Affiliate marketing
- Thread starter Stilwell
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What is affiliate marketing and how it works
Affiliate marketing is a way to make money online by promoting products from other companies for a fee. Today we'll talk about how it works and what types of affiliate programs exist.
Who is involved in affiliate marketing
There are 5 parties involved in a typical affiliate campaign. Let's talk about each side in more detail.
Marketing Partner (Publisher)
A marketing partner drives traffic to products / services by linking them with the consumer. Its main goal is to get people to act here and now: place an order, register on the site, fill out an application, that is, perform the necessary target action (Conversion Flow), which will put money in his pocket.
Partner tasks:
Affiliate Network
Affiliate networks are platforms for offers, goods / services that companies promote. Networks are intermediaries between partners and offer owners, i.e. advertisers.
A marketing partner can work both with an affiliate program and directly with an advertiser. But working with an affiliate network has a number of valuable advantages:
Most of the networks have proposals in many existing directions. Some specialize in one thing: physical goods, games, financial services.
Offers and verticals of affiliate networks
In affiliate marketing, there are concepts such as offers and verticals. Offers (proposals) are specific goods and services offered for promotion for a fee. Offers of the same type are grouped into verticals (niches). For example, the "Neo Slim" fat burning complex is an offer, it belongs to the "Health / Beauty" vertical. Each vertical has its own promotion methods, traffic sources and promotional materials.
Below are the most popular verticals.
What and how affiliate networks pay for
Affiliate networks pay only for the completed target action. However, like the advertiser. Conversion flow is a series of sequential actions that a user must perform in order to accomplish this expected action. When it is completed, the conversion is counted. The advertiser pays the affiliate network, and the affiliate pays the marketing partner.
Conversion rate (CR) is the percentage of visitors who made a targeted action on the site, in relation to all curious people. For example, 500 people came to the site, bought 30. CR = 30/500 * 100%, that is, 6%. For every 100 people there are 6 purchases, that is, 100 clicks and bought 6. In the narrow sense, conversion is understood as a specific user who came to the site, successfully completed all the necessary actions and will turn from a visitor into a buyer. The marketing partner says, "I got a conversion." The completed target action is also called a lead.
There are several types of conversions:
There are different ways to pay for the completed target action:
Advertiser (ADVERTISER)
This is the company that owns the offer. The advertiser creates an offer on the market, forms a budget for its promotion, bears the risks associated with the activities of partners. He pays only for the completed target action: sale, registration, completed application.
Traffic Source
Traffic refers to visitors who come to a landing page. Traffic can be free and paid.
Note. Affiliate marketing allows you to drive traffic on a paid and free basis. This concept is broader than traffic arbitrage, which only works with paid traffic. Hence, there is some difference between a marketing partner and an affiliate marketer.
Free traffic
There are many ways to get it. The main ones are content marketing and search engine optimization. These methods can be called "shareware" because they are time consuming and labor intensive.
Content marketing is the creation and distribution of useful, interesting content for a specific target audience. These can be blog articles, YouTube videos, pages and posts on social media. For example, a video blog about fishing. The author attracts an interested audience with awesome content, gains a large following and at the same time earns money by recommending various products for fishing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a series of actions aimed at increasing the ranking of a website in search results. Search engines have a complex search algorithm that takes into account hundreds of variables. Trying to optimize it takes a lot of time and labor. In addition, this algorithm is constantly being updated, and each new update can destroy the results of many months. However, if you can figure out the SEO puzzle and get to the top, you can get tons of free targeted traffic.
Paid traffic
There are advertisements on the Internet. To promote the offer, the partner creates landing pages, ads. When a landing page or ad is shown to a visitor or clicks on a banner, the affiliate pays money.
There are 3 main payment methods:
Benefits of paid traffic:
How can you buy traffic
You can buy directly, working with a specific site, for example, vk.com, facebook.com, google.com, or use the services of advertising networks (Ad Network). Ad networks are the "marketplace" for the various sites that advertisements will be displayed on. For example: MarketGid is a network full of individual sites.
Traffic sources vary:
Types of paid traffic sources
Client (CUSTOMER)
This is the person who buys a product or service.
A good partner creates a win-win situation for all parties involved. Advertiser, affiliate network, traffic source - they make money. And the client receives a product that makes his life better, happier, and more fulfilling.
How it works
The advertiser enters into an agreement with an affiliate network, offering their product. A marketing partner receives a personal tracking link for each offer, attracts traffic and, if someone uses this link to perform a targeted action (purchase, registration, etc.), receives a commission. The difference between commission and traffic costs is its income.
Essential affiliate marketing tools
To carry out any kind of activity, special tools are needed. Affiliate marketing is no exception.
