Affiliate marketing on LinkedIn involves leveraging the platform’s professional network to promote products or services and to make money from commissions. Due to the platform’s peculiarities, LinkedIn affiliate marketing campaigns differ considerably from campaigns on other social media and channels like email, content marketing, search, video, and influencer marketing.
Understanding the platform’s benefits and limitations is necessary to decide which products to promote and what audience to reach with affiliate marketing on LinkedIn.
How Can Affiliate Marketing Work With LinkedIn?
Affiliate marketers should join LinkedIn for its unique ability to connect with a professional audience. This allows them to enter various high-ticket affiliate niches with precise targeting and increased commissions.
The main reasons to utilize this platform for affiliate marketing are the following:
- Targeted audience: LinkedIn offers access to a highly targeted audience of professionals, allowing affiliates to reach decision-makers, industry experts, and potential clients within their niche.
- Credibility building: Affiliates can establish credibility and authority within their industry by sharing valuable content, participating in relevant discussions, and showcasing their expertise on LinkedIn.
- Analytics and insights: LinkedIn offers robust analytics tools that allow affiliates to track performance, measure engagement, and gain valuable insights into their audience. This enables them to optimize their strategies for maximum effectiveness.
Overall, LinkedIn serves as a platform for affiliate marketers to expand their reach, enhance their brand presence, and drive conversions within a professional setting.
Flawless automation solutions are essential for seamless marketing operations. Phonexa provides a complete range of tools to elevate affiliate marketing efforts and optimize outcomes. Book a demo or embark on a product tour to lay the foundation for your success.
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing on LinkedIn
The LinkedIn platform has great potential for affiliate marketing. While it is not as massively popular as Facebook, nor does it have the fastest-growing audience in the U.S. like TikTok does, it provides many other benefits.
For any type of business, it’s crucial to research LinkedIn’s user base and determine if your products or services are crafted for that demographic. LinkedIn remains largely unknown to many companies, but they can still reach out to the LinkedIn audience through affiliate programs or create a LinkedIn account, which is not rocket science.
Professional Environment
Over 67 million companies are registered on LinkedIn. Considering the total user base of the platform, which is close to one billion users, the percentage of business accounts and LinkedIn users who federate around their employing companies is astounding.
LinkedIn confirms that 65 million people use it to search for jobs weekly.
When combined, these statistics confirm that LinkedIn is primarily used for its ability to create professional networks. Brands value their networking capabilities and the ability to enhance their business reputation and image for the audience and search engines. On the other hand, users enter the platform with specific goals — to search for company information and connect to similar users.
The intentions of both companies and regular users and increased trust in LinkedIn verification algorithms result in a highly business-like atmosphere on the platform. Making business connections, searching for professional solutions, and initiating partnerships have become natural here.
For B2B affiliate marketing, LinkedIn proves especially effective. Companies are already looking for methods to expand, so finding and, conversely, promoting relevant solutions are excellent business growth opportunities. The B2B affiliate marketing niches that benefit the most in such an environment are:
- Software and technology
- Business consulting and entrepreneurship
- Financial and insurance services
- Legal services
Targeted Audience
Consider the following statistics:
➥ Most LinkedIn users are between the ages of 24 and 35.
Source: Statista
- 53% of LinkedIn American users have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared to 28% of those with some college education and 10% of those with a high school degree or less. LinkedIn has the highest-educated audience of all social media.
- 54% of LinkedIn users report having a high income, 29% — a middle income, and 16% — a low income, with only the BeReal users reporting higher average incomes, according to Statista research. Another study reported the percentage of adult users with different household incomes using different social media. The results of this study show that 53% of respondents who make over $100,000 yearly use LinkedIn, compared to 34% of people who make between 70 and 99 thousand, 19% of those who make between 30 and 69, and 13% earning under 30 thousand. This is the most pronounced difference between the high and low-income demographics’ social media usage.
Source: Pew Research Center
These statistics draw a picture of an average LinkedIn user: an educated, grown-up person well before retirement age with a higher-than-average income. Such an audience can already be a target group for many businesses, such as retail, hospitality, education, e-learning, tourism, and more. Even though the total audience is smaller than Facebook’s, LinkedIn affiliate programs allow reaching leads that are more likely to convert.
Consider this LinkedIn capability when choosing between different affiliate payback models: pay per lead, pay per action, tenancy fees, or pay per impressions. The first two options involve paying for a qualified lead or committing an action and are usually priced according to the advertiser’s profit margin.
On the other hand, the last two models require paying 1,000 views of a fixed fee for placing an affiliate link in a relevant context, regardless of whether the users click it. With well-targeted affiliate marketing, LinkedIn provides more opportunities for cost-effective advertising.
Google Exposure
What should I spend my time on today: composing an article for my blog site to increase Google visibility or creating new LinkedIn content to increase my profile’s authority? No need to choose one over the other as LinkedIn articles can also rank on Google and appear on LinkedIn’s /pulse/ directory.
