You may have heard people talk about "affiliate" or "affiliates," but you might not know exactly what that term means. If so, this article will explain some basic principles behind affiliate marketing. We'll also look at an example of how affiliates can make money using Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) as their primary method of making money from advertising.
If you're new to online entrepreneurship, then you've probably come across the terms "affiliate," "affiliate program," and even "affiliate marketer." But these are all just different names for one thing -- an individual who gets paid when someone else clicks on his link or uses his promotional code. The person doing the referring doesn't need any special skills or training, he's simply trying to promote something. In fact, anyone with internet access can become an affiliate!
The word "marketing" isn't used very often in relation to affiliate programs because most affiliate programs don't require customers to buy anything. Instead, they use various methods to encourage visitors to take action by clicking through links to products and services offered elsewhere. This could be a website where someone is offering free information about your niche. It could be an email newsletter, social media post, YouTube video, blog post, or anywhere else that people can share content online.
There is no limit to the number of ways that people can earn revenue via affiliate marketing. Some popular types include CPA (cost per acquisition), PPC (paid search ads), eCommerce (selling goods directly), and PPL (paying per lead). While there aren't many strict requirements regarding which type of affiliate program someone should join, we recommend looking for ones that offer high commissions. These can typically range between 15% to 30%.
So let's say you want to start promoting some kind of service or product like insurance, home repairs, diet pills, etc... You'd go to Google or another major search engine and enter keywords related to your chosen field. Then you would select several websites that appear on top results pages based on those keywords. Next click on each site to see if it has a "Join now!" button near its URL bar. For instance, here are two such sites for getting quotes on auto insurance:
Once you find a few viable options, create a list of them along with relevant details like price, commission percentage, customer support, reviews, etc.. When you're ready, sign up for an account at the first company you selected. After creating an account, fill out the form asking for more info including your name, phone number, address, credit card information, etc. Once everything looks good, submit the application. Depending on the size of the company, sometimes you'll receive an invitation to set up an initial deposit of $100-$200. When that happens, you'll usually receive an automated welcome kit full of helpful tools to help build traffic to your own offers.
Now that you understand the basics of affiliate marketing, let's learn more about Pay-Per-Lead.
A lead in digital marketing is essentially a potential buyer of your product. They already show interest in buying your product or service before contacting you. To generate leads, you must provide value to customers. Your goal is to convert these leads into sales.
For example, if I'm selling a weight loss plan, my main objective is to attract enough people interested in losing weight to purchase my plan. My strategy is to target prospects on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Through these platforms, I connect with thousands of individuals every day. From their profiles, I can determine whether they fit the profile of a likely candidate. Based on their interests, demographics, location, and income level, I decide whether or not to send them emails inviting them to download my ebook.
In addition to generating leads, you should also collect data during the process. By tracking conversions rates and analyzing conversion strategies, you can optimize future campaigns.
Affiliate marketers rely heavily upon SEO techniques to drive traffic to their landing page. A landing page is basically the webpage that contains your offer and calls to action. The call to actions are buttons that allow users to subscribe to mailing lists, request a demo, book a consultation appointment, or order a product outright. There are many ways to design a landing page, but generally speaking, they contain text describing what your product is, testimonials from satisfied customers, pictures, videos, and compelling headlines.
When designing a landing page, keep in mind that it needs to be optimized for mobile devices. People tend to browse the web while walking around town and taking public transportation. Therefore, your landing page should load quickly and display well on smaller screens. Most importantly, ensure that your page clearly explains why prospective buyers should choose your product over others. Remember that people don't trust companies without proof that they actually work. So it's important to back up claims made throughout your landing page with evidence.
As far as driving traffic goes, there are three main approaches:
Search Engine Optimization - Increasing visibility among the right audience
Social Media Marketing - Engaging existing audiences
Paid Advertising - Targeted, highly specific advertisements
No, although both activities involve finding leads. Affiliate marketing requires building relationships with consumers, whereas lead generation involves targeting potential clients. An effective way to think of these two concepts is to imagine that you're running a dating app. With affiliate marketing, you wouldn't necessarily try to date everyone within 100 miles of your house. Rather, you focus on attracting members of the opposite sex who live nearby. That's what you do with lead generation.
