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What Verticals And Traffic Sources Are Working In 2017? (48)

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Want to know where you should be focusing your efforts in 2017? Well, you're in the right place.

Welcome to our annual report on the state of Affiliate Marketing, what's working, and what's no longer working as well.

Let's get to it.



Traffic Sources

The really big news for 2017 is that Facebook is back.

With a new performance marketing team aiming to get affiliates spending on the platform again (including volunteering to be grilled by me live at AWA ), and the rise of affiliate-style dropshipping stores, Facebook's back as one of the most attractive options for affiliates, both newer affiliates and experienced affiliates. I'm seeing a lot of people transitioning out of blacker-hat models into ecommerce on Facebook in particular.

I'll go into more detail on this below in the "verticals" section, but aside from ecommerce, we're also seeing more clarity on how to run nutra and bizopps on FB in particular, as well as third-party lead generation and ecommerce offers.

Of course, black-hat Facebook is still rolling too, but it's getting steadily harder, particularly if you don't already have the expertise and connections in place. White-hat FB is definitely the big news this year, and I'm working on guides for it, in a "Cookbook" style, coming soon.

I'd estimate almost half the affiliates I've spoken to for this article are either actively running FB now, or they're considering doing so.

As one rises, another one falls - and in this case, mobile display DSP traffic has been the real loser from 2017. I'm still trying to figure out exactly why that is, but the news from every affiliate I've spoken to is pretty grim: display's just not working anywhere near as well as it was, and most people have or are abandoning it.

Pop traffic, particularly mobile, is still holding very steady as one of the better sources, particularly for newer affiliates and those with a blacker tinge to their hat. The supply of new, higher-quality pop traffic hasn't slowed down from last year, and it's still one of the best traffic sources to get started with if you're new - although FB/ecommerce is now a good whiter-hat option too.

One thing that's worth noting about pop traffic is that it's quite volatile - campaigns don't last a long time - and currently has high competition. It's important, once you are regularly seeing profits, to start looking for an edge: whether that's finding newer offers in geos with less competition, out-automating your rivals, becoming an expert in one geo, or something else.

It's worth briefly mentioning the new Bitcoin-based ad platforms. I've not heard of much success coming from them yet, but it's a very new space with a very specific demographic - worth being aware of them.

My pick for the dark horse of the year would be Google Adwords. That's largely because of the opening up of the ecommerce space. Adwords has always been a monster if you get it right, and whilst we don't hear a lot about it, there are people out there making mind-blowing numbers on Adwords. It's also very much not a "hip" traffic source right now, meaning less competition, and non-affiliate advertisers are starting to get disillusioned with the high costs of advertising on the platform. I should stress that I don't have a lot of data to back this pick up, but my hunch is that there's serious money to be made with intelligent Adwords/ecommerce campaigns right now using the new ecommerce model - although you'll have to fight your way through the jungle of Adwords optimisation to get there.

Native hasn't really fulfilled its promise of becoming the big new traffic source, and with the mass-media concern over "fake news" it'll probably hit leaner times still this year. Having said that, it's still a reliable earner if you have the budget to test it - native works much better with higher-payout CPS offers, rendering it a poor choice if you're on a lower budget, but a worthwhile addition to your testing suite if you have the budget and work in those verticals.

Video still remains on the "mostly not cracked" list. I only know of one or two affiliates having sporadic success with it, and usually on Facebook rather than video-only platforms like YouTube. If there are affs making a killing with video, they aren't talking about it.

And finally, Adult really hasn't changed since last year. It's not setting the world on fire any more, but there are still decent profits in the sector, particularly if you're experienced with it. The major change in this space is the rise in new networks - there aren't just 5 stable adult traffic sources any more, so more searching for good traffic is required.



Verticals

So, ecommerce, then?

Yup, the biggest news of 2017 is the oldest vertical on the Web - Selling Stuff To People, AKA ECommerce. So what the hell's going on here?

Well, the short version is that a number of disruptive technologies finally reached maturity, and that means that it's much easier to sell things online than ever before. Indeed, it's so easy that you can take an affiliate-like approach to it, testing a lot of stores very quickly and sticking with the ones that work.

