Affiliate marketing trends: wrapping up 2022 and unraveling 2023

It’s that time of the year when we sit down to assess the current affiliate marketing trends and tell you all about it. We have prepared the hottest takes and our honest opinion about the tendencies that we see in our niche. The second half of 2022 is marked by the rise of video content, a leap in the popularity of local traffic sources, as well as the never-ending battle between Facebook and TikTok. At the same time, 2023 seems to have some surprises in store for marketers. Let’s get to unwrapping all of that in detail. 

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Trending traffic sources

Telegram

This traffic source, although launched in 2013 and well-known by now, has gained much traction this year. The audience consists of 55.2 million daily active users who use Telegram for work-related communication, browsing through themed groups, and promoting their own channels. Today, the app holds the 10th row in the list of the most used social media platforms worldwide.

Telegram Ads — a big step towards mass monetization on the platform. These are sponsored messages that are available only to channels with more than 1K subscribers. These ads work on a CPM basis with a minimum bid of €2. Users can add a title, short text, and a link since sponsored messages do not yet support images.

Telegram Premium subscription has been introduced to the users this summer and has led to a fast increase of the app’s audience due to an advanced set of features that are exclusive to subscribers:

• Voice-to-text and video-to-text decoding
• Unique stickers and animated emoji
• More chat optimization features
• Animated avatars
• Subscriber checkmark alongside their name
• Bigger character limit for community posts
• Hide advertising in channels

The last feature is what makes Premium very controversial for advertising: this subscription has brought more users to the app, and it provides vast customization options if you have a branded account — but many users won’t be able to see the ads since they are Premium subscribers as well.

Facebook and Instagram

These platforms are still major players in the ads market, even though there has been talk about Meta’s decline due to mass layoffs (approximately 11K employees) and a record downturn in the company’s stock prices (~70%).

But if we look at numbers beyond the stock price, we will discover that the number of daily active users on Facebook has increased by 3% year-over-year. At the same time, the aggregate time spent on Instagram and Facebook has also grown compared to 2021.

Meta does rely on longer format video content, unique user experiences, and, of course, AI tech plus the metaverse. We are seeing more Reels on Instagram, and the older formats such as Stories are getting brushed under the carpet as users are encouraged to film longer videos. The interest in user experiences is reflected in more feed customization tools.

TikTok

This platform has become a breakthrough in recent years in terms of advertising and user engagement. There has been a lot of talk about virtually all social networks mimicking TT in a desperate attempt to gain the same popularity. Suffice it to say that TikTok is a regular of the Top-3 most downloaded social media apps alongside Instagram and Facebook (and juggling places several times a year too). 

What’s new on this time-sucking cute-cat-liking machine?

TikTok Shop — this feature will soon become available and users will be able to buy and sell products directly from the app without reverting to third-party platforms. This will make influencer campaigns much more efficient, since the customer journey is getting less complex.

In general, TikTok is heavy on upgrading their tools for creators: text-to-speech and text-to-singing features, local TikTok avatars (that look like iOS Memoji), and a photo mode (that brings strong Insta vibes to the app).

Trending verticals

E-commerce — probably you are tired of hearing the word “evergreen” in relation to this vertical, but it is. Since online shopping is the new normal for most people all over the globe, this niche is only going to grow further as the clock ticks. What’s new is the product categories that busk in the limelight at one point or another: now home appliances and smart gadgets hold the reins. So pay attention to vacuum cleaners and smart speakers and make sure to reach out to Yep Ads managers for more in-depth insights.

Utilities (especially VPN and antivirus solutions) — it’s no news that the world is growing more interconnected as the years go by, and this also brings humanity to living a more digitized life when all the passwords, bank info, and job passes are stored online. This tendency calls for a tougher digital security and privacy of information. Besides, accessing websites that had been restricted in your country has become a need rather than a whim: take for instance the daily routine of an SMM specialist from a country with restricted access to Facebook and Instagram.

Betting, gambling, and eSports are worth your attention as always since the desire to win some easy money or to have a nice time rolling the dice does not wane in people’s hearts. Turn your eyes to bright and colorful slots, digital representations of famous athletes, or to the biggest sports events out there — just make sure to follow the schedule of well-publicized international events in the related niche, this will do you a world of good. The best example is right upon us — the 2022 FIFA World Cup has stirred the agitation quite high in the run-up to the first matches, and we expect the tension to keep escalating as the World Cup progresses.

Finance — the past few years have been hard on the world’s population: people in many countries suffered a change in their lifestyle and living standards due to various reasons. But we know that it is very hard to forgo the creature comforts one is used to, and this leads to a spike in interest towards financial services (namely loans and loan repayment).

The outlook of 2023

While we do not doubt that many of the trends we have already mentioned will carry well into the next year, there are some tendencies that are especially worth noting.

• More social media platforms and messengers introduce in-app shops and payment options. Telegram has integrated a crypto-wallet that supports transactions in Bitcoin (BTC) and Toncoin (TON), Facebook and Instagram allow to post NFTs, while WhatsApp ventures as an end-to-end shopping provider for Indian users.
• Twitter has finally passed into Elon Musk’s ownership after many long months of bureaucratic ping-pong between Musk and the company’s board of directors. Some tend to see the recent tribulations as the signs of local Armageddon and predict the downfall of Twitter, but only time will show. On the other hand, the change of ownership starts to look like a big window of opportunity for advertisers, since Musk is considering diversifying activities on Twitter to include online payments, shopping, business, entertainment, and all he can manage. This may well become the biggest competitive advantage this platform has had so far.
• The era of video — video formats in advertising show better user engagement: audiences spend hours on end swiping through a feed of non-stop videos, interacting with other users in the comments, and making that crucial decision to buy that new hot thingy the influencers have been promoting. Live Stream ads on YouTube and Facebook, Video ads in Microsoft, not to mention Reels and TikTok — video opens more opportunities for promotion and also retention. 

• We also see more diverse approaches and products in such niches as e-commerce, nutra, lead generation, and subscriptions. For instance, such subscription-based products as Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and Disney Plus are getting much more attention nowadays.
• Local ad networks, social media platforms, and search engines have become more popular among marketers as an answer to growing competition on major traffic sources such as Facebook or TikTok. Take a closer look at this pool of opportunities with our article dedicated to less popular platforms you might have overlooked.
• Due to global trends that favor natural looks, “green” products, and eco-approaches (both product and communication-wise), the ad creatives we see online are also turning more “vanilla”. Most traffic sources would ban aggressive promotion techniques anyway, but now this trend reflects what users prefer to see online and what kind of content they interact with.

Our trend overview is done for today, we hope you enjoyed the reading and, what’s more important, that you will find these tips useful in your day-to-day media buying activities. Follow the trends with us while we lead you forward to new marketing heights!

Yours, the Yep Ads team