Affiliate marketing is a business lever that is attracting more and more companies and website owners. On one side, the advertiser (or affiliate) can easily communicate its products and services. On the other, the publisher site (or affiliate) can monetize its traffic.
Because affiliate affiliate marketing is gaining momentum over the years, you need to take an interest in it right away, if you haven’t already done so.
If so, our guide is for you!
Understanding affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is so popular thanks to its concept of pay-for-performance. In other words, an advertiser will pay according to the results of its business partners. As such, you need to tell yourself that you have nothing to lose by using affiliate marketing. And you’re right!
The principle is simple: an advertiser wishing to communicate on its offer (a product or a service) goes through an affiliate who shares various communication elements with its users.
Originally, affiliation took the form of a banner created by the advertiser and displayed on the affiliate’s site. Today, the concept has evolved and, in addition to display (the display of banners), there are also many types of affiliates including :
- Influencers;
- Social networks ;
- Cashback and coupon sites;
- Emailing;
- Price comparison and shopping guides;
- Adtech (remarketing, etc.)
How to create an affiliate program
Put simply, an affiliate program is the contract between an affiliate and an affiliate, and the terms and conditions of the partnership.
Please note it should not be confused with the affiliation campaign which corresponds to the commercial offer to be promoted.
In all cases, an affiliate program is based on :
- A commercial message can take various forms (a banner, commercial arguments to share with affiliates, a product feed, a discount coupon, etc.);
- A partnership between an affiliate and an affiliator bound by a contract ;
- One type of remuneration with a specific commission rate;
- From bonuses and challenges (program animation) ;
- A tracking link which records every action related to each affiliate’s work.
Depending on the type of affiliate you are looking for and their needs, you will need to provide specific elements to create your affiliate program. And don’t hesitate to ask the key players directly, to make sure they have all the information they need to get the best results.
Affiliation Marketing at your fingertips
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Tips for finding affiliates
Some brands have a strong reputation. In doing so, they don’t need to look for affiliate partners. All they need to do is create an affiliate program and let everyone sign up automatically.
That said, not everyone has the power of Amazon (to name just one major company). Somost advertisers have to find their affiliates on their own.
In this case, we can only advise you to use a affiliation platform which will act as an intermediary between the affiliate and the advertiser.
At Casaneo, for example, we offer unique expertise in the fashion and home markets. This gives you access to a large network of affinity publishers if you operate in this sector, as well as the possibility of being accompanied by a dedicated account manager.
However, nothing prevents you from from canvassing some of your affiliates yourself if you wish.
To do this, we recommend that you clearly define your objectives. In fact, cashback and coupon code sites, as well as display (thanks in particular to retargeting), are very effective for campaigns with a sales objective, while influencers and social networks are very effective for campaigns with a visibility objective.
Once you’ve defined your objective, you can start by using your favourite search engine by focusing on your market and your targets. To find out more, don’t hesitate to look at your competitors and contact their affiliates directly to introduce them to your program.
Affiliate remuneration update
Affiliation is a business lever based on the principle of performance marketing. This means, in other words, that each payment is linked to the result of each affiliate. To do this, you understand that you need a tracking link that records all the actions of affiliate partners’ users. But did you know that there are several types of remuneration?
In affiliation, the CPA (Cost per Share). In this way, each precise action (to be defined in advance) recorded by the tracking link will generate a commission. We also often talk about the compensation model Revenue Share (remuneration linked to a percentage of what the surfer spends on the site).
Not to mention the CPC (Cost per Click), the CPM (Cost per Thousand Pages), the CPL (Cost per Lead) or CPI (Cost per Integration).
Good to know: it’s possible to combine different remuneration methods and boost the commission amount as part of a challenge.
Affiliate marketing: how to make money with affiliation?
Before we finish, let’s take a closer look at affiliates and how you can make money with affiliation.
Here again, you can use an affiliation platform to easily find interested advertisers. However, whatever solution you choose, you’ll need to work on your online visibility beforehand.
Most of the time, this involves creating a website in a niche market generating enough traffic. Why a niche market? To offer the advertiser hyper-qualified users with a high probability of being interested in its commercial offer. As an influencer, you’ll need more work on your brand image to attract affiliates. Here again, the quality of your audience will play a decisive role.
Please note: be careful not to choose just any affiliate product. You need to be sure of its quality. Because a bad product can have disastrous repercussions on your reputation.
Want to know more? Casaneo’s teams are at your disposal to help you implement your affiliate programs and campaigns.
