Affiliate Marketing, A Profitable Lever?

By Mike Reiss- Jan 23, 2023 517

It is possible to make money with affiliate marketing. Some are earning such a good amount from it. But how can you take advantage of it and how can you raise your level? Today we will try to explain the incredible potential of this lever!

 

Definition: what is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a strategy for monetization. Website publishers (also called affiliates) provide their visitors with advertisers (also called merchants) so that the latter can sell more products or services for a fee to the former. This method is none other than the online version of the work done by a salesman offline.

 

In fact, the publisher offers a so-called affiliate link to its website and its audience and refers to a product or service page of the advertiser with which it has decided to enter into a partnership. This affiliate link may take the form of a text or look like a banner.

 

Whenever a visitor to the website clicks on the affiliate link and purchases the product or subscribes to the service in question, the publisher receives a commission consistent with the selling price from the advertiser. The merchant can actually track the source of his sales and identify what is being created on his authorized site.

 

Although very effective and generates additional revenue, this digital marketing strategy is rarely known to publishers.

 

What are the different affiliate marketing solutions?

 

Affiliate platform

It is the easiest and most used on the internet. This tool is an intermediary between publishers and advertisers. The former offers to monetize their audience, the latter promotes their products and/or services.

 

The most famous affiliate programs: Amazon Partners, Google Affiliate Network, Clickbank, etc.

 

Affiliate Marketing Network

We are talking about approved programs conducted directly between advertisers and publishers without going through the approved platforms to avoid arbitration commissions. This allows merchants to pay better compensation for approved products or to save money on products offered. However, large advertisers offer this type of affiliate because managing a program is not easy.

 

Sponsorship

Widely used by bloggers, affiliate sponsorship offers a monetization option when the audience is relatively small and some advertisers deny you access to their authorized programs. Need an example? Consider online banks that offer rewards to both sponsors and Godson.

 

Affiliate Marketing, An Easy Way To Make Money?

However, there is nothing for us. Here are three tips to help you get the most out of your affiliate marketing:

 

The affiliate program: also called a niche, it is important not to make mistakes in your choice. The most attractive (career but not very competitive) are also often short, which does not make things easy. So it is common to create several websites to cover several niches. Take the time to properly analyze the market before you start (both site supply and product demand). Ask yourself some useful questions: What excites me (products, services)? Is it a carrier (money)? Do we have the ability to create bulk content? How is the competition? What is demand? What is an affiliate program on the subject?

 

SEO: To generate traffic to a website, you need to offer content that is relevant to the user (interesting) and works for search engines (keywords).

 

Conversion: How to encourage as many visitors as possible to click and buy affiliate links? The way they are presented is fine-tuning: display, relevance, position, layout, etc. Some CMSs like WordPress offer plugins to help you with this

Although tedious, these missions can lead you to success ... if there is quality!

 

Some entrepreneurs have even made it their business model. The latter thus created a network of websites (sometimes consisting of more than ten domains) each specialized in one niche. The key is to mention them well but once the sites are ranked in the search engines, the effort is minimal and you need to maintain a good position and reasonably feed the authorized links with regular blog articles.

 

Affiliate marketing to the advertiser

There are only advantages with affiliation

The lower the risk, the higher:

 

Commissions are only paid when a sale is made. This is called "converted lead".

The ROI is always positive.

The pay-per-lead model (CPC or Cost per Click) is not widely used. It involves paying the affiliate every time a visitor clicks on a link, whether it is a purchase or not.

 

Affiliate marketing from a publisher's perspective

 

Choose the right offer

The best offer that matches the interest of the visitors most closely. Today, affiliate platforms are full of offers. However, most targets are not consistent with the audience. Some offer excellent commissions, for example, but have nothing to do with targeting products or services. Others have a lower commission but the products or services are completely consistent with what the website visitors expect. In this second section, we have to expect high click-through rates.

 

Affiliate, what product (s) do you decide to promote when you buy them? Website visitors are a great way to build credibility and trust.

 

Commission and payment conditions

Some advertisers offer up to 50% commission on the price of the product or service. While this is a reason to consider, it should not be given priority. Again, the relevance of the offer is essential for the click.

 

Good to know: The commission may vary depending on the quantity of product sold. There is also a "bonus" system based on arrival thresholds although they are reserved for large affiliates.

 

The income generated by affiliate links is calculated in several ways:

 

     Referral Visitors: The number of visitors who clicked on the link provided as an affiliate on the publisher's website. Count: Total Visitors x Link Click Rate (s).

     Referral Income: Visitors generate these earnings by clicking on their purchase (s) link. Calculation: Number of referring visitors x Conversion rate x Average purchase price.

     Conversion rate: This is the share of referring visitors who shop through the affiliate's site. This information is primarily intended to draw the publisher's attention to his or her permitted income. Calculation: Referral Income x Commission Rate.

 

The higher the audience, the higher the publisher's click-through rate and conversion rate, the better the affiliate revenue ... provided that the commission is convenient and therefore the product/service is attractive. An affiliate is really interested in giving a product/service to its audience in the hope of making money!

 

Affiliate link format value

As a publisher, it is important to pay close attention to the formats and tools offered by merchants. Affiliate platforms let you see them. Is their design correct? Are they diverse? What about the technical aspects? Are they adapting to the theme of the website?

 

Cookie settings

In affiliate marketing, like any other lever, we must pay close attention to cookies. Although their standard lifespan has been extended to 30 days, it is advisable to go up to 180 days to make sure you do not miss the commission.

 

Estimated earnings

In most cases, affiliate platforms provide tools to evaluate monetization by referring to money generated by other partners. The most relevant indicator is the “ EPC ”, in other words, Earnings Per Clicks or Gain Per Clicks. Always assess the potential of each offer before you make up your mind.

 

Compensation models

There are three :

     Remuneration according to the number of sales made (Pay Per Sale): the most common.

     Compensation per lead: Minimum frequency.

     Pay per click: Rarely used.

 

It depends on the audience and the products/services offered.

 

Developing your action plan

 

Content creation

Quality Above all: Blog article praises qualities, video displays, product comparisons, and/or testing. The purpose here is to create traffic, so it is necessary to create interest and present yourself as an expert. Competition is a good source of inspiration.

 

Email collection and emailing

Creating a database makes it possible to communicate directly with prospects and then at any time. To do this, we integrate, for example, a registration form in the newsletter. Email, as well as being highly efficient, costs very little money. Be careful, but don't offer email only with product offers.

 

Online advertising

The social network or Google makes it possible to quickly and easily promote products or services. They help develop the audience or collect emails.

 

You want to get started in affiliation but you do not know how to set up a program and you need support? Contact our experts! We can help you with the best branding strategy that can lead you to the top.