Also known as affiliate marketing, or performance marketing, affiliate marketing has become very popular in recent years. Becoming one of the best online marketing strategies when it comes to promoting a product or service on or off the web.
In the same way, it is one of the best ways to monetize a web page or blog. So there are many reasons to learn more about affiliate marketing, how, where and when to use it. Andreas Ioannou created a great (and free) pdf to learn more about affiliate business.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is an online marketing strategy widely used lately to obtain results. Through this strategy, any online seller or advertiser can publicize their products or services through a website or blog or their affiliates. This affiliate program is called publishers, where anyone can acquire the benefits of being a publisher while benefiting the web business of the owner of the products or services.
Why is this one of the best strategies today? Because with it you can reach and reach much more public, outside or inside the country where you are. The more reach you have, the better results your affiliate marketing will be yielding.
With this system, any affiliate also receives a profit commission on each marketing, product or service that a user has acquired through the link of each affiliate.
What are the different components of affiliate marketing ?
In almost all cases, all affiliate marketing services are made up of 4 main steps or branches that together make it work correctly:
- Advertiser: It is the person who through his own brand tries to publicize and expand his services or products.
- Affiliate or publisher: Affiliate web page or blog that is responsible for publicizing and making any service or product of the company or advertiser reach a greater public.
- Affiliate Program: Through these programs, advertisers and affiliates come into contact to create and establish a relationship in which both will have benefits. In addition, these programs can be accessible through social networks or the advertising company’s own web pages or blogs, such asĀ entrepreneurmakeover.com
- Final consumer: Once the affiliation process has been completed, the final consumer will be the person who will buy the services or products of the advertiser.
What are the formats for affiliate programs?
Currently, if it is true that the affiliate system or program is intended to capture the attention of a larger audience, there are also different ways to do it. Each affiliate plan can use a different system, depending on what the client or all affiliates want to achieve. The main ones are the following:
- CPC or Cost per click: This method is the most popular because it is the one that offers profits and benefits for both parties quickly. This payment method consists of making a payment each time a user clicks on some content or service promoted by your brand. In this case, the click made from any platform is worth: Social networks, advertising posts on other pages or blogs, a video, etc.
- CPA or Cost per Action: This is a more specific affiliate model with a greater scope, because the company or seller will have to establish a specific action that must be carried out in order to obtain profits. For example, not only will it be enough to enter the affiliate link, but they must perform some action so that the affiliate can obtain a profit. For example, an example of an action may be the purchase of the service or product, installing an application, making certain clicks, etc. Once the user performs the indicated action, the affiliate, the company and himself will have the benefits and earnings.
- CPTI or Cost per thousand impressions: This method is recommended for companies whose main objective is to attract the attention of a large audience. The more people are impacted and attracted by your content, the more successful this method will have been. In addition, its main feature is that you will have to pay each affiliate, once a thousand people see the content, service or product promoted by your company.
- CPS or Cost per sale: This is one of the most common affiliation methods, but it gives many more advantages to the company and not to the affiliates. This method is complicated by the fact that affiliates will only earn if users make a direct purchase on the services or products promoted by the company. However, because it is the most complicated, it is the one that offers much more profit above all others to affiliates, once a purchase has been successfully made.
Advantages you can get from the affiliate program or marketing
In the different methods, there will always be a way for both the company and the affiliates to make a profit. It is an excellent alternative, if you are looking to reach millions of users around the world, and it offers you advantages such as:
- All models are fair and when carried out successfully, both parties have great benefits.
- You as a company will only have to cancel or pay the benefits to affiliates once you see the results of each program. In case the programs are not yielding the expected results, you will not have the obligation to do anything.
- It is one of the most effective advertising methods because it makes your services or content reach millions of natural people. If you want your business to expand throughout the world, the affiliate system is an excellent option.
- It is a channel that is always open to find and attract customers from all over the world. As well as affiliates from different countries and areas.
- A good affiliate earns the trust of his public, making them take into account his recommendations within your web page, blog or virtual store and decide to choose your services or products over others.
Disadvantages of Marketing or Affiliate Programs
Although the advantages and benefits that you can find in the affiliate program are excellent, not everything is rosy. In addition, it is clear that, in any new project or strategy, you must take into account the disadvantages with which you can get, in order to have everything planned.
- In many cases, you will not have control over how affiliates describe or detail your products or services. Their recommendations, comments or opinions about the masses or large groups of people will remain entirely on behalf of your affiliates. Therefore, it is important that your services and products are also of great quality.
- The affiliate system or program will be difficult to implement if your company has a very low sales profit margin. Therefore, it will be difficult for you to pay affiliates once you see results.
- In some cases, companies or vendors fail to convey the trust that affiliates need to carry out any process. Since, on many occasions, affiliates are afraid of not making any profit despite the effort and time they can invest in your company.
What are the best sites where you can promote a product as an affiliate?
Once your affiliates are in the process of attracting many more people to your website or blog, they will have to choose the best medium to carry out such advertising. On the web there are multiple ways to do it, but the most common and effective are:
- Personal Website or Blog: One of the best ways to attract a larger audience and get the masses to come to you quickly through affiliates is to have your own website or blog. With it, you will generate the ideal traffic that your company needs. You will reach the groups of people or the ideal consumers, who will be potential affiliates or buyers who will generate income and benefits for you.
- Google Ads: The advertisements offered by Google Ads are an excellent way to reach many more people. You can choose the regions in which you want your advertising to be seen, and thus you will be able to reach and attract the specific audience that your company needs. You will also have the opportunity to create specific ads to promote specific services or products of your company.
- Social networks: In this case, the more faithful you are to your own content, the better and greater possibilities you will have of reaching the public your company needs. Social networks offer you an extremely open portal, where you can reach millions of people around the world. Especially if you make your content fashionable, on trend and capable of drawing the attention of the public that you really need.
- Email Marketing: As an affiliate, you can help yourself with the recommendations that your trusted contacts can generate. Emails are a great way to keep the public informed about new updates, promotions, or new product launches.
What do you need to become a good affiliate?
Before you decide to become an affiliate of any company, we recommend that you evaluate what type of programs, dynamics or requirements are needed in order to obtain your earnings. In the same way, it will be vitally important to have an audience that trusts you and is certain that the products or services you recommend will be of great use or benefit to them.
- Select the best affiliate program
Before becoming an affiliate of the first company you get, make sure you have weighed different options and have chosen the best one. Remember that as an affiliate, you will be giving the company many benefits by capturing and attracting the attention of millions of people, so you must also have benefits and profits at a reasonable margin.
In the same way, you will have to make sure that the affiliate program you join is trustworthy and you have security throughout the process. You don’t want to waste time and effort, only to find out later that the profits are much less than you thought or just zero.
- Choose the best product to promote
First of all, you must know your audience to know what services or products will be of most interest to them. Therefore, take your time to know what products and services you can promote and thus obtain profits, sales and benefits in the shortest possible time.
- Make your audience see the virtues of the product or service
As an affiliate, your main objective will be to make your audience interested enough in a product or service that they have the desire to buy it, or to take the last steps so that you can get your earnings.
To achieve this, you will have to study the product or service you offer very well, so that you can give true and concrete information. Remember that if you give fraudulent information, you will lose the trust of your public and you will be less likely to earn money as an affiate.