One common misconception about affiliate marketing is that it's only useful to reach large numbers of people. However, the truth is that small groups of targeted consumers can still bring significant profits. One of the best examples comes from direct response copywriting. Copywriters write persuasive adverts for local businesses hoping to increase footfall. Since the 1970s, copywriters have been able to achieve impressive ROI by concentrating efforts on small markets with low competition.
It turns out that the same principle applies to affiliate marketing. As long as you're willing to invest time and resources into developing a relationship with a handful of leads, you won't regret it. Plus, once you've built a rapport with a prospect, you can leverage referrals to expand your network further.
Many affiliate networks allow you to track your performance and view analytics. Using these reports, you can identify trends in your traffic patterns. This allows you to adjust your campaign accordingly. For example, if you notice that certain days or times of year produce better results than others, you can shift your schedule to coincide with peak demand periods. Or maybe you realize that some of your competitors are performing better than you. At that point, you can either switch tactics altogether or improve your current approach.
With this knowledge, you can easily begin earning passive income by focusing on your strengths instead of wasting time chasing after opportunities that aren't worth pursuing.
The most common form of paid advertising on the internet is through Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) or Cost-Per-Click (CPC). This involves placing ads on various sites that link back to your website where you can earn money by showing people who have clicked those links to relevant content. The more clicks you get from these leads, the higher your earnings will be.
In this article I'll explain how PPL works, what's involved with creating one yourself, and which types of companies use them best. But first, let's look at exactly what "cost" means.
Cost per Lead is simply the price you charge advertisers when they click through on your adverts. It's also known as CPM - Cost per thousand impressions. In general, the better quality your traffic, the lower your cost per lead. That way, if someone clicks on your advert but doesn't convert into a sale then you don't lose too much money because you've only charged so much per person.
But there are different costs associated with each kind of site. Here's a quick run down of some of the main ones...
Advertiser pays - These are the big names such as Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. When you advertise on their networks you usually just write up a headline and description about what your service offers and pay them every time someone clicks through on your advert. You're not actually selling anything to them though, you're just making sure they know about your company.
Affiliate marketing - Many smaller affiliates make a living using this method. They create banners, buttons, videos etc., and place them on popular blogs and forums. If someone clicks on the banner, then the advertiser takes over and sells whatever the affiliate has recommended. For instance, say you sell weight loss products. Then you would promote another company's brand of protein shakes. You'd put a button saying something like 'Try X Protein Shakes' somewhere online, and whenever someone clicks through you take a small percentage of the sale. Some affiliate marketers even offer free trials!
Sponsored listings - A lot of travel websites do sponsored listings, whereby they display an advertisement above any search results page. So rather than having your own listing underneath the organic results, you instead place your advertisement here. Your site gets credit for sending visitors to the advertiser. There could be commission fees attached depending on whether the visitor buys or signs up for membership.
Google Display Network - Similar to sponsored listings, except the advertisements aren't shown anywhere else apart from within the Google network itself. Instead of being displayed alongside the organic search results, they appear right next to them. Again, the user sees nothing but the ad, but receives the benefit of getting directed towards the merchant.
Banner exchange - Also known as reciprocal linking. Basically, you send out a message asking others to link back to your website, and in return you promise to reciprocate and send them traffic. You might ask them to add your text onto theirs, or include your logo on theirs.
Other forms of PPL exist, including email campaigns and direct mailings, but we won't discuss them further here. Now that we understand what cost per lead means, let's see what it entails.
As mentioned earlier, cost per lead is often used interchangeably with CPC, although technically speaking it's slightly wrong because CPC stands for cost per click. However, both refer to the same thing - the amount you charge for someone clicking through your ad.
Let's go through an actual example. Say you want to buy some new clothes but haven't got around to finding a store yet. Let's imagine you found a shirt that looks good online and decide you want to check it out before buying. You find a website called Shirts Direct, and you see an image of the shirt you liked. Clicking on the picture sends you off to a landing page to learn more about the company. Once you land on their homepage, you notice two options - Buy now and Learn More. Which option should you choose? Well, obviously you want to buy since you don't really care about learning all about the company unless you already plan on buying anyway. Therefore, you pick the Buy Now option and enter your details. After completing the transaction, you receive an eMail confirming your order and thanking you for choosing Shirts Direct.
