Influencer Marketing VS Affiliate Marketing

Sinds 2017 is de affiliate marketing-industrie met meer dan 83% gegroeid en wordt verwacht dat deze tegen 2030 een wereldwijde waarde van $40 miljard bereikt. Evenzo wordt de influencer marketing-industrie momenteel gewaardeerd op $24 miljard.

Traditionele reclame werkt niet meer zo goed als vroeger. Het aankoopgedrag van consumenten is verschoven, en velen nemen nu beslissingen op basis van aanbevelingen van influencers en sociale media.

Zowel affiliate marketing als influencer marketing hebben aanzienlijk de verkoop en conversies voor e-commerce- en DTC-merken vergroot.

Maar welke aanpak is geschikt voor uw bedrijf?

In dit artikel verkennen we de belangrijkste verschillen tussen affiliate marketing en influencer marketing om u te helpen de strategie te kiezen die uw ROI maximaliseert en groei stimuleert.

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Wat is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is een vorm van social media marketing die ondersteuning en productplaatsingen van influencers omvat—individuen die een grote en toegewijde volgersbasis hebben op sociale mediaplatforms.

Deze influencers maken en delen inhoud die een merk, product of service promoot, gebruikmakend van hun vertrouwen en relatie met hun publiek om betrokkenheid, merkbekendheid en verkoop aan te drijven. Deze strategie concentreert zich op authenticiteit en organische promotie om effectief doelgroepen te bereiken.

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Waarom Influencer Marketing gebruiken?

De influencer marketing-industrie groeit snel. Dit zijn de belangrijkste voordelen van influencer marketing voor uw bedrijf:

1. Bouwt Vertrouwen en Geloofwaardigheid

Influencers hebben vaak sterke relaties met hun volgers, die hen zien als authentieke en relatable figuren. Dit is waarom meer dan 69% van de consumenten de productaanbevelingen van influencers vertrouwt.

Door samen te werken met een influencer kunt u meer vertrouwen en geloofwaardigheid in uw merk opbouwen, omdat het wordt aanbevolen door iemand die zij bewonderen en vertrouwen. Deze dynamiek kan leiden tot verhoogde merktrouw en een grotere kans op conversie, omdat consumenten zich persoonlijk verbonden voelen met de aanbeveling.

2. Het is Rendabel

Influencer marketing is doorgaans rendabeler dan traditionele reclame en biedt een hogere ROI. Gegevens tonen aan dat bedrijven $6,50 verdienen voor elke $1 die zij besteden aan influencer marketing. En 3% verdient $20 of meer.

Merken kunnen met influencers van verschillende formaten samenwerken om aan verschillende budgetbeperkingen te voldoen en tegelijkertijd impactvolle resultaten te bereiken.

3. Kwaliteitsklanten

Het genereren van conversies is een van de belangrijkste redenen waarom merken influencer marketing als hun belangrijkste strategie gebruiken. Meer dan 51% van de marketeers zeggen dat influencer marketing hun hielp betere klanten te verwerven.

De reden hiervan is dat u door met influencers samen te werken uw gewenste demografie nauwkeurig kunt richten. Dit zorgt ervoor dat de inspanningen de meest relevante doelgroep bereiken.

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Wat is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is een op prestaties gebaseerde strategie waarbij affiliates, meestal bloggers, influencers of website-eigenaren, producten of diensten van een bedrijf promoten via unieke traceerlinks.

Affiliates verdienen een provisie voor elke verkoop, lead of actie die via hun promotie-inspanningen wordt gegenereerd. Deze methode is gebaseerd op meetbare resultaten en stimuleert affiliates om gericht verkeer en conversies aan te drijven, waardoor het een kosteneffectieve manier voor merken is om een groter publiek te bereiken.

Waarom Affiliate Marketing gebruiken?

Affiliate marketing wordt snel een van de meest effectieve strategieën voor merken om conversies te stimuleren. Hier zijn de belangrijkste voordelen van affiliate marketing:

1. Lager risico

Affiliate marketing genereert ongeveer 16% van de eCommerce-verkoop in de VS en Canada en wordt door meer dan 80% van adverteerders gebruikt. Een van de belangrijkste redenen is dat affiliate marketing werkt volgens een prestatiegebaseerd model waarbij merken alleen betalen voor daadwerkelijke conversies, zoals verkopen of leads.

