Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Your How To Guide For 2022

Welcome to Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Promote other people’s products and get a commission on every purchase. That’s what you’re about to do, and honestly? That’s all there is to it.

Stick around as we unpack what you need to know to get started as an affiliate marketer, including where to find the right products and how to get paid for promoting them.   

Affiliate Marketing: Crash Course for Beginners

Before we get started, let’s dispel the myth once and for all. Affiliate marketing isn’t difficult and it isn’t expensive. However, it does take time and a fair share of work, especially in the beginning, and especially if you want to see long-term income.

In this article, we’ll unpack everything you need to get started as a new affiliate marketer, including how to market the best products and earn revenue with (or without) a website, how to side with the right affiliate program, finding the right tools to streamline your time and budget, and how to generate a sustainable passive income for the long term. Your 2022 guide to affiliate marketing for beginners starts now!

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Tips and Techniques

Anyone can be an affiliate marketer. Do it well enough, and it can quickly become your primary source of income. Keep reading as we unpack the best tips for affiliate marketing, including,

• What is Affiliate Marketing? 

• Differences Between Affiliate Programs, Ad Networks, & Affiliate Networks.

• Key Affiliate Marketing Terminology for Beginners

• Affiliate Marketing LifeCycle

• Benefits of Affiliate Marketing 

• How Much Money Can You Make With Affiliate Marketing

• Tips For Affiliate Marketing Success

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

The Affiliate marketing industry is worth 8.2 Billion Dollars (in the USA alone) and makes up 16% of all online sales globally. Every top company you can think of has an affiliate program, and there is no shortage of products to promote and commissions to be gained. But WTF is affiliate marketing? Here’s a straightforward definition. 

Affiliate Definition: A branch of performance-based advertising where you earn a commission for promoting another person’s (or company’s) product.  You’ll need to find a product you like and promote it to get started. Then, run the offer on your website or blog, or buy ad space on someone else’s site through an ad network like Adcash.  Affiliation Meaning:  A unique affiliate link is issued for each product. Place this link in your ad, and you’ll get a percentage of every sale made. To find and promote products, you’ll need to sign up directly to a company’s affiliate program by visiting their site or joining an affiliate network.

Take your affiliate marketing efforts to the next level with the Adcash Advertiser platform

Differences Between Affiliate Programs Ad Networks, & Affiliate Networks

Before you can start earning a commission on sales, you’ll (of course) need to find the right product and the right channel to promote it on. If you have your own website/blog, it’ll be great to add your product links there. That said, it’s not a problem if you don’t have an existing website/blog. You can also promote products by running ads on other people’s sites with the help of an Ad Network. The products themselves across a variety of different Affiliate Programs and Affiliate Networks. 

What Is An Affiliate Program? 

An Affiliate Program is an agreement where you (as the affiliate) get paid for promoting a company’s products/services. You’ll get your unique URL (affiliate link) and a commission every time you send sales to their site. Then, promote these links on your website or buy online ads and place them on other websites using an Ad Network.

What Is An Ad Network

Ad Networks are platforms that connect affiliates looking to run online ads with websites that will host them. After an affiliate has chosen the product they’d like to promote, they’ll create the ad (also known as a campaign), include their affiliate link, and submit it to the Ad Network for review. The ad network will then secure the best possible exposure by bidding for site space.  

What is an Affiliate Network

Whereas Affiliate Programs are (for the most part) unique to one company and their existing product (s), Affiliate Networks connect affiliates with various products/affiliate programs. You, as the affiliate, can scroll through a range of different products, find the one you like, pull the link, and start promoting it. 

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Key Terminology

You’re almost ready to get started with affiliate marketing. But before you get going, here’s a list of the most frequently searched for affiliate marketing terms to help you familiarize yourself with industry jargon, choose the right payout models, target the right traffic sources, and more.  

Advertiser 

A person or company looking to promote their products/services online.  Advertisers will pay affiliates for each new sale or lead generated.

Affiliate

A person (or group of people) that promotes offers on behalf of a company (or advertiser) using their own channels (i.e blogging, paid advertising, social, etc.) Affiliates earn a commission each time their recommendation results in a sale. The sales themselves are tracked with affiliate links. 

Affiliate Marketing 

The act of promoting someone else products/services and getting paid a commission whenever a sale is made. 

Affiliate Manager

More often than not, Affiliate Managers represent Ad Networks or in-house Affiliate Programs. They help affiliates maximize their ad performance by suggesting products, offering targeting tips, etc.

Affiliate Link 

A unique URL issued to an affiliate. The affiliate program/network or company will use this link to track sales and pay out a commission to the affiliate at the end of the month. 

Conversion

An event or action generated by a visitor that an advertiser has agreed to pay for. Conversions can be a subscription, a sale, a lead, etc. 

Cost Per Action (CPA)

A payment model where affiliates earn a commission on an action carried out by a visitor. These “Actions” usually take the form of a conversion, i.e a signup, a purchase, etc.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

A payment model where affiliates earn a commission for each click their ad generates.

Cost Per Mille (CPM)

A payment model where affiliates earn a commission for every 1000 views (or impressions) their ad generates. 

