It’s common for experienced and beginner affiliates alike to work exclusively with Facebook Ads. There is no denying that Facebook was a great traffic source for a very long time. But, recent changes to the platform’s policy have transformed it into one of the most difficult sources for affiliates to monetize and scale.
Below, we’ll go over the reasons why Facebook Ads is becoming a difficult traffic source to work with and share 7 great alternatives you can use to generate traffic.
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Is Facebook Ads Still a Reliable Traffic Source?
Users share a huge amount of information with Facebook proactively, but the social media network is becoming an unstable traffic source for affiliates.
For starters, Facebook is banning advertisers at an alarming rate because of their industry, affiliations, and similar reasons.
The platform has also garnered a reputation for delivering poor services to its partners and taking a huge amount of time to answer simple requests. Lastly, Facebook Ads has added a huge number of rejection reasons, which limits the formats and overall freedom that advertisers enjoyed in the early days.
7 Powerful Alternatives to Facebook Ads
Let’s take a look at some of the top Facebook Ads alternatives advertisers can opt for.
1. TikTok
TikTok is one of the leading independent social networks and it has more than 1 billion monthly active subscribers. The platform is most popular with 18 to 34-year-olds and it’s ideal for B2C products and services in general.
Main thing about TikTok – you have a couple of seconds to grab viewer’s attention, because browsing habits of TikTok users are really fast. They have tons of entertaining content of all kinds at hand, so swiping your video is a matter of one move. Especially, when it comes to ads! Tip: make your ad funny, trendy, and catchy, so that you have a chance to grab users attention.
Pros
- More than 1 billion users
- Features a variety of ad formats
- It’s affiliate marketing friendly
Cons
- Relatively high CPC rates
2. YouTube
YouTube is the second-largest social media platform on the planet, although it doesn’t follow a conventional structure. The video-based platform is perfect for ads targeting 20 to 55-year-olds and it provides exceptional results when used for fitness, home and garden, and technology campaigns, among others.
In most affiliate marketing cases and as a good alternative to Facebook ads, YouTube is all about influencers and links. You can either try collaborating with video bloggers for a fee or create your own content. In both cases your affiliate marketing link could be located in the video description and/or mentioned in the content itself (even better).
Pros
- Huge audience
- Suitable for affiliate marketing offers
- Ads are extremely effective
Cons
- Involves a learning curve and only allows video ads
3. Snapchat
Another alternative to Facebook ads is Snapchat. This app revolutionized social media platforms when it introduced its short, temporary video clips or snaps. Since then, the platform has amassed more than 550 million active monthly users, most of them between the ages of 19 and 35 years old. The social network is ideal for new app installations and for leadgen in general.
Snapchat is especially good for eCommerce, Social, and Nutrition campaigns. You can start promoting trendy goods and exclusive offers almost instantly there, since Snapchat has special tools for that – Create and Advanced Create. Both can use the assets of your landing page to tailor creatives automatically, while Advanced has instruments for targeting, optimization regarding your objectives, and more.
Pros
- Huge collection of great ad formats
- It’s easy to use
- Allows for affiliate marketing
Cons
- Relatively young audience
4. LinkedIn
As you may suspect, LinkedIn is perfect for B2B offers because it’s used by more than 675 million professionals worldwide. The average LinkedIn user is between 25 and 59 years old, which means that these users have exceptionally high acquisition power.
LinkedIn is pretty specific, since it is a career and business oriented platform. Even though it allows all types of ads, make sure that your audience is there.
Pros
- A social network geared towards professionals
- Perfect for B2B products
- Allows video, images, and text ads
Cons
- Involves a steep learning curve in most cases
5. Quora
Quora is a great place to promote all niches and industries because the Q&A platform is used to answer all types of questions. The platform has about 300 million monthly active users of all ages and it’s known for being affiliate marketing-friendly.
The best verticals for Quora are Education, Health and Wellness, Home and Garden/DIY. Just remember that this platform is a community, so your task is to build trust and evoke interest in Quora’s users. If you won’t – chances are that your content will be buried under the lumps of other posts pretty soon.
Pros
- Allows for granular topic researching
- Text, image, and promoted answer ad formats
- It’s compatible with affiliate marketing
Cons
- Most users are US-based, which may not be ideal for most GEOs
6. Reddit
Similar to Quora, Reddit is a platform where users ask and answer questions in a forum format. This network has more than 430 million monthly active users and more than 100,000 communities that have specific interests in common.
Reddit is even more a community than Quora. So your task is to engage users with catchy content showing that you want to share at the first place. It’s especially cool if you can do a community research first and refer to people directly, which can help you grow the organic traffic. Best niches – Gaming, Technology, Travelling.
Pros
- Most tier-1 users (US, Europe, and Australia)
- Doesn’t always require a learning curve
- Compatible with virtually all verticals
Cons
- A limited number of ad formats
7. Pinterest
Pinterest is an awesome platform for promoting jewelry, accessories, handmade goods, and similar products. Moreover, Pinterest has more than 320 million monthly active users, most of which fall between the ages of 18 and 49 years old.
Visuals, visuals, visuals – this is the key to Pinterest, as you might have noticed. Your affiliate link can be easily located in the image description, but for users to see it, the image must be worth of opening! The most popular verticals for Pinterest are Travelling, Lifestyle, Health, Nutrition, Dating.
Pros
- A wide range of ad formats
- It has extremely effective ads
- Reaches a great audience (18 to 49-year-olds)
Cons
- Limited GEOs (mostly US users)
Find the Best Offers at Zeydoo
At Zeydoo, we help connect top advertisers with leading social media affiliates across a wide range of industries. To learn more about developing an impactful campaign on a Facebook alternative, get in touch with Zeydoo and our team will be glad to help.
Here, you can find the best offers for social media traffic:
