One of the quickest and most effective ways to monetize your online blog or presence is through affiliate marketing.
With the affiliate marketing spend in 2022 expected to hit $8.2 billion, knowing the right affiliate marketing programs to choose for your brand can set you up for success and high earning potential. In the absence of the right platform, you’ll have a hard time connecting with your audience and even earning anything out of your affiliate links.
As more and more ecommerce businesses start relying on affiliate networks, it will become even more important to have a platform that automates some of the work for you and doesn’t add to your task burden. So, how do you determine the best affiliate marketing program for your brand?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to identifying the right programs for successful affiliate marketing.
Step-By-Step Guide for Identifying the Right Affiliate Programs for Your Brand
Step 1: Know Your Brand’s Niche and Demographic
The fundamental rule to picking affiliate marketing programs that will work for your brand is to look at your niche and demographic. Affiliate marketing works through referrals, and the last thing you want is to violate the trust of your audience by promoting products or services they aren’t interested in.
A quick way to identify your demographic is by analyzing the topics or values that your brand represents. You should then create profiles of individuals who actively follow your content by examining the “whys” and “whats” of what appeals to them.
For example, if your brand is about cars and motorcycles, your audience will likely be gearheads. So it would be absurd to suddenly start presenting them with content about beauty and cosmetics or marketing.
Step 2: Research Affiliate Marketing Programs That Suit Your Audience
Once you know your brand’s niche and demographic, you can start finding suitable affiliate marketing programs. At this stage, your priority should be gathering as many programs as possible, as long as they are relevant to your audience.
There are several ways to go about this, and the best techniques to consider are:
- List Products and Service Categories Relevant to Your Brand
The first step to finding the right affiliate marketing programs for your brand is to create a list of all relevant product and service categories in your niche. For example, if your brand specializes in cars, your list can include car accessories, car insurance, car rentals, car sales, and car workshops.
Do not limit yourself during this phase. Brainstorm as many categories as possible to create a comprehensive list. That way, you can analyze them while making your picks.
- Run Surveys
Running surveys is a straightforward way of gaining insights into the products or services your audience is looking for and what they love about your brand.
Create online forms and make them available on your platform or send them via email and let your audience decide for themselves.
- Study Your Competition
Leverage the oldest trick in the book by studying your brand’s competition to understand the products or services they promote.
This is a quick way to build a list of relevant affiliate marketing programs that suit your audience.
- Use Search Engines and Social Media
Search engines and social media come in handy when researching affiliate programs, as they help you discover the most popular options in your niche. Search for “Product/service name and affiliate program” to generate a list of programs to consider.
For example, you could search for “car accessories affiliate program” if you are in the car care niche or “makeup affiliate program” in the beauty niche. This should give you a list of top affiliate programs you can consider joining.
Step 3: Analyze the Programs and Narrow them Down to the Best of the Lot
Now that you have a comprehensive list of affiliate marketing programs that fall into your niche, it is time to sift out the low-value ones. The best way to go about this is to:
- Evaluate Program Popularity
Not all affiliate programs in your niche will intrigue your audience or suit your brand’s theme. A practical way to settle on the best options is to analyze the popularity of each program in your list, factoring in the interests and profiles of your audience.
When evaluating program popularity, prioritize programs that endorse quality products. These programs should be high-performing and have huge market demand to get you the most return on investment (ROI).
- Consider Vendor Reputation and Support
The best way to grow your brand and earn consistently through affiliate marketing is by partnering with a reputable vendor. Do your research on the vendors offering the programs you have listed, giving preference to well-established merchants with an outstanding market reputation.
Don’t brush off new vendors. Instead, evaluate their products’ quality and the competitive edge they might have over already existing merchants. Remember, you will find success promoting programs you are genuinely passionate about, as your enthusiasm will likely also attract the right attention and customers.
Most importantly, you should partner with vendors with a great support system for your peace of mind. Affiliate support is typically offered by providing training materials, marketing tools, email support, live chat, or a dedicated account manager. Make sure the brand you partner with has a program like that to make the most out of your partnership.
