Have you ever wondered why there are so many websites and organizations who go out of their way to write reviews and give you the facts about a product or service? The chances are they are not doing it out of the goodness of their heart, for the betterment of the Internet or to objectively help in the purchase-making process of the average consumer.
你有没有想过为什么有那么多的网站和组织会不辞辛劳地给你写评论，告诉你关于某个产品或服务的事实？他们这样做的可能性并不是出于好心，也不是为了改善互联网，也不是为了客观地帮助普通消费者的购买过程。
What?… You mean these reviews have an ulterior motive? If we look closely, more than likely we will find that the review site is an affiliate of the brand which they are reviewing and they’re using the review to sell the product.
什么？你是说这些评论别有用心？如果我们仔细观察，我们很可能会发现评论网站是他们评论的品牌的附属网站，他们利用评论来销售产品。
Confused? Fear not, as this article will give a rundown of the history of affiliate marketing online, and outline the benefits of including affiliate marketing as part of your online marketing media mix.
困惑吗？不要害怕，因为这篇文章将给出一个联盟营销的历史纲要在线，并概述了包括联盟营销作为你的在线营销媒体组合的一部分的好处。
The Early Days of Affiliate Marketing
联盟营销的早期
It’s said that affiliate marketing began as a concept by William J. Tobin in the late 1980s where his company would drive traffic from consumers looking to send flowers to loved ones etc. In simple terms, he didn’t own a flower shop or distribution service, but he was able to put an arrangement and framework together which meant that he would be able to send interested consumers to other companies to buy flowers and he would earn a commission for the sale.
据说，联属营销最初是由威廉 · j · 托宾在20世纪80年代末提出的概念，当时他的公司将为那些想送花给爱人等的消费者带来流量。简而言之，他没有花店或者配送服务，但是他能够把一些安排和框架结合在一起，这意味着他能够把有兴趣的消费者送到其他公司去买花，并且他能够从销售中获得佣金。
While affiliate marketing has gotten more advanced and complicated in terms of audience profiling and communications, the basic premise of it remains the same. Affiliates send consumers to other brand websites and if the consumer purchases the product, the affiliate gets a commission in return for generating the sale.
虽然联盟营销在受众分析和沟通方面已经变得更加先进和复杂，但它的基本前提仍然是相同的。附属机构发送消费者到其他品牌网站，如果消费者购买产品，附属机构获得佣金，为产生销售回报。
As the effectiveness of affiliate marketing grew for both advertisers and affiliates, larger companies started to get on board with the idea. The most notable early adopter was Amazon, who launched their Associates Program in 1996. This program allowed anyone to sign up and put links to Amazon products on their website, these links were tagged up with identifiers and if a sale occurred as a result of the affiliate sending traffic to Amazon, the affiliate got a commission (and Amazon got a sale).
随着联盟营销对广告客户和分支机构的有效性不断提高，大公司开始接受这个想法。最著名的早期采用者是亚马逊，它在1996年推出了他们的联合项目。这个程序允许任何人注册，并在他们的网站上放置指向亚马逊产品的链接，这些链接都被标记为标识符，如果销售是由于附属公司向亚马逊发送流量而导致的，那么附属公司将获得佣金(亚马逊获得销售)。
The next major development in affiliate marketing happened in the late 1990s with the launch of two major affiliate networks, ClickBank and Commission Junction, which has since rebranded as CJ Affiliate by Conversant. Networks allowed small businesses, who might not have the resources to launch their own affiliate program, to get access to affiliates and use them to generate additional sales.
联盟营销的下一个重大发展发生在20世纪90年代后期，两个主要的联盟网络—- ClickBank 和 Commission Junction—- 随后被 Conversant 更名为 CJ Affiliate。网络允许小企业，谁可能没有资源推出自己的联盟计划，获得联盟和使用他们产生额外的销售。
Despite the fact that affiliate marketing has been around for some 30 years and has generated billions in revenue for some of the biggest brands, most people are still unsure what exactly it is. The next sections will look at the elements of an affiliate marketing program, and how they can be implemented and optimized, so you can consider using them as part of your marketing mix, or indeed becoming an affiliate yourself.
