High Ticket Affiliate Marketing – A Beginner Comprehensive Guide

High-ticket affiliate marketing is gaining popularity among new affiliate marketers due to its potential for higher commissions.

This topic has become extremely hot in 2024. You can see how people get crazy about it on Google Trends. 

A successful sale can fetch anywhere from $500 to thousands of dollars. Extremely lucrative, but is it simple?

It is probably not the best option for beginners but there are chances if you follow closely this guide.

This post will give you the right understanding of high-ticket affiliate marketing, and provide you with a guide that involves choosing a niche, joining lucrative affiliate programs, creating top-notch content, promoting high-value products, and tracking online campaigns.

Let’s get started.

What is high-ticket affiliate marketing?

High-ticket affiliate marketing is technically affiliate marketing but in this model, affiliates promote expensive products or services. These products typically have a higher price point (typically exceeding $500) compared to regular affiliate marketing items and also offer higher commission rates.

Such products or services come with hefty price tags, ranging from $500 to thousands of dollars. Instead of aiming for numerous low-value sales, it prioritizes fewer conversions that translate to significant commissions. It’s like catching fewer, but much bigger fish!

And yes, High-Ticket affiliate marketing is totally legit in every country of the world. In essence, it is simply affiliate marketing but with pricy products.

How much money you can earn with High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing?

High-ticket products typically offer commissions ranging from $100 to $5,000+ per sale, sometimes even reaching five figures. This means that a single sale can bring in a significant amount of money.

According to ZipRecruiter, on 1st November 2023, the average annual pay for a High Ticket Affiliate Marketing in the United States is approximately $77,893, or ~$6,500 monthly. However, according to another source, the average high-ticket affiliate marketer makes $78,282 a year.

First-class marketers like Pat Flynn and Neil Patel achieve seven figures per year. But they are exceptional, anyway. 

Please note that though there are marketers who can earn really well with high-ticket promotions, the data above are all about full-time marketers. This means if you approach it as a side hustle or lack of seriousness, the payoff may be much lower. 

Can beginners do high-ticket affiliate marketing?

While high-ticket affiliate marketing can be tempting for beginners due to the potential for larger commissions, it is not easy.

It’s important to approach it with realistic expectations and understand the challenges involved. Here’s a breakdown of the feasibility for beginners:

Not Easy, But Possible:

• Getting in is tough: Selling expensive products needs trust and expertise. You must show you know your stuff and connect with your audience.
• Competing is hard: Many experienced marketers are in this space, so it’s tough to stand out and make sales.
• Marketing efforts: You’ll need time and effort to build trust, educate buyers, and market strategically.

Sales Take Time:

• Longer Decision-Making: People take more time deciding on pricier items, so you need patience and a careful approach.
• Persistence Pays Off: Success won’t happen overnight. Keep at it, and be patient.

High-ticket Ticket Items for affiliate marketing

There are two main types of products that you can promote: Physical and non-physical.

Physical High-Ticket Items:

• Jewelry, art, antiques, and collectibles 
• Technological equipment: smartphones, laptops,…
• Luxury interior furniture: mattresses, sofas, carpets, rugs, lighting fixture
• Garden furniture, outdoor and recreational equipment.

Non-Physical High-Ticket Items:

• Consulting or coaching services 
• Online courses, seminars, and workshops 
• Vacations, retreats, and vacation packages  
• Loans 
• Insurance
• Social Media Marketing Service.

How To Start High Ticket Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

1. Make a list of niches that you interested in and knowledgeable in

Make a list of products that you like or have an understanding about, or in any way you think is promotable. Background knowledge is also important – you cannot sell software with a shortage of technology understanding.

The more details the better. In this case, I make a list of products with exactly the brands I want to cooperate with:

• Luxury Watches: Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet.
• Designer Handbags: Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermès.
• High-End Fashion Apparel: Gucci, Prada, Balenciaga.
• Exclusive Sneakers: Limited edition releases from Nike, Adidas, and Yeezy.

2. Choose a High-Ticket Affiliate Program that fit

To choose a program that suitable, you can start on Google or affiliate networks, such as ShareASale or FlexOffers. Simply type down the products or brands you want to promote, there will be a list return and you can choose from the list.

Please note that program credibility check is a must have step:

• Evaluating the brand/ company/ affiliate program: You can simply Google search its reputation, history, 
• Evaluating Product Quality: Normally, high-ticket products are qualitative. But, not every time. Simply type some queries on Google with the “review” tag or surf discussional platforms (such as Reddit).

In this example, I chose Louis Vuitton to promote – this brand is first-class already, monetizable, and promotable.

Thus, I did a quick search on Google too see if they do offer an in-house affiliate program (affiliate programs that offer the highest rate are typically in-house program)

Unluckily, Louis Vuitton does not offer an direct brand partnership that you can apply to. Also, they do not deploy any affiliate program hosted on affiliate networks.

As Louis Vuitton only works with invented affiliates, there stands no chance for a newbie to partner up with the Louis Vuitton affiliate program. 

So, I have to find an affiliate program of a third-party platform that sells Louis Vuitton bags, such as Amazon’s Affiliate Program, or Farfetch Affiliate Program. 

