What are sweeps and sweepstakes in affiliate marketing

Sweepstakes is an online lottery in which the winner is chosen at random. To enter the sweepstakes, users simply need to provide their details, which usually include their email address and name. Once the user provides these details, they are considered a conversion (sweepstakes uses the CPL - Cost per Lead - payment model).

This wonderful promotion brings success in three ways. Participants get the opportunity to win a wonderful prize at no cost. The advertiser gets access to an email list for future advertising campaigns. At the same time, the webmasters makes money from everyone who fills out the entry form.

Due to their accessibility, sweepstakes are popular among all types of players, from experienced affiliates to those who are just starting their careers. Due to this, the number of participants is growing and the competition is getting tougher and tougher.

The most popular sweepstakes are draws for iPhones (other electronics), as well as shopping vouchers and vacation prizes.

Doesn't it seem like the easiest thing to do? However, do such offers really bring in a lot of money?

The times when using bank cards was a major source of income may be in the past, but they are not forgotten. If you understand the system, you can still make good money.

Select the traffic source

Many ad networks often suggest combining sweepstakes and popunder traffic. This is due to several reasons, one of which is that banners often go unnoticed by users, so popunders are a great alternative. They can also be displayed on any device (laptops, tablets, etc.) and are relatively inexpensive. In some cases, the use of banners can be abandoned altogether, which is a great option for those just starting out in this field.

There are a number of opinions regarding the use of sweepstakes for promotion on social media, particularly Facebook. It is more cost-effective than popunder and is not suitable for those new to affiliate marketing. Facebook has long been trying to reduce fraud and scams on its platform, so it is absolutely adamant about this type of marketing, to the point of blocking accounts.

Match GEO

Sweepstakes can be an ideal launching pad to start affiliate marketing. However, many novice webmasters make the mistake of directing their ads to "expensive" tier 1 countries. The appeal of higher payouts in these countries is understandable, but the competition there is also high and can quickly eat up a beginner's budget.

Tier is a classification of countries where:

Tier 1: USA, Australia, Canada, South Korea, western European countries (so-called rich countries).

Tier 2: Eastern Europe (e.g. Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic), Japan, India, Thailand, other countries in Asia, Africa and South America.

TIer 3: most countries in Africa, some countries in Asia and Latin America.

Why choose tier 2 and 3?

- there is a lot of traffic and it is cheap

- less strict rules regarding online raffles

- a good place to start: testing and gaining experience

- mobile traffic works well with sweepstakes, while mobile popunders are well monetized in tier 2 and 3.

Find a good offer

Choose an offer topic that appeals to you or is particularly relevant to your meeting at the moment.

Use the excitement surrounding the release of a new iPhone or a long-awaited movie to provide more interaction with your target audience. Also, use seasonal holidays such as New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, or September 1 (the start of the school year) to promote your target.

Test several similar offers and then choose the one that brings the best results.

Create prelending

Game features will not be effective if you direct traffic directly to them. In this case, it is advisable to use preloads.

What do you need to know when creating preloading for sweepstakes?

1. To be successful, it is necessary that users have enough desire to go through the whole process: answer queries, provide their data and leave an email address. It's important to realize that a landing page must be relevant to the interests of its visitors. For example, although there is a significant group of Marvel fans aged 25 and above, you must also take into account the huge number of teenagers who are ready to do anything for a "Marvel" reward.
2. The aesthetic appeal of your pre-launch page is key to the success of any sweepstakes promotion.
3. The loading speed of your website is inextricably linked to the conversion rate achieved. If the time taken to pre-load increases, the likelihood of users leaving your site increases, resulting in a lower CR.
4. If you are targeting an upper class audience, you should consider tailoring your preloaded links to the languages spoken in each country you are targeting. Typically, this strategy will increase your audience reach by using prelinks based on the fact that English is an international language.

Try testing a few pre-referencing suggestions. You can settle on one optimal offer after several prelinks, or you can try different offers with successful prelinks. Find the optimal combination of preendings and offers, and then move on to tweaking other parameters.

Test and optimize campaign sweepstakes

Generate different pre-links, try different geographic locations and traffic sources, collect data from your experiments, and choose the combinations that bring you the most revenue.

There is no definite answer to the question of how long testing should last. It is quite possible that after three days you will be able to identify unsuitable combinations and abandon them. The remaining campaigns can be tested for about 5-7 days to get more detailed information and conclusions.

When working with sweepstakes, using smart links is also a smart solution. Such links free webmasters from the need to perform manual analysis and direct traffic to those offers that are most likely to bring conversions. Smart links from RedTrack can be customized by specific parameters, allowing you to change geography, browser, platform and display relevant swipestakes to users.