Who this blog post is for
This post is mainly for beginners and advanced crypto affiliates or newbies who are interested in becoming one. It is meant as a general guide and can’t contain the best solution for everyone. However, it will include the most important information every affiliate should know. We also have a guide on how to monetize your investing/stock or Forex traffic. This guide is not meant to explain cryptocurrencies, blockchain, NFT or similar topics.
Analyzing your current situation
When it comes to analyzing your current situation, it’s important to take a step back and look at the big picture. What are your goals? What resources do you have at your disposal to reach those targets? Once you have a good understanding of your current situation, you can start to plan for moving forward.
Making a detailed analysis of your current situation is the first step to achieving success. By taking the time to understand your goals, your strengths and weaknesses, and the resources you have available, you can set yourself up for success.
Your current traffic
By understanding your traffic, you can make changes to improve it. For example, if you see that most of your traffic is coming from social media, you can focus on creating more engaging content for social media. Or, if you see that people are leaving your site after only visiting one page, you can work on improving your website’s design and navigation to keep people on your site longer.
More importantly, you can also use information about your current traffic to find the best partner for you.
Where does your traffic come from?
Web traffic is the most common form of affiliate traffic and measures the number of visitors to a website. It can be measured in a number of ways, including unique visitors, page views, and time spent on site. There are a number of ways to generate web traffic, including organic search, paid search, social media, and email marketing. Each of these channels has its own strengths and weaknesses, and each can be effective in its own right. Organic search is perhaps the most important traffic channel, as it is the primary way that users find websites. Paid search, while not as important as organic search, can still be a significant source of traffic, particularly for competitive keywords, but is costly in the crypto niche. If you are no PPC (pay per click) expert, we recommend that you only use small budgets to test out paid advertising, as it is really competitive.
Depending on your type of traffic (YouTube, social media or website) different ad forms and partners perform better than others. For example, some brokers require a stand-alone website to get accepted as a partner. They do not even accept other forms of traffic. Meanwhile, others have no problem with social media, video or even aggressive forms of marketing. Usually, a mix of different traffic sources is the ideal situation, as you are less susceptible to sudden negative changes like new search algorithms or social media restrictions.
Where are your visitors from?
Which country your traffic originates from is significant, as it determines the choice of potential advertising partners (brokers or banks). There are two deciding factors on why it is important where your traffic originates.
- Regulation: Most legitimate brokers only accept clients from countries in which they are regulated, but for crypto, it depends on the broker. Sometimes they accept clients from countries, but overall the trend is that most brokers focus on a certain area e.g. South America or Asia and only a few brokers are globally active.
- Jurisdiction & Laws: Some countries have laws that prohibit or have restrictions on some forms of crypto (trading or buying). You will need to check out where your traffic comes from and then choose partners accordingly.
- Country Tiers: When it comes down to how valuable a client is, it is often decided by the country’s GDP. Clients from richer countries are often more valuable, and thus the traffic value is higher. Country tiers are set by each broker and the borders are fluid. Some countries may be rated differently, but overall countries like Germany, Australia, UK or UAE are usually always Tier 1 countries, while countries in Africa are usually Tier 3 or Tier 4 countries.
Tier 1 | USA, Canada, Australia, Austria, Germany, Swiss, Kuwait, Italy, France, Norway, Qatar, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Sweden |
Tier 2 | Brazil, Argentina, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Greece, Chile, Cyprus, Hungary |
Tier 3 | Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Eritrea |
What are the interests of your visitors?
If you know what your visitors (or channel viewers) are mostly interested in, you are advantaged. Your conversion rate optimization will be easier that way, and you can decrease your spent ad cost or lost opportunity costs. E.g. if you know that your traffic is more interested in Ethereum than in Bitcoin, it would make sense to send them to an ETH landing page.
Your current financials
When it comes down to numbers, it is important to analyze the current situation. If you are in a position to leverage your cash flow or have enough funds to quickly scale your business, you clearly have an advantage over your competitors.
Your revenue vs. your costs
There’s a reason they call it “the bottom line.” Your business’ revenue – the money coming in – needs to be greater than your costs – the money going out – in order for your business to be profitable. It sounds simple enough, but in practice, it can be difficult to achieve and maintain.
