How To Do Affiliate Marketing On YouTube

Affiliate marketing – the new marketing approach for brands in the digital age!

Affiliate marketing is a marketing approach in which an online retailer allows external websites to place the retailer’s product links within the content of the external websites. The external website promotes the link, and when a visitor clicks on the link and goes on to the online retailer’s website, or purchases from that website, the external website owner receives a commission.

Affiliate marketing is essentially a digital/online sales channel, and the external website owner gets a commission only after the lead is qualified or the sale is completed.

Affiliate marketing has three parts in its setup. The first part is the merchant, i.e., the party that creates the product. This merchant can be an individual or a company.

The second link in the affiliate marketing chain is the affiliate marketer. Also known as a publisher, the affiliate marketer is the primary marketing resource for the product or brand that sells the product and earns commissions.

The third and final link is the consumer—the driver of the entire affiliate program.  Purchases made by the consumers drive the revenues of the promoted brand, which in turn impacts the commissions earned by the affiliate marketing partner.

YouTube – A revolution in video and social media channels

YouTube is an online video-sharing and social media platform. Owned by Google, it is the second most-visited website after Google’s search engine. The platform has over two billion monthly users who watch over one billion hours of video every day! 

YouTube is an important channel for both brands and affiliate partners to exploit and showcase brands in a very creative manner.

What is affiliate marketing on YouTube?

Affiliate marketing on YouTube is the process of promoting brands on YouTube videos through affiliate links placed in either the videos or in the video descriptions. The affiliate marketer earns a commission when the viewer clicks on the promoted link of the promoted brand.

How to do affiliate marketing on YouTube?

The first thing that an affiliate marketer needs is a YouTube channel. This is a free service that can be opened through a Google account. The affiliate can create either a personal or a business channel.

The YouTube Partner Program (YTPP) is an excellent platform that gives the affiliate’s channel access to many more features and monetization opportunities from their YouTube channel. To be eligible to participate in the YouTube Partner Program, the creator (affiliate marketer) must have over 4,000 validated public watch hours in the previous 12 months, show over 1,000 subscribers to the YouTube channel and own a linked Google AdSense account.

Once the affiliate has launched their channel, they must choose a niche and the audience they want to engage with. Studies have shown that audiences prefer YouTube channels to learn new skills, discover entertainment, do-it-yourself videos, or find products or brands to buy. The affiliate should plan their channel to fit one or more of these preferences. Audience targeting is the difference between the success and failure of a YouTube affiliate program, so the affiliate must devote time and energy to identifying the correct audience for their content!

The next step is to create engaging and relevant content for the audience. Good quality content encourages more visits to the affiliate’s channel and builds trust in the affiliate. Relevant content attracts the right audience to the affiliate’s channel, which can give more leads to the brand being promoted.

Next, the affiliate should find a suitable affiliate program that will help them systematically monetize their content. The affiliate should naturally choose offers that match the niche and audience they want to engage.

Once the affiliate has identified a suitable program, they should add the affiliate links to the video descriptions that appear beneath each video. Members of the YouTube Partner Program can also include affiliate links directly into the videos. This is how inserted links could show up in the description of a video created by a YouTube affiliate:

Finally, the affiliate must be transparent and disclose their affiliate links. The affiliate marketer must clearly label the affiliate links and mention that the visitor could help the affiliate marketer earn a commission by clicking on the link. An affiliate marketer’s biggest attribute is credibility, and being open and honest about affiliate links reinforces trust and loyalty in the long term.

Graphically, the process of affiliate marketing on YouTube can be presented as shown below.

Image source: https://ippei.com/affiliate-marketing-with-youtube/

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing on YouTube

For the affiliate marketer (publisher), the most significant benefit of running an affiliate marketing campaign on YouTube is total and direct control over the products/brands to be promoted. Further, it gives a better view of the profits they can earn from each brand they promote. Finally, it gives the affiliate’s viewers more value by providing more engaging and helpful content.

There are several benefits of running an affiliate marketing program on YouTube for a brand. The most significant benefit is the possibility of reaching a larger number of potential leads and customers at a lesser cost.

Secondly, there is a low or zero setup or running cost because the brand does not have to invest in marketing or advertising, and most of the promotional expenses are handled by the affiliate.

Third, the brand can choose affiliates with a similar target audience, leading to better and more targeted lead generation.

Finally, the brand gets higher ROI because the affiliates promote the brand to customers who are interested in the brand and who rely on the affiliate’s recommendation for purchasing brands.

Summary

Affiliate marketing on YouTube is a lucrative and rewarding way to monetize creative content. It has an enormous user base and many valuable features that can help promote affiliate links far and wide. At the same time, the affiliate marketer (creator) has complete control over the content’s quality.

The key to successful affiliate marketing on YouTube is to have a good quality YouTube channel that consistently publishes engaging and helpful content relevant to the target audience. This will help generate more viewers to the channel, which will convert to more leads and potential customers for the promoted brand. The more leads and potential customers generated through their YouTube channel, the more income for the affiliate marketer.

Finally, it is essential to remember that YouTube has strict content regulations and guidelines, which limit what can and cannot be promoted on YouTube. Any affiliate marketer wishing to use YouTube must thoroughly review the YouTube policies and guidelines.

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