Affiliate digital marketing is a performance-based strategy where marketers promote products, companies, or services online and earn a commission for each customer who clicks on an affiliate link and completes a desired action — such as making a sale, signing up for a newsletter, or any other type of conversion. The key players in this business model are advertisers, affiliates, and affiliate networks.
In our comprehensive guide, we’ll cover all you need to know about affiliate marketing, including how it works, its benefits, the best affiliate marketing networks, and the best practices to succeed.
Key Takeaways
- Affiliate digital marketing is a cost-effective promotional strategy that can help businesses tap into diverse customer bases and affiliates generate income.
- Effective affiliate digital marketing campaigns can lead to more conversions and revenue for both parties.
- Amazon, eBay, Rakuten, and Impact are some of the biggest affiliate marketing networks in 2024.
Table of Contents
- What Is an Affiliate Link?
- How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
- The Difference Between Affiliate Marketing and Influencer Marketing
- How Do Affiliate Marketing Programs Work?
- 7 Best Affiliate Marketing Networks
- What To Consider When Choosing an Affiliate Network
- Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?
- 5 Key Benefits of Affiliate Marketing Promotion
- How To Make Sure Your Affiliate Marketing Campaigns Are Successful
- Best Practices for Creating an Affiliate Marketing Strategy
- Affiliate Digital Marketing Takeaways
What Is an Affiliate Link?
An affiliate link is a URL generated specifically for each affiliate marketer. It's easy to recognize: after the regular URL, you'll have a tail that starts with “ref=.”
This example is from marketing expert Neil Patel.
Affiliate links track the traffic from a marketing campaign to the corresponding landing page. They're used in affiliate marketing programs and show brands the results being driven by their marketers.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Affiliate marketing works by understanding the conditions set between the merchant and the affiliate. Here’s how it works:
Key Players
- Merchant/Business Owner: A person or entity with a product or service they want to promote.
- Affiliate Marketers: Individuals who promote products or services for a commission.
Merchant Options
- Join an affiliate network: The merchant can join an affiliate network, which aggregates all offers on one platform, and partner with their chosen marketers in exchange for a commission.
- Directly coordinate a deal: A merchant can also directly coordinate with affiliate marketers and offer them a deal.
Affiliate Marketer Options
- Contact merchants directly: Affiliate marketers can contact retailers and merchants directly to promote their products.
- Use affiliate marketplaces: Affiliates can choose the products from aggregate sites and affiliate marketplaces like ClickBank or CJ Affiliate.
Process of Affiliate Marketing
- Digital marketing affiliates are given a unique link to integrate into content that promotes these products and entices their audiences to learn more about them.
- Potential customers are directed to the link to make a purchase or complete a desired action.
- The link tracks the traffic and sales generated by the affiliate’s efforts, and upon conversion, the affiliate is credited with a commission.
- The merchant or affiliate network tracks the conversions completed through the affiliate links and distributes the commission based on agreed-upon terms.
The Role of Cookies in Affiliate Marketing Links
What happens if people click the affiliate marketer’s link, land on the website, and don’t complete the desired action? For marketers, not all is lost. If a potential customer returns to the site within 30 days, completes the purchase, or signs up for a service, the affiliate marketer will still be credited with the commission. This is thanks to the cookies that track browsing activity.
Cookies are small snippets saved on browsers that store information about each user and what they do online. They enable merchants, marketers, and affiliate networks to track website visitors across the buyer’s journey and credit each conversion accordingly.
The Difference Between Affiliate Marketing and Influencer Marketing
Affiliate digital marketing and influencer marketing share many similarities. Both influencers and affiliates choose products relevant to their audiences — often something they personally use and believe in — and promote them on various channels. Brands can leverage both strategies to reach broader audiences, improve their credibility, and generate higher revenue.
Understanding the differences between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing can help you determine which approach best suits your offerings:
| Aspect | Affiliate Marketing | Influencer Marketing |
| Primary objective | Generating sales and conversions | Building brand awareness and trust |
| Payment structure | Commissions are earned only when conversions are completed. | Upfront, fixed payment to create content for brand partners |
| Tracking and reporting | Data collection and analytics tools track clicks and conversions | Social media marketing tools measure reach and engagement |
| Brand messaging | Brands have limited control over affiliates’ strategies to promote their links. | Brands outline specific guidelines for influencers to follow. |
How Do Affiliate Marketing Programs Work?
An affiliate digital marketing program serves as an intermediary, providing a platform where businesses can offer their products and services for affiliates to promote in exchange for a commission.
