How to drive traffic through amazon affiliate marketing
If you are a seller on Amazon and trying to reap a profit, consumers have to buy your products. But what many may not know is that’s not the only way to make money with Amazon. With Amazon Affiliate Marketing, professionals who aren’t sellers on the platform can still utilize it to bring in revenue and grow their businesses. Here we’ll break down the Amazon Affiliate Marketing program, and everything you need to know.
what is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a way for retailers and large brands to bring in extra revenue by having content creators link to their products on third-party sites. Creators like bloggers and social media influencers can use unique affiliate links to link their consumers or followers to a retailer’s products. The creators will then make a commission off of every transaction made using those links. Affiliate marketing can be very beneficial to creators who already run a blog or website, and whose content would be relevant for product recommendations.
what is amazon affiliate marketing?
Amazon Affiliate Marketing, also known as the Amazon Associates Program, is a way for online figures such as publishers, bloggers, content creators, and influencers to use Amazon in their content to produce revenue. In their content, creators can reference and link to Amazon products for readers or followers to purchase. And if the consumers purchase the Amazon product, the content creator earns revenue. The commission rate will differ depending on the product category. See the breakdown of product categories and commission rates here.
Creators can earn up to 10% in commission from purchases like these, and Amazon of course, makes a profit off of the purchases. So basically, it’s a win/win, and bloggers have noticed. According to Statista, the program is the biggest affiliate marketing network worldwide, with over 900,000 affiliates in 2021. Some big sites that take advantage of the program include BuzzFeed and Fire Food Chef.
how does it work?
With the affiliate program, content creators make money on a commission basis. This means every time a purchase is made on Amazon from their website, they make money. Website owners use their own product links called “affiliate links” to direct consumers to Amazon. Creators can customize these links however they like and display them accordingly.
how to qualify
Any blogger or creator with a website or mobile app that’s up to Amazon’s standards can qualify for the program. Once you sign up, Amazon requires you to make at least three product sales (recommendations that lead to transactions) within the first 180 days. Once the sales are made, Amazon will review your application. When applying, just make sure your site or app is active and has some content already available to read/consume, Amazon recommends at least 10 posts. Some additional guidelines from Amazon include:
- Content must be recent (posted within the last 60 days)
- Content must be original
- Content must be publicly available
- If using social media, your social network page or group must be established, with at least 500 organic followers/likes
how to link products
The Amazon Associates Program provides customized linking tools to suit every type of creator, whether it be a big publisher or social media influencer. Affiliate marketers can create unique links to use on their sites including customized text, text and image, and image links to Amazon products. Amazon also gives marketers the option to use product previews along with their links and Easy Links— promotional and announcement banners. The marketing program gives content creators many different options to make product references that will complement the rest of their sites.
how to drive traffic
Once you are set up with Amazon Affiliate Marketing, there are several ways you can increase traffic to your site, and in turn, increase revenue. SEO is one useful strategy that will help draw consumers to your page. SEO is especially important for new sites to show up in search results. If you can’t figure out SEO best practices yourself, consider hiring a marketing agency like Channel Op to take control of your SEO and grow your business.
Another way to increase web traffic is to post quality photos and videos. A site with quality imagery is more likely to attract new consumers, and get old ones to return to the site. Whether it’s social media or writing a blog, make sure you have a quality aesthetic to increase traffic. A third way to increase web traffic is through marketing outside of your site, using mediums such as email, SMS (text), and social media marketing. With any of these channels, you can advertise and link to your site and increase your traffic.
quality
When using the Amazon Associates Program, you will be most effective if your consumers believe you to be an expert in whatever products you are talking about. Just because you recommend a product, does not mean potential customers should buy it. It is vital to show your audience that your opinion is valuable and that you know your stuff. You can accomplish this by producing quality content. This means blogging or posting consistently and producing good content. The content should be informative and backed up by research or personal experience. Your product recommendations will sway customers to buy the products only if they trust your opinion. This means having a quality site with useful information.
improving consumer experience
The Amazon Associates program doesn’t just generate revenue for the site owner, but also benefits the consumer. Product recommendations can be very helpful for readers and improve their experience when browsing your site or reading your blog. For instance, if a consumer was reading a blog about the best hardware tools, and then was given links to purchase the top-rated tools. Product recommendations make a blog or video more interactive and give consumers exactly what they are looking for. This will keep consumers coming back to your site, grow your audience, and produce revenue.
All in all, Amazon Affiliate Marketing is a great way to generate some profit and expand your blog, social channel, or site. Giving consumers good product recommendations will keep them coming back, so make sure you are recommending quality products. Now you have everything you need to be a successful Amazon affiliate marketer. Good luck!