The Best Traffic Sources for
Affiliate Marketing in 2024
What Will
You Learn in This Guide?
In this
article, we’ll be going over all the traffic sources that can help you crush
your affiliate marketing efforts in 2024. Plus, if you’re new to the game or
just need a refresher, we’re also going to cover some of the basics, including
what traffic sources actually are, the various types of traffic, and much, much
more.
In case you need a short-list with all the highlights, here you go. This is
everything we’re exploring in this blog post:
- What is a traffic source?
- What's the difference between
cold traffic and warm traffic?
- What are the best free traffic
sources?
- What are the best paid traffic
sources?
- How to increase traffic to your
website?
What is a
Traffic Source?
First
thing’s first… Let’s start with the basics.
The simplest way of explaining what a traffic source is as follows: A traffic
source can be defined as the origin through which users find your website,
landing page, or sales page. High quality traffic can come from multiple
traffic sources across any part of the internet where a link to your site or
sales page is displayed.
Every visit or “session” can be tracked using tools like Google
Analytics to view the source or origin where a user came from. Not
only can you track the exact source, you can also see in some instances what
browser they were using, and whether they found your link using a desktop or a
mobile device.
You can collect tons of data on your traffic, and continuously tweak your
advertising campaigns based on accurate and up-to-date information to reach the
best results possible.
What’s
the Difference Between a Warm Traffic Source and Cold Traffic Source?
Before we
dive deeper into this article, let’s go over the basics of warm traffic versus
cold traffic.
What is
Cold Traffic?
Cold traffic
is anyone who visits your website or clicks your affiliate link who has no
prior knowledge of you or your business, or the business you're linking to.
When you’re just starting out, or you’re relatively new, this is the type of
traffic you’ll be getting the most. Even when you’ve made a name for yourself,
you can still expect cold traffic.
Cold traffic usually comes from paid ads. Conversion rate is generally lower
with cold traffic because no prior trust has been established, so your goal
with this type of traffic is to create a connection as soon as possible. If
you're a product owner, you can, for example, encourage visitors to fill out a form
in order to receive a free sample once they land on your website, so you can
later target them with email (warm traffic).
What is
Warm Traffic?
Warm traffic
is a returning visitor to your site, a subscriber, a social media follower, or
simply someone who was recommended to check out your business. These potential
customers are already somewhat familiar with your brand, viewed your content,
or engaged with you in some level, shape, or form. Conversion for warm traffic
is considerably higher compared to cold traffic.
Furthermore, chances of recurring purchases are also higher, especially if you
keep your target audience engaged with giveaways, value-add content, gifts, and
more. Popular warm traffic sources include email, social media, YouTube,
forums, and more.
What are
the Different Types of Traffic Sources?
There are
several types of traffic sources, which we will go into full detail in the
article, but for now, let’s briefly go over them to get a basic understanding.
- Direct Traffic - Traffic coming from an
unknown source.
- Organic Traffic - Traffic that comes from
organic search results (not paid).
- Paid Search Traffic - Any type of traffic that
comes from a paid campaign launched on a search engine.
- Social Traffic - Traffic that comes from
social media.
- Email Traffic - Traffic that comes from
email marketing campaigns or solo ads.
- Referral Traffic - Referral traffic is when
someone clicks on a hyperlink on a website that leads to your domain.
- Mobile Traffic - Traffic that comes from
mobile devices, like smartphones or tablets.
- Desktop Traffic - Traffic that comes from
desktops or laptops.
What Are
The Best Affiliate Marketing Traffic Sources in 2024?
For us to
talk about the best traffic sources, we first need to split them into two
distinct categories: free and paid traffic.
Understanding how these operate and which can yield the best results and land
you the most visits and sales is something that definitely shouldn’t be
overlooked.
Also, you can watch this easily digestible Affiliate Marketing Episode for more
info on traffic sources.
In the video, Olivia breaks down the top five proven marketing channels that
you can use to generate sustainable revenue with affiliate marketing.
The five channels discussed are email marketing, blogs, social media, native
ads, and Facebook ads.
Each outlet has its own pros and cons, and your personal goals and budget will
determine which one is best suited to your affiliate marketing needs.
Check out the video for amazing tips and strategies that you can use right away
if you want to succeed with affiliate marketing in 2024.