Affiliates, such as content creators, influencers, and digital marketers, can choose from a wide variety of offerings across industries, ensuring compatibility with their established audiences. They must agree with the platform and merchant terms for commission rates and payment schedules to begin a fruitful partnership.
Affiliate marketing programs provide essential tools for tracking clicks, conversions, and sales, allowing both parties to optimize their campaigns and improve performance. They also handle the payment process, ensuring affiliates are paid commissions according to the agreed-upon terms. Additionally, these networks provide marketing resources, educational materials, customer support, and anti-fraud systems for merchants and affiliates.
7 Best Affiliate Marketing Networks
It is important to choose an affiliate network that aligns with your goals, provides the most value to merchants and marketers, and supports long-term growth and success. Some of the best affiliate marketing networks include:
1. Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates is one of the largest affiliate programs in the world, where marketers can link audiences to their recommendations and earn from qualified purchases. To join Amazon's affiliate program, just sign up to become an Amazon associate, choose an Amazon product, and receive a link that you can share across various platforms.
Note that not all items fetch the same commissions. This table summarizes the product types and their corresponding fixed rates:
2. Impact.com
Brands and marketers can sign up on this award-winning platform to build high-value partnerships, maximize revenue, and drive higher return on investment (ROI). Impact.com is designed for scalability, with a comprehensive suite of tools for tracking, managing, and optimizing affiliate programs.
Its standout feature is the ability to create highly customized affiliate partnerships, so brands can tailor programs to meet specific objectives. All parties are protected by strong anti-fraud measures to ensure legitimate transactions and fair compensation.
3. eBay Partner Network
eBay's official affiliate program provides all the tools, reporting capabilities, and other resources needed for affiliate partners to succeed. The platform’s global reach and trusted reputation enhance the potential for high conversion rates for affiliates and merchants alike.
Like Amazon, this program sets different commission percentages and caps per product type:
4. Rakuten Advertising
Rakuten’s affiliate program has been running for over 25 years and has capably evolved in the digital age, providing cutting-edge tech and intelligence tools to maximize affiliate performance. Top brands across various industries allow marketers to choose products that best align with their audience.
Detailed reporting, deep linking, and dynamic commissioning help creators develop highly targeted and personalized campaigns, thus increasing ROI and revenue for their brand partners.
5. CJ Affiliate
Formerly known as Commission Junction, this is one of the most established and reliable affiliate marketing networks today. Brands can connect with a global network of skilled creators and affiliates who can help drive conversions and boost sales. The platform has a strong support system and comprehensive resources that empower merchants and affiliates to succeed.
6. ShareASale
In 2023, 30,000 merchants and 1 million publishers generated more than $200 million in sales on this platform. Its intuitive interface is easy to use for beginners and experienced marketers, with detailed reporting that optimizes performance and maximizes earnings.
7. ClickBank
With ClickBank, affiliates can benefit from high-converting affiliate offers, on-time payments, robust tracking tools, and extensive educational resources. Brands can easily promote and scale with the platforms’ powerful affiliate management solutions.
What To Consider When Choosing an Affiliate Network
Consider the following factors when choosing an affiliate network:
- Reach: The number of brands and merchants will increase your chances of finding partners that align with your audience.
- Commission structure: Look at each network’s rates, fees, and value proposition. Make sure your efforts will be rewarded accordingly.
- Payment methods: Reasonable earning thresholds, payout frequency, and convenient payment methods will help you choose the best affiliate network for you.
- Reporting tools: Accurate tracking features will attribute the correct sales and conversions, ensuring you are compensated fairly. Detailed analytics will help optimize your campaigns.
- Fraud prevention and security: These features protect against fraudulent activities and ensure the safety and transparency of all transactions.
- Support: Responsive customer service, training resources, and marketing tools can streamline workflows and improve campaign performance.
Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?
Global affiliate marketing spending is expected to reach over $15 billion by the end of 2024, with over $8 billion generated in the United States alone. Its efficacy is undeniable: 56% of marketers use it during the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, 58% during the consideration stage, 50% during the conversion stage, and 32% for post-purchase retention.
Affiliates earn an average of over $8,000 in commissions per month. Those with 3 to 5 years of experience make 4x more than beginners, and affiliates with over a decade of experience earn 6x more than everyone else.
5 Key Benefits of Affiliate Marketing Promotion
Affiliate marketing leverages established audiences to increase conversions and revenue. Businesses can benefit from affiliate marketing in many different ways:
- Increased traffic
- Lead generation boost
- Cost-effective marketing
- Beneficial business relationships
- Increased brand exposure
1. Increased Traffic
Affiliate marketers, like influencers, will use their platforms to promote products or services to their audience. Even if there isn’t a conversion, you can still gain organic website traffic and increase time spent on the site, both of which are positive signals for search engine algorithms.
