How to post as an advertiser on affiliate ads? Explanation of advantages and disadvantages and introduction procedure
A. What is affiliate advertising?
Affiliate advertising is “performance-based” advertising on the Internet. Website and blog publishers (affiliators) post affiliate advertisements on their own content, and after readers who visit the site click on the advertisement, rewards are generated when the conditions set by the advertiser's website are met.
Advertisers can freely set what they want to achieve. For example, in the case of e-commerce sites, product purchases, in the case of distance learning, materials requests and course applications, and in the case of credit cards, membership registrations are often targeted. Normally, there is a cost to "post" an ad, but with affiliate ads, there is no cost just to post it.
Advertisement costs are incurred only when a user who visits a site with affiliate ads takes action that is targeted for results. Therefore, it is said to be more cost-effective than general advertising.
In addition, since the amount of results is determined by the advertiser, one of the attractions is that there is little budget fluctuation and low risk. In addition to performance fee type, there are also affiliate advertisements such as "impression type" that pays according to the number of times the advertisement is displayed on the screen, and "fixed fee type" that uses advertising space such as large-scale media. Use it as needed.
B. How affiliate advertising works
In order to operate affiliate advertising, there are two methods: directly negotiating with affiliates who are media owners of each website, and registering with an intermediary called ASP (Affiliate Service Provider). The ASP, which has a contract with both the advertiser and the affiliate, plays a role in managing the matching, advertising, and rewards of both, and can place advertisements more efficiently than directly negotiating with each affiliate.
Many affiliates who want to earn rewards with affiliate advertising are registered in ASP, so if you want to place affiliate advertisements to expand the sales of your company's products and services, using ASP is essential. I can say that. Here, we will explain in detail how affiliate advertising works using ASP.
1. Advertisers place ads on ASP
Affiliate advertising operation begins when the advertiser places an advertisement on the ASP. If you decide the products and services you want to advertise on the Internet and register them with ASP, affiliates will be able to view them at any time. When placing affiliate ads, it is a good idea to think about how to set performance rewards in advance.
2. Affiliates post ads
Affiliates select products and services that suit their site from advertisements registered in ASP. In addition to websites, there is a wide variety of posting destinations such as blogs, SNS, and e-mail magazines. Since many affiliates are always looking for advertisements with higher rewards, it can be said that they tend to prefer content that is more likely to produce results.
3. If the product sells, there will be a reward
Readers interested in advertisements posted by affiliates click on advertisement links and visit advertisers' pages. If you complete the product purchase and registration procedure as it is, you will receive a reward as a result.
4. ASP pays affiliates on behalf of advertisers
ASP collects the results generated from each affiliate and informs the advertiser. When the advertiser confirms the performance information from the ASP and approves it, the reward is fixed. Affiliates are paid by ASP on behalf of advertisers. However, detailed procedures differ depending on the ASP, so it is a good idea to check when registering.
C. 3 steps to get started with affiliate advertising
Here, we will introduce how to start affiliate advertising using ASP in 3 steps.
1. Select an ASP to publish
First, select an ASP to place affiliate ads and apply for registration. Each ASP has its own characteristics, so it is a good idea to choose the one that fits your company's products and services. Consider the recommended ASPs that will be introduced later.
2. Prepare materials required for publication
After passing the ASP screening, we will register the materials for products and merchandise and set conditions such as performance rewards. In order to successfully operate affiliate advertising, it is necessary to have materials that make readers feel attractive about your company's products and services. Prepare advertising materials such as images that the target will want to click.
3. Contract with an affiliate
Affiliates select and apply for advertisements that match their content from among the advertisements registered in ASP. Then, when the advertiser approves the application, the contract will be completed and the affiliate will be able to post advertisements.
D. Benefits of affiliate advertising
Currently, many companies and individuals are placing affiliate advertisements, but what are the advantages compared to other advertisements? Here are four benefits that you can get by placing affiliate ads.
Ad effectiveness can be measured
Affiliate advertising can measure the effectiveness of advertising numerically, such as "how many people saw the ad, how many of them clicked on the ad, and how many people purchased the product after that". With conventional advertising, it is difficult to accurately measure how many people have seen the ad, but with affiliate advertising, the effect can be measured numerically, which has the advantage of making it easier to identify areas for improvement.
Being able to set numerical indicators will be a major point for more effective advertising operations.
Risk can be hedged due to high cost-effectiveness
In the operation of performance-based affiliate advertising, it is possible to hedge risk by reducing wasteful expenses because it is only necessary to pay a reward for the results. In addition, since the advertiser can decide the content of the results and the amount of compensation, it is one of the attractions that it is possible to operate the advertisement without unreasonableness.
Broadening the range of promotions by having various affiliates post
Many affiliates are registered with major ASPs. By placing advertisements on various sites and blogs, you can expect a wide range of promotions even for users who do not know your brand or products. In addition, there are affiliates with strong influence and affiliates with high SEO skills. There is a possibility that awareness will rise at once by having a powerful affiliate introduce your company's products.
