Mobile Affiliate Marketing in India is a steadily growing market that is benefiting both the brand advertisers and the affiliates.
The increase in the number of smartphone users and the popularity of social media is a boon and has led businesses to come up with new mobile-specific offers and social media campaigns.
Courtesy more than 500 million smartphone users in India, brands, now can easily proliferate in the market with their products and offers. This has opened up a tremendous opportunity for affiliates also to make good money by delivering customers to brands, via their mobile channels.
Making money through Mobile Affiliate marketing sounds lucrative and exciting, isn’t it?
Indeed, it is! A thorough understanding before kickstarting with it is highly advisable.
The site indianaffiliateprograms.in has been your trusted go-to guide for numerous affiliate programs running in India. In line with the current evolving trends, our articles will explain how the mobile affiliate program works and how it can boost the business of your brand.
This article will not only help you in understanding mobile affiliate marketing in India but also explain the below:
- How it works in terms of the commission that affiliates make.
- The major industry verticals in India where Mobile Affiliate marketing is gaining ground.
- The pros and cons associated with mobile affiliate marketing.
Understanding Mobile Affiliate Marketing
If you are aware of affiliate marketing, you will see that mobile affiliate marketing is an extension of affiliate marketing.
Here brands market their product or services through smartphone (Android phones or an iOS device) users via the affiliate channels.
At the core, Mobile affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing means, wherein advertisers use affiliate channels to get new customers, new apps installed, or a new subscription. And for every conversion that happens this way, reward the affiliate a commission, cut, or lead share.
Affiliates use social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook for promoting the products and services thus widening the reach of the user base and leading to more business. Now that you understand mobile affiliate marketing, let us see how it works for the affiliates.
How does it work?
As an affiliate marketeer in India, the most important aspect is to understand how your performance is measured.
The two key parameters in place to evaluate performance are defined below:
- CPA – CPA or the cost per action model is typically used when a brand or service, charges subscription or membership fees from their customers. For every action of an app install resulting in a subscription, a certain commission is paid to the affiliate.
Affiliates can cache on this model by gauging at the right traffic, in line with the product business. Video-on-demand services, Online dating, e-commerce, and Recruitment and job portals typically resort to this.
- Revenue Share Model – Another commission for affiliates involves sharing a percentage of the revenue of the product. Some resort to this model because mobile apps for quite a few brands and services are free and generate revenue from advertisements.
Some affiliates derive lifetime commission which is a part of the revenue generated by a lead/customer for their entire lifetime.
Online games, Advertisement based video-on-demand services, and some e-commerce portals are examples of this model.
There are other Commission types apart from the above-listed ones that one might come across when dealing with multiple merchants. Some of the common ones are CPM, CPI, and CPC. These will be covered in the subsequent articles.
Now that you are familiar with the terminologies and working, you must identify which vertical is best suited for you, if you want to set up your affiliate.
Mobile Affiliate Marketing Verticals
The below industry verticals are a small indication of the major mobile affiliate marketing verticals in India that are enticing customers on their mobile apps.
One major trend across all these verticals is that they are used by smartphone users on the move and have an active social media presence.
- Dating – One for the entire year, dating apps are always in the lookout to monetize their services and offerings. Social Media is abuzz with early bird offers to entice love birds to date through their mobile apps.
- Entertainment – With the digital boom, especially after the COVID19, the digital entertainment platforms will see a surge in the VOD (video on demand) platforms rendering entertainment content on mobile devices. Binge-watching on the phone is gradually growing on the people. Good time for affiliates to earn!
- Travel – Mobile affiliate marketing in the travel industry helps brands and companies augment sales with more bookings.
- E-commerce – Ecommerce remains one of the largest verticals in the mobile affiliate marketing ecosystem. With social distancing being the new norm, this vertical will be a favourite among affiliates.
The popularity of affiliate marketing in India is not just confined to these verticals but many more.
Pros and Cons of Mobile Affiliate Marketing
Understanding the key pros and cons associated with mobile affiliate marketing in India will keep you in good stead, as an affiliate marketeer. Let us take a look at the below-listed pros and cons.
Pros:
The fact, that the teeming population in India is resorting to the use of smartphones and associated apps for their day to day activities augurs well for the mobile affiliate marketers.
Most companies want to maximize their reach and grow their user base and what better way than a media that has already proliferated into the masses. Mobile affiliates stand a great opportunity to cache on this.
Focussed Marketing – Mobile affiliate marketing, in addition to providing the reach to a wide user base, also acts as a perfect conduit to focus on campaigns and offers specific to a customer’s geography, previous transaction history, device type and preferences.
Analytics of these key parameters help affiliates narrow down their marketing to the right audience which leads to more conversions and leads.
Easy conversion – Conversion for affiliates is relatively easier involving the below:
- App Installation.
- Subscription of a service/product.
- Buying the product item.
Social Media Presence – Social Media is not just a platform to market your product, but it also is a catalyst that can spur traffic for your brand or product with zero or low investment, as these sites are free and are great to keep engagement with customers for more traffic.
Facebook campaigns, Google, and YouTube ads are great means to promote and present your brand to the right set of target groups.
Cons:
Scarcity of tools and L&D Guidelines – Most marketing tools are native and designed for desktop. Migrating from native tools can be a hassle since there are not many learning and development guidelines at the helm, at the moment.
Without these, the promotion of offers via mobile devices can seem a tough task for many. This drawback will gradually be addressed going forward, with newer development and designs.
Low Click through rates because of smaller screens – A pretty straightforward drawback for mobile affiliate marketing is the fact that the number of search results rendered on a mobile screen is lesser than that on a desktop, because of the smaller screen.
Therefore, if the search results are displayed, lower than the list, the chances of it being overlooked or missed is higher. This can impact the affiliate earnings. Hence brands should resort to normal affiliate marketing too, in addition to mobile affiliate marketing.
Summary
The increase in smartphone users and the growing popularity of social media as a marketing platform and marketplace has opened up newer avenues for mobile affiliates in India to leverage on their existing network by promoting offers and campaigns of their brands.
Digital avenues of all businesses had seen a steady rise in 2020 and now, post the covid19 pandemic, product and service-based mobile apps are expected to be more in prominence than before, thus opening up newer platforms for brands to promote their products on and newer gates for affiliates to make money from.
The marketing trends in India are ever-evolving. Thus, the focus for both affiliates and marketers should be to gradually adapt to newer technology and platforms. And sooner one joins the new bandwagon of mobile affiliate marketing, the higher chances of being rewarded.
