The online dating industry is booming. It’s a huge market with unlimited potential. The online dating industry is estimated at around $2.5 billion in the US only. As for affiliate marketing, the dating vertical is considered one of three leading niches in money-making: health, wealth, and love. Why? The answer is simple. Love is one of human necessities, so people are ready to pay for a chance to find a partner.
If you trust statistics more than words, let the numbers speak for themselves:
Needless to say, the vertical is lucrative but very competitive too. High competition in the dating industry means high payouts for affiliates. Dating affiliate programs sometimes are much more profitable than other verticals that require selling products and services.
Though, not only dating websites are looking for more clients, the same applies to dating coaching platforms. This vertical never ceases to get attention and is unlikely to die down someday. Affiliates can look for segments within the vertical, such as gender-oriented, age-oriented, religion- or job oriented dating, etc.
Meticulously targeted campaigns coupled with well-thought-out landing pages allow affiliates not only to generate revenue for companies but also to earn high income.
Despite specifics of ad campaigns within the dating vertical, the key principles of affiliate programs and networks are still the same. You are paid for generating traffic (that is to say "attracting new clients") to dating platforms. Like with any other affiliate programs, you’re provided with links, promotional materials, analytical instruments, and tools to make your campaign successful.
What aspects to consider:
On the surface, it seems that choosing an affiliate program is a piece of cake as almost all multi-vertical affiliate networks provide a variety of dating offers. However, you have to pay attention to the following features:
Different affiliate dating programs use different commission models for their affiliates, from pay-per-click to pay-per-sale.
When it comes to payouts the dating vertical has its own specifics. Affiliates are paid for clicks, free registration/sign up, and paid subscription. So, you are to choose from the following:
Traffic means everything in affiliate marketing. But the traffic can be very different. As an affiliate, you need high-quality, targeted, and convertible traffic.
As you should know, gambling, adult and dating ads are restricted or even banned across many traffic sources. Additionally, you should always carefully select the targeted audience as some ad campaigns might get banned due to improper choice of the audience.
Traffic: Push notifications from EvaDav
Affiliate program: ProfitSocial
Offer: UkranianShow 18+ CPL (WEB/TAB/WAP)
Period: March 15, 2019 – April 28, 2019
GEO: France
Expenses: $1 506
Income: $5 355
Profit: $3 849
ROI: 255%
The marketer had previous successful experience of working with push notifications from EvaDav, so he decided to continue with pushes in a combo with Adsbridge tracker. He set black and white lists. According to the marketer, the set of landing pages has helped to get a rather high conversion rate. Every series included 3 ad sets with 2 creatives for every set.
The landing page was provided by the affiliate program; minimalistic, with photos and GIFs of girls. Note, GIFs usually work better than static pictures.
The results exceeded expectations. Below you see a screenshot that demonstrates the results on the later stage of the campaign:
The first weeks were not as profitable, the ROI was around 90-95%. After the addition of the black and white lists, ROI got significantly higher.
Final results:
It’s a good idea for entry-level marketers and webmasters to consider joining a dating affiliate network. Naturally, affiliate networks are easier to join and more supportive in terms of guiding marketers on the way to success. Why? Networks are mediators between marketers and advertisers; hence, they are equally interested in your success because they get their own commissions.
The majority of well-known multi-vertical affiliate networks, such as CJ Affiliate and Flex Offers, have numerous dating offers. So, if you are already a member of one of the networks, you may pick one of the dating offers via the same network. As we’ve mentioned above, there are specialized dating affiliate networks too, such as Insparx Affiliates, The Dating Network, etc. You may join one of them. In both cases, you get the advantages that networks provide, for example, a personal manager who guides you through offers. However, the commission rate might be lower than in the event of working with an advertiser directly.
The marketer decided to try some free traffic sources for the dating affiliate program. As a ground platform, he was looking for websites with the prevailing male audience. Finally, he opted for Mobilde, a large German auto platform. In short, random inbox spamming led to pretty good results: 50-100 messages resulted in 40 hits, 15 clicks, and 3 conversions. Later, the pattern was automated via BAS (expenses: $100 paid to a qualified specialist).
Some stats:
The final results:
However, in the long run, the websites add bans and restrictions, so this type of campaign requires tuning and adjustments every now and then.
Conclusion
The potential of the online dating industry is enormous; it is always a money-maker. It’s in human nature to have a partner and/or a relationship. Dating traditions have significantly changed over the years. Digital technologies played no small part too. Currently, numerous platforms are struggling to attract new customers and partner with marketers, who provide them with traffic.
Not all marketers feel comfortable working with dating offers. Sometimes it’s due to some ethical issues and religious morals, some marketers just avoid vertical-specific challenges (restrictions and bans). Hence, there is always a space for newbies to utilize the earning opportunities and conduct very profitable campaigns.
Just think out-of-the-box, study the targeted audience and ensure split testing for creatives, landing pages, and traffic sources. Online dating is a very powerful vertical that never goes out of trend.