
- Click Add Campaign
- Choose ad format: Popunder desktop or Popunder mobile
- Select traffic channels: Mainstream or Non-Mainstream 18+ (High, Medium or Low)
- Name ad campaign
- Fill in the Final Destination URL field (your domain starting with http)
- Choose targeting options
- Check Traffic Volumes to find best fitting pricing model
- Press Add campaign button
If you need help choosing traffic sources, targeting settings, or bid levels, your account manager can provide recommendations based on your campaign goals.
All campaigns must comply with HilltopAds advertising policies and terms of service.