What's Working In 2015? Traffic Sources And Verticals EXPOSED. (56)
What's Working In 2015? Traffic Sources And Verticals EXPOSED.
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, 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, 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, Decisive 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 mid $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 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 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!
Excellent write up. Perfect timing too. I'm planning my attack on the mobile market and this definitely gave me an eye opening on what verticals to consider jumping in on. 2 thumbs up 
🏻🏻
Wicked Recap - great reminder for everyone on how things constantly change in this industry, staying ahead of the curve is key.
You can also check out this thread for a pretty comprehensive list of traffic sources: List Of Traffic Sources - the thread has a collaborative google doc of sources to check out!
@HenryF5 - yeah, it's a fast-moving industry. Which is what generates the opportunities, of course - there's always something new rising that hasn't already been thoroughly exploited.
Currently my bets for "next big thing to come" (in other words, it ain't here yet) are split between one of the social platforms - although these days very repressive advertising terms seem to be de rigeur for any platform opening up to ads - video, which has been the "next big thing" for ages and still hasn't come of age yet - and potentially audio. I'm seeing some very interesting stats on in-podcast advertising, and it's a fast growing medium with a very engaged audience.
@caurmen Thank you, great review! Is there a guide on pin submits anywhere on the forum? If not, would you mind just briefly explaining how these offers work?
Originally Posted by kathy_k
@mobpilot: Thank you. What do users get in return?
Originally Posted by kathy_k
They may also get a couple of free wallpapers!
Amazing info Caurmen! What are your / other people's thoughts on native advertising? If I understand correctly a lot of the traffic on fb (especially mobile) is native advertising and other traffic sources are starting to offer it.
Great post Caurmen, great to have an overlook of the current standings in the industry from you guys.
I have a question about changing vertical. I have been doing app installs since I started (back in feb).
I have had successful campaigns and have actually had a few campaigns recently (for the same offer) running in steady profit for nearly two months now. However it has been mainly xx/day but have also had some low xxx/day.
I have seen less and less options coming on like you mentioned and with restrictions getting tighter etc I have been thinking I should change vertical.
My question is this: do you think it is justifiable to change vertical now to pin submits/sweeps even though I haven't had a massive amount of success with app installs or perhaps mastered the vertical? I have always stuck to the guidelines set by you guys and I know that there is a big emphasis on not changing vertical until you have fully mastered it.
Would be great to know your thoughts, whether changing verticals is too soon or changing verticals would be a fine decision at this point.
Thanks!
^^^ there is no reason not to test other verticals.
@lionheart - I didn't list native advertising as it's something that's still flying under the radar at the moment as far as AM is concerned.
It's definitely got potential, and I know that some people are having some success with it. If you fancy a challenge and don't mind flying blind, I'd say test it.
FYI, I'm going to be starting on some native advertising tests soon, so I may know more in a few months.
@baggins - you've gotten to profit with the vertical you're in, so I'd say that you're fine to start testing a new one.
However, are you sure you can't scale the current offer more? Make hay whilst the sun shines...
Thanks Caurmen, I'll certainly do that.
In terms of scale, I am still pushing it as much as I can. It is an area that I have found difficult and one of the issues being that the offer works well on redirect traffic but as pop traffic, I am finding it very difficult to get it to profitable.
This is the first campaigns I have had a chance to have a go at scaling.
I haven't been able to find much scale in terms of redirect traffic out there for the GEOs I am working in. I run on zeropark, redirect.com, dntx and a couple of others but there doesn't seem to be many out there. Apart from Zeropark, volume is pretty limited and the estimated impressions per day with the highest bid is dramtically different to what I am getting.
I wish I could spend more and get more volume but it has been pretty touch, especially with a low payout offer.
Zeropark has produced the main bulk of my profits, and I have tried different techniques, like bidding super high to unlock placements that were not visible to me before with really good CVR. That has made a difference but not massively.
I am constantly split testing and improving my landers though so I can bid higher and unlock more. I have been relentlessly trying to replicate the campaigns as pops but still haven't made it work but if I did, then that would be great as there is a lot more traffic to be had there.
Big rant, but I have tried a lot and am still trying and it has been a great learning exercise. I also can't complain that I have had this offer running profitably for so long when before I would have a couple of days and then paused haha.
