It’s likely that you’ve heard of Affiliate Marketing and possibly the term ‘pingtree’ being thrown around in conversations. You’ve seen a lot of bold claims from bloggers, YouTubers and other social media influencers about how they’re making good money by using affiliate marketing programs… And that you could, and should be too. The trouble is that sometimes Affiliate Marketing and how to get into it can be opaque and confusing.
Affiliate Marketing Explained
To help clarify this often confusing but potentially lucrative form of marketing, welcome to the first in a series of posts in which we dive deep into various aspects of Affiliate Marketing and how you can incorporate it into your blogging and / or social networking activities. You can find a detailed explanation of just what Affiliate Marketing is on our site right here.
The beauty of affiliate marketing is that you can get big rewards by referring customers to familiar, well established brands. Likewise, for businesses it is an organic means of growing your reach and build trust in your brand and products by proxy of consumers’ trust in your affiliates.
Of course, it takes a little time, effort and experience for it to become profitable but there are many online tools which can help you to increase your revenue, of which Pingtrees are just one.
So, what is a Pingtree?
A pingtree is a form of automated lead generation software. It is often used in the financial services industry but can be applied effectively to virtually any form of Affiliate marketing. A live application from a lead is filled in by a lead. The live application form is then sent to bid upon by various lead buyers or businesses. Neither the affiliate, the lead buyers nor the business owns the pingtree, it is owned by the software company that develops it.
How does it work?
An affiliate places an ad on their website with a compelling CTA (Call To Action). This is then clicked on by a lead with an interest in the services or products offered. They fill in a short application form which is then submitted in real time. The pingtree will automatically qualify the lead, checking for any problematic entries which will be returned to the applicant with an error message.
Once the data has been submitted, the pingtree then gets sent to lead buyers or business who have partnered with the pingtree. Each lead buyer or business will have slightly different criteria as to what makes a profitable lead and pingtrees can be adapted to screen out buyers who may not benefit from the custom of the applicant or businesses who do not operate at the time when the application form is submitted.
The application is then bid upon and the applicant is then redirected to a new window telling them that their application has been accepted and the affiliate gets their cut.
Why should you use one?
There are a range of benefits to a pingtree for both businesses and affiliates. Businesses get high quality leads, built around their preferred criteria at a time that’s beneficial for them. Since the pingtree does the lion’s share of the work when qualifying the lead, they know exactly what they’re bidding on. They’re also good for affiliates because the bidding incurred when a pingtree is used can result in robust commissions. It’s even beneficial to the customer because they’re directly matched to service providers who can fulfil their needs. Everybody wins… But it’s especially advantageous for affiliates.
Whether you’re an old hand at Affiliate Marketing or you simply want to hit the ground running, a pingtree can help you by;
- Optimising your revenues
- Increasing your per conversion commission rates
- Easy integration into your website or digital presence
- Providing you with regular and reliable payments
- Access to leading, reliable consumer brands which customers know and trust
- Analytics tools which help you to calculate the efficacy of your campaign and effectively calculate your ROI
- Most pingtrees will also offer you free guidance and technical support which can be extremely advantageous if you’re unfamiliar with pingtree technology
As you can see there are a number of great benefits to using a pingtree, and right now you’re probably wondering…
Where do you start?
The best way to get started in Affiliate Marketing is by joining an affiliate network. As an affiliate you’ll not only have access to a wide range of campaigns to promote and earn commission from, some of which do indeed use pingtrees, you’ll also be working with a well established and trusted 3rd party that is completely dedicated to your success and has all the tools that you need for a successful career in affiliate marketing.