Merken betalen niet voor impressies of klikken; provisie wordt betaald wanneer een influencer een verkoop heeft gerealiseerd.

2. Verhoogde merkbekendheid

Volgens Forbes gebruiken 83% van marketeers affiliate marketing-programma's om merkbekendheid te stimuleren.

Door samen te werken met affiliates die hun eigen gevestigde doelgroepen hebben, kunnen merken hun bereik uitbreiden naar nieuwe en diverse klantsegmenten. Deze uitgebreide zichtbaarheid kan leiden tot verhoogde merkbekendheid en meer verkeer naar de website van het merk.

3. Gemakkelijk te implementeren

Affiliate marketing is eenvoudig te implementeren en vereist geen uitgebreide middelen. De belangrijkste stap is het opzetten van een systeem voor het genereren van unieke URL's voor elke affiliate, zodat het volgen van conversies de primaire taak wordt.

Hiervoor kunt u platforms zoals Influencer Hero gebruiken om gemakkelijk uw affiliate-programma voor influencers op te bouwen om topperformers te belonen. Met de affiliate marketing-integraties voor influencers kunt u affiliate-links en kortingscodes maken en uitbetalingen verwerken.

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Influencer Marketing versus Affiliate Marketing: Belangrijkste verschillen

Het belangrijkste verschil tussen influencer en affiliate marketing is dat influencer marketing verwijst naar het algemene marketingproces van samenwerking met influencers, terwijl affiliate marketing het technische proces is dat wordt gebruikt om prestaties bij te houden op basis waarvan de influencer wordt gecompenseerd.

In wezen kan affiliate marketing worden gezien als een onderdeel van influencer marketing, gericht specifiek op prestatietracking en compensatie, concepten die veel worden onderzocht in gestructureerde digitale marketingcursussen.

Laten we de belangrijkste elementen van beide benaderingen verkennen.

Tools

Influencer marketing maakt gebruik van verschillende tools voor contentcreatie, publieksengagement en relatiebeheer. Deze tools helpen bij het creëren van specifieke soorten content en het geven van creatieve richtlijnen aan influencers.

Affiliate marketing daarentegen is meer afhankelijk van tracking- en analysetools zoals Awin of Refersion om klikken, conversies en algehele campagneprestaties te controleren.

Tracking

Trackmechanismen verschillen aanzienlijk tussen de twee.

Bij influencer marketing is het belangrijk om metrische gegevens zoals bereik, engagement en merksentiment bij te houden, hoewel dit meer kwalitatief en minder nauwkeurig kan zijn.

Affiliate marketing daarentegen is sterk gegevensgestuurd, met duidelijke metrische gegevens over verkopen, leads en andere directe resultaten, waardoor de ROI-berekening eenvoudiger is.

Metrische gegevens

De metrische gegevens die worden gebruikt om succes te meten, verschillen ook. Influencer marketing kijkt naar bredere metrische gegevens zoals merkbekendheid, sociale bewijs en creatieve kwaliteit.

Affiliate marketing concentreert zich op precieze prestatiegegevens zoals kosten per klik (CPC), kosten per aankoop (CPA) en algehele conversiepercentages.

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Voor- en nadelen van Affiliate en Influencer Marketing  

Wanneer we influencer marketing en affiliate marketing vergelijken als afzonderlijke marketingstrategieën, verwijzen we naar het meer traditionele affiliate marketing-model waarbij merken zich kunnen aanmelden op platforms zoals Awin of Refersion VERSUS influencer marketing als geheel.

Cost Comparison: Influencer Marketing vs Affiliate Marketing

Influencer marketing costs can vary significantly based on several factors, including the influencer’s reach, engagement rate, niche, and platform. Typically, costs are categorized as follows:

1. Nano-Influencers (1K-10K followers): Costs range from $50 to $500 per post.
2. Micro-Influencers (10K-100K followers): Costs range from $500 to $5,000 per post.
3. Macro-Influencers (100K-500K followers): Costs range from $5,000 to $20,000 per post.
4. Mega-Influencers (500K+ followers): Costs can exceed $20,000 per post.

Besides the fee for individual posts, you may also incur costs for additional content creation, long-term partnerships, giveaways, and promotional campaigns.

