Affiliate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2022

What are the most common affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid in 2022? If you’ve been running campaigns for a while and know how to steer clear of these stumbling blocks, then more power to you!

BUT, if you’re new to affiliate marketing, the below need-to-knows will keep you on the right side of higher revenue. Avoid these affiliate marketing mistakes and create top campaigns that convert.

Not siding with the right affiliate marketing ad network 🚀

Common affiliate marketing mistakes include not siding with the right ad network. But, what is an ad Network (really), and why do you even need one? With millions of offers, affiliates, and sites competing for maximum attention, one affiliate’s process is too much to navigate effectively. Ad networks are curation platforms that place the best ads in front of core traffic sources. 

They act as the intermediary between advertisers and publishers, using advanced bidding technology and an existing supply platform to match campaigns with similar sites. 

What To Look For in an Ad Network

Ad networks can cut your placement time in half and take care of the heavy lifting. When researching a new ad network, check out the below points before depositing your first campaign budget. 

• Do they have multiple, high-performing (cross-device) ad formats on offer? 
• What are their overall fill rates, pricing, and payment options?
• Which features, bidding technology, and optimization capability will you be getting?
• Where is the company placed when it comes to anti-ad-block technology? 
• How do you receive your ongoing campaign reports and statistics?
• Does transparency and ad compliance take top priority?
• What is the overall reputation of the network, and how good is their customer support?

Check out this guide to choosing the best ad network for your affiliate marketing business. And if you’re looking to dive deeper into affiliate marketing 101, including all the latest optimization tactics and campaign creation tips, you can check out the 2022 Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing. 

Tackling difficult Geo’s and Products at the Start 🌐

One of the more prevalent mistakes new affiliate marketers make is not siding with the right product/service and not marketing these offers to the right audiences in suitable regions. 

Remember that commission isn’t the be-all and end-all. You might find yourself promoting a product that, for whatever reason, doesn’t sell. Maybe it’s too niche, unnecessary, or pricey to promote. If it can’t convert, neither will your commission, regardless of high it is.  Instead, opt for tried and tested products that meet a need and/or solve a problem,

Find Your Affiliate Offers To Promote

First, you’re going to need to find the best affiliate offers. There are a few ways you can do this. You can browse through an affiliate network like OfferVault or Mobidea, where you can find various products and services on one platform. You can also look for affiliate programs in many high-growth sectors. Perhaps even better, speak with your ad network’s affiliate manager and get tailored suggestions for higher returns on ad spend (ROAS). 

Generally, avoid verticals that fluctuate based on trends, popularity, and the global market. Start with verticals and offers always needed, like Nutra, Health and Fitness, eCommerce, and VPN. 

When targeting countries, start with the regions with the highest consumer spending (Tier 1 countries). Target your campaigns to countries like the USA, France, Germany, or Canada.

Forgetting to Use the Correct Targeting 🎯

One of the likely mistakes affiliate marketers makes when first starting out is not being as accurate as seasoned affiliates when it comes to their targeting parameters. The Adcash network and other platforms have a host of cutting-edge targeting capabilities that you should always use when setting up a campaign. User Interest Targeting, for example, tracks down the traffic sources most likely to connect with your ads. 

You’ll need to select the vertical you’d like to target (i.e., Nutra, VPN, etc.) and optimize for that particular traffic source. Your ads will then automatically target themselves to the traffic with the highest chance of generating conversions.  

Pro Tip: Select all supply sources when using this targeting method, and remember to spread your budget throughout the day.

You can take the whole targeting adventure one step further by using the CPA Target Bidding option to maximize your conversions and lower your campaign spending. Just set the CPA cost of what you’re willing to pay for each conversion, and the CPA Targeting algorithm will take care of the rest.

Not Using The Correct Tracking 🔍

Always make sure you have accurate tracking and reporting in place. You’ll see which campaigns are converting well and which need higher visibility. Platforms like Adcash have built-in tracking features used to analyze your campaign success. You can also go one step further and bring in some heavy-duty affiliate trackers like  RedTrack, or Voluum. These attribution platforms will help you analyze competitors with targeted data and metrics.

Not Investing in the Right Affiliate Marketing Tools 🧰 

Affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid in 2022 include not onboarding the right tools to help you build, measure, and analyze your campaigns. Many other affiliate tools will help streamline your campaign creation, optimization, and output. Reserve a portion of your budget and subscribe to top online advertising tools that can help make your life easier while allowing you to generate higher returns over time. 

Sign up to affiliate networks with the ability to refine and send top offers your way. Browse through them, see what you like, and find your next all-star product/service to promote. 

Landing Page Builders like InstaPage and Unbounce automate your affiliate funnel and send traffic to high-impact landing pages that you can build from scratch in a few minutes. 

Additionally, it’s always helpful to learn from the best and subscribe to a few of the biggest affiliate marketing forums. Check out forums like AffLIFT or STM Forum, and browse through various threads, case studies, and expert opinions to boost your affiliate knowledge base while running campaigns. 

Forgetting to Test Your Campaigns 🧪

It always pays to split test your campaigns. See how minor changes can boost click-throughs. Try testing the same offer with different content, creatives, and traffic sources. 

The same rule applies to your landing pages. It’s ultra-important to have clear directives and Calls to Action so that you can move traffic through the conversion cycle quickly and effectively. 

Try out the same offer using different ad formats. For example, if you’re running an offer on Native, try testing out the same offer with Interstitial Ads, Pop-Under, or In-Page Push. 

Check out the competition and see what they’re doing. Take the best elements and use them as inspiration to craft your next eye-catching creatives. 

Buying the Same Traffic Twice 🛑

Another one of the mistakes new affiliate marketers make is wasting their campaign budgets on traffic sources that don’t convert. With the Adcash Advanced Campaign setup, you can exclude or include traffic segments through different targeting options. To get your impressions at a competitive price and avoid buying the same traffic twice, we recommend blacklisting the details you may have whitelisted in your other campaigns. 

Forgetting to Increase Budgeting and Capping 💻

Strategic capping plays a considerable role in increasing the volume of your campaign and your expected ROI. Cap your campaign for the hours in the day where you stand to gain the most traffic.

As an example, if you’re targeting a financial vertical in the United States, you’ll want to gear your ads to show during 09h00 to 17h00 banking hours (GMT-4). If you’re targeting iGaming, it will make more sense to cap your ads in the day and run them in the evening when you know your users are at home surfing the web. 

Where to Place Your Campaign Budget 

Time is money and, we’re sure you’ll agree that wasting your campaign budget on traffic that doesn’t convert is one of the biggest affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid this year. As far as budgeting goes, the same rules apply. You want most of your budget to go to the traffic source with the highest conversion potential. That’s where cost per acquisition (CPA) targeting comes into play. This fully automated optimization algorithm spreads your budget evenly and generates the best results for your campaign. 

Find out more about CPA Target Bidding or get in touch with us, and we’ll help tailor your campaign to generate the best results in a few easy steps.

Affiliate Marketing Mistakes To Avoid. Final Thoughts

Lastly, check your expectations. You’re not going to get rich overnight. The campaign optimization process takes time. Learn as much as you can from affiliate marketers who have walked the road already. Consistently test and analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns and join an affiliate marketing community to get the upper hand on vital industry knowledge and best practices moving into 2022.

Good luck, and please reach out to us if you have any questions? Anything we can do to make your affiliate marketing journey as painless as possible is time well spent.