Automate Traffic + Sales with YouTube Shopping Affiliates
Author: JoeThe affiliate model is a great way to generate free traffic and positive ROI for online stores. When I owned a brand (7 years on Shopify) we had success building a squadron of affiliates primarily on Instagram.
These partners (affiliates) generated a steady stream of:
- New customers from their audience
- Traffic to our website
- Sometimes backlinks (if they had a blog or YouTube channel)
- Content to use on our site, social media, and marketing campaigns (product photos + videos)
Open 7 Shopify Automation Tips to Level Up Your Store in a new tab and checkout Tip #2 and #6 to see the tools we used for that strategy.
New automated sales tactic
YouTube announced that they're expanding their partnership with Shopify to allow Shopify stores to easily join the YouTube Shopping affiliate program and manage it with the Google & YouTube app.
👉 Summary: Easy way to get free traffic, brand exposure, and automatic sales at your desired commission rate. Nice!
What's the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program?
YouTube creators can tag products and make them available in their videos, shorts, and live streams.
When a viewer buys the product, the YouTube creator gets a commission, the brand gets a new customer.
There's even a Chrome extension creators use to see if products on the site they're browsing are eligible.
Imagine this flow:
- YouTuber is browsing your site and likes the products
- They see that you have available YouTube affiliate products (via their Chrome extension)
- They think your awesome products are a good match for their audience
- They buy something and include it in their next video
- Viewers buy the product
- You get a new customer, they get a commissions
- The incentive spawns the idea to do a whole video guide just on your product
- Boom, automatic sales and new channel for customers to your store
According to their getting started guide, "We are working on expanding eligibility to the program in the future.", but there are restrictions: Shopify Advanced or Plus plan, Google Merchant Center account set to USA, and some others (see that getting started guide for details).
Why are affiliate programs awesome?
I've been both an affiliate and a brand working with affiliates, it's a win-win relationship. The brand gets free traffic and a guaranteed positive ROI marketing cost, the affiliate earns income by promoting products they trust and believe in.
When I was growing my Shopify store we had to do a lot of manual work, reaching out to prospects and sites we thought would be a good fit. The YouTube affiliate program automates that and exposes to a large audience... huge audiences.
I haven't used YouTube Shopping affiliates but as a former brand owner I can see the value: big upside, minimal value, and at least some free traffic.
Affiliate bonus highlights:
- Free traffic and links to your site
- You set the commission rate, guaranteeing a positive ROI
- Potential for viral sharing
- Your brand gains credibility and social proof, being recommended by people
- Opens the door for additional partnerships
Final thoughts
I don't currently own an eCommerce brand but if I did I would 100% be signing us up for YouTube Shopping affiliates.
It was always cool trying new marketing channels and hitting a win (and of course suffering through the duds 😄). I think it's worth a shot to at least give it a go.
Here's the setup guide if you want to check it out: Get started with the YouTube Shopping affiliate program (for Shopify merchants).
I hope this little nug of a post helps your store get a new flood of automatic traffic and sales. ✊
🧙♂️ If you liked this post check out our flagship app Order Automator.
The goal of Order Automator is to help you and your team save time and create new ways to improve your workflow. Most Shopify stores can benefit from at least 1 feature, even with the Free plan. 👍
About the Author:
Joe's a 10+ years Shopify partner, 7 year Shopify store owner, former Shopify optimization agency owner, creator of Order Automator, co-creator of Product Automator, and has been named a Shopify Expert. Outside of tech he's into nature adventures, travel, trees, music, books, and art. 🏕🌎🌞
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