In order to start actively making money on the Internet, you can sell goods and provide services. But what if you have neither one, nor the other? This is not a problem, because other companies have dozens of offers, and you only need to help them in sales – this is the basis of Affiliate Marketing.
But it’s not so simple. In order to sell something on your site, you need to attract visitors. And it’s can sometimes take money. In this article, we will understand how to budget for an affiliate marketing advertising campaign in such a way that your income, in any case, exceeds your promotion costs. So, your budget will consist of the following expense items.
1. Content Creation
Obviously, the theme of your site is already suitable for a product or service that you will promote through affiliate marketing. However, this is not the end. You need to give users useful content. And simple descriptions of the benefits of an affiliate product will not work here.
But instead, you can:
- create instructions on how to use the product you are promoting
- shoot live video of unpacking, using or testing product features
- share your feedback and impressions
- show product in the long run
It is possible to create such content (Content Marketing) in two ways.
- Independently. It is free and will cause more confidence in your visitors.
- Hire a content writer. This is for those who are completely unable to express their thoughts in writing.
✓Cost – from $15 per hour.
2. Guest Posting
As a rule, it is possible to agree on the placement of your content in exchange for the publication of someone else’s on your resource for free. But the most popular and visited sites will definitely ask you to pay.
However, there is another option. You can use special services for guest posting like Adsy. With it, you can find the most suitable sites for posting in terms of price and quality of the audience.
✓Cost – depends on the websites you will place your posts on.
3. Development of Advertising Banners
Of course, in order to sell an affiliate product, your visitors must see it. This is done using an advertising banner, to create which you need a designer.
If you can still create content yourself, then in order to get an effective banner, it is better to hire a specialist.
4. Email Marketing
Of course, for an affiliate product to be sold, you need to remind your subscribers of this opportunity. To do this, you need to develop an effective email marketing strategy and take into account a very important point.
Your visitors come to your site NOT to buy goods. To buy a product, they can go directly to the seller.
And your task is to create such an email newsletter that will
- firstly, directly related to your main activity on the site
- secondly, indirectly and not intrusively mention the product
- thirdly, consider at what stage of the relationship you are with each subscriber at a given time.
For example, if you dump an advertisement for a product on a person who subscribed to your newsletter 10 minutes ago, be sure that he will unsubscribe.
Your task is to competently guide everyone through the sales funnel. To do this, you can use a special service (by the way, already with ready-made letter templates) Constant Contact.
✓Cost – from Free Trial – then $20 per month.
5. Native Ads on Another Site
You do not have to wait for your own site to start generating enough visitors. There are already excellent sites that are already promoted in search engines. And you know how they earn? They get money from advertising.
That is, you can take some kind of affiliate product, and advertise it on a promoted website of similar subjects. What are the advantages of such advertising? For site visitors, such an advertisement will be something like a “recommendation” from the owner of the resource.
But in order for this approach to work, your advertising should be as “native” as possible. This is a new word that has recently appeared in the vocabulary of Internet marketers. And it stands for disguised advertising.
✓The cost may be negotiated.
6. Advertising in Someone Else’s Newsletter
First of all, you should contact the owners of those sites on which you gave “native” advertising in the previous paragraph. As a rule, all owners of such sites collect their subscription base.
Ask the site owner for permission to advertise in the newsletter. It will cost even more than placing links in articles, but ROI, in this case, is more important than price.
If you don’t want to take risks, find out if you can first send an advertising mailing to some small group of subscribers, and then to the entire database, if the test result suits you.
The main thing is that advertising on the mailing list is a very strong recommendation. Accordingly, your affiliate product will be in great demand.
✓The cost is negotiable as well.
7. Development of Selling Pages
This is no longer cheap. But the result will be noticeable. To do this, you need to create a specialized landing page for the product that you are advertising. Yes, it will require investment, but it gives a long-term perspective for SEO promotion and expanding the subscriber base.
In addition, you can create a test landing for free or almost for free using a site builder like GetResponse and if this works, make a more professional site with the help of developers.
✓Cost if you do it yourself – free of charge or from 8,5 per month.
✓The cost of developer assistance is from $40-50 per hour.
8. Social Media Advertising
This is just a great option. It is effective and it is free. This is free for as long as you simply tell your friends on Facebook or to subscribers on Instagram about the product that you are advertising.
But even if you want to connect and customize paid advertising on social networks, the prices here are not scary.
✓The basic price starts from 14-Day FREE TRIAL – then $25 per month.
9. Analytics
In general, it is possible to receive analytical data for free. But you will have to delve into the analytics system that you connect to your website or newly created landing page. In addition, it is necessary to configure it correctly so as not to analyze the nonsense. Therefore, as usual, you have two ways. The first way is to independently understand all the technical details to save the budget, and the second is to hire an analyst.
✓The cost starts at $40 per hour.
10. Outsourcing
It is possible that after this guide, you no longer want to do anything yourself. But still, want to make money on affiliate marketing. Then here’s the solution: hire someone who will do your work for you. However, think again before making this decision. Hire an outsider only if you know for sure that your time is more expensive.
And if you are just starting your journey in affiliate marketing, it is, of course, much better to begin to understand everything yourself. It may be less effective at the start, but it is more effective in the long run. And in the future, you will not only be able to hire an employee but really control its effectiveness and the results of your campaigns.
✓The cost is also negotiable.
How to Make a Preliminary Estimate
In this article, we have tried to list all the main factors that you should take into account when planning your budget for affiliate marketing. However, in order to make a preliminary estimate, it is not necessary to include all the factors in it. First of all, your task is to choose the most important factors for you (it will be content and analytics in any case), and you can choose all other factors that you will take into account yourself.
- Therefore, the first thing to do is to calculate the budget for the content and connection of the analytics system.
- Second, in this context, you need to decide whether you will do this yourself, or whether you will hire content and analytics specialists.
- Third, you definitely need to choose one of the advertising methods that seem most effective for your niche, and also include the costs of this channel in your estimate.
Further, you can gradually try new approaches, plan the budget in more detail and effectively, correlate profits with expenses, and develop new strategies on this basis. We recommend starting with a budget for the first month, and after it expires, review your results and make adjustments.
Conclusion
As you can see, an affiliate marketing campaign should be planned, and a budget should be calculated. Now add together the costs of all the above actions and compare them with your reward from one sale. We recommend doing everything you can do for free yourself, and only after that choose paid methods of promotion and start testing your target audience.
