The ultimate Mobile Affiliate Marketing Guide for Every Marketer

Most people use computers to access the internet for a very long time. Indeed, desktop internet usage surpassed mobile usage only in November 2016. In February 2022, 57.38% of all internet traffic worldwide came from mobile devices, while 43.62% came from desktops. However, many marketers still optimize their messages for computer viewing, as if trapped in a time warp. You cannot afford to make this error if you are an affiliate marketer. The popularity of mobile affiliate marketing is currently growing, so you should be prepared to benefit from it.

What is Mobile Affiliate Marketing?

Making sure your marketing messages display correctly on large computer monitors, TVs, and small phone screens is just one aspect of mobile affiliate marketing. Mobile affiliate marketing uses the unique qualities of phones and tablets to drive potential customers to sellers' websites.

Although the objectives of mobile affiliate marketing are the same as those of traditional affiliate marketing, some strategies differ to capitalize on technological advancements.

Mobile affiliate marketing involved texting prospective customers' phones before smartphones were invented. You needed a list of phone numbers for this. Like email marketing, it restricted your audience to those who had already shown interest in your product and those who were at ease enough with their phones to use them frequently. Only some individuals regularly use mobile phones. The majority of those who did were:

• Young people who were growing up with technology.
• Businesspeople who utilized their phones for work-related purposes.
• Individuals who only used their mobile phones for communication.

Most other people hardly ever used them, maybe in an emergency.

Everything changed when smartphones became popular. Baby Boomers, too, found benefits from always having a tiny, portable computer in their pockets. And even the least tech-savvy person could efficiently operate them thanks to their touchscreens. Marketers discovered they were no longer limited to SMS messages as a result. Alternatively, they could use social media and apps to make their marketing more interactive and present the same content on smartphones as on their websites. Affiliate marketers soon found they were as successful as anyone else at reaching prospective clients through mobile marketing.

Why Should You Consider Mobile Affiliate Marketing?

Usage statistics are the primary and most evident reason why affiliate marketers should take mobile into account. Given how many people access the internet via mobile devices, you should adjust your marketing to suit their needs. Make sure that any website you use to promote your affiliate products is mobile-friendly and responsive, at the very least. For a while now, Google has preferred mobile-friendly and responsive websites in its rankings.

We are Hootsuite's Digital 2022 and Social. 6.7% of the world's population, or 5.32 billion unique mobile phone users, are currently active worldwide, according to the April Global Statshot Report. Five billion of them use their phones to browse the internet. Some of these individuals also utilize PCs, but most marketers believe that most of their target audience regularly uses mobile internet.

Pros and Cons of Mobile Affiliate Marketing

The fact that so many people now primarily use their mobile devices to connect to the internet is the most significant benefit of mobile affiliate marketing, as we mentioned above. Therefore, you will probably use mobile to reach the majority of your target audience, depending on the kinds of affiliate products you promote. Of course, some exceptions exist, primarily if your affiliate marketing is aimed at senior citizens.

With mobile audiences, you can frequently target your offers much more precisely. Mobile devices are movable by nature and move with their owners, facilitating targeting individuals based on their location. Furthermore, as opposed to computers, which people frequently share, most people use personal mobile devices. As a result, the more effectively you target your affiliate advertisements, the more likely you will grab attention and encourage people to buy the items you are promoting.

However, there are certain drawbacks to mobile affiliate marketing. First, you need to give your advertisement design more careful thought when designing for mobile. Make sure they display well on small screens. If customers cannot see your promotion, you will not generate revenue. Additionally, there will be fewer chances for free mobile advertising. Yes, you can continue to create organic social media posts, but sponsored ads will yield far superior results. You must pay a web designer or developer to create mobile-friendly landing pages and advertisements inside apps.

Additionally, there is the inherent drawback of mobile devices: their small screens can only accommodate a limited number of advertisements as opposed to desktop displays, which can accommodate many more. Therefore, it might be more competitive for you to place your mobile ads in prominent locations.

Types of Affiliate Offers

The arrival of mobile affiliate marketing has brought about a few new types of affiliate offers. Some of the more common ones include:

Mobile content – affiliates target mobile devices when promoting digital products, such as eBooks, audiobooks, music, mobile games, and movies

Mobile subscription – affiliates promote subscription-based products, for example, streaming services, digital magazines, and SaaS products

App installs – Affiliates promote apps to a target audience, typically using a mix of paid ads and their social channels

Mobile games: Affiliates promote mobile games much like they do other apps.

Mobile Affiliate Networks

As we have shown in our Ultimate Guide to Affiliate Marketing, there are typically three or four key players in affiliate marketing:

• Affiliates: The people who promote the product

• Sellers: The people who created or are selling the product

• Consumers: End-users of the product

• Affiliate Networks: Networks managing the affiliates (optional)

Affiliate networks frequently compile a catalog of products from vendors wishing to market their goods through affiliate networks. After perusing this catalog, prospective affiliates select the affiliate products they want to advertise. Instead of dealing directly with sellers, affiliates in this model collaborate with affiliate networks.

