Regulations have taken center stage in 2018, with several areas of the financial services industry being affected. This includes the crypto industry, which just underwent sweeping changes in Q1. Global regulators minced no words with their harsh treatment towards crypto advertising, leading many to search for answers.
In light of the shifts in regulations, Finance Magnates spoke with Pavel Bykov, Founder of Faunus Group, who explained the impact on industry affiliates. Will the industry continue to see a shift, or can brokers and affiliates adapt to this new playing field?
How does the ban of cryptocurrency ads by google and social media networks affects industry affiliates?
At first hand, the bans looked like a significant strike, however it's not the first time the affiliate industry in particular is facing restrictions. As a proud speaker at iFX EXPO 2017 in Cyprus I was the one who raised the fact of extreme flexibility and adjustability of affiliate community.
If you want to know which trend online is about to raise or fall – talk to affiliates! Those who sit on numbers and conversion daily. It only moved affiliates and ad buyers’ attention to alternative sources like mobile messengers, native ads, email traffic, SEO etc.
Pavel Bykov
Similarly, EU brokers are among those seeking traffic for cryptocurrency trading. Where would you recommend them to search for it in light of ESMA's new rules?
Affiliate networks, ad networks, and hardcore webmasters are still the best sources of external traffic. New rules? All of the aforementioned are used to new things and it will remain like this forever.
Who are the best performing affiliates that the trading industry should know about?
It would not be tactically correct and gentle from me to mention specific names, so let’s put it in geographical manner. There are big affiliate hubs distributed (decentralized!) around the world. Among these are a vast community of Thailand-based media buyers and email marketers, US-based "bizopp" affiliates, Russian, and Ukrainian-based media buying teams, as well as more local affiliates (out of Israel, Germany, and Scandinavia).
There are affiliates hitting 1000 and more conversions on daily basis, it's necessary to mention, that the best quality traffic is organic SEO and targeted social, with all obstacles and rumors that it brings. If you are looking for high quality traffic, look for those!
Let’s help out trading industry marketers with some benchmark figures: What do consider industry standard CPA and conversion rates in the cryptocurrency space? What is the expected lifetime of crypto traffic for trading brokers?
CPA is first of all a function of GEO. For Tier 1 traffic, regulated brokers are offering $500-600 CPA, with some being stricter at 400+ tough conditions on trading volume and KYC, while others are offering up to $1000 knowing how gold is the traffic of specific affiliate.
Overall, conversion rates dropped from 2015 with trading traffic and highly depends on traffic sources. With targeted social traffic and interesting funnel (whether trade signals or educational program) it can reach 12 percent or more on average, though can sometimes barely hit 2 percent.
For Tier 2, traffic rates are 20-35 percent lower, while conversion might be sometimes high, however the value is much lower. The average PV is the best question to ask to trading brokers, and from best of my knowledge the average user is trading a little less than three months.
This is taking into account that distribution between those withdrawing funds quickly and not trading at all and happy up-to one year traders is seriously wide.
Who are the attendees of the crypto affiliates event?
Affiliate marketers in their core meaning are primary attendees. Moreover, these events attract SEO site owners, media buyers, email marketers. Cryptocurrencies is the topic taking center stage and attracting huge attention for the last year and a half.
Besides advertisers (gambling and trading companies, ICO projects, media companies and ad networks, affiliate networks, Blockchain payment solutions, and many others) there are also PR and media agencies, lawyers and regulators, startups, and the general IT community representatives in attendance.
