15 affiliate marketing tips to improve your campaign success

Lots of the advice available for affiliates online comes from websites who are reposting each other’s tips without really putting them into use themselves. And if you haven’t tried them, how do you know they work? At Awin, we have decades of experience in innovative affiliate marketing tactics - so it’s only right that as one of the world’s biggest affiliate networks, we offer you the tips that we truly believe in.

Actionable affiliate marketing tips

Whether you’re a seasoned affiliate marketer or you’re just getting started, these actionable affiliate marketing tips can be tailored and transformed to fit your market or your brand’s personal style. Because the only thing better than an affiliate campaign that does well, is one that does absolutely brilliantly.

1. Build trust with authenticity

Consumers are becoming savvier and more used to the concept of affiliate marketing and online partnerships, particularly with the Advertising Standard Agency (ASA) ruling that content creators have to disclose these by law. So, audiences are more aware than ever that when they read about a product in a blog or email, the author is likely to be getting some form of compensation for the promotion. This has developed into a level of consumer cynicism, which makes it harder, and more important, to build trust. But how do you do that?

• Transparency: it’s a legal requirement, and an important trust signal, to disclose affiliate relationships and tell audiences when you’re earning commission from the things you recommend. 
• Quality and consistency: audiences are more likely to trust  the judgement of a person or publisher they can see is only posting recommendations for things they really believe in. Whatever your marketing niche, focus on the things that are relevant to it - and prioritise quality over quantity.
• Educate, rather than sell: of course, the aim is to encourage sales - but avoid making every update an overt sales pitch. Viewers and readers want to know about results, testimonials, pros and cons, and as detailed a review as you can give them. Think of your affiliate promotions as educating an audience about a product, rather than just selling it to them, to give a more authentic first impression.

2. Build relationships 

Anonymity is no longer acceptable in the online retail industry, because people buy from people. This will become even more paramount to the future of affiliate marketing, as bonding and building relationships over time are the key to forging trust. However, the benefit to affiliate marketers is they will learn quickly what their audience wants. Although it may take time to initially build a relationship, each campaign should become more successful in a shorter timescale once you have established a long-term connection with the audience.

So where do you start? Our top tip: provide free, valuable information to potential consumers and demonstrate how affiliate products can help them solve a problem. It comes back to ‘educate, rather than sell’ - start by offering people something that is useful to them, free of charge. Avoid the hard sell, and pay close attention to what your audience cares about.

3. Create content that resonates with your audience

Building a successful affiliate marketing campaign means producing great content. The importance of original and fresh content that resonates with the audience cannot be underestimated. Marketing campaigns that use compelling and original copy typically see higher rates of conversion than those which regurgitate the same old buzzwords, or use AI to repeat content seen 1,000 times over online. Advanced software and technology enabling the testing of sales pages will make this task easier than ever, allowing marketers to utilise the best content within their toolbox.

Focus on spending more time working on creating content that offers genuine value to their subscribers for free, will help marketers improve their campaigns long term. Marketers who appreciate the impact quality content will have on their campaigns will stay one step ahead of the crowd.

The focus should be on providing quality content in the form of long copy, this is essential for SEO and traffic, and ultimately conversions. Filler content or repetitive sales material is easy to spot by the savvy consumers and erodes their trust.

4. Tell relatable stories

Human beings are storytellers. It’s something which sets us apart and it helps us connect and engage. Engagement will continue to be key to conversions and should lead to more and more real-life stories and case-studies being used to add credibility and social proof. 

Many consumers are no longer satisfied with just the affiliates’ point of view, but prefer honest and believable testimonials showing how the product can work for them.

5. Utilise affiliate marketing tools

Trends come and go, but fundamental affiliate marketing concepts will not change. Instead, what will change is the technology and media networks affiliates use to promote, such as video, audio, podcasts and long-form content. The industry will continue to evolve and expand.

Existing advertiser tools, such as email automation and artificial intelligence chatbots, will continue to play an important part of the marketer’s armoury. Virtual events and connecting via video are both things that have remained popular into the ‘new normal’, and are things brands and affiliate marketers should also get comfortable with. 

Further development of artificial intelligence and machine learning will also provide advancements in the ease of gaining new customers. Google and Facebook have introduced learning mechanisms which help pinpoint target audiences and aid those using paid methods of advertising to find customers and provide clearer ROI.

Instagram and Facebook have also been quickly announcing new features, such as their ‘shop local’ badge for stories, augmented reality shopping, Instagram Shop and Live Shopping. By connecting with Shopify, BigCommerce, Woo, Channel Advisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube, and Feedonomics, this can be utilised by savvy affiliate marketers to push brands they’re working with.

6. Explore remarketing channels

As the importance of building relationships becomes paramount, advertisers will focus even more on marketing channels targeting consumers who have already shown an interest in you and your affiliate products. These include retargeting and remarketing through social platforms and search browsers, as these algorithms become more refined and dynamic. Artificial intelligence and technology supported by it, is still on the path to becoming more streamlined and effective.

With people having more time on their hands to consume content, blogger outreach strategies will also continue to become more relevant. Building relationships with other influential marketers not only opens up advertiser products to a new market both within and beyond the affiliate channel, but also helps to build upon authority and trust.

7. Don’t forget about Micro-influencers

Micro-influencers are those with a following of between 1000 to 100,000. Those who are active and engaged with their audience are finding new and innovative ways to connect, and we frequently see companies adding micro-influencers rather than macro-influencers to their affiliate marketing strategies, as trust is demonstrably stronger on a micro-level. 

