Online dating has been booming pretty much since the moment it was introduced into modern life. Now, however, with most of the world still grappling with the new normal introduced as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the dating vertical has entered into another stratosphere.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg. By all accounts, the increased draw to the dating vertical will continue for the foreseeable future, and stands to benefit the entire industry. Circumstances have exacerbated an already acute need, as an advertiser all you need to do is to figure out how to cash in on the opportunity.
What you need for a successful dating campaign:
High traffic volume. Traffic is king in affiliate marketing. If you don’t have access to sites with lots of traffic, you could have the best creatives on the market and it might not matter much. Some of the highest trafficked sites, relevant to the dating vertical, are adult entertainment sites. Sites like Pornhub and xHamster are rife with traffic directly correlated to your target audience.
Understanding of the market. In order to run successful campaigns in any vertical you should have a comprehensive understanding of your target audience, what they are looking for on dating sites, what kind of advertising is most effective with your audience, etc. The more you understand about the vertical, the better your chances will be of launching a successful campaign.
Gripping creatives. Even if you calculate everything related to the dating vertical perfectly and have a clear idea of who you need to reach, where you need to reach them, and the best way to do that, without captivating, dynamic creatives you won’t be able to get the results you want. You are going to need texts that you can count on to get a response out of viewers, and you are going to need the graphic design skills to bring those texts to life with visuals.
Testing and trialing. Content on the internet is in constant flux, things change all the time. What works one day has no guarantee of working the next. In order to orchestrate a successful dating campaign, first it is extremely important that you start by testing out the reach and scope of your ads in order to identify strengths and weaknesses in consumer connection. Next, it is likewise important that you monitor the performance of your campaigns so you can tweak it as necessary to revamp what is not working and expand what is.
Top conversion formats for dating
The top conversion formats for dating are as follows:
Native
Native ads are designed to fit in seamlessly with the site they are featured on and the content they display. In the dating vertical three things are key. Your native ads should have an eye-grabbing creative, an engaging caption text, and a brand name. To get even better results you can use marcos and emojis in your headlines.
Banners
Banner advertising on mobile and desktop requires a bit more creativity than native. In this format you are dealing with prominent placement on a site so you want your visual to be provocative and unique and you want your text to likewise be engaging. Clear CTAs on banner ads are imperative.
In-page push
In-page push notifications are notifications that pop up while users are on the website. In their design they resemble classic push notifications but they don’t require thhe user to subscribe to receive them.These notifications are usually done in a messaging format, with an appealing image and the impression that someone on the other end wants to connect with the viewer.
Classic push
Classic push notifications are sent to desktop and mobile users regardless of whether they are currently visiting the page or not. Like in-page push, these notifications are most effective when paired with provocative imagery and the promise that someone on the other end wants to connect with the targeted viewer.
Tips
Starting out right— it can’t be stressed enough how important it is to test your campaign in order to measure its effectiveness and determine where your weak spots and strengths lie. To test a dating campaign we recommend that you start broadly by selecting a site with considerable traffic like xHamster and pairing that with a parallel RON (not limited to one site) test campaign. Using Traffic Stars self-serve platform you can quickly set up a dating campaign on xHamster and experiment with a wide range of targeting and do the same with your RON campaign. Your natives, banners, and pushes can be tied to specific demographics, user material preferences, different advertising models and geolocations. After experimenting with different formats and targeting, you will be able to ascertain the most effective ad approaches and base your campaign around them.
Keys to dating creatives
There are a few battle-tested keys to successful creatives. Generally a dating creative should:
- Be short and sweet (between 35-45 characters is proven to work best)
- Be personal (content should be tailored to your target audience)
- Inspire curiosity (play with terms like “secret,” “unbelievable,” “surprising,” etc)
- Include numbers, lists or figures
- Be negative in tone (include terms like “never,” “worst,” “mistake,” etc)
- Use playful and suggestive emojis and macros
Conclusion
While there is a fair amount of legwork that needs to be done in order to launch a successful dating campaign, it is one of the most profitable and well-performing verticals in the industry. The guide above will help you in your first steps towards achieving some great results.At TrafficStars, we run campaigns that generate billions of impressions daily and we would be delighted to help you start making a serious impact in the dating vertical.