How to
Choose the Best Free Traffic Source for Your Audience in 2024
Before even
considering choosing a traffic source, you first need to nail down a niche you’re going to be focusing on. Once you
have decided on a niche and have a product ready for promotion, it’s time to
determine where you can make the greatest impact with your efforts. Ask
yourself: Which channels would work the best with the current offer I'm trying
to push? What outlets can showcase this offer in the best possible way?
Carefully choosing platforms that can amplify the strengths of a digital
product or service can go a long way.
Also, keep in mind the type of users you’re going to promote to on each
platform, and tweak your promotional content accordingly. The user’s behavior
differs from channel to channel, so even though you’re promoting an offer
within the same niche, you’ll have to convey your message differently depending
on the platform you’re promoting on. In addition, don’t forget to stay up to
date with certain algorithms for best practices - especially when search
engines or social media channels are your main traffic sources.
Ok, so let's see a couple of examples.
The Best
Free Affiliate Marketing Traffic Sources in 2024
Basically,
you can leverage social media, email and forums for free traffic, and reap the
benefits without spending a dime on ads.
1. Facebook
Facebook is a great medium that can help you generate free traffic, but you
need to go the extra mile to build out your profile. Remember, you're building
your brand organically - no paid advertising. So what does this mean?
It means that you need a non-business profile, a “Friends” list filled with
people interested in the niche you’re working with, and consistent value-add
posts to keep your audience engaged. Joining groups and posting regularly also
helps a ton.
Make sure that in between educational
and helpful posts, you also slip in your affiliate links to send social
media traffic to your landing page or a sales page.
2. Instagram
With over 1 billion users, Instagram has essentially become a virtual, visually
pleasing “living room”. Instagram presents huge potential for affiliate marketers to
send traffic to affiliate offers. One of the biggest upsides of Instagram is
its accuracy of showing users exactly what they want to see, but the downside
is that the platform is extremely crowded, and you need to stand out with your
content if you want success.
This means that you can’t just create an account and post "lazy"
content and affiliate links in your bio, hoping for tons of social media traffic.
Before anything else, you need to focus on creating a good profile filled with
high quality and visually appealing content, engaging stories and maybe even
slip in a few giveaways, as well. Make sure you keep affiliate links in your
bio and promote them subtly once your audience grows.
3. TikTok
If you want to target the Gen Z audience, TikTok is arguably the best channel
to reach them. Creating short but fun (and informative) videos can land you
thousands of views in just a couple of hours. The better your content is, the
more people it will reach. And don’t worry, you don’t need an immense following
to reach thousands of people - the algorithm will do that for you!
You can get quality and organic traffic from TikTok quite easily;
just make sure you establish your target audience first. Although Gen Z makes
up the majority of TikTok users, you can tap into other population segments
with carefully curated content, a well-defined strategy and consistency. Just
don’t forget to add your promolink in your bio so users can easily reach what
you’re promoting.
4. Pinterest
Pinterest looks like a social media platform but also kind of acts like a search
engine. This hybrid space can supply you with organic traffic, and the best
part is that you don’t need to invest too much time to start pulling in some
solid numbers. Make sure you create a couple of Boards and fill them with
relevant Pins. Link the photos in your Board to the offer you’re promoting - or
your affiliate site - and that’s about it.
All you need to do now is wait patiently for some affiliate sales to roll in.
The average Pinterest user navigates the platform to look for inspiration, so
realistically, don’t expect too many sales, but do expect a lot of organic
traffic. To increase your chances of conversion, make sure you link to a
high-quality landing page, so when the user arrives, the chances of them making
a purchase are significantly increased.
5. Reddit
Reddit walks a fine line between being a forum and a social media platform.
Making a name for yourself on Reddit might take some time, but the payoff is
worth it when it comes to attracting organic traffic and customers. However,
instead of flooding the platform with your promolinks, start joining subreddits
and adding value to the community.
For example, if someone creates a thread in a fitness & health subreddit asking “What are the
best keto diet plans?”, you can respond and explain why the particular offer
you happen to promote is the best, and convince them why they should give the
product a try.
Build trust, be helpful, and once you establish yourself as a good contributor,
you can start squeezing in offers within your content. Avoid being spammy, and
always read community guidelines on promotions.
