Best Traffic Sources
for Affiliate Marketing in 2019 | High Paying Affiliate Marketing
As an affiliate marketer, it’s important to
know what traffic sources are available to you.
The industry is constantly evolving so what
may have worked a year or two ago may not necessarily work today. You want to
know what options are open to you to build your campaigns around and to expand
existing campaigns with. It’s also important to have multiple options because
channels eventually mature and advertising rates go up.
To catch you up to speed, here is a list
of the best traffic sources for affiliate marketing in 2019.
1. Pay-Per-Click
Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the
oldest ways of generating traffic to your site.
The biggest network for PPC is Google Adwords.
You basically create search ads based on Google’s keyword queries and bid a
specific amount per click. The paid traffic network charges you based on how
many clicks you receive to your site. The other major network to participate in
is Bing Ads which is owned by Microsoft.
Pay-per-click advertising can be quite
expensive as it is very competitive. However, the search ads very targeted and
there are many optimization options available to advertisers. In order to
succeed with PPC, you must be up to date with all the best practices and
optimization strategies. It’s a difficult channel to compete in, but it can be
very profitable if you can figure out how to make it work.
2. Social Media Advertising
Social advertising is another great way to
drive traffic to your affiliate offers.
Almost everyone is aware of Facebook
advertising by now. But you also want to take advantage of other paid traffic
social sites like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. These sites
allow you to target based on various factors such as keyword searches,
audiences, interests, and retargeting. While costs are going up, these
platforms still tend to be cheaper than Google Adwords.
For the most part, these sites focus on
audience targeting. This means that you really have to do your research and
understand your demographics. Facebook currently offers the most custom
targeting options. They even use AI to help you expand on your existing
audience and discover new ones. As a result, the best place to start your ad
campaign is on Facebook.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO Marketing)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the strategy you want to go with if you are okay with not getting traffic right
away and want to bank on long term growth. With SEO, you are getting organic
traffic from Google. Your website is listed in the search results. The results
are based on various ranking factors like your site’s loading speed, the number
of links pointing to your site, relevance, the domain age, abandon rates, and
other factors.
A big part of getting organic traffic is
creating content. You’ll need high-quality content for your pages and for
promotional purposes. This includes articles, videos, downloadable documents,
podcasts, blog posts, and more. You want to use everything in your arsenal to
get the word out there about your site. This is what results in links going to
your site which tend to be the strongest ranking factor. While it’s one of the most
reliable free traffic sources, SEO campaigns can require months of work until
you start seeing results.
4. Social Media Marketing
If you prefer to work with free traffic
sources, social media marketing is another great
addition to SEO.
The whole purpose of this strategy is to build
a large following on sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Pinterest, and YouTube. This will require you to create posts that add value,
engage your followers, and work with other influencers in your industry/market.
Like SEO, this strategy requires a lot of
time. It can take months to build up a large following on these sites. This can
be a lot to juggle since every platform is a little different and you have to
post on a regular basis. You’ll have to learn the nuances between each platform
and continue creating quality posts to keep your followers hooked. Once you do
build a large following, you’ll be able to monetize your social profile with
your affiliate offers.
5. Contextual Advertising
Contextual ads are basically an advertisement
blocks that show up in the context of the content.
The most common networks for running these
types of ad campaigns are Google and Microsoft pubCenter. Your advertisements
are displayed in a small text or banner format on various pages. These pages
are on partner sites which are sites that run Google Adsense for monetization
purposes. Like the PPC ad programs, you are charged on a per-click basis.
There are other networks you can various types
of contextual ads on including Media.net, AdBuff, and Chitika. It’s important
to note that advertisers tend to see mixed results with these networks. There
are also fewer educational resources on how to make your ad campaign work for
these networks. Therefore, you want to start with the major networks like
Google and Microsoft before experimenting with these alternative networks.
6. Native Advertising
Native ads are advertisements that look like
regular articles on media sites.
They are designed to take on the look, feel
and function of the publisher’s site. A good example of native ads are related
article mentions on CNN. While they are marked as sponsors for the site, the
reader isn’t able to tell that it wasn’t an article created by CNN until
later.
Native ads work great for affiliate marketers
if they know their numbers. You are charged on a CPM basis which means a
specific rate for every 1000 views you receive. To make native campaigns work,
you have to make sure that it reads like an article, is authoritative, adds
value, and matches the voice of the publisher site. The most popular native
networks include Revcontent, Taboola, Outbrain, MGID, and Yahoo Gemini.
7. Display Advertising
While this is the oldest format you’ll find on
the list, it’s still an effective way to reach your target customers.
Display advertising networks will show your ad
in various ways including banners, blog posts, pop-overs, pop-unders, exit
pop-ups, mobile app ads. While this can be disruptive, the whole point of
display advertising is to get the most exposure and reach you can possibly get.
This is probably not the best traffic source
for you if you are working with a very niche offer. If you are marketing a
broad offer like weight loss, dating and health, campaigns on these networks
seem to work better. Some of the popular networks include BuySellAds, Adblade,
and Advertising.com. You can also choose to approach site owners independently
to buy an advertising spot instead of working with these networks.
8. Email Advertising
One of the most underutilized traffic sources
is email ads.
There are many email newsletters (often called
ezines) publishers that will sell advertising space in their newsletters. Some
will often rent out their list for an email blast. In many cases, it’s often
better to generate leads from these campaigns rather than redirect users
directly to your affiliate offer.
It can be challenging to find a list of
publishers to advertise with. One of the more reliable sources is called
Directory of Ezines which is run by Charlie Page. Alternatively, you can look
for email newsletters publishers on your own to see if they’re open to selling
you a sponsorship spot. But be on the lookout for lesser-known email ad
networks as well. Many affiliate marketers have reported using various networks
with varying degrees of success.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a new affiliate marketer trying
to figure out how to drive traffic to your offers or an experienced affiliate a marketer looking to expand your campaign, this list will serve as a valuable
resource.
It’s always best to start with the most
reliable networks before you expand on to lesser-known traffic sources. This is
especially the case if you’re looking to promote a niche offer.
Another thing you’ll want to do is to ask your
affiliate manager to raise your commission rates. Sometimes you will have to
negotiate with your affiliate manager to get higher rates. But if you prove
that you can deliver on your end, managers won’t hesitate to give you the pay
raise you need to make your campaigns work.
By UpRival|March 7th, 2019|Affiliate Marketing, Traffic
Sources|0 Comments
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