Affiliate Marketing Benefits
Disadvantages of affiliate marketing
Good luck!
Affiliate marketing is a way to make money online by promoting products from other companies for a fee. Today we'll talk about how it works and what types of affiliate programs exist.
Who is involved in affiliate marketing
There are 5 parties involved in a typical affiliate campaign. Let's talk about each side in more detail.
Marketing Partner (Publisher)
A marketing partner drives traffic to products / services by linking them with the consumer. Its main goal is to get people to act here and now: place an order, register on the site, fill out an application, that is, perform the necessary target action (Conversion Flow), which will put money in his pocket.
Partner tasks:
- find goods or services (offers) for promotion;
- define the target audience, identify its pains, problems;
- study the product, formulate its benefits, advantages;
- make a marketing analysis of competitors, their strengths and weaknesses;
- create marketing materials (ads, landing pages);
- attract potential buyers (traffic sources);
- optimize the campaign (test the components of the campaign, make it profitable);
- scale up an already profitable campaign.
Affiliate Network
Affiliate networks are platforms for offers, goods / services that companies promote. Networks are intermediaries between partners and offer owners, i.e. advertisers.
A marketing partner can work both with an affiliate program and directly with an advertiser. But working with an affiliate network has a number of valuable advantages:
- Affiliate networks give access to hundreds and thousands of offers in various directions and up-to-date information on what needs to be promoted.
- Affiliate networks appoint a manager who can help with technical questions, suggest what's hot right now, activate private offers, increase payouts, and much more.
- Affiliate networks provide fast turnover of funds. They make payments once a week, and with a large number of sales every day. Advertisers usually only pay once a month.
- Affiliate networks take on the risk of non-payment from the advertiser. If the advertiser decides to end cooperation without paying the due amount to the affiliate program, it will still pay the earned amount to the marketing partner.
Most of the networks have proposals in many existing directions. Some specialize in one thing: physical goods, games, financial services.
Offers and verticals of affiliate networks
In affiliate marketing, there are concepts such as offers and verticals. Offers (proposals) are specific goods and services offered for promotion for a fee. Offers of the same type are grouped into verticals (niches). For example, the "Neo Slim" fat burning complex is an offer, it belongs to the "Health / Beauty" vertical. Each vertical has its own promotion methods, traffic sources and promotional materials.
Below are the most popular verticals.
| Installs | Games, antiviruses, utilities - offers that involve downloading the application by the user |
| Sweepstakes | IPhone giveaways (or other equipment), gift cards for shopping, travel promotions |
| Pin Submits | Mobile subscriptions to various content |
| Health / Beauty | Slimming, joint treatment, potency enhancement, muscle building, skin care, hair care |
| Gambling | Online casinos, sports betting and other events, poker rooms |
| Dating (Dating Mainstream, Casual Dating) | The vertical is divided into two groups: mainstream (serious acquaintances) and adult (casual acquaintances - one-night-stand) |
| Adult video (Adult Content) | Photo / video for adults |
| Finance | Insurance, lending, binary options |
| Products (eCommerce) | Products, clothing, appliances and more |
What and how affiliate networks pay for
Affiliate networks pay only for the completed target action. However, like the advertiser. Conversion flow is a series of sequential actions that a user must perform in order to accomplish this expected action. When it is completed, the conversion is counted. The advertiser pays the affiliate network, and the affiliate pays the marketing partner.
Conversion rate (CR) is the percentage of visitors who made a targeted action on the site, in relation to all curious people. For example, 500 people came to the site, bought 30. CR = 30/500 * 100%, that is, 6%. For every 100 people there are 6 purchases, that is, 100 clicks and bought 6. In the narrow sense, conversion is understood as a specific user who came to the site, successfully completed all the necessary actions and will turn from a visitor into a buyer. The marketing partner says, "I got a conversion." The completed target action is also called a lead.
There are several types of conversions:
- SOI (Single Opt-In) - one action. A conversion is counted when a user has sent an email address, filled out a credit card questionnaire, registered a profile on a dating site, and submitted a request for a free sample. For such actions, the advertiser is ready to pay from $ 0.50 to $ 2. The payoff is small, but the conversion is high and there is a lot of split tests that can be done. For example, there is a budget of $ 100. If you launch an offer with a payment of $ 100, you can get 1 conversion. And if you pay $ 1 for an offer, that's 100 conversions.
- DOI (Double Opt-In) - two actions. The user must not only send the application, but also confirm it by clicking on the link in the email. More actions, lower conversion, but more payouts.
