Affiliate Marketing- A Beginners Guide 

Which way to make money would you choose… 10 hours of hard work or a lucrative night of sleep? It may sound like a good dream, but affiliate marketing really does work and can easily become a significant source of income for you, no matter what industry you’re in.

Affiliate marketing is a cost-effective strategy

Affiliate marketing is simply a results-based marketing tool where a company pays an affiliate network only for purchases or goals achieved. A goal is met by online purchase, a newsletter subscription, or a visit to a website. 

Companies often achieve their goals through affiliate marketing even more efficiently than through their own Facebook or Instagram posts, where every idea seems exhausted. 

So here, your business is throwing the creative ball to a blogger or other site administrator and then collecting revenue through the site for goals met.

Of course, affiliate marketing also works the other way round: for example, the blogger receives an agreed commission for meeting a target.

Many people live under the impression that affiliate marketing requires a traditional online shop or website to be successful. However, this is no longer the case: successful campaigns can be run on other engaging platforms that offer attractive solutions and new approaches. YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are good examples.

Step-by-step affiliate marketing

What do you already have?

• You have a product or service you want to sell.

OR

• You want to direct potential customers to your YouTube channel, online shop, or website.

What else do you need?

• You need a publisher (e.g., a blogger) to create content for your channel.
• You need an affiliate network to track your goals and money flow. Kubla, for example, recommends CJ Affiliate and Shareasale, two of the most prominent affiliate marketing networks in the world.

Who should use affiliate marketing?

Let’s just say, anyone. All businesses need external referrals to praise their product and service and encourage their audience to buy it! 

We often have a slight reservation about sales pitches from the company itself. Still, when it comes to a favorite blogger, sales pitches feel like a recommendation from a good friend. Affiliate marketing is a very profitable marketing method when it works, but many factors go into making it work, including finding the right advertising network.

Affiliate marketing is the best way to make money on a small or non-existent budget for both large and small businesses. Online stores of all sizes, from the small to the gigantic, will gain valuable traffic and paying customers for their online store through successful affiliate marketing. 

B2B businesses have also been able to enjoy the opportunities and cost-effective results that affiliate marketing brings.

Here’s how you can get started with affiliate marketing:

Mathew, a shoe retailer, needs profitable sales. How can Mathew get started?

1. Mathew contacts an affiliate network and agrees on the terms of the campaign with his contact person.
2. The business-appropriate publishers associated with Matthew will promote it to their visitors.
3. The visitor clicks on a campaign banner or link and is redirected to Mathew’s website.
4. If the visitor purchases on Mathew’s website, a commission is paid to the publisher for the goal achieved. If there is no result, no commission is paid.

Mathew can also focus his time entirely on what he loves to do and let Kubla handle the affiliate marketing for him.

Affiliate marketing: How much does it cost?

Therefore, affiliate marketing is based on a straightforward formula: you only pay for results - start-up costs are minimal or even non-existent. The pricing of affiliate networks varies, and it is worth comparing them. 

The following are the most common methods of pricing affiliate marketing:

Cost per Sale (CPS)

CPS (Cost per Sale) - the advertiser pays an agreed percentage or dollar for each purchase. The most common pricing model of all.

Cost per Action (CPA)

As part of the purchase, the advertiser - Mathew in this case - pays extra for each transaction that occurs. An action can be, for example, submitting a contact request or subscribing to a newsletter.

Cost per Click (CPC)

As in the example of Mathew, the advertiser pays only for clicks on the ad.

A professional approach to affiliate marketing

Interested in the opportunities affiliate marketing can bring to take your business to the next level? Would you like to enter the thriving world of affiliate marketing under the guidance of a professional? 

Team Kubla can help you and your business profit through affiliate marketing without adding additional costs!

Contact us