Affiliate networks specializing in mobile sales promotion have partnered with affiliates primarily using mobile. As a result, their catalog items are ideal for mobile marketing. Between mobile advertisers and affiliates who are mobile-enabled, the mobile affiliate networks serve as a middleman.

Types of Mobile Marketing Channels

As mentioned above, texting or sending SMS messages to prospective clients was the original definition of mobile marketing. Furthermore, there are still circumstances in which a business can benefit from this. For example, Dominos uses it every Friday night when people start to get hungry.

Even though Domino's uses a franchise model rather than affiliate marketing, they are an example of how SMS marketing can still be successful.

Though most SMS messages are still only available in plain text, marketers have discovered ways to better utilize the graphical features of smartphones since the device's introduction. 

Regardless of what you attempt to promote, remember that marketing is marketing. What is successful for one kind of marketer—a retailer or service provider, for example—will frequently work for a different business model—affiliate marketing.

1. In-App Ads

These advertisements appear in other mobile apps and games that you enjoy. Unless you pay to have them removed, you will see them in most freemium apps. Advertisers can place these in most apps, including well-known news apps.

Typically, clicking on these advertisements directs users to a particular landing page. These can even be set up to gather email addresses or other information, allowing you to target individuals willing to provide the requested data with other advertising techniques. For instance, you could utilize an in-app advertisement to gather email addresses, after which you could email those who provided their addresses discount codes.

A few affiliates market an affiliate product through in-app advertisements. A product sales page is displayed to anyone who taps on the ad. The affiliate who paid for the advertisement receives a commission from the sales company if they make a purchase.

2. App Install Ads

Like in-app advertisements, app install ads aim to persuade users to download and install apps on their devices. Usually, they occupy the whole screen for a brief while before disappearing when the user hits the Close button. Though they can promote various app types, they are most commonly found in games that promote other games.

For these advertisements, affiliates are frequently paid in two ways. They first get paid a small sum each time an ad is played, providing a set amount of time for it to remain on screen. However, affiliates get paid more when users click through and install the recommended app.

3. Mobile Web Ads

Of course, only some things a person does on their phone are done through apps. It appeared that most companies would create their custom apps for a while, but it quickly became apparent that this would not be feasible. Consider what it would be like to use your phone to open a different app for each website you visited. It would take a little while for your phone to become cluttered with apps you had only used once and for the number of icons on the home screens to become overwhelming.

Internet browser apps optimized for mobile devices are among the most popular phone apps. Most people who use web browsers worldwide (more than half) use Chrome on Android devices. Nevertheless, Safari is the most popular tablet mobile browser, possibly due to Apple's hegemony over the tablet market (Apple owns more than 70%). Surprisingly, the United States defies global trends and favors Safari (55.35%) over Chrome (35.37%) as their go-to mobile browser.

You will frequently see your mobile web advertisements on people's desktop browsers. They could be visual, textual, or even video. Just be sure that your advertisement is optimized for small mobile screens and that the landing page it directs users to is responsive or mobile-optimized. Additionally, many people view their phones vertically, so include both the more conventional horizontal layout and vertical versions of your advertisements.

4. Social Media Ads

During the past few years, the significance of social media has increased significantly. 4.65 billion people, or 58.7% of the global population, identified as active social media users as of April 2022. The Digital 2022 April Statshot shows that this represented a yearly increase of 326 million people (7.5%).

The fact that 96.5% of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 owned a mobile phone, the great majority of which were smartphones (96.2%), is even more astounding. A significant portion of people who use smartphones to access social media do so.

Businesses use social media for marketing in two primary ways. They first create social media profiles and pages, post worthwhile content, and then let it spread naturally. Regretfully, most social media platforms have damaged—or perhaps sabotaged—the potential of organic traffic, especially from companies. Most businesses—including affiliate marketers—have had to shift their attention to paid social media advertising to reach relevant potential customers.

These days, most top social media platforms have their advertising networks. For instance, you will use the Facebook Ads Manager (which supports both social networks) if you want to advertise on the Facebook and Instagram social networks, which Meta owns.

This tool lets you make ads and place bids for desktop and mobile ad spots. For iOS and Android, Meta offers an Ads Manager app, allowing you to monitor your campaign while on the go. Affiliate marketers can use Facebook ads just like any other marketer, and we have previously written a Step-by-step beginner's Guide on How to Create Facebook Ads.

With the mobile generation in mind, some of the more recent social networks, like TikTok, were created, which makes it simple to develop mobile-specific advertisements for your affiliate products.