Today, almost any business or process can be outsourced. Outsourcing saves companies both time and money. However, some forms of outsourcing have evolved to a smarter way of conducting business. Although not technically outsourcing, affiliate marketing is currently widely used by businesses to increase their sales. Some companies even consider affiliate marketing to be the most effective marketing strategy. Affiliate marketing is a win-win situation for both the business and the affiliate. Currently, numerous affiliates run their livelihood using affiliate marketing. Many a time, these affiliates also act as influencers enticing consumers to choose a particular brand. There are multiple benefits of affiliate marketing for both publishers and advertisers.
Benefits of affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing benefits for the publisher
Low investment
Affiliate programs are elementary, to begin with, which require little to no investment. All the investment needed is to set up a website, which can cost as little as $10. Also, it’s relatively easy to set up an affiliate program. For instance, Amazon has a separate tab where anyone can choose to become an affiliate. The company merely provides UTM codes for links that point to their website. When a sale is made, the publisher gets a certain percentage as commission.
Low operating cost
Apart from the low levels of initial investment required, the upkeep costs are also pretty nominal. The only operating cost will usually include hosting fees and the time invested in maintaining the website and content.
Generates money in the long run
Affiliate marketing is an ingenious marketing strategy, which yields money even when the website is not updated on a regular basis. Once the content is set, people will still visit the site in the future, and any transaction that takes place from the website will fetch commission for the publisher. However, this is not to say that once everything is set, all is done, publishers still need to refresh their websites in order to increase their revenues.
Affiliate marketing benefits for the advertiser
Low risk
Affiliate marketing is often considered to be the most effective marketing strategy as advertisers only pay money when it works. Consequently, it also leads to a higher conversion and success rate. Businesses don’t have to pay anything if it doesn’t work.
Low entry price
Businesses don’t need to be huge or have a large fund to start with affiliate marketing. Just a functioning website with products is enough to get started. Since businesses only have to pay when a sale is made, they can pay the affiliate from the sales money requiring no extra investment.
Better SEO ranking
It is evident that high-quality external link is one of the most significant ranking factors in SERP. Since publishers direct some of their traffic to an advertiser’s website, effective marketing helps build quality backlinks, which will help them rank higher in the SERP. Additionally, since the affiliate website will be from the same field, site relevance will further help increase the rankings.
Additional traffic
An advertisement placed by the publishers on their sites will redirect some of their traffic to the advertiser’s website. Although most of it will not convert to sales, the website will receive extra traffic, and also act as a branding tool. It can also serve as an effective marketing strategy if the goal is to build brand awareness amongst the customers.
For more information on creating an effective marketing strategy and how publishers and advertisers can use affiliate programs effectively:
