Home > Paid Traffic Sources > Adult Traffic (NSFW)

Thinking about running ADULT Traffic in 2017? This is where you start! (34)

01-20-2017 12:59 PM #1 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)
Thinking about running ADULT Traffic in 2017? This is where you start!

I created this thread in order to help any aspiring adult affiliate to navigate the ADULT section of the STM Forum. There is a ton of threads in here and it can get hard to find what you are looking for. Especially when you don't know where to start or what path to follow.

So instead of having to guess what info is outdated and what is current … what to focus on and what to avoid … you can always check this thread and use it as a road map on your guest to profit in adult

1. THE BASICS

ADULT traffic is one of those areas that are Ever-Green, which means it always works to some extent. There are ups and downs all the time, but it's not a seasonal thing that could actually die at some point. People will always be looking for adult entertainment and advertisers will always be trying to cash in on that traffic.

Before you start to mess with ADULT traffic, you need to understand what it is, where you can get it and how to work with it.

First thing you should read, is this thread that I wrote some time ago : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-ADULT-Traffic It contains the basic info about this traffic type, along with a pretty long list of adult sources.

I wrote this thread some time ago, but all the information in it is still valid and will stay relevant for years to come. It also contains recommendations on what to promote on adult traffic and that info is still relevant too : Dating, Cams, Enlargement pills and Testosterone/Muscle supplements, PIN submit offers, Antivirus, app installs. BizzOp and Pick Up Artist (PUA) offers seem to be gone for now.

The next thread you should definitely read is the “Adult Do's and Don'ts” : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-Adult-Traffic This one contains a list of things that you should definitely do as well as those that you should definitely avoid. This is another thread that doesn't age.

2. CURRENT STAGE OF THE MARKET

Adult is pretty much always a competitive space full of affiliates waiting for someone to come up with the next big idea … so they can all copy it We didn't really see anything big in adult for quite some time now, Dating still dominates and pretty much everyone is promoting it by using the “rules” landers.

In case you want to understand why that particular lander works so well, check out this thread by Finch : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...to-Make-it-Pay It's amazing that this thread was written in 2013, but the rules landers still perform the best, almost 5 years in a row already.

In order to stay on top of the game, pretty much every large adult affiliate is spying on their competition. 2016 was a big year for Adplexity, which became the top player in pretty much all the large traffic areas including adult. There are no signs of their domination coming to an end, so I recommend them as the top spytool for adult for 2017 too. The official introduction thread for Adplexity adult is here, along with a discount coupon for STM members : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...ccess-Giveaway!

Looking at the largest adult sites or browsing a spytool for a few minutes will make you realize one thing : everyone uses similar banners, similar landing pages and similar offers. Several forum members have been wondering if it's really the case, the latest thread with this topic is here : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...ame-everywhere!

3. HOW TO SUCCEED IN ADULT IN 2017?

As I mentioned in the previous part, pretty much everyone is running dating on adult traffic, by using pretty much the same creatives and promo methods. You could decide to go against the crowd and choose to promote CAMs for example. But to be honest, dating is easier to make work and pushing Cams on regular tube traffic is not the best idea at all, check this thread for more info : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...ote-Cam-Offers

This means, you should also start in Dating, like almost everyone else. But in a market like this, how do you succeed? You need some advantage and there are basically 2 areas where you can be better than your competition

A) You need better creatives than the rest. Dating works better with banners, so focus on that traffic first. There is one thing that is pretty specific to Adult – banners tend to burn out pretty fast. Here is a thread on banner burnout that you should definitely check out : http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...-down-and-down

Landing pages are another area where you can outperform your competition. You can use the rules landers, but you can still tweak them to look different – change colors, text, buttons etc … Here are some threads for inspiration :

Tips on improving LP CTR : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...se-my-LP-s-CTR

Using scripts on LPs : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-landing-pages

B) You need better payouts on the offers you are promoting. To achieve this, you need to deliver quality leads and have a good relationship with your affiliate networks.

To understand what quality actually means in terms of leads, read this article : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-a-12-year-old

OR this one : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...s-Lead-Quality


Ways of improving lead quality are discussed on STM all the time, here a few of such threads :

Small GEOs and RON related quality problems : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...p-Lead-Quality

Quality issues when moving higher : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-Moving-Higher

Quality problems related to chat style banners : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...rs-low-quality

Dating leads problems : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...s-quality-help

And one more : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...s-Lead-Quality

This is a non-aging topic again, so even thou some of those threads are not recent, the info in them still holds true.

I also wrote an article on increasing lead quality just a few days ago : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...guide-for-2017!

