Sweepstakes & Surveys: how to make money on lovers of freebies

Hello! We open a series of materials in various areas in affiliate marketing. And today we’ll talk about Sweepstakes & Surveys, since a beginner at the beginning of their journey in the field has a lot of questions like: “Why do advertisers need to hold these sweepstakes at all?”, “What offers are there in this vertical?” And so on. We tried to answer them in our new material. 

What does the Sweepstakes & Surveys vertical mean?

Sweepstakes & surveys in affiliate marketing is an independent vertical that includes sweepstakes and surveys offers with a simple user flow and a CPL payment model. This includes surveys, lotteries, gift offers (certificates, vouchers), freebies (freebies), various coupons. In other words, Sweepstakes offers the user to get a valuable prize for a simple targeted action. 

Why do advertisers need this? The advertiser thus simply collects user data and forms an active client base. Imagine that by playing just one iPhone (and it’s not a fact that there will be a winner in principle), a business representative gets data from several tens of thousands of users. This base is very expensive.

How sweepstake offers work

Classic example: “Win an iPhone now! Participate in the competition!”. The user sees your advertising creative, which offer him to get the latest gadget just by clicking on the link. 

Further, moving along the funnel, the user usually waits for a pre-lander, where an interactive one is presented in the form of a wheel of fortune or a lottery with boxes. Naturally, the script assumes that the user wins something and all he has to do is leave his data on the advertiser's landing page.

On the landing, you usually need to leave your full name, phone number, e-mail or link a bank card. Thus, the user becomes a participant in the promotion, enters the advertiser's database and is counted as a lead, for which the webmaster is paid.

Payment models in Sweepstakes & Surveys offers

Offers work according to the CPL model. The data sent by the user is considered a lead - the webmaster receives a reward for them. Depending on the conversion point, sweepstakes are divided into the following types:

• SOI (Single Opt-in). Offers with one confirmation. Here, the target action is the completion and submission of a form (survey, questionnaire, application) on the advertiser's landing.
• DOI (Double Opt-in). Offers with double confirmation. The difference from SOI lies in the need to perform two actions: fill out a questionnaire (first confirmation) and complete registration using an additional link that the user receives by e-mail or by phone (second confirmation).
• CC Submit (Credit Card Submit). The target action is to enter bank card details. Card data in offers with such a conversion point confirm participation in the sweepstake. No funds are charged from the credit card, but at some point the advertiser will enable the user to subscribe to sweepstakes (do not confuse with trial offers).
• PIN Submit. Similar to the previous one, but here the lead is counted after the user, having indicated his number, confirms the subscription to the draw via SMS.
• IVR (Interactive voice response). Data that the user confirms by calling is considered a lead - you must dictate a unique code from SMS. But this type of conversion is no longer relevant.

Average payout per lead in the US

Sweepstake vertical features

Sweepstake offers are popular in Tier-1 GEO due to the development of consumer marketing in the regions. People are used to using vouchers, coupons and cashback services. In Tier-2 and Tier-3 countries, discounts and promotions are treated with caution, as such offers quite often turn out to be a scam.

The relevance of sweepstakes may vary depending on the season - during the holidays, on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, certain offers become more in demand.

The task of the offers of this vertical is to collect data about users. A simple user flow on offers gives scope for fraud, so advertisers use impressive anti-fraud databases. E-mail addresses and phone numbers that are already in the advertiser's database do not count as a lead.

The offer owner is likely to run many draws at once. He will not pay for the same leads received from different offers. If the affiliate received these applications on one quiz, and then the same user filled out the same form on another offer, the advertiser will not pay for one of the duplicates.

Particular attention should be paid to promotional materials. But in the sweepstake vertical, advertisers create landing pages, so the webmaster cannot influence their attractiveness. There are two ways: to invest in the creation of a pre-lander, or simply not to drive traffic to low-quality landings.

An example of an ad creative for working with a facebook sweepstake offer

Sweepstakes are an accessible vertical for beginners due to the simple user flow. It is easy to work in it in terms of obtaining leads, but low payouts for them do not always allow profitable arbitrage. However, a number of traffic sources with cheap clicks are very good for survey monetization. For example, it is most convenient to start testing new traffic sources with sweepstake offers.

How sweepstakes work in push networks

Commentary from the editor

Sweepstakes is one of the oldest, but still relevant verticals. In fact, it only seems elementary in terms of mastering. Promotions, coupons and giveaways are a full-fledged phenomenon of mass culture in Tier-1 countries, so sweepstakes remain a popular entry point to these GEOs.

Statistics of the webmaster's work with the sweepstake offer

But remember, in order to succeed in this vertical, you need to study the GEO culture and its features well. Affiliate marketing is a niche of trial, error and experimentation. Success comes with experience, so don't be afraid to try different verticals.