What Is the Affiliate Revenue Model? Use it in affiliate marketing!

What is the affiliate revenue?

Affiliate revenue offers a compelling way to generate income by promoting products or services you genuinely believe in. As an affiliate, you partner with companies and receive a unique tracking link. When someone clicks your link and makes a purchase (or completes a desired action, like signing up for a free trial), you earn a commission – a percentage of the sale or a fixed amount.

Here’s how it unlocks benefits for both businesses and affiliates:

• Businesses expand reach: Companies leverage the power of word-of-mouth marketing by partnering with affiliates who have established audiences. This allows them to tap into new customer pools efficiently.
• Affiliates earn commissions: Individuals with an online presence or marketing skills can generate affiliate revenue by recommending products or services they trust.

While affiliate revenue is commonly associated with advertisers in relations with independent affiliates, it’s also common in business-to-business (B2B) relationships. In the B2B context, companies might engage in affiliate partnerships to expand their reach, user sign-ups, and traffic rather than simply focus on products.

Simply a mutually beneficial arrangement!

What is the affiliate revenue model?

The affiliate revenue model is also known as the cooperative model or the association model. The affiliate revenue model is when a business calls on business owners to participate in its services.

To be more specific, an affiliate revenue model pairs your website with other retailers offering comparable products or services, which are then promoted on your site. When visitors to your site click on these advertisements, complete forms, or make purchases for affiliate products, you receive a commission according to the terms of the agreement.

There are 02 variants based on the mechanism of the affiliate revenue model:

• One advertiser and multiple merchants: In this model, the affiliate can be any type of entity, such as a blogger, individual marketer, or another store. The common thing? They earn a commission based on performance. And because affiliates earn as they successfully promote, there are typically no strong relations between the 02 sides. This is often mentioned as affiliate marketing.

• Cross promotion – one can be an advertiser and an affiliate at the same time: This form of affiliate revenue model is little known because it is typically operated within a certain group of businesses. However, this model has great value, thanks to it, websites build relationships with each other, creating conditions for visitors quickly and conveniently. The amount of cash paid for each party can be negotiated in advance and does not necessarily have to be in the form of commissions.”.

There are various actions of visitors to yield revenues. Affiliates earn the commission simply by helping advertisers complete those actions, affiliates will get a commission:

• Clicking on ads, known as earning-per-click (EPC)
• Filling out forms, so-called earning-per-lead (EPL)
• Making purchases, known as earning-per-sales (EPS)
• Sign-up for services of associated websites

In many cases, affiliates can earn simply by letting people show ads on their platform instead of commission. Though it is not performance-based like the normal method in affiliate marketing, it is commonly a part of the affiliate revenue model.

This model operates as an association of websites that build relationships with each other, to not only attract a large target audience but also support each other in providing services and satisfying maximum needs customer demand.

Can you do affiliate marketing and affiliate revenue models at the same time?

You can totally run affiliate marketing programs and partner up with another business owner. Both are a cool way to maximize affiliate revenue and brand reach.

Actually, since both operate on the same mechanisms, you can run it all under one affiliate program platform.

Here’s how it works: You give affiliates/partners a link. When users click on those links and make a purchase, those affiliates/partners will be counted as distributors.

But, how do you make the best of both models? Optimally, you could run two different affiliate programs – one for traditional affiliates and one for cross-promotional partners.

A traditional affiliate marketing program, by its essence, is not simply about promotion and earning a commission.

Affiliate revenue model example?

Retailer: Amazon

Amazon has launched an affiliate program. It allows individual affiliate marketers, businesses, website owners, and social influencers,… to join and earn commission from product referrals.

Amazon’s model has also applied the trade association to call for the participation of other websites as distribution introduction points for Amazon, to receive a commission difference.

According to this model, affiliate marketers, bloggers, and business activities of business enterprises are conducted on the basis of building a linked website – cooperating with manufacturing enterprises or distributors. In other words, such affiliates will earn a share of the orders made via their affiliate links.

Some other big companies also launch this kind of program:

• Nike
• LEGO
• Walmart

Cashback app: Ibotta

The revenue earned by the business is referral fees (or business association fees) or a percentage of the revenue of sales activities performed on the basis of affiliate links above, such as the case of the company Ibotta.com.

Ibotta links its website with manufacturers and distributors such as Kmart, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Marriott, Macy’s, Hollywood Video, Olive Garden… Each member of Ibotta (also a potential customer of partners) has a “points” account to store “bonus points” and they accumulate points by fulfilling Ibotta requirements: reading offers to customers, answering survey questions, conducting online buying and selling activities…

Customers’ reward points can be exchanged for rewards such as music tapes, books, clothes, airline tickets, shopping vouchers… and Ibotta will collect fees from partners or receive a percentage on the value of the sales transactions made.

Affiliated store

As an affiliate store owner, all can connect with a store for cross-promotion or simply join their affiliate program. Either way is good. This method is pretty common for Shopify owners.

For example, you join the Amazon Associates program mentioned above.

Once approved, you’ll receive special affiliate links. Add these links to your product pages, replacing the usual “add to cart” button with a call-to-action (CTA) embedded with the affiliate link. The “Buy now” button may look like this:

Consider selling mate products to:

• Fill gaps in your product line: Address customer demand for products you don’t currently offer.
• Test new products: Gauge interest in new product lines without inventory risk.
• Monetize existing traffic: Leverage steady traffic to earn commissions.
• Improve brand value: Enhance your store’s reputation with high-quality affiliate products.

By integrating affiliate products, you can expand your offerings, test new markets, and enhance your store’s profitability and credibility.

Wanna find some affiliates?

If you’re looking to tap into the power of affiliate marketing and boost your revenue, BixGrow is the perfect solution for your Shopify store. With its user-friendly interface, robust tracking, and seamless integration, BixGrow makes it easy to manage your affiliate program and connect with the right partners. Start leveraging the affiliate revenue model today and watch your business grow with BixGrow’s comprehensive affiliate marketing tools.