Crisis Marketing Strategy: Coronavirus VS. Affiliates
Heavy lies the corona.
I’m writing this blog post from home because, just like thousands of other people, I’m on lockdown. (Since I have this opportunity, could anyone recommend a good cheesecake recipe?)
Given the situation, it’s understandable that many of us fall into despair, assuming the business is dead, and you have to lay low until this global-scale mess is over.
But is it the case here?
Let’s see. We’ve carefully analyzed the matter, reached out to our experts (also housebound), pulled the stats from a variety of sources, and we are finally ready to present our vision of how COVID-19 is influencing the affiliate market and what you need to do about your campaigns.
Meet the ultimate survivors
First things first, we have to define how the various verticals took the hit. To make it easier, here’s a handy table, featuring verticals and their current status and problems/challenges.
| Vertical | Status |
| Dating | We see a slight downward trend Although people continue to communicate, the one-night-stand sort of CPA offers is falling into the abyss simply because you can’t really meet anyone in person (unless you like living dangerously). *Note that we are expecting increased demand for dating and webcam offers as the longer lockdown lasts, the more people will need to communicate. |
| Gaming | Growing by leaps and bounds People are at home, and since not everyone is into books, series tend to end, lots of users turn to games. Especially all these games with live chats. 3 Steps to Finding a Superb Gaming Offer |
| Streaming | Launch a campaign RIGHT NOW Has streaming ever felt better? No time to explain, launch your campaign NOW. Like N O W. Read more: How to Tame the Streaming & Video-on-Demand Verticals? |
| eCommerce | eCommerce is not doing well Call centers are down; postal delivery is not working in multiple countries. *Although offers like sanitizers could still work like fire in GEOs where delivery is still available (sorry, not so many countries are left). |
| Finance/Forex/Crypto | SMOKING HOT ALERT Finance is going wild. People who have completely nothing to do enjoy making money at home. The financial market is super volatile now, which is perfect for people trading oil, precious metals, crypto, and, certainly, currencies. *Just be careful- avoid CPA offers that require call centers for lead approvals. Check out our FREE PDF on how to run financial offers. |
| Betting | Oh, maaaan… As for now, betting is pretty much dead as no sporting events are happening, and all the top football games are canceled until further notice. *With a BIG exception of cybersports |
| iGaming | FIRE ALERT iGaming are having the time of their life. In other words, such campaigns are something to run right now. It’s an opportunity you can’t miss. |
| Utilities | Yes, another ultimate survivor VPNs, antiviruses (what an irony!), performance boosters – are all very hot right now. People are living with their mobiles and PCs at these hard times. |
| Sweepstakes | Stable as rock The sweepstakes are the Alpha and Omega of affiliate marketing. They are still running. Not growing, not dropping. Stable. |
| Travel | RIP Where to start? Ah, yes, nowhere. Forget about travel vertical for now. |
| Nutra | Not so well Theoretically, all those immunity boosters and similar offers could convert like fire, but… (There’s always this BUT) postal services are not delivering goods from certain locations + call centers are down. More about Nutra. |
| App installs | Go for it! Yoga apps? Streaming? All these offers score a definite A now. |
GEOs aka Where to find HOT profits
Here’s the information, we managed to collect from our stats and advertisers we are working with:
?? EUROPE: online offers, anything requiring postal delivery is a risk, except local food delivery services. Streaming, gaming, and iGaming are super hot.
? ASIA & PACIFIC: again, online stuff, and only online stuff.
? AFRICA: the situation with COVID-19 is not as critical as in Europe; therefore, you still have an opportunity for a wider range of offers.
? MIDDLE EAST: although the situation with delivery is slightly easier, opt for forex, streaming, and app installs.
? NORTH & SOUTH AMERICAS: try food delivery, supermarket gift cards (sweepstakes), and of course, online-only offers.
Traffic Volumes
As per our analytics team, traffic volumes are at their highest now. It’s understandable because people are locked at home and their main entertainment is the internet.
The number of impressions has grown +34% over the past week, while desktop traffic has gained an additional 10%. Read more about desktop & Mobile traffic.
How to adjust your creatives?
Whilst we cannot provide you with a universal formula for each and every vertical, we have compiled a list of recommendations on how to make your creatives more relevant to your users.
Key Points here:
- People are locked at home, and very much likely, they are bored. So our primary focus is entertainment. Your ads should look amusing and fun to read.
