Affiliate Marketing Secrets: How to Work with News Traffic?
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Millions of users hardly spend a day without scrolling the news, that’s why news traffic might seem rich and potentially profitable. In a certain way, it’s true. However, most affiliates avoid working with news traffic for a specific reason – not every offer works efficiently with news websites, which ends up with a low conversion rate.
It’s easy to explain: most users visit news platforms to read something random and only a few of them come from the search engine following a concrete request. So it’s not very likely that a news platform visitor will jump on the face cream offer and convert as if by magic.
But in reality, you can earn significant profit with news traffic – just make sure to follow a thoughtful strategy. And to help you with that, we will share some insights. Let’s discuss crucial nuances about the news traffic and see how to make it your income source.
What is news traffic?
In affiliate marketing, news traffic is associated with users who come to your website or landing page from an ad located on the news platform. Some websites are long-lasting, while others might be created specifically for a newsworthy event.
For instance, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, people were extremely concerned – they couldn’t stop reading news all the time. Therefore, as a response to such a high demand, hundreds of short-living news websites appeared. They contained case trackers around different countries, latest news, updates about limitations, etc. At the very beginning, such sites were super-popular and they brought huge amounts of traffic. But when the news stopped being currently central, traffic disappeared and these platforms simply stopped their existence.
The latter “live” a short life and their main purpose is to get the most from the concrete event. We will stop on the long-lasting platforms, since the short-lived ones are not very efficient in terms of earnings – they are associated with cheap traffic and such users rarely convert.
News platforms monetize and live due to advertising blocks. They share a similar scheme: users are expected to click a number of links, spend a while on the news website, and then move to another one.
If they do so, the owners of the first platform get paid. This works because such websites locate entertaining content with clickbait headings, so users want more and continue their journey.
Again, an example about COVID-19 news. When the quarantine began, people were scrolling the anxious news, but not only. As some of the online publishing companies claim, they seemed to continue their journey and click something entertaining and pleasant to decrease stress. For affiliates, this means that one of such comforting and distracting links might be your offer. It’s pure psychology!
Here is a small insight into how clickbait headings usually work. They are created to be intriguing and attention-grabbing, like this: “4 photos that will make you think twice about…” And you want to know what the answer is, so you just click it. Yes, clickbait is like junk food for your brain. The idea behind it is to attract as many people as possible and get the traffic.
News platforms work like a chain – users jump from one page to another, until they are interested in the content. At some point, they may appear on your landing page, which depends on the clickability of your offer.
You’re not sure that people will run to download your VPN after reading the news? Well, don’t be surprised – this is exactly what happens with news traffic (if you have a smart strategy combined with wow-creatives, of course). And now let’s see how to maximize your chances of success.
News traffic insights: formats, targeting, and verticals
So, here are the news traffic insights every affiliate should keep in mind. As always, all of them are based on our statistics and tests. Let’s see.
Here is a traffic split by formats and platforms:
| Formats | Platforms |
| Push ads – 50% | Mobile Android – 80% |
| Popunder ads – 25% | iOS – 10% |
| Interstitial ads – 25% | Windows – 10% |
We need to make an important point here – 25% for Interstitial is a really huge percentage for this format. And we recommend creating a Multicampaign and testing all three formats in one to maximize your profit.
As for the platforms, the best option here is to target owners of Android mobile devices.
| Top GEOs USA Indonesia Singapore | Top verticals Android cleaners Antiviruses Finance Mobile content Sweepstakes iGaming |
So, now you know all the win-win targeting settings to use for your campaign. Remember to check your offer’s peculiarities and conditions before you start campaign creation. Mind our recommendations and your offer specifics to reach maximal results.
Utilities CPA Offers: Types, Campaign Comparisons, Tips + [Case Study]
Creatives: which ones work best for news traffic?
Remember we discussed how typical news platforms work and attract users? Yes, such platforms usually have numerous clickbait banners, so you need to create something really competitive for your campaign and grab users attention.
According to our stats, the following creatives for Cleaners, iGaming, and Sweepstakes show about 2.13%, 2.24% and 1.59% CTR respectively.
We have gathered some examples of successful creatives from our inner tests and partners’ campaigns. So, behold, these creatives have shown stunning results in real news traffic campaigns:
Here is an Interstitial Android cleaner ad. What’s especially great here is a timer, a really efficient hook for users. Timers evoke a sense of exclusivity and limitation, so that people are more likely to click and convert.
And here is another example. This time, we have a push notification. This Sweepstakes creative informs the user about a chance to win a prize after answering questions. The magic words here are “we choose you” and “expensive prize”. Can you feel your hand stretching to click it?
And another winning creative for Sweepstakes vertical. The phone icon evokes some kind of a personal feeling in visitors because of the associations it usually evokes. It’s not easy to overlook such an icon just because we always check it on our smartphones. Associations are magic.
Another top-converting vertical is Finance, and let’s see the creatives:
This creative is very GEO-specific – it is oriented on Georgia. Remember that language choice is crucial, when you target GEOs where English is not the most widespread language. On this notification, we can see a pretty aesthetical image combined with a pretty attention-grabbing text that informs users about affordable terms of a financial deal.
Indeed, numbers and percents work efficiently when you include them in titles and descriptions – keep that in mind! Users click such ads eagerly because they know that terms are beneficial from the very beginning.
And now iGaming:
Happy ladies and bright background – what can make a creative even better? Of course, an eye-catching description! Which is also present on this banner. The magic words are: “luck”, “easy”, and “money”.
So, mind these simple and efficient attention hooks for your campaigns, and your chances to beat the competition will grow.
Conclusion
If you want to try the unusual segment for affiliate marketing, news traffic might be a really great idea. Indeed, this is not a standard source, however, when you have recommendations on targeting, creatives, and overall tips about this traffic type, we are pretty sure that your chances of success are really high.
And, of course, news traffic is also available at PropellerAds, so hurry up to try it in practice! If you want to maximize the performance of your traffic sources, including news, you can always contact our Support team – they will eagerly recommend the best strategy for your offer. Good luck!
Do you want to discuss news traffic strategies or any other affiliate marketing topic? Join our Telegram chat!
