Even if you’ve just started with affiliate marketing, you surely noticed that mobile traffic is blooming. You’re right if you see a good chance in this.
According to Statista, affiliate marketing is going to grow up to 8 billion dollars by 2022 (the amount of spending in the US only). Paired with growing mobile traffic that amounts to 54% of total global internet traffic, it becomes one of the market drivers and income boosters for all moneymakers.
This post will make you more familiar with the most easy-to-run mobile content offer type — PIN Submit. You’ll learn why they are great for beginners, how they work, and how to promote PIN Submit offers with maximum return.
PIN Submit offers: definition
Quick note: PIN Submit is not the same as SMS advertising. Simply put, it’s a way of mobile content advertising that requires a paid subscription.
So what is a PIN Submit offer?
PIN Submits bear various names online, including Mobile Offer, Mobile Content, Carrier Billing, Pin Submit, and Premium SMS. The principle is pretty simple: when users click on an ad, they land on the offer’s page where they are asked to enter their phone number or send an SMS so to receive a PIN code.
One of the fundamental reasons services and brands advertise with PIN submit offers is the easier way to get users’ agreement to pay.
To complete a transaction, users usually need to provide payment information (a credit card, PayPal, etc.). This process is time-consuming and stressful; it makes customers wonder if they really need the service. As a result, some customers churn. With PIN submit offers, the situation is different. This option is perfect for undecided customers because they don’t need to provide card details to make a payment. Instead, they can do everything with a phone number. And it’s their mobile carrier, not the bank, who will charge a recurrent fee.
How do PIN Submit offers work?
We’ve just covered the basics, so let’s go ahead and see how PIN submit advertising works. Picture this: a user gets a mobile ad with some valuable content:
- Usually, to get full access to valuable content, a user has to subscribe (most PIN submit offers are subscription-based);
- The user gets asked to enter their phone number;
- Then, they receive a text message with a “PIN code” necessary for confirmation of purchase, and that marks the completed conversion;
- The payment is then processed automatically through the cellular contract.
At the end of the month, they usually receive a cell bill that includes their invoice to see the services they paid for using carrier billing.
Let’s take a deeper look at the main types of PIN Submit offers.
What are the most common types of Mobile Content offers?
When it comes to mobile content promotion, an affiliate marketer or advertiser should be attentive to the specifics of the conversion flow. They reveal “what you will be paid for” and what it will take to make users complete this conversion.
It might be a bit confusing, because “submitting a PIN code” is already a conversion flow, but there are some differences in the way an affiliate gets the conversion approved.
MSISDN Flow (also Direct Billing)
This one/two-click flow allows customers to subscribe without leaving the offer page. Also, there’s no need to use SMS to confirm the subscription. All the user needs to do is click on the “Accept/Confirm” button. Users don’t have to leave the offer page to confirm a subscription.
Mobile Originated (MO) Flow
MO Flow (Mobile Originated flow) is a billing system that allows users to subscribe to use SMS services from a registered phone number. This method requires more action from users. In this case, they have two ways to go:
- To subscribe, a user needs to send an SMS;
- To subscribe, a user gets an activation code (via SMS).
Unfortunately, MO Flows generate fewer conversions than the previous method because users have to complete more steps.
To Contents ↑Mobile Terminated (MT) Flow
The Mobile Terminated (MT) flow involves registering a phone number on the dedicated landing page and acquiring the activation code.
In this case, the user receives a PIN code on their device. After that, they need to revisit the offer page to submit it and subscribe to the service. The “MT flow” is often used as a direct symomym to PIN Submit.
What to learn before you start running a campaign
Assess the prospects of a PIN Submit offer
When it comes to advertising carrier billing offers, the main challenge is to choose the right offer. Which one? First off, the one that is more likely to excite users and leave them no chance than to subscribe. And second, the offer that will pay off in spades. Here is what to look at:
- The offer will probably be attractive to a broad audience: astrology, dating apps, wallpapers, lotteries, TV series, etc;
- If you see a mobile subscription offer, you need to research and make sure this service is popular in the target country. In this case study of promoting TV series, our partner made sure that people loved this show;
- The device type is the key to success; it is safer to choose Android rather than iOS as leads are cheaper;
- The ad format. The go-to format is Popunder, as you will not need to design creatives here except for a pre-lander. Pop ads can also boast of having the most extensive traffic volumes. For other ad units like Push Ads or Native Banners, you will have to make creatives from scratch. So make sure that the advertiser has provided additional visuals: product descriptions, images, photos, etc.