There are a number of ways to increase your revenue, but decreasing your cost often means less content or lower quality content. If you are not spending money on ads, we often prefer on focusing on increasing your revenue. Through conversion optimization and value proposition, you can increase your income rapidly. Through new quality content, you can generate long-term growth.
Your income stream
There are multiple questions that you should be able to answer when it comes down to your income. Here you should mostly analyze your income stream to see any weaknesses that you could improve.
- How often do you get paid per month? If you get paid monthly, you will have a big income spike each month and then nothing. Multiple partners could lessen that problem, as they usually pay on different dates. Sometimes good negotiations can lead to more than one payment per month from one partner.
- How many different income sources do you have? If you have a single income source, you might fare well, or you might get into big trouble if your partner stops or delays payments. It is always a good business practice to diversify your income streams.
- Is your income steady or are there big fluctuations? Depending on your size and your business model, e.g. CPA vs CPL, you will see huge differences each month with CPA. While CPL would lead to fewer fluctuations. The bigger your revenue gets, the less this problem might occur.
- Is your income potentially at risk? Let’s assume you are using a single marketing strategy to gain new clients. If that source would no longer be available, your income might get crushed. It’s always good to have multiple traffic sources or even streams of income.
Your growth potential
Do you know your growth potential? For most affiliates, this is a hypothetical question, but it has more to do with how big your market actually is. If you are for example focused on Spanish content but only care about your visitors from Spain, you are leaving a huge chunk of money on the table. You should partner up with trustworthy brands, that are active in South America to scale your revenue.
The best way to increase your potential is usually tapping new markets. Either through new partnerships or translations.
Paid advertising, on the other hand, sometimes is only scalable to a certain point and if you are spending above it, you are increasing your costs tremendously without any proper return on investments. Since the ad space for trading and crypto is lucrative, you should also watch out for any potential bidding war.
What are possible revenue streams for crypto affiliates?
Let’s take a look at which ways you can monetize your cryptocurrency traffic. There are a couple of ways, and each has drawbacks and advantages. You should consider all possibilities and then decide on what you think works best for your current set-up. If you need any help, you can get in touch with us, and we will be surely able to help you.
Fixed Compensation
Fixed compensation is a fixed amount of money that is paid to a partner from a broker, bank or crypto exchange. The total amount is often discussed weeks before it is actually paid out. We would like to point out that fixed compensation is usually the less preferred compensation method by partners, as they usually try to go the performance-based compensation route.
One-Time Payments
The biggest advantage of one-time payments is that you know what you can expect. With performance-based programs, you can predict the cash flow, but you can never be certain about it. Another advantage is that it is basically the most risk-averse payment flow there is. As one-time payments are often paid before any cooperation begins, you do not have to worry about delays in payment.
The biggest disadvantage is that it is just a one-time payment. A steady monthly income is usually preferred in the business world. Additionally, if your website or channel has solid traffic, you could potentially earn more with performance-based compensation than with fixed.
Regular Payments
The biggest advantage of regular, e.g. monthly payments is that you have a steady source of income that you can calculate with. In comparison to one-time payments, you have a constant revenue stream at your disposal, which you can use for growth.
The biggest disadvantage of regular payments is similar to the one of one-time payments. You will potentially miss out on a lot of money if you have traffic that converts.
Bonus payments
Bonus payments are often similar to milestone payments. For example, if you reach 10 new active referrals per month, you will get an additional $2000 bonus. As bonus payments are the most unreliable, you shouldn’t calculate your budget with them.
Performance-Based Compensation
CPA
A cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is a performance-based pricing model that allows your partner to pay for active clients that are generated by affiliates for their advertising campaigns. The amount that brokers pay per new client (CPA) differs by country and partner. It starts from $100 and goes up to $2000 (depending on the deal, potentially even more). Usually, your partner requires certain conditions to be met, before they credit any money to your affiliate account. Most of the time, a new client has to meet the following conditions.
- Be fully verified (Proof of Identity + Proof of Residency)
- Deposited a certain amount (amount depends on the partner and negotiations)
- Traded a certain amount (amount depends on the partner and negotiations)
CPA payments are one-time payments for a client. That means you will only receive money once. That means you need to refer new clients if you want to keep a steady income. The actual client value won’t be shared with you, as you are not participating in any revenue share program.
