Unlock the Secret to mVAS Offers and Rock Your Campaigns Now!

The mobile value-added services (mVAS) industry is on fire, with projections raising to an incredible $3,156.2 billion by 2032. Ready to grab your slice? This guide will get you prepared! Dive into the world of mobile content offers, combined specifically for affiliate marketers. From offer types and traffic sources to creative strategies and conversion flows, we’re breaking it all down step by step. Let’s get started and turn those clicks into revenue!

About Mobile Content Offers (mVAS)​

Mobile Value-Added Services (mVAS) are paid services accessed through mobile devices, offering more than just calls and SMS. These services are typically billed directly through mobile carriers, removing the need for payment methods like CC or PayPal.

mVAS refers to mobile subscriptions where users opt-in to access content or services they find entertaining, useful, or convenient.​

Click to expand...

Types of mVAS offers:

• Video and music streaming services
• Games
• Education
• iGaming
• Dating
• Entertainment
• and other content which requires users to subscribe or opt-in.

How to profit on the mVAS Vertical​

To start profiting from the mVAS service niche, log into your Adsterra account and head to the Offers Wishlist page. Filter offers by: Subscribe, PIN Submit, or Carrier Billing to find offers that are generating impressive ROI right now.

Then find these offers in your affiliate network or program and start buying traffic through Adsterra. Alternatively, you can select similar offers with matching conversion flows to maximize your campaign’s results.

Cheat Sheet for a Winning mVAS Campaign Set Up​

Success with mobile subscriptions depends on creating your strategy to fit your traffic source and ad platform. When working with Adsterra, this guide will help you create a high-converting mVAS campaigns to drive results. Use it as your go-to resource for optimizing every step of the campaign set up process!

What Is an mVAS Offer?​

An mVAS offer shows specific requirements set by a brand, detailing the target audience (such as location, device type etc) and the payout for achieving a desired action, like an opt-in or subscription.

Affiliates promote these paid mobile services, sending users to subscribe via carrier billing or direct payment. Once a user completes the required action, affiliates earn a commission.

There are different terms that are related to mVAS on the market:

• PIN submit
• mobile content service
• carrier billing
• mobile subscriptions
• mobile billing
• direct operator billing

How Does This Type of Offer Works​

When a user clicks on an ad, they’re sent to a landing page where they can choose to subscribe to a service. If they opt in, the payment is made through their mobile carrier, typically on a recurring basis. Therefore affiliates earn commissions for each successful subscription.

But what's counted as a "successful" subscription? It all depends on the conversion flow set by the offer owner, which outlines the specific actions required for the affiliate to receive a payout.

Different Conversion flows in mVAS Content​

A conversion flow is a way for users to count as subscribers to mobile content. Let us show you some of the most common flows:

1. One-click flow:​

Users can subscribe with just one click. Basically, the easiest conversion flow possible: a user only needs to click the CTA button or banner to opt-in.

2. Two-click flow:​

This flow requires users to confirm their subscription twice. After users click on an ad, a landing page with a confirmation request opens up. So, the user needs to op-in once again.

3. Click2SMS:​

It’s rather a complex flow as it involves user attention and several actions. There are two types of Click2SMS, MO (Mobile Originated) and MT (Mobile Terminated). MO means that an SMS is sent from a user’s mobile phone to a website, app, or any other platform (so the origin is a user’s mobile device). MT means that a user gets an SMS sent from a mobile carrier or provider (so, the flow is terminated on a user’s mobile device).

4. Pin Submit flow:​

PIN Submit offers are one of the most popular, though require several actions from users. With 3G/4G/LTE connection, the flow usually works like this: after clicking the CTA button, users get transferred to a landing page where they see their phone number pre-filled. They will then need to click again, to receive an SMS with a short digital code (PIN), which they will paste to a landing page and confirm the subscription.

