With digital marketing becoming incredibly prominent, there are several tactics that businesses and brands can use to increase their visibility, awareness and online traffic.

If you are new to digital marketing, reach out to a marketing agency London, and they will help set the tone for you. Given the rising use of the internet, the future will entail greater penetration and demand for digital marketing.

It is about time that companies jump on the bandwagon of online marketing strategies. One such strategy of note is affiliate marketing.
 
Introducing affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a commission-based marketing tactic wherein a company promotes and sells its products and services through an individual or company partner. The commission is no new phenomenon or payment method but rather among the oldest ones.

Relevant questions to ask now are:

    How do brands identify suitable partners and companies?
    What ways or methods do brands use to go ahead with affiliate marketing?
 
Identifying affiliate partners and companies

The rationale behind this marketing model is that a brand shall use an affiliate - an intermediary of sorts - to promote their goods and services that shares and caters to the same target audience or demographic. Think of this as a multi-level marketing scheme, if you may.

What do affiliates get by doing this?

Affiliates get an additional source of income by promoting other brands and businesses. Affiliate marketing is a paid advertising method. It is a PPC or Pay-Per-Click advertising tactic as the affiliates only get paid when online visitors and surfers click on the banner ad and purchase from the brand website. As the company records a sale, the affiliate gets credited with the commission.
 
Getting with affiliate marketing

Given the multiple online platforms and mediums, affiliate marketing can entail making a brand reference through a blog post or social media post. Moreover, the blog reference can use hyperlinking or backlinking for emphasis. The company that front runs an affiliate marketing program does so by providing fellow affiliates with a link or banner for publishing.

Now that you see how affiliate marketing works on commission, you should know the types of commissions.
 
Types of Commissions

Affiliate marketing goes way beyond just selling products online. It can be suited to several types and strategies of businesses. The types of commission that affiliate partners can avail from the marketing avenue are:

CPA or Cost Per Sale - This is akin to the PPC strategy wherein individual or company affiliates are paid a commission once the brand registers a sale order. The commission is a percentage of the order value.

CPC or Cost Per Click - Apart from sales, affiliates can also receive payments depending on the number of visits that affiliates send to the brand.

CPL or Cost Per Lead - CPL is a lead generation tactic wherein affiliates get a commission for generating leads. Lead generation helps develop a connection and rapport between the brand and its audience. For instance, prospects filling the online form to avail the brand’s product or service catalogue counts as lead generation.
 
Performance Tracking

Like how brands and businesses can track online sales, they should also make it a point to monitor the performance of their affiliate programs. One tool that comes to the rescue of the brand is Google Analytics.

Google Analytics makes affiliate sales tracking incredibly easy and accessible for brands through integration. The tool allows businesses to set up an automated approach wherein their Google Analytics accounts automatically receives the affiliate data about any sessions, clicks or sales.

This creates micro-conversions of PPC, such as time spent on the website and scroll depth, among others. Furthermore, brands can track the source of visitors - display, video, social or search. These four avenues feed into the CTA temperature scale, concluding that conversions from display or banner ads are cold visitors and search parameters are warm.
 
Benefits of an Affiliate marketing program

The benefits here refer to affiliate partners. As an individual or company affiliate, there are considerable benefits that you stand to inherit by participating in affiliate programs.

The core function - As an affiliate, your job is primarily one of handling the marketing aspect for brands - educating and spreading awareness. You need not worry about the more challenging tasks of developing and generating leads, providing after-sales support or order fulfilment.

A low-risk endeavour - It does not cost much to join affiliate programs. With no upfront investment, you can start making money instantly with established brands and products - your job is passive, and so is your income. It is an excellent side hustle as it serves as an additional income source to your primary business income.

Diversification - The program presents tremendous opportunities for upscaling your passive income by introducing new products and services to your target audience. The good news is this will not hamper your existing brand work and promotions.

 Parting words

Among several tactics that brands can use to build their awareness and web traffic is affiliate marketing. The model pays affiliates once online visitors click on the display ad and purchase through the brand website. This is the CPA or Cost Per Sale approach. CPL or Cost Per Lead and CPC or Cost Per Click are other commission models.

The rationale behind affiliate marketing is finding companies or individuals that cater to the same target audience. Plus, affiliate marketing strategies are automatically trackable through Google Analytics.

A passive income source with extremely low risks, the tactic is excellent for companies or individuals seeking an additional income stream.