This business has its own vocabulary and most of it is never explained anywhere, which suits the people who would rather you did not ask. Here are the solo ad terms you will actually run into, in plain English, alphabetical.
The software that holds your email list and sends your follow up emails automatically. You write the sequence once, and every new subscriber walks through it from the beginning, starting the moment they opt in.
Your autoresponder is also your most honest reporting tool. It records opt ins and it has no reason to flatter anyone, including me.
What you buy. One click is one person clicking the link in the email and arriving at your page. You pay per click, not per email sent, which means you are buying arrivals rather than impressions.
Total spent divided by the number of people who opted in. The most useful number in your whole campaign, because it combines the price you paid with the quality of the traffic and the quality of your page into one figure. The full calculation is in solo ads ROI.
Earnings per click. Total revenue from a campaign divided by the number of clicks you bought. This is the number that tells you whether to scale. If your EPC is higher than what you pay per click, you have something worth feeding.
The stack of emails your new subscribers receive after opting in. My rule is twice a day for the first 30 days. Sales come out of the follow up, from emails you wrote before the traffic ran. See the solo ad follow up sequence.
The first purchase a subscriber makes, usually the lower priced thing that gets them from reader to buyer. It matters out of proportion to its price, because a buyer behaves completely differently from a subscriber afterwards.
The top of the three traffic quality levels. A high intent click comes from someone who read the email, wanted the thing, and went looking. These are the clicks that opt in and then actually open what you send them.
The thing you give away in exchange for an email address. Specific beats big: a short checklist that solves one problem will out perform a 200 page ebook, because the reader can picture using it. Covered properly in best lead magnets for solo ad traffic.
The bottom of the three traffic quality levels. Clicks from people who were barely paying attention or were nudged into clicking by something other than genuine interest. Cheap clicks are usually cheap because the intent is low. That is the argument in cheap solo ads.
The middle level. Real people with some interest who are not actively looking for what you sell. They can become buyers, but the work of convincing them happens in your follow up rather than on click day.
My standard option, and the one I recommend to start. Mixed Tier runs 90% or more Tier 1 and carries the best per click price. Remy LePage ordered Mixed Tier and his traffic came back at 98% Tier 1. His results are his own. Your results depend on your offer, your page, and your follow up. Comparison: Tier 1 vs Mixed Tier.
The percentage of clicks that turn into email subscribers. Opt ins divided by clicks. It judges your squeeze page and how well the email matched it. It does not judge your offer and it does not tell you whether you made money. See what a good opt in rate actually looks like.
One email, sent to somebody else's list, promoting your offer alone. No shared space, no banners, no other links. You pay per click. The full explanation is in what are solo ads.
A single page with one job: trade a promise for an email address. One promise, one field, one button, no exit links. It is where your solo ad traffic should always land, never straight at an affiliate offer. Build guide: how to build a solo ad squeeze page.
The page shown immediately after somebody opts in. The most ignored page in most funnels and one of the most valuable, because it is the one moment you have full attention from someone who has already said yes. Details: the thank you page.
Shorthand for traffic from higher buying power, English speaking countries. Buyers pay a premium for it because purchasing ability is generally stronger there. 100% Tier 1 is available and costs more than Mixed Tier.
Clicks counted one per person, rather than counting the same person clicking twice as two. Unique clicks are the honest count, and it is the number worth looking at on any stats page. How to verify it yourself: how to track solo ad clicks.
Traffic restricted entirely to the United States. It costs more than Mixed Tier and it is worth it only when your offer genuinely needs a US audience, for example when what you sell is country specific.
Knowing the words is the cheap part. The expensive part is running a real order and getting your own numbers attached to them.
Start at 500 clicks, the minimum for viable data on opt ins and sales. Mixed Tier pricing runs 100 clicks $55, 250 $112.50, 500 $225, 1,000 $450, 2,500 $1,125, 5,000 $2,000, and custom orders up to 10,000. I write the email myself on every order, and clicks start arriving within 24 hours.
Order 500 clicks and put your own numbers on these terms.
Network marketers run out of warm contacts and then start messaging strangers. Solo ads fill the top of the funnel instead. Here is how to set it up so the leads are yours and the follow up does the selling.
October 16, 2026 · 4 min read
People search for both and think they are the same thing. They are not. One puts addresses in your autoresponder that never asked for you. The other rents you attention and lets you earn the subscriber.
October 12, 2026 · 4 min read
A click is not a click. Traffic comes in three quality levels, low, medium and high intent, and the level you bought decides everything that happens after the opt in. Here is what causes each one.
October 11, 2026 · 5 min read