Hey hey! Did you know a whopping 80% of brands have affiliate programs? And, would you believe that over 65% of affiliate marketers cozy up with their audience on social media? That’s right!
What’s more, it’s no secret that YouTube is a goldmine with over 2.6 billion users each month and a billion hours of video watched daily. That’s a gigantic sea of people waiting for you to make waves with your YouTube affiliate marketing.
Ever considered YouTube Affiliate Marketing? It’s no different from your regular affiliate marketing, just a change of scenery really. YouTube is just another marketing avenue where you can spread your magic to the target audience.
Remember, friend, affiliate marketing is all about promoting and selling another company’s goods or services for a commission. Now, sometimes there’s an extra layer between sellers and affiliate marketers – affiliate networks. They handle all the backend and manage the relationships between sellers and affiliates.
Now, where does YouTube fit into this jigsaw puzzle? Simple. Affiliate marketers need a platform to promote products. YouTube affiliate marketers have chosen to promote through videos they create for their channels. They need to be savvy about what products will appeal to their audience, those who subscribe to their channel. (In HBR, I teach you how to not only use YouTube, but have a full system of places you share, all working together and building your relevant audience day after day after day. 🎉)
Promoting affiliate products on YouTube? Perfect! You’ll want to place affiliate links where your viewers can see them. YouTube offers more opportunities for this than many other social and video networks, like Instagram and TikTok. You can include affiliate links in your video descriptions or pin them in the comments.
Another neat trick is to place an “i” button at the top right of your video to promote another of your videos. It’s a little card that acts as a link to another video. Cool hack, right?
Why should you use YouTube Affiliate Marketing? Well, it’s simple. You want to be where your audience hangs out. YouTube is the “how do I” channel, which is great for folks that share affiliate products that are solution based. (which most are if you really think about it) Nowadays, with smartphones in every pocket, it’s also super easy to create and upload videos to YouTube.
Successful affiliate marketing is all about knowing your audience and recommending products they’ll love. But beware! You don’t want your videos to look like long-winded TV ads. Your videos need to add value and there must be a reason for people to watch them.
YouTube affiliate marketing has its own charm. It’s as simple as setting up a YouTube channel and uploading videos. But you’ll need an audience before you start seeing people clicking on your affiliate links and buying, so let’s talk about that.
Making money with YouTube affiliate marketing? It’s as easy as one, two, three, four:
Decide on your channel’s target audience. (I call this bat signal, here’s where I easily break down how to find yours.
Make informative and entertaining videos for them. The word here is “infotainment”.
Find affiliate products that would pique their interest. (Here’s a short training I did on that.)
Promote your videos and affiliate products. (Here’s a must have checklist to help)
Do the above steps consistently for a few months, and you’ll be surprised to see people buying through your affiliate links!
You can also put an email opt-in in all of your YouTube video descriptions so that viewers could join your mailing list.
Just remember, don’t fall into the trap of trying to promote as many products as possible, regardless of their fit for your audience. There’s no point making videos no one wants to watch. ORRRRR looking like a weirdo skeezball, catch my drift?
Successful YouTubers tend to follow this rule of thumb: Stick to one central theme. This isn’t just for YouTube; the same applies to blogs, podcasts, or any social posts you make. (for my students, it’s their bat signal)
And what type of videos should you make to capture your audience’s interest? Mix it up! You can create product reviews, how-to videos, tutorials, best-of videos, and even unboxing videos.
And finally, here are a few tips to up your YouTube affiliate marketing game:
Identify the best keywords for people to find your videos. (this can be best understood in a free training I did here)
Don’t make your videos look like ads. Remember, people watch YouTube to learn or to decrease reading time. Make em easy and relatively easy to digest)
Find the Perfect Spots for Your Affiliate Links. YouTube gives you a much wider playground than Instagram or TikTok to place your affiliate links. This platform is so much more welcoming when it comes to embedding links around your videos, especially in the video descriptions. So, seize this golden opportunity! Slip in those affiliate links in the right spots whenever it makes sense.
Jazz Up Your Thumbnails You know, click-through rates play a significant role in YouTube search rankings. When folks feel drawn to your video, they’re more likely to click through. So, what’s the secret recipe? An irresistible video thumbnail combined with a tantalizing video title. This duo can significantly pump up your click-through rate. (PS, you don’t need to be a designer, just use this)
Honesty is the Best Policy with Affiliate Links Don’t fret! If your videos are top-notch, people won’t give a second thought to seeing your affiliate links. This holds particularly true for folks engrossed in your niche. I promise you’re thinking more about it than anyone else.Legally speaking, you’re required to disclose your affiliate links in most places these days. Plus, you’re obligated to inform that you may earn a commission if people splurge through your links. But here’s the deal, most folks won’t mind this. In fact, they’ll cheerfully follow through to your links if they want to grab the products, especially if you can offer a deal to them with your link!
Ok, so that’s it! Affiliate Marketing on YouTube in a nutshell, no go DO IT!
See you next time!
xo Martha