2021 is the year that your business will bloom! After having a challenging last year, people are buying online more than ever, especially for the holidays. That means it is the best opportunity for affiliate marketing to shine. However, this means that the nature of this business will also change. It can be more challenging for independent marketers to follow the rising tide.
Some economists call it the “K-Shaped Recovery” when describing our new reality in the post-pandemic era. It means that while certain groups will benefit from the recent trends, other groups might go down. In turn, it will be harder for those to recover. The important thing is to follow the trends close to shaping up into something big. As a result, you might have higher chances of following that “K” shape up.
ецшThe Basics
Carrier Billing
Having the option to add payment using a carrier bill makes it more user-friendly, and it’s characteristic of a Tier 3 market. While payment providers come in, carrier billing goes out, even if it’s heavily regulated very often. Some markets are still joining global networks nowadays, but it is an option that is slowly going down.
Amazon Affiliate Program
Even if Amazon sales have been growing thanks to the pandemic, the affiliate program has slowed down. Why? After the commission rates were reduced from 8% to 3% and 5% to 1% because of the COVID-19. What makes it interesting is that they announced the changes just as Amazon stock prices were reaching an all-time high. So even if Amazon Affiliates is not a wrong choice, it’s better to be careful and not put all your eggs in just one basket.
What’s Coming for Affiliate Tracking?
Companies like Google are determined to get rid of third-party tracking. How? By phasing out third-party cookies that redirect quests sometimes. Thankfully, there are some other alternatives. Voluum found a way to support tracking with redirect and direct methods without needing cookies. So there is no way that tracking will be gone for sure.
It is too essential for many key stakeholders. So it’s necessary to follow the trends and test new ideas too; it’s also good to mix old methods that still work fine with new ideas. Being innovative while maintaining core business principles is essential for any industry, including affiliate marketing.
Specialization
When you’re working on your own, it’s harder to succeed as an affiliate marketer. Why? Because it demands that you have many eggs in various baskets and be a jack of all trades. Yes, you need to be a marketer. However, you will work as a content writer, tax expert, web developer and fulfill many roles.
Splitting your duties with other people can make things more durable and practical. It doesn’t mean that you need to join a big company to be successful; no, you can even join forces with a handful of affiliates, and each of you can be responsible for a thing you know you’re good at. Teamwork and good communication can make things so much better.
Automation
This trend goes well with the previous one because the argument is the same. Still, the execution is different, which means that only some of the work will need to be delegated towards the algorithms because of the enhanced workload. Since it’s harder to be the only one overlooking everything, having some functions can pause a campaign or send you an alert in case of an emergency. A system like Voluum contains a built-in feature called Automizer that can respond to the trend and make the affiliate work easier.
It can also help with the workload by creating rules that will activate sudden changes in traffic spikes, offering dying-out domain blocks, and much more. Also, it can automatically generate lists of good and bad placements. Not only that, but you can synchronize costs. That way, you don’t need to manually update the price, eliminating mundane tasks to focus on the strategy.
Flexible advertisement
Times change, and so advertisers are finding more ways to be more flexible. Please, read on our blog how some products become very niche but end up being one of the hottest trends you didn’t think would happen. If you want to be a great advertiser, it is better not to stay with one product; instead, try different styles and reliable brands. It can be somewhat like guessing which products are going to skyrocket. Just follow your instinct, follow the trends and do your thing.
A new era
2020 was a challenging year filled with stress and life changes that no one was ready for. We needed to adapt to a more “virtual” environment with Zoom meetings. Not only that, but you have been online shopping for anything that you need. It also opened our eyes to this new category of products that everyone now needs, like streaming services, platforms like Shopify and Web Hosting.
The pandemic took us to the internet world by force; it has become a necessity as vital as having electricity and water. Having advertising services that can help everyone navigate the digital world was put on hold for some time. However, now it’s here to stay. It means that people will create more new services that will become essential.
More ads to create
Even if there can be a slight saturation of ads sometimes, YouTube increases the number of ads that a video can have. How? With audio ads for podcasts along with displaying ads for small creators that are not part of their partnership program. Nevertheless, there are places like Facebook limiting the number of ads per page, which will give the remaining ads an easier way to optimize by people or platform’s algorithms. In turn, this means there can be more conversions per ad dollar.
No matter what the future holds with this new era of affiliate marketing, you will be shining if you play your moves right. Following the right trends can make your goals and profits boom with epicness. And don’t worry about things shifting year after year. Why? Because all these changes are giving a comfier home for affiliate marketing. We invite you to learn more about trends that provide endless possibilities for advertising opportunities on our blog.
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