The affiliate marketing landscape is evolving faster than ever, and 2025 proved just how unpredictable it can be. Between constant policy changes and shifting industry standards, many advertisers found it challenging to protect their revenue and plan for growth.
To shed light on what’s coming in 2026, we sat down with Kate and Mary, account managers at RollerAds. In this interview, they share insights on industry trends, the rules shaping the market, and strategies to maximize revenue.
For those who prefer video, dive right in. If you’re more of a reader, the full interview is available in text format below. Enjoy!
Interview: Key trends shaping affiliate marketing in 2026
Q: Hi, thanks for coming, it’s a pleasure as always. Let’s get started with push notifications: how are they performing today, and can they still deliver the same level of revenue as before?
Mary: That’s a good question, and honestly, we’re being asked about Push quite often. Well, you all know what happened in 2024/2025—harsh policy updates led to bans, flags, and massive unsubscribe waves for thousands of domains. Many businesses lost profits, and some just disappeared from the market altogether.
We also felt the impact, but we found a solution. And now we can firmly say that, when combined with the right strategy, Push is not only alive but can bring the same result as before.
Kate: That’s for sure. Our solution was Landing Page Service. It minimizes risks from policy changes while protecting your rates and subscriber base. With this service, you can stop stressing over updates and bans and continue earning as usual. Best of all, we handle all the technical work, so you can focus on growing your business.
Q: Can you share any numbers showing the potential earnings with Landing Page Service?
Mary: It really depends on the amount of traffic—but basically, earnings stay close to what you are accustomed to. In the nearly six months since this service launched, we’ve had only a few cases of policy impact, and overall our clients’ earnings have remained stable.
Q: Sounds great! So Push is still doing really well—but what about other formats? Which ones do you expect will see growth in 2026?
Kate: On our platform, it’s definitely Direct Click. We launched it at the beginning of 2025, and by the end of the year, based on volume, it became the second-largest format on our platform right after Push, of course.
At RollerAds, it’s not only traffic from clicks on high-engagement buttons like “Download” on movie websites, but it also leverages parked domains and survey exit traffic.
Right now, hundreds of Direct Click campaigns are launched daily on our platform, generating a total of over 8 million impressions every day.
Q: Impressive! In which verticals does Direct Click work best?
Kate: It works across the board, but especially well in Mobile Subscriptions, Sweepstakes, Finance, Extensions, eCommerce, Entertainment, as well as VPNs and Software & Utilities.
Q: Sounds like Direct Click has a lot to offer. Now, looking at traffic overall, what’s really heating up right now?
Mary: If we’re talking about niches, it’s survey traffic—it consists of a warm, motivated, ready-to-act audience. Just imagine: these are users who’ve finished a survey and are waiting to be redirected somewhere else. This traffic performs especially well in Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia.
Kate: Yes, and speaking of GEOs, Chinese traffic is all the rage right now. As you know, China is all about multifunctional mobile apps, so it’s truly a mobile-first market. That means you need to use high-intent ad formats tailored for mobile devices—like, as you’ve probably guessed, Direct Click.
When combined with Chinese traffic, it brings almost 2 million daily impressions, with cost per click starting from half a cent.
Q: In terms of the Chinese market, what are the advantages of working with a global ad network compared to a local one?
Kate: Foreign advertisers and companies do work with Chinese ad networks, but the process can be complicated. You have to deal with a lot of local laws, regulations, and compliance requirements, which is tough to handle on your own. That’s where a global ad network like ours can help—we already have access to multiple markets and we handle all those legal issues for you.
Q: That makes sense. So if we zoom out a bit, what other long-term trends are driving the market and helping advertisers earn more?
Mary: First, it’s mobile-first traffic that continues to dominate, so advertisers who optimize for mobile see better engagement and higher conversions. Second, more precise targeting like targeting by site category is becoming increasingly important—knowing where your audience is and what they want allows advertisers to spend smarter and earn more.
Kate: Speaking of targeting, social browser targeting keeps growing. With this option, your OnClick and Direct Click campaigns can appear directly inside the built-in browsers of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, and many others.
Mary: Exactly. Social networks aren’t just for reaching cold leads—you’re connecting with an audience that’s actively browsing, clicking, and engaging in real time.
Another thing I want our users to pay attention to is the opportunity to monetize your ongoing campaigns even more using a push subscription tag and a back button script.
Q: Can you expand on that?
Mary: Sure. In any campaign where you have a pre-lander, you can boost profitability by adding a few special lines of code.
The push subscription tag generates extra revenue by showing ads directly to your subscribers, while the back button script catches users who try to leave your pre-lander and redirects them to another page—this gives you a better chance to monetize that traffic.
Q: Can you give any examples of how much extra profit these tools can bring?
Mary: Sure! We recently ran a split test with two similar campaigns—but one included push subscriptions and the back button. By the end of the test, these tools boosted that campaign’s profit by 48%.
Of course, results aren’t always that exciting, but our users who take advantage of these tools typically see at least a 10% increase on top of their campaign profit.
Think of it as a cashback on your spend—something you can get with every campaign you launch that uses a pre-lander.
Kate: Yes, it’s a great way to boost your profits with almost no extra effort. You’ll need a publisher account, of course, but adding the codes is really simple. And if you run into any issues while setting things up, just reach out to your manager or our support team—we’ll be happy to help.
Q: And with that, I think we’ve covered the main trends shaping the market in 2026.
Mary: I think so.
Q: Thank you so much for sharing your insights and practical tips. I’m sure our users will find this helpful for planning their campaigns.
Mary: Thanks!
Kate: See you next time!
Instead of conclusion
We want 2026 to be your most profitable year yet—and we’re right here to help make it happen! If you have any questions or want us to create a detailed video or article on an affiliate marketing topic you’re curious about, just reach out to our support team.
Here’s to a profitable year ahead!