Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It In 2022? Things you should know!

So, is Affiliate Marketing Worth It in 2022?. Well, here’s a quick but detailed article to clear your dilemmas.

Over the years, Affiliate marketing has seen a massive global increase from different perspectives benefiting both merchants and publisher’s

Specifically:

• A recent study showed that the affiliate marketing industry has an approximate global worth of $12 billion and it is expected to increase in the coming years.
• Over 80% of brands, globally, leverage the use of affiliate marketing.
• According to Google Trends, the search interest for Affiliate Marketing has improved by 300% within a period of 5 years.
• About 15% of digital media advertising revenue is influenced by Affiliate marketing.
• Most brands have generated about 15%-30% of entire sales from affiliate marketing.
• As per Fetch Profits, 73% of merchants think that affiliate programs meet their revenue 
• The United States alone has received a 10.1% increase in affiliate marketing spending.

All this?!

But here we go; Is Affiliate Marketing Worth the Effort In 2022?

Apparently, you should know that it’s a yes from me.

But while this is true, there are still lots and lots of people who have spent their time, money, traffic, efforts on affiliate marketing, and yet they’re still not getting something reasonable out of it.

The fact here is that most people are actually not doing it right.

Generally, affiliate marketing will only be worth it if you can use the right strategies applied to the right audience.

Turning Affiliate marketing into a source of money to your pocket would only actualize if only you’ve applied the right techniques.

So what are these strategies?

Before we dive in right through these strategies, it’s ideal we take a deeper look at affiliate marketing as a whole to better understand what we’re up for.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Alongside other performance-based marketing, Affiliate Marketing is a marketing strategy that involves a payment to a publisher (based on a certain commission rate) by a merchant for every sale made via their affiliate link.

In other words, affiliate marketers can be regarded as middlemen. But in this sense, they don’t earn directly from their customers as normal middlemen would rather they’re paid by the merchants on preset commission rates per sale.

Affiliate Marketers make use of social media, blogs, email marketing, and a few others to create traffic to their affiliate links.

Why Affiliate Marketing?

1. Cost-effective

Unlike most businesses that require an investment to start up, Affiliate marketing, on the other hand, is distinct. Affiliate marketing requires little or no money to startup. You can easily get started by applying to any affiliate program of your choice – and then you’re good-to-go.

2. Flexibility 

Starting up an online business is more like starting out a local business. As an entrepreneur, you’re bound to no principles, rules and regulations, time intervals, and several others – the same goes for affiliate marketing.

While marketing your affiliate links, you’re fully in charge of how and when you do it.

If flexibility is a preference for you, then affiliate marketing is just for you.

3. Profitability 

Imagine a situation where you sit down, invest nothing (in terms of money) and you keep earning–  that’s the concept behind affiliate marketing

In affiliate marketing, you have no production part to play. Yours is to promote a product and you get to earn up to 50% from that product. Simple as that.

Is Affiliate Marketing worth it?

Maybe you’re new to the world of affiliate Marketing or probably you’ve been in the game. But you’ve tried sharing your affiliate links on your social media pages, on your blog, emails, or even using manual texting but to no avail.

So, what’s the problem?

Is Affiliate Marketing actually profitable or is it even worth the effort?

Are all the rumors, hacks, case studies, advice, and success stories all mere hype?

Well, it’s alright if you feel that way but contrary to your speculation, Affiliate Marketing is profitable. 

But as said earlier, affiliate marketing will only be worth it if you can use the right strategies applied to the right audience

So, what are these strategies?

Best Affiliate Marketing Strategies To Drive More Sales In 2022

1. Select The Right Affiliate Program

The first step unknown, which many people don’t realize, to making money out of affiliate marketing is choosing the right affiliate program.

If you fail to choose the right affiliate program then it might be difficult to market your affiliate products.

Most people only focus mainly on the commission rates of the products but unfortunately, there are other factors that carry more weight relative to the commission rates

Before choosing the affiliate program to work with, check whether or not;

• It’s a popular brand, upcoming brand, or a brand with a tarnished name.
• They have a good relationship with their audience
• Their products are actually marketable. Or are they low quality or very pricey?
• They have a good referral period
• Their commission rate is good

Popularity Of Brand

Especially when you intend to market physical products, it’s ideal you pay much attention to the popularity of the brand hosting the affiliate program.

A big brand can be the difference between high sales and poor sales. 

For instance, while marketing affiliate products of Amazon would drive more sales, marketing products of a new brand might require time, reduce sales potentials, and might even require some sort of orientation to get sales.

Authenticity Of Products

This applies to all affiliate products but especially if you intend to make a review on the product.

You shouldn’t just go ahead promoting products just because you would earn a few bucks from it, rather take a look at the authenticity. 

And if you haven’t used the product, it’s ideal you specify that or possibly, state the fact that it’s a promoted product.

Going ahead to promote fake, substandard, scam products can possibly ruin your image before your audience.

Marketability Of The Products

Always ask yourself these questions before promoting any affiliate products;

• Are these products right for my audience?  
• Are they overpriced?
• Are they low-quality products?
• Is this product well known?
• Does the product’s brand have authority in the industry?

If the product can positively satisfy these questions, then you can go ahead promoting them.

