The affiliate marketing is a performance solution. In fact, the cost of the campaign is directly linked to the results of your affiliate partners.
This is the main reason why affiliation is gaining ground year after year.
In fact, analysts predict that affiliate marketing will grow by 240% between 2014 and 2022.
That said, just because you only pay for results doesn’t mean that your affiliate programs will necessarily deliver ROI.
You need to choose the right affiliates to speak to the right targets at the right time.
That’s why it’s important to look at points of contact in affiliate marketing.
Understanding the affiliate marketing business
Before getting down to the nitty-gritty, let’s take a look at the principle of affiliate marketing. We think it’s always important to remember how an affiliation strategy works.
First of all, every affiliate program is based on a commercial between an affiliate and an affiliate. The affiliator is the one who needs the affiliate to spread his message to Internet users. So, as you can see, it’s the advertiser.
As affiliate marketing grows richer and richer, it’s becoming more and more common to use an affiliate marketing platform which, in this case, acts as an intermediary. The latter uses sophisticated technology to precisely track the results obtained by affiliates according to the type of remuneration defined upstream.
Speaking of type of remunerationYou can choose from several, including CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPA (Cost Per Action). Or even combine them.
What’s more, affiliation is often associated with banner advertising. This was indeed the case at first. However, affiliate marketing has evolved with the times, and today offers numerous formats, including video, advertorials, promotional codes, product feeds or the ability to tap into the audience of content creators via social networks.
In any case, it’s important to remember that affiliate marketing is based on the principle of performance-based commissions. So, if the chosen affiliate doesn’t get any results, commissions will be zero.
Affiliation Marketing at your fingertips
THE KEYS TO MAKING THE MOST OF THIS BOOMING LEVER Download the guide!Affiliate marketing with a focus on the customer journey
As you read these few lines, you should realize that you have nothing to lose by implementing an affiliation strategy. That’s right.
However, if you spend time creating an affiliate program, it’s not for mediocre results.
That’s why we recommend that our affiliate customers who want to launch an affiliate program should take a close look at contact points.
Directly linked to the customer journeythe advertising touchpoint of your affiliate program is the moment when you when you capture your target’s attention.
Often represented in the form of a funnel, this is known as the conversion tunnel or customer journey.
The first point of contact is the discovery phase. Consumers don’t know about your product or service, and as an advertiser, you need to make them want to know more.
The second point of contact is the interest phase. Here, the Internet user is already familiar with your product or service, but is still hesitant to make a purchase.
The third point of contact is the search or desire phase. The customer is about to buy your product or service, but still needs reassurance that he’s making the right choice.
The fourth, and final, point of contact is the decision phase. This is the moment when the customer has decided to buy the product or service. You just have to push them a little to get them to buy.
The interesting thing about affiliate marketing is that there are specialized affiliates for every contact point.
Affiliate marketing: what is a good digital communication strategy?
Your objective as an advertiser and affiliate : turn a prospect into a customer.
To do this, you need to use the right affiliate at the right time.
In the contact phase, we use commercial partners who can reassure and inform. We’re thinking, for example, of content creation specialists (influencers and bloggers), publishing websites and social networks.
Once the visitor has become familiar with your product, he or she moves on to the interest phase. Here, a shopping guide, price comparator or email retargeting will push them a little further along the purchasing path. You no longer need to insist on the product itself. You have to make consumers want to trust you rather than your competitors.
Once this stage is over, we move on to the search phase. A good affiliate strategy at this level focuses on reinsurance elements via community sites. At this stage, your company needs to position itself as the the best answer to a given problem, in order to generate the desire to buy.
Finally, we come to the decision phase, where you have to drive the nail in. For this, there’s nothing better than promo codes and cashback to facilitate decision-making. Not to mention the retargeting which, here again, is a powerful business lever for a company.
How to set up an affiliation program on the web?
Although it is possible to create and manage your own affiliate program, it is increasingly advisable to enlist the help of a affiliation platform such as Casaneo.
By entrusting your affiliate marketing to us, you’re putting all the chances on your side to create a high-performance, profitable affiliate program.
In addition to helping you choose the right affiliate and content creator for your affiliate program, you benefit from high-performance, transparent tools. This is the case, for example, of our tracking affiliate link which is able to offer a number of precise information to enable you, as a company, to manage your affiliate marketing on a day-to-day basis.