This feature used to be a separate LinkedIn platform called Pulse. Currently, the feature is fully integrated into the main dashboard, and to start writing an article, simply locate and click the “Write article” button.
Consider the following features of LinkedIn articles for your affiliate marketing:
➥ LinkedIn articles have smaller exposure than posts on the platform, but they rank on Google, and the potential for high ranking is increased due to LinkedIn’s credibility.
➥ You can enhance your affiliate marketing in LinkedIn articles with more media content and hyperlinks than the posts allow. Additionally, you’re free to use any layout, incorporate subheadings, and use bullet points and tables.
➥ To rank high in SERPs, LinkedIn articles demand the same type of SEO optimization as regular website articles, including keyword placement, image optimization, and adding meta tags and descriptions. High-quality content has the potential to rank high regardless of the popularity of the LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn articles provide the opportunity to create long-form content, a method to enhance your profile’s authority.
Moreover, with this LinkedIn affiliate marketing method, you’re reaching beyond just platform users. The articles may also appear on Google search pages for people without LinkedIn accounts or who need to be signed in. In this case, after clicking the search results, users preview the article and then are offered to create a LinkedIn account. It can be done with just one click if they are signed in to a Google account at a time. Savvy LinkedIn marketers, aren’t they?
Limitations to Affiliate Marketing on LinkedIn
The platform’s peculiarities don’t put restrictions on how to do affiliate marketing on LinkedIn. However, its pricing, target audience, and reach impose certain limitations on which affiliate niches and products it is suitable for.
On average, LinkedIn ads cost $2.00 – $3.00 per click and $5.01 – $8.00 per 1000 impressions. The average cost-per-lead is $98, with most niches favored by B2B marketing, such as IT, Networking, and Logistics, reaching above $100.
Source: The B2B House
When you compare advertising costs on LinkedIn with most other social media platforms, you’ll find that its pricing policies are among the highest.
| Cost per click ($) | 2.00-3.00 | 0.26-0.50 | 0.10-1.50 |
| Cost per 1,000 impressions ($) | 5.01-8.00 | 1.01-3.00 | 2.00-5.00 |
| Cost per lead ($) | 97.75 | 34.69 | – |
LinkedIn users spend an average of 7 minutes and 38 seconds on the platform daily, compared to Facebook users, who spend an average of 10 minutes. The professional environment and purposes of the platform can explain that. LinkedIn is rarely used to spend time senselessly scrolling pages. Instead, most users use the platform to find specific information or establish business connections.
Finally, LinkedIn claims to be “the world’s largest professional network with over 1 billion members in more than 200 countries.” However, many other sources don’t even include it in the top-ten social media platforms by number of monthly active users.
The fact that LinkedIn is outrun by many platforms in terms of its user base and ad cost should significantly impact marketers’ decisions. Affiliate marketing on LinkedIn is most effective for high-value, niche-specific B2B products. It is not suitable for advertising mass-market products or for an affiliate marketer who wants to appeal to a broad segment of the general population.
Maximizing Profits from LinkedIn Affiliate Marketing With Phonexa Functionality
You can generate income from LinkedIn affiliate marketing without binding a specific buyer to one link. By linking to a variety of advertisers, you can direct potential customers who click on an affiliate link to the most suitable advertiser based on their profile and other factors.
Despite seeming complicated, Phonexa’s system easily accomplishes that plan.
Remember, selling a product is always possible when you find the ideal buyer. That’s why brands are willing to pay more for leads that exhibit the qualities of their ideal customers. When publishers or intermediary agencies know more about a lead who clicks on an ad, they can choose which business to direct that lead to based on information provided by the advertisers in advance.
Phonexa can be responsible for several steps in this process.
1. First, its single operating solution for partner and performance marketing collects relevant user information and converts it into a format that allows categorizing leads for their further distribution. This information can be sourced from user responses in forms, extracted from LinkedIn account details, or derived from user behavior–such as the context where the link or form was used, the time of the day, and the day of the week when the trigger action happened.
2. In the next step, Phonexa’s ping tree technology offers information about the user interested in a specific product to the ideal buyer, who can potentially offer the best price. If the buyer declines, the system redirects the user to the next best match until the lead is sold. This efficient process, facilitated by advanced pinging technology, ensures the lead is sold almost instantaneously and is then contacted by the buyer.
3. Finally, Phonexa enables tracking the performance of multiple LinkedIn campaigns and channels, which allows for improving advertising and matching leads with the businesses.
Phonexa’s affiliate marketing software can be used by companies of various sizes and specialties. These can include agencies that aim to connect LinkedIn influencers with product providers, create LinkedIn advertising campaigns, or manage marketing initiatives of large businesses across multiple platforms.
LinkedIn Affiliate Marketing Examples and Tips
The previous sections mostly focused on which types of companies can benefit the most from affiliate marketing on LinkedIn. The following material will provide further information on how to use LinkedIn for affiliate marketing. It will be especially useful for starting content creators, also known as publishers. The LinkedIn affiliate marketing examples will showcase best practices.
