Affiliate Network

There are many ways to monetize online content in the virtual environment, but affiliate marketing stands out as a particularly profitable option for both businesses and content creators. This blog post examines the fundamentals of affiliate marketing, outlining successful tactics and offering helpful suggestions to optimize your revenue potential.

Hay muchas maneras de monetizar contenido en línea en el entorno virtual, pero el marketing de afiliados se destaca como una opción particularmente rentable tanto para empresas como para creadores de contenido. Esta entrada de blog examina los fundamentos del marketing de afiliados, describiendo tácticas exitosas y ofreciendo sugerencias útiles para optimizar tu potencial de ingresos.

Istnieje wiele sposobów na monetyzację treści online w wirtualnym środowisku, ale marketing afiliacyjny wyróżnia się jako szczególnie dochodowa opcja zarówno dla firm, jak i twórców treści. Ten wpis na blogu opisuje podstawy marketingu afiliacyjnego, a także skuteczne taktyki i pomocne wskazówki, które pomogą ci zoptymalizować twój potencjał zarobkowy.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a set of targeted marketing activities that use electronic devices to attract potential clients online. Its main function is to increase sales or application installations using various techniques. Today's leading channels include:

• Affiliate Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Display Advertising
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Content Marketing
• Online Public Relations
• Influencer Marketing

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing that uses an online sales tactic allowing product owners (advertisers) to increase sales by enlisting the services of specialized agencies or individuals (publishers) who manage advertising spaces or traffic (the number of visitors a site receives).

Thus, affiliates promote products to prospective customers by placing creative content on the internet. Affiliates earn money from product sales without having to create products themselves. In most cases, affiliates do not work directly with advertisers. Instead, they interact through special companies known as Affiliate Networks, which facilitate communication between advertisers and publishers.

Affiliate Network

Affiliate network offers products and services from various advertisers and collaborate with a large number of affiliates, enabling them to promote these offerings. An "offer" refers to a product or service that the owner wants to highlight and engage users with.

Products are generally categorized into different industry sectors such as trading, igaming, e-commerce, nutra, dating, crypto, fintech, mobile apps, and adult content. These categories are known as "verticals," suggesting a grouping based on related characteristics.

• Advertiser ⏤ the entity that pays to promote their product to the right audience.
• Publisher ⏤ the party that has traffic and earns revenue by directing this traffic to the offer through advertising.
• Affiliate Network ⏤ a mediator between the publisher and the advertiser.

Benefits

Affiliate marketing supports growth and collaboration in the digital landscape by providing advertisers with improved visibility and cost-effective advertising methods, as well as revenue generation and diverse content opportunities for publishers.

For Advertisers:

• Networks take on the responsibility of finding promotional strategies, sourcing advertising spaces, and identifying the right audience. They maintain extensive databases of publishers who specialize in various verticals.

For Publishers:

• Publishers are not bound by stringent obligations to advertisers, nor do they need to maintain constant contact. They have the flexibility to earn money by working with multiple advertisers and can choose which offers to promote.

Pricing

Affiliate marketing adheres to the principles of performance marketing as payment is made for successful actions. This reflects the advertiser's desire to pay for positive performance, or in other words, for an effective advertising campaign. There are three key metrics:

1. Impression is a view of an advertisement. This occurs when a given ad is displayed on a specific page.
2. Click is an act when a user clicks on the ad and he or she is redirected to the product itself or the place where it may be purchased.
3. Conversion is the desired action performed by a customer. This is when a user clicks on the ad, sees the product and makes an action, for example, installs the application or buys the product.

Advertisers may pay for a number of ad views if the goal is simply to expose the product to the audience. Advertisers may also pay for a number of clicks, which indicates user interest in the product. However, the most common payment model is for conversions, where the advertiser pays for a specific desired action (e.g., install, lead, order) performed by a user. A conversion signals that a user has become an actual customer.

Online advertising offers various pricing models based on the metrics above:

• CPM (Cost Per Mile) is a model where the advertiser pays for every 1,000 users who have seen an ad.
• CPC (Cost Per Click) is a model used to direct traffic to websites, where the advertiser pays a publisher each time an ad is clicked. This was one of the first cost models and remains popular today, although it has one of the lowest levels of profitability.
• CPI (Cost Per Install) is the most popular model for promoting mobile apps.
• CPA (Cost Per Action) is a model where the advertiser pays for a particular action (such as registration, deposit, etc.) or several actions. The CPA model also includes post-install events, i.e., actions performed by a user after installing an app.
• CPL (Cost Per Lead) is a model closely connected to lead generation.
• CPO (Cost Per Order) is a model where the advertiser pays for each confirmed order.

The choice of cost model depends on the specifics of the offer and agreements with the advertiser. Advertisers may use various strategies to promote their products, but understanding which methods are effective is crucial. Several indicators help demonstrate the effectiveness of a campaign and assist in its optimization:

• ROI (return on investment) = (Net Profit / Total Costs)
• CTR (click-through rate) = (Clicks / Impressions)
• CR (conversion rate) = (Conversions / Clicks)
• EPC (earnings per clicks) = (Earnings / Clicks)

Advertisers

They can be segmented as follows:

1. Applications

• This is all about application install and post-install events (in-app actions).
• Technologies: Special platforms for Mobile App Tracking & Attribution are used. Such tools provide analytics for the product itself, all product metrics.
• E.g.: Adjust, Apsflyer, Kochava, Yandex App Metrica, Google Analytics, Token Data, etc. Also, an app may have its own internal analytics system.

2. Sites

• Different site categories or verticals (such as forex, casino or e-commerce) may be represented.
• Technologies: Certain instruments help to measure the advertising ROI and track media inventory.
• E.g.: Facebook Analytics, Google Analytics, Yandex Metrica. An internal analytics system may also be used.

3. Mobile

• Content providers use means of mobile sites and subscribe users with the help of mobile communication provider (service provider).
• Mobile communication providers have additional income from their customers by allowing content providers to take money for subscriptions from users’ accounts.
• All advertisers may use some platforms to manage, track, analyze and optimize their online advertising campaigns.

Affiliates

They are divided into three main categories:

1. Publishers

• This term can refer to both a class of industry players and a specific subclass.
• Publishers, in the narrower sense of the term, own sites and applications that feature ad spaces.
• They play a crucial role in promoting products or services on behalf of advertisers in exchange for a commission on resulting sales, leads, or other desired actions.

2. Media Buyers

• Media buyers purchase traffic from traffic sources or through real-time auctions on special platforms known as Demand-Side Platforms.
• Media buyers pay for impressions. Users see ads, click on them, and are directed to the offer, where they perform actions (conversions).
• Media buyers acquire impressions, which are substantially cheaper than conversions, and earn a commission for conversions.

3. Traffic Sources

• Websites and large web portals serve as sources of traffic (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Google, Snapchat).
• Publishers, media buying agencies, and traffic sources may interact with each other. For example, a media buyer can purchase traffic from these sources, or publishers can sell traffic to them.
• Trackers designed for publishers include Redtrack, Ads Bridge, and Voluum.