How to convert online offers in South East Asia

Have you ever wanted to know how to convert online offers in South East Asia? And how do you reach the South Asian market? Well to coincide with Team ExoClick’s visit to Affiliate World Asia in Bangkok 7-8 December, we thought we would look at our network business intelligence data for South East Asia, looking at the top 6 countries who have the fastest growing online markets worldwide. Those countries are:

• Thailand, with a population of 70 million, had online sales revenue of $10.5. billion in 2021 and year-over-year growth of 28%. Thailand is the 18th largest market for online sales with a predicted revenue of US$18,848.9 million by 2023, placing it ahead of Turkey. Thailand’s internet penetration is 77.8%.
• Indonesia, with a population of 278 million, is the region’s largest market for online purchasing.  Indonesia is the 11th largest market for online sales with a predicted revenue of US$44,814.3 million by 2023, placing it ahead of Brazil. Indonesia has a 73.7% internet penetration rate. 
• The Philippines, with a population of 112.7 million and is the 20th largest market for online sales with a predicted revenue of US$16,011.8 million by 2023, placing it ahead of Sweden. The Philippines has the lowest internet penetration at 68%.
• Vietnam has a population of 98.2 million and is the 25th largest market for online sales with a predicted revenue of US$11,950.5 million by 2023, placing it ahead of Austria. The country has 73.2% internet penetration.
• Malaysia’s population is 32.8 million. 2021 online sales were $6.3 billion, 15% higher than 2020. Malaysia is the 33rd largest market for online sales with a predicted revenue of US$8,567.7 million by 2023. The country has an 89.6% internet penetration rate.
• Singapore is the 43rd largest market for online sales with a predicted revenue of US$5,892.5 million by 2023, placing it ahead of Ireland. With a smaller population of 5.5 million, Singapore has a 96.6% internet penetration rate. 

These top 6 South Asian countries are exponentially growing markets for advertisers to target. But how do you reach the South Asian market? You have to remember all are Tier 2 countries except Vietnam which is Tier 3. So what offers are being targeted to this region and on what device. What ad formats are advertisers using for their campaigns and what CTRs are different verticals achieving? Let’s take a deep dive into the data.

Here are ExoClick’s Network statistics for South East Asia’s traffic sources impressions per device to help you understand how to convert online offers in South East Asia by knowing the most popular devices:

Impressions volume percentages

Device breakdown per country

Mobile is the most popular device for targeting and for many of the South East Asia population, it is their preferred device to connect to the internet. Singapore is the richest region and shows higher volumes on desktop than the other 5 countries. So with all 6 of these GEOs being the top countries for online sales in South East Asia, we have grouped them together to investigate the volumes of the top 5 offer verticals on ExoClick’s network: 

Offer vertical volumes targeting mobile and desktop

Now let’s check out those all important CTRs per vertical on which ad format and which device to help you get a better idea of how to convert online offers in South East Asia:

Dating in South East Asia

This is the biggest vertical for the South Asian market. Online dating offers are hugely popular with network volumes at 34.5% on mobile and 45.8% on desktop. Finding love is big business, and Statista states that in 2023 the South Asian online dating market will generate $56.94million, growing to $62.1million in 2027. In many Southeast Asian countries, dating is often viewed as a way to find a suitable partner for marriage rather than just for casual relationships. Therefore there may be more pressure to find a partner quickly, and dating may be viewed as a more serious endeavor. There may also be cultural and religious considerations when it comes to dating in Southeast Asia. For example, in Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, dating may be more conservative and follow certain guidelines to adhere to Islamic beliefs.

To help you see how to convert dating offers in South East Asia, let’s look in greater detail at the CTRs for the different ad formats for our 6 South East Asian countries.

Dating CTRs South East Asia

VoD in South East Asia

VoD offers are also big in South Asia, with 26.6% of volumes on mobile and 10.4% on desktop. Beyond worldwide industry leaders like Spotify and Netflix lies an abundance of national and regional streaming platforms. Due to Asia-Pacific’s cultural, linguistic, and economic diversity, the region poses a challenging market for international providers to break into. This makes for a highly competitive and dynamic streaming landscape with distinct pricing tiers, subscription models, and collaborations between foreign platforms and local companies. 

To help you know how to convert VoD offers in South East Asia let’s check out the ad format CTRs for the VoD vertical.

VoD CTRs South East Asia

Nutra in South East Asia

Nutra and health supplements is a growing market in South East Asia, especially for COD products. Singapore is showing an increasing demand for nutraceuticals due to a growing cosmopolitan culture. Malaysians too are facing changes in their urban lifestyles, which is helping to grow this vertical. Indonesians prefer supplements that are made with local ingredients, with fortified beverages being the most popular for this market. Thailand, that is traditionally Buddhist, is transforming due to the Westernization of Thai lifestyles with weight management supplement products being very popular.

To help you find out how to convert Nutra offers in South East Asia, here are the CTRs for this vertical on ExoClick’s network:

Nutra CTRs South East Asia

Games in South East Asia

According to MyLeet, the vast majority (82%) of Southeast Asia’s urban online population are gamers. So how do you reach the South Asian market when it comes to games? Well 53% play on consoles, mobile and PC gaming are more popular: 

• 80% play games on mobile with 77% of players female and 83% male
• 69% play games on PC, with 63% male and 50% female players

To help you find out how to convert online games offers in South East Asia, below you can see our network CTRs for South East Asia:

Online Games CTRs South East Asia

eCommerce in South East Asia

With close to 4 million new internet users coming online each month and a young population with consumer ambitions that local retail can’t satisfy, how do you reach the South Asian market? Because it’s a tempting prospect to target online shoppers by online retailers. Here’s some insights: This area consists of 11 countries, which includes our top 6 countries: The 5 dominant so-called ‘tiger cubs’ Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam which have vibrant economies, and the small but wealthy territory of Singapore. Therefore eCommerce is a growing vertical segment. One area that is showing great potential is live streaming for shopping. ExoClick enables advertisers to use live streaming ads for online shopping events, speak to your account manager or a Customer Success Manager here, for more details. To help you find out how to convert eCommerce offers in South East Asia, let’s look at the CTRs for South East Asia for eCommerce:

eCommerce CTRs South East Asia

Conclusion

Now we hope you have more insights into how do you reach the South Asian market. As you can see there are many great opportunities to convert your offers to the South Asian market. If you are attending Affiliate World Asia in Bangkok, why not pop by our booth to meet our expert team to find out the best South Asian traffic sources for your offers. Or you can pre book a meeting with one of our experts at the show here. We have experts in Members Area traffic, which is ideal for Dating offers, RTB and Programmatic experts and Advertising Account Managers who can help you match the right offer with the right traffic source!