Mobile subscriptions or Wap-Click is one of the niches in affiliate marketing. Here, billing takes place from the user’s mobile account at specific intervals.
The user gets on the landing page, clicks on the big button that says “View” or wherever, and subscribe. And then the payment is debited. All this happens as unobtrusively as possible, so the conversion rate is high: that’s a plus. Another plus is that there is no hold: the user subscribes instantly, so the money also comes almost immediately.
So it can be withdrawn immediately into your account. Let’s talk about this niche in more detail.
General characteristics
Wap-Clicks appeared in the mid-2000s. Initially, they were operator services. With the spread of smartphones, the market for mobile subscriptions began to expand rapidly. The peak was from 2010 to 2013, when actors “overheated” the market and used aggressive promotion types. Situation has now changed. The market is beginning to operate legally. This situation opens up new opportunities for the development of the sphere. And makes it a more long-term and promising direction.
The advantages of Wap-Click
Are present in practically all geo
A wide coverage: almost all people use mobile phones in their daily lives at the moment
Low cost at the moment
You can get your first results on small budgets, as the entry threshold to mobile subscriptions is lower than in other niches.
Google and Zuckerberg’s brainchild works best with Wap-Clicks. That is where they work out the big cases with big budgets. There is a simple reason for success: huge audience, easy flow, and a wide range of offers. To put it as simply as possible. Getting a user to send an SMS is easier than linking a credit card.
As mentioned above, mobile offers have a wide variety of geos. From Germany and Sweden to Malaysia. User preferences and regulations in these groups can vary significantly. So it’s important to research the market before launching campaigns, and check with your affiliate program manager for nuances.
In terms of operating systems, it is worth highlighting that Android and iOS gadgets are the main ones. It is always worth paying attention to this point when optimising campaigns, as CR will differ from one operating system to another.
Types of Wap-Clicks
All the offers in the Wap-Clicks vertical get divided into several groups based on the targeted action a user needs to perform in order to subscribe.
Clickflow. One or two clicks on the “Subscribe” button on a landing page are required to complete the subscription.
Pin-submit. To subscribe user has to request a PIN code that he will receive in an SMS and then enter it on the page.
Click2sms flow. To subscribe, the user clicks on the webpage and then sends an SMS with the keyword to a short code. In some countries local regulators require entering the phone number on the page.
Mobile subscriptions can also be divided by the content offered, but first let’s describe the targeted actions.
Wap-Clicks’ prelending
Marketers use prelendings to fuel the commission of a targeted action. Affiliate programme managers usually help their publishers to create prelends, translate texts, or give out ready-made versions.
All this allows them to test the funnel in the shortest possible time and avoid wasting time in producing creatives and promo materials themselves.
At the same time, many use ready-made prelendings they find in spy services, and already adapt them for their own needs.
How are mobile subscriptions paid for?
The most common payment model is CPA. Payment by Revshare is usually an exception.
Let’s make it clear. Only a few publishers use the Revshare model. Most of the turnover is due to CPA. Nevertheless, a newcomer choosing mobile subscriptions should understand that there are different types of traffic monetization.
CPA. A model where the publisher gets a fixed commission per conversion.
Example. You subscribe a user to a video content service, and they’ll be charged $10 each month for accessing it. For this subscription, you will receive a one-time, fixed payment. It’s stable and simple, and most importantly, it’s easier to calculate your ad rates and optimise your campaign.
Revshare. Model, in which profit per conversion shares between advertiser and partner. Example. You bring a lead to a service with a monthly fee of $4. But when you work on Revshare model, you, as an affiliate, will receive a percentage of the monthly deductions. Let’s say it would be 30%.
So you would get $1.2 each month until the user unsubscribes. At first glance this might seem more profitable, but the reality is that users often unsubscribe. And billing does not always work correctly.
Setting up targeting for mobile subscriptions
In Wap-Clicks, you should give special attention to targeting by operators. There are regulators in some countries, and not all operators allow you to “sign up” their users.
In European countries the sphere of Wap-Clicks is more strictly regulated. It is forbidden to use particular expressions in advertising campaigns, or try to deceive the user and coerce him to subscribe to the service.
The positive thing to note is that advertisers provide their partners with IP addresses that are best used for targeting in order to obtain the best CR. But there is one nuance with them. It often happens that the address pool is out of date. We strongly recommend checking with your manager before launching a campaign to see if the information is up to date.
To summarise, if you are engaged in Wap-Clicks, you need to understand the requirements of operators in certain geo types of promotion, and before launching campaigns agree the bindings with your managers. They will tell you which points will pass, and the operators will have no questions about the quality of the traffic.
