Reasons People Fail In Dating Affiliate Marketing
The stats are all there. 44.2 million Americans used an online dating service in 2020. USA dating traffic accounts for over 15% of the world market right now. Total revenues in online dating in America were $1.43 billion last year according to the Finances Online Reviews for Business website.
There are plenty of great dating programs, mainstream and casual, that are perfect for the millions of savvy internet users who prefer the convenience of online dating to hitting the singles bars.
With these kinds of numbers, a good dating CPA landing page has the potential to bring in a lucrative side income or even turn into your full-time gig.
But maybe you’ve tried everything and somehow it’s still not working out for you.
Don’t worry. It’s happened to all of us at some time. In this blog post we get into the details of why you might be stuck and what concrete steps you need to take to make your fair share of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent in this niche every year.
How Does Online Dating Affiliate Marketing Work?
It takes three to tango for dating affiliate marketing. The online service provider, the affiliate marketer, and the user of the service.
The service provider runs the dating service, adult website, or dating app. The customer, or user, is looking to meet their perfect match or someone to hang out with for the night, as the case may be. The affiliate marketer is the matchmaker between the two, making sure that the right people find the right service.
The users pay the service provider and they pay a cut or a fee to the affiliate marketer for each sign-up or for specific actions taken on their website.
All you have to do as an affiliate is figure out how to get traffic to your dating site.
Simple right? So what could possibly go wrong?
Why Most Affiliates Aren’t Successful in the Dating Niche
There are many reasons why things go wrong. Let’s take a look at the top 7 reasons why affiliates fail to make the commissions they deserve.
1. Picking an Affiliate Program You Love, Not What Your Audience Needs
This is a classic mistake of the rookie online dating marketer. They are attracted to the niche because it interested them. Maybe they are single and looking, or maybe their whole life changed when they found the perfect dating app. Now they want to share their experience with the entire world.
There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but if you have been running a blog about deep-sea fishing for five years and you suddenly start plugging a dating app or adult website, your chances of success are minimal at best.
It will be far better to start another blog about dating than to waste your time trying to sell love and romance to your audience of deep-sea fishing enthusiasts.
2. Shiny Objects or Too Many Affiliate Products Syndrome
You find a product you love. You look at the potential commissions and see dollar signs. Maybe you even make a sale or two. Instead of capitalizing on this initial success, however, and doubling down on our efforts with a winning product, you think, ‘hell, if I can sell one of these a day, all I have to do is add in another program and I’ll double my profits.’
There is nothing wrong with going wide when you have more experience. But in the beginning, it is better to learn the ins and outs of one great product or service and make a success out of it before you move on.
If you are promoting three or four competing websites or apps, you can’t master them all at the same time. It also gives the impression that you don’t have any brand loyalty. If you champion one program, your audience will respond to this. If you start recommending ten different websites one after the other, it’s going to be pretty obvious you’re doing it for the commissions.
Stick with just one in the beginning, and become an expert. Don’t get stuck in beginner mode with multiple programs or products.
3. The Overnight Millionaire Mentality
The dating affiliate market niche is well known to be both lucrative and evergreen. But this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to do any work in order to succeed. The very best affiliate programs in the world still need both time and effort to get off the ground.
To make a dating affiliate program succeed you will need to take the time to understand your audience. Then put in the work to drive traffic consistently to your landing page, social media accounts, or blog.
4. Quitting Before You’re Ahead
Affiliates in the online dating space who have been working for some time find it relatively easy to generate leads and earn commissions.
As a newbie, you try to emulate what they do and before too long you have your landing pages set up, your affiliate links in place, and maybe some great lead magnets as well. But somehow, you are still only seeing a trickle of traffic and little to no commissions.
Many will give up at this point and think it is not for them. This often happens, however, shortly before their online presence begins to gain traction.
You need to be consistent in your efforts. Keep on producing great blogs and social media posts. By regularly putting out good quality material your landing pages will slowly but very surely, begin to gain traction.
5. Thinking You Know Everything About Dating Affiliate Marketing
The essence of affiliate marketing is simple, but this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot to learn. Sometimes a beginner marketer with a little knowledge thinks they know it all, but this is rarely the case.
Dating site SEO and the SEO techniques used in the dating niche alone are a learning curve and good practice changes all the time. Search engine algorithms change or rules around advertising can unexpectedly alter, but seasoned marketers learn and adapt to these changes all the time.
While the basic principles of marketing never change, the technology and techniques are constantly evolving and you need to as well.
A good way to stay on top of things is to reach out to your program manager. They can help you put into practice the latest techniques that are working for other marketers in the same field.
Check out this blog post that goes into more detail on good SEO practice.
6. Running Your Dating Affiliate Campaign Without a Plan
Even the best marketer in the dating niche can fail if they don’t have a clear plan for success. Every campaign is different, every product has details and nuances that set it apart. If you jump headfirst into a campaign without taking time to look at what makes it unique then you risk misjudging your market, wasting time and possibly also your money.
Before you start you need to take a step back and plan exactly what kind of audience you have. Is it mature or younger? Is it mainstream or casual? Is your product entirely online or is there an offline component?
Once the campaign is up and running you need to constantly test what is working and what isn’t. A/B test all of your email campaigns, landing pages, and marketing approaches.
It all takes time and effort, but the potential rewards are huge.
7. Targeting Your Dating Audience Incorrectly
If you haven’t thoroughly taken the time to understand the service or product you are promoting then it’s likely your audience will fail to understand it as well.
For example, an adult landing page and a landing page for a dating site are two entirely different things. Use the wrong one and you will lose your audience fast.
Make sure that no question is left unanswered on your dating landing pages. Every possible objection should be overcome to make your leads click that link or enter that precious email address.
Key Takeaways and Final Words
The reasons why marketers fail in the online dating space are many and complex. Sometimes it is one of these things, sometimes it’s a combination of many.
At Candy Offers we know what we are doing and we want every one of our valued affiliates to succeed. When you choose to promote with us you know you have a quality online dating product to work with. This is the foundation of any good campaign.
Once you’ve chosen the offer that works best for you, start small. Reach out to us for resources such as free dating website templates, free dating templates, and dating landing page examples.
Your success is our success and we are committed to helping you along in your affiliate marketing journey.