- Restrictions. Even if the payout is beyond expectations, you need to be careful with the offer details. Will this offer be easy to run? Details: iOS only, one mobile carrier, one Tier-1 country. That one is for highly skilled affiliates. In general, it would be better to target Tier-3 countries. Actually, this cluster is the only one to make more significant profits, even if you’re a newbie.
A 6-day campaign resulted in $346 profit. In this case study, our partner is sharing how to pick offer, set the appropriate bid, and make shiny creatives. Optimization hacks are also there!
Choose a traffic source
When choosing an offer, you have to consider the platform you will drive traffic from. If you’re skilled enough in advertising with Facebook, it might seem sensible to launch a campaign there. But most likely, this won’t result in many conversions. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest users are pretty sensitive to getting subscription-based offers. Add here the fact that these are platforms that are widely used for Tier-1 ads.
The surefire solution is to find an advertising network that can provide you with massive, neat traffic. All you need to do is register and check if there is enough traffic for the chosen device and phone carrier. When using Adsterra, you can easily tackle that challenge. You create your campaign, targeted by mobile carrier, and our intelligent Traffic Estimator will demonstrate how effective your campaign is by analyzing your competitors’ campaigns with similar settings.
Spend a few minutes examining the landing page
It’s vital to visit the landing provided by your advertiser. Is it catchy? Does it have a valuable offer that can trigger users to subscribe? A poor landing page will not help you achieve your goal ROI. What is more, the creatives and the pre-lander must resonate with the core landing message. Avoid misleading aiming at better CTRs, or numerous clicks will return zero conversions.
It seems that we’ve come close to the most exciting part of the guide. Let’s check now how you can promote PIN Submit offers.
How to promote PIN Submit offers
When it comes to online affiliate marketing, you need to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in this niche. We know how to advertise Pin Submit offers and reach the highest possible ROI. Check up a few insightful tips that will help test your marketing campaigns and make sure you are moving in the right direction.
To Contents ↑General tips for advertising mobile subscriptions and content
1. Mind that Android usually wins over iPhone
There are over 5 billion mobile users worldwide, 75% of whom are Android users. You have more chances to profit from this target segment. It’s a great opportunity when the offer allows targeting both iOS and Android users.
To Contents ↑2. Do a split test using a pre-lander and linking directly
The first task of a successful marketer when promoting a carrier billing offer is to test your campaign. Both solutions are effective, but pre-landers pages usually guarantee more engagement. Remember that users will have to subscribe for a service, provide their phone numbers, and enter the code. They must be pre-warmed to carry on with target action. That’s why a friendly, exciting pre-landing page might be helpful. However, a lot depends on the GEO you are targeting.
To Contents ↑3. Don’t refuse of lower payouts
You can even turn the lowest payout offers into profitable campaigns. When you get enough traffic, and with settings done right, you will soon find multiple conversions coming and coming. The conversion flow is pretty simple — users have to make one or two clicks to convert — so you will not have to wait long for the payouts to come.
To Contents ↑4. Sometimes, desktop traffic will surprise you
Ok, that’s a non-so-typical case, but the point is that users can submit their mobile phone numbers when captured by desktop ads. When you don’t have such restrictions, you can go and test desktop traffic. It’s cheaper, and the competition will not be harsh. However, in this case, you will need to create a desktop-oriented pre-lander and get prepared for more extended traffic tests as users won’t convert very fast.
Having finished with general truths, let’s carry on with more specific pro hacks and see how you can promote PIN Submit offers on Adsterra traffic.
Top-14 PIN Submit campaign tweaks for affiliate marketers
Every traffic source has its specifics. But you don’t have to learn them through trial and error. Adsterra experts in ad campaign optimization can advise on the smoothest start with our traffic.
