Video content is getting popular day by day. In 2021 alone, there were approximately 1.86 billion watchers consuming YouTube content every day and in 2023 they want even more.

For digital content creators and influencers alike, this is a great chance to find a potential audience and make money with partner marketing while making video content. YouTube offers unique features that can help you get more video views and, therefore, make more money.

In this post, we’ll guide you through affiliate marketing on YouTube, what types of videos get you affiliate sales, and how you can make money with affiliate marketing on YouTube.

1. What Is YouTube Affiliate Marketing?

YouTube affiliate marketing is the process of promoting products, services, and brands on YouTube through affiliate links. Not only you generate revenue by adding those links within annotations, or in the YouTube video description area, but also you provide extra value to your audience.

When someone clicks your link and makes a purchase, you earn a small commission, which is basically a referral fee for sending traffic to the company’s website.

In other words, you create product reviews, tutorials, how-to videos, etc. add an affiliate link that leads to a specific affiliate marketing program.

As with traditional affiliate marketing, the way you make money remains pretty much the same – you earn a few cents (a few dollars, or even hundreds of dollars) when a user makes a purchase through your affiliate link.

Make sure to review the terms carefully before choosing an affiliate program to promote.

Check Affiliate Programs!

2. Why Use YouTube Affiliate Marketing?

Essentially, YouTube is the biggest video-sharing platform in the world. With over 210 million viewers in the U.S., do you think you could get your videos in front of a wide audience? Chances are!

YouTube is an amazing extension of your current affiliate marketing efforts. If you already have an audience on other social media, why not repurpose your existing content (whether text or graphic) as YouTube videos.

By simply creating useful videos with your marketing strategy in mind, you could have cheap traffic and reach an audience of millions without spending a fortune on advertising. As simple as that!

All you need is screen recording software, a mic, and a camera.

Give this powerful promotional tool a try if you want to build a loyal following, tell people about the products and services that will make their life easier.

There are different types of videos you can post on your YouTube channel when you want to increase your affiliate sales. We will get back to those a little later.

3. How Can You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing on YouTube

First things first, you’ll need a channel that people want to visit. And share with others.

It might sound obvious but that is how things work on YouTube.

For example, TheOutdoorGearReview channel usually shares advice for nature lovers, hiking, and backpacking enthusiasts.

Even people who aren’t into these sorts of things enjoy this type of content.

Product review videos have a very broad appeal. Such videos often provide informational content and links to relevant products and/or services in the “description” section.

A number of niches could adopt such an approach, including travel, beauty, gadget, health, and fitness.

However, if you’re an expert and know a thing or two about your niche, you may want to be as specific as possible when creating your videos.

That said, many channels opt for only one or two product types when they create videos. The great thing about this is that affiliate commission is usually higher when you narrow down your list of potential affiliate programs.

Naturally, when you target a specific category your channel will see fewer clicks than those with a wide range of video content.

Fret not, however! Your links will see enough clicks, as long as your content is of high quality and you’re really serious about making money with affiliate links on YouTube.

4. What Types of Videos Get You Affiliate Sales

Affiliate videos may come in all types of formats, types, and styles.

At the same time, only a few of them have proved to be successful when it comes to making money with affiliate marketing on YouTube. Such video types allow bloggers successfully promote products and services via affiliate links while delivering quality and useful content.

Now let’s take a look at what video types you can use as a part of your affiliate marketing strategies:

Product Review Videos

If you own a product or find a service that is helpful to you, chances are you’ll want to tell your friends or family about it. Instead, tell your subscribers about it to make a few extra bucks.

Single product review is a great video type you may adopt to create content.

Tell users about your experience with a particular product or service that is relevant to your niche and get a commission when people decide they want to get the same results or experience.

Alternatively, you could compare two or more products. In this case, you tell people about these products’ features and then showcase why you chose product A or product B.

A small note here. You must actually own both products if you want to compare them.

Remember that about 61% of customers reportedly watch reviews online before they make a purchase. At the same time, around 52% of consumers are more likely to purchase something that was described in a YouTube product review video.

Simply put, content like video reviews can be very effective, and they are not difficult to make. Provide an honest and thorough review to make users want to click your links and get similar results.

Tick off any possible questions people may have to ensure they are ready to make a purchase through your affiliate links.