- Assess Commission Levels and Payout Frequency
When assessing commission levels, evaluate them against the product price and average order rate.
A product with high order rates and lower commissions is bound to earn more than one with a low order rate and a high commission. On the other hand, high price products might be harder to sell, but even a low sale will earn you a significant amount.
The 10 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs to Consider in 2022
When looking for the right affiliate marketing programs for your brand, nothing is more important than choosing a high-performance product.
To help you narrow down your options, here is a list of the 10 best affiliate marketing programs that can maximize your earning potential in 2022:
Amazon’s popularity and vast category of products make it an affiliate marketing program you can never go wrong with. The marketplace has most of the basics taken care of, from warming up leads to the sales process, besides the millions of products you can promote.
Amazon Associates earn a commission of between 1% and 10%, depending on the product category. Recently, the company also launched the Amazon Influencer Program, where you can leverage your social media influence to also make extra bucks on the side.
Semrush has a unique affiliate program for brands targeting digital marketers that works on a first cookie attribution model whereby all referrals from your link remain active for up to 10 years.
You will love the platform’s simple signup process. They have promotional items available in five different languages and exciting commissions of $0.01 per signup, $10 per free trial, and $200 per subscription.
ClickBank is the home of over 6 million digital products and a market base of over 200 million people.
You will love its high-paying commissions that can get to highs of 75%, outstanding affiliate support, and reliable payouts.
The eBay affiliate program gives you access to over one billion product listings, and thanks to the vendor’s popularity, you can easily attain high conversion rates.
As an eBay partner, you will earn 1% to 4% commissions, with high-ticket items, such as fashion and auto parts & accessories, as your best bets. The only limitation is that the program has an earning cap for each category, most falling under $1,000.
Cheapflights helps travelers find the cheapest plane tickets and rewards affiliates for sending traffic to their partners, not for attracting customers who buy tickets.
You will get access to various creative assets, ranging from travel widgets to banners, to help with your promotion. For your earnings, you will get a flat fee of $0.25 for mobile clicks and $0.45 for desktop & tablet clicks.
The Acorns affiliate program is an excellent choice if you are in the personal finance and investment niche.
This micro-investing app will see you earn $10 for every customer you refer. It also provides a variety of creative assets and a dedicated account manager to help ease your marketing efforts.
BH Cosmetics runs an affiliate program for brands in the beauty industry that are passionate about cruelty-free cosmetics. As an affiliate, you will get an 8% commission on all purchases from your links, which have a cookie life of 60 days. You will also be the first to know about their promotions and get exclusive access to coupons to help convert more leads into customers.
To boost its affiliate program, BH Cosmetics has an in-house affiliate team that will consistently provide you with resources and incentives, so you can keep on promoting your affiliate links.
Is your brand focused on helping people or businesses grow by sharing skills and knowledge? Thinkific enables you to capitalize on this by promoting online courses and membership sites. Once you become an affiliate partner, you will have:
- A 30% lifetime recurring commission
- Access to creative assets
- Cookies that remain active for 90days
Wix is a top-rated web hosting company that allows brands to promote their services for a $100 commission per premium sale. This affiliate program can be adopted by brands in virtually any niche, mainly if your target audience includes individuals who would love to own their websites.
You will need to hit a target of $300 to get paid. Like most high-ranking affiliate marketing programs, Wix offers access to a broad range of marketing resources in virtually all languages.
Shift4Shop targets individuals who would love to start an online store. It runs a high-value referral program that will see you earn from $5 to $25 per signup.
As an affiliate, you will have access to regularly updated resources and a dedicated affiliate manager to guide you through the marketing process.
The Bottom Line
Finding the right affiliate marketing programs for your brand is the first step to establishing a revenue stream from your audience. You must be prepared to put in the effort and work your way up until you hit your mark. If you want to make your affiliate marketing simpler, reach out to Refersion , and get the support you need to maximize your brand’s potential.
