How much will Google ads cost me?

Everyone is asking this question today because Facebook posts’ organic reach has declined to 5.20%. Also, Instagram’s organic reach is 20%, which is just a small relief. 

But, overall, organic reach doesn’t hold that much power anymore. And to grow your business in 2022, paid Google ads are something that you need like your next breath. 

So, here if you are new to PPC and have no clue how much Google Ads will cost, you have landed on the right post. This article will walk you through different aspects of Google Ads like—

• How much do Google Ads exactly cost?
• Which factors affect Google Ads cost?
• How do Google Ads work?
• How are Google Ads costs calculated?
• How to reduce your Google Ads cost?

So, let’s buckle up, people, as we are about to board a Google Ads cost flight…

How Much Do Google Ads Cost?

To be honest, there’s no exact cost to run Google Ads. There are so many different variables contributing to a Google Ads cost that no one can predict the exact cost. 

Unless you define all your Google Ads variables, you can’t find the exact cost to run paid ads on Google. So, let’s go through each Google Ads cost contributing factor in detail. 

Industry 

The industry is one of the main factors that determine your cost per click (CPC) on Google Ads. Every industry has a different CPC rate, so you have to first check your industry rates and then calculate Google Ads. 

As per the Wordstream Google AdWords Industry Benchmarks for 2020, AdWords CPC across all industries is $2.67 on the search network and $0.63 on the display network. 

Source 

There’s no surprise that Google CPC rates are a bit higher. But “Lawyers” and “Attorney” are the top 10 most expensive keywords on Google. The legal industry is the costliest industry to run Google Ads for $6.75. 

So, if you are a lawyer or legal consultant, you have to spend big bucks on Google Ads to grow your business. That’s because lawyers charge high fees, so Google makes them shed a few bucks on ads. It’s all fair. 

In contrast, eCommerce platforms have to only pay $1.16 to run Google Ads due to heavy competition in the industry. 

All in all, your industry plays a significant role in determining your Google Ads cost. 

Geographical Location 

The geographic location of your targeted audience also adds up to your Google Ads costing. Mostly, countries with high living expenses have higher Google CPC. 

For example, the cost per click in the United States was $1.19 in 2020. On the contrary, Switzerland had $0.92 CPC at the same time. That’s simply because the cost of living is higher in the USA than in Switzerland. 

The cost is further influenced by the areas and industry. Running an ad in metropolitan cities will be more expensive than B tier or C tier cities globally. 

Also, the industry-wise Google keywords cost will change as per the location. For instance, the legal industry has a high CPC worldwide, but it ranks number three in the USA. The insurance sector wins in the USA. 

Source 

Device Type

On which device you plan to run Google Ads also impacts its cost. The mobile CPC rate is mostly cheaper than the desktop, as you can see in this image. 

Source 

As you can see, the average mobile CPC for a digital ad was $0.42, and a single desktop click cost $0.73 in 2019.  

Trends

Obviously, trending Google ad keywords will cost you more. This phenomenon is similar to traditional advertising, where publishing ads in popular newspapers or magazines will cost you higher. 

For example, during the pandemic, many industries have seen positive CPC growth and some negative. The apparel industry saw a huge increase because people started shopping online more compared to pre-COVID-19 time. 

Source 

Similarly, due to the global travel restrictions, people less preferred to travel these days, so the travel and tourism industry CPC went down. 

Source 

In short, running ads on trending keywords will cost you higher compared to non-trending keywords. 

Additional Costs

Besides these common Google Ads cost factors, many other costs impact your digital ad budget, such as:

• PPC Agency: To plan, monitor, and analyze your Google Ads, you need to hire a PPC agency. And this cost is not included in your Google Ads cost; you have to pay extra for service costs that vary from company to company. 
• PPC Management Software: Google Keywords Planner and Ads are free to use. But if you want to effectively manage your multiple ad campaigns, you might have to invest in other paid tools like WordStream, Shape, or Acquisio. 
• Ad Schedule: For how many hours you want to run Google Ads also impact its cost. Ideally, run ads for the time frame when your business is open, like 9 to 5. 
• Customer Cycle: The longer your customers reach the final decision-making process, the higher your CPC will be. 

