Affiliate Marketing

What is Affiliate Marketing? Explained In 100 Words.

Are you wondering “What is Affiliate Marketing?” If so, you are in the right place!

Affiliate Marketing is the process through which a person (affiliate) promotes another brand’s products earning a commission if other users actually end up buying the item promoted by the affiliate.

This is a type of performance-based marketing where affiliates get paid only when a conversion occurs. For this reason, it is advisable for affiliate marketers to be specialized in a specific niche. The more specific, the better for content creators and product experts that should choose something they’re really interested in.

What players are involved?

How Affiliate marketing works

How does Affiliate Marketing Work – Source: bigcommerce.com

  • Merchant: Brands (eg. Manufacturing companies) provide each affiliate with a unique UTM so they can track who was responsible for a conversion.
  • Affiliates: as a partner the affiliate works a seller for the company. The affiliate might also be a publisher driving traffic and sales to the merchant’s website. Affiliates may be bloggers, influencers, Youtubers, Twitcher, product reviewers, news sites or even other brands.
  • Affiliate Networks: there are a number of networks to join. This depends on the niche and level of expertise. Each one has a different level of competition and profitability. It’s not mandatory joining a program.

How much does it cost for brands?

Brands have to recognize commissions to their affiliates depending on two factors:

  1. Negotiation: if the two parties did not join in a network they may negotiate their commission freely. Free products or discounts may be included in the deal as a reward. The Merchant may track sales autonomously.
  2. Affiliate program: on Amazon’s affiliate program, for example, you can earn up to 10% commissions. Some networks are more profitable than others. On Shopify earn an average of $58 for each paid signup. Click here to see what are “the best affiliate programs”.

Affiliate Marketing is suitable both for startups and for well-established companies although startups might find it more cost-effective. If you have any questions on this topic, drop me an email! I will be very glad to help!

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Nico Rubino

Growth Marketing Strategist, Passionate about Innovation, 10+ years of working experience for Startups, Digital Agencies and Corporations in eCommerce, Gaming and Tech.

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