Definition

Paid traffic is website visits generated through paid advertising — you pay the platform (Google, Meta, LinkedIn) when users click or view your ads.

Detailed Explanation

Channels: Google Search/Display/YouTube, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), LinkedIn, TikTok, programmatic display.

GA4 medium values: cpc, paid_social, display. Measure efficiency with CPC, CPA, ROAS — not just volume.

Nepal Context

Dollar-card billing and minimum budgets shape channel choice. Google Search for high intent; Meta for awareness; test ROAS before scaling spend during festival seasons.

Practical Examples

  • A dental clinic runs Google Search ads for “dentist Baneshwor” and pays only when someone clicks through to the booking page.
  • A clothing brand runs Instagram ads during Dashain and tags every link with UTMs so GA4 shows which creative produced orders.
  • A software company runs LinkedIn ads to a webinar sign-up page aimed at bank IT managers.

How to Check It

  1. In GA4, open Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition and filter by session default channel group: Paid Search, Paid Social, Display.
  2. Compare platform-reported conversions with GA4 and your CRM; large gaps usually mean tracking problems.
  3. Review cost per conversion by campaign monthly, not just clicks or impressions.

Key Takeaways

  • Pay-per-click or pay-per-impression — stops when budget stops
  • Faster than SEO but requires ongoing spend
  • Track with UTMs + platform pixels for full attribution

Common Mistakes

  1. No conversion tracking — optimizing for clicks not revenue
  2. Scaling spend before proving unit economics
  3. Ignoring organic/paid overlap on branded terms