How Do Google Ads Work?

As you have seen, calculating Google Ads cost isn’t at all an easy job. This is because there are so many factors that constantly change Google’s CPC rate. Thus, you should understand how Google Ads works to better calculate its cost. 

Google Ads functions like an auction system. 

How so? 

Well, let’s imagine you searched for the “best laptop” in the Google search bar. Now, Google will search if your query contains the keywords on which advertisers are bidding currently. 

If the advertisers are bidding on your query-based keywords, the auction begins. Google will next check each contender ads’ Ad Rank and determine where each ad will be placed in the paid results. For example, look at this search result for the “laptop” key phrase:

Here Dell’s ad is ranked above the Amazon ad because its Ad Rank is better. 

Google calculates Ad Rank for each ad by multiplying maximum bid to Quality Score. 

A maximum bid is the highest amount you are willing to pay for the click per cost to Google. 

Quality Score is a bit complex term for which Google considers many things, such as:

• Expected clickthrough rate (CTR): It is a projection that your ad will be clicked when shown.
• Ad relevance: It shows how closely your ad matches the user’s keywords intent. 
• Landing page experience: How much value your landing page offers to the users who click on it. 

How to Calculate Google Ads Cost?

As you now know how Google Ads work, you are ready to calculate the cost for each Google Ads campaign. Here’s the simple Google Ads cost formula:

Ad Rank x Quality Score + $0.01 = Ad Price

Source 

If you observe the image, you will notice that Advertiser 1 had spent less than Advertiser 4 and still had a higher position. And that is the magic of Quality Score, marketers. 

In a nutshell, if your ad’s quality isn’t up to the mark, no matter how much you spend on Google Ads, you will get no results. 

Therefore, you should focus on your ad relevance, user-friendliness, and keyword structure to improve your ad’s Quality Score without increasing your CPC. 

And this takes us to the final topic, “how to gain maximum ROI from your minimal Google Ads budget?”

Tips to Audit your Google Ads Budget 

Are your Google Ads campaigns draining out your bank account? Then, you don’t need to cut your Google Ads efforts. Instead, you simply need to audit your Google Ads budget and do some cost-cutting, such as:

Analysis your keywords 

First of all, take a look at your keywords report and find underperforming keywords. 

This way, you can allocate your money to the keywords that actually bring in sales. 

Google Keywords Planner can help you arrange the keywords by conversion costs. 

From here, you can observe the keywords that offer minimum and maximum conversions. So, you can use your Google Ads budget to target the high ROI keywords. 

Reduce your ad time 

As we all know, time is money. Google Ads also believes in this. So, if you are spending ten hours on ads, you can reduce it to half and free up tons of room in your budget. 

Suppose you run Google ads for your bakery, which is only open from 8 am to 5 pm. So, you should run ads for those hours only when your bakery is open. There’s no need to run an ad 24 hours when your business is only open for 9 hours. 

Reshuffle your budget 

Another solid way to generate maximum ROI from your Google Ads budget is to reshuffle your ad budget. 

If you are running ads on Facebook, Instagram, or other platforms simultaneously, analyze which platform offers you the maximum results. 

And then, simply spend most of your ad budget on that platform. 

This trick applies to all advertising platforms, not only Google Ads. 

Reduce spending on SaaS tools

Advertisers use numerous tools today to run digital ad campaigns, such as: 

• Keyword research tools 
• Performance monitoring tools 
• Social scheduling software, etc. 

In short, today, marketers use software for everything. Some of the popular marketing tools are Mailshake, Slack, Moz, MonsterInsights, and many more. 

Now, if you want to free up your budget, you can let go of non-essential tools or substitute them for free alternatives. Even if you free $50 in your budget, it is sufficient for Google Ads to bring some leads your way. 

Keep a Close Eye on Google Ads Cost

When exploring Google Ads like a platform, it is important to keep an eye on the money. 

With one wrong move, you can exhaust all your advertising budget in the blink of your eye. 

