With the last season of this challenging year upon us, it’s time to talk about what’s in store for affiliate marketing in 2023. We’ve highlighted a few current trends that show why affiliate marketing is still a promising source of revenue. Read on to find out which verticals will continue to generate revenue, what innovations to expect in the industry, and what to bet on going forward.
Advertisers increase demand for affiliates
More and more brands in the market all over the world are analyzing how convenient and effective it is to cooperate with affiliate networks for business development. Gradually eliminating cookies encourages companies to use affiliate marketing, which produces consistently high profits and results for all parties involved in the transaction.
Affiliate marketing budgets are growing
The high ROI of affiliate marketing has already encouraged many brands to increase their planned affiliate budgets. The focus of major players in the market is now on finding the best affiliates to optimize their campaigns and achieve success. According to Statista, affiliate marketing investment will reach the $8.2 billion mark by the end of 2022 and will continue to grow in 2023.
Social network remain the best source of traffic
Experts advise betting on advertising campaigns in Tik-Tok and Instagram Reels. More than 93% of brands intend to continue and increase the volume of cooperation with Influencers in their verticals.
At the same time, a real boom is expected on micro and nano-influencers with an audience of 1,000 to 100,000 people. The emphasis is shifting from the number of subscribers to the quality of the audience and the authentic presentation of live content (replacing staged scripts). Topical advice is to make a base of thematic bloggers with an active audience, which will help to achieve the goals of generating profits from affiliate marketing.
Priority on thematic communities
Thematic communities and groups are a great source of traffic if you choose the right advertising strategy. Experts say that when promoting products in foreign markets, you should pay attention to communities on your topic on Facebook, Reddit, Quora, Medium, Discord, and Mighty Networks. As a rule, in such groups publish educational content, which you can adapt your advertising creations.
Expansion of affiliate programs and offers
Advertisers have already been able to assess the high profitability of cooperation with affiliate networks. At this stage, many brands are focused on expanding their collaboration programs as well as the assortment of relevant offers. This means that affiliates will have even more options for making money, especially in trending verticals, which we’ll talk about next. The most important thing now is for affiliates to build strong relationships with your trusted affiliate networks so they can get access to more and more exclusive offers.
Trading will become a leader in affiliate earnings
The trading vertical is already one of the stable leaders in earnings from affiliate marketing along with gaming. More and more countries and international banks are beginning to actively use cryptocurrencies, stimulating global interest. Investing in altcoins and NFTs will remain a top earning topic. Ads are expected to greatly expand the range of advertisers in the trading vertical, creating even more revenue enhancement opportunities for experienced affiliates. If you still haven’t tried your hand in the trading vertical, now is the perfect time to gain valuable experience!
Emphasis on video creatives
Social networks have long tended to rely on videos, which the majority of users prefer to create and view.
According to Wyzowl statistics, in 2022:
- the number of queries “which product to choose” increased twofold;
- Viewers are 95% more likely to remember the call to action after watching a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text format;
- 72% of users prefer watching videos to learn product information before purchasing;
- 88% make purchases after watching ads in video format.
Be prepared to create more video content. You may need help from writers, social media managers, designers, cameramen, and editors. If you don’t have your own proven creative team, you can always enlist the help of your affiliate network to develop promotional materials.
Artificial Intelligence will continue to conquer the web
Already many functions on the Internet are performed by algorithms based on artificial intelligence. These include A/B testing and rule-based optimization. META developers will continue to incorporate artificial algorithms into their products, automating more and more functions related, among other things, to affiliate marketing effectiveness. The goal is to drive your campaigns to the highest conversion rates.
Affiliate marketing launches in the meta universe
The network of unified digital three-dimensional worlds, which are available through virtual reality, is attracting more and more players around the world. Experts note that today in the metaverse you can already find a decent target audience for gaming offers. The prospect of growth of is huge for the next few years, and you can already start earning on affiliate marketing in the meta universe. Gamers and augmented or virtual reality users can become your target market today.
Advertising should be optimized for voice search
Voice search is gaining popularity in the world. Modern gadgets have long had a voice search function, which is beginning to be actively used by users in many countries. To increase the effectiveness of affiliate advertising campaigns, experts advise optimizing advertising creatives for voice search. Here are a few tips on how to do it:
- Use long and questionable keywords in advertising texts;
- Place a FAQ page on your landing page;
- include sections in your content that can be “Favorite Snippets;
- Make sure that content is always relevant, fresh and SEO-optimized.
To summarize
Affiliate marketing is steadily gaining momentum around the world. The competition on the market is growing, but so is the volume of the industry. The range of unique offers is expanding. Trading is still one of the leading verticals for making money from affiliate marketing.
Social networks are desperately demanding native video content as the best advertising from micro and nano Influencers. Optimizing content for voice search will help increase its effectiveness for ad campaigns. The best quality traffic should be searched in themed communities using updated features of artificial intelligence algorithms.