While scrolling through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or Pinterest, have you ever seen a creator promoting a particular brand's products? If the answer is yes, you've actually experienced affiliate marketing. It will be. Although this concept is not necessarily new, it is becoming increasingly popular due to its high success rate and low cost. The primary platform hosting affiliate marketing is YouTube, the world's leading video social network.
In this post, we'll take a closer look at YouTube affiliate marketing and how it's currently being used by creators to build community while supporting brands' products and services.
What is YouTube Affiliate Marketing?
If you're familiar with the world of social media, you already know that shopping is top of mind on many platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. Product tagging, shop links, LinkInBio storefronts, and affiliate links have made this purchasing process seamless for customers.
This allows brands and affiliates to work together in a mutually beneficial relationship, allowing creators to post content on their social networks of choice, promote branded products, and receive compensation for their work and orders. Masu. In other words, this is affiliate marketing.
Especially on YouTube, many affiliates use their channels to post videos and short videos of product reviews, unboxings, testimonials, and try-ons. Then, using the platform's native functionality, you can add product tags, affiliate links in the description, and other resources to encourage your audience to buy your product or service.
How do I become a YouTube affiliate marketer?
To get your foot in the affiliate door, you first need to sign up for an affiliate marketing program. Many of these are free to apply for and don't require you to have a large following on social media. Ideally, you want to find a program and brand that meshes well with your brand.
This network has an affiliate program called. YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program. There are several requirements to participate in this, including being in the YouTube Partner Program, having more than 15,000 subscribers, and being based in the United States.
Since this criterion is not relevant to all creators, here are some other free programs for beginners.
Amazon Associate
This is the largest affiliate program with over 58% of affiliates using it. Amazon Associate The program is free and perfect for those just getting started with affiliate marketing. Amazon carries a wide range of products, so any industry is welcome. Additionally, it makes creating and managing links very easy for employees to use and track. Affiliates can earn up to 10% associate commission.
clickbank
clickbank's Affiliate programs have been around since 1998 and primarily sell digital products. Although we also sell some physical products, clickbank marketplace Browse available products and services. This is perfect for people who want to do affiliate marketing but don't have a website. However, this is perfect for those who prefer selling digital products over physical products.
Share A sale
Share A sale is also a good affiliate marketing program for those just starting out. With thousands of products and services to choose from, this program is compatible with almost every industry. Use tools like the Find a Seller feature to narrow your search and find the program that's right for you.
impact
impact is a partnership management platform that hosts a variety of well-known brands such as Levi's, Adidas, BuzzFeed, Shopify, and Uber. The program provides instant approval, making it easy for affiliates to get started. Additionally, we have a variety of payment methods, including PayPal and direct transfer. Although this program is very beneficial, it has a more complex interface that can be confusing for new affiliate marketers.
These are just a few examples of the many programs available to beginner affiliates. Before choosing a random program, do some intensive research to better understand which program is best for you. If YouTube is your platform, you should also make sure that your program integrates well with YouTube's features and the products you promote.
6 Tips to Make Money with YouTube Affiliate Marketing
Once you've found and applied to your ideal affiliate program, it's time to start creating a plan of action. This means planning what content you will create, how you will promote your products or services, and how often you will post your content. To help you create a YouTube affiliate marketing plan and implement these strategies, here are six tips you can use to increase sales and visibility for your content.
create authentic content
To be successful in affiliate marketing, you need to create authentic content that your audience can trust and relate to. If your content is insincere or solely focused on selling your product, your audience will smell a fake promotion from a mile away. This is why we recommend working with brands you already use or are passionate about. Depending on what your product is about, think about promoting it in a way that fits into your daily life.
Optimize your videos for SEO
YouTube is one of the largest search engines and allows you to rank your content within search results. By adding trending keywords and hashtags to your videos, you can create content that is more likely to reach your target audience.
You can utilize keyword tools such as sem rush, vidIQ, keywordtool.ioand Google Trends See what searches and keywords are trending on the network. Then sprinkle these into your video script, description, and video title. To learn more about optimizing your videos, use the YouTube SEO guide below.
Use YouTube Shorts
The rise of short-form video content has made short videos popular on networks. Viewers are using short videos, similar to TikTok, as a way to quickly find information. Whether you want to cut short clips from longer videos or capture videos under 60 seconds. YouTube short It's a great way to promote your products, encourage viewers to watch long-form videos, leave reviews, and more.
grab the audience's attention
To sell your product, you need to grab your audience's attention in the first 3 seconds. There are several ways to increase the chances of your video sticking around. First of all, an eye-catching thumbnail is very important to help viewers understand what your video is about. This can include a catchy phrase or title (ideally containing your keyword), and high-quality images.
Consider adding video chapters to divide your videos into topical sections. You can create a specific section for your affiliate promotions, so your viewers can easily find the section according to their needs. Look at the Modern Millie example.
Also, if you want to organize your affiliate videos in one place, consider creating a playlist on your channel. This makes it easier for your audience to find all your affiliate content.
Cross-promote videos
Now more than ever, reuse is encouraged. We highly recommend promoting your content on multiple platforms to reach new audiences. For example, if you run a blog or other social media accounts, try embedding or linking to this video in your post. This not only increases the visibility of your profile, but also increases your sales as you reach a wider range of people.
Analyze content performance
After all, analyzing your content will be the most important part of improving your strategy and refining your revenue-generating goals. Thankfully, there are two very powerful tools available to analyze the performance of your content. The first one YouTube studio, the platform's native analytics tools. This management hub features a wide range of analytics to help you understand which content performs best. For example, you can see watch time, impressions, click-through rates, traffic sources, audience demographics, transaction types, and more.
You can also use Metricool to analyze YouTube videos. It lets you schedule your videos and shorts, see detailed analytics, manage all your comments, and see what your competitors are doing, all in one place.
Displays a list of top videos (both earning and non-earning videos) for the selected time period. See analytics such as watch time, average view time, likes, dislikes, comments, shares, total revenue, partner revenue, ad revenue, impressions, monetized views, and more.
You can also access information about channel demographics such as country, gender, age, and traffic source.
Create a free Metricool account to connect your YouTube channel and start scheduling content. Once you start getting the hang of YouTube affiliate marketing, you can use Metricool to save time in your content creation process.
Have any questions? Please let us know in the comments section.