What Is Affiliate Marketing & Its Types?

By Muhammad Hanzla Ijaz

Posted on: April 15, 2022 5:34 AM

HEAD OF PERFORMANCE MARKETING At TURBO ANCHOR

Table of Contents

Aamir Raza

April 15, 2022 16.00 GMT

Intro

What is Affiliate Marketing? It’s an advertising model where you promote another company’s product or service in exchange for a commission on sales you generate. Commissions are generally a portion of the sale price, but can sometimes be a fixed amount.

In due time the internet has raised the importance of affiliate marketing. In addition to this Amazon popularized the practice by forming an affiliate marketing program. By which bloggers and websites placed links to the Amazon page for a reviewed or discussed product to receive advertising fees when a purchase is made. Companies running an affiliate marketing program can track the links that bring in leads and, with internal analytics, see how many convert to sales.

So how does it work?

Well, it involves suggesting a product or service by sharing it on a social media platform, blog, or website. On the other hand, an affiliate earns a commission each time somebody makes a purchase with the link associated with their recommendation.

E-commerce merchants that want to reach users on a broader scale may hire an affiliate. An affiliate can be the owner of multiple websites or email marketing lists. Firstly, the hired affiliate communicates and promotes the products offered on the e-commerce platform to their network. Secondly, an affiliate does this by running banner ads, text ads, or links on its websites or sending emails to clients. Companies use advertisements in articles, videos, and images to draw an audience’s attention to a service or product.

Lastly, visitors who click the ads or links are redirected to the e-commerce site. According to the agreement, if they purchase the product or service, the affiliate gets the commission, 5% to 10% of the sales price.

Types of Affiliate Marketing

Following are the types of affiliate marketing; Unattached, Related, and Involved.

Unattached

It’s an advertising model in which an affiliate has no authority over the niche of the product or service promoted. There is no connection between the affiliate and the customer. It’s one of the most uninvolved forms of marketing. Usually, affiliates run pay-per-click advertising campaigns with an affiliate link through Google Adwords, Facebook ads, etc. In the hope that people will click it and make a purchase to earn a commission. It’s an appealing way of marketing because you’re not required to do any groundwork. Affiliate marketing businesses depend on the reputation and trust of a target audience online.

Second, comes related affiliate marketing. Here you promote products and services you don’t use but are related to your niche. Affiliates, in this case, have some presence online, whether it’s through blogging, podcast, TikTok, or another channel. They have the influence and expertise to generate traffic, making them a trusted source for recommending products.

Involved

In the end, comes Involved affiliate marketing. In this type of marketing, influencers promote products and services they have used and trust themselves. They personally recommend to their audience instead of using banner ads for clicks. Their experiences are the advertisements, and they serve as trusted sources of information. Affiliates don’t need to hide behind expensive PPC ads and expect clicks and sales. All they need is an organic Instagram Story or blog post about their experience with a product, and that’s it.

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

New Sales Channel

Affiliate marketing undoubtedly gives you leverage without requiring large advertising budgets for a business. One successful affiliate can bring much more traffic, leads, and sales than a traditional marketing campaign or even a highly effective online advertising campaign. A properly executed affiliate marketing can become an influential sales channel that can grow sales and brand awareness over time. Despite a sales team, affiliate marketing works for you 24/7, making money for both sides at all times.

Low cost of start-up

Everyone is aware that starting a business means paying costs for products, employees, equipment, rent, etc. That may sound a little risky and expensive. But when it comes to an affiliate program, it doesn’t require an advertising team for ad visuals or purchase ad space. Instead, it is up to an affiliate to create their marketing content.

Low ongoing cost

As observed, most of the marketing is done by affiliates, which means they also get a part of the cost. Since it’s a commission-based program, affiliates only get paid from sales they bring in.

That makes it easy to manage the cost and doesn’t interrupt the cash flow, unlike other marketing models like PPC ads, for which you have to pay for every click made on a website.

Low Risk

Affiliate Marketing lets you market any affiliate product or service without any charges. Instead, you can make an income through a commission with an established affiliate product or service. It’s considered an ideal money-making process, but you have to invest time creating traffic sources and following.

Easy to Scale

Well, a regular salesperson only sells a product or service for a solo company. But as an affiliate marketer, you can introduce new products to the audience and build campaigns for additional products. At the same time, affiliate marketing lets you raise your profits without hiring extra help significantly.

It’s good to remember that excellent affiliate marketing is built on trust. So when going for any products or services to promote, it’s best only to highlight those you personally use or would recommend.

Examples of Affiliate Marketing

Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Amazon affiliate program or Amazon associates is considered one of the largest affiliate marketing programs. It’s free for website owners and bloggers to become Amazon Associates. They advertise products from Amazon.com on their sites via creating links. When customers click the links and purchase products from Amazon, they earn referral fees.

eBay Affiliate Marketing

Another well-known affiliate program is eBay Partner Network. In this case, a partner earns money by referring users to the site. YouTubers, bloggers, and influencers use affiliate links to advertise products listed on eBay. A percentage of those users will likely buy something after being referred.

Besides these major Affiliate Networks, you can go for,

ShareASale

Unlike Amazon Associates, which focuses entirely on Amazon products, ShareASale houses affiliate programs for 4,500+ merchants, both big and small. You can sign up to all these merchants from one spot- the ShareASale dashboard, generate links and view your statistics. It’s a great opportunity for both digital and physical products.

ClickBank

ClickBank acts as a marketplace where its affiliate members can find products to promote and market. They have similar potential to their digital marketing partners and a vast library of over 6 million unique products to reach 200 million customers worldwide.

One of the major benefits for affiliates on Clickbank is that some products offer commissions as high as 75%.

Walmart Affiliates

If you’re selling physical products, Amazon Associates is, without a doubt, the biggest name in the affiliate game as it covers half of the e-commerce market. But at the same time, Walmart’s affiliate program became a little more attractive as it started offering higher commissions than Amazon in some categories.

Rakuten Marketing

Rakuten Marketing is an established affiliate network searching for people who have loyal social media followers or consistent website visitors to become affiliate marketing publishers.

As a publisher, you can partner with thousands of leading and emerging brands across various industries to provide your visitors with a personalized and organized advertising experience.

FlexOffers

FlexOffer features the latest products, promotions, and online-only offers on their network from top global brands and niche advertisers also. Their affiliate marketing content can also easily integrate into any site as banner ads or text links or as unique promotional copy created by their editorial staff.

How to get started with affiliate marketing?

Decide on a platform like a blog or Youtube.
Choose a niche or topic that focuses on a specific category. The most common is “food.”
Find affiliate programs to join.
Create high-quality content
Drive traffic to your affiliate sites by going for PPC ads or SEO.
Get clicks on affiliate links by doing link placements and callouts.
Convert clicks to sales

Conclusion

In the end, Affiliate marketing is perfect for those looking to achieve control of their income by focusing on performance-based revenue options. Affiliate marketers can earn a passive income from the comfort of their homes without worrying about producing their own products or services. As the market keeps growing, affiliate marketing is becoming more apparent to businesses of all sizes. We can expect to see more organizations use the method more frequently.

Digital Marketing > PPC