Advanced Affiliate Marketing Strategies
1. Own the entire SERP with multiple affiliate websites
If you have identified a profitable product or keyword, consider developing multiple affiliate websites focused on that niche and creating multiple pieces of content targeting your most lucrative keywords to improve your rankings.
Some of the major players in the content publishing world employ this tactic.
Future is a prominent online publisher with over 160 well-known brands in its portfolio. Its properties are prevailing in the top rankings for “finest wireless earbuds.”
Why is this so effective? Before making a purchase decision, consumers typically peruse several pieces of content. If you generate the best content in the industry, the chances of them selecting your links are significantly increased.
Take complete control over the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to attract customers towards your offers and links on all levels.
There are additional advantages to owning multiple websites in the same or related niches beyond simply having more real estate on Page 1. These benefits include simplifying the process of building links, negotiating sponsorships, and launching experiments.
Don’t attempt to manage various websites simultaneously before ensuring the success of your initial site.
2. Set up proper affiliate tracking
According to Rakuten’s research, 94% of affiliate marketers utilize multiple programs, with 20% utilizing 5 or more. Monitoring all your affiliate programs enables you to stay up to date on effective strategies and make changes as needed.
Proficient associates in affiliate marketing establish a process consisting of two stages to gather pertinent data.
Initially, one should aggregate the sales. Though it is possible to manually aggregate sales by recording revenue from each network and program in spreadsheets, it becomes significantly easier when data aggregation tools are employed. An affiliate dashboard offers a comprehensive view of all affiliate programs along with relevant data and relieves one from the hassle of sales aggregation.
Next, establish SubID tracking, which enables you to obtain more precise information regarding which content, links, and strategies are performing the best. This is accomplished by modifying each of your affiliate links to incorporate a unique SubID.
By incorporating this information into your affiliate links, you can be assured of making informed decisions when enhancing your content.
One approach is to incorporate the language and CTAs used in successful posts into your new content. Alternatively, you can try out underperforming posts as they won’t likely affect your earnings.
It is essential to employ SubIDs if you want to derive useful conclusions from your experiments.
With a tool such as Affilimate, it is possible to assign distinct SubIDs to all your links automatically, even if you have an extensive amount of links dispersed throughout your website.
3. Get your on-page optimization dialed in
After enhancing your affiliate tracking skills, the next step is to implement your knowledge into your content. Elevate your conversions by enhancing on-page metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), and observe the impact it has on downstream metrics, such as revenue and revenue per 1,000 visitors (RPM).
You can attempt these optimizations:
- Increase the density of your affiliate links. Give your audience more opportunities to click. You never know when a visitor will decide to check out the available offer. Conveniently placed links make it easy for them. Just make sure not to overwhelm your audience in the process – balance is key.
- Make your links stand out. Your links and CTA buttons should stand out and be easy to spot. Using colors that contrast with the main site or brand color will make your link eye-catching and more visible. Be sure to leave plenty of white space, to avoid overwhelming readers.
- Add an exit-intent popup. An exit-intent popup follows your visitor around the page and appears only when they move away from the page. They catch your user with a reminder before they leave to give them a final opportunity to act on your offer. It’s also a great spot for limited time offers and deals.
- Add a comparison table early in your post. A comparison table at the top of your page presents your offer to your visitors early on in the form of useful information.
- Include social proof. Customers seek input from many sources before making purchase decisions. Reviews and testimonials are forms of social proof that keep your customer on your page by giving them all the information they need without having to search elsewhere.
The crucial aspect is evaluating the revenue generated by your page per visitor before and after implementing the modifications.
The “Click Date” refers not only to the timing of the conversion, but also to the version of your page that was active at the time of the initial click.
Affilimate’s Revisions feature is an effortless method to achieve this because it will divide and compute your profit for every site visitor by analyzing alterations you made to your website.
Novices often enroll in multiple affiliate programs, but experienced individuals understand that the actual profits come from the niche itself.
Revenue in general affiliate marketing programs like Amazon typically increases in proportion to the traffic. As the number of clicks you generate rises, so does your earnings. This results in numerous smaller commissions and the construction of larger and more expansive properties filled with a wealth of articles.
The rewards don’t seem proportionate to the amount of effort required.
Increase your productivity by opting for offers with elevated commissions, thus enabling you to generate increased revenue with reduced traffic and content. Supplementing higher-priced products usually demands diversifying your affiliate programs beyond Amazon.
Lever 1: Conversion Rate — How well does this product convert?
The positioning of the brand in the market is what determines the conversion rate. Despite doing everything correctly, the extent of influence is restricted once the audience accesses the sales page.
Brands that convert well will possess:
- Well-designed and mobile-optimized sales pages
- A recognizable brand (consistent colors, logo, font, etc)
- Straightforward UX/UI, making it easy to sign up for and pay for products or services
You can determine if a program is effective by observing how frequently your rivals advertise it. Although it may seem illogical, keeping an eye on your competitors often leads to better outcomes due to the brand’s greater familiarity.
Improving the conversion rate can be achieved through effective copywriting techniques such as sharing personal experiences, providing a strong recommendation, and highlighting the product’s results that help to build trust.
