Adult websites occupy the vast majority of online space. So there is great room for adult advertising for affiliate marketers eager to earn money by promoting their offers. High payouts and a large target audience make the niche highly profitable, in spite of some restrictions and difficulties marketers can encounter. Yet, many advertisers relish a challenge, because it is nearly impossible to resist the benefits of adult offers.
If you’re interested in getting ahead with adult offers as an affiliate marketer, stand by our adult advertising guide on how to establish a powerful strategy for promoting conversion-focused 18+ ad campaigns. Let’s dive right in!
Adult in Affiliate Marketing
Adult advertising in affiliate marketing refers to the promotion of products or services aimed at adults. These products and services can range from adult toys and sex dating websites to adult entertainment products such as videos and subscriptions. This niche also extends to services like intimate apparel, and wellness products that cater to adult sensibilities and interests.
Some common adult offers include:
Sex dating websites. These sites are for individuals looking for casual or long-term relationships, often with a focus on sexual connection;
Adult toy and product offers. Similar offers are for promoting adult toys, lubricants, and other products designed to enhance sexual pleasure;
Adult subscription services. Many of these services offer access to exclusive adult content, such as porn videos or explicit photos;
Webcam offers. These offers promote webcam shows featuring adult performers.
Adult advertising focuses on products and services that are more controversial than others. So affiliates can face a range of restrictions.
About restrictions to adult advertising:
Adult offers can be displayed to audiences over the age of 18;
When promoting adult offers, affiliates must abide by the country’s laws;
To steer clear of legal issues, many ad platforms also have limitations regarding adult content. These restrictions are typically related to nudity and explicit language on ad creatives;
Non-adult websites can prohibit adult ads because of ethical concerns or other reasons;
These restrictions hinder promoting adult offers in popular traffic channels, such as Facebook or Google Ads, for example. And then, ad networks come on stage.
Many ad networks allow adult advertising almost without restriction and provide advertisers with advanced ad inventory to drive targeted traffic. In most ad networks, traffic sources are already fell into categories: Mainstream and Adult.
By choosing the Adult category, advertisers can promote any adult offers, limited to solely content guidelines of the ad network.
Mainstream is intended to promote the rest of the verticals, such as E-commerce, Nutra, Sweepstakes, Gambling, etc.
Despite the Mainstream excluding adult traffic, 18+ offers are allowed to display on mainstream websites as some networks host the following traffic categories: Mainstream+Adult, and Nutra+Adult.
Depending on the ad network, Adult advertising can be covered by the Dating vertical. Although Dating often includes only mainstream offers on various ad platforms. Anyway, you need to ask your manager from the ad network you choose about the best traffic channels for promoting adult offers.
Before you get down to setting up an adult ad campaign, make sure that the advertising network you’ve chosen allows Adult. We have already brought together the most promising traffic sources in terms of getting adult traffic. Read our guide about Best Adult Networks in 2024 to stay on top of the market.
Now, our goal is to give you a brief overview of the general principles that will be on the go in any ad network. At any rate, you may appeal to the support team or the manager from the ad platform you use to clarify what the most effective strategy for your offer is.
Define ad format
We recommend choosing ad networks for driving traffic as they offer various ad formats to reach as much as possible target users and collaborate with publishers (site owners) worldwide. Ads launched though the ad network can be seen on plenty of websites, YouTube and even while input the request in Google.
Ad formats offered by the ad networks:
Push ads;
In-page push;
Popups;
Direct click (domain redirect);
Native;
Banners.
Compared to all popular ad types, push formats are ideal for promoting Adult. And now, we’ll explain why we believe in the power of push formats for advertising offers.
Push ads get the offers across in the form of notifications about personal messages. As users get used to similar notifications they encounter day to day, the push advertising for them seems to be non-intrusive and engaging. Given advertisers often use personal appeal in their creatives, there is no doubt that push formats are the most appropriate options.
Classic push ads are based on a subscription model and appear as notifications on users’ devices, even when they are not currently using the Internet. They can be effective for promoting adult offers that are time-sensitive or have a sense of urgency.
In-page push ads is a type of advertising that appears as a notification within a webpage. They look like push ads, but they don’t require users to subscribe to them.
In-page push ads are less intrusive than classic push ads and can be effective for promoting adult offers that appeal to users who are already engaged with the content on the page. In-page push ads are also less likely to be blocked by ad-blockers, but the greatest of their advantages is that they cover the iOS audience.
