In this article, we will look at sweepstakes: their essence, methods of working in this vertical, types of offers, traffic requirements, effective ways to attract them, and preparation of effective creatives.
What are sweepstakes?
Sweepstakes are a type of offer that aims to draw people’s attention to various drawings and contests. Participants have a chance to win valuable prizes, in exchange for which they provide their data and sometimes participate in opinion polls.
The motivation of the audience to participate is strong, and there are no significant costs for participants other than a small amount of time or a small fee. Thanks to attractive terms and conditions and the chance to win prizes, the conversion rate of sweepstakes is significantly higher than in other verticals.
Advantages of swipe offers
Sweepstakes offers provide all participants with the opportunity to get benefits that sometimes turn out to be more significant than it seems at first glance:
- Advertisers benefit by extending the reach of their brand, attracting interested potential customers, and building a customer base with important data for future use or sale.
- Arbitrageurs can reach conversions more efficiently while reducing the cost of advertising campaigns. In addition, they can enrich their databases with contact data such as phone numbers or email addresses for their marketing campaigns.
- Users, in turn, get a chance to win valuable prizes without having to invest. In addition to prizes, they can also take advantage of lucrative offers to save money or solve certain problems.
Types of sweepstakes
In the vertical sweepstakes industry, offsets are categorized based on the type of information collected from users. This vertical can be categorized into five main categories of sweepstakes:
Single opt-in (SOI) is a method of collecting audience data without validation and is the simplest form of swipe with minimal reward for each potential customer.
Double opt-in (DOI) – requires confirmation of user data via email.
PIN Submit – users provide their phone numbers and confirm them via SMS. This method is often used to subscribe to newsletters or services.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) – in this case, the user’s data entered on the site is confirmed by a voice call, during which it is enough to speak a unique code.
Credit Card Submit (CC-Submit) – one of the most expensive and complex types of swipe, in which the user enters his bank card data and sometimes pays a symbolic amount of about 1-2 dollars, which allows subscribing to services at a special tariff. When the preferential tariff period expires, the user is automatically switched to a regular tariff with full price.
SOI and DOI are the simplest and are suitable for almost any audience. For other types of swipes, audience requirements are stricter and may include restrictions on gender, age, or ability to pay.
Geography of Sweepstakes Offers
In arbitrage, the competition in GEO Tier-1 is always greater due to high payouts. At the same time, Tier-2 and Tier-3 offer lower returns for each referred client and are characterized by a smaller number of offers, which makes these markets less competitive and more attractive for newcomers.
- Residents of GEO Tier-1 are already aware of various marketing tricks and actively participate in promotions. At the beginning of 2022, the leading indicators for CC-Submit were demonstrated by the countries of Scandinavia, the Baltics, as well as France and Germany. For SOI and DOI formats, all countries are eligible, but the best results were shown by the US, Canada, the UK, and southern European countries including Spain, Portugal, and Italy, where competition is particularly high.
- Tier-2s perform best with SOI and DOI formats. IVR, PIN, and CC formats require more preparation. Eastern European countries can show high conversions, especially in the mobile traffic segment.
- Tier-3 CC-Submit format performs poorly, and in some countries, credit cards as a payment method are not widely used. It is important to take into account the specifics of each country. Other marketing approaches are effective here, especially in mobile traffic, which is more popular than other channels. This is especially true in India and Africa. While payments for Tier-3 are low, advertising costs can be much lower.
Traffic sources for sweepstakes
Traffic for arbitrage sweepstakes can be found through a variety of channels, among which the most impactful ones stand out:
- Push notifications: This is one of the most effective and profitable methods. Using notifications with text and an attractive image helps to engage users both on mobile and desktop.
- Facebook: Due to the ban on advertising in certain niches, it is necessary to learn techniques to deal with cloaking and account management. This includes creating new ad accounts and running ad campaigns regularly.
- Search engines: This allows you to attract audiences interested in specific offers, such as offering free subscriptions to movie sites or other services for a nominal fee.
- Native advertising: Effective by integrating creatives that increase trust. It’s best to choose platforms that match the topic: for example, country reviews for travel or travel deals.
- Email marketing: Continues to be a powerful tool. It is important to create a compelling headline and convince that the offer is attractive. It is recommended to research email marketing best practices and in-demand mailing list services.
- Popunders: They are effective for attracting attention to promotions by opening pages with offers. They show high conversions on all platforms and are popular in this field.
Working with a lending site
The web page, which is a key element in the customer engagement chain, is where the final action that affects the conversion rate takes place. This page must meet certain criteria:
- load effectively in different regions and on different platforms;
- be viewable on all devices while maintaining an easy to interact with the interface;
- be readable regardless of screen size.
Content for such pages is carefully selected to provide comprehensive answers to customer queries and emphasize the benefits of providing information. At the same time, the use of too-long texts is avoided, as it can lead to a loss of attention of the audience and increase the likelihood of switching to other resources.
Conclusion
Sweepstakes can be used even by beginners. These campaigns are effective in various GEOs, and as practice shows, in Tier-2 and Tier-3 the requirements for the quality of graphic design are not too high. It is enough to have a basic knowledge of graphic design and the use of creative creation tools to get started.
Tier-2 and Tier-3 GEOs usually show a high dependence on mobile devices, which can be used when choosing traffic sources. It is not recommended for beginners to start with Tier-1 due to high competition. It is better to enter these markets when you gain experience. You should start with less profitable countries, where you can compensate for the low cost of conversion due to high volumes and inexpensive traffic.
Successful spills, everyone!