Influencer marketing often involves upfront payments or fixed fees, making it key to asses the ROI carefully.

Affiliate Marketing Costs

Affiliate marketing operates on a performance-based model, meaning costs are primarily incurred when a desired action, such as a sale or lead, is completed. These are its most common structures:

1. Cost Per Sale (CPS): A commission is paid to affiliates for each sale generated. Commission rates can range from 5% to 30% of the sale value, depending on the industry and product.
2. Cost Per Lead (CPL): Affiliates are paid for each lead generated. This could be a fixed amount, typically ranging from $1 to $50 per lead.
3. Cost Per Click (CPC): Affiliates earn money for each click they generate, usually a few cents to a few dollars per click.

Since affiliate marketing costs are directly tied to performance, it offers a lower-risk alternative for businesses, allowing them to pay only for measurable results. This model also makes budgeting more predictable, as costs scale with the volume of successful transactions.

Additional Considerations

When deciding between influencer marketing and affiliate marketing, keep in mind:

Budget Flexibility: Influencer marketing may require a higher upfront investment, while affiliate marketing offers more flexibility with its performance-based model.

Measurement of ROI: Influencer marketing ROI can be more challenging to measure, as it encompasses brand awareness and engagement, whereas affiliate marketing provides clear, quantifiable results.

Brand Goals: If your goal is to build brand awareness and reach a specific audience, influencer marketing might be more effective. For driving direct sales and measurable actions, affiliate marketing is often more suitable.

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Success Stories of Brands Using Influencer Marketing

1. Dyson

Dyson is a British technology company renowned for its innovative home appliances, including vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, and hand dryers.

For one of its campaigns, the company collaborated with five pet influencers, primarily targeting dog owners. The influencers were given creative freedom, with the only guideline being to showcase how pet owners clean up after their pets.

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The results? Dyson had over 1 million views, 115,000 likes and a 10% engagement rate across their campaign.

2. Daniel Wellington

Daniel Wellington is a well-known watch brand that has been leveraging partnerships with influencers, including both macro and micro influencers.

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These influencers showcase the brand’s watches in their everyday lives, helping to build a more authentic connection with their audiences. Additionally, they have creative freedom to produce content that feels genuine and aligned with their personal style.

Whitin just 3 years, the brand sold over $228M in watches, or 1 million watches - this all due to their influencer marketing campaigns. Additionally their UGC campaigns became so popular that influencers started using the hashtag #DWpickoftheday to try to get featured on the brand’s official profile.

3. Bloom

Bloom, a company specializing in plant-based beauty products, partnered with influencers who aligned with their brand values and target demographic. Influencers were chosen for their strong engagement rates and authentic connection with their followers.

The campaign involved influencers creating content that highlighted Bloom’s products in everyday beauty routines. This included detailed product reviews, tutorials, and personal testimonials to showcase the benefits and effectiveness of the products.

One the day of their product launch on Amazon, they partnered with more influencers who redirected people to the Amazon store.

The results? The campaign had 5.5 million views, a $1.47 CMP, and the Bloom product became an Amazon best seller.

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Success Stories of Brands Using Affiliate Marketing

1. Amazon

Amazon’s Affiliate Program, known as Amazon Associates, is a prime example of successful affiliate marketing.

By offering affiliates a commission (1-20%)  for driving sales through their referral links, Amazon has expanded its reach and grown its customer base significantly, contributing to its dominance in the e-commerce space.

2. Gymshark

Gymshark’s affiliate marketing program is designed to leverage influencers and affiliates to drive traffic and sales. Affiliates are provided with unique tracking links and promotional materials to help them promote Gym Shark’s products.

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The affiliate marketing strategy has contributed to significant growth for Gymshark, driving substantial traffic to their website and increasing sales.

3. Adobe

Adobe’s affiliate program effectively targeted creatives and tech enthusiasts through partnerships with bloggers and industry experts. This approach resulted in increased software sales and a broader reach for Adobe’s suite of products.

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Platforms Comparison: Traditional Affiliate Marketing Platforms vs Influencer Marketing Platforms

Traditional affiliate marketing platforms are marketplaces which connect brands and advertisers with publishers. As a brand you can sign up on these platforms through which you will be included in their marketplace.