For the puzzle to take shape, recall that the USA – the best GEO for Adult – is the Tier-1 country where the most loyal fans of Apple live. That’s why the following adult ad networks recommend running adult offers on in-page push traffic: RichAds, Evadav, RollerAds, MyBid, Adsterra and TrafficStars.
Ultimately, it’s important to test both in-page push and classic push formats and track their performance metrics to determine which format is most effective.
If you’re not experienced enough, start with pop traffic which works out pretty well for Adult too.
You won’t have to create a landing page, and you will be overjoyed by cheap traffic. However, popping-up windows are annoying for users, so you need to be careful when choosing this ad format for Adult.
Choose traffic sources
Identifying the target audience for adult offers is often a challenging task. As a rule, the most common consumer can vary depending on the type of adult offer being promoted. For example, testosterone boosters and male enhancement pills are products aimed to engage only men while dating and hookup websites and apps are popular among people of both genders, no matter if they are 20 or 60 years old.
As the adult industry is booming, you may be surprised to find out where your audience can dwell. According to SimilarWeb, betting traffic from 1xbet.com also has great potential for promoting adult offers. Just look at the statistics:
Source: Similarweb
The same is true for gambling traffic as well.
Fortunately, you needn’t guess what type of traffic will work best for your offer. The ad networks have collected enough data to define high-performing traffic across each vertical they promote, including Adult. So you can be assisted by your manager or support specialists of the ad network you join.
Whichever ad network you choose, the team is likely to recommend you create a pre-landing page for filtering out the non-targeted audience and excluding leads under the appropriate age.
It’s fine to use something like this, nothing special:
Pre-landing for adult ad campaigns
Be assured that pre-landing increases the adult traffic volume.
Some ad networks offer ready-made variations of pre-landings, meaning you can save even more time. However, while pre-landings can be a useful tool, it’s important to remember that the first thing users see when run into your ad is ad creatives. And you know for sure how essential to create a first impression, so let’s move to the best practices for making adult creatives.
Make creatives: best practices for advertising Adult
If you go to Adplexity for inspiration, you would come across pornography content on the creatives. In fact, such images are prohibited in many ad networks. So we recommend you check out the content policy of the platform you are going to use before kicking off your adult campaign.
Anyway, overly explicit content isn’t king. To make sure of this, we have reviewed the creatives that received the most traffic across various ad networks and taken note of top ideas.
Use personal appeal
Personalized ads that use a name or demographic information can encourage engagement and create a sense of connection, which is paramount for adult offers. Just keep in mind, the more personal the message, the more likely users are to respond positively.
Imitate audio and video messages
Both audio and video icons can be more engaging and attention-grabbing than nudity right on the creative. The user would want to know what is inside as, unlike explicit images, such creatives intrigue and capture the imagination.
Besides, it’s not worth dwelling on the text in the title or description of the creativity. Use emoji! They convert not worse than other creatives but don’t overdo it.
Consider cultural preferences
By customizing ad content to align with specific cultural nuances, adult offers can become more relevant and enticing to the intended audience.
As the majority of adult offers target men, it’s much easier to demonstrate diverse sexual preferences on creatives where women are under sexualization. Just look at how different these creatives are.
Localize your ad campaign
People are more likely to respond to ads that feel local and relevant to their own community. Write your ad copy in the local language to get closer to your audience.
Share results from the use of promoted offers
It comes to adult offers intended for men. You would better point out exact numbers the men might count on and bolster the text with the relevant image.
Effective creatives are visually appealing, relevant to the target audience, and get the benefits of the offer across. They can include things like eye-catching images or videos, attention-grabbing headlines and copy, and easy-to-follow calls to action. However, even the most attractive creative need to be changed after a while, because it can induce ad fatigue sooner or later.
The unequivocal conclusion is the same: test and experiment with different ideas.
Take TOP GEOs for Adult advertising
The USA is the unrivaled leader in the number of users interested in adult ads, no matter which ad network you prefer. Next, you can stick to the recommendations of your manager or support team.
Here are some examples of ad networks that work with adult traffic and their best GEOs for 18+ offers:
RichAds: USA, Japan, China, Finland, Vietnam, France, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Denmark
MyBid: Tier1, India, Indonesia and LATAM
Adsterra: USA, Brazil, Japan, India, Indonesia
Pushground: USA, Italy, China, France, Japan
Evadav: USA, Great Britain, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia, India
If you’re keen on exploring specific traffic sources, you have the option to assess their traffic by geographical location using tools like SimilarWeb or other similar platforms you’re familiar with.
