YouTube Shorts as a Traffic Source: Top Verticals to Target

Blog » YouTube Shorts as a Traffic Source: Top Verticals to Target

Affiliate marketing isn’t just about Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. While those platforms offer massive traffic potential, the competition is off the charts. Chasing quick results, many media buyers stick to the usual routes, missing alternative channels. One such underrated option is 📹 YouTube Shorts.

Even though the format is growing fast and pulling in millions of views, it’s still 😐 underutilized in affiliate marketing due to the higher effort required to create videos. But that’s a mistake — Shorts can become a reliable, long-term traffic source, especially if you approach it smartly. Here’s what to pay attention to and which verticals are worth exploring.

What Are YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts are 📱 vertical short-form videos up to 60 seconds long, hosted right within YouTube. The content is fast-paced and consumed almost on autopilot: users watch, like or dislike, drop a comment — and move on. The algorithm promotes videos based on viewer retention, engagement, and overall interaction.

This is what the Shorts feed looks like — it works like an endless carousel and is fully driven by algorithms.

The higher the engagement, the better the chances your video gets pushed into the feed and starts gaining 📈 organic views. The algorithm can boost even a video from a brand-new channel if the behavioral metrics are strong. That’s the key feature of Shorts and a big advantage for affiliate marketing — it’s absolutely possible to go viral with your very first video, without subscribers or ad spend.

When it comes to Shorts as a traffic source, the numbers speak for themselves:

• Short videos generate around 70 billion views per day;
• It’s the most popular video format on YouTube, accounting for 60% of all videos (for comparison, long-form videos make up just 25%);
• Views grow by an average of 85% annually, and watch time increases by 65%;
• 72% of YouTube users watch Shorts daily;
• Shorts creators earned a total of $3.1 billion USD in 2024.

That said, it’s crucial to understand that direct advertising doesn’t work — audiences don’t respond well to hard-sell content. These kinds of videos get hit with dislikes and quickly lose reach. That’s why it’s essential to blend your offer in as natively as possible, wrapping it into useful, entertaining or provocative content.

What Offers to Promote via YouTube Shorts

Now that we’ve covered the basics — yes, there’s a lot of traffic on YouTube Shorts — let’s look at which verticals perform best, with examples.

Info Products 💻

YouTube is packed with 🤓 educational content. According to Similarweb, programming and software development alone account for 30.47% of the platform’s traffic.

Given the popularity and high demand for developers, driving traffic to courses and other educational offers is a solid strategy. Let’s take a look at how this works in practice.

Typically, the funnel looks like this: 

1. The Shorts video immediately delivers value to the viewer in the form of a quick tip, life hack, motivation or myth-busting related to the course topic. For example, something like “The best way to learn programming”. 

2. There’s no 📣 call to action in the video itself like “Full course — link in the description». Instead, the creator talks about his own learning approach and explains why other methods aren’t as effective.

3. There’s no call to action in the video description either — instead, it contains links to the main channel and external platforms like Twitch and Discord. And the link to the “favorite learning site” is natively placed somewhere between them.

This approach is quite effective because it doesn’t hard-sell anything upfront. It builds interest in the product and invites viewers to understand how to properly structure their learning.

Finance 💲

Finance is considered a gray hat vertical that attracts Google’s attention, as the company prohibits misleading ads on its platforms. But finance isn’t just about loans — it also includes investments and various trading platforms.

Вот пример рабочей воронки: 

1. ✅ A checklist on money management — for example, six key things you should do immediately after receiving money in your account. Again, there’s no call to action in the video itself — just pure value. 

2. The call to action appears in the video title — it’s a link to a more detailed guide on the same topic. 

3. The guide’s description contains lots of valuable content: a masterclass, a £100 promo code for topping up a trading account with just £1 on some platform and other products from the creator.

It is an effective approach as the viewer gets something valuable at once and, more importantly, without any pressure. It builds trust and motivates you to click the links for even more valuable content.

Utilities ⚙️

The utilities vertical covers everything that helps users solve everyday tasks: cleaning digital junk from their devices, saving battery life, speeding up performance, scanning files for viruses and more. Traffic can be driven here through both app reviews and short, value-packed videos.

Here is a funnel: 

1. A video presenting “the most useful app for Windows” with a description of its features. There are no calls to action in the video — just pure value. The referral link is placed in the description.

2. Links to other channels can also be found in the description section which is useful if you’re active on multiple platforms. 

This strategy helps build viewer trust and generate organic interest: value comes first and only after that a natural transition to the product — without pressure or pushiness.

Crypto 💰

Another gray hat vertical is crypto, which gains popularity on a daily basis. That’s exactly what draws in new users — people who’ve decided to figure out what it is and how it all functions.

Here is the funnel example: 

1. Posting a video titled “How to Get Started with Crypto” where the absolute basics are explained — like a simple checklist. This kind of content fits perfectly into the short video format.

2. As usual, shortened referral links to various crypto exchanges are placed in the video description. The creator earns a commission for every user who registers and makes a deposit.

This format is rather effective as it combines simple and useful content — the viewers get the basics, become engaged and decide to try trading themselves. Most likely, with your help as the affiliate who guides them to the right resources. It’s a short and highly effective funnel.

Dating 👩‍❤️‍👨

YouTube doesn’t allow explicit content in any form, so Shorts with even subtle hints of it get banned quickly. To pass moderation, you need to be very careful when promoting such offers. A safer approach is using a blog-style format that shares relationship advice, interesting facts, and evidence-based insights from psychology or real-life stories.

The funnel is as follows: 

1. You can give some piece of advice to your audience, for example, “how to escalate on a date” and ask viewers to subscribe at the end of the video.

2. Include links in the video description to useful dating courses across different platforms. These Shorts can be tailored for various audience segments — men and women of different age groups.

The key here is to keep the 🔝 focus on value and psychology — not on provocation or promises of sex. This way, your content stays within YouTube’s guidelines and your audience gets what they’re genuinely looking for.

Conclusion

YouTube Shorts is a format with massive reach and a real opportunity to drive traffic without a budget. Yes, you need to match it and understand how the algorithms work. But unlike social media feeds that rely on followers, here you can go viral from scratch. That’s what makes Shorts a powerful tool in affiliate marketing — especially if your goal is to build consistent, long-term traffic.