What is an Affiliate Program

Last Updated: 

August 29, 2024

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Affiliate marketing has already gained a foothold among the ways to make good money. It is not surprising: the ability to work from anywhere in the world, high profits and an abundance of affiliate programs. All in all, everyone is satisfied, because working through an affiliate program is beneficial for both the publisher and the advertiser.

Let us see how affiliate programs differ from other ways to promote a product or service.

As part of an affiliate program, the seller (advertiser) cooperates with an affiliate marketer (publisher). The task of the affiliate marketer is to serve as a kind of intermediary between the seller and the buyer. Their main task is to advertise, recommend and distribute seller’s products and services.

The affiliate marketer's income depends on how many real or potential customers they can bring to the advertiser. At the same time, they can drive traffic to the seller's offers in different ways, using the most profitable and effective communication channels.

In order to better understand how affiliate programs work, you need to learn more about their types.

What affiliate programs are there?

A lot can depend on the type of affiliate program you choose: what traffic channels are better to use, what you should pay attention to when working with your target audience, how to multiply leads and, finally, how to get your profit from a completed deal.

The most common classification of affiliate programs is by the type of offers. That is, the program depends on the final product that the advertiser produces. Most often, a commercial offer is divided into offers related to products, services and recruiting. Sometimes offers of CPA programs are placed in a separate category.

There is also a classification of affiliate programs according to the direction of offers. These are the so-called "niche affiliate programs" that are focused on a specific category of products or services.

There are a lot of directions in which offers are created. Here are just a few of the trendiest ones:

  • Finance (cryptocurrencies, trading);
  • Health and beauty ("commodity");
  • Gambling/bets;
  • Ecommerce;
  • Dating;
  • Info business (trainings, master classes, webinars) etc.

It is worth noting that it is niche affiliate programs that are often the most attractive for marketers. There are several reasons for this. Large rates on offers from advertisers, a small number (or no) restrictions on different types of traffic, high conversion rates.

But, perhaps, one of the most important things for affiliate marketers is the classification of programs by payment method. The main ones are:

1) CPS – cost per sale

Under this condition, the affiliate marketer brings a customer to the advertiser and receives a percentage of each sale. Less common are cases when the affiliate marketer is paid a fixed amount.

2) CPC – cost per click

In such affiliate programs, you earn a profit for each user who goes to the site or landing page of the client, even if the user does not make a purchase. Most often, the traffic channel in this model is an advertising banner. COst per click depends on many factors, including the category of advertised products/services.

3) CPA – cost per action

In such a model, the affiliate marketer has a specific task - a target action. It can be different: registering on the site, watching a video, collecting email addresses, participating in a survey, installing an application, etc. Most often, a fixed payment is assigned for each target action performed by the user. This model is often used not only to sell commodity offers, but also to promote dating sites, online games, that is, in an area where the client benefits not from direct sales, but from audience involvement.

What stores pay to acquire customers?

It is beneficial for large online stores and Internet services to cooperate with affiliate programs. For them, this is a way to get quality traffic and promote their products and services to a wider audience.

Therefore, it is not surprising that many affiliate programs work with business giants. For example, more than 200 major advertisers are represented in the ePN affiliate program, such as AliExpress, Aviasales, eBay, iHerb, Booking.com etc. Some of them pay affiliate marketers up to 70% commission on purchases!

Like we said earlier, niche affiliate programs are also in high demand. For example, Terra Leads provides affiliate marketers with offers from the “commodity” niche, which helps partners focus on a specific product category and get high profits on favourable terms.

Why is an affiliate program the best way to make money online?

For traffic owners, an affiliate program is the most profitable way to make money on the Internet. To date, there are a lot of effective and profitable programs in this area that unite affiliate marketers from all over the world.

The CPA model used by affiliate programs has quickly become the most attractive and profitable advertising channel for businesses. Publishers also benefit from partnerships: CPA networks often have a flexible payment system, so affiliate marketers receive their income from sales much faster.

In addition, affiliate program benefits include a wide choice of advertisers, risk insurance, assistance in professional development as well as transparent lead and traffic tracking.

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