Click the picture to enlarge:
5 Tips for Traffic-boosting Adult Ad Campaigns
To promote adult offers effectively, follow these tips:
If you’re new to adult advertising, start with adult dating offers. Avoid running offers within a narrow niche, because you can extremely limit your ad reach this way;
Test to analyze which bundles are performing best. Then refine your setup further by adjusting bids and using optimization features the chosen ad network provides;
Adjust your ad theme to match seasonal trends, such as Valentine’s Day, for instance;
Take care of the advertising schedule. As adult ads can confuse users, customize ad display according to 1 impression per 1 day;
Use images of real people instead of animated illustrations to increase involvement;
While spy tools are helpful for research, keep away from copying;
Save time by trying ChatGPT to create ad copy quickly.
And finally, top 3 questions you need to get answers to before you start launching your adult offer:
1. Do you have white lists for running adult offers?
Any ad network makes up white lists that include websites that have already shown good results for offers such as yours. Running offers on proven sources is the best alternative to RON campaigns.
2. Are there Mainstream and Adult categories in the ad network?
Adult traffic is a useful option to start running on maximally targeted sources. So stick with the ad network which offers adult traffic.
3. Is there traffic that cannot be used for launching adult campaigns?
Some ad networks allow adult advertising solely on Premium traffic that covers the most converting sources.
Regardless, if you want to know how to promote your adult website, get in touch with the team of the ad network you’re using or look for guides on setting up adult ad campaigns in their blog.
Conclusion
Adult in affiliate marketing can be a lucrative niche for affiliates who are willing to navigate the regulations and focus on producing high-quality content and promoting it through push formats. To surely achieve success and profitability in this niche, choose both the right affiliate and ad network, stay up to date on industry trends, and adhere to laws and advertising guidelines.
Anna Mardas brought together her background as a copywriter in digital marketing. Now, she's got a solid grasp on affiliate marketing, especially when it comes to understanding the following niches: Gambling, Adult, Dating, Sweepstakes and Crypto. Anna stands out for her thorough research and insightful reviews of ad networks, offering her readers valuable knowledge.
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Adult websites occupy the vast majority of online space. So there is great room for adult advertising for affiliate marketers eager to earn money by promoting their offers. High payouts and a large target audience make the niche highly profitable, in spite of some restrictions and difficulties marketers can encounter. Yet, many advertisers relish a challenge, because it is nearly impossible to resist the benefits of adult offers.
If you’re interested in getting ahead with adult offers as an affiliate marketer, stand by our adult advertising guide on how to establish a powerful strategy for promoting conversion-focused 18+ ad campaigns. Let’s dive right in!
Adult in Affiliate Marketing
Adult advertising in affiliate marketing refers to the promotion of products or services aimed at adults. These products and services can range from adult toys and sex dating websites to adult entertainment products such as videos and subscriptions. This niche also extends to services like intimate apparel, and wellness products that cater to adult sensibilities and interests.
Some common adult offers include:
Sex dating websites. These sites are for individuals looking for casual or long-term relationships, often with a focus on sexual connection;
Adult toy and product offers. Similar offers are for promoting adult toys, lubricants, and other products designed to enhance sexual pleasure;
Adult subscription services. Many of these services offer access to exclusive adult content, such as porn videos or explicit photos;
Webcam offers. These offers promote webcam shows featuring adult performers.
Adult advertising focuses on products and services that are more controversial than others. So affiliates can face a range of restrictions.
About restrictions to adult advertising:
Adult offers can be displayed to audiences over the age of 18;
When promoting adult offers, affiliates must abide by the country’s laws;
To steer clear of legal issues, many ad platforms also have limitations regarding adult content. These restrictions are typically related to nudity and explicit language on ad creatives;
Non-adult websites can prohibit adult ads because of ethical concerns or other reasons;
These restrictions hinder promoting adult offers in popular traffic channels, such as Facebook or Google Ads, for example. And then, ad networks come on stage.
Many ad networks allow adult advertising almost without restriction and provide advertisers with advanced ad inventory to drive targeted traffic. In most ad networks, traffic sources are already fell into categories: Mainstream and Adult.
By choosing the Adult category, advertisers can promote any adult offers, limited to solely content guidelines of the ad network.
Mainstream is intended to promote the rest of the verticals, such as E-commerce, Nutra, Sweepstakes, Gambling, etc.
