Affiliate Marketing: what is it and where to start?

You probably have heard a lot about Affiliate Marketing, especially in the last few months, when the new Coronavirus pandemic made many people work from home, looking for new alternatives to make money.

But its success is not today, the affiliate marketing sector has been growing at least 25% every year for the past 10 years and in 2018 alone it moved over R $ 4 billion in the world. And if you are one of those people who love statistics, join one more: according to a Business Insider survey 15% of the total digital media advertising revenue is attributed to affiliate marketing.

You can already see how much this market has been growing and all its potential, right? Now, continue with us to better understand how it all works and how you can also take a slice of this profitable business. 🤑

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is the commercial relationship in which a person discloses a product of a company in exchange for receiving a commission for the sale made.

Have you ever seen an ad like "Earn commission for selling our products"? So, this approach is quite common for companies that work with affiliate marketing in their marketing strategies. Do you know those professionals known as sales representatives who broker sales for one or more producers, earning commissions for them? So, the Affiliate basically plays the same role, promoting the products and services of a company and earning a part of the amount in commission, the difference is that the whole process happens online.

And believe me, this type of business in digital format is not as recent, as many think. He was born there in 1996 with BeFree, LinkShare, and Amazon. In fact, Amazon Associates, the affiliate platform for Jeff Bezos' company, was largely responsible for the brand's booming growth.

Over time we could see that it was not just Amazon that grew, affiliate marketing became a fever worldwide and today it is on the rise in Brazil with several advantages for companies, affiliates, and customers.

What are the advantages of working with Affiliate Marketing?

Check out below how the affiliate marketing ecosystem works, who are its participants, and what are its advantages.

Producer

It is a person or a company that “creates a product” and looks for affiliate platforms to advertise it with a focus on boosting sales.

By betting on affiliate marketing, the producer is able to grow his client base and his sales results, without investing a lot of money in ads and other paid media models.

Affiliate

The affiliate is the “online commercial representative”, who discloses a product, service or brand to several people, making sales for the producer and, in return, being paid for it.

The affiliate can sell on numerous platforms, to various producers, several different products, selling directly to individuals, companies, end customers or intermediaries.

It all depends on the type of product, service, purpose, among other factors. The important thing is to help the producer to sell, so everyone wins.

Client

Finally, the key to any business: the end customer. It is he who will know the offer announced by the affiliate and, thus, buy what the producer offers.

It is what makes the entire affiliate system work perfectly. Without it, sales would not be possible, and therefore, no amount to receive and no commission to pay.

What are the types of affiliate advertising and commissioning?

Here are some acronyms you need to know to understand how the affiliate marketing universe works.

CPC - Cost Per Click

One of the oldest commissioning models on the Internet launched around the 2000s along with the rise of Google AdWords.

It works as follows, the affiliate publishes banners, links, or other materials in exchange for a small fee for each click, regardless of the subsequent action.

The advantage of this model is that the Affiliate is not responsible for the final result (the sale of the product). However, it is a more difficult model to scale, as it takes thousands of ad clicks to receive a significant amount.

CPM - Cost Per Thousand Impressions

CPM became famous in advertising agencies and in the traditional media. In the 90s it became one of the main forms of remuneration on the Internet.

In this modality, for every thousand impressions (total number of times that a publication was shown to users within a certain period), the affiliate receives a fixed amount.

Portals and blogs that had good traffic chose this model because they ended up receiving a recurring value every month.

CPV - Cost per Sale

As the name suggests, here the affiliate is rewarded when the customer finalizes the purchase.

Amazon's affiliate program works with this model; in which it is possible to receive a commission of up to 15% on sales generated in e-commerce.

CPL - Valid Cost Per Lead

The leads are extremely valuable in today's marketing. Therefore, nothing better than rewarding those contacts that will really be beneficial for a company.

In this model, the affiliate wins for each valid lead. For example, you can earn credits on Airbnb when you refer a person who signs up and becomes a host. On some travel sites, for example, by referring a user who signs up and buys a plane ticket, you earn a commission.

What channels are used to promote the product?

The range of channels for promoting products and services is huge, check out the ones that bring the most results.

Website or blog

Having your own website or blog allows you to have full control over what you are going to sell and decide how to do it.