尽管联盟营销已经存在了大约30年，并为一些最大的品牌带来了数十亿美元的收入，但大多数人仍然不确定它到底是什么。接下来的章节将会介绍联盟营销计划的要素，以及如何实施和优化这些要素，这样你就可以考虑将它们作为营销组合的一部分，或者你自己也可以成为联盟营销的一员。
The Basic Elements of Affiliate Marketing
联盟营销的基本要素
For most affiliate programs, there are four stakeholders:
对于大多数联盟计划，有四个利益相关者:
1. The advertiser: This is the brand or company who wants to sell a product or service.
1. 广告客户: 这个品牌或公司想要销售产品或服务。
2. The affiliate or publisher*: The website that drives traffic to the advertiser’s website.
2. 附属网站或出版商 * : 为广告商网站带来流量的网站。
3. The affiliate network: In simple terms, this is the software that tracks traffic and sales.
3. 联盟网络: 简单来说，这是一个跟踪流量和销售的软件。
4. The consumer: The person who visits the affiliate’s website, clicks a link or banner and buys the product from the advertiser.
图4。消费者: 访问联盟网站、点击链接或横幅并从广告客户那里购买产品的人。
* It’s perfectly fine to say either affiliate or publisher when talking about the website that drives traffic to the advertiser’s website.
* 在谈论为广告客户网站带来流量的网站时，不管是联属公司还是出版商都没有问题。
How Do You Set Up an Affiliate Program?
你如何建立一个联盟计划？
While you can create your own purpose-built tracking software (if you have such a requirement, loads of cash to put into software development and time to sign up the affiliates), most often this isn’t the most efficient way to proceed. The best way to explain how to set up a program is to go through an affiliate network.
虽然你可以创建自己的专用跟踪软件(如果你有这样的需求，可以投入大量资金用于软件开发，也可以花时间注册子公司) ，但这通常不是最有效的方式。解释如何建立一个项目的最好方法是通过一个联盟网络。
Firstly, you need to choose what network you want to go with. This can be down to their fees, the type of affiliates they have on their books, creative/banner capabilities and how/when they pay out on commissions. Once you have decided on your network and opened an account, you must set up the terms for affiliates – in most cases your affiliate network account manager will help with this.
首先，你需要选择你想要的网络。这可能取决于他们的费用、他们账本上的附属公司类型、创意/横幅能力以及他们如何/何时支付佣金。一旦你决定了你的网络和开设帐户，你必须设置的条款分支机构-在大多数情况下，你的分支机构网络帐户经理将帮助这一点。
The terms of an affiliate program include things like the commissions paid for sales, the types of sales which are considered valid for commission, different commission rates for different products, your brand guidelines, and whether the affiliates can use your brand term in pay per click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic for people looking for your brand.
联盟计划的条款包括诸如销售佣金、被认为对佣金有效的销售类型、不同产品的不同佣金率、你的品牌指导方针，以及联盟是否可以使用你的品牌按点击付费(PPC)广告为寻找你的品牌的人带来流量。
Most advertisers don’t allow affiliates to brand bid in PPC because the advertiser won’t want to compete with affiliates for consumers who are already in the market for the brand. As a result, affiliates have to user clever ways to get traffic to their website in order to drive clicks to the advertiser’s site.
大多数广告客户不允许附属公司在 PPC 中投标，因为广告客户不想与附属公司竞争已经进入品牌市场的消费者。因此，分支机构必须用户聪明的方式获得流量到他们的网站，以驱动点击到广告客户的网站。
Affiliate marketing is most utilized in eCommerce as there is a simple payment methodology for the affiliates, as the transaction happens online and commissions are easily calculated.
联盟营销是最利用的电子商务，因为有一个简单的支付方法为附属公司，因为交易发生在网上和佣金很容易计算。
How Does an Affiliate Program Work?
联盟计划是如何运作的？
As an advertiser, now that you have a product to sell and there are a load of websites (affiliates) willing to send traffic your way, you need to be able to quantify the sales from the program and pay the affiliates for their efforts.
作为一个广告商，现在你有一个产品要销售，而且有很多网站(附属网站)愿意为你提供流量，你需要能够量化该计划的销售额，并为附属网站的努力付费。
Tracking the performance of a program is done by adding tracking parameters to the URL links on the affiliate’s website. These parameters are created automatically by the affiliate network and given to the affiliates – if the affiliates want to be paid for the sales they drive, the affiliate will add these tracking parameters to every URL on their website that links to your website.
跟踪一个程序的性能是通过添加跟踪参数的 URL 链接的会员公司的网站。这些参数由联盟网络自动创建并给予联盟——如果联盟想要为他们所推动的销售获得报酬，联盟将把这些跟踪参数添加到他们网站上链接到你的网站的每个 URL 中。
Similar to adding Google Analytics code, the advertiser must also add a tracking code or pixel (from the affiliate network) to the HTML of their website. This means that every time someone clicks a link, it is tracked by the affiliate’s URL tracking parameter talking to the pixel code on your website, and if a sale occurs on your website this sale is attributed to the affiliate as they drove the traffic.