Now let's pretend you didn't want to purchase that particular item after all. Maybe you were thinking of buying it later. Or perhaps you wanted to read more information about it first. Either way, you still ended up going to Shirts Direct. And once again, you noticed two options - Buy Now and Read Reviews. You chose the second option, which took you to a review page. On the page was a short paragraph explaining why you should buy the shirt. At the bottom of the page was a box labeled "Buy Our Shirt". Clicking on it brought you straight away to the checkout process.
So basically, you went to Shirts Direct twice. First time round you picked the Buy Now option, then on the second visit you did the exact same thing. Both times you received a confirmation eMail detailing your order. The difference between the two visits is that the second time round you saw the review section. Obviously, that meant more sales for Shirts Direct, thus increasing your cost per lead.
There you have it, a simple explanation of what cost per lead means. Next, let's explore its benefits compared to other methods of generating income.
It may surprise you to hear that many of the top earning affiliates use PPL. One reason for this is that it allows you to target specific customers based on the keywords they searched for. Another is that it's relatively easy to set up and manage compared to other ways of monetizing your blog. Most importantly though, it gives you control over your revenue.
You can easily adjust the number of clicks required to generate a certain payout. For example, you could require 10 clicks to generate $1,000, 100 clicks to generate $100, or 1000 clicks to generate $10. Using this approach you can ensure that no matter how well your blog performs, you always end up with enough cash to live comfortably.
Let's look at an example of a high performing blog using PPL. As you probably guessed, it's a personal finance blog. Imagine you decided to start writing articles about investing. You post three articles a week and each contains a call to action at the bottom encouraging readers to sign up for newsletters or download PDFs containing financial advice. Over time, you build up a following of loyal subscribers who trust and respect you. Eventually, you feel comfortable promoting affiliate products related to your niche.
For instance, maybe you recommend a book on budgeting for beginners. Each month thousands of people arrive on your blog thanks to your articles. Every subscriber knows that if they come across an interesting investment tip, they need to act quickly before it becomes outdated. With this knowledge, they click through to the appropriate pages on your blog and buy the books you recommend. By doing this repeatedly, you slowly increase your profit margin until eventually you become profitable.
This is what happens when you combine low cost per lead with high conversion rate of leads. In fact, according to Statista, the average conversion rate for a PPL campaign is 2% - significantly higher than the 1% conversion rates achievable with traditional advertising channels.
With PPL, you can easily track your success and measure how effective your efforts are. This lets you tweak things accordingly and keep improving your performance. Of course, this isn't guaranteed. Sometimes your audience may never respond to your calls to action. Other times you might attract low quality traffic. To avoid wasting your time trying ineffective strategies, you must test everything carefully beforehand.
If you follow my advice throughout this guide, you'll soon realize that PPL is a powerful tool for anyone looking to grow their blogging empire. All you need to do is figure out the best mix of keywords to reach your targeted market, then sit back while the money rolls in.
The term "cost per lead" can be used interchangeably with various terms like "cost per click," "cost per acquisition," or even "cost per sale." The concept behind all these phrases is that the more leads your website generates, the less money you have to invest on advertising campaigns.
That's why I'm going to talk about it this way because I want to explain how Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) works. This article will cover everything you need to know about PPL so you'll understand how it compares to some other types of affiliate marketing payments.
So let me begin by defining what exactly a 'cost per lead' is. In short, 'cost per lead' refers to the amount paid by someone who signs up for one of your offers after clicking through from another site. You're not paying them directly - they are paying themselves. It doesn't matter if they sign up for your free offer or any other kind of offer as long as they do something on your page after clicking around elsewhere.
Let's look at an example scenario where two people visit different sites and then come back to yours via social media. One person clicks through to your site from Google AdWords while the second comes across your site when he/she visits Facebook. Both visitors end up signing up for your freebie but only one pays $10 for the service. That's a good thing! If both had paid, it would've been unfair to the first visitor since there was no reason for him/her to enter into their agreement.
If the second person paid nothing for his/her subscription, we'd call that a loss leader. A loss leader is a practice whereby companies sell products below market value with the intention of making profits later on down the road. In our case, the company selling the freebies isn't trying to make a profit off those subscriptions right away. They are just using them as bait to attract potential customers.
