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I’ll be the first to say it: I don’t know what I’d do without my phone. It’s replaced everything from my alarm clock to my GPS, and I can’t imagine how I functioned before I had it.
While this can become an issue in my day-to-day life, the good news is, I’m not alone in my reliance on my cellular device. As marketers, it’s a safe bet to say our target audience is also spending quite a bit of time on theirs.
This means, if we want success, we need to find a way to reach people on their phones. Enter mobile affiliate marketing!
There are countless potential partners who already have a loyal following on social media and other mobile platforms that your company can tap into with a mobile affiliate marketing campaign.
These influencers and content creators understand their audience and know how to get them invested in your products and services. When you focus on this mobile marketplace, meaning you optimize your campaigns for mobile, work with mobile-friendly advertisers, and create mobile-specific content, you tap into that wealth of knowledge.
But it’s not as simple as that. There’s a lot I’ve learned about going mobile in my years in marketing. This is my full guide with everything your marketing needs to know to jump into the digital age.
Types of Mobile Affiliate Marketing
The internet is vast - shocking, I know. For every deep dark corner of the internet that exists, there’s a unique way to reach it.
Mobile affiliate marketing can come in tons of forms, depending on what you’re trying to sell and what your goal is for the campaign. The more specific you get, the better your affiliates will be at finding the particular part of the internet that houses your ideal customer.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the most popular and effective strategies for mobile affiliate marketing.
Pay-Per-Install
If you're trying to get more exposure for your app or software, offering affiliates a pay-per-install setup can get the traction you're looking for. Affiliates who promote apps and software usually use their own networks to increase downloads, but they’ll only do so if the incentive is right.
They may already have a going rate for their network, depending on how well-known they are in their niche. The more downloads they can get for you, the better the cut of the profit that they get.
App Subscription
For companies that use app-based subscriptions for their products or services, a good way to get affiliates on board is to offer a recurring commission for every subscription that comes from their mobile campaigns.
That way, you’ll only have to pay out when people actually sign up for your service, so every invested dollar goes further. You’ll also have the added incentive for new leads to follow through if you offer a discounted subscription price for those who come from the affiliate link.
Like the pay-per-install model, this requires some extensive tracking on your part. Having referral software in your corner like ReferralHero ensures that each affiliate is properly compensated, and takes a lot of the stress away from the campaign.
Pay-Per-Action
This model works well for affiliate campaigns where you're moving people toward a landing page or website rather than an app. It requires a full understanding of your sales funnel and how you can encourage people down it.
In this setup, the affiliate will only get paid if the user takes a certain action, such as filling out a form or clicking a link, that moves them further down the sales funnel. It’s a great way to reward affiliates for driving high-quality leads who take some kind of next step in the sales process.
Affiliate Marketing Platforms
Affiliate marketing has been around for a while, so it makes sense that there’s a hub for affiliates and brands to connect with one another. In fact - there are quite a few hubs.
When you sign up with one of these platforms, you can easily find affiliates depending on your needs. They’ll present their portfolio, and you can decide which ones fit your campaign perfectly.
This can cut down on a lot of the leg work, but it also means you’ll be competing with other brands for the attention of the top affiliates in your niche.
Strategies for Successful Mobile Affiliate Marketing
The difference between a successful mobile marketing campaign and a failure may seem like luck and timing, but there's a bit more to it than that.
I've been able to hone my skills as an affiliate marketer, and I want to pass those tips and tricks on to you.
Tip One: Know Your Goals
Before you begin, it’s vital to know what it is you want out of your mobile marketing campaign. More specifically, you need to define what “success” in the campaign looks like.
- Some potential goals beyond attracting more leads are:
- Increased brand recognition
- Increased traffic to your website (and conversions on said traffic)
- Increasing the visibility of your product
- Lowering your cost per lead
- Meeting specific revenue targets
Placing these goals before you launch keeps you on track throughout the campaign - and, more importantly, helps you optimize the campaign down the line.
Tip Two: Target Specific Mobile Platforms
One mistake that both new and experienced affiliate marketers make is trying to run everything from the same place. Not all affiliates are going to be interested in all platforms, so why push them to?
That being said, targeting the right platforms can mean the difference between an awesome success and what feels like a wasted campaign.
For example, we all know that older generations are hanging out on Facebook, Instagram is catnip to millennials, and TikTok has Gen Z in a chokehold. These may feel like funny stereotypes, but they’re grounded in facts.
If you’re a little lost on where your ideal customers might be hiding, don’t hesitate to ask your affiliates. Many of them will already have active audiences across multiple platforms and will know exactly what rabbit holes your campaign should follow.
Tip Three: Choose The Right Affiliates
This ties into understanding your target audience, but when you're relying on affiliates to drive traffic, it pays to pick your partners carefully.
You might have a list of influencers you particularly enjoy, and chances are you like them because they care about things you care about. If you can utilize that level of care and transform it into interest in your brand, you’ll be rolling.
You can filter affiliates by how their campaigns line up with yours, how their platforms fit with your target audience, and how much they charge for their services. That might mean going through a few profiles to find the ones that make the most sense for your campaign, but that will be time well spent.
Don’t be scared of trial and error. If you see that a particular affiliate is under or overperforming, you can use that information to hone in on the type of person you’re looking to work with.
Maybe your audience is more invested in comedy than day-in-the-life style content. This is going to shape the influencers and affiliates you reach out to in the future.
Tip Four: Create Engaging Mobile Ad Content
Having some form of ad copy or fully fleshed-out ads for your affiliates to use is a great way to establish a brand identity across collaborations. Make sure they’re eye-catching, snazzy, and encourage engagement.
The average user spends nearly five hours a day on their phone. This endless stream of data may seem impossible to stand out in, but if you take the time to hone your content and work with your affiliates, it is possible.
Talk to your affiliates about what works best for their platform, and make sure your content reflects where it’s going to be placed. People want to be entertained. Get them thinking about your product after they scroll, and you’ll be well on your way to making a sale.
Tip Five: Data Data Data
At its core, mobile affiliate marketing is a drive for digitization. Talk about this kind of shift can have more buzzwords than a bee hive, but there’s a reason that terms like digital transformation and data-driven decision-making stick around.
Before you dive too far into any campaign, you want to ensure you have a way to keep track of all the leads coming in and who exactly sent them there.
This doesn’t only help you properly compensate your affiliates, but it also lets you see what kind of tactics, brand placement, and copywriting are bringing in the most amount of business.
If you’re using the right tracking technology like ReferralHero, you can even determine which domains are most successful at conversions, which ads within the campaigns pull in the most leads, and so on.
All of this information can be utilized to refine your mobile affiliate marketing strategies.
The Bottom Line
Phones are powerful tools, and understanding how our customers engage with them can make a huge difference in any marketing effort. Having the right partnerships, affiliates, and tools can launch your product into orbit, carrying a crazy amount of leads with it.
Mobile affiliate marketing is one of the best strategies to take advantage of the sheer potential phones have in terms of audience reachability and sales growth. The potentials are limitless, and it’s up to you to grab on and ride that potential to the stars.
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