Hey guys,
Airports all over the world have noted some of the busiest days the travel industry has seen since the pandemic started.
COVID-19 vaccines are more and more accessible and people can’t wait to get their travel passes and hit the road to enjoy the sun and the thrill of adventure.
And what does that mean for us, affiliate marketers? It means that the travel money season is back on!
So, sit comfortably, put your shades on, pour yourself a cold drink… and get ready to scale your summer season campaigns with this affiliate marketing guide to travel niche in 2021!
Putting the whole coronavirus situation aside, the travel vertical has long been known as one of the most popular, profitable, and highly in-demand sectors of the affiliate marketing industry. What’s important to note is that travel is a much broader term than many advertisers may initially think. That’s why it’s often categorized as the Travel or E-commerce & Travel vertical.
This is mostly because various smaller niches relating to a general concept of travel may also fall under the e-commerce category. For example, promoting luxury luggage deals may fall under either one of the two, or a combined category, depending on the advertising angle, offer details, and internal guidelines of both affiliate networks and traffic sources.
☞ Talking about various smaller niches that come under the travel vertical umbrella term, here’s a collection of the most popular ones:
✔︎ Accommodation (hotels, hostels, long or short-term rentals)
✔︎ Transportation (flights, fares, cruises, railway and bus tickets)
✔︎ Trips and cruises (packaged deals offering transportation, accommodation, etc.)
✔︎ Rentals (cars, bikes, scooters, water equipment)
✔︎ Travel equipment (luggage, gadgets, electronics)
✔︎ Travel insurance
✔︎ Financial services
✔︎ Medical services
Mind there are many more, already existing niches on the market, while new ones are constantly being added depending on the market needs. And as always — where there’s demand, the affiliate marketing supply follows. That’s why choosing the right offer for the travel vertical does not need to be limited to the most obvious choices.
But how are the things looking for the travel vertical during the summer season of 2021… and the post-covid reality we’re all still enduring
Luckily, things are looking good.
Even though the travel industry was estimated to bring a truly thrilling number of $8.9 trillion to the world’s GDP (that is $8,900,000,000,000 in full number to give you a better idea of what we’re talking about), and although everything went sour in 2020, the industry has already noted an uptake since the first COVID-19 regulations have been loosened.
But before we give in to the hopeful wishes, let’s have a look at some hard data collected and published by Statista in March 2021:
The prognoses for the whole of the travel and tourism industry look promising this year. As opposed to the 2020 season where most of the world had to struggle with some of the worst scenarios the coronavirus pandemic had us imagine.
☞ That’s why, as long as advertisers choosing to run travel-related campaigns remember to:
Before we start answering that question, we need to make sure to distinguish between the travel industry as a whole and online travel marketing. This is because the regions that bring the most profit for the travel industry (usually top travel destinations) are not necessarily the same countries where the demand for travel ads is on the rise.
And the current post-pandemic situation makes the whole thing even more complicated…
This is because places that used to be the biggest travel goals for people all around the world before the pandemic hit, needed to restrict and limit the influx of tourists to contain the virus. Meaning, they had to cut down on what used to make them the most money to survive. And still, till this day, travel restrictions are imposed on many countries all over the world.
But as shown by various 2021 prognoses for the travel industry, things are looking up. On top of that, since the beginning of the year, we were also able to see more and more of our advertisers are coming back to running travel offers in Zeropark ad exchange platform. That’s why by combining the general market trends and looking through our data we were able to select top-performing GEOs for the travel vertical in Zeropark. Have a look below!
Naturally, given how dynamic the affiliate industry usually is, and how fast things get speeded up with the global pandemic situation, this is just an overview.
And whether your desired GEO is a currently top-ranking one, or rather to be avoided target country, needs to be checked on an individual basis per your offer, traffic source, specific ad format, or current legal and safety regulations. Each offer, campaign, and target country abides by different rules at the moment, so the one rule for all is definitely out of question here. For example, a campaign that would perform well for Russia (RU) might not work as well in the United States (US) due to the difference in travel restrictions in the countries.
That’s why, to make running travel offers just a bit easier for you, we found some useful links (courtesy of travel affiliate experts) to be checked before starting a campaign.
☞ Useful links:
As with every campaign type, some targeting tips are universally applicable. And regardless of what a great offer you’ve got from your travel affiliate program or network, if you don’t abide by the following rules, no amount of advanced tips and marketing strategies will work. So, let’s dig into the essentials!
