Fresh blog update: +127% traffic and $35,000 from monetization 💸🤑

Two new cases on the HilltopAds blog - one for those buying traffic, and one for those monetizing it. With numbers, settings, practical takeaways, and conclusions you can apply.

🇫🇷 For advertisers: FR website - +127% ROI in 6 days with Popunder mobile
👉 Read the case

📹 For publishers: $35,000 from monetizing Chinese movie websites
👉 Read the case

Read, save for later, and grab ideas for your next tests.

New video on YouTube 🚀

If your main traffic source stopped working tomorrow, would you still be able to scale?

In our new unique educational video, we break down where advertisers are growing in 2026 - and which channels are no longer offering the same growth potential as before.

What’s inside:
✅ short-form video formats
✅ content creators and micro-influencers
✅ messaging apps and communities
✅ retail media
✅ ad networks and traffic from the open web

Plus - a breakdown of why scaling is slowing down today: Meta in the EU, privacy changes, rising CPMs, and fast creative burnout.

▶️ Watch the new episode on YouTube

What kills gambling creatives in 2026? 🤑

Banality.

“500% bonus,” fake wins, gold coins, and “Last chance!” screams don’t work their magic anymore. But what really grabs attention and converts — that’s exactly what we break down in the new article on the HilltopAds blog.

Inside:
🍀 how to create casino ads that inspire trust;
🍀 why the way you present a bonus matters more than its size;
🍀 how to adapt creatives to different traffic formats;
🍀 how to scale without burning out your audience.

If you want your creative not just to run, but to deliver results, this article is a must-read.

❤️ Read the article on our blog.

Affiliate slang glossary: let’s speak the same language 👌

If words like whitelist/blacklist, postback, and angle still sound like spells from media buyers’ chats — here’s a quick breakdown:

🔴 Whitelist / Blacklist
Whitelist is a list of sources, placements, or parameters that perform well and are worth keeping in your campaign.

Blacklist is the opposite: sources or settings that don’t bring results and are better turned off.

🔴 Postback
This is the process of sending conversion data back to a tracker or affiliate network.
In simple terms, it helps you understand where a lead, click, or sale came from.

🔴 Angle
This is the way you present an offer.
In other words, it’s not just what you promote, but how you present it to your audience: through pain points, benefits, intrigue, urgency, or, for example, FOMO.

Save this post so you don’t get lost in affiliate terms — and can speak the industry’s language with more confidence 😎

What Not to Test Right Now? A HilltopAds checklist for anyone who wants to spend budget smarter 📎

Not every vertical, offer, or setup is worth testing just because it looks tempting. Sometimes, the smartest move is knowing what to skip.

Here is what we would treat with extra caution right now:

💬 Mass dating without clear segmentation.
Dating is already crowded, and with AI dating gaining momentum, classic mass-market offers are losing some of their appeal. This is especially true if you are still relying on outdated angles like quiz-style prelanders.

💬 Casino and other offers in GEOs you do not fully understand.
If you are not familiar with local licensing, payment methods, restrictions, or moderation rules, things can go sideways fast.

💬 High-payout offers just because the payout looks attractive.
A lot of beginners chase the number, but miss the bigger picture: these offers are often harder to convert. A higher payout does not automatically mean easier profit.

💬 Crypto without experience.
Too many restrictions, too much audience skepticism, and too many details that can go wrong. Not the best vertical to jump into blindly.

💬 Sweepstakes that look like an easy entry point.
On paper, they may seem simple. In reality, they often underperform, offer quality can be shaky, and audiences are much less responsive than they used to be.

💬 VPN and utility offers with aggressive prelanders.
Some people still try to run them, but these approaches have been losing ground for a while — and many no longer make it through moderation anyway.

💬 Nutra.
Right now, this vertical looks weaker overall and needs a much more careful testing approach.

💬 Extensions.
In most cases, moderation becomes the bottleneck. Rejections are simply too common to call this an easy lane.

💬 Smartlinks with offer rotation inside one campaign.
This setup gives you very little control and not enough clarity on performance, so it is not something we would bet on right now.

Growth is not only about what you launch. It is also about what you choose to leave out.

Save this post — and if you want a clearer view of what is actually worth testing now, talk to the HilltopAds managers. We will help you find stronger directions to work with 🏆

Good Postback vs bad Postback is the difference between optimizing a campaign and just burning budget 👀

Without conversion tracking, advertisers only see part of the picture.
Traffic is coming in, money is being spent, registrations are showing up — but where the real results are actually coming from is still unclear.

Here is a simple example:
🔵 one zone brings 10 registrations and 8 deposits for $100,
🔵 another brings 10 registrations and 0 deposits for $10.

Which one looks cheaper? The second one.
Which one is actually more profitable? The first one.

That is exactly why postback is not just a “nice-to-have” setup. It helps you:
🚀 cut underperforming zones based on real data, not gut feeling;
🚀 spot where the funnel starts to drop;
🚀 understand what actually needs fixing: the creative, the landing page, the offer, or the whole setup;
🚀 stop blaming traffic too early when the issue may be somewhere else.

And there is one more bonus: with a properly set up postback, you can enable automatic optimization, so the system can start filtering out weak zones and pushing stronger ones further.

Postback is not just some boring technical setup. It is what keeps you from running campaigns blind.

📔 If you want to go deeper, we also have full postback setup guides for the trackers integrated with HilltopAds.

Sign up for HilltopAds and message our managers — we’ll help you get your launch on the right track.

HilltopAds x LosPollos: the new rules of affiliate marketing 🔴

In our latest interview with LosPollos CEO Vladimir Rusiaiev, we talk about where the market is heading — from the role of SmartLink and AI to new traffic quality standards, measurement in the post-cookie era, and why strong partnerships matter more than ever.

This one is for anyone who wants a broader view of the market and a clearer sense of what will shape its future.

📔 Read the full interview on the HilltopAds blog.

💙 Support HilltopAds at MAC Awards 2026!

We’re nominated in the Best Ad Network category — and we’d truly appreciate your vote.

Voting is open until May 18 and takes place in the MAC mobile app.

Just download the app, open MAC Awards 2026, find the Best Ad Network nomination, and choose HilltopAds.

📲 Download the app:
App Store
Google Play

Your support means a lot to us. Thank you for voting for HilltopAds!

Running mobile app campaigns and don’t want to miss conversions? 🔥

Check out our new tutorial on setting up postbacks in Adjust.

In this video, Den shows you:

✔️ where to find the key settings in Adjust
✔️ how to connect the HilltopAds postback URL
✔️ how to generate the final tracking link
✔️ how to use it in your campaign

🔥 Watch the step-by-step guide here!