5. USSD flow:​

Users interact with a USSD code on their phone to confirm the subscription. USSD may seem a bit outdated for marketing, but it’s still in use in a couple of countries to promote paid mobile content directly from operators.

The conversion happens this way:
1. A user sees an ad message and clicks it (normally, after choosing their mobile carrier). 2. They’re being led to a landing page where they need to enter a secret code to confirm the subscription.

Are mVAS offers worth testing?​

Mobile content consumption is on fire, which makes mVAS a great opportunity for affiliates. With phones generate countless impulse purchases, this trend is there to profit from it.

Here’s why you should try mVAS:

• The global m-commerce market is projected to reach $3.35 trillion by 2028 (Source: Statista).
• Mobile value-added services are forecasted to get $3,156.2 billion by 2032 (Source: IMARC Services) and $3,522.6 billion by 2034 (Source: Fact.MR).
• In the U.S. alone, the market is expected to overcome $1 billion by 2034.

Key Factors to Consider Before Running an mVAS Campaign​

Setting up a successful mVAS campaign requires wise planning. At Adsterra, we recommend analyzing these key aspects before buying traffic for your campaigns:

1. Subscription Price and Offer Value
   Assess whether your target audience is willing and able to pay for the service. For instance, promoting a high-cost subscription with recurring payments in Tier-3 countries may not generate good results.
2. Conversion Flow Type
   Check the conversion flow required for the offer. For example, USSD flows are rare in Europe but more common in regions like North Africa and certain Arab countries. Meanwhile, PIN submits through mobile devices are widely accepted across most of the regions.
3. GEO Restrictions
   Some offers are GEO-specific, meaning they only apply to particular regions. Make sure to verify which GEOs are allowed and choose your targeting accordingly to maximize campaign success without wasting your time and budget.

By carefully considering these factors above, you can create a high-performing mVAS campaign and maximize your ROI with it.

Pros and Cons of mVAS Offers​

Pros

1. High Payouts
   mVAS offers typically show higher payouts than classic web sweepstakes, especially in Tier 1 GEOs, making them a profitable choice for affiliates.
2. Variety of Content
   Affiliates can promote a wide range of content, including music and movie streaming, health, astrology, meditation, dating, and gaming. This flexibility isn’t often available in niche like Finance.
3. Quick Payments
   Offers with 1-click or 2-click conversion flows often have minimal hold periods, allowing faster payouts compared to traditional e-commerce deals.
4. Less Ad Restrictions
   Unlike some strictly regulated verticals (e.g., iGaming), the mVAS niche operates primarily under mobile provider regulations. This allows affiliates greater choice to experiment with marketing strategies and find the working one.
5. Large Audience Reach
   With mobile devices being really popular, motivated users can be found in almost every region. Mobile users like to subscribe to digital services for convenience while they are on the go.
6. Alternative Payment Methods
   mVAS services often rely on carrier billing or SMS payments, which are faster and more user-friendly than traditional credit card transactions.
7. Known Marketing Tactics
   Affiliates can perform similar strategies used in other verticals, like iGaming or E-commerce, when creating mVAS campaigns.

Cons

1. Compliance Rules
   In Tier 1 countries, strict user data privacy laws make simple 1-click conversion flows less effective to use. Affiliates must adapt to these regulatory challenges.
2. High Churn Rates
   Quick and impulse subscriptions are common, but users may also quickly unsubscribe, cancelling the conversion. This makes it critical for affiliates and advertisers to clearly showcase the value of the service to retain users.

mVAS traffic sources to consider:​

Popunder Traffic
Pop ads continue to be a popular ad format and a good traffic source for various offer types, including mobile content. They require no additional creatives, allowing you to direct all traffic straight to your advertising offer.

Social Bar (Push) traffic (Adsterra's In-house Ad Format)​

The most preferred ad format since it makes your message user-friendly by totally matching the mobile experience. To add more, it serves over 20 template creatives (cool, isn't it). You easily transform an ad message to a push notification, service widget, or chat head.

