What's Working In 2016? Traffic Sources And Verticals EXPOSED. (41)
What's Working In 2016? Traffic Sources And Verticals EXPOSED.
This post is outdated! For the 2017 version, click here!
Affiliate Marketing moves fast - like, really fast. What was making fortunes in 2010 will just get your Facebook account banned today.
That's why every year or so we at STM publish a guide to what's working now - not 3 years ago, not 6 months ago, now. And it's that time again!
I've surveyed the collective AM wisdom of STM's moderators, admins and owners, and here it is: our collective wisdom and experience on what verticals and traffic sources are best to get into right now.
NOTE: This isn't every vertical or traffic source that could possibly work. If there's a vertical out there, someone's making it work - but that doesn't mean it's the best vertical for you. And the aim of this guide is to highlight what's best and brightest in the AM cosmos right now.
Verticals
The vertical landscape has changed a lot since last year.
The big change is that app installs, once the hottest of hot verticals, have cooled off considerably. Payouts are down, and there aren't many new offers arriving. It's still possible to make money with app installs, but it'll be harder than it was last year.
If you're aiming to do app installs - and this applies to games too - get comfortable with App Annie, and get used to checking what stage of an app's lifecycle it's in. Don't try and push a tired app.
In place of app installs, two stars have risen: PIN submits and sweeps.
PIN submits in particular are really taking the place of app installs for a very similar approach - mobile-only and significantly more varied than the remaining apps. There are an increasing number of comparatively low-payout PIN submits - good for fast testing - and our mod team generally rates them as one of the easiest verticals to get rolling.
And Sweeps - sweepstake offers - have really come back from the dead this year. There's definitely a code to crack before you hit success in sweeps - see Mr Green's amazing guide to get a head start - but once you get the hang of them they've got near-infinite variety in angles, countries available, and traffic sources to which they can be applied.
Beyond that, most of the traditional verticals are chugging along, somewhat more saturated but still making money.
Adult is mostly unchanged from last year: still pretty saturated, and near-impossible to compete in if you try to go broad, but with a lot of opportunity if you niche down and aim for pockets of profit. However, conquering broad campaigns in adult is very tricky even for the most seasoned AM - the incumbents have been doing this for ages, and they have connections and payouts that a newcomer can't match.
Gaming (by which I mean MMOs and other similar games, not gambling) continues to roll on. It's one of the safest verticals on Facebook, as always. However, competition's pretty tough and success is dependent on great visuals and really understanding the market - see Zeno's many posts on the gaming vertical to get a head start, as well as the these gaming landers he recently shared with us. With gaming, also, the trick is spotting offers as they're rising and before they plateau - keep a close eye on your networks as well as the gaming news if you're getting into this. And pay attention to your audience: gamers aren't one audience in 2015 / early 2016, they're a thousand. If you're targeting Farmville players with Call of Duty language, or even hipster indie-gamers with Minecraft ads, you're not going to succeed.
(Finally, a bonus tip on gaming - watch out for advertisers who don't know that speed matters. Many gaming offer landers will be HUGE and slow - try to test faster ones first, complain to your AM about the slow ones, and generally be very aware of speed as an issue.)
Dating has taken a pretty serious hit with POF closing its doors to new members and FB kicking it off their service. I'm sure there are still people out there making it work, but it's a tough vertical to work in now. If you're sure you want to go into it, tight targeting and unique niches are the key.
And finally, Pay Per Call is quietly gaining steam and traction. Stay the hell away from Tech Support on PPC - at least one of our team couldn't recommend against that niche strongly enough. But PPC's an interesting, comparatively new vertical that hasn't really blown up yet, combining a number of very white-hat offers with the near-unique ability to run on Google. It's definitely worth a go, but be aware that it's comparatively uncharted territory: we don't have many guides for it yet. (Although one of my jobs for later on this year is starting to correct that!)
Traffic sources
Well here's something no-one expected to happen: in 2015 / early 2016, pop traffic is back on top.
We thought pops were dying in 2014, but with ZeroPark's continuous expansion and the arrival of new traffic sources like PopAds, they've experienced a new burst of life. (I'm including both pops and redirects in this category). These days they're arguably a better place to start than mobile DSPs. You'll need to pay attention to your page speeds and test, test, test, but if you can do that, riches await. Check out Ruby Tunes' great pops and redirects guide to get a head start.
After that, mobile DSPs still rule the roost for a combination of traffic quality, ease of use and scale. Go2Mobi, Avazu DSP and others are great places to get started, and many STM newcomers have hit their first profits using them this year. You've also got the advantage within that traffic source of the Mobile Cookbook to guide you from the start to massive scale.
Adult hasn't changed much, and adult-as-a-traffic-source obeys the same rules as adult-as-a-vertical, above. It's definitely not our primary recommendation for new affiliates, but it's far from the worst traffic source either. Don't jump straight into a massive buy on XHamster unless you're looking to lose your shirt! However, there are dozens of little pockets of opportunity around the many adult providers - if you're going into adult, hunt them out.
