Ask ten media buyers for the best traffic source and you'll get ten answers, because they're all optimizing different offers. There is no best source - there's the one that matches your offer, your margins and how much optimization work you can put in. Here's how the main formats differ in the ways that actually affect results.

Pop and redirect

Pops are cheap, enormous in volume, and low-intent: the user didn't choose to see your offer, they got interrupted. That makes them a volume game won on price, targeting and aggressive creative testing. They suit broad, simple offers - dating, straightforward subscriptions - where a low per-visitor value still works because you're paying so little per visitor. If your offer needs the user to arrive in a buying frame of mind, pops will frustrate you.

Push

Push notifications reach users who opted in to a subscription list, so intent is higher than pops and the format feels more like a message than an interruption. Subscriber-list quality is everything: a fresh, engaged list converts, a stale one burns budget on people who never tap. Push rewards strong, punchy creative and suits offers that benefit from a nudge - re-engagement, timely promotions, dating.

Native

Native ads blend into content, so they draw a more considered click and carry higher perceived legitimacy, which matters for offers that need a moment of trust before the sell. They cost more per click than pops and demand real creative and landing-page work to pay off. Native suits content-led funnels and higher-value offers where a better-qualified visitor justifies the price.

Search

Search traffic is the highest-intent of the lot - the user is actively looking - but it's the most constrained, between filtering, limited inventory and the fact that mainstream paid search is closed to adult. Where you can get it, it converts; the catch is you usually can't get much. Treat it as a high-value trickle, not a volume channel.

How to choose

Match intent to your offer's need for it. Simple, low-value, high-volume offers lean pop and push; offers that need trust or consideration lean native and search. Then remember the source is only half the equation - the same traffic that fails for one buyer succeeds for another with better creative, targeting and a tighter funnel. Start small, measure the real payout per source, and scale the one that works for your offer, not the one that worked for someone else's.

The community is the fastest way to learn which networks actually deliver the format you need, and the directory rates them on exactly that.