Affiliate marketing – the practice of a publisher, blogger, or influencer promoting a merchant’s product or service in exchange for a set commission – is becoming more common in the evolving PR, advertising, and communications landscapes. More editorial publications are leaning on affiliate marketing to boost revenue and ad sales. Could this be a new era of media relations?
Affiliate marketing can be a powerful tool for public relations – it can help your brand get on the media’s radar and have your product considered for editorial roundups, deals coverage, and reviews. In turn, your business has the potential to see an increase in sales and brand visibility.
Here’s what to know about how and why businesses are tapping in.
Affiliate marketing isn’t going anywhere. Magazine print advertising is nearly 30% lower in 2021 than it was in 2017, according to Harvard Business Review research. As media companies seek sources of revenue beyond traditional ads, affiliate marketing has become a critical moneymaker, and it’s growing at a rapid rate. A recent Digiday survey of over 140 publishers showed a 9% increase in publishers utilizing affiliate marketing as a revenue source from 2020 to 2021.
PR teams can help define the right affiliate strategy to help increase visibility and opportunity with your target editorial publications.
How to build an affiliate strategy with PR. Affiliate marketing is most beneficial through an affiliate network: a separate entity that facilitates payment structure, monitoring, and relationship management practices and can vary in offerings and results. Public relations teams can help identify the best network(s) for specific industries and goals.
Setting Up An Affiliate Program. Businesses can set up affiliate programs through an owned e-commerce website or an affiliate network (such as Amazon Associates, ShareASale, and Awin). In developing your program, you’ll see three different agreement structures that will influence the amount of commission an affiliate makes by sharing your link:
Pay-Per-Scale: Pays an affiliate when a customer purchases the product. Some pay a fixed rate per sale, while others, like Amazon, pay a percentage of the sale.
Pay-Per-Click: Paid based on how many visitors arrive at the merchant’s site via the affiliate link, regardless of purchase.
Pay-Per-Lead: Affiliates are paid based on the number of visitors to the merchant’s site who then fill out a form or sign up for a service.
Integrating Into a PR Strategy. There are multiple ways businesses can utilize affiliate marketing programs for PR efforts, including:
Incorporating Into Pitching Efforts. Your business is worth talking about, and your PR team can use affiliate marketing in their pitching efforts to make sure your message is heard. Media outlets that utilize affiliate marketing include top-tier national and consumer media such as CNN Underscored, NYT Wirecutter, and BuzzFeed.
Building Editorial Relationships. When editorial staff are overwhelmed (which, in 2022, is a regular occurrence), it can be hard to get your dream contact’s attention. To combat this, PR teams have seen success by reaching out to an affiliate team member, or commerce editor, directly.
Gaining Insights To Inform Your PR Strategy. Affiliate marketing can provide invaluable data to you and your PR team when partnered with an affiliate network. Tap into the data to better understand your customer base and further validate the value of PR.
Show me the results. Brands that have already adopted affiliate marketing strategies have seen a staggering increase in conversion rates and more orders per customer – a 2021 CJ Affiliate study of over 21 million retail customers and 5.5 million transactions showed an 88% increase in revenue per shopper.
No matter what industry your business is in, affiliate marketing can be a powerful tool for CPG products, CBD products, and everything in between. Currently, the fashion industry accounts for 23% of all affiliate programs and is the leader in the industry, followed by sports and outdoor at 18% and health/beauty at 14%.
As with all media relations efforts, coverage is never guaranteed – but utilizing affiliate links in media pitches is a great way to differentiate your brand’s message from other angles in editors’ inboxes. Ultimately, a journalist doesn’t usually make the call on if an affiliate link is included; that’s up to the editor and the affiliate team.
Affiliate marketing is a supplement to PR, not an alternative to it - earned media is still integral when working with the media. With the added revenue that affiliate merchants drive to digital media outlets and the continued rise of influencer marketing, affiliate marketing plays an equal role; and can benefit overall business growth.