Difference Between an Affiliate Marketer and a Brand Ambassador

For our next post during Delux Designs (DE), LLC blog series on Affiliate Marketing, we are focusing in on the Difference between an Affiliate Marketer and a Brand Ambassador.

I felt like since we went over the difference between an Influencer and an Affiliate Marketer before, it was necessary to bring up this difference as well. Social media can make all of these terms confusing and some even believe these are all the same exact thing when they are not.
There are many differences between them.

If you have missed any of the previous posts in our series, make sure that you click each link provided below to catch up and then return to this post to continue. Don’t worry, if you click any of the links shown it will bring up a whole new tab in your internet browser so you won’t lose this page.

Not that you’ve caught up, let’s dig into the difference between these two digital marketing fields:

Brand Ambassador – a person, especially a celebrity, who is paid to endorse or promote a particular company’s products or services.

We have already went over what an Affiliate Marketer is but just to refresh your memory, the definition of Affiliate Marketing is a form of digital marketing where a business sells or promotes another company’s products or services on their website along with getting paid every time they attract a visitor or customer. A Brand Ambassador is a person, especially a celebrity, who is paid to endorse or promote a particular company’s products or services. Very similar but the biggest difference here is affiliate marketing consists, most of the time, of two different companies working together to achieve one main goal, and a brand ambassador consists of one person working towards achieving one main goal for a company. Some other differences below include:

Affiliate marketing includes companies that are paid commissions per sale or signup, Brand Ambassador programs do not pay commissions.
Affiliate marketers do not have to pay upfront payments or costs to make money, Brand Ambassadors most of the time do have to pay upfront costs in exchange for products, services, or special access to events to promote.
Trackable links are available for tracking leads and sales as an affiliate marketer so you know upfront how much profit you are or aren’t making daily, a Brand Ambassador’s activity is not tracked so there’s no guarantee that you’re actually making a profit on a regular basis if you’re not tracking sales manually on your own.

I know you are thinking, a Brand Ambassador sounds a lot like an Influencer. Well there is a difference between those two as well. Confusing sometimes, I know. Let’s break it completely down for you.

Affiliate – are paid commissions on sales
Ambassador – are paid to endorse a brand
Influencer – are paid or commissioned to influence followers choices

So which is the better option or route to go for digital marketing?
Well all of them are great choices but they all depend on what you intend to do online to make money. If you are an individual who does not have a company or brand of your own, then you are more than likely going to go with either being a Brand Ambassador or an Influencer. If you are an individual without a business or service of your own and want more of a set pay amount upfront, you are probably more than likely to become an Influencer. If you have your own company or brand and want more of the advertising gigs and more of a set pay coming in monthly, you are more than likely going to go the affiliate route. It really depends on what your intentions are when it comes to making money remotely online. All of them can be lucrative, and you can get paid for all three routes but just like any job, you must work to make money with all three of them.

The biggest mistake that most make pertaining to being a Brand Ambassador is believing that all you have to do is post online and you will get people to buy from you and you will become rich and a celebrity overnight guaranteed. This is completely false. Yes, celebrity status may give you an edge up but being popular doesn’t make you any money if you can not convert those followers and attention to actually buying something. There are a ton of Brand Ambassadors and Influencers all over the internet with thousands of followers but none of their followers actually purchase anything from them at all in reality. Same goes for some Affiliates. If you can not convert followers, popularity and attention to sales, that big following will never matter, you will just be a popular person who does not make any money off of your popularity.

This is not to discourage you from becoming an Influencer or a Brand Ambassador. This is a post to give you feedback and knowledge on the difference between them so you will know what you are doing when you get started along with what to expect as an Affiliate Marketer. Check out our next post for our Affiliate Marketing Blog Series on How Affiliate Marketing Can Help you During Covid-19, and make sure you are subscribed to our blog by clicking here so you can keep up with everything.

What are your thoughts and comments on the differences between a Brand Ambassador and a Affiliate Marketer? Comment below in the comment section at the bottom of this post.

Disclaimer: Affiliate links have been included in this post in which Delux Designs (DE), LLC receives a commission from any sales made through this post. 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.