Publishers can then find you on these platforms, see how much affiliate commission you offer and start creating content and publish articles around your product or service using a personal affiliate link to start earning commission. Examples of these affiliate marketing platforms are Awin and Refersion. 

Influencer marketing platforms on the other hand offer a more proactive approach enabling brands to source through a database of influencers and publishers and then contact these influencers for a partnership. These platforms are often structured to effectively manage these relationships and other aspects related to social media influencers like capturing the content and sending products.

Examples of such influencer marketing platforms are Influencer Hero, Grin or CreatorIQ.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing leverages advanced technologies to track referrals and ensure affiliates are accurately compensated for their promotional efforts. This seamless process involves several key technologies working in harmony.

Tracking Links

‍Unique URLs generated for each affiliate to monitor their referrals. In most cases the link adds UTM parameters (Urchin Tracking Module) through which the conversion event can be tracked. 

Cookies

‍Small data files placed in a user's browser to record referral details and track user actions. Cookies allow advertisers to track conversion events even if the conversion event occurs at a later point. This happens for example if a prospective customer clicks on the affiliate link and looks at the website but doesn’t purchase right away. A couple of days later they complete the purchase. In that case the cookie saved in their browser is able to pass over the UTM (which is saved through the cookie) and the conversion can still be attributed to the respective affiliate / influencer.

Voucher / discount codes

‍Besides tracking links, personalized voucher / discount codes can be an effective way to increase attribution in affiliate marketing (more on attribution later). Each affiliate / influencer gets their own voucher code. Everytime this voucher code is being used at checkout the sale will be accounted to the respective affiliate. 

Affiliate Networks

Platforms that connect affiliates with merchants, providing tools for link generation, tracking, and reporting. Examples can be Influencer Hero, Awin or Refersion. 

Tracking Software

Monitors user activities, ensuring accurate attribution of conversions to the corresponding affiliates. These are software companies providing the tools for brands and affiliates to keep track of earnings. Examples are Influencer Hero, Goaffpro or UpPromote. 

Payment Systems

‍After the affiliate has earned his or her affiliate an important process is processing the payouts. Affiliate software providers often offer this feature within their platform.

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How to Track Affiliate Performance

‍If you decide you want to get started with influencer and affiliate marketing it is important to understand how you can track the affiliate performance of your influencers. 

Manually create UTM links and use Google analytics

One way to track the performance is by creating UTM links manually. Google for example offers this easy to use UTM builder through which you can create UTM links. The link would be long and doesn’t look great so we recommend to set up a redirect so you can create personalized links. It could look like this: www.mybrand.com/jessica. This links would then redirect to the UTM link you created. In most cases the easiest way to set up these redirects is within your CMS. This can be Shopify, Wordpress, Webflow or any of the other providers. Once you share the UTM link with your influencers / affiliates and they start posting you can track the performance in Google analytics. Follow the steps below to set this up. 

Log in to Google Analytics

Go to Google Analytics and log in with your account credentials.

Navigate to Acquisition

In the left-hand sidebar, go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. This report gives you an overview of how users arrive at your site or app.

Filter by Campaign

Use the filter option to select your campaign. You can use the search box to find specific campaigns tracked by UTM parameters.

Use the Explore Tab

For more detailed analysis, use the Explore tab to create custom reports. You can use dimensions like Session Campaign, Session Source/Medium, Session Default Channel Grouping, etc.

Set the Date Range

Ensure you set the correct date range to analyze the data for the period you are interested in.

‍Use affiliate marketing software to track performance with influencers

Tracking affiliate performance manually is time intensive and can be complex which is why we recommend using affiliate marketing software to keep track of things. These platforms provide the tools to create affiliate links, discount codes and also provide dashboards which can be accessed by both the brand as well as the affiliate / influencer. 

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Free Influencer Audit Chrome Extension

Analyse fake followers, ER, audience location, forecast sales and much more.

INSTALL FOR FREE HERE

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Best Affiliate Software to Track Performance With Influencers

There are various options you could choose from. If you want to use affiliate marketing for influencer marketing the best options available are:

• Influencer Hero
• Go Affiliate Pro
• UpPromote  

To read more about the best affiliate marketing software you can access our article here.

