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Affiliate marketing: things that you should know

The importance of affiliate marketing in this day and age couldn’t be overemphasized. Most companies use the affiliate marketing process to increase their sales in the marketplace. The process can also be utilized to make the people aware of the brand and project a positive image of the product/service in the customers’ minds. Given the popularity internet enjoy among all kinds of consumers, affiliate marketing is one of the sure-shot ways to increase profitability while ensuring long-term business sustainability.  

What is Affiliate Marketing? 

The affiliate marketing process consists of an affiliate marketer who markets a company’s product or service to prospective buyers. The conversion rate will ultimately decide the amount of money that an affiliate marketer will make at the end of the day. Affiliate marketers are usually the opinion leaders who enjoy or hold expertise in one or more categories. They are thoroughly aware of the product, and in the role of an affiliate marketer, they promote the product among the target audiences. 

Key Stakeholders

There are three main stakeholders involved in the affiliate marketing process. These parties are 1) producer or manufacturer, 2) affiliate marketers, and 3) the customer. It is important to understand that all these stakeholders are an indispensable part of the affiliate marketing process, and in the absence of even a single stakeholder, the process will not be able to meet its desired goals.  

An affiliate marketer can be an individual or an organization. More often than not, affiliates are individual bloggers or content creators interested in a particular category of products or services. These people are usually associated with writing specific content related to a specific product, making detailed video reviews of the products/services, and conduct a range of other activities that help them emerge as an expert of particular product or service. The affiliate’s credibility and expertise are the key components of the convincing power that an affiliate marketer commands among its followers. 

On the other hand, Gladio.com is an affiliate marketing organization that has carved a place for itself thanks to its impressive ability to generate quality traffic at a reasonable price. The company has emerged as a one-stop destination for affiliate marketing needs and grown tremendously owing to its professional expertise and client-centric approach.

How Affiliate Marketing Works? 

As mentioned earlier, an affiliate marketer’s performance is the basis for the payment he/she receives from the organization. There are several different methods through which the performance of an affiliate marketer can be evaluated, although the following three are the most common criteria for judging performance and deciding incentives for affiliate marketers: 

a) Pay per Click method: As the name suggests, it is a method in which the affiliate marketer is paid for all valid clicks its marketing campaign generates from prospective buyers. It is important to note that the evaluation criteria remain limited only to the clicking of links and not take into consideration whether the leads or sales have been generated through these clicks or not. 

b) Pay per Lead method: The most practical method of paying to an affiliate marketer is pay per lead. In this particular method, the payment to the affiliate marketer is made based on qualified action generated due to the affiliate marketer’s efforts. The payment is made in the form of a fixed commission that an affiliate marketer gets on every valid action that a particular click generates. Some examples of valid actions include signing up for a free trial, survey completion, submission of an online form, etc. 

c) Pay per Sales method: In this particular method, the affiliate marketer is paid in terms of percentage of sales generated by valid clicks. The terms and conditions related to pay per sales usually vary from company to company and ultimately decided by the negotiation between the company and the affiliate marketer. Amazon Associates is one of the most common pay per sales program available in the market, and it offers a chance of earning up to 15% on the product sold by the affiliate marketer. 

Affiliate Networks

Of late, the high Emphasis and tremendous growth in affiliate marketing have led to the evolution of affiliate networks, which act as intermediaries between companies and their affiliate marketers. These networks prove helpful in the sector’s overall evolution by providing a smooth channel of communication between companies and affiliate marketers. Besides, these networks also act as a balancing shaft in managing the complex relationships between organizations and their affiliates. 

Conclusion

It is not hard to understand the importance of affiliate marketing in the 21st century. We are at the cusp of a digital revolution, and thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the importance of the internet and digital platforms have reached a different level altogether. In such a scenario, affiliate marketing is likely to get further boost its popularity, although the complexity and competition in this sector are also expected to intensify further.

MD: Take a quick sneak peek into a synopsis of Affiliate Marketing, its stakeholders, and everything else you should know about it.