@caurmen
I'm starting the mobile cookbook and i was looking to get a good app install offer to start with. Reading this bit, i assume i better go with sweeps or PIN submits?
/noob
Originally Posted by caurmen
For those interested, there's a great thread here on Native Ads from a few weeks ago: Content Marketing vs Native Advertising
Thanks for your post caurmen.
On "not changing vertical until you have fully mastered it" as mentioned by baggins and mentioned a lot on STM...
I'm at around -70% in PoF. Started around January, but I've only spent less than 900.
Given that I've hadn't really made this profitable/mastered this vertical yet, would you advise on sticking with this one until it's profitable or perhaps I should try another traffic source/vertical?
I really want to master a traffic source/vertical. I do not want to "jump around", but I do not want to miss on learning what's working now either.
Any advice on what I should do?
Great write up, thanks caurmen. You've helped make my mind up, time for some sweeps/pin submits instead of app installs!
pop traffic mentioned here is mobile pop or desktop pop (50onred, leadimpact) ??
Great article caurmen.
but i think you missed one of the top niches which is eCommerce 
there is no doubt that the verticals you listed above indeed grow the past year and are very profitable verticals but the growth of the eCommerce niche in the past 2 years was Epic and you can all see this by the numbers that have break the records on every special sales days.
in the past 2 years.
@affiliaxe - when you say "eCommerce", what sort of offers are you talking about? I've not really run across it as a huge vertical in PPC - as opposed to organic traffic, where physical goods can indeed be huge money.
@Noel P - I'd say stick with it. $900 isn't a lot of spend. Start a follow-along if you don't have one already, write up what you're doing, and the STM community will help boost you to profit!
Hi Caurmen
when I say eCommerce I'm referring to offers such as aliExpress / Alibaba / Lazada / DealExtreme / Amazon etc...
the offers will be mostly based on CPS or Rev-Share Deals.
here is an example for the power of this vertical:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ali...day-2014-11-10
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...amid-discounts
The above example shows the potential of the eCommerce vertical.
How many verticals do you know that can generate $9 billion in sales in 24 hours???
Search / Display / Social are working very well for these offers, just need to make sure you are in line with the advertisers restrictions
Hi, I'm a new AM and I always love Facebook marketing. I almost start my AM career on adult but after read this post I believe it's not the right choice. So after this I decide choose the source that I love, Facebook. Is Facebook a good choice for a newbie?
@12greyn12 - Facebook's not a bad choice. It's not the hottest right now and there's always the risk of losing your account - read up on that before you decide to dive in. Plus, it's not super-cheap. However, other than that, it's a good source with good-quality traffic, and plenty of people have made their money there.
Adding to that - every campaign that has a subscription based model, preferably with a free trial first (eg 5 days for free) works very well as well. Best example of this are the video on demand campaigns.
Apps keep on doing very well but most advertisers are now working only with a few partners + have monthly budgets they distribute only to these few partners + focus way more on quality than last year which might result in some sources being cut off (whereas last year they would be allowed to keep going).
Regarding traffic FB and GDN remain huge and big money can be made on them but rules are getting tougher and keeping it 100% whitehat is getting harder and harder.
Overall I'd say the industry from a standpoint of "what works and what doesn't" hasn't changed that much since last year - no really radical changes, more like step by step evolutions
Thanks for the answer Carmen. If you were a newbie with a few money which traffic source would you choose?
@12greyn12 - I'd be torn between pops and mobile. If it was me specifically I'd go for pops, because I have a skillset that works well with them (server and page optimisation and general Technical Tricks), but that's not general advice.
Great information! Can i see somewhere a explanation about the meaning of different verticals and traffic sources?
Carmen...What is your vision on the barrage of ad-blocking apps for mobile?
Are these ad blockers for mobile pops and install banners or mostly website ads?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/propelle...ges-1443115929
...and related articles
@Spartanen - a vertical is the category of offer - diet, dating, games, etc. A traffic source is the place you buy ad impressions from. Does that clear things up? Let me know if not and I can explain more.
@mikrob- big topic. I'm on mobile at the moment, will answer when I'm back at my desk tomorrow.
@MikroB - OK, back at my desk. So, the key thing with the rise of adblockers right now is that we just don't know what's going to happen.
