The number of “how to make money online” searches have increased enormously. There are more and more people asking RedTrack on how to act further not to lose the game, what affiliate marketing verticals to choose. Are you also afraid of the increased competition? Big companies that occupy the big share of traffic? The consequences of economic recessions?
Together with our partners, we created the supreme guide to Affiliate Marketing Verticals for marketers with genuine business acumen. We’re not pushing anything, but history shows this time is the best for experimenting and trying new ways to earn money.
For this reason, we’ve examined the main and most profitable affiliate marketing verticals and accurately placed all the insights into the 80+ pages guide.
⁃ Detailed overview of 11 affiliate marketing verticals
⁃ 80+ tips from Top managers of Top Networks
⁃ Examples of the most convertible banners by spy tool
⁃ Interviews with affiliates and industry experts
⁃ Bonuses from tracker, affiliate & advertising networks, forums.
We got in touch with the early readers of our Guide and asked them to share their favorite takeaways and insights. Since we compiled them in this blog post, we would be glad to know what are the key takeaways for you after reading the Guide. Share your thoughts on social networks and tag @RedTrack.io, we would be glad to repost them :).
1. GAMING VERTICAL
Interesting facts & stats:
- Around 50% of all consumers who spend on gaming are from the APAC region.
- 59% of online gamers install the game within a day of discovering it.
- The main reasons why gamers come back to a game are new features and additional levels 64% of players don’t mind watching the video in exchange for additional points, extra lives, and skills.
The most effective way to succeed with a gaming affiliate program is
… to play it yourself first.
Traffic Drivers:
- Run Smart pricing models (like SmartCPA) with the automatic traffic matching to figure out whether your offer is suitable for the selected traffic source.
- Do not neglect creatives\targetings optimization If you caught a clue of traffic performance.
- Keep in touch with your personal manager. In tandem, you’re able to skyrocket campaigns that seemed hopeless.
Expert Advice:
Don’t initially narrow your targeting, let your ad to get more coverage and nd out who may be interested in your product or service. After some time, once you’ve collected enough data to understand your consumers, you can then narrow down your targeting. However, it is also important to remember that with focused targeting, you can significantly reduce your traffic volumes.
2. SWEEPSTAKES VERTICAL
Interesting Facts&stats:
- Among available payment models, CC Submits perform the best, followed by Leadgen.
- Mobile and desktop traffic perform similarly with sweepstakes. The only difference is that mobile generates more volume, while desktop traffic often shows better performance.
- France, Sweeden, Norway, Denmark are one of the highest sweepstakes performers.
The most effective way to succeed with almost any sweepstake offer is
… to apply simple pre-landers in sweepstakes campaigns. Direct linking won’t cut it.
What’s trendy?
The two most popular sweepstakes offers are Apple products and shopping gift cards. Among coupons offers, email shopping coupons work the best. With this, SOI and DOI campaigns have been dominant long- term as they are easier to convert, but CC Submit campaigns have been making a resurgence in 2019.
Things you do wrong with sweepstakes:
- Create unclear rules of participation
- Make your landers incompatible across different platforms (mobile & desktop)
- Choose the prizes that are irrelevant to your target audience
- Declare no guarantee that the winners will be awarded Write poor follow-ups
- Doesn’t set limits on the number of entries
- Choose the bad timing (e.g. during holidays)
Learn more about your vertical
3. GAMBLING VERTICAL
Interesting facts&stats about the vertical:
- Generally, online casinos are the most profitable sub-category. However, they highly dependent on the day and the time of day. During hyped-up sports events like the World Cup, sports betting brings in the most cash.
- Experienced Affiliates focus on driving traffic to mobile apps because they generate a higher conversion rate.
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The most efficient traffic sources for the gambling vertical are SEO, context ads, Facebook, Instagram+apps, and Facebook+apps.
The most effective way to succeed with a gaming affiliate program is
… to play it yourself first.
Top-performing GEO:
Expert advice:
When choosing the vertical or product you wish to promote it’s important to think about the user’s state of mind.
He or she did not look for the product you are promoting, but they are looking for some recommendations that are suitable for them based on their interests. Make sure you intrigue them, and give them some information in the creatives that will eventually make them click and hopefully convert.
4. DATING VERTICAL
Interesting facts&stats about the vertical:
- Almost any ad format is good for dating except pop-unders/click-unders. Banners, native widgets, and push are the most effective formats for dating offers.
- Tinder, Snapchat, and other hookup apps, along with the evolution of push traffic, are moving users away from traditional dating websites. About 70% of the content in dating is offered via mobile devices
- The most pro table subcategories are mail-ordered brides, mature, and niche dating.
The best time to run Dating ad campaigns is
… Christmas until the end of January. Summer is a pro table time as well unless either a World Cup football championship or the Olympic games are happening
What’s trendy?
Pre-landers are being used in about 80% of ad campaigns, with 3 main ways to promote an offer:
– Interactive pre-lander (e.g. casino fortune wheel, choose a gaming character, etc.);
– Questionnaire pre-lander (widely used in dating);
– Advertorial pre-lander (success story, mostly used in trading and gambling funnels).
Expert’s advice:
There are several main factors that influence the payout of your offers:
1. SOI or DOI offer: DOI has a higher payout of up to $20 per lead.
2. Choosing between CPS and CPA? Definitely go for CPA.
You can’t be responsible for the entire sales funnel in dating. On traffic sources, you only buy impressions. And in the CPS model, you are dependent on the quality of the product.
CPS can be a great option only when you are already familiar with the advertiser’s ow and their ability to monetize users, and they like the quality of your traffic.3. The GEO of the user. Advertisers pay more for competitive GEOs. One of the most profitable approaches in affiliate marketing is to NOT focus on English speaking GEOs.
4. How old is your audience? The younger – the cheaper.
5. MOBILE APPS VERTICAL
Interesting facts&stats:
- The most popular mobile apps sub-verticals today are mobile gaming and social offers. They are growing exponentially, and affiliates receive high payouts.
- One of the most prominent mobile trends in 2020 is the trial payment model. Mobile app conversion models that rely on cheap tricks are rapidly losing ground, giving way to strategies that can leverage quality content.
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Google Mobile CPC: is 41% lower than Desktop one for the same term with the same bid, copy, matchtype, network, targeting, and landing page.
The most effective way to get positive results fast is
… to start with VOD offers (Video on Demand); the content is easy to create and to purchase.
What’s trendy?
Traffic on mobile devices has overtaken desktop traffic. So affiliate marketing verticals that were typically desktop products like sweeps, dating, and ecom have increasingly shifted to mobile formats. That will likely continue in the next few years.
Expert’s advice:
1. Keep track of winning and losing campaigns so you can learn from what you’ve done in the past.
2. Ask your Affiliate Manager. I was an Affiliate Manager for over 15 years. AMs have access to a lot of data (but probably not as much as you sometimes think). Reach out to your Affiliate Manager for advice on what is hot or trending.
3. Use spy tools to see what other people are running. I don’t advocate completely ripping someone else’s campaign, but I do HIGHLY recommend spy tools for researching the offers and landing pages that other people are using. Anstrex and AdPlexity are my two favorite spy tools.
6-11 AFFILIATE MARKETING VERTICALS.
Interested in learning more? Download the guide and Happy Reading:)
