Even if you have just joined Affiliate marketing, the term “vertical” is probably already present in your vocabulary. Many beginners believe that they need to decide on the direction for promotion almost once and for all. However, AFFWORD assures you that this is a false statement because most webmasters have experience in promoting different affiliate verticals; some even work in several at the same time. Nevertheless, it is impossible to overestimate the effectiveness of narrow specialization, which is why most arbitrageurs work exclusively in their chosen niche.
In this article, we analyze what an traffic arbitrage vertical is and offer an overview of the most popular ones today.
What Are Verticals in Traffic Arbitrage?
If we look at the formula for making money online, the first element is a product. Offers are the very goods that advertisers are willing to pay money to sell.
A vertical is a group of offers that have certain similarities. In addition to the type of goods, the vertical determines the methods and ways of promoting them, as well as the sources of traffic.
Structuring a large number of goods and services by affiliate verticals allows you to
- reduce the level of competition in arbitrage: since players choose a certain direction, they compete in that direction rather than with arbitrageurs in all verticals at the same time;
- focus efforts on researching the mechanisms of promotion of a specific group of goods: for example, an advertising campaign for wrinkle cream is built on slightly different principles than an advertising campaign for the sale of mobile applications;
- more effectively convey information to the client, because users will search for information in a certain vertical rather than throughout the market as a whole.
Due to the typicality of offers in the vertical, arbitrageurs, over time, form their own models – strategies that allow you to quickly launch an advertising campaign by changing just a few input data that personalize a specific product.
Types of Verticals in Traffic Arbitrage
Verticals are not a clearly defined classification of offers but rather a conditional division. The market is changing, sensitive to customer demand, so certain categories of goods can grow and form affiliate verticals within the same industry, for example, the gaming industry, which combines gaming, gambling, and betting. Choosing a vertical is an important task for a beginner, so let's try to characterize the most common ones.
Ecommerce Vertical (Electronic Commerce)
Globalization has led to an increase in the influence of retail brands, such as Amazon and AliExpress, which have simply squeezed less powerful competitors out of the market. The ecommerce vertical is an agency sale of goods of large and medium-sized brands. The advertising campaign in this vertical is aimed at attracting leads to the customer's landing page.
Smaller businesses that offer products that are not intended for a wide audience can already be considered a separate niche or a vertical within a vertical - “commodity”.
Features of the e-commerce vertical:
- Given the huge selection of goods and services, e-commerce is always relevant, but it is worth considering the specifics of a particular offer because there are enough goods that are sold as seasonal or in connection with a particular event.
- you need to understand the portrait of the target audience and know the market well;
- it is important that offers in this vertical are exclusively “white”, i.e., they will not cause any problems with the law;
- requires mostly expensive, premium traffic; its sources are SEO, advertising networks, and social networks;
- offers usually offer CPA payment models, more often CPS/PPS;
- is considered to be of medium complexity for starting.
Nutra Vertical (Nutra)
This vertical includes any non-medicinal products aimed at boosting immunity, care, and sometimes decorative cosmetics. The main difference is that nutra products have no branded analogues. Here, you can find a variety of “enhancers”, “diminishers”, and so on. They contain natural substances, and their effectiveness is often unproven. That is why the niche is considered “gray”. A gray niche is a market segment where products or services are on the edge of legality or ethics but are not completely illegal.
To better understand what the nutra vertical is, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the features of this vertical:
- quite high remuneration for offers, but it is explained by the high price of the product, so you need to take into account the specifics of the product when creating ads (storytelling works well);
- The target audience by age is quite wide, and during the pandemic, certain products in the vertical have become especially in demand;
- Most offers are gray, but there are many white ones;
- The best sources of traffic for Nutra are white with TIER 1, but this leads to its high cost;
- CPS/PPS payout models;
- In terms of the level of complexity of starting, it is not for beginners, and you need a good budget for promotion.
And what GEOs are typical for it? Countries with a high level of interest in a healthy lifestyle are best suited to promote such offers, for example, the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, France, Italy. The markets of Southeast Asia, especially Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, are also promising. In Latin America, Brazil and Mexico are also favorable geographical regions for the promotion of nutra products, thanks to a growing middle class and increased interest in a healthy lifestyle.
Online Sweepstakes or Giveaways
Perhaps the oldest vertical of traffic arbitrage is quite simple to master. Sweepstakes fall into two categories: the first offers to try your luck and get a cash prize and is aimed at collecting user data. Players will then receive a lot of advertising to their email addresses. The second category is closer to gaming, as contests or quizzes give away various gadgets, equipment, and accessories.