Once you manage to increase your lead quality, you will also get better payouts from your affiliate networks. To get an idea about how large the payout bumps can be, read this thread : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...what-to-expect

4. WHAT ABOUT ADULT MOBILE TRAFFIC?

Mobile and Tablet traffic works with dating too, but in case of 3G (Carrier) Traffic, a better option is to send it to Carrier Billing (PIN Submit) Offers. These can work very well in less developed countries in Asia, Africa or Latin America.

Here is a thread explaining how the flows work with carrier billing : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...Flow-Explained

And here is my guide on what PIN submit offers are about and how to run them : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...o-promote-them

Any solid network has some PIN submit offers, the most known in adult are Kimia, Mobidea, BrokerBabe, BitterSrawberry, FirstMobileCash … there is no shortage of such offers

When it comes to traffic, ExoClick has the biggest volume of Carrier traffic of all the networks out there.

5. GENERAL RECOMENDATIONS FOR NEWBIES

Here are some more threads that you should definitely read, these related to any niche and vertical, not just adult.

Start in less competitive GEOs, do not shoot for the most developed markets straight away, here is why : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...ve-TIER-1-GEOs

It's easier to start with low payout offers and these can actually make you more money than high paying ones, read this to find out why : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...you-more-money

Focus on a limited amount of verticals and sources when starting out, here is why : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...n-starting-out

Do not freak out when you see no conversions coming in, read this instead : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-Read-This-Now!

Looking for an easy to follow optimization method that works well with ADULT traffic? Check this : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-of-my-methods

I will end the thread here for now. In case you think something is missing, let me know by posting a reply. If there is a new adult related thread posted in the future, I will add it to this thread too.

01-20-2017 01:37 PM #2 wealthspark (Member)

Man, I came in today wanting to research the Adult threads, and post a few questions If i did not find the answer...

On the first 4 paragraphs you answered everything I was looking for!

Time saver for sure!

Thanks!

01-20-2017 01:47 PM #3 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by wealthspark View Post
Man, I came in today wanting to research the Adult threads, and post a few questions If i did not find the answer...

On the first 4 paragraphs you answered everything I was looking for!

Time saver for sure!

Thanks!
That was the point of this thread exactly, we all know that the search function is not the best, so until we can get a new one running, threads like this should do the job I'm glad you found it useful. Next one to come is about "mobile pops", Amy is working on it already

01-20-2017 02:47 PM #4 brandonsharpe (Member)

Keep em coming Matuloo. Adult really interests me since it's basically like you are targeting a market that always happen to be drunk. A horny guy will not be thinking clearly at all and have terrible impulse control making easy conversions. But I can't really do much work in public without peeking over my shoulder everytime I view my landing page or the offer URL lol.

01-20-2017 03:17 PM #5 upforitpartners (Member)

Matuloo, thanks it`s real gem as always!

01-20-2017 05:42 PM #6 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by brandonsharpe View Post
Keep em coming Matuloo. Adult really interests me since it's basically like you are targeting a market that always happen to be drunk. A horny guy will not be thinking clearly at all and have terrible impulse control making easy conversions. But I can't really do much work in public without peeking over my shoulder everytime I view my landing page or the offer URL lol.
True in a way, on the other hand they have to actually convert into paying customers within a few days of subscribing for free, otherwise the lead quality will suck ... and they are not drunk all the time In the end, adult is like any other traffic type - you need to find what works by testing tons of stuff

01-20-2017 06:24 PM #7 giacpatrend (Member)

Great post matuloo, this is going to be very helpful to those getting started in adult. We've specialized in dating and adult for 6 years, and we've seen many publishers on both side of the spectrum: ones that succeed, and ones that give up after testing around a bit. With the huge competition, and bidding against direct advertisers and affiliates for the same placements, it can be tough to find profitability. The difference between profit and losing money often comes down to the landing page that the affiliate is using, so your recommendations on how to improve LP's CTR's were great.

One thing I would disagree on is that the "higher paying" offers are always tougher to profit with than the lower paying offers. Let's take 2 countries for example:

Norway and Brazil

Norway is notoriously one of the highest paying countries for dating, primarily because of it's small population and it's high income per capita. So advertisers are willing to pay a lot more for Norwegian leads, since their lifetime value is higher, and they can charge them more.

With a bit of testing, if there are some sales, Adverts in Norway can be very generous with pay bumps in order to attain more volume here, which can be tough to do. Payouts in Norway can range from $4 - $15+ depending on the offer and conversion points.