Facebook is a little more advisable these days than it has been in previous years, provided you're sticking strictly to white-hat campaigns (or, of course, have deep knowledge of other techniques). It still has a bit of a random banhammer problem, though - never assume that your Facebook campaigns are 100% safe. Zeno's super-complete guide to FB is an amazing resource here. As always, FB pairs well with games.
Google Adwords are back in the picture, but only really on a broad scale when paired with Pay Per Call. Other than that, they remain mostly inaccessible for conventional affiliate campaigns.
Video advertising was the future last year, and it's still the future this year. I know a number of people are experimenting with it - I'm one of them. Facebook video prices are particularly attractive in a lot of verticals. However, it's still hard to crack the video code, and specifically to get over the low CTRs that tend to dog video advertising. Don't go into this as your first traffic source unless you're sure you're the next Spielberg of affiliate marketing.
Other than that, POF has closed its doors to new advertisers, and large-scale media buys haven't gotten any cheaper. Small media buys negotiated with individual site owners are still a good tactic, and likely will remain so for many years, but they're hard work.
Strategy
AM is maturing as a business, and the strategies you need to use are maturing along with it.
Affiliate marketing is very definitely split into two tiers these days: the $xxx affiliates and the $x,xxx and above affiliates. The latter space is crowded and it's tough: if you're looking to move up into that space in 2015 / early 2016 you'll need to think hard about how you're going to acquire and keep an unfair advantage in whatever vertical/traffic source combo you decide to attack. You'll need originality and sheer force of will to make it work at this level: but don't be fooled, it's still doable if you have the drive, originality and dedication. Just don't expect to suddenly be making thousands a day two weeks after starting - AM doesn't work like that any more, if it ever did.
If you're still aiming to break in at the lower level - which is still good money - then the good news is that there's plenty of space there. As always, it's not easy: you'll need to study your competition, really figure out what's working, and systematically test to achieve success. It'll probably take months and $x,xxx in spend to achieve profitability. But at this level, the most important thing is to not give up.
I'd strongly advise affiliate starting in 2015 / early 2016 to aim at hitting stable $xxx profits before they try to make the leap to four figures. Network with fellow STMers, study dilligently, be careful to check all the elements of your campaigns, and success awaits.
On the subject of networking - teamwork is becoming increasingly important in AM. Very few $x,xxx and above affiliates work solo, and even at the $xxx level networking and teamwork are very useful. Mastermind groups and just frequent communication with fellow AMs helps smooth out mistakes and give you the all-important heads-up on something new as soon as possible. We've been tracking the solo vs group thing for a while, and it's clear that the tide is shifting to the point where it's nearly essential to be connecting and networking - that's why STM is starting to run much more frequent meetups around the world as well as expanding and improving our big conferences like Affiliate World Asia.
I hope that was useful! If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, let me know below!
Caurmen
By looking at the current scenario, i am more inclined towards Pin Submits and Sweepstakes.
What would be advisable for new affiliates like me to start with? I am only a month old in this industry.
I just need a headstart. After zeroing on the vertical, i will be moving forward.
Thanks
Both of those are good options for a new affiliate. PIN submits are probably a little easier, but either can work.
i will start working following this post The Mobile Cookbook: The Appetiser
which vertical start working ?!
and What Aff networks and Traffic sources do you recommend ?!
and any other of threads or tips must read to start
thanks
The Appetiser is a good thread to read through - check out the new Getting Started Guide when I launch it in a few days, too.
PIN submits or sweeps are good on mobile right now. As for traffic sources, there's a list in the post above - Avazu, Go2Mobi, Decisive are all decent options.
Hope that helps!
PIN submits or sweeps offers needs a LP , and tracking ... maybe ?!
so The Appetiser is about direct offers like mobile application on play store , and no tracking needed
that's good For a small budget.. ! That's right ?
i decide to work whit mobile games offers and start whit decisive traffic source
so any of another advice like CPA network for this offers ?!
any another tips to complete my aim Help me
Thanks
I think Pay-Per-Call is going to be here to stay. A lot of the campaigns are evergreen - plumbing, law, home services - as long as call quality is consistent, I think these are campaigns that, once profitable, can run for a VERY long time.
Keep in mind, too, that there is value beyond just working with the main Pay-Per-Call networks. If you can get a law, home services campaign profitable, even if the offer does expire, you can pitch any small business owner on buying your calls.
Again, this is what is so attractive to me. If the offer is ever pulled, there are thousands of people out there who would love to buy your qualified calls, and by cutting out the middleman, you'll make more cash by getting more per call.
The more difficult thing about pay-per-call is that you need high-intent traffic, so we're looking at adWords and adCenter. The traffic is expensive, and even if bidding low, you're going to need a more substantial testing budget - at least a few k in my opinion, to be able to collect meaningful data.