✔︎ Budget setting — account for the testing budget, the campaign’s daily budget, and the total budget. You need all three to work with one another to make your campaigns run smoothly.
✔︎ Offer payouts — know how your offer payout works and calculate your budgets accordingly. Make sure you won’t suffer from cash flow obstacles on the way.
✔︎ Bidding — always check with the traffic source for current GEO, source, or target rates and bid high enough to win the right amount of traffic, or decrease your bid in order not to overpay for the traffic you’re already winning.
✔︎ GEO targeting — as stated, following the general trends can be tricky given the market fluctuations. It’s better to ask your traffic source representative for data and insights on what works best for your campaigns at a given moment.
✔︎ Adult Filtering — knowing the difference between mainstream and adult targeting may be a break or make an element for your campaigns. You don’t want the traffic source or an affiliate network to block your campaigns before they even get to run.
✔︎ Frequency Filtering & Day-Parting — this option may seem not too relevant but using it right can save you from cutting yourself from potentially profitable traffic, or spending money on traffic that doesn’t bring you conversions. That’s why broad testing at first and then filtering out the most profitable setup is always recommended.
✔︎ Device and OS targeting — as with the previous option, this targeting option needs to be used within reason. Going broad first and then narrowing it down to the whitelisted devices is essential to the success of your affiliate campaigns.
✔︎ Rule-Based Optimization — once all the testing is done and advertisers can draft a basic optimization scheme, it’s time to use the automated optimization feature available in Zeropark. This AI-powered tool lets you save both the time and energy of having to constantly watch over your campaigns, and does the work for you according to the rules you set.
Magda
Airports all over the world have noted some of the busiest days the travel industry has seen since the pandemic started.
COVID-19 vaccines are more and more accessible and people can’t wait to get their travel passes and hit the road to enjoy the sun and the thrill of adventure.
And what does that mean for us, affiliate marketers? It means that the travel money season is back on!
So, sit comfortably, put your shades on, pour yourself a cold drink… and get ready to scale your summer season campaigns with this affiliate marketing guide to travel niche in 2021!
What is the travel vertical in affiliate marketing?
Putting the whole coronavirus situation aside, the travel vertical has long been known as one of the most popular, profitable, and highly in-demand sectors of the affiliate marketing industry. What’s important to note is that travel is a much broader term than many advertisers may initially think. That’s why it’s often categorized as the Travel or E-commerce & Travel vertical. This is mostly because various smaller niches relating to a general concept of travel may also fall under the e-commerce category. For example, promoting luxury luggage deals may fall under either one of the two, or a combined category, depending on the advertising angle, offer details, and internal guidelines of both affiliate networks and traffic sources.
☞ Talking about various smaller niches that come under the travel vertical umbrella term, here’s a collection of the most popular ones:
✔︎ Accommodation (hotels, hostels, long or short-term rentals)
✔︎ Transportation (flights, fares, cruises, railway and bus tickets)
✔︎ Trips and cruises (packaged deals offering transportation, accommodation, etc.)
✔︎ Rentals (cars, bikes, scooters, water equipment)
✔︎ Travel equipment (luggage, gadgets, electronics)
✔︎ Travel insurance
✔︎ Financial services
✔︎ Medical services
Mind there are many more, already existing niches on the market, while new ones are constantly being added depending on the market needs. And as always — where there’s demand, the affiliate marketing supply follows. That’s why choosing the right offer for the travel vertical does not need to be limited to the most obvious choices.
Is running travel niche offers worth it in 2021?
But how are the things looking for the travel vertical during the summer season of 2021… and the post-covid reality we’re all still enduringLuckily, things are looking good.
Even though the travel industry was estimated to bring a truly thrilling number of $8.9 trillion to the world’s GDP (that is $8,900,000,000,000 in full number to give you a better idea of what we’re talking about), and although everything went sour in 2020, the industry has already noted an uptake since the first COVID-19 regulations have been loosened.
But before we give in to the hopeful wishes, let’s have a look at some hard data collected and published by Statista in March 2021:
The prognoses for the whole of the travel and tourism industry look promising this year. As opposed to the 2020 season where most of the world had to struggle with some of the worst scenarios the coronavirus pandemic had us imagine.
