Offers with Lower payouts are often undervalued by those, who have just started their way in affiliate marketing. They’re trying to get the highest rate of payouts for conversion in order to maximize the revenue.
In fact, the whole thing is often quite opposite and these offers will make you less money. There are several reasons why it happens. Lets take a look on them to understand when low payouts from CPA Networks are much better than high and when they’re not.
Affiliate marketing offers for different GEOs
There are a lot of GEOs you can choose to target and each one has its own specifics. That’s why the same affiliate marketing offer won’t work the same in different GEOs.
For example, lets take tier 1 and tier 3. If you pick high payout offer and apply it to the first group of countries, it will probably work (in case you’ll find the way to overcome the competitors and do everything right). The same offer won’t work in the second group of countries.
That’s because their citizens in general have lower purchase power, while high payouts offers in most cases presume a payment to be made for a successful conversion.
And what about Affiliate Programs offers with Lower payouts? Well, it’s the best choice to work with tier 3 and tier 2 countries. Such offers usually don’t require any payment. Visitors have to install a free app, give their e-mail, fill a form etc. And that will be your conversion.
Of course, the reward won’t be high for one. But think about the easiness and the potential volumes. In the end it often gives you much more profit than you can receive from offers with high payouts. Think about countries like China, India, Eastern Europe states, Brazil. How many potential conversions you can get there?
In general, the biggest difference between two types of offers is the audience they work with. When payouts are high, only a small part of visitors will respond. In turn, when they’re low, the amount of visitors who might convert grows exponentially.
Affiliate marketing is a competitive world. If you’re experienced enough and you’re sure to overcome the competitors, then you’re definitely able to make big money on high payout offers. In all other cases low payouts will make your more money almost always.
How difficult it is to get a conversion?
The answer for this question will tell you which type of offers suits you better. The sequence of actions that leads to conversion is a conversion flow. The more complicated it is, the less amount of visitors will reach the final point.
It’s obvious that this way is much shorter for the offers with Lower payouts. Enter the email, click agree button – these actions require only few seconds. The more complicated flow is, the more users will leave in the middle of the road.
When the conversion flow is complicated, you usually receive higher payouts. But that doesn’t mean your profit will be higher. Sometimes it will work, especially if you’re experienced in affiliate marketing and Traffic Arbitrage and have the appropriate skills of targeting and advertising.
Otherwise, you’ll receive fewer conversions for every additional step in the conversion flow. Think of such situations, when a phone call, a direct payment or giving detailed personal data is required. How many of your visitors will reach the final point? Of course, you can hook more visitors using your skills and experience, but the general rule remains the same.
As you can see, there are dozens of cases when it’s better to choose low payout offers then the ones with high payouts.
I recommend you to use these CPA Networks:
Legal restrictions
There are many products and the whole verticals, which are highly regulated in the world. You have to follow many rules, if you want to promote tobacco, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, financial products etc. Yes, the payouts here are very high, but it’s not always worth your efforts.
If we talk about the legal restrictions on the level of GEOs, tier 1 has much more rules to follow than tier 2 and tier 3, of course. Such countries as USA, EU states, Japan and South Korea are developed markets with a good level of consumer protection.
Most affiliate marketing dirty tricks won’t work here. Sometimes even where to place CTA button does matter. As for tier 2 and tier 3 countries, regulations are here not so strict. It means you can receive there much more conversions than in the tier 1.
Payouts here are lower, but the volume is way higher, which makes you greater profits in the end. That’s another situation when low payout offers might be better.
Competition in the market
Affiliate marketing is the sphere where not only the affiliates, but also networks and advertisers do compete. Their goal is to receive more traffic from you. How can they do that?
For example, they can offer you decently bigger payouts than others. It seems to be good for affiliates to receive more money for conversion, which should increase the profit in the end.
But now the question appears, how is it possible that the same offer from the one advertiser has such a different payout level? The answer is plain: the one that gives you bigger rewards will also take more conversions than it should.
It is normal when there is a little difference between the level of payouts for the same offer. Sometimes it’s like motivating bonus for good affiliates. But if the difference is about 30% or 50%, you should definitely stay away from such networks.
Also, be sure that the offers you compare are from one level. Sometimes the payout level may vary because the conversion flow is much more complicated.
As you can see, there are so many cases when low payout offers are way better than the ones with high payouts. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work with high payout offers. The idea is that it’s harder to reach a conversion there and the volumes are way smaller.
