Affiliate 101: How to Build Your Brand’s Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing continues to grow; Statista recently projected affiliate marketing will reach $8.2 billion in 2022, up from $7.4 billion in 2021.

Building your brand’s affiliate program is key to maximizing profitability in 2022 and beyond. So what is it, how does it work, and why does your brand need it? In this post, we’ll dig into the following questions:

• What Is Affiliate Marketing?
• Why Does Your Brand Need an Affiliate Program?
• Where Does Affiliate Lie on the Customer Journey/Funnel?
• How Does Affiliate Marketing Work Across Channels?
• How Do You Identify Affiliate Marketing Opportunities?
• What Are the Best Affiliate Marketing Strategies?

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing channel that helps drive purchasing decisions without upfront advertising costs.

• Publishers and creators use affiliate marketing to earn purchase commissions from their content. 
• Brands use affiliate networks and programs to negotiate, secure, and run campaigns with creators.

As a marketing channel, affiliate allows publishers, creators, influencers, or any other third party to facilitate a customer’s purchasing decision. 

For example, a potential customer can come to a publisher site like Rakuten and be prompted to click the brand’s affiliate link for a cash-back discount.