Therefore, calculate your Google Ads cost before launching an ad campaign. Further, you can allocate your budget to the high-performing keywords, locations and hire a professional PPC agency to help you out. 

All in all, first test Google Ads with a small budget and then gradually increase your spending. 

That’s it for now in this post! Now the floor is all yours. Create your Google Ads campaign and share your experience with us in the comments.

Nowadays, the first thing people do to search for their hotel is going online. They put a few keywords and start searching on Google.

So, if you own a hotel, you would want to appear on the Google search page.

And for that, you need to fine-tune your SEO game.

Just showing up on the search engine page is not enough. Your website should appear for the right keywords and rank as number one.

Do you know the average CTR on the first ranking website on Google is 31.7%?

So, it would be profitable to rank on the top of the Google search engine for every relevant search.

Therefore, you have to understand the basics of SEO and utilize it correctly.

Hotel SEO is not that difficult if you know how to do it right. However, if you are not that confident, you can always go for a digital marketing agency.

In this article, I will tell you all the things you should know about hotel SEO. If you follow the tricks step-by-step, you’ll start seeing impressive results within a short time.

But before we get into the SEO tactics, let’s understand SEO and its importance. 

What is SEO for Hotels?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a hotel website so that it ranks on the search engine pages. 

When you use hotel SEO, you can establish a good online presence and drive traffic to your website. When you get good traffic, you will get a high number of bookings. 

So, you should consider SEO as a part of your digital marketing strategy. 

If you can get that right, you can easily win over all your competitors. 

Why is Hotel SEO Important?

Whenever your potential customers search on Google, they get a long list of options. With SEO tricks, you can make your website appear in those lists. 

But here is the thing. People prefer clicking on a webpage that ranks first. So, it’s important that you get your website on top. 

Hotel SEO tactics will help you get that position. 

If your website doesn’t appear on the first page of Google, it will not get the required exposure and it will impact your business. 

In simple words, no SEO, no website traffic, and no bookings!

That’s the reason, you have to do optimization to stay in business. 

How to Perform Hotel SEO?

I have been working on hotel SEO for years now. I have found that only a few hotel SEO tricks work. So, I am mentioning them below.

Try to incorporate these into your SEO strategy to get the best results.

1. Understand Your Target Audience

Defining your target audience is the first step of hotel SEO. If you are in business for years now, you will have a good idea of the audience. But if you are starting new, you need to do a little research.

Through the audience research, you’ll understand the characteristics of people who are most likely to book a room at your place. While online, you should target using these characteristics.

These characteristics will be the backbone of your whole SEO strategy. You have to mold your content and targeting based on these.

For example, if you own a budget hotel, your audience will comprise solo travelers, backpackers, and more. So, when you do SEO for these people, you must use keywords that would attract them.

2. Do Proper Keyword Research

Your whole hotel SEO strategy works on keyword research. So, you need to use the audience information to determine the keywords for your website.

Now there are mainly two types of keywords – short tail keywords and long-tail keywords.

You need to focus on both these types.

Let’s say your hotel is in Cairo. So, here are a few possible keywords you can go for.

Source: Ubersuggest

When you start working on your website content, you should try to incorporate these keywords into it.

It will help your website to show up when people search for these keywords. However, you also need to use some keywords which are specific to your hotel.

For example, if your hotel is located near the Nile river (which is a tourist spot), you might want to add “Nile” in your keyword. So, your keyword will be “budget hotel in Cairo near the Nile.”

3. Work on the Page Title, Meta Description, and URL

When you are working on your hotel SEO, you should try to make things easier for the Google crawler.

You can do that by optimizing your website. Your website should give clear signals to the crawler about what it is about.

So, you need to tweak your webpage titles, meta description, and URL.

When Google shows up the results on the search engine page, it comes with the web title, meta description, and URL.

So, if all these things align with your keywords, it’ll help Google and your audience understand your website better.

Here is how a result is shown on the Google search engine page.

The webpage URL is mainly for the Google crawler. While your webpage title and meta description are for your audience.

Web Page URL

The URL is the address of your website’s page. You can use it to move to a specific page of your website. 