Now, before we move forward, let's take a closer look at each of the three main types of affiliate marketing payments available today. These include Cost Per Click, Cost Per Acquisition, and Cost Per Lead. Let's start with CPA.
Cost per lead is similar to Cost per Click except instead of being paid based on traffic generated, it's paid out according to how many subscribers a user signed up for. For instance, if a customer buys a book through Amazon and then decides to buy some related items from your store, you might get paid 10% commission on that purchase. So far, so simple. But say the same customer also subscribes to your newsletter. Now you could potentially earn 20%, 30% or even 40% commissions. So which method wins out here?
Well, it depends on whether you consider the subscriber to be valuable enough to warrant such high earnings. There are certain niches where having thousands of subscribers is worth its weight in gold, especially if you deliver outstanding content consistently. On the other hand, most of us don't really care about our email lists unless we actually use them regularly. And so, depending on the size of your audience and the quality of your emails, you may decide to go for Cost Per Acquisition rather than Cost Per Lead.
A classic example of a successful affiliate program that uses PPLCs involves a real estate agent. She has found several properties she wants to list online, however her goal is not necessarily to find buyers immediately. Instead, she hopes that once interested parties see what she's offering, they'll contact her and ask her to show them around. Once they agree to meet her, she gives them her card and tells them to give her a call. When they do, she asks them to fill out a form stating what kind of property they're looking for and what price range they're willing to part with. Then, she sends over photos of homes within that price range. After reviewing the pictures, the buyer selects the home they feel best fits their needs and makes a deposit to reserve the house.
Once the deal closes, the seller gets paid according to the percentage listed on the contract. As soon as the buyer receives the keys, the seller starts earning revenue from the property rental income. At this point, the seller has already made a return on investment without spending a dime.
This question is easy to answer once you realize that every single piece of information you provide to consumers helps increase conversion rates. Whether it's a phone number, address, e-mail, etc., the more data you collect, the better chance you have of attracting new prospects. Hence, the importance of collecting a lot of personal details during registration and throughout the whole process of building trust between yourself and your users.
In addition to providing a ton of useful information, you must also avoid asking too many questions. Too many unnecessary inquiries can cause friction and turn potential customers off. Don't forget that people hate feeling pressured. Make sure you always keep things friendly and relaxed so you can build rapport quickly.
Finally, remember that the more information you gather during the registration stage, the higher probability you have of converting that prospect into a real client. Therefore, it's important to create an entire ecosystem of tools surrounding your website that allows you to capture lots of data about your visitors.
When you think about it, every time a consumer takes action on your website, you're getting a new lead. Your job is to convert that lead into a happy customer. How do you achieve that? By creating a highly customized experience for each individual visitor.
For example, imagine you own a clothing line called "Famous Brands". Since each item sells for under $100, you don't expect anyone to shell out hundreds of dollars for a shirt. However, thanks to your unique approach towards customer retention, you generate plenty of sales. Why? Because your customers love receiving special discounts whenever possible. They receive exclusive deals on clothes by joining your mailing list. They become VIP members of your brand.
Your objective remains the same regardless of how you choose to promote your goods. Your aim is to encourage individuals to try your products, learn about your brand, and ultimately share your story with others.
As you can tell, the key difference between CPL and CPAC lies in the level of commitment required on behalf of the consumer. With CPL, the consumer is simply giving access to his private information. He doesn't have to perform any actions beyond visiting your website. Whereas, with CPAC, the consumer is actively engaging with your brand.
To summarize, the main differences between CPL and CPAC lie in the following areas:
1. Information sharing -- Consumers in your target niche aren't likely to join your email list unless they're given compelling reasons to do so. Thus, you'll need to provide exceptional value for your leads. To do that, you'll need to ensure that your messages contain a strong sense of urgency. Also, you'll need to develop a relationship with your readership by keeping them updated on relevant industry news and developments.
2. Time spent -- CPL requires a very small amount of effort on your side whereas CPAC demands a substantial amount of work. Even though you won't personally interact with your leads, you still need to dedicate a considerable portion of your day to handling incoming requests.
3. Value provided -- While CPL provides minimal returns, CPAC offers significant benefits. Not only will you gain exposure, but you'll also benefit from increased awareness among existing clients and loyal fans.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.