Affiliate Marketing vs Influencer Marketing

What is the difference between Affiliate Marketing and Influencer Marketing?

Digital marketing has become very popular with the rise of social media right now, and the coronavirus pandemic worldwide has been a helping hand this past year. Specifically a form called Influencer Marketing, along with Affiliate Marketing. But many don’t truly know the difference between what an influencer is compared to being an affiliate partner of a company.

Influencer Marketing – marketing focused on using key leaders to drive brand’s message to larger markets.
Affiliate Marketing – business selling or promoting another company’s products or services on their website and being paid each time they attract a visitor or customer.

In more simple terms, affiliate marketing is that of a company promoting for another company. Influencer marketing is that of an individual promoting for a company.

You see more affiliate marketing with bloggers and entrepreneurs who own websites and blogs like this blog you are reading from now. But you see influencer marketing more on social media sites, mainly Instagram. For example, there used to be a special name given to anyone who posted pictures daily of outfits on Instagram known as a “Instagram Model”. Well the correct term for an instagram model is an Influencer Marketer. This type of marketer represents themselves rather than a company.

Influencer marketing focuses more on brand exposure, mainly online. Affiliate marketing focuses on generating leads and sales for a company or brand. Influencers typically require an upfront payment from the companies and brands they work for, but there is not a true way of knowing how an influencer is doing performance wise. Affiliates are paid based on performance and that performance can be tracked through referral links through platforms. Affiliate marketing is a lower risk as far as investment for a company compared to influencer marketing.

Check out our new blog post of our marketing blog series with Delux Designs (DE), LLC on Affiliate Marketing Terminology You Should Know by clicking here. Make sure you’re also subscribed to our site by clicking here so you don’t miss any of our valuable tips and gems!

Disclaimer: We assure you, the products featured through DE from product reviews are products that we recommend based off of our own personal experiences from using them. The information given in this post is from a Certified Digital Marketer. Results may vary.