Banner traffic​

Banners are evergreen ad formats of website ads, and if you manage to provide a clear and catchy message, you’ll get a good CTR in the end.

Native traffic​

Native advertising is another great source of quality leads and conversions from mobile websites. Wisely blended into relevant content pages, they deliver high-intent leads that easily convert into subscribers.

Social traffic​

Facebook, TikTok, Instagram are the hottest traffic sources for driving engaged and loyal mobile audiences. One point that is making them less reliable is their policy regarding ad types. Many dating or iGaming ads will not be allowed there, as well as 1-click subscriptions.

Paid search ads​

Google Ads remain one of the main sources for whitehat mVAS offers promotion. However, the recent news exposes significant challenges for this sort of advertising. As it’s said in the MPC Insight report, the need to re-estimate mVAS marketing is higher than ever. Consumers get frustrated when they click a banner they believe is a part of an app content but get redirected to a side platform that can charge them by mistake.

What creatives to use for mVAS?​

1. Web Push and In-Page Push Ads​

When selecting a traffic source, consider using ad creatives that are sililar to push notifications. This format’s biggest advantage is its seamless integration with the device’s operating system design. Push ads appear natural and credible, blending perfectly into the mobile browsing experience, making them highly effective for engaging users.

2. OS-Matching Widgets​

OS-matching widgets prioritize functionality and relevance over heavy creativity. These ads are designed to align with the specific operating system of the user’s device. For example, if you’re promoting an antivirus mVAS offer on a publisher’s website, using an Android-native creative template will make the ad feel more familiar and trustworthy to Android users. This tailored approach enhances engagement.

3. Interstitial Ads​

Interstitials are bold, full-screen ads that capture attention instantly by covering an entire webpage. Unlike the subtlety of In-Page Push notifications, these ads are designed to be highly noticeable, making them excellent attention-grabbers for your campaigns.

All these ad formats, including Interstitials, are available on Adsterra. You can even combine multiple formats within a single marketing campaign. To do so, simply select the Social Bar option from the Ad Unit field when setting up your campaign.

---

---

Marketing Tips for Creating mVAS Ads​

Making an effective ad creatives for mVAS offers requires aligning your approach with the specifics of the offer. However, some tested strategies work across various verticals. Let’s show these evergreen marketing tricks:

Streaming service​

• Use the most popular streaming content to engage users.
• If you promote TV series or movies, include poster images with celebs.
• Mention discounts and bonuses if provided by a mobile operator.
• Include the number of music tracks or movies to impress users.
• Highlight exclusivity.
• Mention the offer expires soon.

Gaming​

• Include quality screenshots of the most trending mobile games.
• Promise unmatched experiences.
• Include discounts for subscription and highlight benefits.
• Make users feel they belong to a special tribe of chosen ones.
• If a subscription includes a newly released and expected game, this will be your main UVP (unique value proposition).

E-commerce​

Subscriptions to VIP sales and other paid exclusives demand a more sophisticated approach:

• Prove this offer it’s a great bargain (how much can a user save by paying this little price for subscription?).
• Highlight exclusivity of your offer.
• Use testimonials when possible.
• Use the fear of missing out (FOMO effect) and mention when the offer expires.
• Generate creatives for various categories of apparels.
• Add quality product shots, using the most trending (especially if they’re in holiday wishlists).

Social dating​

Social connections and Dating subscriptions are getting harder to remote as the market is oversaturated with apps and web platforms providing such services. So, your job is to prove your offer is worth recurring payments:

• Try to prompt the reaction with your message.
• Communicate, not inform.
• Make your message personal.
• Provide a photo.
• Use visuals that imitate personal messages.
• Inspire users with opportunities.
• Provide figures like the number of matches.
• Add storytelling.