☞ That’s why, as long as advertisers choosing to run travel-related campaigns remember to:
- select their offers and targeting options carefully,
- thoroughly research COVID-19 legal and safety regulations for relevant GEOs,
- stay vigilant and ready to adapt to the ongoing market changes,
- test various angles and strategies to feel the post-covid travel market before scaling their campaigns full speed ahead.
Where does the travel niche perform best? [TOP GEOs]
Before we start answering that question, we need to make sure to distinguish between the travel industry as a whole and online travel marketing. This is because the regions that bring the most profit for the travel industry (usually top travel destinations) are not necessarily the same countries where the demand for travel ads is on the rise.And the current post-pandemic situation makes the whole thing even more complicated…
This is because places that used to be the biggest travel goals for people all around the world before the pandemic hit, needed to restrict and limit the influx of tourists to contain the virus. Meaning, they had to cut down on what used to make them the most money to survive. And still, till this day, travel restrictions are imposed on many countries all over the world.
But as shown by various 2021 prognoses for the travel industry, things are looking up. On top of that, since the beginning of the year, we were also able to see more and more of our advertisers are coming back to running travel offers in Zeropark ad exchange platform. That’s why by combining the general market trends and looking through our data we were able to select top-performing GEOs for the travel vertical in Zeropark. Have a look below!
Naturally, given how dynamic the affiliate industry usually is, and how fast things get speeded up with the global pandemic situation, this is just an overview.
And whether your desired GEO is a currently top-ranking one, or rather to be avoided target country, needs to be checked on an individual basis per your offer, traffic source, specific ad format, or current legal and safety regulations. Each offer, campaign, and target country abides by different rules at the moment, so the one rule for all is definitely out of question here. For example, a campaign that would perform well for Russia (RU) might not work as well in the United States (US) due to the difference in travel restrictions in the countries.
That’s why, to make running travel offers just a bit easier for you, we found some useful links (courtesy of travel affiliate experts) to be checked before starting a campaign.
☞ Useful links:
- An interactive travel restrictions map by Kayak.
- Most relevant travel news updates by Travelpayouts
- Collection of online travel marketing stats & facts by Statista
Targeting & optimization tips for scaling your travel campaigns in 2021
As with every campaign type, some targeting tips are universally applicable. And regardless of what a great offer you’ve got from your travel affiliate program or network, if you don’t abide by the following rules, no amount of advanced tips and marketing strategies will work. So, let’s dig into the essentials! ✔︎ Budget setting — account for the testing budget, the campaign’s daily budget, and the total budget. You need all three to work with one another to make your campaigns run smoothly.
✔︎ Offer payouts — know how your offer payout works and calculate your budgets accordingly. Make sure you won’t suffer from cash flow obstacles on the way.
✔︎ Bidding — always check with the traffic source for current GEO, source, or target rates and bid high enough to win the right amount of traffic, or decrease your bid in order not to overpay for the traffic you’re already winning.
✔︎ GEO targeting — as stated, following the general trends can be tricky given the market fluctuations. It’s better to ask your traffic source representative for data and insights on what works best for your campaigns at a given moment.
✔︎ Adult Filtering — knowing the difference between mainstream and adult targeting may be a break or make an element for your campaigns. You don’t want the traffic source or an affiliate network to block your campaigns before they even get to run.
✔︎ Frequency Filtering & Day-Parting — this option may seem not too relevant but using it right can save you from cutting yourself from potentially profitable traffic, or spending money on traffic that doesn’t bring you conversions. That’s why broad testing at first and then filtering out the most profitable setup is always recommended.
✔︎ Device and OS targeting — as with the previous option, this targeting option needs to be used within reason. Going broad first and then narrowing it down to the whitelisted devices is essential to the success of your affiliate campaigns.
✔︎ Rule-Based Optimization — once all the testing is done and advertisers can draft a basic optimization scheme, it’s time to use the automated optimization feature available in Zeropark. This AI-powered tool lets you save both the time and energy of having to constantly watch over your campaigns, and does the work for you according to the rules you set.
If you want to find out:
- How to choose travel offers that convert?
- List of travel affiliate programs & affiliate networks with travel offers.
- How to advertise travel offers for maximum profits? [TIPS]
- Which ad format should you choose: pop, domain, injection, push, in-page push, or search?
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Magda