Referral Period (Cookie Duration) 

Not everyone would want to purchase a product at the instant of clicking your affiliate link. While some might want to make better research on the product, others would like to make a little bit of preparation first of all.

And that’s the reason cookie duration was introduced.

The cookie duration or referral period is a term used to assign the number of hours or days the click on your affiliate link would remain effective.

So in other words, the cookie duration of an affiliate program tells you the interval of time which a visitor of your affiliate link can return to buy the product while you still earn your due commission.

The cookie duration (referral period) should be a major factor at your scale of preference in selecting an affiliate program.

Commission Rate

We don’t need to talk much about the commission rate because I’m sure that at the mention of “affiliate program” the first thing that comes to the mind of most affiliate marketers is ” what’s the commission rate?”. 

To get the most out of affiliate marketing, you’ll need to invest time searching for a good affiliate program with a decent commission rate.

2. Leverage The Use Of Discount offers Like Coupons, Deals, and Promotions to Drive in Sales

A Majority of online buyers are always inclined to buy products with coupons.

• A recent study suggests that 29% of shoppers will purchase an item they didn’t initially intend to buy if there is an incredible discount
• As per Statista, 89% of millennial consumers would try a new brand if a coupon is offered. 
• Also, Blippr has it that online coupon users spend around 24% more than regular shoppers.

All this is not further from the truth. Coupons and discounts are a good way to compel customers to buy products.

According to Statista, in 2020 there was a record of over 92% of shoppers worldwide searching for coupons and offers before buying online.

So, bringing these deals right to the forefront of your audience would apparently increase your conversions.

Preferably, to make more out of affiliate marketing you can decide to launch a coupon site.

That would be a great plan since 59% of consumers turn to coupon websites and blogs for deals

3. Employ The Use Of Products Review

Everyone wants to buy good and authentic products and that’s why they seek reviews. A good number of online shoppers head over to trusted blogs and social media to get reviews and better settle their dilemmas.

So what about employing this strategy?

It’s indisputable that making product reviews are a good way to generate traffic and possibly increase conversion for your blog.

You can either perform product reviews on your social media pages, blogs, or even on your YouTube channel.

It could either be in written text or a video format. Either way, make sure your reviews are factual and unbiased regardless of the fact that you’re indirectly promoting your affiliate links.

If you have a YouTube channel, you can engage in producing Unboxing Videos and Products Tour backed up with your affiliate link placed in the description section as well as the comment box. To make a better conversion, It’s important that you remind your viewers of your affiliate links.

Alongside YouTube, you can also make product reviews with your blogs. In this case, your review should be well-detailed and insightful, encompassing both the Pros and the Cons of the product.

An important caveat here is to try as much as possible to add affiliate links to your article multiple times so it becomes inevitable to your readers. Also, make it transparent to your users that your affiliate link is being embedded in the article.

4. Manually Drive Traffic at all Cost

Don’t just sit down and wait for Google to bless you with traffic before you can earn from affiliate marketing. 

You can promote your affiliate link by employing the use of other digital marketing strategy like Social media marketing, influencer marketing, ad marketing, and a list of others.

In today’s world, Social Media is gradually becoming an inevitable behemoth. Over half of the world’s population, amounting to 4.55 billion people, make use of social media.

And one thing you should know is that you have the potential to reach out to all of them!

But it all begins with a step!

Always make sure to share your product reviews on your social media accounts on different platforms.

Likewise Social media marketing, you could also leverage the use of influencer marketing and ad marketing. However, these strategies might involve the use of money.

If you feel like you don’t have enough audience to market your affiliate product then you can get your link promoted by paying an influencer.

You’d be surprised that influencers have the potential to increase your conversions a whole lot more than a traditional celebrity or ad marketing would do.

According to Digital Marketing Institute, 49% of Consumers rely on Influencers for Recommendations and over 70% of millennials claim that they will more likely be influenced by influencers rather than traditional celebrities. 

5. Harness The Potentials Of Email Marketing

Email Marketing is actually an Ideal marketing strategy to employ if you would like to perform affiliate marketing productively.

According to Campaign Monitor, Email Marketing has a return of investing of 42× an initial investment. That being said, you should know Email Marketing is for the serious-minded.

You can start up your email marketing by creating a series of newsletters tailored to describe the features and benefits of the product.

Your mail should sound more like a value-intensive scheme rather than a promotional business as usual.

How Much Can You Earn in Affiliate Marketing?

There is no one stable amount that affiliate marketers do earn. Your earning potential all boils down to one thing – the right niche, the right strategies, applied to the right audience.

But according to payscale, an average affiliate marketer earns approximately $51,796 per year.  While Low-tier marketers and Top affiliates earn about $38k and $71k on average.

One problem with the income of affiliate marketers is the lack of stability. There’s no such assurance that your prior income would be equal or perhaps greater than the present one. You shouldn’t be surprised when one month you earn a sizable amount and then the other, your earnings reduce due to poor sales.

Final Thoughts

The short answer to the question  (is affiliate marketing worth it) is YES. But affiliate marketing would only be worth your effort if you’re rightly applying the strategies.

Also, recall, the key to success in any field is persistence and consistency. Bear this in mind!