AliExpress means you don't need to order in huge quantities, and can in fact just drop-ship from a single huge source. Shopify is a fantastic platform that makes it very, very easy to set up a high-quality, respectable looking store. And third-party solutions like Oberlo can integrate directly with product sources, meaning all you need to do is pick a product and set a markup for yourself.

This is all a huge deal, and means that you can set up your own store using affiliate techniques and speeds of execution. Plus, you get all the advantages of a conventional business too - building a brand, repeat customers, and the possibility of an exit. A lot of conventional affiliates are going into this market hard, and it's set to be The Big Thing for 2017.

We'll have a lot more on this new-ish vertical as the year continues.

In terms of "traditional" verticals, PIN Submits and Sweepstakes are still going as strong as ever. International legislation is very slowly squeezing PIN submits, but it's barely noticable yet. These remain strong verticals particularly for people starting out, usually paired with pop traffic and sometimes with adult - adult mobile is largely dominated by PIN / carrier billing offers of one kind or another.

App installs are recovering a little bit, and some people are making good money with them. There are some big apps coming from China right now with huge potential. However, the key element for app installs in 2017 is having the connections necessary both to get onto fresh offers early and to monitor the quality of leads and the offer owners carefully. If you're looking into this vertical, make very, very good friends with your AM, and make sure you're with a network that offers fast payments and keeps on top of the quality reports from the advertiser. Bad quality reports can result in a cascade of unpaid leads from the top down that can leave you seriously out of pocket.

The played-out app install offers that have been on the networks for years are, if anything, doing even less well than before. Avoid un-fresh app offers.

Dating continues to suffer from the twin blights of having very few fresh offers, and very few good traffic sources to run them on. If you're making money with dating at this time, good for you (and I'd be very interested to hear about it) but it's not a vertical recommended for anyone, really, unless you have a substantial edge at this point.

Adult Dating, on the other hand, is still working, although it's getting steadily more volatile. However, it's still the primary monetisation method for adult traffic in Tier 1 geos, and some new offers are coming out for previously uncovered geos (in Eastern Europe and elsewhere). Penis enlargement and live cam sites are also still viable offers on adult, with penis enlargement mostly on Tier 2/3 geos.

( On the subject of adult, if you're in the vertical keep half an eye on Virtual Reality offers. With millions of people now able to run simple VR via their phone and a headset, this sector has a lot of potential, and it's the rare adult vertical where people will actually pay for the product. Not a large vertical yet but keep your eyes on it for the future. )

Nutra is experiencing something of a resurgence at the moment, running on FB (carefully!) as well as pops and, in particular, native. High test budgets required because of the higher payouts, but a lot of people are doing well with it.

Finally, the following old-school verticals haven't gone anywhere, and are still quietly making various people a lotta lotta cash. We don't talk about them much on STM but that's not because they don't work - so do consider them!

• Clickbank digital products - more a collection of verticals than a single vertical. Still offering good payouts and new products arrive all the time. Higher payouts mean larger testing budgets, but CPS model also means stability.
• SAAS affiliate programs - usually B2B which can make running them with traditional affiliate techniques more tricky, but very profitable if you can get them working.
• Lead gen - a somewhat separate world from the conventional AM landscape, but one with MASSIVE demand and tremendously high potential profits. Not easy to get running, though, and in many countries also heavily regulated in several sub-verticals (insurance, legal, etc).
• Casino - evergreen and pretty much unchanging. Very profitable, very competitive, requires high test budgets. Runs well through a variety of traffic sources.
  

And that's it! What are you seeing working on 2017? What do you think we should be keeping an eye on for 2018? Let us know below!

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Solid write-up Hugh, I know that many people have been waiting for this one! Great job

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Good summary and insights for 2017, now let's get to work guys!

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Nice one!

VSLs have a revival with SoftwareProjects and doing big damage on FB, Native, Email (Lotto, Diet, Fungus, Tinitus, ED, Diabetes...). All device.

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Video and Adult are no traffic sources ;-). But yeah, Facebook ads with Video instead of an image is killin'!