On the contrary, a country like Brazil has a massive population, with a large percentage in poverty. Credit cards are hard to come by since interest rates are outrageous in Brazil. So in a country like Brazil, with 200 million + citizens, payouts are going to be well under $1 since advertisers have a much more difficult time monetizing the traffic. In addition to the poverty and difficulty with credit cards, payment processor accounts also are very difficult for advertisers to sustain.

Additionally, unless you are a fluent speaker/writer of portugeuse or the native language(s) of the countries you are promoting, you have additional cost to translate all of your ads and landing pages, otherwise your traffic simply will not convert.

There's many factors to keep in mind when choosing countries to promote. Certainly the payout is very important, as it has to be high enough based on the cost of traffic. Our recommendation for affiliates is to be more familiar with the countries they are promoting traffic in, and to familiarize themselves with the conditions of the countries. It will also make writing copy easier when you understand exactly who you are marketing towards.

01-20-2017 06:49 PM #8 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by giacpatrend View Post
Great post matuloo, this is going to be very helpful to those getting started in adult. We've specialized in dating and adult for 6 years, and we've seen many publishers on both side of the spectrum: ones that succeed, and ones that give up after testing around a bit. With the huge competition, and bidding against direct advertisers and affiliates for the same placements, it can be tough to find profitability. The difference between profit and losing money often comes down to the landing page that the affiliate is using, so your recommendations on how to improve LP's CTR's were great.

One thing I would disagree on is that the "higher paying" offers are always tougher to profit with than the lower paying offers. Let's take 2 countries for example:

Norway and Brazil

Norway is notoriously one of the highest paying countries for dating, primarily because of it's small population and it's high income per capita. So advertisers are willing to pay a lot more for Norwegian leads, since their lifetime value is higher, and they can charge them more.

With a bit of testing, if there are some sales, Adverts in Norway can be very generous with pay bumps in order to attain more volume here, which can be tough to do. Payouts in Norway can range from $4 - $15+ depending on the offer and conversion points.

On the contrary, a country like Brazil has a massive population, with a large percentage in poverty. Credit cards are hard to come by since interest rates are outrageous in Brazil. So in a country like Brazil, with 200 million + citizens, payouts are going to be well under $1 since advertisers have a much more difficult time monetizing the traffic. In addition to the poverty and difficulty with credit cards, payment processor accounts also are very difficult for advertisers to sustain.

Additionally, unless you are a fluent speaker/writer of portugeuse or the native language(s) of the countries you are promoting, you have additional cost to translate all of your ads and landing pages, otherwise your traffic simply will not convert.

There's many factors to keep in mind when choosing countries to promote. Certainly the payout is very important, as it has to be high enough based on the cost of traffic. Our recommendation for affiliates is to be more familiar with the countries they are promoting traffic in, and to familiarize themselves with the conditions of the countries. It will also make writing copy easier when you understand exactly who you are marketing towards.
It's hard to make universal statements in AM, so yes, there could also be some exceptions to the recommendation I made. However, I didn't say that higher payout offers are always tougher to profit with, I said that lower payout offers are easier to start with and this is something I still stand for.

Take your example : $15 per lead vs $1 per lead - the first one requires WAY higher budget than the second one to make any meaningful decisions. Traffic prices will also be very different, we both know that traffic from Norway is one of the most expensive ones, along with all the other Nordics. Spending $50 on a $15 per lead offer means nothing, while on the $1 offer, that would be enough data to start optimizing and this is, in my opinion, a much better situation for someone who is starting out.

Of course, with enough experience under ones belt, there is no reason to stay away from high paying offers. And I agree that they might even be easier to reach profit with, for someone who has all his shit in order ... but certainly not for a newbie who'd just be frustrated from the high initial loses.

On a side note, Brazil really isn't all that hot for dating, but with PINs, it can work pretty well

01-20-2017 07:09 PM #9 brandonsharpe (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by matuloo View Post
True in a way, on the other hand they have to actually convert into paying customers within a few days of subscribing for free, otherwise the lead quality will suck ... and they are not drunk all the time In the end, adult is like any other traffic type - you need to find what works by testing tons of stuff
Oh by that I meant targeting guys in the midst of watching porn is basically the equivalent of targeting drunk people. Their brain isn't thinking normally. So convincing them should be much easier. They're drunk on ass. That is if you can get their eyes away from whatever they're looking at.

01-20-2017 07:31 PM #10 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by brandonsharpe View Post
Oh by that I meant targeting guys in the midst of watching porn is basically the equivalent of targeting drunk people. Their brain isn't thinking normally. So convincing them should be much easier. They're drunk on ass. That is if you can get their eyes away from whatever they're looking at.
Ah, gotcha What should I say, you're right

01-21-2017 04:29 PM #11 kulwantnagi (Member)

I added money in Traffic Junky yesterday itself. Added 4 banners and I was waiting for the traffic to come. Suddenly I saw this today.