6. Forums
Essentially, the same rules apply to forums as to Reddit:
- Provide value with your posts
- Post consistently
- Be helpful and friendly
- Avoid spam
- Post links to offers once you
built some credibility
- Always read community guidelines
7. YouTube
Aside from paid advertisements on YouTube, you can essentially make a name for
yourself on the platform by becoming a content creator. Of course, this can
take time and dedication, but if you’re into YouTube and enjoy creating videos,
it might be one of the best channels for you to generate high quality traffic.
Post fun and interesting videos, or review videos, and mention whatever you’re
promoting in natural ways to make the viewer curious, rather than suspicious.
This is among the best affiliate marketing strategies on YouTube. Flesh out
and hype up the product you’re promoting, and don’t forget to add a link in the
video description for convenient access.
8.
Website & Blog
You don’t need a website or a blog to be successful in this industry - you can
easily make money in affiliate marketing without a website.
However, having a space where you can show a little bit of your unique personality
is a plus.
Running a successful blog can land you huge amounts of targeted traffic.
Essentially, you can write almost anything and carefully place promolinks
within your content. Just make sure you choose a specific niche first, so your blog isn’t all over
the place dealing with topics across every industry.
Also, don’t shy away from including multiple affiliate links to different
offers in your blog posts. Focus on interesting pieces of content, and don’t
forget to do top 10 listicle type of articles from now and then, where you can
essentially go a little more crazy with the affiliate links. Plus, if you make
your articles SEO-friendly too, they can become visible on Google search and
organic traffic is going to potentially roar.
Search engine optimization is extremely vital for you to generate traffic.
9. Guest Posts
You can take your content game further by partnering with like-minded people
from the industry who run their own blogs, and write guest posts for them now
and then. This opens up brand new opportunities for high quality organic
traffic, as well as collaboration.
Plus, be open to other people writing guest posts on your blog. Collaboration
is one of the key elements of affiliate marketing, so don’t be afraid to
network and build connections. Also, you can consider writing on platforms
like Medium and
leverage the traffic of an already established website.
10. Email
You can build affiliate marketing email lists and start
sending personalized and value-add emails to your audience and drive traffic to
your website or a lander. The best part about email is you can tailor the
content to your preference, and include as many links as you want. Plus, you
now own this data.
However, keep in mind to not make your emails look and feel spammy. Your main
goal with email is to provide relevant content, and to try and lure your
prospects to sales pages with clever hooks and great copywriting.
The Best
Paid Affiliate Marketing Traffic Sources in 2024
Let’s take a
look at what we’re working with when it comes to paid traffic sources, and how
ads can help us achieve success within affiliate marketing.
1. Google Ads
Google Search and search engines in general can bring you loads of paid
traffic, but the catch is, you have to invest some money first. Depending on
what niche you’re working with, and what keywords you’re trying to rank for,
the amount of capital that you need to invest on Google Ads can significantly
change.
Some niches and keywords are more competitive than others. However, a good
strategy can do wonders for your affiliate marketing efforts.
2. Banner Ads
Banner ads can help you increase your traffic, especially if they are placed on
websites with high traffic - AND if the asset can easily grab the user’s
attention. Usually, banners can be placed within search engines and different
websites, and come in many shapes and sizes.
The trick to a good banner is a great design that should invoke both curiosity
and urgency. Banners can usually be found on the top, bottom or sides of a
website. When working with banners, make sure they blend in with the overall
design of the website you’re running them on.
These ads work best when they don’t feel out of place. The more natural they
feel and look, the more traffic you’ll get. If they feel out of place, the user
might be reluctant to click it. However, sometimes banners that pop work well
too, so figuring out what works best requires some research and trial and
error.
3. Native Advertising
Native advertising is an excellent paid traffic source.
These types of ads match the content of the website or platform upon which they
appear on. They are ads, but don’t feel like ads to end users - especially if
done right.
Native ads can be found on different websites, platforms and even some search
engines. Native advertising should definitely be included in your affiliate ad
strategy.
4. Solo Email Ads
A great way to drive paid traffic to your website, landing page or the offer
you’re promoting is leveraging the power of solo ads. Solo ads can be found in
emails or newsletters in which your ad is the only dedicated promotional piece.
You can get featured in these spaces by negotiating a spot with people within the industry who
run email campaigns or send out newsletters. Once you land a dedicated spot in
their email list, traffic will start flowing, but remember to keep optimizing
your ads for better performance.
5. Facebook Ads
Running ads on Facebook will also land you a great
chunk of paid traffic. Working with Facebook ads is relatively easy once you
get a hang of their Business Suite Manager. Their targeting system is great,
and you can essentially tap into any audience in the world by using the
platform’s intuitive tools.