Instructional Videos

Making informative how-to videos is another way to promote your affiliate links while providing useful and helpful content. Tutorial videos can be of different lengths, but they must answer all the questions users might have. If they only provide partial information, users are going to search for other, more in-depth, videos for help.

When you’re creating how-to videos, you may want to use a social proof strategy. Show people how to do something step-by-step and what result they could achieve. Since you compare and test products, you can easily add affiliate links in the description for whatever equipment, gadgets, or other products you recommend in the video.

Unboxing Videos

This style of video content is wildly popular on YouTube and showcases someone unpacking a product for the first time. Unboxing videos can do really well with fashion or high-tech products. However, if you create videos for mommies, food lovers, or outdoor fans, you should give this lucrative genre a try.

Why are these so popular? Primarily because such kinds of videos let viewers vicariously experience a product. This is great when someone is weighing multiple products before making a purchase. Another thing is that unboxing videos allow getting a feel of something new without actually buying it.

Consider creating unboxing videos if you want to increase your influence on YouTube. Choose a niche, pick a product type and start creating to build an audience.

If you’re wondering whether you have to spend money buying new stuff to review it, you don’t have to. Many brands will eagerly provide a sample of their products in return for a “positive” review. You just have to ask.

Best Of Videos

Best of videos are essentially video versions of roundup review posts. These are easy to do – all you have to do is to put together a list of the best products/services you’re promoting. Then, just name advantages and disadvantages and compare them.

Start with the least favorable to the best of the best to make sure you keep your audience engaged. A good rule of thumb is to add affiliate links to all of the products or services you mentioned in the video.

Best of videos have attractive income potential, especially if you choose the right affiliate program and check the competition in advance.

Video Description

As you know, video descriptions are very important. This section is dedicated to providing details of the video, integrate SEO features, and luckily for creators, it is a great spot for affiliate links.

Cards

Another way to make money with affiliate marketing on YouTube is to add your links in Cards.

This feature enables content creators who are a member of the YouTube Payment Program to redirect users to external platforms or any other video.

While using those can be tricky at some point, creators must only use high-quality external sources and addresses that follow YouTube community guidelines.

In other words, your affiliate links must be all way relevant and your videos shouldn’t have spammy content. If you fail to achieve the standard criterion set by YouTube, you could have your video removed and your channel blocked.

Comments

Next, aside from interacting with your subscribers in the comment section, this is also a great place to promote your affiliate links.

Not only does it allow you to connect with the target audience but also enables you to add, delete or edit comments. That said, you can pin a comment with your link to the top section without being too obvious about promoting.

On the other hand, you could mention the shortened link within the comments and encourage people to click on it by providing some advice.

A crucial point here is that your link must look natural. Any affiliate link you place in the comment section must be complemented with helpful informational content.

Encourage discussion by giving facts that revolve around your content and that can expand your followers’ knowledge. Keep in mind, any affiliate link must complement your content and not vice versa.

Community

Created to develop a healthy relationship between YouTubers and their followers, the community tab is where creators can share images, life updates, GIFs, and create online polls. Although it can be tricky (YouTube still allows to use affiliate links in the community tab), this is another place for content creators to promote affiliate links on YouTube.

Channel Links

As you probably know, you can add links to your social media profiles, websites, and other landing pages under the ‘About’ tab. While you can link up to ten resources that way, it’s important to keep them relevant to your content and make sure these provide some kind of benefit to your subscribers.

To maximize your efforts, use channel trailers and social media profiles. Located at the top section of their homepage, feature trailers are known for being an attention magnet for subscribers. Channel owners can also integrate links within the video content or the description section.

If you don’t have a huge fan base yet, you may want to promote your video’s release on other social media sites. This trick will make things a lot easier for you when it comes to promoting affiliate links in the video description.

6. How do You Get Traffic to YouTube Videos?

Let’s face it, even the most astonishing videos on YouTube need promotion. In other words, you need traffic or a loyal audience to watch these videos and, eventually, make money with affiliate marketing on YouTube.

The main question is – how to drive traffic to your YouTube channel?

In fact, a lot of content creators are already successful on YouTube, and some of them succeeded merely thanks to well-optimized videos. Also known as related videos, we’re going to cover those just below.