Despite the Mainstream excluding adult traffic, 18+ offers are allowed to display on mainstream websites as some networks host the following traffic categories: Mainstream+Adult, and Nutra+Adult.
Depending on the ad network, Adult advertising can be covered by the Dating vertical. Although Dating often includes only mainstream offers on various ad platforms. Anyway, you need to ask your manager from the ad network you choose about the best traffic channels for promoting adult offers.
Before you get down to setting up an adult ad campaign, make sure that the advertising network you’ve chosen allows Adult. We have already brought together the most promising traffic sources in terms of getting adult traffic. Read our guide about Best Adult Networks in 2024 to stay on top of the market.
Now, our goal is to give you a brief overview of the general principles that will be on the go in any ad network. At any rate, you may appeal to the support team or the manager from the ad platform you use to clarify what the most effective strategy for your offer is.
Define ad format
We recommend choosing ad networks for driving traffic as they offer various ad formats to reach as much as possible target users and collaborate with publishers (site owners) worldwide. Ads launched though the ad network can be seen on plenty of websites, YouTube and even while input the request in Google.
Ad formats offered by the ad networks:
Push ads;
In-page push;
Popups;
Direct click (domain redirect);
Native;
Banners.
Compared to all popular ad types, push formats are ideal for promoting Adult. And now, we’ll explain why we believe in the power of push formats for advertising offers.
Push ads get the offers across in the form of notifications about personal messages. As users get used to similar notifications they encounter day to day, the push advertising for them seems to be non-intrusive and engaging. Given advertisers often use personal appeal in their creatives, there is no doubt that push formats are the most appropriate options.
Classic push ads are based on a subscription model and appear as notifications on users’ devices, even when they are not currently using the Internet. They can be effective for promoting adult offers that are time-sensitive or have a sense of urgency.
In-page push ads is a type of advertising that appears as a notification within a webpage. They look like push ads, but they don’t require users to subscribe to them.
In-page push ads are less intrusive than classic push ads and can be effective for promoting adult offers that appeal to users who are already engaged with the content on the page. In-page push ads are also less likely to be blocked by ad-blockers, but the greatest of their advantages is that they cover the iOS audience.
For the puzzle to take shape, recall that the USA – the best GEO for Adult – is the Tier-1 country where the most loyal fans of Apple live. That’s why the following adult ad networks recommend running adult offers on in-page push traffic: RichAds, Evadav, RollerAds, MyBid, Adsterra and TrafficStars.
Ultimately, it’s important to test both in-page push and classic push formats and track their performance metrics to determine which format is most effective.
If you’re not experienced enough, start with pop traffic which works out pretty well for Adult too.
You won’t have to create a landing page, and you will be overjoyed by cheap traffic. However, popping-up windows are annoying for users, so you need to be careful when choosing this ad format for Adult.
Choose traffic sources
Identifying the target audience for adult offers is often a challenging task. As a rule, the most common consumer can vary depending on the type of adult offer being promoted. For example, testosterone boosters and male enhancement pills are products aimed to engage only men while dating and hookup websites and apps are popular among people of both genders, no matter if they are 20 or 60 years old.
As the adult industry is booming, you may be surprised to find out where your audience can dwell. According to SimilarWeb, betting traffic from 1xbet.com also has great potential for promoting adult offers. Just look at the statistics:
Source: Similarweb
The same is true for gambling traffic as well.
Fortunately, you needn’t guess what type of traffic will work best for your offer. The ad networks have collected enough data to define high-performing traffic across each vertical they promote, including Adult. So you can be assisted by your manager or support specialists of the ad network you join.
Whichever ad network you choose, the team is likely to recommend you create a pre-landing page for filtering out the non-targeted audience and excluding leads under the appropriate age.
It’s fine to use something like this, nothing special:
Pre-landing for adult ad campaigns
Be assured that pre-landing increases the adult traffic volume.
Some ad networks offer ready-made variations of pre-landings, meaning you can save even more time. However, while pre-landings can be a useful tool, it’s important to remember that the first thing users see when run into your ad is ad creatives. And you know for sure how essential to create a first impression, so let’s move to the best practices for making adult creatives.
Make creatives: best practices for advertising Adult
If you go to Adplexity for inspiration, you would come across pornography content on the creatives. In fact, such images are prohibited in many ad networks. So we recommend you check out the content policy of the platform you are going to use before kicking off your adult campaign.
