Affiliate marketing has risen dramatically in popularity over the last few years.
Whether people are building their own websites or starting a new business, affiliate marketing has become a lifeline for ecommerce shoppers who use affiliate links to guide their online shopping experience.
However, creating an affiliate link isn’t as easy as simply linking the product of another website or business to your website. Affiliate links are specific URLs, and it takes some time to create one.
So, if you’re wondering how to create an affiliate link, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s our guide on how to create an affiliate link!
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
First and foremost, let’s take a look at what affiliate marketing actually is. Affiliate marketing is essentially a reward-based system that consists of one or more partners promoting the other business in exchange for commission.
Signing up to an affiliate marketing program is totally free and an ideal side hustle for people who are already running a business or in full-time employment.
When you partner up with another business, advocate, or a customer, you provide them with a specific URL that sends their visitors straight to your website, and vice versa.
When users buy a product from your website, or vice versa, both your website and your partner will make profits from the purchase.
The amount you receive will either be a percentage of the sale or a flat dollar amount depending on the affiliate deal.
For example, Target provides an 8% affiliate commission on their affiliate-qualified products, making it a win-win for Target and their affiliate partners.
Affiliate marketing is a common strategy found in most B2B and B2C campaigns – in fact, over 80% of brands use affiliate links to promote their products.
Types Of Affiliate Links
There are three types of affiliate links: default links, custom links, and lead generation campaign links.
Default Links
Default, or standard, links are auto-generated links sent to your partner once the affiliate program has been activated.
This link generally sends the customer directly to your business’s home page, but some platforms allow you to change the link to direct the user to another part of your website.
Custom Links
As the name suggests, custom links are customized according to the purpose of the link. In most cases, these links are customized to a shorter length to make the URL look tidier.
Lead Generation Campaign Links
Lead generation campaign links direct users to marketing campaigns to generate high-quality leads.
Users can opt in to these marketing campaigns, and affiliates get a commission for every user who buys a product or signs up.
Affiliate Link Styles
Affiliate links can then be categorized by a number of styles.
Redirect Links
Known in the industry as old-style tracking links, redirect links take a user to a different landing webpage. These links are easy to track and manage.
Anchor Links
Anchor links don’t just link to other webpages, they also link to documents that can be downloaded. These links look less spammy thanks to the optimization of link characters, which is why anchor links are so popular in SEO businesses.
Direct Links
Direct links, as the name suggests, takes the user directly to the offer page without going through a landing page first. These like aren’t perceived as affiliate links by most clickers, which is why they’re so useful for advertising in a niche.
New-style Tracking Links
New-style tracking links are the most common form of affiliate links. These links are the upgrade to redirect links, as they directly include the tracking parameters in the URL.
How To Create An Affiliate Link
Step 1: Start A New Marketing Campaign
Firstly, you’ll need to start a new marketing campaign to get your affiliate links. There are several ways to do this, whether it’s through programs with Shopify, Tapfiliate, Refersion, or Easy Affiliate.
Make sure to do your research and take your time understanding which marketing campaign is right for you.
Step 2: Add Affiliate Links
You can easily generate new affiliate links within your marketing campaign, which will automatically generate a unique link for each affiliate you’re partnered with.
You can also generate affiliate links for every marketing campaign you are partnering with. This is especially handy for those with multiple affiliate marketing partnerships, as it keeps the URLs separate for different sites and products.
If you have multiple landing pages, you can also create more affiliate tracking links.
Step 3: Design And Customize The Link
Now, you need to design the link to make the URL look more attractive and appropriate for its landing page, whether it’s to a homepage or a specific product. Banners and text links also help to make the link look more appealing.
Some affiliate programs provide deep or page-specific links, which takes the customer directly to a specific product. This is not only convenient for the customer, but also generates more traffic to that part of your website.
It’s no secret that URLs are long and messy. Customers will often avoid long and complicated URLs, as they look like a threat to their device.
So, make sure to customize the URL to a cleaner, more appropriate length. Also, fewer characters in a URL will improve brand recognition, click-through rates, and SEO.
The customization process will depend on the affiliate marketing process you work with in step 1.
Step 4: Agree On Promotion Terms
Now, you will have to liaise with your partner to agree on promotion terms. This typically involves conversing over where to place the link (whether it’s on a website or social media site), and how much commission you will receive for every purchase.
This step is arguably the hardest part, but when you liaise with a reputable partner, you’ll find a deal in no time.
Conclusion
So, there you have it! Turns out, creating an affiliate link is surprisingly straightforward and doesn’t cost you a dime. With such a stress-free process, it makes sense why businesses and websites rely on affiliate links for extra profit.
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