Becoming a Google Affiliate: What You Need to Know

Google is one of the most popular search engines out there, and you may want to join its affiliate program so you can earn money off the visitors you send their way. Before you do that, though, it’s important to know what goes into this business relationship between the two of you and what you need to do in order to be successful as a Google affiliate.

Step 1) Develop Your Knowledge Base

Step 2) Identify Competitors

Step 3) Get Familiar With Google’s Requirements

Step 4) Creating Your First Campaign

Step 5) Monitor the Results

Step 1) Develop Your Knowledge Base

In order to become a Google affiliate, you need to learn more about your target audience. Spend some time on Quora, reading through questions and answers related to your topic. Become an expert in your niche and take pride in knowing more than other affiliates around you.

Step 2) Identify Competitors

The first step in becoming a Google affiliate is identifying potential competitors. In most cases, you’ll be competing with other bloggers. But just because there’s competition doesn’t mean it won’t be easy for you to find opportunities on certain keywords. Find out who your competitors are and how much money they make from their affiliate marketing efforts. You can see where your competitor ranks on Google by simply typing in his or her name + affiliate site into Google.

Step 3) Get Familiar With Google’s Requirements

Google’s reputation as an online giant is enough to impress most web users, but what really sets it apart from other major search engines is its use of AdSense, which helps websites make money off advertisements by placing text ads on their websites. To become a Google affiliate, you’ll need two things—you’ll need to submit your website for approval and get familiar with Google’s requirements.

Step 4) Creating Your First Campaign

Once you have your landing page ready, you can move on to creating an AdWords account for your business. First, you’ll need to make sure you have a valid address (no PO boxes), phone number and credit card information. Once that’s taken care of, head over to AdWords where you can create your first campaign. Choose either keywords-only targeting or keyword-and-display targeting.

Step 5) Monitor the Results

Whatever you decide to sell, make sure you have ways of tracking your success. Without some way of measuring whether or not your efforts are paying off, there’s no point in continuing. It’s also good practice for when (not if) you decide to expand into additional products or services down the line. Keeping tabs on what has worked and what hasn’t will enable you to fine-tune your approach as time goes on.