Vertical features:
- The target audience is divided into two groups: young people under 25 and users aged 45-60;
- mostly played by residents of countries with medium and low living standards, so the cost of traffic from GEO TIER 2 and TIER 3 is low;
- traffic sources are ad networks and mailing lists;
- offers are mostly gray;
- payment models are SOI/DOI and sometimes CC;
- considered easy to start.
Installs (Mobile Apps)
The vertical has gained popularity in recent years. Here, advertisers are often legitimate developers. Their goal is to increase organic traffic so users follow the link to PlayMarket. However, there are also plenty of gray offers. In general, the vertical is closer to gaming in terms of promotion principles, as many apps are mobile games. A significant share of offers is promoting special programs and services, so you need to take into account the differences between target audiences.
- at the moment, this is one of the most relevant verticals;
- up to 70% of the target audience are women, for gray offers, the age of users is from 30 years, white offers are aimed at users, mostly from 15 to 30;
- traffic is inexpensive, as advertisers rarely put forward strict requirements;
- leads are generated mainly from in-app networks and advertising networks; for white offers, search engines are the source of traffic. GEOs of any kind;
- white and gray offers are approximately equal, payment models are different, but in 80% of cases it is CPI;
- the start is difficult, at least for those who do not have experience in promoting in the gaming vertical, due to the fact that the advertising campaign is poured exclusively for mobile traffic.
IGaming Vertical — Betting/Gambling
As long as the world stands, there will be those who want to try their luck. That is why traditional casinos and gambling halls continue to attract gamblers. In gambling, operators promote online casinos, poker, and slots that operate on the same principles as land-based ones but provide an opportunity to get thrills and try to get rich without leaving a comfortable chair.
In recent years, it has become increasingly popular:
- Betting refers to online sports betting where you can place bets on sports and try to guess the outcome of competitions. Along with well-known sports, users are offered to earn money by betting on little-known and exotic sports and even guessing the development of events in TV series and TV programs.
- Gambling is one of the top niches due to the possibility of high earnings for arbitrage specialists, but there are also more requirements for their competencies. The most profitable offers set serious conditions, and persuading users to deposit a considerable amount of money is a difficult task that requires developed sales skills and knowledge of human nature.
- the cost of traffic is slightly higher than average; it is driven mainly by advertising networks, newsletters, and SEO;
- gray offers prevail in the vertical, with CPA and RevShare payment models;
- it is a difficult vertical to start, requiring a considerable budget.
Adult Vertical
It is both a vertical and a category for adults. Its most famous representative is Pornhub. Advertisers make money on paid subscriptions or VIPs if the service is conditionally free.
This vertical does not lose its relevance, which has reached its peak during the pandemic. A vivid proof of this is a variety of examples of offers that are promoted through numerous traffic sources.
Characteristic features:
- the target audience is mainly men aged 25 to 45, they are the most solvent and willing to spend;
- the cost of traffic varies, depending on the choice of the GEO, more than half of the offers are aimed at TIER 1;
- the main sources of traffic are advertising networks, SEO, as well as social networks and search engines, but their traffic is limited by the rules;
- only 10% of offers in the adult vertical are white, the bulk are gray. Payments are based on SOI/DOI models, PPL is present, and the general option is CPA;
- technically, the vertical has a fairly easy start, but some offers require experience, such as adult gaming.
Dating Vertical
In English, it means dating. Advertisers promote dating sites, which are conditionally divided into mainstream and adult. At the same time, many of them can work in both directions, depending on the topic they were warming up the client on. That's why some sites offer several landing pages at once for different areas of communication. Creatives also need to be adapted: something decent for social networks and explicit for niche advertising networks.
- It is a highly relevant vertical, as dating is now widespread around the world. Advertisers seek to attract customers mostly from TIER 1, with some from TIER 2, so they need high-quality advertising;
- the target audience consists of men aged 20 to 30 (50%) and 45 to 60 (20%);
- the cost of traffic in the dating vertical is higher than average, and its main sources are social networks, advertising, and mailing lists;
- offers are predominantly white, with SOI/DOI payment models, CPI for dating apps, and CPA for sites with paid subscriptions or VIP;
- for beginners, the start is quite difficult, so you should choose simple offers without additional requirements.
Gaming Vertical
Gaming is one of the most popular in marketing, with about 2 billion users playing it in one way or another. Well-known online games have their own advertising capacities, but independent projects, so-called indie games, as well as mobile gaming, are enough to promote themselves in traffic arbitrage. The payouts are quite large, but the requirements are also appropriate.