3. Demand Research  

Demand research is crucial in affiliate marketing to understand your audience, identify profitable niches, and tailor your strategies effectively. Here are some ways to conduct demand research:

• Market demand: Tools like Google Trends, Ahrefs, social media, and industry reports to assess will show you if the niche’s demand is high, low, or fluctuating. 
• Analyze competition: Check out any big-name promoting products in your niche. Consider any point in which you can differentiate yourself. 

4. Building audience persona and determine how to approach them

• Made a customer persona and thought about the best way to approach them. ChatGPT is really helpful in this case.  
• Choose a promotional platform: In the cases of fashion products in particular, image and video promotions are powerful methods to influence customers. So, TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube are good choices. Meanwhile, when one buys non-physical products such as software, insurance,… They are looking for informative content – the more precise, the more they love. 

Please note that although the suggestions on ChatGPT are very valuable, they are only for reference. For example, the start of age range for exclusive sneakers may be slightly lower than given, around 15 in reality. Teenage is crazy about sneakers you know.

In this example, we can see that customer personas for elite watches and high-end fashion are relatively similar in age range, income level, and occupation. Therefore, you can combine and promote luxury watches and Fashion Apparel on the same site.

Meanwhile, sneakers need a more dynamic form of content that revolves around streetwear, and urban and modern lifestyles.

5. Build your authority and trust

Affiliate marketing is a powerful strategy, but building trust and credibility is essential for success. Here are some strategies to achieve that:

• Your personal information should be clear, concise, and optimally verified by the platform. Notably, information should be similar in all of your forums and social media accounts. A good practice increases your chance of appearing on search engines. 
• Craft a concise and compelling story, how much experience do you have in this niche and how are you passionate about it?  
• Your authoritativeness: Different from authority, “Authoritativeness” mentions how much you know about your products and your field. People highly appreciate words from individuals who give them useful, informative pieces of content with in-person experience. 

One way to build authoritativeness effectively is to write in-depth information about a certain topic.

6. Create high quality content

• Optimize your platform for SEO: Apply SEO strategies such as keywords utilizing or technical modifications to attract organic traffic. But please note that each platform prefers different SEO strategies. You need to learn it and apply in every platform you are active on. 
• Social Proof: Share your real experience, and showcase customers’ testimonials. 
• Engage with Your Audience: There are ways to stay engaged with your authority. Respond to comments promptly and foster a sense of community on your website. 
• Know what is important: Focus on Images/Videos if you promote physical products. Information and audience engagements if you choose non-physical products. 

7. Keep track of your performance

It’s crucial to keep track of how well your affiliate marketing campaigns are doing and find ways to improve them.

This step is essential if you want to make more money through affiliate marketing. There are different ways to track your affiliate marketing efforts, like using pixels, coupons, cookies, or server-side postback tracking.

• Essential metrics: number of clicks your links get, conversion rate, the total sales you make, the average amount of money people spend in one go (that’s the average order value), how much it costs you to acquire each customer (known as cost per acquisition or CPA), and the return you get on the money you invest (that’s the return on investment or ROI).

• To keep track of all this data, you can use tools like Google Analytics, PartnerStack, BixGrow, and many others. It takes time to get used to these tools especially when you are a beginner.

Top hand-picked high-ticket affiliate programs

Here are some renowned affiliate marketing programs and how much they pay – you might want to give them a check:

• Capitalist Exploits offers investment newsletters and courses. Perfect choice for people who want to learn how to profit from global trends and opportunities. The commission rate is 50%, which means you can earn up to $750 per sale.
• Embroker offers business insurance solutions for startups and small businesses. The commission rate is $250 per lead, regardless of whether they buy or not.
• Kinsta offers premium WordPress hosting services for high-traffic websites. The commission rate is 5%–10%, depending on the plan, and you can earn from $50 to $500 per sale. Plus, you also get 10% recurring monthly revenue for the lifetime of the customer.
• Shopify offers an ecommerce platform for online sellers. The commission rate is 200% of the customer’s first monthly payment, which means you can earn from $58 to $2,000 per sale.
• Authority Hacker offers online courses and tools for building and growing authority websites. The commission rate is 30%, and you can earn up to $1,979 per sale. 

Why Beginners Fail in High Ticket Affiliate Marketing?

Well, there are 04 reasons why new affiliates failed:

1. Not Enough Knowledge: People who are new to high ticket affiliate marketing often struggle because they don’t know how to choose the right products to promote or which audience to target.
2. Wrong Choices: Some beginners pick the wrong affiliate programs or products, making it harder for them to succeed in this type of marketing.
3. Lack of Strategy: Without proper marketing strategies, beginners may find it challenging to promote high ticket products effectively.
4. Not Understanding Customers: Failing to understand what customers want and how they make purchasing decisions can lead to unsuccessful marketing efforts.

Can Beginners Succeed in High Ticket Affiliate Marketing?

Beginners can succeed if they:

1. Learn the Basics: Understand the fundamental concepts of high ticket affiliate marketing.
2. Stay Updated: Keep up with the latest trends and changes in the market.
3. Analyze Data: Look at information about how customers behave and what they like.
4. Consider Pros and Cons: Think about the advantages and disadvantages of high ticket affiliate marketing before getting started.

In simple terms, beginners can do well in high ticket affiliate marketing by learning, staying informed, understanding customers, and thinking carefully about their choices.