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Tools Used for Influencer Marketing

As previously mentioned affiliate marketing is used within influencer marketing and is thus only a small part within the whole process of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing often involves the following steps: 

1. Influencer discovery 
2. Influencer outreach 
3. Campaign Management 
4. Collecting the posts and UGC 
5. Processing payments 

Each of these steps can be streamlined and automated using software. We recommend using an all in one influencer marketing platform where you can manage everything in one place. Some options are: 

• Influencer Hero 
• Upfluence 
• Grin 
• Aspire 
• Tagger 

To read more about the best influencer marketing software access the full article here. 

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Important Metrics to Analyze with Influencer Marketing

1. Audience growth 
2. Engagement rate: use our free engagement rate calculator
3. Audience size 
4. Fake followers: use our free fake follower check 
5. Verified accounts 

Our data scientists analyzed over 10K commercial influencer post to determine the correlation between different metrics and conversion. You can access the full research on the metrics which impact ROI here.  

To analyze all the above metrics conveniently while browsing the web you can also use our free influencer audit chrome extension here. 

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‍Attribution and Tracking in Influencer and Affiliate Marketing

What is important to understand is that attribution is rarely 100% in digital marketing. With affiliate marketing even when using the most advanced tracking tools there is always a part which gets lost. Some of the reason tracking is getting lost: 

‍Using a Different Browser

Imagine a prospective buyer sees an influencer posts and clicks on the affiliate link which is included as a link sticker in the influencer story post. The cookie is correctly placed in the browser. The prospect uses Safari on his or her Iphone. A few days later they remember about your product, open their laptop and complete the purchase. On their laptop they use Chrome as a browser which means that the cookie is not saved which disables the system to pass over the UTM link. The result is that attribution gets lost. 

‍Accessing a Website Without Clicking on The Affiliate Link

A common way attribution gets lost especially when affiliate marketing is used with influencers is when the customer does not click on the affiliate link but accesses your website in a different way. 

This can frequently happen for example if the influencer also tags your Instagram next to adding the affiliate link in a link sticker on Instagram. A lot of people will go to your Instagram page first and access your website through your link in bio hence the affiliate link won’t be able to track. If you then also offer a discount directly on your website or through an email popup the customer might use that code in which case both the affiliate link and the discount code won’t be able to track the sale. 

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Can Influencer Marketing And Affiliate Marketing Be Used Together

Yes, influencer marketing and affiliate marketing can be effectively used together to amplify a brand’s reach and sales. Influencer marketing focuses on leveraging influencers' content and credibility to create brand awareness and engage their audience, while affiliate marketing incentivizes influencers to drive specific actions, such as clicks or sales, by offering commissions. Combining these strategies allows brands to benefit from both the broad visibility of influencer campaigns and the performance-based structure of affiliate programs.

Steps To Use Influencer Marketing And Affiliate Marketing Together

• Apply the 80/20 principle: a small group of influencers often generate the majority of returns, so keep initial costs low with new influencers.
• Test influencers with free products and affiliate commissions to gauge their ability to convert audiences before committing to larger payments.
• Build long-term relationships with top-performing influencers, turning them into brand ambassadors.
• Continuously use affiliate links and discount codes to monitor influencer performance and optimize budgets for maximum ROI.

This hybrid approach maximizes ROI by blending brand-building efforts with direct, measurable outcomes, making it a powerful tool for comprehensive marketing strategies.

Nordstrom’s Hybrid Strategy with Influencer and Affiliate Marketing

Nordstrom combined influencer and affiliate marketing to boost brand awareness and sales. By partnering with fashion influencers, Nordstrom generated engaging content that resonated with their audience.

Alongside influencer collaborations, Nordstrom integrated an affiliate marketing program. Influencers were given unique affiliate links, incentivizing them to drive sales in addition to creating content.

This approach resulted in high engagement and a significant increase in online sales, demonstrating the power of blending both strategies to achieve a higher ROI and foster long-term partnerships with influencers.

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‍Conclusion

Understanding the distinct roles and benefits of influencer and affiliate marketing is crucial for crafting a successful marketing strategy. While influencer marketing leverages the authenticity and reach of social media personalities, affiliate marketing focuses on performance-based outcomes with measurable KPIs. Combining both strategies can maximize brand visibility and drive conversions. By carefully selecting compensation methods and tracking performance through appropriate tools, businesses can optimize their marketing efforts and achieve their objectives efficiently.