Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which a company compensates third-party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company’s products and services. The third-party publishers are affiliates, and the commission fee incentivizes them to find ways to promote the company. The internet has increased the prominence of affiliate marketing. Amazon (AMZN) popularized the practice by creating an affiliate marketing program whereby websites and bloggers put links to the Amazon page for a reviewed or discussed product to receive advertising fees when a purchase is made. In this sense, affiliate marketing is essentially a pay-for-performance marketing program where the act of selling is outsourced across a vast network.

Affiliate marketing predates the Internet, but it the world of digital marketing, analytics, and cookies made it a billion-dollar industry. A company running an affiliate marketing program can track the links that bring in leads and, through internal analytics, see how many convert to sales.

An e-commerce merchant wanting to reach a wider base of internet users and shoppers may hire an affiliate. An affiliate could be the owner of multiple websites or email marketing lists; the more websites or email lists that an affiliate has, the wider its network. The hired affiliate then communicates and promotes the products offered on the e-commerce platform to their network. The affiliate does this by running banner ads, text ads, or links on its websites or sending email to clientele. Firms use advertisements in the form of articles, videos, and images to draw an audience’s attention to a service or product.

Visitors who click the ads or links are redirected to the e-commerce site. If they purchase the product or service, the e-commerce merchant credits the affiliate’s account with the agreed-upon commission, which could be 5% to 10% of the sales price.

The goal of this model is to increase sales and create a win-win solution for both merchant and affiliate. The system is unique and profitable and becoming increasingly popular.

The internet and improving technologies are making the model easier to implement. Companies have improved how they track and pay commissions on qualified leads. Being better able to track leads and sales contributes to how they can improve or better position their products.

Those interested in pursuing affiliate marketing will benefit from understanding what’s involved, as well as advantages and disadvantages.

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