The Adult Vertical and its Unique Challenges

Hello, community! We know how much you love our useful articles, so today we’re once again treating you to an important topic related to the adult vertical in affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a very extensive field that includes a large number of directions, tools, and offers. And a separate important topic is the review of verticals with which a webmaster can work.

Agree, to start working with a certain niche, you definitely need to dive into it headfirst and determine how it functions, what to pay attention to, what nuances will await you in the process, etc. And since adult is one of the top verticals, we cannot skip this topic.

By the way, we have a separate section with great dating affiliates programs that work with various offers and with which you can build close cooperation.

Now, let’s delve into the concept of “vertical,” what they are, and the specifics of working with the adult niche.

THE CONCEPT OF “VERTICAL” IN TRAFFIC ARBITRATION.

You’ve certainly heard the word “vertical” more than once and have probably figured out what it means in the context of affiliate marketing. So let’s make it short and clear.

A vertical is, in other words, a niche or category of goods/services, i.e., offers. Structuring is important for effectively promoting an offer.

Of course, working with different categories has its specifics. It depends on whether a white, grey, or black offer is being promoted. In each niche, you need to skillfully select the target audience, understand if the service/product is seasonal, use various tools for effective pouring, choose the most relevant GEOs, and adapt creatives for traffic sources.

Thanks to verticals, you can: focus on one niche and learn to promote it effectively; isolate the target audience and focus on it when providing information, not scattering attention on non-target users; monitor competitors in the selected niche.

By the way, apart from the division by niches, there’s also a horizontal gradation, which allows offering products/services to users with different income levels.

Here’s a list of main verticals that affiliate marketing work with: e-commerce (any goods that can be sold online), nutra (beauty products, i.e., skincare and decorative cosmetics, perfumes, dietary supplements, weight loss products, etc.), gambling (online casinos and betting), utilities or installs (payments webmasters receive for installing an app or browser extension), gaming (offers with gaming apps with in-app monetization), finance (cryptocurrency ads, exchanges, options, banks, microloans, etc.), sweepstakes/contests (users must leave data to participate), dating (everything related to dating sites), adult (content of a sexual or pornographic nature). And it’s the last vertical that we want to discuss in more detail.

WHAT IS AN ADULT VERTICAL IN AFFILIATE MARKETING?

Adult vertical — this niche is related to goods or services exclusively for adult users, i.e., with an 18+ rating. The most vivid example is Pornhub, which is practically known to all. Resources where you can get a paid subscription to the author’s content, like OnlyFans, are also becoming popular.

Interest in this niche remains significantly stable (possibly only for some products, not the niche as a whole). For instance, during the pandemic, the demand for adult products even increased.

Naturally, 80% of the target audience is men. It’s important that they are solvent, so the age range of male users fluctuates approximately from 25 to 45 years.

Most adult offers are considered grey. Often, advertisers want to promote in top countries, so advertising budgets may include the use of cloaking and other tools for those offers that are not entirely legal in the chosen GEOs.

It’s considered that starting in this niche doesn’t require much. Therefore, even beginners can try their hand at adult.

This vertical partially overlaps with gaming, dating, and e-commerce. More specifically, adult offers can include:

• Adult dating. This covers apps and websites for dating. It’s where users look for sexual partners. The service “phone sex” can also be included here.
• Adult content. For example, the well-known Pornhub. Porn sites often offer cooperation. Users purchase subscriptions to access exclusive unique content.
• Webcam. This is advertising streaming platforms.
• Adult games. This is the gaming niche with online games and apps for adults that include explicit scenes and 18+ storylines.
• Adult nutra. This includes e-commerce products like creams for male organ enlargement, drugs for potency and improving erectile function, various dietary supplements for women, etc.
• Adult goods. Products for diversifying sexual life.
• Adult pharmacy. You might think this is the same as nutra, but this category specifically includes medicinal drugs, for example, Viagra.

The safest branch of adult is dating. In such areas, it’s easier to get a good conversion, advertisers approve various GEOs and traffic sources, and dating offers can be found in most affiliates.

WHAT PAYMENT MODELS ARE COMMON IN ADULT VERTICAL?

The most common is the CPA model, i.e., cost per action. Each affiliate has its own conditions under which the webmaster receives payments. The payable action could be registration, filling out a form, subscribing to a newsletter, or most often, purchasing an offer.

Besides this, the following models are encountered:

• СОІ — заповнення анкети, форми, заяви.
• DOI — completing an application + its confirmation.
• PPS — payment for sale.
• RevShare — оплата за членство користувача на сайті.
• CCsubmit — the user must enter their credit card data to subscribe to an event, service, or content.
• PPL — payment for leads.
• CPI — payments for installing adult apps.
• PPC — payments per click (the least common model).

FEATURES OF WORKING WITH ADULT VERTICAL.

What are the features of working with this vertical? Let’s take a look.
The difficulty of promotion lies in the fact that not all traffic sources are loyal to such content and do not want to promote it. That is, even if you managed to launch an ad, the risk of blocking and deletion will be quite high.

High competition is also one of the factors why it will be difficult for beginners to enter this niche.

To host adult content, expensive hosting is needed, which will not delete sites for publishing pornographic materials.

It’s also necessary to carefully choose GEOs for adult offers, as adult content is banned at the legislative level in many countries. But in such cases, cloaking can be used.

CONCLUSION

The division of all offers into verticals is extremely important. It allows for the correct segmentation of the audience to subsequently develop strategies and effectively promote products.

Among all niches, the adult vertical is one of the oldest, yet it can still bring in good earnings. It includes promoting pornographic content, adult goods, adult apps, webcam, adult dating, etc.

The main task for the webmaster is to constantly find new ways to implement and monetize adult content. However, do not forget that this niche is banned in many countries, so this must be taken into account when choosing GEOs, approaches, traffic sources, using cloaking if necessary, and constantly monitoring the relevance of offers.

We value communication with you, so we would be extremely happy to hear your feedback on working with the adult vertical and more.

For this, please visit our Telegram community. There you will find useful, current, and educational content.

With respect, Your Geek!