Introduction

Affiliate marketing has grown exponentially in recent years as brands understand its power and invest more money in this branch of digital marketing than ever before. In fact, 81% of brands use affiliate programs to boost brand awareness and sales as of 2023. In addition, increasingly more people are shopping online and 74% of potential clients check affiliate websites before making a purchase. Editorial content such as blog posts and articles are the most converting types of affiliate content since they are perceived as more engaging and trustworthy by potential buyers, who are more likely to engage with it.

The main reason why affiliate marketing is becoming more and more popular is because plays a crucial role in customer acquisition efforts, more so than any other channel. According to a Kenshoo research report, 85% of online shoppers prefer Google to find ideas and information before making a purchase. Therefore, search engine optimization is crucial for affiliate marketers working on effective types of content, including blogging, product review sites, comparison sites, webinars, How-Tos, etc. 

In a few words, affiliate marketing is currently a powerful tool for both brands and affiliates and it will continue to be key for marketing efforts in the future. Some relevant and recommended channels are social media and SEO, which complement each other as a crucial part of the strongest affiliate marketing strategies.

5 useful tips for affiliate beginners 

Continuing on, find a few useful tips that you should know if you are just getting started with affiliate marketing: 

1. Select a niche or vertical

Choose a specific niche that you are familiar with and promote products that you are knowledgeable about – The more confident you are about them, the better you will be able to promote them! about. Remember that users feel more engaged with content that generates more trust and confidence, so you want to position yourself as an ‘expert’ on the services and products you promote. Additionally, learning comes with experience, and you need to share your experience with transparency and compare the pros and cons equally, providing the potential customer with a full picture. 

Something else to bear in mind, a beginner affiliate is likely to choose an offer with a higher payout rather than trying to understand how it works. As a result, the campaign will not generate profitable results. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you don’t make a mistake and go further with the offer decision factors. 

On the other hand, it is also important to know your target audience while choosing a niche. This is a crucial aspect you need to learn as much as you can about before setting up a campaign. Remember: The more information you have about your audience, you will reach them easier. In a nutshell, you need to know who you are addressing and then build content relevant to your target audience. After that, drive traffic using your affiliate links and promote your products as a consumer. This will enable you to create the most engaging and suitable content for your readers.  

2. Choose the best affiliate network

At this stage, you need to search for a reputable affiliate network. You need to make sure this is your best option in order to get the most out of your traffic. There are lots of affiliate networks out there, but only a few offer the opportunity to generate profits through affiliate marketing. Aside from that, affiliate marketing is available to every marketer who is willing to. However, making money and growing an audience is indeed more challenging and complex than people would expect. 

When you are evaluating which is the best affiliate network, you may keep an eye out for these decisive elements that every affiliate network should have as TORO Advertising does:

• Excellent and dedicated support 
• Worldwide coverage
• Wide range of offers 
• Variety of verticals and conversion flows

• Top EPC and highest CR
• International Account Managers

3. Create valuable content

Relevant and qualified content increases engagement, generates more and better leads and ensures trust and credibility. Furthermore, content is the best weapon you have to deal with acquisition and send qualified leads to your affiliate campaign. In order to do so, we recommend empowering SEO best practices, building landing pages and taking advantage of the most converting types of content.

4. Decide your traffic source

First of all, we define a traffic source as any platform that drives traffic to your affiliate site, blog or social media page. Continuing on are the aspects you should consider when deciding on a traffic source.

• Your niche and product’s vertical
• Targeting options and countries
• Volume and quality of traffic
• The cost of the traffic source
• Payment types and minimum deposit 
• Innovative and converting formats
• Restrictions, regulations and best practices

5. Keep trust from of mind

Last, but not least, it is crucial to build authority and trust in promoting your affiliate campaigns. Build and grow your target audience by sharing relevant content aimed at helping instead of selling. Additionally, develop a data-driven strategy to ensure proper results monitoring, so that it will be easier to optimize and maximize your profits. 

Most profitable affiliate marketing verticals for beginners

First of all, let’s define the conversion flow as the steps taken by an end user towards the sign-up, purchase or the goal stated by the affiliate marketer in charge of a specific campaign introduce the conversion flow as the action taken by the end-users when they perform the action of the offer page. At that moment, visitors are turned into leads, so after that, the conversion will be fired and the affiliates will receive a commission. 

In affiliate marketing, these are the most used conversion flows: CPL-SOI, CPL-DOI, CPI, CPA, CPS, CC Submit, Rev.share. As a beginner, it is recommended to start with CPLs since they are the easiest to convert. Besides that, the funnel is simple and the conversion will fire once the user fills in a form with their personal data. In any case, here are some of the most profitable verticals for affiliate beginners:

Top verticals for affiliate beginners

1. Mobile content; games, app installs, etc. 
2. Sweepstakes
3. Dating
4. Adult
5. Finance

Final thoughts

Even though everyone has strengths and weaknesses, it is crucial to build a strategy according to your experience and background. It is convenient to begin easy and strong with attainable objectives. At the beginning, getting started can be a nightmare, but following the tips mentioned above will help you to put your best foot forward. If you need help getting started with affiliate marketing, contact our talented team at social@toroadvertising.com