与添加谷歌分析代码类似，广告客户还必须添加一个跟踪代码或像素(从附属网络)到他们的网站的 HTML。这意味着每次有人点击一个链接，它就会被代销商的 URL 跟踪参数跟踪到你网站上的像素代码，如果你的网站上发生了销售，这个销售就会被归因于代销商，因为他们带来了流量。
Furthermore, the value of the transaction is counted by the affiliate network and you will pay a commission on this to the affiliate. So if the terms of your affiliate program state that you will pay 2.2% of the value of the transaction to the affiliates, that is the commission you pay. This is what’s called cost per acquisition (CPA) pricing – you only pay affiliates if they generate a sale (unlike PPC where you have to pay for the click regardless of whether it generates a sale or not).
此外，交易的价值是由会员网络计算，你将支付的佣金，这对会员。因此，如果您的附属机构计划的条款规定，您将支付2.2% 的交易价值的附属机构，这是您支付的佣金。这就是所谓的每次收购成本(CPA)定价——你只有在附属公司产生销售时才付费(不像 PPC，不管是否产生销售，你都必须为点击付费)。
This pricing model is what makes affiliate marketing so attractive to advertisers. There is reduced risk on media spend as you are only paying when you sell something. The key is to understand what the optimum commission rate is to make the program profitable for the advertiser, and attractive for affiliates to want to work with the advertiser. Affiliates won’t want to give premium positions on their website to a product, or spend a lot of time and money writing reviews and creating content, for a program that doesn’t reward them for their efforts, so you have to make it worth their while.
这种定价模式使得联盟营销对广告商如此具有吸引力。这样可以降低媒体支出的风险，因为你只有在卖东西的时候才会付钱。关键是要了解什么是最佳的佣金率是使广告客户的计划有利可图，并吸引分支机构想要与广告客户合作。联营公司不会愿意在他们的网站上为一个产品提供高级职位，或者花费大量的时间和金钱来写评论和创建内容，因为这个项目不会奖励他们的努力，所以你必须让他们觉得值得。
How Do Affiliates Drive Traffic that Converts?
附属机构如何驱动流量转换？
We know that affiliates add tracking parameters to links on their website which can track sales and traffic that they have driven to the advertiser’s website, but why would people click those links in the first place? In most cases affiliates do things like write a review of a computer or game, then at the end of the article or review there is a link to buy the product.
我们知道分支机构在他们的网站链接上添加了跟踪参数，这些参数可以跟踪广告商网站的销售和流量，但是为什么人们首先要点击这些链接呢？在大多数情况下，子公司会做一些事情，比如写一篇关于电脑或游戏的评论，然后在文章或评论的最后有一个购买产品的链接。
Many of these reviews appear as lists, e.g. ‘Top 10 PC Buys for 2019’. So what appears to be a legitimate review can be geared towards driving sales of those products, and the more sales that occur the more commission the affiliate earns.
这些评论大多以列表的形式出现，比如“2019年 PC 十大购买排行榜”。因此，看似合理的审查可以用来推动这些产品的销售，销售额越大，附属公司赚取的佣金就越多。
Essentially, advertisers are borrowing some of the credibility of the affiliate’s brand to drive additional traffic which might convert. This is quite evident in the financial services and travel sectors. Destination review sites such as TripAdvisor, Kayak etc. get significant commissions from advertisers, so they write reviews about a destination, promote the review on their newsletter, social media or through organic search and will include links to hotels, transport, flights, insurance etc. within the review.
从本质上讲，广告客户借用了联盟品牌的一些可信度来驱动额外的流量，这些流量可能会被转化。这在金融服务业和旅游业中表现得相当明显。像 TripAdvisor、 Kayak 等目的地评论网站从广告商那里获得了丰厚的佣金，因此他们撰写关于目的地的评论，在他们的新闻通讯、社交媒体或通过有机搜索推广这些评论，并且在评论中包含酒店、交通、航班、保险等的链接。
This way, consumers get to have a third-party review of a product, service or destination, then hopefully they click through to the brand website and buy. In short, the consumer gets a view of something they are interested in which leads to a sale for the advertiser and a commission payment for the affiliate who helped push the consumer through the funnel.