Here are some of the ways you can optimize URLs for SEO. 

• Separate the words in your URL using hyphens (dashes). 
• Avoid using any stop or connecting words (like is, with..)

Page Title

Page titles are the first thing your audience will see about your website. So you need to make them perfect. 

Here are a few tips to write an SEO-friendly page title:

• Try to include the primary keyword and make it short and easy.
• The page title length should be within 60 characters.

Meta Description

As it is the summarization of your article, people generally read this. To make it SEO-friendly, you should try to tell exactly what is in the article and use the primary keyword.

4. Optimize Your Web Content

Content plays a major role in SEO. So, you need to include content optimization in your hotel SEO strategy.

The content helps in two things – building authority and getting ranked.

Therefore, even if you have website content for your primary pages, you should try to upload blogs and articles as well.

These contents help in driving more traffic to your website.

For example, you can publish blogs on “10 things to do in Dubai” and add your hotel’s name and link to it. So, when the blog shows up for a search about Dubai, your brand will also get some exposure.

Source: Kerzner International Limited

However, I understand it is not easy to publish blogs and articles daily when running a business. So, what you can do is hire content writers for your website. They will help you deliver SEO content daily.

5. Add Alt Text to All Your Images on Your Website

When you have a hotel website, you will want to add more and more images of your hotel.

So, what if you can use these images to show up in Google searches?

Yes, you can also do SEO with your website images.

Since Google doesn’t understand images, you should add alt text to let Google know what’s in the picture.

When you add alt text to your website’s images, they will appear in the Google images. So, when one clicks on the image, they will open your website.

Therefore, SEO experts generally recommend optimizing all the images on the website. You never know for which photo you can get website traffic.

Source: Google

6. Arrange the Headings and Subheadings

Structured content is easier to read for Google and users. It helps to identify which parts are important and how the whole content is interconnected.

So, instead of writing flat texts, try to emphasize the headings by using the H1 or H2 tags.

There are different headings such as H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6. You have to use these to show Google the hierarchy of importance of the headings in your content.

Overall, using this will help you with your hotel SEO.

Source: National Geographic Society

7. Use Google Hotel Search

Adding Google Hotel Search to your hotel SEO strategy is a must. Google Hotel Search is specifically for hotels around the world. If you can get your hotel to rank on top here, you are bound to get a lot of traffic to your website.

As mentioned earlier, people generally use one way to search hotels online.

“Hotels in (name of the city, town, or vicinity).”

So, you need to ensure that you use these words. However, at the same time, Google Hotel Search emphasizes other characteristics like images, name of the hotel, price, and description.

So, when you use your Google My Business account, ensure that you have these details perfectly.

Getting on top of the hotel listings is not that easy, but if you follow the optimization tactics and get good ratings and reviews, you’ll surely get on top.

Once you are at position one, your hotel will get more visibility. Even if you cannot rank on the first page, ranking on the listing will help you get traffic.

Source: Google

Frequently Asked Questions About Hotel SEO

Q1. How do hotels do SEO for websites?

A. Here are five hotel SEO tactics to use:

• Write unique content with relevant keywords.
• Optimize page title and meta description.
• Ensure the page loads quickly.
• Make the hotel website mobile-friendly.
• Use keywords that will bring good traffic.

Q2. Why do you need to do optimization for hotel websites?

A. Optimization of hotel websites is important because it drives more traffic. Whenever there is huge traffic, hotels get a good number of leads and customers.

Q3. What is SEO in the hospitality industry?

A. SEO in the hospitality industry is all about making the website visible to a large number of people on search engines.

Q4. Is hotel SEO relevant in 2021?

A. Yes, hotel SEO is still relevant in 2021. Leading hotels of the world take the help of digital marketing agencies to do SEO for their website.

Q5. Is SEO legal?

A. Yes, SEO is very much legal. However, the key is to only go for white hat SEO tactics. If you use the black hat ones, Google may penalize your website.

Ready to Work on Your Hotel SEO?

In this digital era, more people are doing their hotel searches online. So, you need your hotel website to start appearing on relevant Google searches. But when there are so many hotel websites, it is not easy to rank high.