CPL
A cost per lead (CPL) is a performance-based pricing model that allows crypto brokers, exchanges or banks to pay for leads that are generated by affiliates for their advertising campaigns. You would get a fixed amount of money, e.g. $25-$45 for each new lead that you refer. In comparison to the CPA model, you get smaller increments, but you may leave money on the table if your traffic converts well. However, if your traffic is bad and not converting at all, the broker will soon stop the CPL cooperation with you. That is why we always advise against CPL, as you should focus on traffic that converts and if it converts you can earn more with revenue share or CPA compensation. We would only advise CPL for digital ads experts who want to scale their business quickly.
Revenue Share
Revenue share programs let you participate in the value of the customer. The most common program is that you get commissions every time your referral places a buy/sell/trade order. That means, if the cryptocurrency trader has a big account and is quite active, you will probably earn way more than with a CPA program. However, if the client has a small account and trades rarely, you would have likely earned more with the CPA program. We advise our clients to go with revenue share if they know that their traffic is high-quality traffic. High-quality means that it not only converts but brings traders that trade a high volume.
The main advantage is that you will receive money from the broker as long as the trader is active. That means you could receive a lot more money than with a simple CPA program. You will also see what your referrals have traded daily. Some brokers even allow you to withdraw money each day. This means you could have a constant stream of money coming your way.
The biggest disadvantage is that this form of compensation is the most unreliable in terms of what you can expect. You won’t know the exact sum that a referral earned you until he stops trading with that partner.
Hybrid & Other
A hybrid model is a mix between CPA and a revenue share program. You would get a lower CPA with a lower percentage share. For some, it’s the best mix out of two worlds, and for others, it’s just a dazzle. Not every broker offers hybrid programs, but some do.
There are other compensation schemes as well, but explaining them would take this post too far. If you are interested, you can always get in touch with us.
Important things to consider when choosing a crypto partner program
Especially new affiliates often overlook some important aspects of choosing the right partner. As there are many possible partners, you can feel overwhelmed and unsure. Once you read our post, you will know more about whom to choose.
Safety
Especially in crypto, the most important aspect is safety. Not only for the clients that you refer, but also for yourself. We will first analyze the things you should watch out for before taking a look at your traffic.
Regulation & Trustworthiness
If a broker or exchange is regulated by an official entity, it is usually seen as trustworthy. However, there are different regulations and some of them take a closer look at the brokers, banks and exchanges than others. The least trustworthy regulations are the ones like Seychelles (FSA) or similar island states. They are often easy on brokers and that is why many small brands often choose them, together with the taxation. Regulators in Asia, Africa and South America are usually laxer than their EU or US counterparts.
For Europe, the most common regulation is the CySEC regulation. Many brokers choose Cyprus as their home due to taxes and other reasons. The CySEC regulation is solid, but it often acts too slow on feedback, so bad actors often get caught too late. Stricter regulations would be the BaFin (Germany) or the FCA (UK).
Other noteworthy regulations are the ASIC (Australia) and the ADGM (Abu Dhabi), as well as the FSCA (South Africa).
Why is regulation important? A regulator takes a closer look at the broker itself, and thus there is a much bigger chance that he won’t just refuse to pay you money for any reason. A small broker, without any regulation, could simply refuse to pay you, and you would need to force him to pay. That could be quite an undertaking when he is located in an island state. For many affiliates, getting their revenue is essential to cover expenses. Sometimes offshore crypto brokers try to lure affiliates with really attractive offers, but we always advise against it as the risk of not getting paid someday in the future is just too big.
Ask yourself, what’s the use of high payout offers, if you can’t be sure that the broker won’t try to ditch you? After all, trust is the most important factor in any partnership, regardless if it’s personal or business.
Transparency & Tracking
Transparency is important, as you want as much information about the actual traffic that is converted. Which traffic sources worked best? Where are your referrals from? How much did they deposit, and what is their trading volume? What do they actually buy and sell and which landing page converted best? Those questions will help you narrow down your best funnel and helps you to pinpoint possible bottlenecks. Increasing your conversion rate is only possible if your partner is transparent.