Click-Through Rate 

The number of times your ad has been seen by site visitors and actually clicked on. 

Creatives

The ad that is displayed on a website. These creatives take the form of banner ads, interstitials, pop-unders, and similar. Knowing which ad format to use depends on your product, message, target audience, industry, etc. 

Geo

A particular country (i.e geographic location) that an affiliate will choose to market their product. 

Geo-Targeting

Identifying and marketing your products to website visitors in a particular country or region.

Impression

The number of times your ad has been seen by site visitors. 

Landing Page 

A webpage where affiliates refer traffic. A website visitor (traffic source) will click on the ad which will direct them to a landing page. The idea is to get the visitor one step closer to an “action”, be it a subscription, download, purchase, or similar. The unique link will be available at both points, with a commission delivered once the visitor completes the action.

Lead 

Website visitor with the potential of making a purchase/becoming a customer.

Media-Buying

The act of buying onsite advertising space.

Pay Per Click (PPC) 

Pay per Click (PPC) is an advertising model where an affiliate (advertiser) pays a publisher (website) or ad network whenever their ad is clicked. 

ROI

Return On Investment (ROI), also known as Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

is used to measure how well an online ad has performed, i.e how many clicks/conversions and/or impressions have come in over a week/month/year, etc. 

Programmatic Advertising

Using automated technology to buy onsite ad space. Real-Time Bidding (RTB), and CPA Target Bidding are both examples of Programmatic Advertising. 

Traffic Source

The channels where visitors find your site or offer. Traffic can be brought in through blogging, social, paid advertising, organic efforts, and similar. 

Vertical

Products or services that fall under a specific market, industry. I.e Health and Wellness, Gambling, Online Dating, and eCommerce, among others.

Affiliate Marketing Lifecycle

Ad Networks find the right website from their existing network of website owners (known as publishers). The website owners get paid by the Ad Network whenever the ad is clicked. Ad Network’s get paid by the Affiliate for placing the ads and taking a cut of the ad revenue. Affiliates gets paid by the Affiliate Program for sending traffic to their site. Finally, the company itself will generate sales through its affiliate program. So, in a perfect setup, everyone wins.

 

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

Affiliate marketing is a global industry, particularly popular among tech-savvy entrepreneurs and digital nomads. We all come for the lifestyle, stay for the revenue and thrive with the changing trends. Here are some of the benefits of starting an affiliate marketing business in 2022. 

Affiliate Marketing is a Hyper-Growth, $12+ Billion Industry.

The most recent affiliate marketing growth statistics show that the industry is on track to reach $8.2 billion in 2022 (up from 5.4 billion recorded in 2017). There are now more affiliate programs than ever. Around 80% of global brands have their in-house affiliate programs, and of those, approximately 11,400 are in the US. ShareASale, the world’s biggest affiliate marketing network, has 5,594 alone. Affiliate marketing is also responsible for 16% of ALL online orders. 

200 Million Unique Impressions Daily

And we’re not just stuffing in statistics with no context. Our Advertiser Managers see around 200 million unique impressions and upwards of 300K+ conversions (per day) across every imaginable vertical, offer, and region. And that’s just at Adcash. 

So, while affiliate marketing is competitive, most experts genuinely believe that we’re in a growing industry with more than enough revenue to go around. 

Affiliate Marketing is Low Risk. High Reward

Set up your own affiliate business at a fraction of the cost. You don’t need bags of startup capital, a team of accountants, paid staff, or even an office. Work on the bus, on the beach, or at your kitchen table. What you will need is this. 

• A stable internet connection and a laptop. 💻⚡
• Your website or blog (not essential). 🌐
• Strong products from an Affiliate Program or Affiliate Network. 📣
• Partnership with an Ad Network for strong ad placement. ✏️
• The right budget to run ads (around €$50 a day). 💰
• Subscription to a campaign tracking and reporting tool (strongly recommended). 🦾

You don’t need to have a website/blog to promote a product

Affiliate offers can be run on your website, on someone else’s, or a combination of both. Ad space can be bought through Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, or a standalone Ad Network with its own exclusive website database. Some other affiliate marketing benefits include:

Minimal marketing expertise:

You don’t need to be an online marketing genius to promote affiliate products and offers. Spend as much time as you need testing campaigns, tracking results, and finding the right strategy for you. 

Passive Income:

If you’re not ready to get into affiliate marketing full-time, you can still manage campaigns in your spare time and earn a decent passive income from month to month. 

Easy to Scale:

Quickly and affordably scale your affiliate marketing business without hiring outside help. Over time,  introduce new products, sign up to multiple affiliate programs, and test various offers to see which bring in the best results.  

Flexibility and Convenience:

Lastly, you’ll be in charge of your schedule. Choose when and how you work and never worry about customer follow-ups. Once a sale goes through, the merchant will take over the account, and you’ll be free to move on to new sales.   

