A Deep Dive Into Mobile Affiliate Marketing: 2023 Trends

In a short period of time, more and more users started opting for mobile devices rather than desktop computers. Affiliate marketing quickly implemented mobile channels into its practice. The more mobile device users increase, the more mobile affiliate marketing tries to keep up.

This concept is establishing a whole new era of mobile marketing trends. It's allowing the world's largest businesses to contact prospective customers in every part of the world. And the good news is that affiliate marketers understand how to capitalize on this fantastic chance. As a matter of fact, mobile marketing statistics predict that advertising spending will reach $145 billion by 2024, and that’s just in the United States. 

We've prepared a detailed guide to understand how the mobile affiliate marketing world works. Learn about how it stands out from traditional methods and find out how you can do affiliate marketing on your phone.

Understanding Mobile Affiliate Marketing 

At its core, affiliate marketing on phones is similar to traditional affiliate marketing. A company selling products or offering paid services uses an affiliate to promote its products or services for a commission. Affiliate marketing publishers are either website owners (or webmasters), app owners, or social media influencers. The publisher places mobile offers in the form of an ad on their website or platform. Customers then see those ads and click on them, which may or may not lead to a sale.

Ultimately, the company tracks conversion rates to see how effective the process is. Based on the final data, the affiliate receives a portion of the money customers spend on the product or service.

The mobile affiliate industry is exclusively directed at mobile device users. It is a type of performance marketing that uses marketing tools and platforms specifically designed with mobile platforms in mind.

Many mobile affiliate networks help both sides find each other. The mobile affiliate network boasts large daily internet traffic that they offer to mobile advertisers. The traffic is a major appeal to advertisers, who may choose to publish and monetize their ads on those affiliate networks. Advertisers utilize affiliate links to track the traffic directed to their websites.

As far as affiliate marketing is concerned, mobile has not been overloaded with competition yet. On the contrary, there are only a handful of great affiliates on the mobile platform. But this is creating issues from a supply-demand perspective. 

The Advantages of Affiliate Marketing Via Mobile

Broad Reach

It’s hard to deny that a significant portion of the world uses smartphones. People use the internet on their mobile devices more than they do on computers. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you opened Instagram on your desktop? With that in mind, mobile affiliates allow you to reach a broad audience and benefit from a growing market. 

Great Targeting Opportunities

Ask any marketer, and they’ll tell you that targeted offers work better. As a mobile affiliate marketer, you can leverage location-based targeting opportunities. One example is geofencing, a highly effective way of targeting audiences with offers based on where they live in real time.  

Faster Buying Process

In many cases, affiliate offers result in direct purchases on your landing page and mobile traffic to your website. People these days can buy just about anything on their mobile phones, and it’s a fast and straightforward process. Plus, online shopping is continuously evolving and growing as the days go by. 

Less Competition

Besides being relatively new to the affiliate landscape, mobile affiliate advertising is also somewhat challenging. Many companies and influencers come across a few technical barriers. That’s why there’s much less competition in the mobile affiliate space, giving you plenty of wiggle room. 

Easier Flow

After clicking the affiliate link, the transaction tends to be fast and simple. Otherwise, it’s quite easy for users to get discouraged or distracted. Another advantage of mobile transactions is that the verification text or email confirmation pops up at the top of the screen, generating more leads and driving more conversions.

Mobile Affiliate Strategy

Define Your Goals

What goals do you have in mind for your mobile affiliate marketing journey? Do you notice a rise in smartphone-driven traffic to your affiliate website? Do you think that affiliate offers get more attention on social networks than a traditional website? Besides the obvious goal of generating revenue, figure out what else you want to get out of your affiliate program.

Map the Customer Journey

A customer journey map provides insights into the reasons behind potential customers’ interest in your affiliate offer. This allows you to boost your conversion rates and strengthen relationships with your customers. You’ll want to analyze how someone finds your website, social media profile, and other forms of online presence. Next, take note of all touchpoints and factors the target audience will consider before taking action. 

Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

With mobile becoming more popular than the desktop computer, it takes the lead in the consumption of web content—not counting mobile phone apps. This means you’ll want to optimize your web content for mobile devices. There are two main factors to take into account in this regard: speed and responsiveness. 

When it comes to speed, there are many new methods that can help you boost your website’s loading time. As for responsiveness, make sure that you create several versions of your website’s layout to accommodate different screen sizes, especially small mobile screens.

Optimize Emails for Mobile

When composing an email, remember that mobile screens are considerably smaller than desktop computers, which means that the font size needs to be larger—16px on average. You’ll also want your headings to be short, and your sentences should be simple with a clear paragraph structure. As for images, keep them to a minimum. Many mobile users don’t have a fast connection and will exit the email if it doesn't load properly. 

Develop Your Social Media Channels

You’ll be missing out if you don’t take advantage of social platforms for your mobile affiliate marketing campaigns. Social media marketing can prove to be highly beneficial, whether it’s boosting sales, strengthening your brand, or letting you connect with your mobile internet audience. 

Optimize your content, post it on social media platforms, run social media ads, and interact with your followers regularly.

Personalize Ads for Mobile Devices

You can optimize ads for mobile marketing channels the same way you optimize your website and email content. Your ads will take up less space, and users can easily scroll past them or click on them. This means you need to catch the viewers’ attention more effectively. Any text in your visuals should be clear and easy to see. Much like emails, you’ll want to keep your headings simple, keeping in mind that the viewer can’t read a whole sentence while scrolling past your ad on their cell phone.  

Common Types of Mobile Ads for Affiliate Marketers

There are several types of mobile and in-app adverts that you can use when doing mobile affiliate marketing from your phone. These include: 

• Banner: The classic, eye-catching banner contains engaging text or graphics and a call to action

• Video: Much like TikTok clips, video ads are becoming an increasingly popular way to engage viewers

• Fullscreenorinterstitial: Affiliate ads that take up the whole mobile screen often pop up during app transitions

• Native: Designed with specific apps or responsive websites in mind, native ads blend into the surrounding space while catching attention

Mobile Affiliate vs. Traditional Marketing

Traditional website marketing has two main tools: pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine marketing (SEM). Out of the two tools, PPC is the easiest one for businesses to set up, run, and track. However, there's a downside to only using PPC—people end up seeing only 35% of the ads being run.

SEM, on the other hand, provides high conversion rates and great results. The flaw here is that once keywords become hot, it gets more expensive to run paid ads through them.

Compared to traditional marketing, mobile affiliate marketing offers new solutions to current and existing marketing problems. The level of uncertainty is essentially nonexistent since an affiliate runs the ad. This establishes a form of initial trust between the client and the product.

Think of it this way: Would you buy a certain product based on a random ad? Or, would you buy it if someone you know recommended it to you?

The answer is obvious. Word of mouth and initial impressions play a huge role in affiliate marketing. An internet influencer, who's the affiliate in this context, has the necessary following among people to positively endorse your brand.

People are more likely to purchase a product to which they are referred rather than through a traditional ad. All you have to do is find the email addresses of the mobile affiliate you'd like to get in touch with.

Most importantly, from a business perspective, it makes sense to start engaging in mobile marketing. You pay for ads only when they convert into affiliate sales.

To put it simply, you don’t pay for internet users to see your brand. You only pay when mobile audiences actually purchase from your brand. This benefits both the advertiser and the affiliate.

Affiliate Marketing for Mobile Apps

Along with the mobile marketing boom, affiliate marketing with mobile applications is gaining traction all over the world. The mobile app market is on a tremendous growth trajectory. App downloads are only increasing; therefore, using this opportunity for affiliate mobile marketing strategies is a logical step.

First of all, mobile affiliate marketing is not as invasive as other advertising methods. In fact, it benefits all parties involved. Affiliate marketing on mobile apps allows app creators to gain revenue without distracting users with third-party ads.