So, you should start using hotel SEO tactics.

At the same time, if you use Google My Business properly, you can appear in the right spots on Google.

So, include these tactics in your strategy and comment on how things go for you. 

Search advertising is booming. Big and small brands are investing in search engine ads for boosting sales and driving traffic.

It’s important that you know how to improve PPC or pay-per-click campaigns if you want to supercharge your lead generation.

Organic search marketing coupled with search ads can skyrocket your revenues within a short time.

Do you know businesses receive an average of $2 on every $1 spent on Google Ads?

When you look at the stats, it might seem profitable. You may feel like giving this a try (if you haven’t yet).

But hold up!

Search ads campaigns are not that simple. You need to learn how to get started. You need to understand how to improve PPC as you move ahead.

A PPC campaign without the proper strategy and foundation wouldn’t last long. You might even run into a loss.

So, you need to cook up a solid cost-per-click strategy first. It is the key to executing, planning, and optimizing your campaigns.

But before we get into the whole strategy stuff, let’s understand a bit about these ads.

What is PPC?

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet marketing model where the advertisers have to pay every time someone clicks their ads.

It is more like buying the visits on your website.

With more and more businesses making their online presence, it has become difficult to get ranked organically. Specially, small businesses that don’t have the time to wait for SEO strategies to work out.

So, they turn towards these ads.

The majority of the businesses go for search engine advertising.

Businesses mostly go for Google as it has 92.41% of the total global market share. However, Bing and Yahoo are also in line. But if your goal is to double your profits quickly, then selecting Google will be the right choice.

On Google, these advertising work on a bidding system. As an advertiser, you have to bid for the ad placement on the Google search page when someone searches a keyword.

For example, when you search the keyword “marketing automation software” you will find an ad by MoEngage on the search engine page.

Source: Google

Whenever someone clicks on this ad link on the SERP, MoEngage has to pay a nominal fee to Google.

But here is the thing, your fee will be nominal only when you do it correctly. If your website visitor doesn’t make any purchase through your website, then it’s a loss for you.

So, if you pay $3 for every click, you must earn 300 dollars from the sale too.

A lot goes into designing a successful advertising campaign. You have to use top-notch techniques, from researching keywords to organizing your campaigns. You will also have to work on your landing pages, so your visitors convert.

It is crucial from your campaign’s perspective, but search engines reward those who create relevant campaigns. They generally charge less on ad clicks as a reward.

You can learn how to create these ads easily. But you must read “how to improve PPC” blogs to get the most out of your campaigns.

Now, let’s focus on a few methods you can use to improve PPC campaigns.

1. Identify and Define your Goal

Every campaign needs a measurable and definite goal. It is the only way you can work towards optimizing the campaign.

This goal will become the backbone of the complete optimization process. It will help you create an accurate roadmap for PPC advertising.

Here are a few examples that will give you some idea:

• The campaign should get you 15 new leads per month using the website’s contact form.
• Have the cost per conversion less than $25 each.
• Track someone when he or she clicks on the ad and finishes with the lead form.
• Average visitors through PPC should spend more time on the website.
• Get more leads per keyword compared to organic search.

And more.

In this way, you can decide your PPC goal. It will be unique for every business.

2. Add High Performing Keywords

Keywords are the essentials of a good PPC campaign. If you can get the keywords right, you will surely achieve your goals.

If you already have an organic website SEO campaign running, you can check and verify the keywords.

Find the keywords that are helping your website gain the most clicks.

You can learn this through Google Analytics.

If this is the first time your website is live on Google, you can use the Google Keyword Planner. This tool is available on Google Ads.

With this planner, you can find out the high-performing keywords. Select the keywords that align with your target audience.

However, if you want to improve your PPC campaign, you will have to keep tweaking your keywords. Don’t stick to a single keyword for long. Always try to use new keywords and experiment.

Introducing new keywords will help you find the optimal keyword, and you can stick to that.

3. Optimize your Keyword Bids

After you find out your high-performing keywords, you have to create a list of negative keywords. This list will contain the keywords that you don’t want your ads to show up for. The next thing you have to focus on is bid optimization.

