#319 - New Survey Reveals Exactly What’s Changed in Affiliate Marketing
Sep 4, 2023
auto_awesome
In this podcast, the hosts discuss the results of an affiliate marketing survey, highlighting the potential earnings in the travel niche. They explore profitable niches such as finance, tech, health and fitness, and digital marketing. They also address the impact of Google's core updates on affiliate marketing websites and discuss the variations in revenue per thousand (RPM) in different niches. Additionally, they delve into the decision-making process for including ads and sponsors and talk about the impact of network changes and algorithm updates on affiliate marketing revenue.
01:04:18
AI Summary
AI Chapters
Episode notes
auto_awesome
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
Amazon Associates is the most popular affiliate network, despite lower commissions, due to its wide range of products and platform trustworthiness.
Certain niches like travel, beauty, and tech tend to have higher revenue levels in affiliate marketing, while finance and digital marketing have higher RPMs.
Experienced affiliate marketers drive more traffic and have larger teams, while newbies focus on growing traffic and prioritize SEO strategies.
Deep dives
Amazon Associates is the most popular affiliate network
According to the podcast, 58.5% of survey respondents use Amazon Associates as their affiliate network. This trend holds true across all revenue levels, with a slight decrease in usage among those earning over $10,000 per month. Despite the lower commission rates, many affiliate marketers still find value in promoting products from Amazon due to the wide range of products available and the trustworthiness of the platform.
Different niches have different revenue levels and challenges
The podcast highlights that some niches, such as travel, education, and e-learning, beauty and skincare, and tech, tend to have higher revenue levels compared to others like food and nutrition. Certain niches, like finance and digital marketing, have higher RPM (revenue per thousand visitors) due to the higher value per visitor in those industries. It's also noted that beginners often struggle with lower RPMs and earnings, which tend to increase as they gain more experience in the affiliate marketing industry.
Traffic levels and team sizes correlate with revenue
The podcast emphasizes that as affiliate marketers gain more experience and generate higher revenue, they tend to drive more traffic to their websites and expand their team sizes. It's highlighted that people with less than one year of experience usually have lower traffic levels and smaller teams. However, as their revenue increases, they tend to scale up both traffic and team size. The highest revenue earners often have larger teams and drive significant traffic to their sites.
Considering multiple buying options and design for affiliate sites
The podcast briefly touches on the debate of showing multiple buying options on affiliate sites. While it is encouraged by Google's review guidelines, it's important to be strategic with the design and prioritize the main call-to-action button for the highest paying offer. Including alternative buying options like Amazon can help satisfy Google's guidelines while still directing most users towards the desired conversion. The podcast suggests using design techniques such as font sizes, boldness, and accent colors to guide users' attention and optimize click-through rates.
The Evolution of Challenges for Affiliate Marketers
As affiliate marketers gain experience, their biggest challenge shifts from generating traffic to focusing on conversions and monetization. Initially, newbies prioritize growing traffic, but as they become familiar with SEO strategies, they shift their focus to other concerns.
Traffic Sources and Monetization Strategies
SEO remains the dominant traffic source for affiliate marketers, but beginners often start with organic social media to initially drive traffic. As experience grows, there is a decrease in reliance on organic social media as its effectiveness declines. Monetization strategies differ among niches, with ads being most prominent in beauty and skincare sites, while niches like food and nutrition struggle to monetize through ads. Affiliate marketers often leverage email as a valuable traffic source, with usage increasing as experience grows.
In this week's episode, Mark and Gael and dive into various aspects of the affiliate marketing industry, comparing their own experiences with results from the Affiliate Marketing Survey.