When it comes to "paid search," most people are familiar with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising through Google Adwords or similar portals. What most people are not familiar with is something called "affiliate marketing," a form of advertising that is further along the marketing funnel - where an advertiser only pays a commission once a sale is executed.
Affiliate marketing is generally a "pay-per-sale" or conversion method of advertising on the internet. Through portals such as "Commission Junction" or "shareasale," advertisers list their creative banner inventory and then search for website "affiliates" to list their banners on. The merchant specifies a commission for each executed sale, and if a sale is made, the owner of the website receives a commission. The banners are tracked by cookies through the affiliate portal.
Recruiting the right affiliates to market with is important, as is having a product that converts well as far as sales go. Return rates can also be an important element of affiliate marketing. If too many refunds on commissions are requested on a campaign, an affiliate website may elect to drop your site as an advertiser.
All told, an effective Affiliate Marketing program can be an integral piece of a digital marketing strategy as it has the potential to drive traffic, sales an awareness without overbearing up-front costs.
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