Why Media Buyers Rarely Last Past 30: A Survival Breakdown

Traffic arbitrage is like a high-performance sport. You burst onto the scene, in a couple of months achieve more than many do in years, and it feels like your spot on the Forbes list is guaranteed by default. But if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that plenty of media buyers “burn out” right at the start, never making it to a stable level.

Let’s honestly break down what this path is made of, and why it often turns out to be so tough — for your nerves, your health, and your mind.

Constant Pace on the Edge of Burnout

There’s no stability in arbitrage — you can’t just “sit out” a position and collect a paycheck. You’re either in profit, or you’re bleeding budget.

Every day feels like a marathon with sprints: searching for new offers, testing funnels, tracking conversions, creatives, caps, bans, fraud, traffic sources, accounts, limits. Any mistake costs money — sometimes a lot.

The brain gets used to living in “everything’s on fire” mode — and forgets how to rest. Even when you’re not physically working, your mind keeps running numbers and creatives. At some point, the body just says: Stop.

Stress 24/7

For most people, work ends in the evening. For media buyers, it never ends.

At night your account might get cut. In the morning, moderation rules change. By afternoon, a traffic source shuts down. By evening, your offer gets banned. And that’s considered normal.

Life turns into a never-ending anxiety feed, where every event is a potential loss in stats. Over time, anxiety becomes the default background state. You just learn to live with it… until you can’t anymore.

Money ≠ Stability

From the outside, it looks like media buyers are swimming in money. And partly, that’s true: profitable funnels can bring in thousands of dollars a day.

But here’s the catch — that profit can vanish at any moment. Bids jump, a competitor rips your creative, moderation shuts down your niche, the GEO burns out — and suddenly you’re back at zero.

It’s not a salary, it’s a roller coaster: today it’s five-star hotels, tomorrow it’s instant noodles. Living like that long-term is extremely hard.

Mind Under Pressure

Arbitrage is built on emotional swings from the start.

Every success feels euphoric, but every failure hits hard: “I messed up,” “I lost money,” “I’m a failure.”

The higher the stakes, the harsher the falls. Constant guilt and fear of failure wear you down. Add sleep deprivation, isolation, and lack of routine — and you get burnout. Quiet, but destructive.

Work = Whole Life

Almost every beginner in arbitrage dives into it headfirst. Friends, sports, sleep, hobbies — everything goes to the back burner.

And it works… but only in the short run. Over time, your brain demands a reboot, your body demands attention — and there’s no room left for them between tests, farming, and scaling campaigns.

In the end, you lose balance and even yourself: without offers and stats, you suddenly realize there’s barely any life left outside of work.

How Not to Burn Out Along the Way

If you’re in arbitrage and feel like “tired but still pushing,” that’s a red flag. Here are a few simple things that help prevent burnout:

• Plan work hours and set realistic deadlines
• Get proper sleep and take days off — even if “the campaign is running”
• Do something outside arbitrage: sports, hobbies, travel
• Delegate tasks instead of trying to handle everything alone
• Don’t take losses personally — they’re part of the game

Arbitrage is an exciting field, but it demands that you take care of yourself just as much as your budgets.

It’s easy to skyrocket here, but hard to stay in the game for long.
If you want to last the whole distance — learn to stop before it’s too late. Because no profit is worth a deficit in your health.