Almost every brand owner once compared digital marketing vs affiliate marketing for their online business. Each approach delivers great results in different ways, so which is the better option?
The answer depends on your business models and purposes. Simply said, affiliate marketing is a part of digital marketing and they can be highly complementary.
Leveraging your brand presence on digital platforms requires personal hard work. On the other hand, you pay a revenue share for affiliates to promote on your behalf.
But before deciding to pursue a strategy, you must learn all of its features for effective application.
Digital Marketing vs Affiliate Marketing: A Quick Comparison
| Criteria | Digital Marketing | Affiliate Marketing |
| Definition | Digital marketing is a form of marketing where a business sells and markets its products on multiple online channels. | Affiliate marketing is a means of recruiting external partners to promote affiliate products and pay them commissions. |
| Potential reach | Most digital marketing techniques involve running advertisements to the target audience. This popular concept works for many devices. | Affiliate marketing helps reach broader audiences due to various affiliates’ audience bases, but not guaranteed to make more sales. |
| Knowledge-required | Requires knowledge of social media, search engine optimization (SEO), and analytics. | More beginner-friendly, with detailed instructions and integrated tools in most affiliate software. |
| Control level | Brand owners have complete control of how they run digital marketing campaigns and activities. | Brand owners control the affiliate marketing strategy, not how their partners promote the products. |
| Channels-involved | Common digital marketing channels include SEO, paid ads, social media, email marketing, and affiliate marketing. | Affiliate marketing involves similar channels but utilized by affiliates, not the merchants. |
Generally, a business uses digital marketing to self-promote its products and pays affiliates commissions to do the job. Despite being able to reach a broad audience on digital platforms, you can rely on your partners’ influence to connect with more.
Since merchants fully control their marketing initiatives, they must understand basic social media, SEO, and analytics knowledge. While affiliate marketing is easier to start, even for industry beginners.
One of the main things these methods have in common is the channels involved. Affiliate marketing uses similar online platforms to digital marketing, such as social media, paid ads, website blogs, etc.
Digital Marketing: Definition & Features
Definition of Terms
Digital marketing is a strategy where brands reach out to potential customers via various digital platforms like email, social media, and search engines. This practice is usually conducted by a marketing team due to its complexity and variety of channels. However, hiring a digital marketing consultant can help companies tailor strategies to target audiences effectively and enhance their online presence.
Their expertise can make a significant difference in navigating the ever-evolving digital landscape.
The business utilizes these online channels to promote its brands, products, or services. Its ultimate goal is to increase brand awareness and make sales.
This broad scope encompasses diverse tactics, including
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine marketing, or SEO, is a popular tactic involving the brand’s website and blog posts. It helps attract organic traffic by boosting blog articles to high search engine rankings.
An SEO-optimized homepage has frequently searched keywords in its niche.
When someone searches for a related query, your site will appear at the top of Google search results (or Bing, Yahoo). That ensures more people view your page and are motivated to make a purchase.
However, you must understand crucial SEO concepts to succeed at this tactic.
These elements include keyword research, backlinks, topic clusters, etc. They signify your brand’s authority, expertise, experience, and trust, affecting your search engine ranking.
During the process of building your site’s reputation and credibility, SEO’s impact will compound. Thus, you can generate more leads and sales with lower customer acquisition costs.
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
The pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model involves paid digital ad approaches on digital platforms. It often refers to search engine ads like Google Ads but also includes social media PPC.
With this method, online advertisers bid for more visibility on Google result pages. Every time users click on their ads, they pay a fee to this search engine.
Here is how PPC advertising works:
Advertisers bid on frequently searched keywords from their target audience. When people look for a keyword on Google, the results show a list of ads related to this search query.
The searched keyword will lead to display ads with the highest bids and quality scores. These scores represent how useful and relevant the ad is to this search query.
PPC can be an effective paid strategy for digital marketing vs affiliate marketing if used appropriately. Of course, paid media campaigns are cost-intensive but yield immediate results.
Social media marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing is an essential marketing channel to increase brand awareness and build customer relationships. Social media platforms are the best place to be more in tune with your audience’s feelings and opinions.
Note that each social channel works differently. Users will have certain expectations of the topics and content they view on that platform.
There are 2 common types: text-based and visually-heavy platforms.
TikTok and Instagram focus on distributing photos and videos, so users expect to see visual content when using these apps. Meanwhile, you will find more text content on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Applying SMM requires brand owners to understand what appeals to users on specific social platforms. That way, you can capture your audience’s attention and make them more receptive to your social selling.
Content marketing
Content marketing is the core of many online marketing strategies. This tactic involves planning, creating, and publishing content to attract target audiences.
