Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

Are you interested in entering the affiliate marketing industry? This article will help you get started.

According to Statista, business spending on affiliate marketing in the US will reach $8.2 billion by 2022. One of the reasons affiliate programs are so popular is that they offer a win-win situation for both merchant and affiliate.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing where companies reward an individual or a company for sending customers their way. It is a sales strategy that any business can use to scale.  So to speak a microcosm of marketing channels and methods, from search, to social, to price comparison, email, content, remarketing, and anything that goes in between, all refined to deliver meaningful results for any given business.

With a cost-per-sale business model, affiliate marketing is the most cost-effective and risk-free marketing channel and one of the simpler income streams to set up and automate.

How does affiliate marketing work?

Affiliate marketing works by distributing the responsibilities for product marketing and creation among several parties. This manages to harness the skills of a variety of people for a more effective marketing strategy while giving contributors a share of the profits. Our free guide will explain how affiliate marketing works and how you can use it to boost your business.

How do you get paid?

The consumer does not always have to buy a product, for the affiliate to get a share. The affiliate’s contribution will mostly depend on the affiliate program.

1. Pay per Sale (PPS): Companies pay a percentage of all qualified sales.
2. Pay per Lead (PPL): Companies pay a fixed commission for every qualified action a click generated.
3. Pay per Click (PPC): An affiliate gets paid for all the valid clicks generated regardless of whether these clicks resulted in sales or leads.

Steps to success

1. Join an Affiliate Network

You can either join an individual affiliate program or join a network. Affiliate Networks act as a middleman between companies and their affiliates. They support you with different matters, such as managing relationships and providing third-party checks and balances.

At Tradedoubler, we are aware of the tremendous benefits of affiliate networks. However, we do know that small businesses might not have the necessary resources to spend on affiliate networks. That is where we recommend Grow, our smart affiliate network for small businesses. The core principle of Grow is to adapt Tradedoubler’s technology and experience in affiliate marketing to the needs of small businesses: simplicity, flexibility, automation.

2. Find a brand/product you want to promote

When starting as an affiliate marketer, start promoting products or services that you resonate with, have some level of passion for or expertise about. Affiliate marketing is not necessarily about promoting a lot of products. If you focus on your niche, you can promote a few excellent products and become a key spokesperson for the said niche

3. Start promoting your products

Once the above steps are taken, it is time to start promoting the products. If you want your affiliate marketing relationships to pay off, you should consider creative ways to promote your affiliate links that also provide value to your readers. In our article, we introduce you to five creative ways to promote products.

4. Start earning your commission!

It is that easy.

Any questions left? Click here to reach out to our Grow team of experts.