Some say dating is dead and there’s no money anymore. But what if they just don’t know how to do it right? What I can tell you is that dating is one of the biggest markets with lots of scope and opportunity to earn.

How do you enter the dating market as an affiliate? Is there really money in it? And is it really as simple as putting up some dating banners on your website?

Here are all the steps I have taken in creating profitable campaigns in this space.

Choosing offers

Some networks have their own dating products, which is a really good way to work as it brings you unique conditions and fast response for offers like Spdate, Kismia, Hitwe or VictoriaBrides.

Another way is to research, research, research.

First, go to main dating sites in the country you are interested in and take a look at what ads are placed there, and the sort of offers they promote. Select a couple of offers with the same target audience and try to find them in Offervault, taking into account the type of traffic (mobile/desk, SOI/DOI etc.), GEO, payouts, and networks that work with them.

From my experience, the best way is to work with mature dating sites as the majority of the audiences are males past their 30s.

Finding traffic

Various dating sites and forums blog about relationships. You can find quite a lot of traffic on Exoclick, Traffic Stars, Traffic Junky and Reporo – if you know how to use them right. Those sources mostly provide adult traffic, which works well.

The steps to do this are pretty simple.Choose the ad zone, whether it’s top banner, side banner, footer, etc. If you are a newbie, you should start with mobile (300×250) or desktop (315×300), the most popular formats. You will get a list of websites suitable for your targeting. ‘Mobile bottom’ means the same as a footer, and your banner will appear on the bottom of the site. If you are new to the dating niche, pick top 50 websites where you will promote offers by Alexa rank. The smaller ones can be good, however, if you are not sure about their audiences, you might end up spending money without much profit.

You can apply your advertising campaign to a wide collection of websites without the ability to choose specific sites (Run of Network or RON). But here you will also have 80% of your traffic from top websites.

Getting started

If you wonder whether to use CPS or CPA model, my answer is definitely CPA. You can’t be responsible for the whole sales funnel across the dating niche. When it comes to traffic sources, you buy only impressions. And in the case of CPS, you depend on the quality of the product.

CPS could be a great option, however, when you already know the advertiser’s flow, their ability to monetise user and if they do like the quality of your traffic.

In 99% of cases, landing pages are a must. Direct links don’t motivate users to go further and subscribe or register; they just take them to a registration form and that’s it. Landing pages work much better as you can create a small survey for your user or just catch their attention with enticing questions that will make them want to register. Yes, creating pages takes some time, but it’s worth it.

How to create the landing page? Many advertisers include landing pages in the network’s offer description. Usually, they offer a few variants so you are free to choose. In most cases, these landing pages have gone through tests and work well.

If you have a designer, you can create your landing page from scratch. Make sure you don’t overload it with the information – make it catchy. Include a photo, type in a headline and small text, add a call to action button and play with different styles.

Top tips:

  • The language of the landing page must be the same as of the country you target.
  • The colour of the call to action button must contrast with the colour of the page.
  • Moving a button or picture on 10-15 pixels really can work.
  • Take time to learn what your audience’s taste is like and take it into account when designing your page.

Making it work

Once you have started your campaign, check your numbers. If you receive, for example, $3 from an advertiser for a lead and notice that a conversion on the source costs you $5, remove this source. The cheaper your lead is, the more money you will make. Optimise it all the time and take a look at the data. The key point is to find the golden pack of banner-landing-offers that will work for a particular source.

Once you have found it, it’s time to make more money using the information you’ve got. If you have ran out of caps, find offers in other networks and start a campaign. If your offer allows to add other countries, do so – but carefully. The best way is to add countries with similar mentality or culture. Remember that different countries have different traffic sources and can bring you different results.

These are the basic steps to enter the dating niche. Remember that 80% of success depends on the offer. If something doesn’t work within one source, it might make money elsewhere, and it’s the same when it comes to countries. If you’re a newbie, Tier-1 countries might be too competitive, regulated and saturated. The audience there has seen almost everything and it’s hard to convert them. Tier-2 and -3, on the other hand, are still developing and they are a hot spot, despite the fact that payouts are lower.

Learn and get experience. Don’t limit your opportunities and get the most of what you have.