With the ever-growing trend of making money online, affiliate marketing is more popular than ever. Like every other popular field of work, affiliate marketing comes with its fair share of myths and misconceptions.
I want to provide you with a complete affiliate marketing jobs insight into some of the significant jobs available in this line of work and talk about these jobs’ current and prospects.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a fascinating and dynamic field of work where you have the potential to make a substantial income. The purpose of this article is to give you a brief introduction to affiliate marketing, let you know about some of the types of jobs available in this field, and also an overview of the current and future trends of this industry.
To understand the job of an affiliate marketing professional, let us first take a look at what affiliate marketing is. Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing that happens in the online domain and is performance-based. The concept that drives affiliate marketing is quite simple at its core.
If you become an affiliate marketer for an advertiser, you will promote their products or services to your site’s visitors, social media followers, youtube subscribers, and so on. When your audience completes the advertiser’s desired action, you get paid some money.
This can include things such as making a purchase, filling up an application form, or it may even be to sign up for email service. Want to read all the details about Affiliate Marketing? Why don’t you have a look at our affiliate marketing guide?
Having defined what affiliate marketing is, let us look at some of the most common affiliate marketing jobs available in the market, the career demands of these jobs, prospects, etc.
What Are Affiliate Marketing Jobs?
A person becomes an affiliate marketing professional when hired by an affiliate marketing firm or someone who needs to manage and run their affiliate program and is employed by them full-time to perform specific affiliate marketing duties and needs that the employer may have.
They are not paid by commission, but instead, they earn a salary. These are jobs in which people with experience in online marketing, in general, will thrive. If an individual has experience in this field of work, they will be a good fit for affiliate marketing jobs.
Many different jobs exist within the broad umbrella of affiliate marketing jobs. These include positions such as being an affiliate marketing manager, affiliate recruitment specialist, affiliate marketing assistant, affiliate marketing specialist, and many more.
Career Demands
The affiliate marketing industry has never been as strong as it is now. Affiliate marketing has become an integral part of a lot of industries. As a result, there has been a substantial increase in the demand for affiliate marketing skills and experience.
Some of the sectors where affiliate marketing has become a vital resource are travel, mobile phones, financial products, digital products, health supplements, etc.
Affiliate marketing is integral to becoming successful in these industries. The digital job market reflects the demand for affiliate marketers at the moment. There are several types of jobs available in the affiliate marketing industry. These include jobs such as Online Affiliate Manager, Head of Affiliates, Online Partnerships manager, Affiliates Executives, etc.
Suppose you follow the job requirement of many of the available full-time positions within the affiliate marketing industry. In that case, you will notice that there has been a definite shift in the focus of many of these roles.
Currently, while employers must want to hire people who can make affiliate schemes and offerings which are profitable, at the same time, they are looking for people who possess excellent people skills and solid communication skills as well.
Employers want people who can build long-lasting relationships with affiliate partners; it does not matter the company’s size. So, as we can see, excellent communication and people skills are highly desired by employers within the affiliate marketing industry.
Just a quick google search of demand for affiliate marketing jobs gives you hundreds of job postings worldwide. This means that there is a very high demand for people who possess this particular skill set and are also motivated and very engaged with the whole process of affiliate marketing.
A few exciting statistics will give you a better picture of the overall affiliate industry and exactly how much it has been growing recently. For example, the affiliate marketing industry is worth over 12 billion dollars globally. Yes, that is the valuation of the overall affiliate industry.
Then there is also the fact that about 81% of brands are reliant upon affiliate marketing. Moreover, according to Cybercash Worldwide, 74% of US shoppers check affiliate websites before deciding to purchase something. The point of highlighting these statistics is to show that there has never been a better time to be in the affiliate industry.
Future of Affiliate Marketing Jobs
When we talk about the future of affiliate marketing jobs, things look perfect. The whole industry is growing exponentially, and one of the critical statistics that may interest you is that 15% of all digital media advertising revenue is earned through affiliate marketing programs. Plus, 94% of publishers use affiliate marketing networks.
Businessman analyzing a growing 3D AR chart floating above digital tablet computer screen shows a booming increase in business profit.
There is also the fact that consumers are becoming increasingly more careful when they make purchases online. This implies that these consumers are very likely to do a lot of research on their chosen products online. This is where affiliate marketing comes into play and can boost the sales of those specific products the consumers are going for.
There is a high possibility that there will be a lot of more prominent companies and brands that will have their affiliate marketing teams in the future. They will very likely do it in-house.
This will directly result from increased consumer demand and a general need for maintaining proper affiliate marketing. With that being said, we don’t think it will be too long before major household name brands start hiring talented affiliate marketing professionals.
Affiliate marketing is still a new industry which means that a shortage of skilled affiliate professionals may soon be imminent. People who will have experience with affiliate marketing will be in very high demand in the future as the industry has only really started to grow very recently.
Different Kinds of Affiliate Marketing Jobs
There are many different affiliate marketing jobs within the umbrella term of affiliate marketing jobs. These jobs include affiliate marketing manager, affiliate marketing consultant, affiliate marketing strategist, affiliate marketing analyst, etc. There are so many affiliate marketing jobs out there, but we only discuss the major jobs in this field. Let us look at what these jobs entail regarding job responsibilities and the qualities needed to succeed in these positions.
Affiliate Marketing Manager
Affiliate marketing managers have a particular set of skills, and these are all required to be successful as an affiliate marketing manager. If you look at the resumes that people usually submit for this position, you will soon find some common things that they all have.
Most of the resumes that we analyzed ensured that the applicant’s analytical skills, creativity, and communication skills were highlighted. There is a lot of content online which says that becoming an affiliate marketing manager does not require too many prior skills. Still, the matter is that these skills are essential in performing the duties necessary for this position.