Solid tracking is the backbone of every affiliate program. Some partners use their own affiliate software, while others rely on third-party providers. In our experience, popular third-party software like CellXpert is highly recommended.
Track record
Another point that you should consider is the track record of your crypto partners. Did they receive any warnings or even penalties from regulatory bodies? How long are they operating? Did they always pay out on time, or did they even miss payments completely? Did they get hacked in the past? Established brands that are in the business for many years should be preferred against new brands if you are unsure about the ownership.
Payments
Payout schedule
We mentioned it earlier, but the payout schedule is crucial. Especially if you are using paid traffic. Most partners offer monthly payouts, but some offer a higher frequency. Sometimes you can even request daily withdrawals, but that should only be considered if you are rocking solid traffic. Negotiations are sometimes possible, but some brands simply refuse any commitments on this part. Others even offer prepayments if you are constant.
Payout methods
If you want a certain type of payout like PayPal, Crypto or your local currency, you will need to select your partners carefully. Most brokers only have a limited amount of withdrawal methods. If you are looking for something specific. Get in touch with us, and we will point you in the right direction.
Your referrals
If you are referring traffic, you always have to keep your referrals in mind as well as they are normal people. They have wishes and needs and ideally find your referred crypto partner as useful to them. Additionally, many people already have a little bit of knowledge when it comes down to cryptocurrencies and sometimes knows what they should watch out for like tight spreads or low commissions. So if you referred them to a high-fee brokerage, they would probably bounce, and you wouldn’t get any revenue at all.
Trading conditions
The trading conditions are quite general here. It should be seen as overall, ‘how good is this broker, bank or exchange in comparison to its competitors really?’. Are the fees low and the service convenient? Are there any special features that others don’t have? Is it a global brand with a long track record, or a newcomer on an island state? If you personally think your partner is a good choice for your traffic, it will be much easier to “sell it” as well. There are multiple reasons why you shouldn’t only look at the actual partner program commissions, but rather at the possible conversion rate. Sometimes a lower offer would earn you more money than a higher offer, simply because the lower offer converts much better. After all, it’s also about earnings per click (EPC) and not only about the highest CPA.
Conversion rates
Conversion rates are the most important factor in affiliate marketing. Sadly, you will leave money on the table if you try to figure it out yourself. Testing each landing page, and each partner for each of your traffic sources is not only dazzle but also costly as you might miss out on a lot of revenue. If you are interested in the best practices on how to improve your conversion rates and our experiences, send us a message, and we will take a look at your individual case.
Crypto exchange vs crypto broker/bank
What is the difference between the two?
Crypto exchanges and crypto brokers are both platforms that allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. However, there are some key differences between the two. For one, crypto exchanges are typically more decentralized than crypto brokers. This means that they are not subject to the same regulations as traditional financial institutions, and users have more control over their own assets. Additionally, crypto exchanges usually offer a wider range of features and services than crypto brokers. For example, many exchanges allow users to trade directly with each other, whereas brokers typically only allow users to buy and sell through them. Finally, crypto exchanges typically have lower fees than crypto brokers.
What would we recommend to partner with?
The choice is yours. Usually, crypto exchanges are more reliable and trustworthy than any crypto broker. However, large crypto banks/brokers have a different business model and thus can pay higher commissions to their affiliates. With a reliable crypto broker, you could earn 5 to 10 times more money than with a similar crypto exchange. The downside is that you may lose clients that would have signed up with a crypto exchange but don’t trust any broker. Ultimately, it depends on your traffic and your offers. As we do not know both, we can’t offer you any solid advice.
What is the best crypto affiliate/partner program?
Award-winning brands
Some affiliates found their partner program by looking at how many awards their possible partner got. At pipmetrix, we always ignore awards as they are often not really reflective of reality. Some brokers pay to get awards, so they can actively promote them. As everyone could make an award, it is straightforward to gain awards.
Our recommendation
To be completely open and honest. We can’t give you an exact recommendation because every situation is different and therefore everyone needs a different affiliate program. What we do recommend is that you stick with the big & established brands if you are still unsure about choosing an affiliate program.
Conclusion
Choose your partner wisely and don’t just pick the first partner program or the one with the highest offers.