Again, though, I think we're in the infancy of Pay-Per-Call. I think we're going to see explosive growth with new verticals wanting a piece of the action very soon.
This guide answered my 100 questions in one post.
@onlinemoniez - I agree. Pay-Per-Call is a very exciting vertical, particularly because it's so new, and shows so much potential for long-term growth. Also, it's very nice to have another 99% white-hat vertical available!
Thank you caurmen for doing this!
Truly epic post! Funny how things come back into style (pops & sweeps). It's like 2009 all over again...
Does any particular affiliate network have good pin submit offers?
affiliaXe has pin submit offers that are doing great in various GEOs.
For sure this vertical is hot right now.
Sounds like I am going to be signing up to affiliaXe. 
It's interesting there's no mention of native ads or Gemini etc in here. Got to be one of the growth stories of 2015 (for affiliates anyway).
Originally Posted by dynamicsoul
Originally Posted by dynamicsoul
Can any of you guys gime a link to native ads please
Here's an overview of our native ads in particular. As well, Mashable has an infographic that gives you a high level view of what native ads are, exactly.
Alex there's not just one source there's tons
few main / obvious ones
taboola
rev content
content.ad
MGID
Thank you guys
Native ads are really interesting, and are on my list for a future STM case study. I've dabbled with them, but don't yet have a strong sense of their profitability - if someone who has been using them fancies sharing some info, that'd be awesome.
Originally Posted by caurmen
- Performance is great on native, so as a result prices are pretty damn high. Lots of advertisers have seen conversions but the numbers just don't back out due to the high costs of the traffic. So basically, running a utility app install campaign on native is probably not the best idea. It might convert, but you will not be able to scale profitably
- Lead gen has been working very well on native in general
- The best flow has been native ad --> advertorial style lander --> offer page. I kind of think of it as a "native flow"...users probably don't even know they clicked a paid advertisment even as they're working their way down the conversion funnel
Just a few thoughts from the inside! I'd love to see an STM case study on these ad units
Thanks Caurmen for the great read! Always great to get an incite of whats hot and whats not!
Tech support still crushes and isnt dying anytime soon.
Some of the top native traffic sources to run on where there scalability are content.ad, revcontent, outbrain and taboola.
Great post here caurmen, I agree on pretty much all your points without a doubt and can confirm, from an affiliate network standpoint, that pins and especially sweeps have been doing great thus far in 2015 and even well back in to 2014 as well. However, I've also seen some mobile ad networks buckling down on approvals for content subscription offers aka pin submits. Seems to be ways around this but could definitely be a minor hiccup there for anyone just jumping in on pins.
Also, to your point about avoiding saturated app installs, which I fully understand your logic on, do you not think there's also some upside and opportunity to promote apps that might very well be saturated such as say Draft Kings? For me I feel like the amount of money companies like this (and even gaming apps like Game of War or 'taxi' services such as Uber, Lyft, etc.) are putting behind their TV, Radio and Print budgets can only help when promoting their mobile apps. Obviously banner blindness could be an immediate hinderance for these type of apps if you're just launching and testing campaigns but I think there's also opportunity to ride their coattails so to speak, especially if you can tap into any new markets/geo's that these companies may just be jumping into themselves. Love to hear your thoughts on this. Cheers!
@Ryan Hurry - If you can find a new geo for a high-profile offer, that's definitely gold dust, agreed - I've had very solid success with just that approach in the past. (Great tip - everyone, ask your AMs about saturated apps that are expanding into new marketplaces!)
Likewise, if you can find a new angle on a saturated app that gets you into a new market (or, of course, a new, untapped traffic source), that's a very good thing.
Great points!
Amazing thread that covers a lot!
Thanks for putting together!
Originally Posted by Go2mobi
I did try to signup for go2mobile but site does not work.
Yes I am, and it's coming very soon - in Jan.
Originally Posted by caurmen
Any estimate on when the new report will be out for 2017? Looking forward to seeing it!
Next week or the week after. I'm drafting it right now.
Amazing review. Waiting for the new one for 2017 as well. When it will be?
Here's the 2017 one!
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...orking-In-2017
Thank you very much!!
Could you please explain what pop traffic and mobile DSPs are?
Originally Posted by vikram
And quick definition of mDSPs :
One more interesting threads about mDSP :https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...different-dsps
Originally Posted by matuloo
Thank you very much matuloo!!
Another newbie question. Are Mobile DSP and Mobile Display the same or have anything in common?
A DSP is a Demand-Side Platform: it's a technical term for an ad network offering ad space on a programmatic basis. Mobile Display refers to banner ads or similar ads on mobile, usually.
Technically a DSP can serve native ads, for example, as well. But most commonly they serve banner ads of one kind or another. So that's the connection - usually when people are talking about those two things they're talking about the same type of traffic, but not always.
Originally Posted by caurmen
Thank you very much!
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