Every year, it's becoming tougher for affiliate marketers to work with the usual traffic sources. The costs of advertising are increasing, and platforms are cracking down on certain types of ads. This means that the return on investment is getting lower due to the intense moderation and competition from other advertisers.
That's why it's important for affiliate marketers to keep an eye out for new potential traffic sources, especially ones that are gaining popularity. Today, we'll talk about a great alternative to TikTok called Kwai.
Introduction
Kwai (or Kuaishou in Chinese) is a social network from China that focuses on short videos, just like TikTok. Although Kwai is still working on expanding globally, it's already in a strong second place in its category. It mainly targets specific markets that have shown significant growth year after year.
What sets Kwai apart is its impressive range of content creation features. Users can make use of a built-in video editor, filters, effects, and fun emojis. They can also follow content creators, rate and comment on videos, and participate in challenges and competitions. Essentially, Kwai is a full-fledged TikTok alternative with its own unique qualities.
Kwai is a relatively untapped source of traffic that provides many opportunities across different areas of interest. The platform has a more relaxed approach to content moderation, which means it's more open to accepting bold and creative ads. Moreover, with a whopping 400 million users spending an average of two hours per day on Kwai, there's a massive audience available for affiliate marketers to reach.
Visual Kwai statistics
According to SimilarWeb, kwai.com attracts around 89.3 million visitors each month.
However, the mobile app is even more popular and has a much larger user base.
The growth of daily users on Kwai has been impressive, going from 100 million in 2018 to 200 million in 2019, 300 million in 2020, and a staggering 382.5 million in 2023.
According to data from Dommaters, most of Kwai's users are young people, with over 70% falling between the ages of 18 and 30. This demographic consists of tech-savvy individuals who are likely to have purchasing power and are prone to shopping online. This all makes Kwai an appealing traffic source for affiliate marketers.
Next, let's talk about the preferences of this audience in advertising.
The Kwai audience, which consists mostly of short video enthusiasts, has specific preferences when it comes to advertising. About 23.89% of users engage with adult-oriented advertisements, showing an interest in adult content mainly from OnlyFans.
Additionally, as can be seen from the statistics, 17.73% of users click on gaming-related offers, which may include a large amount of gambling-related traffic.
What formats are best to use for advertising?
When it comes to advertising on Kwai, there are a few formats that work well. First, let's talk about making money through organic traffic. You can create content and attract free traffic to your content, similar to how you would on TikTok. There are resources available online that provide guides on making money from organic traffic on TikTok, which can be applied to Kwai as well.
In addition to organic traffic, you can also run advertisements through a Kwai Ads account. Let's dive into the process of working with this advertising platform in more detail.
There are very few Kwai Ads accounts available for sale online, so it's better to create an advertising account yourself. The process is straightforward. You can go to the official Kwai Ads website and fill out the form at the end of the page. Once you submit the form, a representative from the service will contact you and ask a few questions.
The Kwai Ads advertising account is similar to TikTok's, so if you're familiar with TikTok advertising, it won't be difficult to figure out.
After your advertising account registration is confirmed, you can log in, select Assets, and create your app. You'll need to link the application where you want to send traffic and set up tracking links. Once you've filled in the necessary information, click Next.
Next, you can create your advertising campaign. Here are the steps to follow:
- Go to the Campaigns section and click on Create a Campaign.
- Choose a goal from the three available options: Awareness (CPM model), Consideration (CPC), or Conversion (CPA). Select the goal based on the desired result you want to achieve.
- Choose where you want to direct your traffic: the application or a specific link.
- Select a price strategy. There are two options: Target Cost or Lowest Cost.
- Set a daily budget. Kwai Ads allows you to set your budget per day or per week, and there are no limits on spending.
- Give your campaign a name and move on to targeting settings.
- Configure the geographic location, age, gender, language, operating system version, device brand, and the schedule for displaying your ads.
- Set your campaign goal. Initially, with a new Kwai Ads account, only the Activation goal is available.
- Upload your creatives, write headlines, and select the advertising format.
- Complete the campaign settings, save them, and launch your campaign.
- Optimize your campaign as you go. Monitor the results regularly and make adjustments to bids, creatives, and other elements based on the performance indicators.
The main format for ad creatives on Kwai is video. Affiliate marketers who have experience with Kwai suggest using creatives similar to those used on TikTok in 2020. For gambling or nutra offers, you can choose more aggressive ads (such as slots or before/after visuals) since the advertising account on Kwai is quite lenient. Lifestyle content is typically not used for advertising.
It's best to keep the creatives shorter, as most content on the platform lasts around 15-20 seconds, similar to ad creatives.
If you're new to advertising on Kwai and need assistance, you should first of all get acquainted with setting up ad campaigns on advertising networks. A great platform to get started with is the MyBid advertising network. MyBid assigns every affiliate an affiliate manager who will assist the affiliate in learning how to practically set up campaigns on the ad network. With this knowledge, you can now go ahead and also launch ad campaigns on Kwai successfully.
Besides video ads, Kwai also allows for static ad creatives in the form of static images.
There are several placements available on Kwai, including:
- In-Feed Ads
- Rewarded Ads
- Eyemax. Eyemax is a short (around 5 seconds) video ad that grabs attention and has a high click-through rate (CTR).
- Hashtag challenges and other formats can be added to EyeMax, however these are mainly used by larger brands.
Which GEOs are best to choose for affiliate marketing?
Let's talk about the geos that work well with Kwai Ads.
Right now, Kwai can target Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, UAE, and Egypt. These geos have millions of people visiting the site every day, which is great for showing ads and promoting offers.
In Brazil alone, there are at least 23 million active Kwai users, which is an 80% increase from last year. Kwai is also doing well in Indonesia, where it's growing by 50% each year, and in Spanish-speaking countries, where it's growing by 60% each year.
Other geos like Turkey, Vietnam, and Paraguay are also good options for this platform.
Looking ahead, Kwai expects more people to use the app in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East because they offer influencers the chance to make good money from their interesting content (earning $180k per year or more).
However, the app isn't as popular yet in some geos – there’s barely any traffic from Tier-1 countries on the app. However, that's where an advertising network like MyBid can help. MyBid provides traffic from Tier-1 countries like the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, and Australia, with low CPC rates.
Conclusion
In 2024, Kwai is at the peak of its popularity. It is filled with engaging content, similar to TikTok in 2020. Affiliate marketers have only recently started tapping into this traffic source towards the end of 2023, so the market is not yet saturated. According to reviews, the return on investment (ROI) when advertising gambling sites can sometimes reach 300%, and the overall quality of traffic is quite high.
In this case, you can promote almost any verticals such as nutra, gambling, dating, finance, sweepstakes, and more. Only the most extreme or inappropriate content will not be allowed.
Since competition is still relatively low and content moderation is still lenient, it is highly recommended for affiliates to test this source.
