Affiliate Marketers, Take Note of Revenue Share

In the affiliate marketing industry there are multiple payment methods such as CPC, CPL, CPA, CPM etc. Each have their own benefits and drawbacks which must be considered as one model would perform completely different to another. One of the most popular models that is adopted by a large percentage of the industry is CPL. This model is simple as it pays out a fixed amount upon the user providing simple contact details or signing up to an advertisers offer. An alternative method that has proven to be extremely effective over time is revenue share. Instead of paying the fixed rate the advertiser will pay for what the lead is worth. An example can be seen in the payday loan sector, instead of the advertiser paying out a fixed rate, no matter the size of the loan, they pay an alternating rate.

Brands and advertisers are moving over to this efficient payment method as it is proven to be cost effective and a great way of building their brand. It is so popular in the industry as it ensures that publishers get the best out of their traffic and gives them an opportunity to optimise.

Why would an advertiser choose to pay a fixed rate to a publisher? They can choose to payout only what is a relative to the quality of the traffic instead and have a much greater return. By paying only what is relative to the value of the lead they allow their brand to be pushed by affiliates for a longer period, which builds the image of the brand due to more exposure to the public. Once someone uses a payday service they are much more likely to use that brand again as it is viewed as trustworthy. Most rev share models work on a variable CPL payout that can range massively e.g 20p-£60 which filters out publishers who are purely looking for the short term gains and leaves you with only the best quality traffic.

I understand that a lot of networks/publishers are wary of rev share offers due to their alternating payouts however there is no need to be. By running these offers you ensure that you are receiving an appropriate return on your traffic quality. You are also given a sense of security, as it is unlikely that an advertiser would ask you to pause on a rev share offer as they are paying out a relevant amount. If you were running a campaign that had a set payout of £25 and the traffic quality was poor then it would be stopped quite quickly, revenue share allows you to carry on running an offer whilst optimising the data.

As time goes on more and more brands will want to adopt this payout method, especially in the finance sector. Our entire short-term loan catalogue run on a rev share model and we have had nothing but positive feedback from our publishers who have chosen to run them. If you have an opted in finance database these offers will work perfectly with your traffic. They are performing at an incredible rate consistently across the platform.

It is becoming a very popular opinion that affiliate marketing is an easy, get rich quick scheme. That way of thinking benefits no one and with the revenue share model being adopted by a number of brands it is unequivocally wrong.

If you are new to affiliate marketing and you are thinking that this is your path to living on your own private island then I assure you, more research is needed. I do not mean that performance marketing doesn’t have a lot of potential to be lucrative but with revenue share becoming more and more popular, you need to ensure that your traffic is of good quality or your returns will not reach your high expectations.