Being a good advertiser means having all the methods on hand to reach your audience. This means that you can’t take a one-size-fits-all method, as what will reach an American consumer likely won’t be as effective with an Australian consumer. As a result, you need to find a way to get your ad materials in front of your ideal audience, and affiliate marketing is a great way to make this happen.

By associating your brand/product with names that the consumer already trusts, you not only get the benefit of their traffic, but also the benefit of their positive association. Here’s how to start putting it all together.

What is online affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is essentially a spin on the classic salesperson-advertiser-customer relationship. Advertisers reach out to various websites/blogs/publications to essentially promote their product via a link.

By putting the affiliate link on their site, every time it’s accessed, the affiliate gets a payment from the advertiser. The exact terms for payment can vary, but affiliate marketing is basically a way for advertisers to promote through a different avenue. It’s also highly scalable, so you can do this with many affiliates, versus being limited to the size of your sales team with conventional marketing.

How does affiliate marketing work?

In order to make sure that each affiliate click is properly attributed, the advertiser gives a specific link for each affiliate to promote. When this is clicked by a potential customer, an affiliate cookie is stored on their device, helping the merchant attribute any sales from the session. For example, if someone clicked your affiliate link on a blog post, then went to Amazon to go buy your product, the affiliate cookie would allow you to verify that the purchase stemmed from this link.

What are the advantages of affiliate marketing?

The largest advantage when it comes to affiliate marketing is the ability to diversify your plan of attack in terms of audience outreach. Some customers may get used to tuning out conventional internet ads or other forms of marketing. However, reading a blog or watching a YouTube video about a topic that’s relevant to them is a lot more interesting. By incorporating an affiliate link on these platforms, you have the ability to get interest from this set of customers also.

Another benefit is that you can bundle affiliate offers to promote with other bonuses. This can include something like a mention for a guest post or something. Advertisers want to be creative with ways to get their affiliate link in as many locations as possible.

How big is the affiliate marketing industry?

The greater industry for affiliates reached heights of $18 billion in 2018 and is likely only increasing. The U.S. and E.U. led the charge, but we’re seeing higher numbers in Australia as well. As digital marketing grows across the board in Australia, there are going to be more potential affiliates for different niches, which means more opportunities for advertisers. One thing’s for sure: affiliates are working for a lot of different advertisers.

What is a niche in affiliate marketing?

Niche here is pretty similar to other areas like content marketing. Ideally, you want to target a narrower set of publications to try and put your affiliate link on. This not only keeps your cost down, but also gives you a better chance of your link being viewed by those who are interested in actually making a conversion. For example, putting your link on every food blog in Australia isn’t really feasible. Vegan home cooks, though? That’s a lot more reasonable of a target to hit.

How can you find affiliate marketers for your product?

There are quite a few methods you can go with here. There are some sites out there with lists of blogs that do affiliate programs. In addition, you can try to work backward. Think of some publications that you know you want to partner with, then approach them to see if they are interested in incorporating your affiliate link. This is generally going to be a lot more successful with smaller blogs that could appreciate the added income. Major publications are more likely to be discerning here.

What are the best affiliate marketing platforms in Australia?

In theory, you can use the methods above and create a small group of marketers for your product. However, this isn’t necessarily the most efficient method. In order to get your affiliate link in front of a variety of eyes at once, you want to use an affiliate platform or network. These put your link in a pool of hundreds to possibly thousands of different affiliates.

Because you buy into the network, you can get your link placed with appropriate affiliates to get more eyes on your product. As we mentioned earlier, niche matters. So, you want to pick a platform that’s good for your needs. So, if you’re looking for a pay-per-sale affiliate network, here are some of the standouts in the Australian market.

1. ClixGalore

This makes an ideal bargain option for advertisers interested in what affiliate marketing can do, but not ready to break the bank to do so quite yet. You can get started for $150 with no additional fees, and future payments will be based on link performance.

2. Click Bank

This accessible solution boasts a massive global audience, top-notch support, and the ability to manage your affiliate commission payments to save you the headache. Affiliate sales are a smaller part of the greater umbrella of CPA marketing. Advertisers want to be smart when it comes to utilising this to boost the presence of their sites or products, and that means knowing the best methods as well as the best platforms and networks to embrace. If you’re having trouble making sense of everything, consider reaching out to a digital marketing agency.

3. Impact

Impact’s main appeal is a series of partnership programs. This includes affiliates, but also influencers, apps, and publishers. Look into this if you’re trying to build out your business network quickly.

4. Affiliate Window

This network doesn’t just have a variety of different sector partners, they also have different promotional types. If you’re interested in cashback or shopping comparison, you can find what you need here.

5. Commission Factory

This network specifically caters to the Australian market, and counts some of the country’s top brands among its clients. Easy to set up and with plenty of robust support options, it makes a great starter option for companies beginning with this advertising method. You can also access reports to see how your links are performing.

6. Commission Junction

Some of the largest brands in the world, including Barnes & Noble and GoPro, work with this company for affiliate services. You can get matched to ideal affiliate partners based on their software, as well as track the customer journey not just across sites, but across different devices.

7. Rakuten Linkshare

Rakuten boasts a 150k member global publishing network, making it easy for you to get the ideal fit for your brand as far as affiliate links go. The network also uses consumer and e-commerce insights for you to get data to power future marketing plans.