One thing about running ads on Facebook: due to their complicated compliance
rules, in most cases, you can’t link directly to offers - you need to link to a
lander first. Also, for further assistance and information, check out Digistore24’s
Facebook CAPI tool.
6. Instagram Ads
Instagram ads are another great paid traffic source. If you’re running ads on
Facebook, you might as well run a few on Instagram too and increase your
traffic juice. Luckily, Instagram advertising is highly similar to Facebook’s.
In fact, you can create ads for both Facebook & Instagram using the same
tool: Meta Business Suite Manager.
On Instagram, you can place ads in the feed, in stories, reels and of course,
videos.
7. Other Social Media Ads
As an affiliate marketer, the internet is your playground, especially when
working with paid ads on social media. The key is not to limit yourself to one
platform, but to branch out across the world wide web. Of course, you have to
start small, but once you gain some momentum, checking out other social
platforms with high paid traffic potential is more than necessary.
Social media ads work similarly on every platform: you create your asset
(design + copy), set your targeting (geolocation, age, gender, etc.), allocate
a budget and woosh… your ad is ready to roll.
Apart from Facebook & Instagram, here are other platforms where you can
successfully run ads and increase your paid traffic:
- TikTok
- Pinterest
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Reddit
- YouTube
How to
Increase Traffic to My Affiliate Website?
In one of
the previous sections, we talked about how having your own website can help
direct targeted traffic to offers and products you’re promoting. We wanted to
expand a bit on this, and tell you a few tips and tricks on how you can
increase traffic to your affiliate blog or website.
1. Create
High-Quality Content
Right off
the bat, you need a strong content strategy in order to attract and retain an
audience. Creating a blog and writing articles is key. Adding promolinks in
your content is important, but building engaging and high-value content around
those products or offers is a top priority.
In order to consistently attract traffic to your affiliate site, you need to
set up a blog and explore topics that are trending and relevant to your
audience.
Use your industry expertise to tackle subjects that you know your readers will
appreciate, and try incorporating real-life stories and examples into your
content for greater impact. Over time, you will develop a loyal audience, and
you’ll start to gradually see traffic hikes.
And make sure you tap into AI if you're short on resources... There are plenty
of AI copywriting tools for affiliate marketing that will
help you create content in a super short time.
2. Always
Be Optimizing…
As much as
your time permits, research ways to optimize your content, and test. Your blog
doesn’t have to be perfect, and writing articles should feel enjoyable. Don’t
get caught up in over-optimization, but do be mindful of the ways you can
improve your content.
Here are a few ways you can do just that:
- Write shorter paragraphs to keep
content more digestible
- Use headings
- Do a little keyword research
- Use images and videos
- Don’t be afraid to express
yourself with your writing
- Use both internal and external
links
- And have fun!
Remember to
always optimize your website to attract both desktop traffic and mobile
traffic. If your blog looks clunky on mobile, or loads too slow, you’ll miss
out on tons of valuable visitors.
3. Share
Your Work on Social Media
Use every
social media platform to share your content. Having a blog allows
you to share your work on social media and keep your followers engaged while
also attracting new ones.
Plus, this can diversify your social media strategy, as you’re now not only
sharing other people’s content, you’re also sharing your own. This can attract
new visitors to your affiliate site, increasing your overall incoming traffic.
4.
Leverage the Power of Guest Posting
Another
great way to increase your traffic is by taking your content to your
competitors. This might sound weird, but writing guest posts for competitors
that link to your website is a very good strategy if you want to increase the
number of your site visitors. This also gives you the opportunity to examine
other blogs, and invite others to write guest posts on your domain. It’s a
win-win situation.
5. What
Else?
If you want
to take it a step further, you can also include your blog content in your email marketing campaigns, or even run ads that lead back
to your blog posts.
Final
Thoughts
We really
hope you enjoyed this comprehensive affiliate marketing traffic source guide,
and that you now have a much better understanding of the overall scheme of things
when it comes to traffic sources. There’s a lot of information in this blog
post, so a single read-through might not be enough for everything to sink in.
Make sure you go over each section in depth at least a couple of times, and put
everything you learn to the test to deepen your understanding and knowledge.
Take your time to understand cold traffic versus warm traffic, and which
strategies to use to attract more users to your desired affiliate offer sales
pages or website.