Nutra Vertical: Complete Analysis in Traffic Arbitrage

This vertical can be safely attributed not only to the most profitable but also to one of the most stable in arbitration. There are many examples of offers in nutra arbitrage that continue to bring profit for ten years.

So, in this article, we explain what is nutra in affiliate marketing and offer a detailed overview of this classic and, at the same time, top niche.

Key Features & Characteristics of Nutra Vertical

Nutra is a vertical in traffic arbitrage related to health and beauty products. This category includes, for example, various dietary supplements, vitamins, cosmetic rejuvenators, weight loss products, etc.

Surprisingly enough, nutraceuticals are still popular among consumers. The demand for offers in this vertical can only be compared to advertorials, gambling, and somewhat newer niches such as gaming and installation.

Oleksandr, an affiliate manager of one of the CPA networks that works with nutra marketing, says:

"Nutra will always be in trend because global trends are moving towards healthy eating and lifestyles in general. Pandemics such as COVID-19 increase people's attention to their health and interest in alternative medicine."

Nutra is also often referred to as a seasonal vertical. This is because a significant number of offers are in high demand at certain times of the year. Typically, the rush occurs at the beginning of the year and subsides somewhat by October. Interestingly, two factors explain user activity:

the desire for renewal: as a rule, with the beginning of the calendar year, the demand for products for health and appearance improvement is recorded;

Strengthening immunity: In the autumn and winter, everyone has time to catch a cold and experience seasonal mood swings, so various vitamin supplements are the top hits of the season.

Some products, such as weight loss products, are especially popular in spring and summer, as confirmed by representatives of affiliate programs operating in the nutra-vertical sector. Products for potency, joint health, prostatitis, etc., can boast of more stable demand throughout the year.

As for the types of goods offered by nutri offline retailers, they are conditionally divided into:

Dietary supplements (biologically active additives): immunity supplements, vitamin complexes, products for weight loss, breastfeeding, and maintaining the health of certain systems.

Cosmetics: decorative and care products.

The main difference between nutra and commodity is that neither dietary supplements nor cosmetics are products whose effectiveness has been confirmed according to WHO regulations. Unlike branded cosmetics, nutra-products are not based on research results and expert statements but position themselves as an alternative to expensive brands based on natural ingredients. Usually, such products are not harmful, but their effectiveness is not scientifically proven.

Nutraceuticals do not enter the broader market and do not form their brands, as they risk being leveled and crushed by well-known companies in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Therefore, traffic arbitrage is ideal for promoting offers from this niche.

Large profits of this vertical are caused by the ineradicable belief of mankind in the “magic pill”, so a competent and creative advertising campaign can “golden” a nutra arbitrage provider. However, to move forward, arbitrageurs need to mobilize all their knowledge and skills because the path to conversion here requires more effort than in any other vertical.

1. Why is it a long and difficult path to turn a user into a buyer?
2. High level of requirements for the target audience: Advertisers usually specify the GEO in the offer. TIER 1 is preferred, and TIER 2 is somewhat less common. Of course, there are offers without any indication of localization, as well as those focused on traffic with TIER 3, but they are much smaller.
3. High price of the product: Even solvent users from TIER 1 countries rarely decide to buy a product or subscription right away. For residents of TIER 2 and TIER 3 GEOs, the price of some vertical products may seem prohibitive.
4. There is almost no organic demand: most of the time, a lead is a spontaneous purchase, and the process is very similar to a meeting with a talented salesperson who knows how to evoke an emotional response. As a result, the user spends a tidy sum from their savings, and in return receives a super-mega-ultra-meaningful solution to their problem.
5. High competition: Actually, this point follows from the previous ones - the price of the product and the focus on the richest GEOs lead to the fact that you have to compete with the most experienced nutra arbitrage sharks. For those who are just looking at this niche, it is easier to start with offers designed for TIER 2-3.

Despite all of the above, Nutra is a very profitable direction. It has everything a webmaster wants: one of the highest payouts in traffic arbitrage, a large number of offers, and a large flow of lead conversion.

A well-calculated, well-aimed, and creative advertising campaign can bring tens of thousands of dollars in profit. As for the prospects, the nutra turnover in 2021 alone amounted to 511.4 billion USD. According to experts, the average annual growth rate will reach 4.5% in the coming years. Therefore, in 2025, the turnover of this market will increase to USD 800 billion.

