In this Affiliate Marketing Roadmap for Brands episode of the Earned Media Podcast (subscribe), Anna Gita, CEO of MaxWeb, which is one of the fastest-growing affiliate networks, explains what affiliate programs are and how they work.

I heard Anna’s keynote at The Berlin Meet Market. She spoke about the future of the affiliate marketing industry, I was taken by her message that I immediately invited her to be a guest on the show. Content marketers who listened to my recent podcast with former Google Search Quality engineer Fili Wiese, I met him there too.

You can also listen to this podcast via Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The rest of this post is not so much an overview of my conversation with Anna, although it is somewhat informed by it. What follows are answers to frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing.

What’s the difference between Affiliate Marketing and Referral Marketing?

Anna Gita, CEO Max Web, delivering her keynote at the Affiliate Meet Market in Berlin.

While affiliate marketing and referral marketing are both performance-based marketing channels, affiliate marketers earn commissions for promoting products through tracking links, while referral marketers do not. Referral marketing is the acquisition of links from editorial content and influencers on social media.

Affiliate marketers earn money in two ways. First, they earn commissions for sending traffic to an advertiser’s landing or offer page, as long as the Earnings Per Click (EPC) exceeds the Cost Per Click (CPC). Second, they earn a Payout or commission if they traffic they send converts into a sale. Affiliate commissions are typically between 5-30%.

Referral marketing, on the other hand, is a type of word-of-mouth marketing that relies on digital PR, branded content, or individuals recommending a product or service to their friends and family. Much as Google Analytics defines referral traffic as the segment of traffic that arrives on a website through another source, such as a link on another domain.

Referral links can be acquired through press release distribution, media releases, product sampling, and other marketing tactics.

The main difference between affiliate and referral marketing is that affiliate marketing is focused on promoting products and services to earn commissions, while referral marketing is the collection of inbound links through unpaid activities.

How do I hire an affiliate marketer?

There are four main ways advertisers tend to source and hire affiliate marketers:

Join an affiliate network like MaxWeb: Affiliate networks are online marketplaces that connect merchants with affiliates. You can sign up as an advertiser and search for affiliate marketers interested in promoting your products.

Use a recruitment agency: Some agencies specialize in recruiting affiliates for advertisers, almost like hybrid employment/talent agencies. You can work with one of these agencies to find affiliates who fit your business well.

Attend industry events: Industry events, such as conferences and trade shows like Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, Jan. 23-25, 2023, are great places to meet affiliates and build relationships with them. It is also a good idea to approach keynote speakers and podcasters who focus on affiliate marketing because they may be able to help or make suggestions.

Connect directly with affiliate marketers: If you know of specific affiliate marketers you think might be a good fit for your brand, create your affiliate program and contact them directly. But you need a way to generate tracking links to measure traffic and co...