API or URL? Why does the myriad of webmasters choose to drive via API in the financial vertical?
There are two main ways of running traffic in when it comes to the financial vertical, and crypto specifically:
- Via a URL to the broker’s landing page;
- Via API.
Let’s discuss each one briefly and move on to comparing them.
How to drive to URL
When driving to a direct link, the webmaster’s funnel looks as follows:
- An ad creative in the traffic source.
- The webmaster’s preland.
- The broker’s landing page with the registration form.
The affiliate’s job is to attract as many users as possible to the advertiser’s landing page, so they leave a request.
How to drive via API
In this case the algorithm is pretty similar, but a bit more complex:
- Ad creative in the traffic source.
- The webmaster’s preland.
- The webmaster’s landing page.
Yes, the difference is in the fact that the landing page is owned by the webmaster and he’s the one who creates it. The landing page is connected via API to the distribution lead-system of the affiliate programme. In turn, the system rotates the advertisers and distributes the leads from the landing page among them.
After filling in the registration form, the user data is sent to the broker via the API auto login link. Then an account is created automatically. Afterwards, the user gets redirected several times and ends up in his personal account, which is on the advertiser’s side.
Why do more and more webmasters drive via API?
The API option appears to be massive and complicated. The affiliate also has additional tasks:
- Create a landing;
- Integrate with the broker;
- Monitor the landing page, domain and other tech, so that everything operates smoothly.
However, mostly cheap sources of traffic are used to drive via direct links (push notifications, wap-click, pop-under, click-under), and small scale, too. Even in such scenarios an increasing number of people are shifting to API. Why do webmasters even bother?
There are a couple of reasons:
- Controlling the bundle.
When an affiliate himself controls the webpage where the registration form is filled in, he automatically gets more control over his funnel. He gets the option of experimenting with the layout of the landing page, introducing more variation into the split-tests, connecting the creative, preland and landing page into a single flow. He can also play around with integrating the registration form into the preland. This type of format adds more tools to improve the click2reg metrics and positively affects ROI.
- Domain lifetime.
If hundreds or even thousands of webmasters are driving tonnes of traffic that is directed to one landing page, there is an extremely high risk of a mass reports about the domain. And, in general, the webmasters are always risking the broker’s landing page going down, thus wasting hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. When driving to one’s own landing page, there will be less domain reports, and it will also be easier to monitor its correct operation.
This might well be the main advantage of working via API. When users fill out the registration form on the webmaster’s side, the webmaster can easily collect a huge amount of data. Contact info of people who are potentially interested in the product provides a whole load of opportunities for additional monetization.
Some make use of newsletters via emails, some send out SMSs, while others simply sell their database on forums. Even considering a database created from push-ads of an average quality, traffic source can bring a curious income. Let’s count.
A medium solo-affiliate gets around 100 daily leads for European GEOs. That’s around 3000 potential clients a month. From this number it is possible to get an additional 1-3 deposits via newsletters, i.e. $2 000 profit. You could say this comes as a bonus, since the advertiser pays for the traffic separately. $2 000 is quite the amount for an average affiliate.
Conclusion
It’s hard to come up with a scenario where driving via a link is more profitable than via API. Unless, of course, laziness overcomes the will to substantially increase income. Working via API is a bit more complex, but it enables more control over the bundle, improved stability and additional ways of traffic monetization.