Introduction: What is Affiliate Marketing?
If you run an ecommerce site or work with a marketer, the affiliation is a marketing lever all the more beneficial as its ROI is totally mastered. Indeed, it is a form of performance marketing that involves paying a third party (the affiliate, a website for example) for X or Y action completed. Generation of qualified leads, sales, registration to a loyalty program
For each share and under well-controlled conditions, a percentage of the sale or a fixed amount will be donated to the partner.
So getting into affiliation has a lot of potentials, if you do it right. Choice of tools or platform, supervision of validation conditions, choice of allocation and remuneration model, fight against fraud, setting up regular commercial activities …
Some figures on Affiliation Marketing
Thus, there is a 10.1% increase in affiliate marketing spending in the United States each year, which means that by 2020, that number will reach $ 6.8 billion.
In 2018, content marketing costs were estimated at 62% of the costs of traditional marketing programs while simultaneously generating three times more revenue than traditional methods. In fact, 16% of all orders placed online can be attributed to the impact of affiliate marketing.
In March 2017, the Amazon Affiliate Program changed, offering rates of 1 to 10% of product revenue to creators, allowing affiliates to significantly increase their passive income based on their Marketing Tools.
For example, Jason Stone’s affiliate marketing, also known as Mentor Millionaire, has reached $ 7 million in retail sales during the summer of 2017.
Affiliate marketing is an ideal home-based business because it requires very little money to start, you have no stock of products, or take care of delivery or service. You are essentially paid to direct new customers to other companies.
Affiliate marketing is not difficult, but like any business, it requires knowledge, planning, and constant effort to generate significant revenue.
Here are some things you can do to make sure your adventure in affiliate marketing is a success
Choose an attribution model
The marketing award raises the question of “who pays” for a goal accomplished. In a context where the user goes through a multiplicity of channels and interactions before buying or signing up, it is increasingly difficult to see which marketing lever should be rewarded.
We are talking about the choice of an attribution model. The most classic are those of the first click or the last click, but the conversion path is much thinner than that. Rather than remunerating the last channel (which may be a couponing site, for example), it may be interesting and more appropriate to focus on a weighted remuneration of the various elements of the user journey that led to the final sale.
Beyond the choice of the model, the question of the attribution window must also be addressed. At what point is the conversion detached from the road traveled in the previous months (if it is), which directly impacts the affiliate’s remuneration?
Choose your platform
There are tools to create your own affiliate program. Another solid alternative is to turn to a well-known affiliate platform, such as CJ, Pabbly, Amazon… if you are a starter. You can also utilize Amazon product research tools such as AMZScout, Jungle Scout, etc to discover products to start with affiliate marketing.
It’s all about comparing several criteria to make the right choice:
- accessibility of reporting and tracking tools;
- variety of compensation options;
- easy for affiliates to generate their personalized links or find the visuals they need;
- easy promotion of campaigns;
- responsiveness of the teams;
- good billing management
Define precise objectives
Affiliation is a marketing strategy that, like the others, must be accompanied by objectives in order to be measured and refined. Without this, no remarkable ROI!
What are your goals? What is the value of a lead? Visibility without necessarily immediate sale to the key? What does your ideal affiliate look like? Who are you targeting? Where are your potential customers when they surf the web? What are your competitors doing?
You need to ask yourself these kinds of questions and link specific figures and personas to stop a strategy that you can follow and measure from day to day. This step will depend on your ability to drive well with the data.
Identify influencers to make them paid ambassadors
Traditional websites and blogs are not the only ones to represent a relevant addition to your affiliate network. Also remember to identify influencers on social networks, to generate sales or leads from Instagram or Facebook for example.
Highlight your affiliate program
To be effective, your program must be visible in order to “recruit” affiliates throughout the year.
Your platform should help you, but it is not the only one to act: also add an “affiliation” section to your website and do not hesitate to contact sites or influencers in your theme, to propose to join the program.
Have a system in place to fight against fraud
Fraud is, unfortunately, part of the affiliation ecosystem, especially at the level of lead generation. It is therefore important to have particularly precise conditions of use and a system in place to detect abuses and automatically solve the problems encountered at this level. Discover the main frauds and how to fight them.
In any case, before you get started in affiliate marketing, learn everything that can succeed. Furthermore, if you decide to pursue an affiliate marketing business, or if you’re thinking to add it to an existing business, understand that it ‘s not quick, automatic, or effortless. Like all home-based businesses, you need a plan and daily involvement to earn income with online affiliate marketing.
In general, your chances of making money with an affiliate program depends on how you run your affiliate plan.
Do you already have an affiliate program? What are the good practices you have identified so far, or the pitfalls to avoid? Share your feedback with us leaving your comment on Twitter, @Builderfly.