Unlike SEO and PPC ads, which focus on particular keywords, content marketing requires a business to deliver value and establish trust with interested leads. This facilitates brand growth healthily, potentially turning customers into brand advocates.
Your content can educate viewers about your niche or bring them a solution addressing their pain points.
For instance. Struggling with greasy, flat hair during outdoor events? This pocket-sized dry shampoo product will be your instant savior!
Content marketing involves multiple digital channels, such as blog articles on websites, SMM, posts on online forums, etc. It even contains video marketing for video-based platforms.
When this practice works smoothly, it complements other digital marketing strategies. It helps guide your customers from the awareness level to the action stage.
Email marketing
Instead of researching effective keywords or posting content on social media, you use email marketing to connect with targeted buyers via email.
Do you know that it is one of the digital marketing mediums with the highest return on investment (ROI) rate?
This approach is the most personalized among these options.
It creates a sense of value and exclusivity for subscribers, making them more inclined to take the required action. Plus, it is highly effective to build strong relationships with customers.
First, you must collect a list of email addresses from prospective leads. This can be done via opt-in forms on your website.
Then, segment these people into different groups based on their specific interests. Some eCommerce stores group email subscribers based on their purchase history.
Segmenting your customer list enables the effectiveness of email marketing. Many email marketing software programs also help automate email campaigns for digital marketing vs affiliate marketing.
Influencer marketing (which can include affiliate marketing)
Influencer marketing is about partnering with influential individuals on social media. Most have considerable followings on one or more social channels to market your products.
These so-called influencers can be digital marketers, content creators, bloggers, YouTubers, etc. They are trusted voices in their niches, who people come to for advice and suggestions.
An influencer promotes your brand and products to their audience in exchange for a sale cut. This strategy provides them with a passive income while increasing your brand exposure, eventually resulting in leads or sales.
The main purpose of influencer marketing is to leverage the audience trust in an influencer.
Since influencers have already built this trust, customers will likely believe their recommendations. Thus, their marketing efforts will deliver powerful results in generating leads or raising brand awareness.
Moreover, this tactic can include affiliate marketing. These influencers can join your affiliate program for partnership in the long run.
Affiliate Marketing: Performance-Based Partnerships
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing solution where brands work with affiliates to promote their products or services.
These individuals will spend time and effort marketing your business to their audience. When someone makes a purchase, the affiliate earns a commission.
This can be done by promoting an affiliate link. Potential leads or customers click on these unique links and take the required action (buy, click, sign up, etc.) to count as a successful sale.
Many businesses now apply affiliate marketing due to its performance-based payout structure.
They only pay the partner when a transaction is completed. No need to spend extra on marketing campaigns that do not guarantee to make sales.
The final result does not always have to be a sale, though. Depending on your affiliate program request, affiliates can bring you prospective leads via opt-in forms.
That is probably the most significant difference between digital marketing vs affiliate marketing. An effective affiliate marketing strategy ensures you can boost revenue without wasting time and money on paid approaches.
There are 3 common types of affiliate marketing for your consideration:
- Unattached affiliate marketing:
This advertising model hires affiliates with no connection to the promoted product.
They do not have relevant expertise or skills in the niche. Therefore, they cannot make claims about or be an authority on its use.
This uninvolved form of marketing leverages the promotional aspect more than building customer trust. It may help increase brand awareness during a campaign but not in the long run.
- Related affiliate marketing:
In this case, the affiliate has some type of relationship to what they market. Generally, this connection is due to the product being in the affiliate’s niche.
They have enough expertise and influence to become a trusted source and generate traffic. Nonetheless, these affiliates do not make claims about using the product.
- Involved affiliate marketing:
This model forms a deeper connection between the affiliate and the marketed product.
They have experienced or are currently using the product, confidently sharing their feedback with others. These individuals are reliable sources of information and recommendations.
On the other hand, their reputation might be compromised by issues related to the offer.
Here are the key players in affiliate marketing: merchants and their affiliates.
Merchants (advertisers):
You are the brand owner. Your online business offers products or services in a particular niche.
You need to promote them to your target audience to generate sales and add to revenue. For that reason, you recruit affiliates to join your program.
Many merchants run affiliate programs via affiliate software like UpPromote, while others join a trusted affiliate network (CJ Affiliate, Awin, Rakuten Advertising, etc.). Either way, it is effective and convenient for affiliate management.
Each affiliate program differs in its policies, terms, and conditions. You must agree on these factors before collaborating with potential partners via the program.
Affiliates (publishers):
Affiliate marketers (or publishers) are individuals who provide marketing services in exchange for commissions.
They can have different professions, such as bloggers, website owners, email marketers, social media influencers, etc. But they may share the same goal of making money online by promoting affiliate products.