I am missing Bing, seems to me a "rookie" source for people who want to start with paid search. Less competition, cheaper clicks...

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Wow mate!! Great Job

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SaaS affiliate programs are something we've been looking into since the end of 2016. Takes a bit longer to actually get companies on board though, so it's a longer sales process usually. Will update with a case study if we get something noteworthy

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Caurmen, thanks for a great run down.

I haven't seen any case studies on aliexpress/ecom model to gauge how scalable it is?

Anyone care to claim bragging rights over the models revenue potential?

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This is a really good review for 2017 !!!
Was insightful and will be a pilot for many.....

So let me just add my opinions here, I think Binary/Forex is still solid, especially in GCC as this is not yet saturated.
I'm sure Loans & Payday are winding up (Not sure many people here is into that lol ) while Insurance is slowing down in the US....
Paypercall have been growing and have good expectations for 2017.
Toolbars/Installers is also doing well in many geos, especially for app owners with Bundle traffic

But overall, we all have a common ground for 2017 which is SUCCESS !!!

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i agree a lot of people are moving to ecommerce but many of them are doing it blindly and highly unprepared for the customer support side of things, and the payment processing... which is a real pain in the ass....sure its simple to set up a e-comm store but dealing with customers, refunds, complaints etc... is a pain and can get ugly.

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Gambling and nutra.

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For ecommerce aren't there two sides of it?

1) Ecommerce via Shopify/aliexpress where you need to also deliver product to the end user
2) "Ecommerce" via a network where you're just promoting products on a CPS basis

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WOW! A lot of great info in the post and comments. Thanks to all of you, and good luck in '17

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Thanks for the comments, everyone!

sebastian_r - interesting stuff. VSLs do seem to be where the success with video, such as it is, is at right now. It makes sense in light of YouTube's charging model in particular - given you get charged after 30 sec of viewing, you either want people to piss off before the 30 sec mark or stay for as long as possible after! The long-form sales letter returns...

stickupkid - interesting to hear! And yes, Bing is a decent traffic source - I always forget it because it's low-ish volume, but I've heard nothing really either bad or good about it this year which suggests it's trundling along as always. Anyone been running camps on Bing lately?

clickwork7 - a significant number of people have managed to scale ecommerce to high six figures or seven figures a year. We talked about this a little bit at AWA on the ecommerce panel, actually. Six figures is more common. That compares pretty well with "conventional" AM - lower peak daily figures, but more sustainability.

digitalraves - great info, thanks! I actually forgot to mention pay-per-call in the writeup - from what I hear it's another vertical that's quietly trundling along doing quite well.

freddyfortunes - absolutely. If you're getting into that area you've gotta be prepared to do customer service and deal with people.

tpm767 - yup, that's definitely true. Both sides are doing well but it's the Shopify side that's really taking off now.

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Great post! One question: when you say

does this mean FB has soften the policy a little to make affiliates run nutra?

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Binary was also big in 2016 however Israel is starting to crack down on these large binary firms! #s will likely drop in 2017.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/major-i...-shutting-down

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Hey caurmen and all,

1) what do you think is the best traffic source for ecomm/Shopify, in your opinion.
2) when do you think you will write about that more?

Thanks.

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As for niches, I believe bizopp is going to be massive for 2017 because of the insane shifts in the job market going on. Nutra as well, because of facebook's looser policies.

As for traffic sources, facebook is obviopusly going to continue to be massive, and i believe youtube is going to get cracked. I've been cracking it, and its basically completely open territory.

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1) facebook and adwords ... native for some niches
2) we will focus on ecommerce in the coming months for sure, more info on the subject is definitely needed

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If you're experienced enough to do both, start with Facebook to test your conversion rate. Keep optimizing until you hit your goal. Then expand to AdWords. Facebook is a pretty cheap testing environment. Throwing unproven creatives on AdWords can cost you an arm and a leg.

That's how I do it, but always test your own processes.

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Not exactly, but they're being more transparent with what you can and can't do, so there's less guesswork involved. We will hopefully have more news on that soon - watch this space!