You’ll get a few bidding options to improve your campaign. However, what you’ll select will depend on your strategy and goal. So, it’s likely to vary from one campaign to another.

You have to set your budget before you get into bid management settings. Google Ad has several bid settings to chose from. The two basic ones are – manual bidding and automatic bidding.

Automatic bidding

If you are a newbie, I would suggest you go for this. When you use this option you are giving Google the driver’s wheel. Google Ads will adjust your CPCs based on where you are likely to get the most clicks.

When you opt for automatic bidding, you get different bid strategy settings.

Source: Google Ads Help

You can select these according to your goals.

When you have got the hang of the bidding system, you can start using manual bidding.

Manual bidding

When you are using this bidding method, you have the freedom to select your maximum cost-per-click (CPC). When you select this option, you have to start by setting your maximum CPC bid for your ad group.

However, you can also set the bid for individual placements or keywords. Let’s assume you have discovered a set of keywords that are bringing you more profit. With manual bidding, you can allocate your maximum ad budget to these keywords.

4. Schedule Time Wisely

As a marketer, you must know that showing ads at the right time can do the trick.

And Google Ads also knows that.

Your target audience gets active at a particular time. So, you can set the right ad at the right time using the schedule.

Suppose your customers are mostly business people, you might want to put the ad between 9-5. They will be on their systems specifically during these hours.

So, you can reach them easily.

Source: E2M

However, it is not that simple! When you are starting out or somewhere in between, you might want to run your ads 24/7.

Without it, you can only assume that your ads will work at certain times. However, if you run it 24/7, you will find the exact timings when your target customers will be clicking.

Try to run it for a longer duration, even if it costs more.

Once you have found out the correct timings, you can bid accordingly.

5. Plan Your Target Locations Carefully

Targeting location plays an essential role in making conversions. Google Ads knows whom to show according to the individual’s IP address or GPS location.

So, you can select the location according to your business. Let’s say you have a bread shop, then you might want to target customers living near your shop.

If your business is selling products nationally, you’ll have to select the whole country. However, it won’t be suitable for your business because the entire country may not be interested in your product.

You need to do market research to segregate your audience and find out the exact locations and interests. Then you have to select the same to reduce the radiuses around the location for ads.

Source: E2M

You should definitely strategize your location. But playing safe is not always the way to do marketing. Don’t be scared about expanding the target areas.

Perhaps you’ll find a new market for your business.

How to Improve PPC FAQ:-

Q1. How to improve PPC performance?

A. Here are a few techniques:

Refine your goal

• Use high-performance keywords
• Optimize the keyword quality
• Segregate negative keywords in a list
• Prepare compelling ad copy
• Use remarketing options
• Use ad extensions
• Optimize content for mobile users.

Q2. What makes a good PPC campaign?

A. You can judge your PPC campaign if it’s helping you achieve your goals. So, for example, your goal is to get ten leads per month. And you are getting about 5, then your PPC campaign is good.

Q3. How do I get my CPC down?

A. Here are a few ways to lower CPC:

• Use new keyword variants.
• Try to improve the quality score.
• Adjust locations, ad schedule, and devices.

Q4. What is PPC optimization?

A. Pay-per-click optimization is a process of analyzing and improving PPC campaigns. You can do it by updating landing pages, changing keyword bids, and re-designing ad copy.

Q5. How do I learn PPC advertising?

A. You can learn PPC advertising in two ways:

• By practically using it and learning by experience.
• By going for online courses on PPC.

Ready To Improve PPC Campaign for your Business?

Pay-per-click advertising may seem like a quick way to make conversions, but it takes planning and strategies. It is a short-cut way to increase your leads if you aren’t getting any organically.

However, many businesses use a combo of both to get all the top places on Google SERP. Getting organically ranked requires a good knowledge of SEO. However, PPC ads require bid optimization strategies.

You’ll have to bid for the right keywords, select location and time wisely, and improve your landing page. Landing pages must align with the campaign if your goal is to get more leads.

So, experiment with these methods and let us know if you find them useful.

