Dating, nudity, or any kind of adult content is banned by YouTube policies, yet you still notice playful creatives in your YT feed from time to time. “Hit the link to meet”, “She’s waiting for you” and that kind of stuff.
What is the perfect flow, how does one pass moderation, and when does the monetization kick in. Let us dig deeper into some examples to discover the approaches that lie beneath such successful dating campaigns.
How is that possible?
To start with, you can’t do YouTube without a channel. We see affiliates mostly use new accounts, but some dating-flow channels we have seen were about 1-3 years old. This is better for more aggressive promotion. There are several ways one could go from here.
Short videos, mainstream content
You upload a hoard (literally several hundreds) of TikTok videos all with girls being playful and attractive. The videos all have the same title that does not mention dating or anything like that. It all looks like pure entertainment, thus there are no problems with moderation.
Such channels have a bigger lifespan than accounts with more revealing videos, so you don’t really need an old account to drive campaigns of this kind.
Another spin on the same idea is to upload dating-related TikToks and mention it in the headlines. The content is still not provocative, so it will work out fine.
Users will find the links in the pinned comments or in the video description. Mostly such URLs lead to a dating platform or dating apps by the same brands. Here are some examples from the two channels mentioned above.
Another promotional approach is to use the channel’s Community tab to post generic pictures of pretty girls with an active smartlink that redirects users to localized pre-landers.
The monetization point comes after the registration. The user needs to fill out the form to “find the perfect match” where he (the audience is mostly male), stating preferences, hopes, and desires. There is usually an email confirmation too, so we are dealing with DOI offers and probably a mailing database compilation.
Once the user is all set to find their one true love (or more than one) they face first obstacles. They see an avalanche of messages from “perfect matches” but they can’t answer unless they top up the balance or buy into the VIP or Premium plans that will enable them to like, share pictures, monitor the list of visitors, etc. So they can only really use the platform if they pay.
Judging by the bot population of such platforms, which is mostly “female”, we are looking at a solvent male audience of about 30–45 y.o. But it doesn’t look like the websites are there simply for scheming men out of their money, because we have seen actual female users on the platforms. Let’s sum it up:
Target audience: Male 30–45+
Approach: mainstream short videos
Cloaking: N/A as there is no adult content
Monetization: bot profiles encourage users to spend money on messages and gifts, the platform itself urges users to jump in on this adventure with timers and playful notifications (see below)
Cloaking adult videos
Another type of YT dating campaign includes additional software to edit or substitute the videos’ thumbnails so that the bot moderator would see no harm. There are no mentions of dating, adult, hot, etc. in the headers or in the descriptions either. One could promote such campaigns with erotic but not revealing dance videos that get compiled into a playlist. Also, we see the use of hashtags, keywords, and calls to action (dating, hot, girl, dancing, etc.). This is a riskier approach than the “TikTok YouTube” we have seen above, so these accounts have a significantly shorter lifespan. You can see an example of a dancing compilation below.
To conclude, we can say that it is quite possible to run dating campaigns with YouTube traffic even if you have no more than a couple of accounts. Simply choose the entertainment approach we have described and there will be no problems with moderation. Your account will live longer than channels with more provoking content, and you can always use a pre-lander to warm the audience up with hot pictures and ticking timers. Bear in mind that to maintain the audience reach you will need to upload new videos and post almost daily, so maybe use automation tools. As for payout models, you will be fine with a CPL with payment for registration and RevShare for offers with bigger user LTV.
If you want to reach new GEOs and audiences, maybe it is all waiting for you on Telegram? We’ve prepared some material about Telegram audiences. What are the messenger’s users like this year? How old they are, what they do, and what they are interested in!