Tips for Affiliate Marketing Success

Affiliate marketing takes a while to perfect. But you’re well on your way with the right affiliate tips in your corner. Here’s our pick for the top tips for affiliate marketing success 

1. Find Products in High-Paying Sectors (Verticals)

Make sure you’re siding with high growth verticals that will bring in solid leads and high traffic volumes. During Covid and the resulting global lockdowns, both new and seasoned affiliates have done exceptionally well from online services. Now is the perfect time to promote products for remote working, online entertainment, and self-betterment.

Top Affiliate Marketing Verticals To Target

Below are some of the best offers circulating at the moment. Check them out, and remember to promote products/services that you are knowledgeable about and have tried yourself. This will help you sell with conviction and keep you passionate.

Vertical:	Sub-Category:
Entertainment	🍿  VOD (Video on Demand) 🖥  VPN  ✏️  Online Education/Courses  📲 App Installs 🎮 iGaming/eSports 🎰 Gambling.
Online Delivery	🥡 Fast Food & Groceries 🛍️ eCommerce
Health & Wellness (Nutra)	🥒 Sports/Nutritional Supplements 🏋🏽 Exercise Equipment 🏃‍♀️Weight Loss Products
Finance	💰 Making money online. 📈 Trading. 💸 Cryptocurrency. ⚖️ Currency Converters.

2. Choose a Strong Affiliate Program/Networks 

One of the best tips for affiliate marketing newbies is to find an Affiliate Program with products that compliment your niche. New affiliate marketers tend to go after affiliate programs with the highest commissions. This is not always the best strategy. Moreover, high-commission affiliate programs have A LOT of competition and a low payout frequency. Instead, place your focus on promoting products with solid conversion rates. This way, you’re far more likely to generate steady revenue than living off the occasional sales spike.

Find the products or services that convert. An affiliate program that pays $500 per conversion is no use to you if their product conversion rate is a mere 0.2%. For more information on finding the best affiliate programs in 2022, check out Adam Enfroy’s 105 Best Affiliate Programs of 2022 (High Paying for Beginners). 

3. Partner with the Right Ad Network

As a general rule, a quality Ad Network should strive to increase your onsite ad visibility, provide flexible payment models, and of course, the highest possible returns. Before deciding to work with an Ad Network, you should be asking yourself a few key questions, including the below. 

💡 What are their fill rates, pricing, and payment options? 

🎨 Which ad formats (creatives) do they provide and cater for.

🦾 Do they have unique features and core optimization capability? 

​💻 What is the extent and level of their anti-ad-block technology? 

⏰ Can you access 24/7 reporting and statistics? 

🔮 Is the platform transparent? 

💎 What is the platform’s overall reputation? 

🙋‍♂️ Do you have access to your own affiliate manager? 

Get An Affiliate Tracker

Once your campaigns are live, you’ll need the tools to measure their success. The last thing any affiliate wants to do is spend ad budget on a product or campaign that doesn’t convert. 

Performance tracking is a vital step to any paid advertising strategy. Platforms like RedTrack and Voluum allow you to see exactly which elements of your campaign are performing the best, bringing in the most leads and generating the highest traffic. You’re able to track your conversions in real-time and say goodbye to guesswork. When you’re ready to onboard an Affiliate Tracker, you’ll want to set aside something in the region of  $49 a month. 

Only Go After Quality Leads 

When you start running campaigns, you might find yourself tempted to bring in as many clicks as possible in the hopes of generating higher commissions in the shortest time. One way to do this is through automated bots that will work to inflate the number of clicks to your affiliate link. Avoid doing this at all costs. Companies pay for actual conversions from real people. A bot will never make you money because there is never any purchase to be made. Always focus on quality leads with the power to convert. 

Split Test Your Ads 

Create a few different ads for the same product, change up the copy/creatives ever so slightly and see which one brings in the highest traffic. Then, continue to refine your campaigns adopting and perfecting the most popular elements. This is a great way to measure a campaign and product’s overall success. Experiment with your headlines, Call to Action, background color scheme, and similar. Then, take all the best converting ad elements and use them in conjunction with one another for future campaigns. 

Optimize your ads for mobile

Nearly half of all eCommerce purchases are made on mobile. So, optimize your site accordingly. Ensure your site and ad campaigns are fast loading. Redesign your ad formats for mobile devices and always choose a reliable web host or Ad Network with proven features that specifically target mobile traffic. 

Get Targeting Tips from your Affiliate Manager

All major Ad Networks and Affiliate Programs have a dedicated affiliate manager. Aside from managing relationships and negotiating new affiliate deals, they’re also specialists at spotting high-converting ads.  Reach out to your affiliate manager and see how they can help tailor your campaign to the right audience. They are a wealth of information and an excellent resource for beginners affiliates looking to boost their audience and increase conversions.

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Final Thoughts

Good luck putting these affiliate marketing tips and techniques into practice. There is no shortage of products to promote and commissions to be made. And, when you get it right, Affiliate Marketing can be a great source of income. But, like all things worth going after in life, the process will take time and effort on your part.

Remember to choose your Affiliate Programs and Ad Networks wisely, understand your audience and create great content for every product you promote. All the best for the journey ahead, and feel free to get in touch with us for more Affiliate Marketing campaign tracking and targeting tips.