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Picture this: After listening to multiple industry experts talk about the importance of affiliate marketing campaigns, you go ahead and set one up. You’re expecting the campaign to blow up, with affiliate links bringing in sales left, right, and center. But a few months go by, and all you get is…..Crickets. 

So, were those successful affiliate marketers (read: experts) lying, or did you just go wrong while setting up your own affiliate marketing strategies? Well, chances are the latter happened (but not in every case). 

Don’t worry about it, though — you can take a few simple steps to remedy the situation and create affiliate marketing campaigns that turn out to be an overnight success (and we’re only slightly exaggerating here). 

So, let’s dive into the tips, shall we? 

Trust > Everything else 

Alright, so before you even think about setting up your affiliate marketing campaigns, first search for the most trusted people in your niche to promote your affiliate product. 

Why, you ask? Well, we got the opinion of an affiliate marketer, Alex Birret, on this topic.

He says, “Just a quick thought exercise: Tim Ferriss and some random guy both suggest you try Athletic Greens. Whose word carries more weight? 

When your word carries weight, tactically, your conversion rates are better, which means you’re lowering your cost per acquisition, no matter which platform you’re using to drive affiliate sales. 

In my specific case, alexbirkett.com has 100s of articles about data, artificial intelligence, growth, and optimization. I have an audience beyond transactional search traffic, but I’ve also built up topical authority and tons of organic links. All of these are inputs that drive affiliate sales.”

Another simple way to earn trust? Online product reviews. Turn your customers into brand advocates.

 Or you can always invest in tried-and-true search engine optimization strategies like writing valuable content like product comparisons. Both work wonders to build trust with your target audience. 

Tap into the right networks 

Next, keep a key eye on the people who can become (current or potential) affiliate marketers by tapping into the right networks. 

For example, if you’re in the RV rental market space in LA (which is very niche), you can partner up with local travel agents, travel agencies, or travel blogs. 

In this scenario, Home & Jet, a successful travel blog, would be the perfect contender to join Cruise America’s Affiliate Program. Why? Their niche caters to readers who love the outdoors and flock to their blog to read helpful tips and tricks for planning new trips. 

If you need more inspiration, Joe Kevens, the founder of B2B SaaS Reviews, recommends affiliate networks like ShareASale if you’re in the B2C space and PartnerStack if you’re in the B2B space. 

However, Joe and Alex have said that it is rare to see affiliate campaigns become overnight success, especially in the B2B space, because the nurture journey takes longer — so we’d also recommend partnering with affiliate marketers who you can keep in your network for longer! 

Create relevant and targeted content 

Another thing that’ll help you deliver successful campaigns is by educating your marketers about your products and brand history by providing them with onboarding materials.

You can also help them by sending them social media content they could share on their posts and stories. 

We’d recommend making this content relatable and timely. For example, if the holiday season is nearing, you can create a specific post on that. Or if a meme is going viral, there can be a specific post on that. 

The objective is to get folks to understand the need for the product/services you offer, engage with the content you produce, and‌ relate to it to be able to buy it. 

Make the commission worth it

For any affiliate marketing program to be successful, all parties have to be equally invested in it. So, if you, as the company, get sales from affiliate programs, ask yourself whether the incentives your affiliate marketers get are worth the time and effort they put into your campaigns. 

So, while the going rate is to provide a 5–30% commission on sold goods (depending on the industry and niche you belong to), you can incentivize your program further by giving milestone-based incentives. 

For example, as mentioned before, it takes time to nurture leads, so you can reward those affiliates who stick with your program for longer. Consider offering routine bonuses, higher commission rates, or affiliate partner perks (like discounts or free products/services from your company). 

Create a buzz before the launch

Finally, to make your affiliate program a huge success, create a buzz about your products and affiliate program (depending on the objective).

For example, if your goal is to get sales for your product, then strategies like build-in-public would work especially well for you as it’ll allow you to build hype for your product and make your target audience understand the true potential your products hold. 

Or, if your goal is to get more affiliates into your affiliate marketing program before the actual launch of your product, then speak about the perks, commissions, and incentives your program offers and what your company culture looks like (so your affiliates know what kind of people they would‌ be partnering up with). 

Learn more about affiliate marketing with GoAffPro

While we hope that this blog has been helpful, we also realize the scope of affiliate marketing is far too large — so understanding how to create successful affiliate marketing campaigns simply with the help of a single article won’t cut it. Instead, you’ll need a library of articles. 

And that’s where the GoAffPro blog comes in. 

Our articles, case studies, guides, demos, and e-books are aimed at helping you become better at affiliate marketing. So, if you wish to get answers to all your affiliate marketing-related queries, the GoAffPro blog is the place to be!