Communicating when you are a small business: an activity as expensive as it is time-consuming. Whether you are a merchant, craftsman or self-employed, you are probably saying to yourself that advertising on the web is not for you. Especially if you have trouble managing your cash flow on a daily basis and the slightest investment can jeopardize the financial health of your business.
Have you heard of affiliation ? Do you know that, for a VSE, it is a way to increase its turnover without too much risk ?
Membership: what is it?
Affiliation is a concept that had its heyday with the boom in e-commerce sites. We are at the beginning of the 2000s and market places where many products are exchanged are emerging. Among these, we count one of the giants of the web: Amazon. One day, she decides to launch an affiliate program (inspired, according to rumors, by the X industry) allowing third-party sites to place a small piece of code on their pages in order to recommend products from the Amazon catalog. Thus, with each sale, the publishing site (the affiliate) recovers a commission from the advertiser (the affiliator).
In fact, we are witnessing the emergence of an automatic program that can be likened to a web business provider.
Affiliation on the side of the affiliator
Let’s imagine that you are a young company selling women’s clothing and that you want to make yourself known at a lower cost. You’ve heard of affiliation and you want to advertise yourself a bit.
The first thing to do is to look for affiliation platforms and sign up.
Then, using the tools offered, you create your advertising message in the desired form (short text, banner, image, button, etc.).
Then, you select the desired remuneration . Here, things get tough, because you find several kinds:
- CPC : Cost Per Click (you only pay when someone clicks on your ad);
- CPL : Cost Per Lead (you only pay when the user performs a specific action);
- CPA : Cost Per Purchase;
- CPV : Cost Per View.
Finally, as a general rule, you can choose precisely the type of site on which you want your ad to appear . In our example, it is in your interest to target complementary sites (blogs dealing with women’s fashion, sites selling fashion accessories, etc.).
Affiliation on the side of the affiliate
On the other side we have the affiliate. This is the site that will host the ad. In this case, it’s even better, because you don’t spend anything and you can even earn money from your site.
This is in theory. Because, in practice, the reality is different. First and foremost, it’s important to know that the conversion rate for affiliate programs is no more than 1%.
So, you have understood, to start making money from your site, you must have high and regular traffic . In addition, be careful to choose your partner sites carefully!
Taking the example of a fashion blog, you will have no interest in offering advertisements from a store selling flowers or a competing store (it goes without saying).
That being said, if you know your audience and their expectations well, it is possible to offer advertisements on distant themes, but which may, however, interest your audience.
Forever the same fashion blog, let’s imagine that you know that the people who read you are young people between 18 and 30 years old. It is generally the age when we leave the family nest (for studies or the first job). Allow real estate agencies to advertise on your site. The result may be surprising.
Advantages and disadvantages of affiliation for a TPE
You have understood: for a VSE, affiliation is a new low-risk form of communication.
What is interesting is that even if you have little means, you can talk about yourself without losing money . Indeed, by choosing the CPA, for example, you only pay if the purchase action has been triggered.
This is why affiliation is very popular with small businesses and can easily accompany an SEO strategy , which takes longer to implement.
With its performance-based remuneration system, affiliation can help you make rapid progress without blowing your communications budget. Seek advice from specialized platforms to be sure to carry out successful campaigns.
Who knows: maybe one day you too will be an affiliate?
Affiliation Marketing at your fingertips
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