The beginning of Q4, including Halloween, is already behind us. Affiliate marketers, traffic sources, and networks alike are all warmed up for the even bigger occasions to come. And let’s face it, November ends with the BIGGEST event of all – Black Friday. 

Performance marketers are either already done preparing their strategies, or they’re making some last-minute changes. In case you haven’t constructed a detailed plan yet, we’ll have you know that pop traffic and the e-commerce vertical have always been a good match. 

Pops are easy, cheap, and perfect for the Q4 e-commerce mania. They work great for both beginners and experienced affiliates. They follow a simple formula that has the potential to bring sizable profits. 

All you need is some tips and ideas, and you’ll be ready to run those e-commerce pop campaigns and earn big!

Before you get down to preparing your campaigns, it’s worth taking notice of a couple of seasonal trends and the current situation of the e-commerce market.

Pop ads are for everyone

Pop ups, pops, or pop unders? That is the question… however you know them best, pop ads are the most popular ad formats. Pops are also the most recommended to start with and the most common in all kinds of beginner courses. There are plenty of reasons for that, too:

• Pop-ups are one of the oldest ad formats;
• And yet, they are still here, as strong as ever;
• They’re cheap, cheaper than any other available format;
• They require minimum unavoidable effort;
• But have great potential for scaling;
• And they yield amazing results during the holiday season.

Overall, there is no reason for you to think that pop ads aren’t the right choice for Q4. They are really the right choice for any season, but we have a battle to prepare for, so let’s shift our focus back to the upcoming holidays.

People are starting their holiday shopping earlier this year

Forbes suggests that to avoid delays and inventory shortages shoppers should start their holiday season shopping earlier this year. We’ve got the pandemic, the struggling economy, and the boredom of having to stay at home. And because of that people will start their holiday shopping early instead of doing exciting activities with friends and family. 

Whether you’re going for search, pop, or any other ad format, it’s important to remember that the earlier you start the longer you’ll be able to profit from your campaigns. If you feel like you don’t want to get ahead of yourself while it’s still a long time before the holidays, your worries are unnecessary.

While physical stores are starting to promote their holiday deals in October to avoid big in-store crowds, later on, online e-commerce businesses have a similar reason for an early start. Instead of crowds, though, they are simply worried about shipping delays caused by massive surges of orders. 

That’s why the shopping season starts earlier this year. It’s safe to say that it has already begun with Amazon Prime Day on October, 13th. And while the culmination is still ahead, the deals are already on.

Pop ads are best for e-commerce shopping sprees

If you look at the inventories of big stores online, you might notice that the holiday items have already been brought in. And if the ecommerce sites are getting festive earlier, then customers surrounded by the holiday spirit are bound to get in one as well.

Pop ads are actually the perfect medium for spreading the news about ongoing deals and promotions before the holiday season. As the internet users have already started researching their gifts ideas and Black Friday bargain-hunting targets, pop ups appear bearing discounts, coupons, and free shipping codes. 

As you should already know, pop-ups are triggered by the browser extensions people often have installed on their computers. If you choose and optimize your targeting well, your ads will be popping up to customers looking for products to buy. And holiday shopping is usually the biggest shopping of the year.

Additionally, while spontaneous shopping is often done on mobile devices, research and planned shopping sprees are not. Pop ups, on both mobile and desktop devices, catch users mid-action. But instead of visiting yet another page of a store’s inventory, their attention will be brought to an ad promising special holiday deals.  You want to encourage visitors at every stage of the customer journey. But don’t forget to stand out, you don’t want to have exact the same popup as your competitors. 

And if the shopping spree is already planned to be big, why not add another gadget?

Landing pages are the most important part of your e-commerce campaigns

Even though there are no creatives in pop up ads, there are still things you can do to increase the probability of scoring conversions. Besides the crucial factor of testing multiple offers (or affiliate programs), optimizing, and choosing adequate targeting options, there’s a creative aspect that can make or break your campaign. And if you need a little help investigating how to find profitable offers then reading this article should help!

As always, we recommend split testing almost everything. Still, landers, in most cases, can significantly increase your conversion rate. They’re especially important in the shopping vertical as they help to warm up the user before the purchase. People tend to be more likely to buy the product once they know more about it.

There are 5 key components to a successful e-commerce pop-up lander. Here’s what you gotta do to increase that conversion rate: 

Create a sense of urgency

If you have an ecommerce store you need to create a sense of urgency to get people to buy your products, with a time-limited sale. So, as an affiliate marketer, you need to take up the same approach. If you give a consumer all the time in the world to think about your product, they will most likely get distracted and find something else to spend money on. That’s why you need to be smart with each ecommerce pop up campaign you create. We all want to make good decisions when it comes to online purchases but as an affiliate, you really need to put effort into convincing users to convert. 

One of the most effective ways of raising that conversion rate is putting pressure. Faced with a deal that is about to expire, the potential customer will think quickly about whether they find the deal appealing enough to go for it. Usually, the fear of missing out on a great deal will kick in and push the user to convert. 

Timers, all kinds of time frames, and limitations are good motivators for anyone who considers buying your product.

Present your product

That’s exactly what landing pages are for. You need to introduce the product to your potential buyers. It’s usually the graphic aspect of landers that first catches the eye, but it’s the description that converts the user. 

While creating landing pages to sell your products you should ask yourself these questions:

• Who is the target audience of your offer?
• What are the benefits of your product?
• What is the offered long-term value?