Most of the time, affiliate marketing runs relevant and appropriate ads for optimal results. This makes room for forming strategic partnerships where both the advertiser and the affiliate benefit mutually.

Moreover, you can cut down on mobile marketing costs by using affiliates to promote your apps. Using referral programs, you encourage your mobile audience to bring in new potential customers for your other apps.

Mobile Marketing Affiliate Programs

Every day, hundreds of publishers profit from income inflows by collaborating with other businesses through affiliate marketing programs. Affiliate marketing is a great method to monetize your app or site and make money online, especially if you don't offer any items or services yourself.

Entering an affiliate program or ad network may provide you with access to fresh material and exclusive promotions while increasing your earnings. These app affiliate networks come in a variety of forms, spanning from online classes to webpage builders to business and marketing affiliates.

You’ll find an abundance of great mobile affiliate networks to improve your business marketing strategy. Many mobile applications have even launched their own referral systems. This saves marketing expenses and compensates users for bringing in new customers. Some of them even provide excellent sign-up bonuses, so you and your referrals both benefit.

2023 Mobile Affiliate Trends

Voice Search

Google statistics reveal that 27% of online consumers around the world use a voice assistant on their smartphones. Voice search has changed how people use search engines. Although it's still in its early stages, it’s turning into an integral tool for smartphone users. Almost everyone owns a smartphone today, and voice search is more convenient than text-based search, besides taking less time. To stay ahead of the game, consider including this trend in your mobile affiliate marketing plan. 

Chatbots

Chatbots aren’t just for customer service messaging. You can also integrate this form of mobile marketing automation into your website or social media channels. The more places mobile users can see your message, the more you’ll drive mobile traffic to the app. Research shows that 70% of companies will adopt a form of AI (artificial intelligence) in their marketing strategies by 2030. And the main drive behind this is the Gen Z population, which is the first generation of mobile-first shoppers. 

App Gamification

App gamification is a unique and cost-effective digital marketing trend that you can use for various purposes, including customer acquisition. It involves creating games or challenges within apps that reward consumers with points or prizes for winning or completing a task. This fosters a sense of competition, which helps boost user engagement. 

One form of app gamification is the concept of leaderboards, which you can see in apps like Duolingo. The main benefit of this trend is that it’s a faster and easier way to reach your business goals. It improves customer spending and encourages people to keep returning to the app and driving high-quality traffic.

After creating a custom experience through contextual segmentation, you can deliver a contextual offer to engaged users at the right time. Then, brand involvement in the gaming universe will introduce live advertising and new ad formats with the goal of driving in-game engagement. 

Metaverse

Metaverse is an entirely new technology that makes virtual reality (VR) possible. It combines blockchains, virtual reality, and augmented reality (AR) with social media concepts to form interactive spaces that imitate the real world. Within the digital environment, people will be able to meet with family, friends, clients, coworkers, contractors, and more. They will also be able to attend a virtual meeting and shop online from a virtual mall. 

These developments are set to transform everything from social commerce to business communication. With the possibilities endless, the metaverse will also be an ideal platform for mobile affiliate marketing efforts. 

Augmented Reality

Enhancing the way you approach mobile commerce can help you achieve your sales funnel goals. It’s common to see businesses leveraging digital products to boost sales. Look at how augmented reality has made its way to our smartphones, creating a better customer experience. It’s a major trend that has gained quite a lot of traction over the past few years. 

As a digital platform, AR overlays digital content on actual objects you see through your phone’s camera. One example is the mobile game Pokemon Go, where players try to catch Pokemon creatures that appear on the smartphone camera as they walk around in the real world. 

Unlike VR, AR allows users to interact with the digital item. For example, customers can hold and zoom on a product they’re looking at online. This lets potential buyers experience how the product would look in reality, allowing them to make a more informed decision before placing an order. With AR becoming common among smartphone users, mobile affiliate marketers can reach a broader mobile market audience by advertising products via this rapidly emerging technology.