Nutra Categories

• Nutra has quite a few attractive product categories to promote:
• Diet: This includes a variety of food products and supplements that help to lose weight and reduce appetite.
• Rejuvenation: Beauty offers promoting skin care products for moisturizing, increasing elasticity, removing visible defects, etc.
• Improving physical fitness: Offers that offer sports nutrition for gaining muscle mass.
• Hair care: Almost 90% of the ads in this category promote anti-baldness or active hair growth products.
• The means to stimulate cognitive function: simply put, to improve memory and concentration. Interestingly, this category took off after the release of the action movie “The Darkness” in 2011. Imagine the level of warming up of the target audience if, on the very first night after the premiere, users rushed to search for a magic pill on Google, and manufacturers were not confused and launched production on demand.
• “Male power” products: Offers offer products to combat erectile dysfunction, increase the size of the penis, increase testosterone levels, and improve men's health in general.
• CBD: products based on cannabidiol, a substance contained in cannabis. In many countries, there is still a debate about whether CBD is a drug or a valuable medicine.
• Covid: a relatively new sub-vertical of nutra-products created by the pandemic. They offer products to improve immunity and counteract symptoms of the disease.

It is important to understand that the range of offers may differ from one affiliate program or network to another. That is why, when choosing a nutra partner program, you should pay attention to the variety of health offers - the more products the network offers for promotion, the more opportunities are opened for the partner. 

For example, some affiliate programs offer products for weight loss, products against hypertension and varicose veins, and products for the health of joints, heart, and eyes. You can also drive traffic to less “mainstream” offers, such as products for overcoming alcohol or nicotine addiction.

Offer Types & Payment Models

There are usually three options for paying webmasters.

Straight Sales: The direct sales model is inherent in the Tier 1 markets and is convenient for the arbitrageur. Despite the high percentage of each sale, there are no delays in payments, as the client pays for the order at the pre-launch stage. However, conversion is more difficult to achieve here, as the user has to pay a tidy sum of money right away, and only then are the goods sent to him. In addition, there is a possibility of chargebacks when the product does not meet the declared characteristics. This unfortunate moment occurs either through the fault of the advertiser (poor quality) or through the fault of the arbitrator (non-compliance with the advertisement). So, you shouldn't mislead potential buyers to increase conversion. A few chargebacks and the CPC rate drops.

Subscription model: the most common format due to the specifics of the niche. Any drug involves systemic and long-term use, but each product has its own expiration date, so it makes no sense to buy drugs for several courses at once. Conventionally, the model is based on two conversion stages: purchasing a subscription (with the first batch of the product) and rebilling (repeated purchase or renewal of the subscription).

Cash on delivery or COD: The customer pays money only after receiving the order. Accordingly, certain nuances arise:

1. This format works better for TIER 3 audiences, as online payments are still not commonplace in countries with low solvency rates. This is one of the reasons why it is difficult to promote Nutra in these geos. However, for example, India, which also belongs to TIER 3, sometimes provides traffic to top sources that is hundreds of times higher than traffic from Europe.
2. The principle works: the simpler the conversion, the higher the failure rate. The most common reasons are the following: the product did not fit, the quality is below expectations, and the delivery time is overdue. The most common reason for abandonment is that the user simply changed their mind at some stage.

In this case, the nutra affiliate receives remuneration only after the buyer pays for the order in full. Sometimes, payments are made in two stages: a small percentage for ordering the goods and the remaining amount after the actual payment.

Traffic Quality & Rebill Strategies

The peculiarity of nutra is the need for constant traffic support, as in this vertical, most purchases are made spontaneously. In the nutra vertical, it is difficult to distinguish the target audience by the usual parameters: gender, age, interests, location, and others. Here, you need to focus at least on such factors as solvency and quality of warming up. 

Even when using the direct sales model, rebills account for almost half of the total margin, and high-quality traffic is a prerequisite for repeat purchases/subscriptions. So, to stimulate rebills, the following conditions must be met:

• Full compliance of the product with the declared characteristics: only a satisfied customer will place an order again. Similarly, you should not expect to convince the client that it was not you who misled him, but he himself misunderstood the product description - even if he does not demand a refund, he will not contact you again. Therefore, when advertising a product, you should not use statements that cannot be verified or proven. For example, “the drug has been approved by 90% of users” is much less questionable than “a product that is guaranteed to get rid of 10 kilograms in a week”.
• A well-developed unique selling proposition (USP).
• Customer support: Attention and readiness to provide advice and service after the sale of the product significantly increases the number of rebills (from 20 to 40%).