- Complex conversions require even more action. For example, you need to not only register in the game, but also reach level 5. A complex algorithm of actions is also present in mobile subscriptions.
There are different ways to pay for the completed target action:
- CPS (Cost-per-Sale) - payment is made upon sale. It can be fixed or as a percentage of the cost.
- CPA (Cost per Action) - payment for the desired action. For example: sending an email, applying for a credit card, registering a profile on a dating site, applying for a free sample.
- CPI (Cost per Install) - the installation of a mobile application is paid for.
- CPL (Cost per lead) - payment for a lead.
Advertiser (ADVERTISER)
This is the company that owns the offer. The advertiser creates an offer on the market, forms a budget for its promotion, bears the risks associated with the activities of partners. He pays only for the completed target action: sale, registration, completed application.
Traffic Source
Traffic refers to visitors who come to a landing page. Traffic can be free and paid.
Note. Affiliate marketing allows you to drive traffic on a paid and free basis. This concept is broader than traffic arbitrage, which only works with paid traffic. Hence, there is some difference between a marketing partner and an affiliate marketer.
Free traffic
There are many ways to get it. The main ones are content marketing and search engine optimization. These methods can be called "shareware" because they are time consuming and labor intensive.
Content marketing is the creation and distribution of useful, interesting content for a specific target audience. These can be blog articles, YouTube videos, pages and posts on social media. For example, a video blog about fishing. The author attracts an interested audience with awesome content, gains a large following and at the same time earns money by recommending various products for fishing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a series of actions aimed at increasing the ranking of a website in search results. Search engines have a complex search algorithm that takes into account hundreds of variables. Trying to optimize it takes a lot of time and labor. In addition, this algorithm is constantly being updated, and each new update can destroy the results of many months. However, if you can figure out the SEO puzzle and get to the top, you can get tons of free targeted traffic.
Paid traffic
There are advertisements on the Internet. To promote the offer, the partner creates landing pages, ads. When a landing page or ad is shown to a visitor or clicks on a banner, the affiliate pays money.
There are 3 main payment methods:
- Cost-per-click (CPC) - Payment is made only when a visitor clicks on your ad. For example, the CPC is set to $ 0.1. The maximum cost per click is $ 0.1.
- Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) - you pay for every 1,000 views your ad receives. For example, 1000 impressions cost $ 2. If your ad is shown 10,000 times, then it will cost $ 20.
- Fixed rate. The fee is set regardless of clicks / views. For example, ad unit “B” was purchased on the site for one week for $ 500.
Benefits of paid traffic:
- Campaigns are completely under control: you can set the required daily or daily budget, set bids per click or per 1000 impressions, and you can also start / stop a campaign at any time.
- Fast results. How successful the campaign is can be judged a few hours after launch.
- No dependency on one campaign. If the campaign is unsuccessful, you can stop it and start another one.
- You can earn more and faster.
How can you buy traffic
You can buy directly, working with a specific site, for example, vk.com, facebook.com, google.com, or use the services of advertising networks (Ad Network). Ad networks are the "marketplace" for the various sites that advertisements will be displayed on. For example: MarketGid is a network full of individual sites.
Traffic sources vary:
- Audience coverage and, accordingly, the amount of available traffic. The audience can be the whole world, or maybe a dozen countries; a female audience may predominate, for example. The number is determined by the audience reach.
- Targeting options. For example: age, gender, country, time, type of device, sites visited. The more targeting options there are, the more accurately you can reach the right audience and the more sales there will be. Why is contextual advertising or advertising on social networks so effective? Because these sources allow you to target narrowly enough, segment the audience and hit the target.
- Traffic quality. Some sources sin with a large number of bots.
Types of paid traffic sources
- Social traffic (Social Traffic). Sources: Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte, etc. Targeting is possible by: age, interests, geography, etc. If the user matches the selected targeting options, then the advertisement will be shown to him. Social media offers a wide variety of targeting options and a lot of traffic.
- Search Traffic. It comes from search engines. Paid search sources: Google Adwords, Yandex Direct, Bing (Microsoft) and others. These are powerful sources, as they allow you to target by keywords, that is, by the search queries of users. Where else is "hot"! Advertisers pay to get to the top for keywords. CPC depends on the keyword you are bidding on and the ad and site match for that keyword. Google and Yandex advertising platforms are user-friendly and have many tools to help you create an effective campaign.
- Mobile traffic (Mobile Traffic). Sources are advertising on mobile phones: PopAds, PopCash, etc. There are a lot of mobile sources. There are mobile sources that specialize in specific formats: Display, Pop, Push. Targeting is possible by operators, by operating systems, by site identifiers, by phone brands. Growing popularity, low barriers to entry, and the sheer number of countries available for targeting make mobile devices an extremely attractive source. The most popular mobile ad formats are: Display / Banner, Pop-unders, Push-notifications.