Anyway, overly explicit content isn’t king. To make sure of this, we have reviewed the creatives that received the most traffic across various ad networks and taken note of top ideas.
Use personal appeal
Personalized ads that use a name or demographic information can encourage engagement and create a sense of connection, which is paramount for adult offers. Just keep in mind, the more personal the message, the more likely users are to respond positively.
Imitate audio and video messages
Both audio and video icons can be more engaging and attention-grabbing than nudity right on the creative. The user would want to know what is inside as, unlike explicit images, such creatives intrigue and capture the imagination.
Besides, it’s not worth dwelling on the text in the title or description of the creativity. Use emoji! They convert not worse than other creatives but don’t overdo it.
Consider cultural preferences
By customizing ad content to align with specific cultural nuances, adult offers can become more relevant and enticing to the intended audience.
As the majority of adult offers target men, it’s much easier to demonstrate diverse sexual preferences on creatives where women are under sexualization. Just look at how different these creatives are.
Localize your ad campaign
People are more likely to respond to ads that feel local and relevant to their own community. Write your ad copy in the local language to get closer to your audience.
Share results from the use of promoted offers
It comes to adult offers intended for men. You would better point out exact numbers the men might count on and bolster the text with the relevant image.
Effective creatives are visually appealing, relevant to the target audience, and get the benefits of the offer across. They can include things like eye-catching images or videos, attention-grabbing headlines and copy, and easy-to-follow calls to action. However, even the most attractive creative need to be changed after a while, because it can induce ad fatigue sooner or later.
The unequivocal conclusion is the same: test and experiment with different ideas.
Take TOP GEOs for Adult advertising
The USA is the unrivaled leader in the number of users interested in adult ads, no matter which ad network you prefer. Next, you can stick to the recommendations of your manager or support team.
Here are some examples of ad networks that work with adult traffic and their best GEOs for 18+ offers:
RichAds: USA, Japan, China, Finland, Vietnam, France, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Denmark
MyBid: Tier1, India, Indonesia and LATAM
Adsterra: USA, Brazil, Japan, India, Indonesia
Pushground: USA, Italy, China, France, Japan
Evadav: USA, Great Britain, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia, India
If you’re keen on exploring specific traffic sources, you have the option to assess their traffic by geographical location using tools like SimilarWeb or other similar platforms you’re familiar with.
Click the picture to enlarge:
5 Tips for Traffic-boosting Adult Ad Campaigns
To promote adult offers effectively, follow these tips:
If you’re new to adult advertising, start with adult dating offers. Avoid running offers within a narrow niche, because you can extremely limit your ad reach this way;
Test to analyze which bundles are performing best. Then refine your setup further by adjusting bids and using optimization features the chosen ad network provides;
Adjust your ad theme to match seasonal trends, such as Valentine’s Day, for instance;
Take care of the advertising schedule. As adult ads can confuse users, customize ad display according to 1 impression per 1 day;
Use images of real people instead of animated illustrations to increase involvement;
While spy tools are helpful for research, keep away from copying;
Save time by trying ChatGPT to create ad copy quickly.
And finally, top 3 questions you need to get answers to before you start launching your adult offer:
1. Do you have white lists for running adult offers?
Any ad network makes up white lists that include websites that have already shown good results for offers such as yours. Running offers on proven sources is the best alternative to RON campaigns.
2. Are there Mainstream and Adult categories in the ad network?
Adult traffic is a useful option to start running on maximally targeted sources. So stick with the ad network which offers adult traffic.
3. Is there traffic that cannot be used for launching adult campaigns?
Some ad networks allow adult advertising solely on Premium traffic that covers the most converting sources.
Regardless, if you want to know how to promote your adult website, get in touch with the team of the ad network you’re using or look for guides on setting up adult ad campaigns in their blog.
Conclusion
Adult in affiliate marketing can be a lucrative niche for affiliates who are willing to navigate the regulations and focus on producing high-quality content and promoting it through push formats. To surely achieve success and profitability in this niche, choose both the right affiliate and ad network, stay up to date on industry trends, and adhere to laws and advertising guidelines.
Anna Mardas brought together her background as a copywriter in digital marketing. Now, she's got a solid grasp on affiliate marketing, especially when it comes to understanding the following niches: Gambling, Adult, Dating, Sweepstakes and Crypto. Anna stands out for her thorough research and insightful reviews of ad networks, offering her readers valuable knowledge.
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