YouTube Related Videos

Listed in the ‘Related videos’ sidebar, chances are you’ve watched those videos. Similar to the ones you’re regularly watching, these are the videos YouTube thinks you might be interested in. Uploaded by creators people are not yet following, a lot of channel owners want to be listed in ‘Recommended’ or ‘Related videos’.

So how do you get listed there? Here are a few tips:

  • Create engaging videos content that are up to 10 minutes long;
  • Ask your viewers to subscribe and leave comments;
  • Write genuine, enticing titles;
  • Add relevant keywords in the title, description, and tags section;
  • Make simple and beautiful thumbnails to increase engagement.

 
Another important thing is the more popular your videos are, the more traffic YouTube will send you. The platform wants users to stick around and click on YouTube ads, that is why they encourage creators with in-depth but diverse, inclusive content.

Google Search Results

It’s no secret that Google gives preference in the SERPs for keywords creators use in their video descriptions. Depending on your niche and keyword difficulty, your videos are more or less likely to show up on the first page of Google.

Where should you start?

Start with determining a keyword’s difficulty. This step is important to analyze keyword competition and, eventually, the topics of your videos.

Once your videos are ready and uploaded optimize their descriptions by using the keywords you’re planning on ranking for.

Subscribers

Another way to get YouTube traffic is to build up a subscriber base. People who already subscribed to your channel get notifications every time you release a new video.

Even if they have their notifications turned off completely, your video still comes up in their feed.

Essentially, your subscribers is one of the most important sources of YouTube traffic. Since your potential affiliate revenue revolves around clicks, you may want to grow a YouTube following by providing high-quality content. In your videos ask people to hit the bell to get notifications.

Building a loyal following on YouTube is a long-term strategy but as your fan base grows, you’ll be able to get more traffic faster every time you roll out a new video.

What Affiliate Offers are Available?

There are many types of affiliate programs, ranging from hosting providers to sports equipment to fashion and travel affiliates.

In a nutshell, depending on your niche you can choose any offer. That is the perk of being a YouTube content creator.

If you’re looking for an easy way to make money with affiliate marketing, consider joining Partner Network.

The network provides a range of great affiliate programs that cover almost any niche. Here’re some quick stats to familiarize yourself with.

Join Partner Network Now!

Furthermore, you can make money on YouTube by joining and creating links with ConvertSocial.

It’s a great tool to monetize your accounts instantly, even messaging apps like Whatsapp or Telegram!

Pros of YouTube Affiliate Marketing

  • YouTube is incredibly popular, hence you will be getting a fair amount of traffic to your channel. Given that you optimize it nicely;
  • There are over 700 YouTube channels with more than 10 million subscribers. That said, some of the best channels see more daily traffic than mainstream TV channels;
  • You can expect competition to be lower than on the web. While there are niches like gaming, tech, beauty, fashion that see extreme competition, most others still offer plenty of opportunities for building a massive following;
  • Take advantage of the YouTube subscription feature. Users who sincerely like what you do can subscribe to your channel to stay tuned for your next videos. No extra promotion is needed;
  • Since YouTube video results are popping up more often on Google, you can have a piece of that pie and get your own videos shown there;
  • You don’t have to spend a fortune to become successful on YouTube. Get yourself a mic, a camera, some recording software, find an idea and you’re ready to go.

 

Cons of YouTube affiliate marketing

  • Creating great videos takes time and effort. And we mean that any successful YouTube channel needs interesting, and compelling videos to make viewers happy;
  • You have less freedom when it comes to community guidelines and policies. Since you don’t actually own your channel, YouTube can ban it along with everything you uploaded to it;
  • You have to be careful about your external links. There is an external links policy, which says that “massively posting affiliate content in dedicated accounts may violate our policies around spam”.

 

Should You Start Doing Affiliate Marketing on YouTube?

The short answer is, yes!

Making money with affiliate marketing on YouTube can be a very profitable venture not just now but for years to come. While it does take much talent and effort to succeed on this competitive platform, you can expect a generous outcome if you do everything right.

With so many newcomers joining YouTube every day, you’re not too late to the YouTube affiliate marketing game. If you’re interested in creating long-term, sustainable revenue, contact us. We would love to help you.