To Contents ↑STAGE 1 – BEFORE YOU START RUNNING A CAMPAIGN
- Usually, PIN Submit, Carrier Billing, or Mobile Content offers convert better with the CPA pricing model. It requires fast conversions, and with PIN Submit, you generally get those. In contrast, the CPM pricing is better when your offer demands a long-run conversion: CC submit, deposit, double deposit, etc.
- Popunder Ad Format is best to start with. Pop ads send tons of impressions (about 2BN weekly), cost less, and don’t require any creatives except for pre-landers.
- Social Bar push ads come second when it comes to choosing the ad format. It’s an innovative format with unlimited opportunities in creatives’ design. With its ready-to-use templates, you save hours on launching a campaign. Traffic volumes are some 1,5BN weekly.
- Pick the recommended bid instead of trying to win all traffic with the highest one. After you start getting conversions, you’ll be able to manipulate bids and move to the top. Adsterra algorithms show the recommended rates right after you have picked the target GEO.
- Even if you have launched dozens of lookalike campaigns with other networks, we recommend you to target broad on a new traffic source to exclude over-optimization and traffic loss. So don’t use black- and whitelists from the start.
Social Bar has proved to drive superb results Mobile Subscriptions campaigns outperforming popunders. Learn how to ramp up ROI with its ready-to-use templates
STAGE 2 – CAMPAIGN TESTS AND LAUNCH
- After you submit a campaign, keep an eye on your conversions. They must come in the first hours. If not — look at your CTRs. If they’re lacking, think of changing creatives. With strong CTRs and low conversions, you will need to re-evaluate your message in the pre-lander. Look carefully at the settings; perhaps, you narrowed the targeting (see the advice above).
- Remember to refresh your creatives and pre-landers. Affiliates often rush to tweak the campaign settings when they notice a drop in CTRs, but in most cases, it only means that your target audience has already seen all creatives. You can update the colors, headlines, CTAs, values stated on the pre-lander to arouse more clicks and restore conversions.
- Each new GEO you add requires a new ad campaign. Multi-geo campaigns blur the results making it hard to guess which traffic source you should exclude and which to send to a whitelist.
- For CPA campaigns, conversion tracking is a must. So please add tracking tags required by Adsterra.
Example: https://ads.com/in.php?placementid=##PLACEMENT_ID##&action=##SUB_ID_SHORT(action)##
(here: ##PLACEMENT_ID## – puts a unique ID to each traffic source; ##SUB_ID_SHORT(action)## – tracks all conversions)
STAGE 3 – OPTIMIZATION AND TRAFFIC BOOSTING
- Use the Custom bid tool after you have collected enough information on the best and worst placements. The tool allows for selective bidding: you don’t exclude traffic sources that send you less conversions and traffic, you simply pay them less, and vice versa – you increase bids for those sources that make you more profit.
- Consider adding alternative traffic types. When you promote PIN Submit offers or Mobile Carrier campaigns on Tier-3 GEOs, add non-mainstream traffic that allows for showing explicit content. Users from video streaming, dating, igaming sources willingly consume this content.
- Some GEOs (smaller countries) may stream fewer impressions for Popunders. Try picking another ad format like Social Bar that streams great volumes of mobile traffic. Your manager will assist in distributing traffic between the two formats.
- Noticed a traffic source that streams top-level conversions? Reach out to your manager to check at which level you should increase your bid.
- When you get stuck (and even if not), always ask your manager for advice. You will be surprised how many insights they can serve: average bids, pre-landers examples, tips on creatives, trends within each specific GEO.
Final thoughts
To wrap up, we can see that PIN Submits can be highly profitable. In affiliate marketing, they’re considered to be a good choice for beginners, as well as E-commerce and Sweepstakes offers.
On your affiliate network, pick the offer that is more likely to convert: Android before iOS, Tier-3 before Tier-1, several carriers before one. Don’t be afraid of smaller payouts; they can convert pretty massively. And, at last, take your chance with an efficient traffic source to promote PIN Submit offers — Adsterrra. Get started and reach the right audience right away!