I'd recommend starting off with Facebook for ecommerce, unless you already have adwords experience. That's largely because adwords is significantly less intuitive and there's a longer optimisation phase, gathering negative keywords and so on.

I'm intending to write more about ecommerce next month.

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Just do it. Thanks!

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Awesome post! Would be curious to hear from anyone killing it with video as well.

Agreed, and nice to see it mentioned - we did a write-up on VR the other day. It may not explode this year, but it's going to dominate the industry eventually... good to have it on your radar now. "half an eye" is a nice way to put it

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@Advidi - interesting post! I wasn't aware of VR as a dating platform, but it makes a lot of sense. It will be interesting to see how that grows!

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Awesome post! Thanks a lot caurmen!

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Youtube ads or having youtube groups/users with a lot of followers post your videos? I'm getting into ecommerce but haven't thought about youtube as a traffic source at all.

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Facebook is back and better then ever with their new features, you may want to check them out!

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Hey Caurmen,

I miss the old days of STM with the mobile cookbook and the old but gold guide in POF back in the day. I'm a little bit sad that these type of information has been eclipsed by the STM Aff. Mastery Challenge. Is there going to be any of these type of guides in the future?

best,

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Wow. Awesome guide.

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@bimoca - yes, there definitely will be. They take some serious time to develop, but I'm starting to work on an ecommerce/FB one at the moment.

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No problem - glad it helped!

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Very detailed. Thanks for sharing. -Chris

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Hi,
When you were talking about people doing Big Numbers on Google Adwords -
a). Were you talking Google Search or Google Display?
b). Do you know if those people with big numbers were able to do it without cloaking?
c). Do you know if they were doing other verticals apart from Setting up their own products (i.e. eCommerce )

thanks !

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Good questions!

a) Search.
b) Yep, cloaking-free.
c) Yes. Obviously I can't reveal the details, but it wasn't exclusively eComm.

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Thanks for giving more details.

I do have some follow-up questions. I'd really appreciate any information you could give me -

[1] When you say they are 'killing it' - can you give ball back figures (profit per day or spend per day).

For example - when I first start doing well, I thought I was killing it doing $500/day profit lol
And I was recently talking to one guy recently who knew someone doing $50k spend a day (but on google display).

[2] I can understand if you can not say what vertical they were doing, but could you give me any hint on whether they were doing
* Whether they were doing Pay Per Lead or Pay Per Sale or Per Per Call?
* Whether these guys were over several different verticals - or whether they went all in on 1 or 2 verticals/products?
* Whether anyone was doing big numbers just with affiliate products (not ecommerce or joint venturing with bricks mortar company)

Any information you could give would be awesome!

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Grass is always greener on the other side pal. 50k spend a day is "nothing" compared to the topshottah's.
Focus on your own thing, 500/day is very nice!

Some do it on CPL, some on CPS, some master 1 vertical, some master several verticals, some with just affiliate, some catch leads and sell them big time.

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@grofit - as far as ballpark figures, I'll say this - a hell of a lot more than $500pd!

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5) For us, Facebook

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@tonyliwami - I don't work for a network, I'm afraid

I'll have an update on this post for 2018 near the start of the year. However, broadly the advice remains the same from when this post was written. Pops have gotten tougher, Native has recovered a bit to be quite a promising source for a number of verticals, and contrary to my expectations AdWords remains much the same as it was at the start of the year.

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I'm back to at least help out with the dating offer side of things. I'm running this ship like I did at PlentyOfFish: transparency, honesty and integrity. If your traffic isn't great, I'll work with you to try and improve things and if it is great, you'll get bumps without even having to ask.

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essay

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Guys and for 2018?

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They just released a massive guide for 2018... I'm sure you can find it pretty easily.


https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...keting-in-2018





Andrew

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hi is thread is still good...or there is a 2018 version?

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Thanks!

Version 2018 thread :-
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...keting-in-2018



LeadCloak

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On the link below you can find the 2018 edition.

The Hottest Affiliate Marketing Trends of 2018

I think there is also a new dedicated forum thread for the 2018 edition but unfortunately, I cannot find it.

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Yup there is, leadcloak linked it already just a while ago : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...keting-in-2018

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