GEO Targeting for mVAS Offers​

Effective GEO targeting for mVAS campaigns involves answering key questions to ensure success:

• Is the offer valuable to the audience in your chosen country?
• Is the subscription plan affordable for users in that region?
• Does your traffic source provide sufficient volume from this GEO?
• Can you maintain profitability based on the traffic costs?
• Are there no specific mVAS restrictions in the targeted region?
• Is the conversion flow commonly used in that GEO (e.g., USSD is widely used in Kenya)?

If you’re looking for a broader strategy, let’s explore the most promising countries for marketing mVAS offers.

• African countries. With the enormous rate of 3G penetration, these countries suggest to us both loyal users and technical equipment to run mobile campaigns: South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya are the leading ones.
• Latam countries (especially, Brazil) and Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt) present the most vigorous and engaged audience. The same is fair for some Asian markets (Indonesia, Singapore, India).

How to promote mVAS offers​

Advertising mVAS content offers with a high ROI requires a mix of: targeting, flow matching, ad format choice, bidding strategies. Here are the first steps to a successful mobile service promo:

1. Geo-Matching​

Start by checking that your traffic source delivers sufficient ad impressions for your target region. On Adsterra, you can easily assess traffic volumes by accessing the Traffic Chart. Next, identify the mobile carriers with the largest user base in the targeted GEO to improve the reach and effectiveness of your campaign.

2. Campaign Splitting​

When targeting both iOS and Android users, the best way is to create separate campaigns for each operating system. This approach allows you to analyze how users from each OS engage with the offer, enabling you to optimize your strategy.

Also, for GEO targeting, follow the principle of “One campaign, one country.” This method provides more accurate data, helping you optimize your budget and efforts in future campaigns.

3. Bidding Strategy​

For offers with a simple 1-click or 2-click conversion flow, consider starting with CPA pricing, which charges you only for actual conversions. For more complex flows, such as direct billing, it’s better to start with CPM or CPC pricing.

If you choose CPM/CPC, you can use smart bidding tools to optimize your targeting. Start with a optimal bid or slightly increase it — it's important not to overbid at the start to ensure you stay within budget while gathering performance data before increasing it.

4. Popunders: Great to Starting Your Campaigns​

When setting up a new test campaign, Pop ads are a great choice. They generate the highest volume of ad views and don’t require additional creative to be used. Keep in mind, that Pop traffic is not available with the CPC pricing model. If you need to scale up your traffic, try using Social Bar (In-Page Push) ads for a broader reach.

5. Connection Type Targeting​

For mobile traffic campaigns, target users on 3G or 3G+Wi-Fi connections. This setting lets you select the mobile carrier to target next. Why should you focus on mobile carriers? Many mVAS offers are exclusive to specific mobile networks, so targeting subscribers of the right carrier is essential for the best performance.

6. Budget limits​

Limit your daily ad budget to control spending and save money for the whole test campaign (so you don't overspend).

7. Campaign start time​

Choose the “Start after verification” option so the campaign launches right after our moderators approve it.

---

These are just a few tips to get you started. As mentioned earlier, we recommend checking the Offers Wishlist page on Adsterra, where you can find a curated list of the most profitable offers for affiliates. Use all available strategies and techniques to maximize your success. And remember, if you need expert guidance, our team is always ready to assist you via live chat!

Summary: Key Insights on mVAS Offer​

• You can get substantial traffic to mVAS offers, especially using Pop traffic for initial testing of your campaigns. However, don’t hesitate to explore other sources like social networks and paid search ads to scale your campaign.
• A well thought through strategy is essential to maximize revenue, including optimizing your approach to geo-targeting, conversion flows, bidding, and ad creatives.
• Ensure that your ad creatives and landing pages are mobile-friendly and clearly communicate the value of the offer to encourage user opt-ins.
• Start by targeting Tier-3 countries (e.g., Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tunisia, Egypt) and Tier-2 countries (e.g., Thailand, Indonesia) for the best results.

With these insights, you’re set to a successful and profitable mobile content offers campaign!

---

---