You can create a specific website to sell a product or service, talking about a particular topic, such as weight loss, selling only things geared to that area. But it is not enough to just create a website, it is necessary to develop SEO techniques - one of the main pillars that support a successful website or blog - to make you gain more presence and gain higher positions in search engines.

In addition to SEO techniques, it is also very important to work with content marketing to have a content production strategy focused on attracting, engaging, converting potential customers and retaining them. And, finally, you need to invest in ads on the channels where your audience is, whether on social networks or Google itself, only then will you be able to bring more traffic to your site.

Social networks

You can must use your network of contacts and influence your friends and followers on your Social Media.

The indication of a friend or acquaintance has more influence on people's purchasing decisions than digital influencers, for example. So, if you are referring to a product or service, the chance that a follower will trust and purchase is even greater.

But as the organic reach of these media is limited, investing in Social Ads is the key to success. By creating ads and segmenting your audience, according to the profile of your target audience, you can reach the right people and attract a more qualified audience to work with conversion strategies.

E-mail marketing

If you think the email is dead, you are totally wrong.

After attracting your potential customers through social networks with relevant content and killer ads, it is time to work that foundation with information about the products you sell.

That's where email marketing comes in, as an integral part of the lead nutrition strategy, a still very effective tool in digital marketing that if used in the right way ensures great results.

What are the Affiliate Marketing platforms?

There are numerous platforms dedicated to affiliate marketing on the Internet.

 Here we are going to talk about the biggest and most relevant ones for you to decide which one looks more like you.

Hotmart

The Hotmart is one of the largest affiliate marketing platforms, bringing together more than 1.3 million users and, in addition, in 2019 had an 80% increase in revenues.

This platform is focused on the sale of info products, main courses, with complete support for those who want to create a study environment.

Monetizze

The Monetizze is a platform that allows to perform the complete management of metrics, including allowing for integration with Google Analytics, ensuring a more assertive analysis of the data and greater conversion to its affiliates.

Today, the platform has more than 300 thousand registered affiliates and transacts R $ 100 million per month in physical and digital products.

EdBuzz

EdBuzz is focused on digital products and also has a processing platform for its producers and affiliates, call Academia 360.

Among the advantages of the platform are the lowest rates on the market, the possibility of receiving earnings in two days and tools that allow to identify and try to recover that customer who abandoned the cart, ensuring greater conversion for the affiliate.

5 tips for starting an Affiliate Marketing program from scratch

If you have a product or service, you can start an affiliate marketing program to earn even more! Get connected to our tips.

1 - Choose the Affiliate Program

We previously cited the sites with the most popular affiliate programs. And there's even more!

You can search the internet to find others that fit your area better and that allow you to take your products or services directly to your audience in the most effective way.

2 - Choose the ideal product to work with

It is important that you focus on an ideal product or service.

Choose something that has to do with your lifestyle or that you are knowledgeable about, this will facilitate all your marketing work and also bring more profit, the one that sells more, or that is better known and easier to sell.

3 - Know the pain of your audience

Selling is not enough. Your audience needs to want to buy what you offer.

For this, it is important that your product solves a pain, a problem. If you sell a weight loss course, your audience's pain can be much more than just being healthier. Pain can be the search for a better appearance that brings more acceptance and self-esteem.

By fully understanding your client's pain, you can adapt your communication and strategies to be more assertive.

4 - Educate your audience about what you are selling

Creating materials that teach your affiliates about the products or services they will sell will greatly facilitate the sales process, especially informing the buyer profile, the best approach, etc.

You can also create materials to educate the final consumer, so that he understands the advantages of what you offer, how to use it, among other information.

The more the content you create, the easier it is for everyone to understand what you are offering. Therefore, develop support materials such as e-books, blog posts, webinars, among others, encouraging people to learn more about your product.

5 - Find your effective business model and invest in it

In the beginning you can test various strategies, ways of communicating with the public, communication channels. You may not get it right the first time and this is normal.

The important thing is that you always evaluate your business model until you find the most effective way to publicize your affiliate program, generating positive ROI.

Created, tested, evaluated, discovered what is giving more results? Now it's time to scale this model to the maximum, increasing the amount invested in advertising, traffic, and, of course, your profit!