Thanks a ton for putting the golden information.

01-21-2017 06:57 PM #12 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by kulwantnagi View Post
I added money in Traffic Junky yesterday itself. Added 4 banners and I was waiting for the traffic to come. Suddenly I saw this today.

Thanks a ton for putting the golden information.
Did you also start a follow along too, so I can assist you there?

01-23-2017 09:07 PM #13 Mr Payne (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by kulwantnagi View Post
I added money in Traffic Junky yesterday itself. Added 4 banners and I was waiting for the traffic to come. Suddenly I saw this today.

Thanks a ton for putting the golden information.
Quote Originally Posted by matuloo View Post
Did you also start a follow along too, so I can assist you there?
First off, great article Matuloo!

I ran some of my first tests with Traffic Junky banners recently and their targeting is anything but good. The carrier options still delivers 40-50%+ wifi traffic making it a network that must work very broadly for your offer or only intended for high payouts.. but open to other thoughts if some are available?

Chatted with them via Skype and at ASW, basically they seem to be in no hurry to improve on their targeting features such as carrier options, frequency capping, etc and adding other options like IP targeting is the least of their interests. They are also restrictive to opening up their mobile pop inventory until you have a fair amount of history with them.

Such a challenging source to work with.. but I do give them props for having a solid response time and helpful support staff.



Andrew

01-23-2017 09:55 PM #14 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by mrpayne View Post
First off, great article Matuloo!

I ran some of my first tests with Traffic Junky banners recently and their targeting is anything but good. The carrier options still delivers 40-50%+ wifi traffic making it a network that must work very broadly for your offer or only intended for high payouts.. but open to other thoughts if some are available?

Chatted with them via Skype and at ASW, basically they seem to be in no hurry to improve on their targeting features such as carrier options, frequency capping, etc and adding other options like IP targeting is the least of their interests. They are also restrictive to opening up their mobile pop inventory until you have a fair amount of history with them.

Such a challenging source to work with.. but I do give them props for having a solid response time and helpful support staff.



Andrew
I'm not sure what takes them so long, they keep on promising some of those features you mentioned for years basically ... they have solid traffic, but yes, targeting options are not the best.

01-28-2017 12:13 PM #15 nzbryant (AMC Alumnus)

Matuloo, great post. Thanks.

01-29-2017 08:44 PM #16 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by nzbryant View Post
Matuloo, great post. Thanks.
You're welcome, I'm glad you like it.

01-30-2017 12:34 AM #17 webdev (Member)

Hey Matuloo, I like to hear your strategy for running RON, more specifically on exoclick on some of the bigger Geo (DE).
1) Do you consider making a whitelist campaign based on good performing zone ids or just keep that one campaign and blacklisting as you see fit.
2) Under statistics inside the campaign, when you click zone id for some dumb reason that have the names, but not the id number. However in Voluum, you have id number and not names. How you go about that?

01-30-2017 09:54 AM #18 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by webdev View Post
Hey Matuloo, I like to hear your strategy for running RON, more specifically on exoclick on some of the bigger Geo (DE).
1) Do you consider making a whitelist campaign based on good performing zone ids or just keep that one campaign and blacklisting as you see fit.
2) Under statistics inside the campaign, when you click zone id for some dumb reason that have the names, but not the id number. However in Voluum, you have id number and not names. How you go about that?
Hello: RON on exo is pretty hard to run indeed, there is so much crap in there it hurts

1: the problem with blacklisting is the limit of 1000 placements and you will need to block more. So in many cases, whitelist campaigns are the only way to go.
2: yup, this is very annoying, I guess they don't want us to use that option too much. You can find the zone IDs of premium placements in the campaign edit section. The others are in the source code of the zone report page, you can extract them from there.

02-01-2017 04:33 PM #19 nzbryant (AMC Alumnus)

Hi. Basic question: Other than Clickdealer, BitterStrawberry, Billymob and Adcombo, what are some other aff networks that have a lot of adult offers? Thanks

02-02-2017 11:30 AM #20 judorange (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by nzbryant View Post
Hi. Basic question: Other than Clickdealer, BitterStrawberry, Billymob and Adcombo, what are some other aff networks that have a lot of adult offers? Thanks
Adsimilis and Advidi are some great aff networks, especially in dating. Both Dutch companies.