What specific skills do most of these resumes have, considered essential for this position?
We found three things that a lot of resumes had in common. About 11.3% of the resumes had listed affiliate programs, 7.3 % had affiliate partners, and about 7 % had analytics. These hard skills are fundamental for the manager to perform their duties effectively.
When searching for a job approach, many people search for a key term or a key phrase. It may, however, be much better to search according to industries.
This is because there are a lot of affiliate marketing jobs that you may not have thought existed, especially in industries where you may have least expected them. Suppose you are looking for a specific industry to start with. In that case, it may also surprise you that many affiliate marketing managers have found jobs in the media industries and non-profits.
Average Salary (US): $81,178 per year
Affiliate Marketing Consultant
An outstanding aspect of the overall affiliate industry is that it has a very low barrier to entry, and almost anyone can start an affiliate marketing business. When we talk about barriers to entry, it is low both in terms of finances and knowledge.
Many affiliate marketing programs will accept just about anyone who applies. They do not even need to have an established website to get started.
While the low barrier to entry is undeniably a good thing, it has made many people make a small attempt at becoming affiliate marketers. This usually results in these people giving up very easily as they get demoralized or don’t know what to do after joining a program.
There are loads of people who even have a website and some understanding of how SEO works. Still, they often fail at converting their affiliate marketing business from just a hobby to a full-time career where they make money.
While they may have a very general and broad idea of what they are doing, they often lack the expertise required to make the slight adjustments needed to increase their conversion rate. This is precisely where an affiliate marketing consultant is needed.
Affiliate marketing consultants have experience working with affiliates who target many different niches. They are the perfect people to develop the right formula as needed.
Their expertise makes them very good at knowing exactly what to do and when. As a result, affiliate marketing consultants can save the affiliate marketer time and eliminate the trial and error process. This potential trial and error can get quite expensive.
The old phrase “spend money to get money” with affiliate marketing consultants holds true. You may have already spent a lot of money on paid search, PPC marketing, etc., but if you find that these things are giving you the expected dividends, hiring an affiliate marketing consultant would be the right way to go about things.
Average Salary (US): $66,029 per year
Affiliate Marketing Strategist
The tasks of an affiliate marketing strategist are quite varied and are very important to the overall affiliate effort. These are people who are responsible for performing new customer acquisition. To do this, the strategist conducts research, formulate innovative plans, develops networks, performs cold calling, sends emails, etc.
Since these people are the strategists, it is also their job to set marketing and sales goals. They develop affiliate persons to sort out the ideal affiliate and recruit them to achieve the goals.
The strategists are also the ones who negotiate with customers. They also handle business deal tracking, monitoring, and other related activities they deem necessary.
These are people who have to stay on top of the current trends in the industry and are also responsible for looking for new opportunities that will benefit the affiliate firm they are working with. They have to work with the management team to execute and close new affiliate deals.
Their job description also entails responsibilities such as letting new and existing affiliates know about any promotions that may be coming soon and also optimization opportunities.
They are also in charge of marketing activities such as email campaigns, blogs, etc. Developing new campaign ideas, bonuses, and incentives for the affiliate model is their responsibility. Finally, their main objective is to recruit new affiliate partners and deliver the expected sales.
Average Salary (US): $67,386
Affiliate Marketing Analyst
The affiliate marketing analyst is responsible for executing campaigns, analysis, and optimization. Their job is to plan effectively, implement those plans, and recommend the overall affiliate process. People who work in this field usually need to have an excellent grasp of Affiliate Marketing in general.
They also need to be adequately exposed to other online media. Familiarity with digital acquisition programs is also very highly appreciated as it is their job to analyze the overall process.
They need to stay updated about the changes in market size, suitable affiliate platforms for different products, and sources from where good affiliates can be recruited. Social media helps a lot with all these.
Some of the key responsibilities of this position include managing affiliate programs and ensuring that the program-specific ROI goals are being ticked off of the to-do list. They also need to provide a detailed analysis of performance metrics for major promotions. 
These analysts also need to manage communications with affiliates where they usually have to send weekly reports. They need to request and plan creative assets to place affiliates properly.
They are also responsible for the renewal of affiliate placements as they are occurring. This is done so that the placement opportunities are utilized to their full extent.
They also need to notice opportunities that are mobile with the partners. The analysis is also a great way to support online media campaigns, manage and submit assets, and report outcomes.
Average Salary (US): $69,629 per year
How to Get An Affiliate Marketing Job?
When you set out to find an affiliate marketing job, a significant thing to consider is understanding how much education is required for this job. Almost half of all affiliate marketing professionals have a bachelor’s degree.
When it comes to post-secondary education, not an insignificant amount of these professionals had a master’s degree. While most affiliate marketing professionals have some university degree, it is not impossible to become one with just a high school diploma or a GED.
If you plan to become an affiliate marketing professional, choosing the right major is vital. When you look at the people currently working at affiliate marketing jobs, you find that most have a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree.
Other degrees that are sometimes found on the resumes of these people are associate degrees or, even sometimes, just high school diploma degrees. If you plan to become one, you must have at least one of these qualifications.
It is always an added benefit to you if you have prior experience in other types of jobs. Experience in other types of jobs does help when you want to become a full-time affiliate marketing professional.
Many of these people currently working in the affiliate marketing industry often have experience as marketing managers or marketing coordinators.
Conclusion
So, as we can see, affiliate marketing as an industry has never been in a more solid position. It is only getting bigger day by day, and with that, there is an increased demand for people who can work these jobs.
The future of this industry looks very promising, and as we have already mentioned, it will not be long when big household name brands have their in-house affiliate marketing teams.
If you need help recruiting or managing affiliates, book a Free Affiliate Marketing consultation today, and our experts will be there to help you.
