By Nikita Geldenhuys
“The growth of e-commerce and brand influencers has greatly changed the traditional marketing landscape,” explains Mpho Maelane, digital marketing coordinator at the social media agency,
Hashtag South Africa. “Think about the ‘Oprah effect’, for example, and how her approval or mention of a product could generate millions of sales of said product. With the rise of social media, the number of followers you have and the influence you have over those followers can dictate how people spend their money online.”
What Maelane describes comes down to affiliate marketing. In this marketing practice, a business rewards one or more publishers for each visitor or customer brought about by the publisher's marketing efforts. This is according to Lico Gross, head of marketing at
AdMarula, who notes; “An advertiser, for example, would run a campaign to sell electronics online, and offer to pay 15% commission to the publisher for each sale.”
Companies like AdMarula facilitate this process by providing a system and marketplace that connects online advertisers and publishers. Gross indicates that while affiliate marketing has been around in South Africa for at least 10 years, AdMarula still has to educate advertisers and merchants on the practice and its benefits. “Many have heard of it, but are not fully aware of how it works and how it can be applied to their specific business model.”
Jay Samarov, affiliate chief at local performance-based affiliate network,
Affiliate.co.za, says the company has seen a massive growth in both the adoption of affiliate marketing strategies by brands, as well as the number of new affiliate marketers. “More interestingly, there are more ‘overseas’ affiliate marketers joining the South African market space. Unlike oversaturated, developed markets, the country poses great opportunities for experienced affiliate marketers. Affiliates know this and act on it.”
Samarov adds; “Having said this, local experienced affiliates are too starting to emerge and some have already been doing incredibly well for themselves.”
How social media fits into affiliate marketing
A social media page is not much different from any other web page when it comes to affiliate marketing, notes Gross. “In our case, we have several social media publishers or affiliates in our network. They each have their specific niche or topic and a loyal following. This is great for our advertisers as it is possible to match their offer with the most relevant audience by placing their advert, banner or video on a pre-approved social media page.”
The benefit of using social media for affiliate marketing is increased exposure to potential customers, says Maelane. This is because an established follower base is being leveraged to share promotional content.
Affiliate marketing on social media often also allows marketers to reach their target market on a level that would not be possible with traditional marketing. Gross explains advertisers can more easily match their offers with a very relevant audience and targeted content when they use affiliate marketing.
“There’s also transparency for advertisers, who can see exactly which social media pages their ads are displayed on and what results they yield, down to a very granular level. Publishers can see which advertiser campaign or product performs the best, and what earnings they have generated from each one.”
A major benefit is that the technique lets companies calculate their customer acquisition cost by analysing the entire user journey through each step of the sales funnel. “Finally, because this is a performance-based channel, the advertiser only pays the social media publisher for actual results, rather than giving an agency a pre-defined budget and then waiting to see what results it’s going to yield,” says Gross.
The rules of social still matter
A posting strategy is vital when leveraging social media for affiliate marketing efforts, writes Jennifer Rooth, online marketing coordinator for cleverbridge, a global subscription billing technology provider.
“You’ve found your channels, and you’ve begun to build a following. But don’t simply post ad after ad. Social media is a virtual gathering,” she
writes on the cleverbridge blog. “Just like a real gathering, if someone at the party is only talking about themselves or trying to sell something, they won’t be so popular. The same holds true for your social media accounts.”
There’s not much that can go wrong once you have the basics right, concludes Gross. The focus should be on knowing the target audience, providing relevant content, creating clear call-to-actions, optimising landing pages, and ensuring a seamless customer journey.
How are you using affiliate marketing on social media platforms? Tell us in the comments below.