The description doesn’t have to be very long. It can be brief but straight to the point. It needs to contain enough information to make the consumer feel like they know what they’re buying and they know that they need it. 

Add community approval

Peer recommendations have some serious power. If you want your offer to appear credible and attractive, you should consider sneaking in some opinions. Facebook comments or not, any sort of community approval is bound to increase the authenticity of your offer.

This way you can stand out and not be the same popup every internet user sees 100 times.

As much as a fifth of internet users say that positive comments on social media would increase the likelihood of them purchasing a product. While affiliate marketing advertising via ad exchange platforms is not the same as via social media, the influence of comments and reviews stays the same.

In short – want to make your product more attractive? Add the seal of community approval.

Make sure the copy is high quality

Description and recommendations aren’t everything. No matter how hard you work on that lander, if your copy lacks in language, it’s not going to convert that well. 

Although Google translate might be a good option while you’re testing multiple landers at the beginning, the potential of the winner will be significantly higher once you touch upon the quality. Translation or not, the naturalness of language and lack of typos adds professionalism to your pages.

Additionally, the quality of images you use shouldn’t be lacking either. Remember that your landing page needs to look trustworthy and professional. No one will want to buy from a suspicious-looking store. 

You can find more information on creative resources here.

Optimize the loading speed

Lastly, landing page optimization is the key. Nobody wants to wait a minute for a web page to load. People aren’t periodically increasing their internet speed for no reason. They want internet web pages to load faster. And they want a smooth and pleasant experience. 

Of course, in order to optimize your lander, you need to either be knowledgeable about coding enough to take on the challenge yourself, or you need a solid lander builder. Lander builders are tools that become more and more necessary once you dive deeper into performance marketing. We’ve shared our recommendations in this article. 

GEO targeting is the key! – Hot GEOs and sources below

Although the shopping season is a global event, some regions celebrate it more than others. Each of the big events in November and December has a different character in different countries and it’s worth remembering cultural differences when choosing a GEO for your e-commerce offers. 

Here is a list of GEOs that have already noted an increase in performance and are bound to remain hot during the whole Q4:

And here’s something extra for those top-performing countries:

Remember that even though these countries are winners, it doesn’t mean that choosing a different targeting option won’t bring you profits. If you don’t know where to run your popup campaigns then these are our data-based recommendations. But if you do have your favorites, or have a proven offer restricted to a different GEO then go ahead! 

As long as you’re running pop ads with the e-commerce niche, you have a solid setup to make good money. 

E-commerce isn’t everything

Yes, e-commerce is all the rage but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing else to run during Q4. And in fact, ecommerce popups aren’t the only way to make money in the holiday season. Actually, sweepstakes are working so well, it’d be a crime not to give them a try too. The shopping season, after all, is all about gifts.

While planning their holiday budgets in these economically uncertain times, people will have to make some cuts and hard decisions. You need something to stand out from the other irrelevant pop ups out there. That’s why, especially now, sweepstakes, vouchers, and any kind of offer that promises them a chance to win something, will be an eye-catching opportunity. As a beginner at affiliate marketing, you can certainly stick to the easily converting sweepstakes. As long as your marketing popup strategy is holiday-themed and fits into the shopping spirit, you have good chances of making a killing. And the best part is that you don’t even need an online store.

If you, an affiliate marketer, want to benefit from quarter 4 to the fullest extent, you need to give your campaigns more variety. E-commerce, sweepstakes, vouchers, and the addition of dating and gambling will create a thorough array of campaigns that will reach thousands of consumers online. 

Focus on one or many verticals, but remember, don’t let these opportunities pass you by. 

Do you need to know about pop traffic?
Read the ultimate guide to pop advertising!

Where to look for offers? – Zeropark’s Offer Wall

A good offer is the foundation of a good popup campaign. So, if you want to boost your chances of scoring conversions, you need to look for proven offers from reputable sources. 

In order to make this easier for you, Zeropark gathered the best offers and put them, for your convenience, in a tab in the user dashboard. Additionally, we’ve prepared a special section with Zeropark Deals and bonuses for both new and current customers of the included affiliate networks… as well as various trackers, spy tools, landing page builders, and more! All these offers with extra benefits are right at your fingertips as soon as you become a Zeropark client with an active account. 

And what’s a better way to look for offers, if not through a bonus-loaded traffic source recommendation panel?

Conclusions

What you should know about pops and e-commerce during Q4 is that although this year is a bit different, these aren’t necessarily bad differences. 

• Pop ads are historically proven to work well all year round but especially during the holiday season online sales.
• The shopping season will start earlier which means there will be more time for you to profit from your holiday campaigns;
• The pop-up ad format is perfect for advertising promotions and deals to people who are researching their holiday shopping;
• The landing pages are necessary to present your product to consumers and convince them of its long-term value.
• Adding more verticals to your affiliate marketing business plans for Q4 2021 can yield additional profits. 
• It’s best to look for offers (with bonuses!) among affiliate networks and programs recommended by Zeropark on our Offer Wall.

The best time to start your e-commerce popup campaigns is now. Don’t wait, read up on the free tips, choose a GEO, test some offers, make good landers, and reap the benefits (cash benefits, to be exact)!

Ready to run pop e-commerce campaigns?
Get started with Zeropark now!

Magdalena Bober