These people are responsible for marketing unique affiliate links to their audience. After a customer takes the required action via the links, you will pay them a revenue share.
You are free to choose the affiliate marketing type and partnership level for each campaign. Just ensure you recruit affiliates with decent followings and a positive reputation.
Key Differences Between Digital Marketing and Affiliate Marketing
Next, we will list crucial differences between affiliate marketing and digital marketing. As you compare their key factors, you can see which strategy better suits your future plans.
Focus and Control:
Applying digital marketing to a business requires implementing many strategies at once. The workload is heavier since brand owners must utilize digital marketing themselves.
Of course, the ultimate goal is to make sales. However, this approach also aims to achieve other objectives during the process.
Its core purpose is to raise brand awareness and increase audience engagement. This means your business needs to be recognized on a wide range of channels.
Consequently, digital marketing requires the use of various online platforms. The most common options are social media, blogging, and email campaigns.
The merchant decides on the general branding, including the messaging and brand value. Therefore, you have complete control over delivering these assets to your audience.
Note that you should follow the principle of audience reach to yield better results. Take a look at some helpful tips:
- Provide them with informational or educational content in the niche. When viewers find that your products bring them solutions, they are easier to sell.
- Collect demographic data via integrated tools or third-party services. Having a clear picture of potential customers helps you target them better.
- Nurture the customer relationship by reminding subscribers of your value. Be present with them throughout the entire journey, even post-purchase.
On the other hand, using affiliate marketing means you focus on driving leads or sales through partnerships.
Affiliates are the ones responsible for promoting your business and product. They do this on your behalf and, thus, have control over their marketing methods.
In fact, these publishers will use the same platforms as you do with digital marketing. The only difference is that those are their personal channels.
After receiving information about the affiliate product or service, affiliates start creating promotional content. They can be as creative as they like but must stick to the overall brand message.
For example, one likes to post basic text content on Facebook, while another prefers producing viral TikTok videos. They may even create a discussion on Quora as a means of promotion.
Whatever affiliates do, they must convey the same general idea about the brand value and what this business can offer customers.
By using unique marketing practices, your partners will attract traffic that is likely to purchase. As a result, you receive the desired leads or sales through others’ efforts.
Cost Structure:
In terms of cost structure, you will find this factor largely distinguishes digital marketing vs affiliate marketing.
As you market an online business, be ready to spend some crucial upfront costs.
The most basic expense you should pay for is paid advertising. Organic traffic is highly recommended, but merchants cannot profit much from this free source.
For that reason, you must boost your content to reach more targeted audiences. A sponsored Facebook post will always bring more leads and sales than organic ones.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is also popular among online brand owners. For instance, Google displays your ads, and you pay them a fee when users click on the links or banners.
Keep in mind that these users may not take your required action right away, which counts as sales. Still, you have to pay the platform for each ad click.
See how costly it might be from the beginning?
Here are some tips if you want to know how much to spend on digital marketing.
The answer varies by multiple factors, including your niche, goals, and target audience. However, spending about 5-10% of revenue on digital marketing is the general choice.
Of course, there is no fixed rate for a marketing budget.
Some brands may require over 10% of their revenue for this operation, while others can reach their goals by spending less.
Follow these steps to determine your digital marketing spending:
- Set your goals: What do you want to achieve from these efforts – raise brand awareness or drive leads and sales?
- Consider your niche: Some niches are more competitive than others, and promotion costs in the beauty and health niche will be higher.
- Analyze your target audience: Get to know the content type they like to engage with, their online habits, etc.
- Consider ROI: Track your performance to ensure your practices bring a positive ROI.
Given that digital marketing requires an initial budget, a lot of online businesses want to incorporate affiliate marketing into their plans. This performance-based model allows merchants to save a fortune from resultless marketing initiatives.
That is why utilizing affiliate marketing is a wise money-spending move.
Sure, affiliates can use paid approaches to maximize their efforts. But that is another story.
You needn’t pay for affiliate ads or other expenses they run themselves. Their job is to balance the commission earned from your partnership with their marketing spending.
Measurement and Attribution:
When you implement digital marketing for your brand, a single campaign requires extensive tracking and measurement. This is necessary to determine whether your tactics are performing well and make proper adjustments.
Imagine that your email marketing efforts have not been driving traffic. However, you only find out about that problem after a few months.
It is because you fail to keep close track of its performance. Had you followed up on how the strategy functions regularly, you could have figured out and addressed the issue sooner.
As a result, merchants must be highly aware of their digital marketing performance.
Assessing these vital metrics measures the effectiveness of your digital marketing initiatives:
- Click-through rate (CTR): Shows the effectiveness of your content in compelling visitors to click on a link or ad.