It’s 2021. Working 9-to-5 every day in an office is turning old school. Everyone is finding a new source of income that can replace office hours.

Surprisingly, there are tons of passive income methods that you can try. However, recently affiliate marketing has taken over the world like a storm. It’s easy and doesn’t need any investment!

You simply need to know how to start affiliate marketing and grow it.

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll start earning your dollars without making much effort.

The best thing about affiliate marketing is that you can make money while sleeping as well. It’s a continuous earning process. If you get good at it, you’ll be earning much more than what you’ll earn from your regular office job.

That is the reason more and more people are either shifting completely to affiliate marketing or just doing it as a side hustle.

Statista says the US affiliate marketing spend is expected to reach 8.2 billion US dollars by 2022. So, it’s evident that this marketing method is only getting popular.

If you are still skeptical about affiliate marketing let me tell you in detail.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a passive method of income where you earn commission on recommending certain products or services. But only recommending won’t do. People must buy after getting a recommendation from you.

Source: Amazon

You’ll have to provide them a link or a code that they can use for purchasing the service or product.

When they’ll use the link or code, the vendor (product creator) will know that the customers are purchasing after hearing from you. So you’ll get your share of the commission for the promotion of the product.

But to get started you need to be part of an affiliate program. You must have a connection with a vendor. I’ll come to this later in this blog.

You must be thinking about whether doing affiliate marketing will be worth your time, right? So, here is the answer.

Why You Should Go for Affiliate Marketing in 2021?

Affiliate marketing has numerous benefits. I’ll mention a few. To enjoy these benefits all you need to know how to start affiliate marketing.

• Easy way of earning: You simply need to get a link or code from the merchant’s website. You can get that by signing up for any affiliate program. You’ll get your payment every time someone buys from your link or code.
• Work from home: You need to have access to the internet and an online audience. And you can get that right in your home.
• No investment: You don’t have to pay anything for joining an affiliate program. You have to select the products from the merchant’s website and you are good to go. You can start promoting through your channels.
• No experience required: Anyone on this earth can start affiliate marketing. Students, office goers, stay-at-home parents, elders, and more, whoever wants can start affiliate marketing. You need to know how to communicate, that’s it.
• No risk: Unlike other income ways, this doesn’t involve any risk. Since you are not investing anything there is no chance of losing.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing? (6 Steps)

Making your first dollar through affiliate marketing is simple. Most people use their channels which already consist of an audience. It may be a blog, YouTube channel, Instagram, or more.

If you already have an engaging audience, you are one step ahead. You simply need to follow the rest of the steps to start affiliate marketing.

Step 1: Create your channel

When I speak of channels I mean online platforms that you’ll use to share your affiliate links and codes. Most influencers start affiliate marketing with their blogs. They include the links by linking them throughout the blog.

So, when people read the blog they can click on them and visit the product page. However, it’s good if you mention before that the links you have shared are affiliates. You can share it as a disclosure on the top.

Source: Simpler Smarter Life

YouTubers and Instagrammers on the other hand share a code along with a link. Codes are easier to remember than the link. So, they use a code that is similar to their channel name.

It helps people remember.

These are codes that they can avail to get some discounts if the merchant allows. If you have a good number of subscribers and followers, you may get these special codes.

People are eager to buy when they find discount codes like these.

So, to start affiliate marketing, you need to have a channel or platform. If you don’t want to deal with a social media platform, you may also use messengers to share your links. However, it’ll be a difficult process.

When you share links with people, you have to tell each one of them about it. But when you are using a public platform like social media channels, you can share with a lot of people.

But the key is to build your audience through content and other marketing strategies. So, you have to learn that as well.

Step 2: Select an industry according to your niche

When you start affiliate marketing on your channel, you cannot randomly choose a product. The product should be something your audience wants.

Every influencer has a particular audience type according to the content.

For example, you are a book blogger. So, your audience will be interested in books. You can then share affiliate links for books, e-books, and more.

So, your merchant should be selling the products or services from your niche. Then only you’ll be able to share the right affiliate links.

