Traffic trends 2021
The global pandemic has seriously affected the economy, business, and everyday life. But, despite that, partner programs have demonstrated their stability even after facing difficulties and have become the main channel for market specialists.
The results of 2021 – winners and losers
When the pandemic has just begun, nearly all verticals suffered. Fear caused worldwide panic and the behavior models of consumers changed globally. Further lockdowns have added difficulties. All participants of e-commerce were experiencing difficulties with the goods stock availability and delivery terms. Some of them have stopped advertising for a while because of high return rates and many disputes.
Even those verticals suffered, which were not directly tied to the supply chains, for instance, lotteries. The reason is simple: operators of such offers depend on other brands and companies so as to monetize potential clients. Since advertising budgets were temporarily frozen, some started to cap the limits. Everything connected to travel, accommodations, outdoor food, office culture, and public transportation was killed by the pandemic.
After the initial fall and supplier problems, e-commerce experienced a sudden boom of purchases from home and online sales. Some online store operators even had to reduce their commercial activity because they could not satisfy the increased demand.
We see the growth in everything that helps kill time during self-isolation: online games, video, streaming services, online dates and online communication, online education, gambling and casinos, personal health, sport training clothes. These are the top offers in the COVID world.
Perspective GEOs
What GEOs are most promising for traffic in 2021? Information received from partner networks proves one significant tendency: despite the US stays the biggest market, many more have shown significant growth. The most pleasant thing is that anything that is sold well in the US can be transferred to other regions. That’s why many networks focus on turning their most profitable offers to new markets. This can be a great possibility for new partners since the competition and traffic are lower in not-so-saturated regions.
For instance, iGaming significantly grew for the past 12 months in Asia, Latin America, CIS, and the EU. It would be better to start working with offers with easy flow, like CPL. The verticals working well with this flow are lotteries, interviews, fintech, and dating.
Due to the notorious financial state in many developing countries, there is a growth of offers of credit cards. People try to invest more money in various investment projects, like LATAM. The most popular verticals and trends are beauty goods, adult acquaintances, and adult games. More partner programs today are aimed at the counties of the Middle East and Asia.
Beginners should better start with tier-2/tier-3 countries. Everyone’s attracted with lucrative offers of tier-1 but one shan’t forget that traffic of these countries costs a lot of money. Start testing such countries as Portugal, Slovakia, Romania, Chile, Nigeria, or Thailand.
Seasonal offers (Nutra) and summer-actual themes
It’s not a secret that many people have lost their jobs due to pandemics and that has led to economic difficulties. As a consequence, financial offers (including loans and ones aimed at lowering the general loan burden), short-term and long-term financing, and insurance have shown good growth.
Nutra has remained strong but there was a focus shift. Users pay less attention to the “beauty” (probably because they have to stay at home longer). But the wellbeing and healthcare are on the rise, including vitamin additions, superfood extracts, and medications. As the summer approaches, all diet-aimed and cosmetology offers will traditionally grow in sales.
The leadgen blossoms in all its forms. For as long as there are companies that try to sell anything, there will be demand for potential clients. So the leadgen is still the best starting point for newcomers.
Finally, the thing that did not surprise anyone – individual protection remedies have risen to the clouds. Masks, respirators, gloves, disinfection remedies, home test kits are sold like hotcakes. Unfortunately, this niche has turned into a new ground for scams. So, ad networks undertake additional safety measures to verify such ad campaigns.
Is it worth launching vertical cryptocurrency offers in 2021?
Considering that Bitcoin (together with various other e-currencies) is the most fast-growing active on the market as of time being and already attracts the attention of large technological and financial organizations, definitely, it is worthwhile! Tesla, Facebook, Shopify, and MasterCard seriously consider jumping into the train called “cryptocurrencies”.
Traffic trends-2021
Facebook is still a king of e-commerce for anyone who lately suffered the “blockage parade”. This social network has become even more aggressive in recent months in everything connected to forbidding ad accounts. Unrestrained prohibitions started in the US triggered by the latest elections. Experts tell that the situation has somewhat stabilized after the electoral agiotage but it is still far from what it was 1 year ago.
Frankly speaking, even the purest leadgen or electronic companies could suffer from even unintentional bans. It is possible to reopen the ad account but it is required to work with white offers to have at least some chance to do it. In any case, a shift to white offers is one of the most significant ones on the market for the past few years (although there are still people working on the dark side and earning good money). If you decide to join the dark side, be prepared to invest significantly and to play cat and mouse forever. The decision is yours.
Google and Amazon also make a huge difference for e-commerce. Google is much more predictable than Facebook while Amazon continues to expand. Recently, people prefer to search for their own brands and only then to sell on Amazon. Native traffic gains more weight. Own networks, as a rule, are less rigid compared to Facebook & Google, so many branches turn to these sources after they are tired of constant prohibitions.
As for automated optimization – some networks have improved their functions, such as CPA, expense limits, targeting, goal setting, and so on. More networks are now integrated with outer tools of optimizations, which only back the general shift towards automated company management.
Partner networks know for sure, which verticals and niches give the biggest income.
The most important tendency is clearing the industry and focusing on white offers. Networks understand the need for clear offers and products since the rules about main traffic sources become more and more rigid. As a result, more partner programs offer pure leadgen, electronic, educational, and financial products to be promoted by affiliated parties.
Online entertainments develop at a high pace and all networks connected to such products prove this tendency. Streaming products, online games and apps, betting (when the rules will allow to completely renew sports events), casinos, and gambling are those fields, where one’s efforts should be concentrated.