Make Partnerships With Advertisers in the Same Industry
Consistency in choosing affiliate partners and discussing topics in LinkedIn posts and articles is crucial for the success of affiliate marketing campaigns. This increases an account’s trustworthiness in the eyes of companies and readers. Companies use affiliate services in the first place to provoke the audience’s interest in their products through reviews and suggestions from unbiased experts.
Source: LinkedIn
For a person interested in the subject matter, this LinkedIn profile provides extensive relevant information and creates a positive impression of the author. In this particular case, the articles allow posting dozens of trackable affiliated links while keeping the articles well-structured.
Source: LinkedIn
Choose Affiliate Payback Models Wisely
Consider different affiliate payment models for different content types that are best suited for the traffic that your account can provide. If you have a lot of connections and followers, you can opt for an affiliate program that offers payback based on the number of views. You can approximate your revenue if you remember that your content is seen by 10-15% of your audience.
If you enjoy writing in-depth, long-form reviews, consider working on promotional content campaigns that pay fair commissions for your work based on converted leads. If you specialize in creating multiple short posts or listicles, you can look for affiliate programs that reward smaller payouts based on pay-per-click or pay-per-view metrics.
Source: LinkedIn
Apply Cross-Channel Affiliate Marketing on LinkedIn
Leverage LinkedIn as a medium to lead to your other marketing channels. More often than not, you will find established LinkedIn influencers and new users posting links to their websites or YouTube channels. Such LinkedIn influencer marketing has several advantages:
- Publishers increase their exposure by combining audiences from several different channels. This strategy, called cross-channel or multi-channel marketing, also positively impacts the number of subscribers on each platform.
- Connecting LinkedIn with channels that contain affiliate links allows starting affiliate campaigns without directly adding links to LinkedIn posts or articles.
- With this tactic, you can participate in affiliate programs that provide links inappropriate for LinkedIn, either because they are better suited for specific content types, like video tutorials, or because of the advertiser’s requirements.
Source: LinkedIn
Final Take: Who Should or Shouldn’t Use Affiliate Marketing on LinkedIn
Remember the key takeaways for considering affiliate marketing on LinkedIn:
- Most users visit the LinkedIn platform for reasons other than entertainment.
- Most users are middle-aged people with at least a bachelor’s degree and higher-than-average income.
- Many business owners and corporate employees use the platform to promote products and make professional connections.
- Paid advertising costs more here than on any other platform, resulting from the type of products promoted here and the demographics of the user base.
These LinkedIn characteristics don’t guarantee the platform’s overall effectiveness for any type of affiliate marketing campaign. On the contrary, it is unsuitable for promoting products targeted at users from a wide demographic range. Neither is it ideal for entertainment-focused campaigns that might perform better on other casual-styled social platforms.
However, LinkedIn will assist you big time if your goal is to reach out to users who follow up on the business situation in various industries. LinkedIn influencers are your golden ticket if your company provides B2B solutions and you need a shout-out. Finally, if you’re a niche expert with a knack for writing, affiliate marketing on LinkedIn may become your central tool for coining money.
Whether you’re just starting an affiliate campaign or already have feasible affiliate marketing results, Phonexa’s single operating solution for partner and performance marketing will increase the effectiveness of your efforts. For instance, Phonexa’s LMS Sync enables lead tracking and distribution. Other solutions, like E-Delivery and Call Logic, allow the activation of different channels for comprehensive marketing strategies.
Build your plan to take your affiliate marketing to the next level, or take a product tour to learn how Phonexa’s eight proprietary solutions can enhance your affiliate campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is LinkedIn affiliate marketing?
LinkedIn allows various methods for affiliate marketing, including promoting products through affiliate links and driving traffic to content on other social media platforms with product ads. However, its ad cost, specific audience demographics, and limited reach limit its suitability for certain affiliate niches and products.
Is 1000 impressions on LinkedIn good?
LinkedIn offers a more educated audience with higher income levels than any other social platform. Marketing through LinkedIn allows you to automatically target decision-makers, making the pay-per-impression method highly effective for products and services aimed at this demographic cluster.
Can you post affiliate links on Linkedin?
Yes, you can promote sponsored products by adding links to LinkedIn posts. However, it’s important to comply with the specific rules of LinkedIn affiliate programs and pages, such as including a disclaimer. Additionally, excessive use of affiliate links may degrade the quality of the content, deter readers, and lower the publisher’s trustworthiness. To further enhance your credibility and engagement, consider to embed LinkedIn posts on website, as this can provide context and encourage your audience to interact with your content more deeply.
How to create an affiliate page on LinkedIn?
The LinkedIn support team can only create a LinkedIn affiliate page for companies with active business accounts. Such pages represent a related or subsidiary organization and act as other business pages. However, inserting affiliate links is possible with all types of LinkedIn pages, if the rules do not specify it.
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