02-02-2017 01:00 PM #21 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by nzbryant View Post
Hi. Basic question: Other than Clickdealer, BitterStrawberry, Billymob and Adcombo, what are some other aff networks that have a lot of adult offers? Thanks
There is a ton of networks and these days, all of them have dating offers that accept adult traffic. As judorange mentioned, adsimilis and advidi are good choices, you can also try affiliaxe and addiliate (both active on this forum) ... mpirenetwork has adult too ... for mobile offers, check kimia, Mobidea, brokerbabe ... you can also try going direct, these advertisers are active here on stm : upforit, togethernetworks... getting offers is not a problem at all, making them work ... thats another story

03-03-2017 08:32 AM #22 cpamatica (Senior Member)

Quote Originally Posted by nzbryant View Post
Hi. Basic question: Other than Clickdealer, BitterStrawberry, Billymob and Adcombo, what are some other aff networks that have a lot of adult offers? Thanks
Hey @nzbryant! Think, we can help you to make things work.
Beside the fact we have adult offers, we also have our own dating products like Hitwe, Kismia and Victoria Brides and we have been working with those for a long time. Moreover, we have our own exclusive well-converting offer SPdate.
Always ready to help and give some advice, suggest profitable landings and just to say “hi”. Don't be shy to ask whatever you are interested in skype anastasia.cpamatica1 and let's keep in touch.

09-26-2017 10:37 AM #23 TopOffers (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by nzbryant View Post
Hi. Basic question: Other than Clickdealer, BitterStrawberry, Billymob and Adcombo, what are some other aff networks that have a lot of adult offers? Thanks
Hey nzbryant, you could try TopOffers.TopOffers proposes best offers on the market and overtakes a vast market share. Just to name few of our offers: Benaughty and Flirt.

09-26-2017 12:40 PM #24 vlaisl (Member)

OfferVault, HasOffers, CPAmatica (my fav)

09-26-2017 05:30 PM #25 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by vlaisl View Post
OfferVault, HasOffers, CPAmatica (my fav)
Just so people aren't confused he :

Offervault.com is an offer search service, there is one more popular one : Odigger.com... both are good ways of finding offers to promote.

Hasoffers is a popular tracking solution designed to run affiliate networks, it's one of 2 most used, the second one is Cake... large amount of affiliate networks run or the oter ... I think cake is more used by the traditional affiliate networks.

Cpamatica is quite a popular network yes.

09-29-2017 01:08 PM #26 Kazza Kimia (Member)

Nice thread Matuloo I always say...as long as boys have their penis and a mobile phone, there is business to be done!

09-29-2017 02:34 PM #27 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by Kazza Kimia View Post
Nice thread Matuloo I always say...as long as boys have their penis and a mobile phone, there is business to be done!
Hehe, now that's a good one

11-01-2017 10:56 PM #28 duiyao (Member)

Wow, this is a gold mine...

11-28-2017 03:34 PM #29 ropemedia2014 (Member)

Seeking for publishers for adult and dating main stream traffic..

HMU@ Skype - rope.media1

01-17-2018 12:38 PM #30 adcombo (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by nzbryant View Post
Hi. Basic question: Other than Clickdealer, BitterStrawberry, Billymob and Adcombo, what are some other aff networks that have a lot of adult offers? Thanks
Thank you for mentioning us. Indeed, we have a bunch of them. And there are new adult offers opening almost every week.

01-31-2018 01:26 PM #31 edu-cash (Member)

Great!
I look forward to your next post

07-11-2018 01:33 AM #32 effduks100 (Member)

Hi Matuloo,

I'm new and want to go into the adult space, are there any threads you suggest I follow. What will be your overall guide for a newbie venturing the adult.

Thanks!

07-11-2018 11:49 AM #33 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by effduks100 View Post
Hi Matuloo,

I'm new and want to go into the adult space, are there any threads you suggest I follow. What will be your overall guide for a newbie venturing the adult.

Thanks!
Hello, most of what is in this thread is still true, there wasn't much innovation in adult this year ... unfortunately.

Dating is still the king, mobile PINs aer out ... other than that, business as usual.

We've had several good adult threads lately, even some good follow alongs ...

This is a good one for example : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...arketing-world

One of our members "jabong82" has been diving into adult, asking VERY good questions along the way, check out the threads he started, lot's of great info in many of them : https://stmforum.com/forum/member.php?9523-jabong82

To give you a starting point, I would focus on SOI dating in some EU GEO and use this strategy : http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...-of-my-methods

And of course, if you have ANY questions ... just start a thread and I, or the others, will help you

07-12-2018 06:15 AM #34 effduks100 (Member)

Thanks for the Info Matuloo

Home > Paid Traffic Sources > Adult Traffic (NSFW)