Hot Trending Verticals for Cold Winter 2025-2026
Even though crystal balls are cool and shiny, we prefer statistics and dashboards when making predictions. And this winter vertical forecast is built on first‑hand insights from our partners and real market experts: Nicolas Top, Senior Account Manager, Mobidea); Kamila Łuksza‑Szpyt, Managing Director, Voluum; Alex Sidorenko, Sales & Business Development, Voluum; and Ruslan, CEO of Afftrends.
What’s buzzing, how to launch fast and scale with no cold starts? In the article below, you’ll get a GEO‑by‑GEO plan (holiday timing, iGaming expansion paths, MVAS tactics, and more), so your stats will bloom in green numbers even though it’s winter outside.
Voluum: eCommerce, iGaming, Finance, and Region-First Planning
For Voluum, two verticals will dominate this winter: eCommerce and iGaming. As Kamila Łuksza‑Szpyt, Managing Director at Voluum puts it:
“Two verticals rule winter for us: eCommerce and iGaming. For eCommerce specifically, Q4 is critical – gifts, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and Christmas drive intent, but you must start early. If you don’t start early, it will be hard to make it work.”
According to Kamila’s insight, traffic mix is a thing: most clients combine search with various display sources to cover both intent and reach.
GEO playbook for eCommerce:
- North America (US and CA): users respond to “aggressive” discounts and limited‑time offers.
- Western Europe (UK, DE, FR, and neighbors): lean into premium and eco positioning.
- APAC (AU, CN, IN): online shopping is rising fast – time campaigns around Singles’ Day (CN) and Diwali (IN) have serious potential.
Then, an unexpected turn from Kamila: when calendars flip to January, Finance interest climbs – especially, investments, crypto, and loans. In Kamila’s words, “people’s appetite for making more money rises… along with the finance vertical.”
How to prepare:
- Build a Q4 promo calendar prioritized around key events: Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday → Christmas (for relevant GEOs) → Singles’ Day → Diwali.
- Pair search + display, then retarget with simple, benefit‑first creatives.
- Prepare creatives and start planning funnels early.
iGaming: Fragmented Supply, Multi‑GEO Strategy, and Heavy Tracking
Voluum sees two macro forces behind iGaming’s growth: stricter regulations and falling organic traffic from AI search, both nudging operators toward paid acquisition. The landscape is fragmented:
“No single traffic source or GEO dominates,” and even leading platforms are “tracked by only 50-70% of clients.”
Here is Kamila’s insight on how the top teams scale with their iGaming campaigns:
“Advanced iGaming advertisers are targeting at least 5-6 GEOs, with the best performers going wider.” Additionally, Kamila noted that over the past year, the number of tracked sources per client increased, indicating the adoption of multi-source management and risk mitigation. For orchestration, “iGaming software for tracking like Voluum is a must‑have.” We totally agree!
GEO playbook for iGaming:
- APAC: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia – rising engagement and acquisition potential.
- LATAM: Brazil remains strong despite regs (but competition squeezes CR/ROI), Mexico, Argentina, and Chile are gaining traction post‑Brazil regulations.
- India: growing player engagement with lower acquisition cost.
- United States: a consistent key market, about half of clients run it monthly – requires tailored strategies to keep CPAs in line.
- Africa: South Africa trending, Tanzania and Kenya appear at smaller but notable volumes.
How to prepare:
- Test 5-6 GEOs and stagger budgets and re‑weight by Day 3-7.
- Localize quickly (payments, language idioms, sports cues) and refresh creatives often (once a week or so, depending on your campaign specifics) to fight fatigue.
- Expect regulatory variety and make sure your landing pages and creatives meet GEO-specific requirements. Make sure you are ready for fast KYC/T&C updates, whenever regulations change.
- Use solid attribution and rules; otherwise, multi-source buying becomes a matter of guesswork.
Mobidea on MVAS Offers: Still Alive, but Getting Stricter
Mobidea confirms MVAS (Mobile Value-Added Services, or else – subscriptions to streaming, mobile games, etc.) still converts, especially in India, Indonesia, Brazil, and several African markets, where mobile‑first audiences and carrier billing strengthen volume. But as Nicolas Top, Mobidea’s Senior Account Manager, says, “The MVAS space is still buzzing – just way more complex than before.”
Talking about changes, Nicolas told us that compliance got tighter, ad reviews tougher, privacy limits constrain tracking, while users have developed banner blindness to so-called “tricks”:
“Users have seen every kind of ‘win a prize’ ad already.” Add higher CPAs and slower carrier approvals, and you get a vertical that rewards work and creativity, instead of low-effort, outdated approaches.
As Nicolas puts it, “easy money days are over” and “winners will be those who mix performance and real value, turning short-term clicks into long-term revenue through better content, cleaner user journeys, and trusted brand vibes.”
What to do:
Nicolas from Mobidea instsits that these strategies are winning this winter:
- Tendencies towards quality: “Smarter targeting, fresh creatives, and AI‑driven optimization are the way forward.”
- Care of your audience: “Winners will be those who mix performance with real value – better content, cleaner user journeys, and trusted brand vibes.”
- Payments hedge (aka risk reduction): Nicolas also highlights that “advertisers are exploring new angles – tighter integration with fintechs to add flexible billing options like wallets, micro-payments, or recurring debit setups, making monetization less dependent on carriers.”
How to prepare:
- Try quality MVAS offers in a bundle with GEOs like IN, ID, BR + African GEOs where carrier billing remains strong.
- Time to move off banal ad angles like “click for free stuff” and aggressive flows. Better to lead with clarity and trust from the first fold.
- Build two flow versions (fast‑approval vs rich upsell) to handle carrier delays and test approaches.
- Test wallets/micro‑payments/recurring debit, where possible, to diversify monetization.
Nutra, Low‑Cost Testing and Bold Visuals Lift
Ruslan, CEO of Afftrends, is being laser‑specific:
“To my recent market observations, I see that Nutra is rising dramatically in Peru. Peru is a low‑cost GEO where you can test flows, and the audience converts well on high-impact creatives with strong emotional hooks. I think this direction will continue growing, but you need to know how to work with your specific traffic sources.”
We agree that this can be a real superstar bundle, since Peru gives you enough breathing room to iterate various angles and pre‑landers without lighting the budget on fire. Emotional creatives still pull, but when using them for Nutra, just pair them with credible proof (ingredients, certifications, and reviews).
How to prepare:
- Split traffic by source type (Popunder, Push, In‑Page Push) and make sure every redirect, pre-lander, and offer page passes full tracking parameters, so you can analyze which traffic sources, creatives, and steps truly convert – and stop guessing. Then cut off losers by source, not just creative.
- Once the hook is stable, try scaling a similar approach to neighboring LATAM markets with localized checks.
Quick Summing Up
So, which vertical fits your situation? Let’s figure out:
- If you are ready to ride holiday intent, try eCommerce across US, CA, UK, DE, FR, and AU, CN, IN. Later in January, try rolling into Finance.
- Pump your compliance muscles and scale, if you choose iGaming. Test 5-6+ GEOs and ensure serious tracking (like Voluum).
- Mobile flows and alternative billing options renaissance: try MVAS in IN, ID, BR, Africa, hedged with wallets, micro-payments, and recurring debit.
- And if you need a fast and budget‑friendly testbed, try Nutra in Peru with emotional creative variants and strict source‑level reduction.
So, grab the unique insights, follow the advice from our partners, and let this winter bring not only festive joy, but also hundreds and thousands of dollars that will make your heart and soul warmer!