Affiliate links are also valuable for link-building, which further boosts SEO performance. Improving your website’s ranking on SERPs will bring long-term benefits to your business.
2. Lead Generation Boost
Affiliate marketing can help capture valuable leads, even if website visitors don’t convert. You can remarket to customers and provide more opportunities for them to convert later on. You also get an opportunity to upsell or sell more products when visitors click on your website.
3. Cost-Effective Marketing Tactics
Affiliate digital marketing is often considered a low-cost strategy because you only pay commissions when an affiliate generates a conversion. With little to no financial risk involved, you are assured a return on your investment through these performance-based business partnerships.
4. Beneficial Business Relationships
While loyalty between affiliate marketers and merchants isn’t required, building these strong relationships certainly doesn't hurt. The more affiliates and content creators who promote your product, the better the outcomes for both parties. It’s a win-win scenario that benefits everyone involved.
5. Increased Brand Exposure
Through content created by your affiliates, your brand and offerings reach a wider audience, which can help you solidify your place in the market. Brand awareness is a critical element of long-term business success, and affiliate marketing can take it to the next level.
How To Make Sure Your Affiliate Marketing Campaigns Are Successful
For marketing campaigns to succeed, you need to strategically plan, execute, and monitor your efforts. Here are some key affiliate marketing tips and steps to guide your business:
- Identify the right affiliates
- Offer attractive commissions
- Provide promotional materials
- Communicate regularly
- Analyze performance and adjust accordingly
1. Identify the Right Affiliates
Choose affiliates whose audiences align with your target market and who have established trust within your shared niche. This helps ensure that their promotions resonate and lead to conversions. Monitor audience interactions and track engagement metrics to identify potentially high-performing affiliates for your business.
2. Offer Attractive Commissions
Competitive commission rates will entice content creators and affiliates to partner with your brand. These rates can also motivate them to publish the most engaging, valuable, and high-converting posts that will lead more interested customers to your brand offerings. You can set specific targets and offer higher rates for your best-performing affiliates to drive even better results.
3. Provide Marketing Materials
To maintain consistency across your promotional efforts, supply affiliates with marketing collaterals they can use in their content, such as banners and product images. High visual appeal from these materials can lead to more engagement and conversions.
4. Communicate Regularly
Inform your affiliates about new brand offerings and promotions so they can effectively promote your latest deals and keep their audience in the loop. Answer queries promptly and provide needed support to boost their performance and increase conversions from their efforts.
5. Analyze Performance and Adjust Accordingly
Leverage cutting-edge software to ensure accurate records of referrals and sales. This ensures fair compensation and continued trust with your affiliate partners. Provide data and actionable insights so they can adjust their strategies accordingly.
Best Practices for Creating an Affiliate Marketing Strategy
Affiliate digital marketing promises increased conversions and revenue for your business. Here are some best practices that will help you create an affiliate marketing strategy that will succeed:
- Invest in a strong social media game
- Leverage search engine optimization
- Build an effective email marketing strategy
- Write and publish thoughtful content
1. Invest in a Strong Social Media Game
Build your following organically by sharing helpful blog posts, curating relevant content, and engaging with your followers productively. Use social media as a tool to build and nurture an engaged community and strategically include affiliate links in your content to drive conversions.
2. Leverage Search Engine Optimization
For people to click on your affiliate links, they need to be able to find you, typically by looking up keywords in your industry and discovering your website in search results. Leveraging search engine optimization (SEO) will boost traffic to your site and entice more visitors to convert, leading to improved rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs).
3. Build an Effective Email Marketing Strategy
Affiliate email marketing can encourage even more clicks to your links. Actively engage customers in your messages and emphasize the value of the brand’s offerings to increase conversions. Incorporate visual elements, compelling subject lines, and persuasive calls to action in your emails to boost conversions.
4. Write and Publish Thoughtful Content
Create high-quality content that emphasizes the value of the products or services you’re promoting. Establish a strong brand identity that consumers can connect with, making them more likely to purchase. You can review or compare products and provide affiliate links for both. A combination of text and video marketing can further increase engagement, retention, and search engine rankings.
Affiliate Digital Marketing Takeaways
Affiliate digital marketing is a critical strategy in the modern business landscape, where brands and marketers can develop a mutually beneficial relationship. Businesses can capture new audiences and affiliates can earn commissions for as long as their campaigns lead to conversions. There is tremendous potential in affiliate marketing, and it is certainly worth investing in.
Partner with the top affiliate digital marketing companies to benefit from their expertise and increase conversions and revenue for your business.
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