Hypothetical blogger Tamila writes long, funny posts about her life abroad and the fact that she regularly uses the services of a psychologist. It is read by several hundred thousand people on different platforms.
Sometimes among the posts there is an advertisement for a psychological help site. In addition to a good review of the resource, Tamila gives everyone a bonus promotional code – for a discount for the first session.
This is how affiliate marketing works. Psychologists pay for new clients and get them. Tamila receives a percentage from the service for each client who enters a promotional code when paying for the session. Readers who decide to buy receive a discount.
Let’s take a closer look at the scheme, talk about the benefits, participants and how to get into their number. Looking for an answer to the question of how to quickly start making money on the Internet without investing anything? It won’t be here. But there will be useful tips for those who are looking for an opportunity to work and earn money online, and not the “Get 30,000 rubles in half an hour” button.
What is affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing was born in the States and is called affiliate marketing there. Because of this, partners – participants in the system are sometimes called affiliates. We explained the general meaning with a simple example: this is the promotion of something with the participation of third-party intermediaries (partners).
The tool is used in many industries, including offline. An expert gives such an example.
Alexey Lyasnikov, Senior Product Manager at Interion, a technological construction company:
“Now for many niches in the market the situation is difficult. Therefore, affiliate marketing is especially relevant. Companies exchange customers without spending additional funds to attract.
This approach gives customers the opportunity to receive a range of related services in one window. For example, we make repairs in an apartment and offer additional services from our partners: custom-made furniture, coordination of redevelopment or sale of finishing materials.
Also, interior designers give us clients who need to turn a design project into a finished renovation. Designers receive agency fees from us.”
This example shows that affiliate marketing has another significant difference from traditional advertising. The seller company pays the affiliate partner not for promotion, but for each lead (client) brought in or for the completed target action.
Thus, the cost of a lead can be significantly lower than if you attract them through advertising companies – both online and offline. In addition, the search is not carried out by the seller, but by the partners.
You may have heard about this type of marketing if you were interested in making money on the Internet before. Its subspecies has long been known – referral marketing. It differs from the affiliate one in that referral links are mainly received by existing business customers and shared with friends. But the line between referral and affiliate marketing is rather arbitrary.
In the field of e-commerce, affiliates are also called arbitrageurs or webmasters.
Arbitrageurs are looking for business leads by buying traffic. They independently and at their own expense are looking for ways to attract, earning on the difference between the amount spent and the payment for the client from the seller.
Webmasters have their own resources (websites, blogs, communities in social networks) and an audience to which they offer the goods or services of the seller.
Who and how can earn on affiliate programs
The benefits of the seller from working on such a system are obvious – he can get new customers at minimal cost. And pay not for hypothetical sales after warming up, conducting and long work with those who are interested in advertising, but for a specific result.
In affiliate marketing, the seller of a product creates an offer (in professional jargon, an “offer”). In addition to the product description, promotion features and other nuances, the offer indicates what the creator is willing to pay partners for:
for customer contacts so that the seller can contact him (CPL, Cost Per Lead, “price per lead”);
for the completed sale of a product or service (CPS, Cost Per Sale, “price per sale” or CPO, Cost Per Order, “price per order”);
for the action that the user performs – subscribing to the newsletter, watching the video, downloading the file (CPA, Cost Per Action, “price per action”);
for each installation of a game or application after clicking on an affiliate link (CPI, Cost Per Install, “cost per install”).
We will talk more about the benefits, including partner and client benefits, below. Often in the classic scheme, in addition to the seller, partner and client, there is another interested party – affiliate networks (CPA networks).
In order to create and place offers, and then track the effectiveness of channels and the path of buyers, you need special resources and tools. Some large companies create them on their own. However, it is easier for many to use the services of intermediaries.
In this segment, CPA networks play such a role – sites where the seller can place his offer, and the webmaster or affiliate manager can find a job. Most of the platforms are international, but many also work in Russia.
You can find a thematic site with offers in a specific area (information or financial products, sports and beauty).
Some resources have payout guarantees, seller trust ratings, and training materials for new affiliates. This simplifies the start, but does not get rid of your own mistakes. Most of the subtleties will still have to be comprehended in practice.
Affiliates in the system can work both through CPA networks and directly with companies providing offers. In the second case, the income will be higher, but the work will also require additional skills. Most often, beginners gain experience by selecting offers on the boards of intermediaries, and then start looking for offers on their own.
For buying a burger using your promo code, you can get points and exchange them for burgers for yourself. And for the fact that someone issued a bank loan after your recommendation – 15,000 rubles. For results in the promotion of information products, payments are even higher.
The client, depending on the offer, can receive a discount, additional services as a gift, a set of services instead of one to save time.