Here’s another suggestion on how to advertise products from advertisers who are not as well-known:
Tip for Conversion. Sometimes your audience might not be familiar with the retailer or service provider you are promoting. Thus, it is essential to introduce unknown brands or merchants to them within your affiliate content.
Before directing traffic to advertisers, you can establish trust by disclosing personal experiences, discussing refund policies and customer support, highlighting free shipping benefits, and more.
Lever 2: Average Order Value — How expensive is the product, and how does it affect my commission?
By providing information on average order value, affiliate networks such as Skimlinks and ShareASale enable you to gauge the typical commission amount per order.
Suppose the commission is 20% and the typical value of an order is $100. In this scenario, one can determine that the usual commission will be $20. When the average order value is high, it is frequently more feasible to generate greater profits from a smaller number of conversions.
Rebag, a well-known marketplace for consigning luxury handbags, provides a specific illustration.
Despite the low conversion rate of 0.1%, the considerable commission average can make up for it. By doing some calculations, you can determine the number of conversions required to achieve your desired revenue.
Lever 3: Volume — How many of this offer can I sell?
Researching search volume for buyer intent keywords can assist in predicting your sales volume, as demand is the driving force behind sales.
When estimating, consider the difficulty of the keywords since the majority of users, which is about 75%, do not go beyond the first page of Google.
When determining volume, consider the number of your content pieces that will appear on the first page and their potential traffic. Afterward, assume an average affiliate conversion rate of 0.5-1% for that traffic. This will aid you in determining the number of people who will actually convert.
If “copywriting courses” is typed into a keyword research tool such as Ahrefs, the result for search volume in the United States is 1,600. Furthermore, it is evident that other leading pages have an estimated traffic of approximately 2,000.
Considering that Ahrefs tends to underestimate traffic, let’s assume that there could be around 6,000 monthly search traffic. If we have 6,000 visitors with an average conversion rate, we could potentially get up to 60 conversions.
If you compare it to an article that receives only 600 monthly visits, the outcome will be only 6 conversions.
However, the second article may generate equivalent revenue if the commissions offered are increased. In cases where low-priced or products with narrow profit margins are being promoted, targeting high volume keywords related to top-performing products is crucial for boosting volume.
In summary, achieving the most revenue requires effectively managing these three levers and finding the right balance.
5. Create a simple affiliate funnel for your high-ticket offers
Your potential customers are led through different phases of the purchasing process and their distinctive requirements are catered to at each point with the help of an affiliate marketing funnel.
Although not all affiliate products require sales funnels, they are essential for high-priced offerings that necessitate additional information to enlighten the audience regarding their worth, particularly in valuable domains like SaaS products, high-end merchandise, and B2B services.
The Best High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing Programs
The reason behind why I consider these affiliate marketing programs as the “best” is open to interpretation, however, I selected these particular programs based on the payout amounts, quantity of customers, and the average customer feedback. The evaluations provided by customers aid in establishing whether a product is deserving of endorsement. Moreover, these reviews can be employed to promote the products/services, emphasizing the impressive outcomes that customers have enjoyed from using them, and highlighting the features that are most appreciated by current customers.
1. Smartproxy
Customers can utilize Smartproxy to gather competitor intelligence, acquire search engine results page (SERP) data, gather and compare prices, and verify ads across the globe.
An average rating of 4.7 out of five stars was given by 836 reviewers.
By utilizing Smartproxy’s affiliate program, you have the potential to receive $2,000 for each customer you refer.
2. Thinkific
More than 50,000 instructors have utilized Thinkific, an online platform for designing courses, in creating over 100 million courses.
It received an average rating of 4.6 out of five stars from 669 reviewers.
The Thinkific affiliate program offers the potential to earn up to $1,700 per year for each referral.
3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers a range of ecommerce solutions including open SaaS, headless integrations, omnichannel capabilities, B2B offerings, and offline-to-online options.
It received an average rating of 8.1 out of ten stars from 648 reviewers.
By enrolling in the BigCommerce affiliate program, you have the opportunity to receive a maximum of $1,500 for any new enterprise customers, which equals 200% of their initial payment.
4. Teamwork
Everybody in your organization, from the founder to the project managers, can increase their efficiency using Teamwork, which is project management software that concentrates on maximizing billable hours.
The product has an average rating of 4.4 out of five stars based on the feedback of 1,022 reviewers.
With the Teamwork affiliate program, you can receive up to $1,000 for every new customer you refer.
5. Flywheel
Managed WordPress hosting by Flywheel is specifically designed to cater to the requirements of agencies, ecommerce sites, and websites with high traffic.
The product received an average rating of 4.4 out of five stars from 36 reviewers.
By participating in the Flywheel affiliate program, you have the opportunity to earn a maximum of $500 for each new referral.
6. Teachable
Over 100,000 entrepreneurs, creators, and businesses of various sizes take advantage of Teachable, an online course platform to develop captivating online courses and coaching businesses.
It received a rating of 4.4 out of five stars from 150 reviewers.
By becoming a Teachable affiliate, you have the potential to earn an average of $450 per month.
7. Shutterstock
Shutterstock serves as a worldwide platform for procuring stock images, graphic designs, animations, audio tracks, and songs.
The product received an average rating of 4.4 stars out of five from a total of 507 reviewers.
You can earn a maximum of $300 for each new customer by enrolling in the Shutterstock affiliate program.