So, take your time and find the right merchants. Also, most of the affiliate programs generally ask what content you share to get an idea about the audience.

Amazon affiliates program for instance has a section for you to select the product categories. But that’s because Amazon has thousands of product categories. It may not be possible when you are selecting other affiliate programs.

Source: Business 2 Community

Step 3: Research products that you want to review

When you find products from your niche, you have to narrow them down to a few products that you want to review. Your audience may not like all the products or services you review. So, you have to find out what they’ll like the most.

You may survey to learn what products or services your audience may be interested in. This will give you a clear idea about choosing the right product.

Suppose you are a tech guru having a YouTube channel with millions of followers. However, your content generally focuses on phones, laptops, and more. So, you can get affiliate links for these products from various merchants.

You may also get links for similar products such as accessories of phones and laptops. As your audience is interested in these products they will quickly buy a product when you share a link.

So, don’t forget to do surveys and research products. You can do that by randomly asking your audience in a Facebook or Instagram post.

Step 4: Sign up for an Affiliate Program

After you understand your niche and products that are likely to get more sales, you have to find the right merchant. You may search “Affiliate Program + your niche” on Google. You will get thousands of affiliate programs.

But if you are a beginner you might want to stick to the popular affiliate programs. Once you understand how it works you can narrow it down to a specific product affiliate program.

Here are some of the top affiliate programs you can sign up for:

• Amazon
• eBay
• Target
• BigCommerce
• Shopify

Step 5: Start creating content

Now that you have your affiliate program and products, you have to start promoting them. If you own a YouTube channel you can make a short video discussing the properties of the product. In case you own a blog, you can share the details along with the link.

Similarly, you can mold your content according to the platform you are using. But the key is to recommend your audience. You can say the positives about the products and services in your content.

But don’t forget to inform your audience that it’s an affiliate product or service.

You can create tutorials, review posts, emails, and more to share your affiliate links.

Step 6: Start optimizing

You cannot simply create content for sharing your affiliate link and wait for a hike in sales. You also have to work behind promoting that content. The more the people see it, the better are your chances for a sale.

So, if you are sharing your affiliate links through a blog do SEO and try to get it to rank higher. If it’s a social media post, use the right hashtags to boost it further. Similarly, you have to learn the different optimization techniques to make the content go viral.

When a lot of people will interact with your content, your affiliate links will get more clicks and buys. This will give you the hike in your passive income which you were dreaming of.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing (FAQ)

Q1. How does an affiliate program work?

A. The affiliate program allows users to sign up and get their affiliate codes and links for sharing. They give you the option to select the products you wish to recommend. Then they provide the links which you can use to share with your audience.

When the audience purchases from your affiliate link, you earn your commission.

Q2. What are the highest-paying affiliate programs?

A. These are some of the top paying affiliate programs in 2021:

• Bluehost
• Hostinger
• Cloudways
• WP Engine

And more.

Q3. Do I have to pay to become an affiliate?

A. No, you don’t need to invest anything to join an affiliate program. These programs are free to sign up.  Anyone using the internet can sign up and get started.

Q4. Where can I post affiliate links for free?

A. Several websites allow free promotion of affiliate links. Some of them are:

• USNetAds
• ClassifedAds.com
• Classifieds For Free

Q5. Can affiliate marketing make you rich?

A. You can get rich with affiliate marketing only if you are persistent and have the zeal to work hard. With affiliate marketing, it’s never the same day. You may earn $300 a day and the next day only $20.

But you have to stick to it and optimize your channels where you are sharing your affiliate links.

Ready to Start Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the best passive income methods to try in 2021. You can do this full-time or as a side hustle. But you may have to be patient for a long time.

You cannot expect instant income with affiliate marketing. As a beginner, you may have to see a lot of $0 earned per day. But if you remain persistent and don’t lose hope there are good days also.

If you are using social media channels to share your affiliate links, then you can do optimization. Similarly, if you share your links on blogs, you can use SEO and link-building methods to gain more traffic.

Users will purchase through your affiliate links which will hike your commission. So, follow the mentioned steps and let us know your journey down in the comment box.