通过这种方式，消费者可以对产品、服务或目的地进行第三方评论，然后希望他们点击品牌网站进行购买。简而言之，消费者可以看到他们感兴趣的东西，从而为广告商带来销售，并为帮助推动消费者通过渠道的附属公司带来佣金。
How to Optimize an Affiliate Program
如何优化一个附属计划
Advertisers can encourage affiliates to drive more traffic by offering higher percentage commissions, sometimes for short periods of time. This can be quite common during sale periods.
广告商可以通过提供更高比例的佣金(有时是短期佣金)来鼓励分销商增加流量。这在促销期间是很常见的。
If the affiliate knows they can earn more commission, they will place advertiser links in premium locations on their website and promote it harder using their own channels. All of this should encourage more sales for the advertiser.
如果广告联盟知道他们可以赚取更多的佣金，他们会把广告商的链接放在他们网站的高级位置，并更难使用自己的渠道进行推广。所有这些都应该鼓励广告商增加销售额。
It’s also possible to change creative banners which display on the affiliate websites. Many networks allow advertisers to upload their creative banners to the network and this will be served on the affiliate’s websites alongside reviews and other content. All of this can drive sales for the Advertiser and commissions for the affiliate.
它也可以改变创造性的横幅显示在联盟网站。许多网络允许广告商将他们的创意横幅上传到网络，这些横幅将与评论和其他内容一起提供给下属网站。所有这些都可以推动广告客户的销售和代销商的佣金。
Recent Developments in Affiliate Marketing
联盟营销的最新发展
The emergence of influencers has been a significant development in the world of affiliate marketing. Many of the links from influencers’ social accounts, newsletters and other sources will in fact be affiliate links. This is how the influencer gets paid for promoting a product. They create content, push their audience to buy the product, drive a click, so when a sale occurs it’s tracked using affiliate links and the influencer gets a commission.
影响者的出现是联盟营销世界的一个重大发展。许多来自有影响力的人的社会账户、时事通讯和其他来源的链接实际上是联盟链接。这就是影响者如何通过推广产品获得报酬的方式。他们创造内容，推动他们的观众购买产品，驱动点击，所以当一个销售发生它的跟踪使用会员链接和影响者得到一个佣金。
However, a game-changing development in affiliate marketing was the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by the EU in May 2018. Prior to this, affiliate networks had amassed very detailed persona data and profiles to drive sales for advertisers, but in an instant this technique was no longer as viable as pre-GDPR. Many of the networks have adapted to the change though.
然而，2018年5月，欧盟实施了《一般数据保护条例》(GDPR) ，这是联盟营销中一个改变游戏规则的发展。在此之前，联盟网络已经积累了非常详细的个人数据和个人资料，以推动广告客户的销售，但在一瞬间，这种技术不再是可行的前 gdpr。不过，许多电视网已经适应了这种变化。
Summary
摘要
Affiliate marketing is a useful channel to include in your media mix if you are an eCommerce advertiser. You can access thousands of affiliates who will drive traffic and sales for you using affiliate networks. It tends to represent 1%-5% of your overall eCommerce transactions, so it can drive incremental sales to your bottom line if done correctly.
联属营销是一个有用的渠道，包括在您的媒体组合，如果你是一个电子商务广告客户。你可以通过联盟网络访问成千上万的分支机构，他们将为你带来流量和销售。它往往代表1%-5% 的整体电子商务交易，所以它可以推动增量销售到您的底线，如果做得正确。
As it’s a commission-based payment system, there is a risk of fraud, i.e. affiliates sending through invalid sales which they expect to be paid for, however most networks are very good at identifying fraud and you won’t have to pay. It can be time-heavy in terms of managing creative and payments so it’s important to keep it as simple as possible to justify and understand the return on investment.
由于这是一个基于佣金的支付系统，存在欺诈的风险，也就是说，联营公司通过无效销售发送他们期望得到的报酬，但是大多数网络非常擅长识别欺诈，你不必支付。在管理创造性和支付方面，它可能是时间的重量，所以重要的是尽可能简单地证明和理解投资回报。
There are a lot of emerging opportunities for both advertisers and publishers (affiliates) as the dynamics of online commerce develops and people look to third party recommendations before purchasing across a variety of industry verticals.
随着在线电子商务的发展，以及人们在购买各种行业垂直市场产品之前寻求第三方的推荐，广告商和出版商(分支机构)都有许多新兴的机会。
(First published September 2019, updated August 2021)
(2019年9月首次出版，2021年8月更新)