Go2Mobi posted something a couple of days ago showing that iOS traffic actually hadn't dropped too much after iOS9 came in, at least as far as they can see so far.
Obviously, native advertising is a good thing to be looking into, as it's not affected by adblockers in the same way. Likewise, any site that serves its own ads is going to be significantly less affected, particularly if they do so in a mobile app - Facebook being the obvious example, and YouTube being another.
On the whole, I can actually see the adblocking thing being good for affiliates - it'll shake things up in the advertising sector, and where there's change there's opportunity.
Advertising companies are going to roll out new products, and entirely new ad companies will start up, to contend with the rise in adblocking. And one of the biggest advantages we have as affiliates is that we move so much faster than the brands - so when those new products arrive we can get in there, figure out how they work, and make money before the massive brand buys start ratcheting up the prices.
So keep your eyes peeled, but don't worry too much yet.
@caurmen - Thanks for that answer!! I like what your saying and your totally right!
@caurmen you rock!!!! Other quistion.
I can put adds on Facebook (traffic source), but mobile is a traffic source also!?!? Isnt it that "Facebook on a mobile" is the traffice source?
Facebook is a traffic source.
Mobile just means on mobile devices, it's not a traffic source but is often inferred directly as connectivity and as a category of traffic (a bit of a misnomer that will never disappear).
@Zeno thanks!!!
Hi,
Is there anyone can refer me for Mobvista?
Thanks
Originally Posted by caurmen
@ericnyc - Google doesn't love affiliate offers period. Specifically, they don't like "thin landing pages" which do nothing but link to an affiliate offer. They also don't link direct-linking to most affiliate offers, although that's a little less cut-and-dried.
You can run a lot of affiliate stuff on AdWords - just Google "Life Insurance" to see examples of people doing just that - but you need to be quite clever about it. The standard ad -> lander -> offer approach usually won't cut it.
If you're advertising with Adwords you also need to obey all their rules on landing pages - that means you need a privacy policy, contact page, and so on.
(If anyone else who is more specialised with Adwords wants to chime in and correct or add to this info, btw, please do so! )
Let's say i do have an affiliate offer that works direct linked. Very low cvr but workable. The offer is 100% white hat. Major brand advertiser.
My main concern is that affiliate networks use the same tracking domain for 100s if not 1000s of offers. So if someone is running diet, skin, muscle etc and Google flags that domain as spam and bans that affiliate's account it will then see me running 100% legit offer using the same domain and will ban my account thinking it is the same person with multiple accounts.
Thoughts/recommendations?
Originally Posted by ericnyc
Custom tracker URL might not work depending on how smart Adwords is about redirects - my guess is "quite smart". I could be wrong, though - has this worked for you, @thuglife?
You could always go direct with the advertiser if that's an option. That may be the best way out of this one.
Or talk to your aff network and see if you can get a different URL for the offer. You'll probably need to be doing volume first in order to have that conversation, or have a really good relationship with your network, but that's another way around the issue.
That's awesome!
You are huge, man!
Thank you!
Any thoughts on the Gambling vertical ? We don`t seem to quite pinpoint the best traffic sources for our products, any help/advice would be much appreciated
TFS. awesome info
@primeone - Gambling's evergreen but very competitive. I'm not an expert, but other people in this forum are - I'd suggest creating a separate thread and asking that question specifically. You'll probably get some great insights.
(Oh, also, check out the thread on the Bitcoin-based traffic source which has been running. I believe there's a lot of Bitcoin-specific gambling which might be an interesting sub-vertical to get into. Don't know much about it, though.)
What do you mean that its not accessible for conventional affiliate?
hi Caurmen
Please disregard my previous reply.
I understand what you mean by conventional affiliate. I have a dedicated account manager, I'll speak to him regarding my new campaigns. I've always used paid search but hopefully I can move to display network which I ahve been trying to enter for 2 years but failed numerous time.
This post is still valid in 2018?
Pop traffic is dead?
Originally Posted by marcello007
LeadCloak
Pop traffic is dead?
Hi,
Very interesting- is there an updated review for 2019-2020?
Originally Posted by mayadefr
Is there a "What works in 2021" thread?
Yes, you take last year's link and change the year:
https://stmforum.com/whats-working-2021/
Originally Posted by i2raelgil
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