- You should change your approach. It’s spring, so usually, many affiliates by now would be running summer and vacation-related ads. Well, at this point, fun summer ads are likely to annoy. So, doing marketing as nothing is going on is a No-No.
- Focus on in-home activities. In other words, talk about things you can do at home.
- Should you be talking about Coronavirus in your ads? Although many affiliates use this approach (read about shocking content here), be careful as some users try to distance from negative thoughts.
Here are the examples of Coronavirus-related creatives (found in Affbank):
What offers rock?
Our friends at Zeydoo were generous to share the best-performing offers with us. And well, we are sharing them with you 🙂
| CPA Offer | ID | Geo | Vertical | Device | Payout |
| Amazon Prime (CC Submit) | 312 | ?? UK | Online cinema | [WEB+MOB] | $10.53 |
| Fuuze Prelander (CC Submit) | 141 | ?? FR | Online cinema | [WEB+MOB] | $31.21 |
| Movies – PLAYER Prelander (CC Submit) | 47 | ?? US | Online cinema | [WEB+MOB] | $15.20 |
| EBOOKS Subscription (CC Submit) | 135 | ?? FR | Content on Demand | [WEB+MOB] | $35.20 |
| Fitness (CC Submit) | 131 | ?? BE | Content on Demand | [WEB+MOB] | $35.20 |
| Music Subscription (CC Submit) | 137 | ?? ES | Content on Demand | [WEB+MOB] | $30.40 |
| Yoga Girl | 376 | ?? KW | Pin Submit | MOB ( 3G / LTE) | $2.40 |
| VPN Wolf (CPI) | 384 | ?? US | Utilities | MOB (iOS) | $0.81 |
| C6 Bank | 196 | ?? BR | Finance | MOB (Android) | $4.0 |
| BancoNext | 160 | ?? BR | Finance | MOB (Android) | $4.80 |
| Wells Fargo Gift Card Prelander (SOI) | 343 | ?? US | Sweepstakes | [WEB+MOB] | $1.350 |
Tips & Comments from experts
As in every company, we discuss the situation and exchange our thoughts. Here’s what our account-strategists and business developers say:
Renz Gonzales, Senior Account Strategist at PropellerAds:
“The digital advertising landscape will continue it’s ever-shifting and adapting versatility. We’ve seen and encountered many changes in trends over the years.
From predictions that the Popunder format would die years ago to Push Notification vanishing across the industry, here’s my overview on how the Coronavirus pandemic will affect affiliates and all advertisers in the coming weeks, months or even years ahead?
Streaming Offers. As more and more countries are put into lockdown measures, then more and more people will see their everyday lives slowing down. It’s stunning to witness the rise in demand for content streaming services. Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and more other online streaming platforms are expected to report increase this quarter. So get those free trial streaming offers and count on major profits!
VPN. Streaming offers come hand in hand with VPN services with the need to openly access content related to the user’s geolocation. There will be a major rise in demand for this vertical. It would be a great example of a domino effect that both Streaming and VPN verticals will fly high and benefit from.
Crypto. All Cryptocurrencies are heavily affected and have created turmoil across the globe. That is the reality. While a further decline in values is expected, this is seen as a huge opportunity for a bullish market effect, increasing urgency to invest in Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies. Demand is expected to explode for such offers.”
Irina Razvodova, Head of Zeydoo:
“If you plan to convert users during a global pandemic – you should think like a user sitting at home. People are at home, missing communication, and having too much free time. Obviously, they are searching for new music, checking coronavirus updates on news websites, etc. I know that traffic on streaming websites is growing like crazy – how to make money on this traffic?
Betting offers are a bad idea, but players gonna play, so look for igaming, cybersports, sweepstakes, and sweepstakes with instant giveaways (a new thing in the market).
Apart from streaming offer, I can also mention free trials like Apple music or something similar to Netflix.
Also, don’t forget all these “gym rats”. How do they exist with gyms closed? Right, they install yoga and fitness apps. These apps are super popular right now.”
Ariadna Butler, Business Development Manager at PropellerAds:
“I have updates from several big advertisers; their call centers are down. Betting profits are sliding, because the majority of sporting events are either canceled or postponed. Also, I noticed that advertisers are actively using coronavirus in their creatives (landing pages and pre-landers).”
Should coronavirus scare affiliates more than it already does? No, as it presents us with new opportunities for finding fresh approaches and new verticals. Want to discuss it? Welcome to our BIG Telegram chat!