As a newer advertiser you’ll likely find it easier to secure collaborations with micro-influencers, but even established merchants and marketers can reap serious benefits from working with influencers who are seen as more authentic and trustworthy than their counterparts with larger followings.

8. Consider ‘Payment on Influence’

Further to the above, it’s becoming increasingly important to look at how affiliate marketing fits into a purchasing cycle. Some publishers may not always garner the final click, but are still vital in the advertiser’s purchase process. Tracking this across multiple platforms can be challenging, which is why Awin introduced the Payment on Influence system. You can find out more about that under ‘commission flexibility’ on our advertiser tools page.

9. Utilise organic social media

Social media has been subject to much criticism over the past few years, with fake news and fake accounts top of the agenda. We’ve seen many small changes during that time, such as Facebook announcing the platform would return to its roots in 2019 as a tool for connecting with friends and family. This left some affiliates wondering what the impact would be on their advertising campaigns; however, it was not the massive pivot expected. Social media has remained an excellent place for affiliate marketing, and even more so while people are increasing their online usage, in isolation.

The aim of organic social media should not be about how many followers or shares you get, but rather on the trust and true engagement your followers give to your brand through social media. If you share and comment on relevant and good quality information, your followers soon learn what you are posting is pertinent to them, and shares will follow.

10. Don’t neglect user experience on your website

When it comes to blog posts and other web pages, it’s important to optimise your landing pages for the benefit of your visitors first and foremost rather than for Google’s crawl bots. A common mistake made by novice website owners carrying out their own ‘search engine optimisation’ is to use outdated advice that targets algorithms first, and people second. But Google has gotten smarter over the years, and good UX equals good SEO. 

Pages should load quickly and give people the information they need without having to dig deep. The better the user experience, the better your site is likely to perform - and in turn, your affiliate marketing campaigns.

11. Make sure your site is mobile responsive 

Recent statistics note that there are consistently more mobile internet users than desktop users, with Similarweb stating at the end of 2023 that 66% of web traffic came from mobile, vs 32.5% from desktop. Clearly, how mobile-responsive your site is will play a big part of not just user experience, but also overall performance.

When implementing new page templates, contemplating a redesign or just testing what you already have, make sure to test your site from mobile and tablet devices as well as laptops and desktop PCs. In doing so, you can avoid the risk that there are issues for some users that you’re missing by only testing from the perspective of others.

12. Be different: think creatively and be willing to take risks

One affiliate marketing tip that is often overlooked is to be willing to take risks and try unusual, creative things with your campaigns. With audiences spending increasing amounts of time online, and an ever-growing number of advertisers and affiliates trying to hold their attention, making your product stand out from the crowd can be the hardest part of affiliate marketing.

Think about your unique selling points (USPs) - how can you demonstrate these to new audiences in the most creative way? What will be most memorable to someone scrolling on their phone? These are questions you should be asking before drafting copy, images and other assets to promote your campaigns.

13. Stay compliant with GDPR and data privacy

The advent of GDPR caused panic in some marketing spheres, particularly those who dealt internationally, when first announced in 2018. Since then people have found a level of clarity and comfort within the framework. Affiliate marketing covers an expanse of different sized affiliate operations, from one-man bands to large players, and the latter have generally been able to put the infrastructure in place to embrace the new regulations with greater ease.

Affiliate marketers must be particularly vigilant about complying with GDPR, as they often deal with personal data across various platforms and channels. Make sure that you:

• Understand what constitutes personal data, and the conditions under which it can be stored and processed.
• Use consent banners and other methods to obtain explicit content from web visitors before collecting cookie data.
• Have a clear, easily accessible privacy policy that lets people know exactly how you collect, use, store and protect their data, as well as their rights regarding that data.
• Have a protocol in place in case a data breach occurs - as you must report this within 72 hours if it happens.
• Ensure you work with affiliate networks who are also GDPR compliant, and take time to familiarise yourself with the details.

14. Adopt a holistic view

Justin Cooke, Founder of Empire Flippers, wants to see more affiliate sites take a holistic view of their visitors and try to solve a problem for consumers.

Consumers want to know their issues are important to those they reach out to. In response, advertisers will need to take a more holistic view of visitors’ requirements, and right now, there are a lot of issues.  Looking at the bigger picture is going to be a crucial aspect of long term success to affiliate marketers, resulting in all the involved channels taking on a united campaign front. This could lead to email marketing campaigns increasing, using personalised drip campaigns that are segmented and highly targeted.

15. Diversify your offering

If the events of the Covid pandemic taught us anything, it was that  things don’t always go to plan. So what’s an important affiliate marketing tip that helps you plan for things not going to plan..? Diversifying your business.

When you’ve created a business around one product or service and the world tips upside down with seemingly no warning, you and your affiliate marketing campaigns can be left scrambling. Once you have a firm grip on who your audience or customer is, start to figure out how you could diversify your product offering to suit them, to create a range of revenue streams.

Diversification is also about channels, as well as products and services. Avoid focusing all your efforts on just one channel - social media platforms can go down without warning, accounts on Instagram and Facebook have been known to disappear unexpectedly due to algorithm glitches, and even blogs and websites can crash or suffer targeted denial of service attacks. By maintaining several channels for your affiliate campaigns, you know you’ll always have a back up option if one suffers a major upset.

Follow these tips for affiliate marketing success

Though challenges and changes of plan can sometimes feel hard to overcome, they can present great opportunities for affiliate marketers to thrive. Affiliate marketing will continue to evolve as the way we use the web changes, bringing more focus than ever before on value and customer experience. Finding a niche, becoming an authority, maintaining compliance and giving consumers a great user experience will all lead to great long term partnerships and higher revenue for your efforts.