- Native Ad Traffic. Sources: MGID Taboola, Outbrain, Content.add. Native advertising involves blending naturally with the site's content. In conditions of "banner blindness" this is an effective way to reach out to the audience.
- Adult Traffic. The main sources are advertising networks: TrafficJunky, Exoclick. The proportion of traffic for adults is about 30% of all Internet traffic. There is a lot of freedom in the way these offers are promoted. But this niche is very competitive due to the presence of large players on the market, which makes it difficult for newcomers to enter this market.
Client (CUSTOMER)
This is the person who buys a product or service.
A good partner creates a win-win situation for all parties involved. Advertiser, affiliate network, traffic source - they make money. And the client receives a product that makes his life better, happier, and more fulfilling.
How it works
The advertiser enters into an agreement with an affiliate network, offering their product. A marketing partner receives a personal tracking link for each offer, attracts traffic and, if someone uses this link to perform a targeted action (purchase, registration, etc.), receives a commission. The difference between commission and traffic costs is its income.
Essential affiliate marketing tools
To carry out any kind of activity, special tools are needed. Affiliate marketing is no exception.
- The marketing partner needs domains for the title of the landing pages. The landing page is the landing page that the user comes to. Selling content is posted on it. Landing pages play a key role in sales - after all, these are sellers, therefore, the requirements for them are serious. This is a selling headline, a profitable offer, a call to action, and pictures. This is a topic for a separate article. You can buy domains, for example, from the following registrars: RU-CENTER, REG.RU, DUNADOT, Namecheap, Timeweb.
- Then you need a hosting that will host the landing pages. Shared shared hosting won't work because pages need to load quickly. 40% of users will leave if the site doesn't open after 3 seconds. For a start, VDS is suitable, but then it is better to replace it with a dedicated server.
- The main tool of the partner is the tracker. It is software that allows you to monitor and analyze traffic. Each user who comes to the page has his own unique identification number in the tracker. Thanks to the tracker, you can find out where the potential buyer came from, from which country, city, at what time, from which device (including you can find out the device brand and operating system), what keyword he typed into the search engine, on which banner he clicked and much more. The tracker allows you to understand how much money has already been spent on a campaign, how much is earned, which users are unprofitable and which are generating income. For example, the tracker reports that $ 100 was brought by iPhone owners, and $ 50 was clicked by Samsung users, but did not buy anything. Means, Which tracker to choose? First, Voluum is an advanced cloud tracker capable of handling huge amounts of traffic quickly. Secondly, Keitaro is a Russian professional tracker. Unlike Voluum, it is not cloud-based; it must be hosted on your server.
- An important tool is the Adplexity service. This spy tool helps you understand which verticals and offers are working. In which countries, on which traffic sources, with which promotional materials. It will save money and time, indicate the wrong choice of an offer or country.
- To keep abreast of the latest developments in the affiliate marketing industry, it's a good idea to register on the StackThatMoney forum. The forum is paid, but the information it provides is more expensive. On it you can get valuable advice, read about strategies and tactics for promoting various offers.
- If it is not possible to create pre-landers and banners on your own, then you can use freelance. There are a lot of freelance exchanges, Russian and foreign. For translation into the desired language, the One Hour Translation service is suitable.
Affiliate Marketing Benefits
- You can work anywhere in the world (you only need a laptop, internet and some money to spend on traffic).
- You can make good money, and around the clock (a profitable campaign brings money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
- There is no need to spend money on purchasing goods, renting office and warehouse premises, or wages for employees.
- There is no need to look for suppliers, sign contracts, travel to business meetings.
- There is no need to deal with clients, deal with complaints and claims.
Disadvantages of affiliate marketing
- The marketer does not create assets that can be traded. He only earns when he launches campaigns. Nobody will buy a business from him. Affiliate marketing is good for generating money and building skills. Many see it as a stepping stone towards the realization of other plans.
- Campaigns can be volatile. You can make $ 5,000 one week and nothing the next. The reasons may be different: the advertiser has stopped the offer, new rules have appeared limiting the methods of promotion, competition has grown.
- Affiliate marketing is not easy to learn. The partner has to spend money to buy traffic. There is a psychological principle called risk aversion: the pleasure of getting $ 100 is incomparable to the pain of losing it.
- The final drawback is that there aren't many good resources for learning the basics of affiliate marketing. You need to gain experience.
Good luck!
Thank you for your reply. After reading your reply, I found that alliance marketing is more difficult and complex than online combing.
CarderPlanet
Professional
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