Affiliate Marketing Verticals: What to try aside CPS?
Many publishers start their journey in affiliate marketing from different verticals, but in the end, many come to one conclusion – CPS offers are the most profitable in the long run. But what to do if you do not have time for that “run”?
Before moving your efforts to travel or e-commerce you may want to test the waters with other types of affiliate programs, which are a lot.
Focusing your advertising efforts on one niche is crucial for affiliate marketers, especially when starting out; you can expand into other verticals once you have mastered your first. So in this case the truth of the phrase “find your niche” is absolutely established.
There are two main verticals in affiliate marketing: mainstream and adult. And while for adult it’s quite straightforward: basically, any offer that’s possibly related with adult content, such as adult dating, adult videos, adult glamour, etc., there is a wide range of subcategories for mainstream. So let’s get clear on them together!
1. Mobile content
Mobile content has been a very successful vertical for affiliate marketers for many years, no doubt about it. As the technology of mobile became available to more and more users from all over the world, it’s obvious that market is expanding constantly and the new offers are being created to fulfill its demands. In mobile traffic you can rely on push notifications, pop-unders, banners, display, redirects.
The benefits of mobile traffic is that it’s very profitable and you can optimize for carriers and operating systems. These offers can either be subscription based (CPA) or require the download of an app from the Google Play Store/Apple App Store (CPI).
2. Sweepstakes
“Win an iPhoneX! Get a free gift card for 200$!” Who hasn’t bumped into such promising banners while surfing the web? And who didn’t feel the temptation to eventually try your luck and fill out the form? That’s what this sub-vertical is all about. Sweepstakes are a type of contest where a prize may be awarded to a lucky winner. The most common types of it are the following:
– CPL. The offers don’t require any purchase on the user side. Users just need to fill a form submit or simply enter their email address (CPL) which makes it all seem super appealing.
– CPS (subscription with credit card). Netflix subscriptions is the best example of how it works. The most common flow is Card + free trials.
3. Antivirus
This sub-vertical is all about that awesome piece of cool software that’s gonna keep the user’s device safe. The promotion of this kind of offers often includes the use of engaging and alarming pre-landers on pop traffic, created to grab the user’s attention. Most of these offers can be adapted to fit almost any audience out there (both Adult and Mainstream.)
4. Games
These offers are mostly for mobile content. Good creatives and galvanizing pre-landers are definitely a must for this sub-vertical. You can find games where users need to install the game on their phone (CPI) or even subscribe (CPA).
5. Gambling
Poker, sports bets, casino games-everything that makes the user addicted is worth promoting. here are a ton of very high paying offers that you can promote in almost every country. Although, promoting casino offers can be challenging due to advertising restrictions. Affiliates constantly have to work around Facebook disabling their advertising accounts due to policy violations. However, with high paying offers, affiliates do not need to make many sales to earn big. However, you should remember that gaming industry is hugely influenced by brands.
6. Crypto
While it may seem that Crypto has taken a bit of a dive, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t interested anymore. There are plenty of verticals available that enable people to make a profit off of rises and falls in Bitcoin prices. Cryptocurrency trading platforms are still hot, and plenty of people still want to get involved in cryptocurrencies. Crypto offers target a similar audience to casino verticals (see above) and, as a result, you should see good results when using the same angles for both. Of course, it’s always best to split test and make changes wherever necessary.
7. Nutra
Nutra is a broad vertical. It’s all about health, dietary supplements, weight loss, and skin care products, but also some adult products such as male enhancers. The most common models are CPA (subscription/rebills, commonly following a free trial period) or CPS (straight sales or cash on delivery.) These offers tend to work best on Facebook, Google AdWords, or native traffic.
8. Dating
There are different types of dating offers out there: adult offers and others which are more mainstream-oriented. Such offers are usually based on CPL (leadgen offers based on data submission), CPS (subscription with credit card), or CPA (carrier billing). These offers now tend to work better on display rather than pop traffic, even though pop can be worth a shot, depending on your traffic source. Due to the need of filling out contact details and match-making forms, which is more comfortable to do at home, protected from curious eyes, dating works particularly well on Wi-Fi traffic and can also have a decent performance on desktop traffic.
Final thoughts
We have shared our predictions on what verticals will be the most profitable in 2019 here!
Now, you’ve got everything you need to think about a winning strategy in your particular niche, as we truly believe that marketers are much better off specializing in one concentrated area than to try and advertise everything and achieve mediocre results. You know you can always contact us for more ideas, tips, and advice on how to find success in affiliate marketing!