- Conversion rate: Measures the percentage of audiences taking the desired action after interacting with your offer, whether subscribing to a service or purchasing something.
- Return on investment (ROI): Quantifies how a marketing campaign profits by comparing your gains and costs while running it.
- User engagement: Tracks the level of involvement your audience has with your promotional content, ads, and links.
Nonetheless, affiliate marketing success is primarily measured by leads or sales generated via affiliate links.
You can set specific key performance indicators (KPIs) in the affiliate program to measure performance. For example, one should make at least 10 sales in the first month and 20 thereafter.
Of course, this is not obligatory for all program members. But they can strive for that goal to earn more and give you precise assessments.
This makes measuring the strategy much simpler than digital marketing.
Its effectiveness relies on how many leads or sales your partners successfully generate. The more, the better!
When to Use Each Strategy For Your Business?
You may wonder when the best time is to apply each marketing method to your business. First, you must determine your business goals to maximize the effectiveness of these methods.
As you can see, digital marketing is an overall solution for reaching multiple marketing goals. When an online business takes this initiative, it aims to leverage the brand in many aspects.
The most obvious goal is to make sales, which comes after a carefully crafted process of raising brand awareness. Your marketing team is the face of your business, delivering brand messages and value to potential customers.
Through these social platforms, you will generate leads and website traffic. Motivating them to visit your product pages already brings you one step closer to making a sale.
Plus, you will gain better customer engagement with digital marketing. Their regular interaction and interest in your content boost customer trust and loyalty.
At the same time, affiliate marketing benefits brands looking to expand their reach to a wider audience.
You choose qualified partners to promote the business and its product on your behalf. Consequently, you can reach their established audience without personally engaging in the process.
Leveraging available audiences can save you a lot of time when making sales. They see your affiliates as trusted voices and will likely follow their recommendations.
This strategy is also useful in helping you achieve performance-based marketing goals. You needn’t overspend your promotional budget since affiliates only earn commissions for successful results.
But before utilizing affiliate marketing, your brand must prove its credibility via solid digital marketing efforts. That is how you captivate quality affiliates for your program.
Integration and Collaboration for Each Type
Despite serving fairly different purposes, digital marketing vs affiliate marketing are complementary strategies. Affiliate marketing can definitely be a part of your overall strategies for digital channels.
When you initiate digital marketing, you put efforts into developing quality content, trusted social media accounts, and engaging email campaigns. Obviously, you can promote your affiliate program via these platforms.
The best way to apply this tactic is to include affiliate offers in your content marketing.
Social media offers plenty of promotion options. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc., each enables merchants to advertise their affiliate programs in different ways.
Attract potential partners by explaining your program’s value and benefits. Attach links to your sign-up page right in or below these media.
Same with promoting it in automated emails. Talk about how your affiliate offers can bring these people experience and money.
If they choose to collaborate, they can also leverage personal branding through reliable suggestions. Make them believe that it is clearly a wise choice for affiliate partnerships with your business.
Therefore, feel free to integrate affiliate deals into your digital marketing practices. They are the most effective mediums to spread the word about your affiliate program.
FAQs
- What makes more money than affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is an effective money-making method for merchants without a budget.
However, other strategies generate higher revenue than this. Digital marketing is an example.
When utilizing affiliate marketing, your success depends on the leads or sales others generate. But digital marketing enables you to yield results directly from your efforts.
- Do affiliate marketers really make money?
If affiliate marketers are prepared to invest time and effort, they can make money from affiliate marketing.
Affiliates barely earn millions of dollars from these partnerships.
But many of them are receiving a job replacement income. A lot more use affiliate marketing as a side job for extra money.
- Which one is better affiliate marketing or digital marketing?
Comparing digital marketing vs affiliate marketing for the better option depends on your business goals.
If you aim to raise brand awareness and build customer trust, digital marketing is the recommended solution. Its ultimate goal is still making sales.
Meanwhile, affiliate marketing focuses purely on generating leads and sales.
- Is there a downside to affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is highly advantageous for being newbie-friendly and low-cost. Nonetheless, every marketing method has some downsides.
You recruit others to promote the business and products for you. Obviously, it cannot yield immediate results like digital marketing.
Also, you must build a reliable brand image before initiating affiliate marketing.
Conclusion
So, what is your choice between digital marketing vs affiliate marketing to grow your business?
Digital marketing helps you master technical aspects to monitor multichannel campaigns, while affiliate marketing develops beneficial business relationships. Either way, they are effective approaches to boosting your online visibility and making sales.
The final decision depends on your goals and budget.
Just remember that affiliate marketing is a part of digital marketing. If you want to drive affiliate traffic to your pages, ensure your brand has built credibility to gain their trust.
All in all, both marketing methods will benefit your business in diverse ways.