According to partner with experience as a buyer, the key is the quality of traffic and the right choice of creatives. The experienced nutra affiliate advises beginners to analyze the results carefully and test different approaches. 

Andrew used to work with the verticals of display and swipe stacks. However, due to burnout of approaches and unstable CPM rates, his earnings began to decline. That's why he decided to test his nutra, in particular because of the favorable conditions offered by the network. He was especially interested in low-price offers with a guarantor. 

During the year and a half of cooperation with his affiliate program, he managed to evaluate other advantages of working with a CPA partner: Andrew has the opportunity to work with interesting CEOs, receives help with landing pages, promotional materials, and translations, and notes the humanity and professionalism of the team.

Nutra Audience

The process of forming the target audience in nutra is somewhat different from other verticals. Almost all sub-verticals have separate subcategories of products, each of which is aimed at the creamy target audience. Therefore, 3-4 groups are usually selected for testing at the same time. Accordingly, this increases the cost of test spills.

As a rule, 80% of the target audience are women - they tend to be more concerned about their health and the health of their loved ones, as well as their appearance. Instead, “men's health” and “sports nutrition” are products intended in most cases exclusively for the male target audience.

As for the GEO, it is usually indicated in the offer. If the advertiser does not specify them, you should focus on the characteristics of the product and its price.

As for the interests of potential customers and their behavioral characteristics, you need to evaluate traffic in each source:

• Facebook - by visits to groups and communities;
• Instagram - by subscriptions to influencers;
• TikTok and YouTube - by the topic of videos viewed;
• Pinterest - focus on the created collections;
• Google and Quora - evaluate search queries.

To create an effective ad campaign, it is often necessary to draw a portrait of the target audience. In a third of cases, vertical products are bought by people who have never even considered buying them before. So, creating advertising for Nutra is a creative process aimed at touching on “pain” and causing a desire to get rid of the problem.

Check out the case study of a profitable traffic drive on Nutra to learn more about building an effective PPC strategy and a competent approach to choosing GEOs, TAs, and creatives.

Traffic Sources for Nutra

As practice shows, the target audience is older people, and to a certain extent, conservative. The reason for this is the similarity of the vertical's products to alternative medicine, as the main active ingredients of these products are natural components. Modern young people prefer evidence-based medicine and individually tailored treatment by specialists, so only a small part of them may be interested in the products the offers. This approach applies to users from TIER 1 and TIER 2 countries, but in TIER 3, the situation is usually the opposite.

Among the most attractive sources are:

• teaser ads;
• push notifications;
• ad networks, at least niche ones;
• social networks.

Oleksandr, an affiliate manager of one of the most popular CPA partners, notes that Facebook and native advertising are the most popular traffic sources nowadays. To work with the latter, webmasters actively use ad networks and get great results when driving traffic to Nutra.

Choosing the Right Nutra Partner

When choosing an affiliate program for Nutra, you should take into account several factors:

• reputation of the affiliate,
• variety of offers and GEO,
• average size of bets and level of upsell,
• allowed and prohibited traffic sources,
• professionalism of the support service,
• availability of bonuses and other advantages.

For example, one of the popular affiliate CPA programs offers more than 1000 nutra offers almost all over the world - in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. According to the manager of this CPA program, the payments for offers are quite different: In Europe, there are rates of 40+ dollars for full-price offers in Tier 1 countries, and when you go to the Balkans, you can find low-price offers with a rate of 20+ dollars. 

On average, partners earn about 2-3 thousand dollars per month, but there are also teams that are able to withdraw more than 50-100 thousand dollars per month. In addition, the company has bonus programs and regularly launches draws that can be tracked through the Telegram channel.

Conclusion

Nutra traffic arbitrage is a battlefield not only for experienced arbitrators. There is a place for the development and self-improvement of beginners. It all depends on the ability to calculate your strength and budget. If you acquire skills on inexpensive offers, you may soon be able to compete with experienced pros. In any case, this vertical remains one of the most promising, and there are enough offers for everyone.