If the affiliate attracts customers, the burden of attracting customers will decrease
Affiliate advertising uses content owned by affiliates to attract customers. Therefore, there is no need for advertisers to attract customers themselves. Affiliates also earn income from affiliate advertising. Therefore, in order to attract customers to the content of affiliates, various strategies are developed and advertised to attract customers.
Affiliates are responsible for the “advertisement” and “attracting customers” that advertisers normally think of, so it can be said that it is a great advantage to reduce the burden.
E. Disadvantages of affiliate advertising
Affiliate advertising has many merits when placing advertisements, but there are also demerits.
Here are three disadvantages of using affiliate advertising.
Use of ASP incurs costs
To use ASP as an advertiser, there is an initial fee and a monthly fee. Even if the advertisement is not selected by the affiliate or the product is not sold through the advertisement, it can be said that the monthly usage fee is a disadvantage.
It may be published in a form that you do not want
Affiliate advertisements may be posted in a form that does not match the image of the product or brand. Advertisers will find it difficult to control how their products are presented, as it is up to affiliates. Especially when there are many sites that carry their own ads, it becomes difficult to find problematic sites.
With ASP, the advertiser can set whether or not to screen the publication site, so it is a good idea to choose according to your wishes.
Takes time to produce results
Even if you place an affiliate advertisement using ASP, you may not get immediate results. It often takes time for an affiliate to select an advertisement and gather readers for the published article.
Also, even if you say affiliates, the influence and ability vary. Let's understand that affiliate advertising is an advertisement that gradually shows its effect by working on it for a long time.
F. 6 recommended ASPs
There are many ASPs in Japan, each with different characteristics and strengths. Here are six recommended ASPs.
Choosing an ASP that matches the product or service you want to advertise will also affect whether or not you can lead affiliate advertising to success, so it's a good idea to carefully consider it. Let's take a look at the features of each ASP.
value commerce
is the first ASP in Japan to start affiliate services. Since 2005, it has become a group company of Yahoo! Corporation and is one of the few affiliate programs for Yahoo! Shopping. Boasting a track record of more than 6,000 companies introducing it, companies in all categories, such as finance, fashion, beauty, and health, use it to acquire customers and increase sales.
There are two pricing plans for ValueCommerce: the "Basic Plan", which offers promotional support, and the "Light Plan," which can be introduced with an initial cost of 0 yen. The monthly fee is 55,000 yen (tax included) for the basic plan and 38,500 yen (tax included) for the light plan. From April 2021, a new function called “SNS Offer” has been launched that allows you to offer advertisement distribution to affiliate sites that operate SNS media.
A8.net
A8.net is the industry's largest ASP in terms of both implementation results and media registration numbers. It can be said that it is an ASP that is easy to use for any product or service, as it handles all kinds of genres such as beauty, lifestyle, health, fashion, real estate and gifts.
A8.net's usage fee is relatively cheaper than other ASPs. In addition, the longer the contract, the cheaper the monthly fee, so it's easy to take your time. Please check the official website of A8.net for detailed monthly fees and fees.
Link Share
Established in 2004, Linkshare is an ASP that is now a subsidiary of Rakuten. Originally, LinkShare had strengths in product sales, but in 2010 it merged with an ASP called Trafficgate, and it is now possible to join TG Affiliate, which has strengths in applying for financial and various services. Initial costs and fees differ depending on the service you use, so please contact LinkShare for details.
JANet
JANet, which is strong in the financial sector, is an ASP with approximately 11,400 advertisements. A month-to-month contract is possible, so you can introduce affiliate advertising without stress. The initial cost for placing an ad on JANet is 55,000 yen (tax included), and the monthly management fee is 44,000 yen (tax included). In addition, depending on the conditions, fixed costs are not required. If you are interested in the conditions to be eligible, please inquire from the "application form". We also provide a service called “Smart-C”, which is an advertisement dedicated to smartphones and apps.
ACCES TRADE
ACCES TRADE has strengths in e-commerce, career change, insurance, finance, and online games. A major ASP with approximately 775,000 site registrations and approximately 26,700 advertisements. ACCES TRADE has a relatively strict registration screening process for posting media, so you can expect to avoid posting ads on malicious media. The minimum usage period is 6 months in principle, and it is automatically renewed every 6 months from the month following the service start. Please inquire about the price from the official website.
afb
afb boasts No. 1 user satisfaction for six consecutive years. It is one of the major ASPs with over 1.02 million registered sites. * Research by Affiliate Marketing Association (2015-2020)
It is strong in beauty genres such as hair removal and esthetics and health foods, and has the impression that there are many advertisements for women. The minimum usage period is 6 months, and the minimum period from application to installation is 1 week. In addition, it is possible to place performance-based advertising in Taiwan and other Asian countries, which is rare in domestic ASPs. Please contact afb for monthly fees.
Summary
As introduced in this article, affiliate advertising is easy to implement and highly cost-effective. Affiliates registered with ASP will collect prospective readers, so you will be able to operate advertising efficiently without the hassle of attracting customers. The ASP introduced this time can request materials for free. If there is an ASP that you are interested in, we recommend that you first order the material and consider it.