- half of the target audience are young people aged 15 to 20, but there are also enough adult, financially solvent players;
- the cost of traffic is high because the GEOs of offers, except for the adult category, choose TIER 1. Offers are mostly white, and payment models are CPA, CPI, and CPS;
- traffic sources – advertising networks, in-app, SEO, AdSense, social networks;
- the start is difficult; in addition to experience in arbitrage, you need to know the gaming environment.
Finance Vertical
Among other arbitrage verticals, this one is distinguished by fundamental category differences. There are offers from reputable brokerage, investment projects, and banking structures that offer capital management, have ratings, and a system for securing transactions. Alongside them, there are microcredit companies that charge extortionate interest rates but do not impose strict conditions. Accordingly, the GEOs and the kind of remuneration the arbitrator receives differ.
- the finance vertical is moderately relevant, with a target audience of 25-40 years old and TIER 1 GEO for the first category of offers. For the second category, age is practically not taken into account, and GEOs are chosen from TIER 2 and TIER 3 countries;
- the cost of traffic also depends on the categories, with almost all offers being white;
- traffic sources - social networks, advertising, and SEO with CPA payment models;
- the level of complexity of the launch is medium.
Travel Vertical
Comparing different verticals in traffic arbitrage, this one has gained popularity over the past two years. Offers mostly relate to the sale of airline tickets, sightseeing tours, long-distance transportation, and hotel booking sites. An important component of the advertising campaign will be immersion in the subject matter, which significantly affects the attraction of potential customers.
- relevance is moderate at the moment. The main target audience is women aged 25-40, as well as married men and businessmen (30-45);
- offers are exclusively white and have a high cost of traffic, as the audience of this traffic arbitrage vertical belongs to countries with a high level of solvency;
- traffic sources - social and advertising networks, newsletters;
- payment models - PPS and CPA; however, there are also offers with CC;
- the complexity of starting is medium, as the field needs to be studied well.
Utilities, VPNs & Antivirus
Products promoting the vertical are specialized auxiliary programs, many of which are aimed at protecting PCs and gadgets from malware or disguising the user on the Internet. Despite the massive use of smartphones, most offers are still offered by desktop software developers.
- the relevance of the vertical is slightly below the average level, so the competition is correspondingly lower;
- the target audience is dominated by the age groups 15-25 (65%) and 25-35 (20%). It should be noted that the level of users requires a serious approach to creating an advertising campaign, as specialized software is chosen by those who know what they want.
- Offers from white to black, as some products are openly malicious programs;
- the cost of traffic is generally higher than average, correlated with the chosen country of promotion. By the way, all GEOs are present in the vertical, but the vast majority of offers are aimed at the CIS, Asia, India, and the US;
- traffic sources are SEO and advertising networks, and it is also possible to use social networks;
- CPA, CPI, and CPS payment models;
- the starting level is difficult; beginners are not recommended to choose this vertical.
Crypto Vertical (Cryptocurrency & Binary Options)
This vertical is not only at the peak of relevance today but is also considered promising. Advertisers are crypto exchanges or investment projects. In addition, the share of offers from manufacturers of goods required for mining, as well as ICOs, is growing.
Binary options are not assets, so their popularity is much lower, and the crypto vertical is considered openly gray.
- the target audience is not stable - many users are just diving into this market, but the backbone is made up of men aged 25-45;
- most crypto offers are white, focused on TIER 1. Binary options are gray, for which you can choose TIER 1 and TIER 2;
- traffic is expensive, and its sources are advertising networks and social networks for white offers;
- payments are made according to CPA models, the reward for one lead can reach $500–800;
- it is not suitable for beginners, as you need to have skills in arbitrage and be well-versed in this field.
Essay Vertical
This is another promising vertical that flourished during the quarantine, when education was conducted remotely. Offers promote a variety of training, courses, curricula, private tutoring, and services for writing student papers. The cost of products is quite high even in TIER 2 countries, and the essay vertical includes RevShare, a passive income model for arbitrageurs.
- All age groups can be safely included in the target audience, but young people aged 17-25 predominate;
- Offers are exclusively white, and GEO is mostly TIER 1 and TIER 2;
- the cost of traffic is above average. The sources are advertising and social networks, SEO, newsletters;
- payment models - SOI/DOI, CPA, RevShare;
- the level of complexity of the launch is average.
Conclusion
This list of verticals is not complete and perfect, as there are no clearly defined boundaries of division. Some niches are only gaining popularity, while others may grow to the size of an independent vertical from an existing subcategory of goods.
Summarizing the above, we note that experienced arbitrage specialists usually have had time to try themselves in almost all niches but work expertly with 1-3 verticals. Practice proves that it is worth concentrating on the chosen vertical, as it is much easier to build successful partnerships and improve existing ones.
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