How can you identify the most profitable products and least saturated niches to maximize your affiliate earnings?
The affiliate marketing industry has become increasingly professional and competitive. It has become essential to find effective ways of maximizing your income as an affiliate. One of the keys to success lies in identifying specific products and themes, called niches in marketing.
Whether you're an affiliate expert looking for new perspectives, or a beginner looking to break through by monetizing your blog or social networks, this article explores different strategies to achieve this goal.
Between the sometimes high level of competition and false good intuitions, it's imperative to make the right choices by selecting the right niches so you can concentrate your production efforts on profitable products.
How toidentify the most profitable products for affiliate marketing?
Before these products can be identified, it is essential to understand what constitutes a profitable product. Many factors need to be taken into account:
Market size
One of the most important questions to ask yourself is: is this product commonly used by the vast majority of households, or can you target a niche and become a reference for a specific audience? Just as a physical boutique evaluates its geographical area before setting up shop, a product is aimed at a more or less vast public, more or less in need of information. So if you have a hunch, market research and other online tools can help you confirm it. Statistical data, for example, will enable you to predict potential penetration rates.
💡 Unexpected successes and setbacks: It's important to note that statistics can sometimes prove misleading or fail to anticipate an emerging trend. This is what happened with the Rainbow Loom bracelets, which experienced an intense craze during the summer of 2013, only to quickly fall into oblivion. Keep in mind that spending time on these products can generate a profit, but only in the short term.
💡 In another field, at the end of the 90s, experts estimated that digital cameras would take a decade to establish themselves on the market, whereas they only needed two. By contrast, 3D televisions, touted as the future of technology in 2010, never really took off.
Average revenue per sale
While it's nice to sell, it's even more important to get a significant return on your investment. To take the example of Rainbow Loom bracelets: a case priced at €25 will earn you €1.25 in commission if the commission rate is set at 5%. Despite the large target audience, to generate €1,000 in commission, you'd need to sell 800 of them.
If you opt for more expensive products, such as hi-fi, for example, the sale of a single 3D TV at a price of €1,200 can earn you €51.6 per sale, assuming a commission rate of 4%. To reach €1,000 in commissions, you'd need to sell just 20 units. However, the number of potential customers for these products is much more limited than for toys.
It's quite possible to find products that combine profitability with a large audience. This is true of games consoles, for example. A PlayStation 5, priced at €550, yields a commission of €22 at a rate of 4%, and its popularity far exceeds that of home-cinema equipment.
However, while equilibriums do exist, it should be noted that many affiliates are on the lookout and competition on these markets is often intense, requiring differentiation and a focus on specific niches.
How can you identify the least saturated affiliation niches?
In marketing terms, a niche refers to a small but highly specialized audience. Niche members are generally very interested in products specific to their field, which translates into higher basket sales.
💡 Remember, when you address a niche, you're often addressing experts. If you identify a promising niche, make sure you have in-depth knowledge of your subject.
To identify less saturated niches, some preparatory work is required. Two free tools from Google can help you learn more.
Google Trends
With Google Trends, you can compare search volumes for various keywords. For example, you could determine which card is the most searched for: Magic or Pokemon?
This tool also gives you the opportunity to spot emerging trends. For example, Ryobi lawnmowers seem to have gained in popularity in recent years. Indeed, the volume of requests has doubled in the space of a year.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a tool designed for planning advertising campaigns. It offers a feature called the Keyword Planning Tool, which allows you to go further than Google Trends. This tool provides you with monthly search volumes for your keyword, as well as associated queries and, most importantly, the level of competition.
By combining the data from these two tools, you can assess the potential of queries and estimate the difficulty you'll face in positioning yourself on them in the search engines.
If you're looking for a less saturated niche, you'll generally have to specialize from a broader sector:
- Organic shampoos can be the subject of a uniquely themed niche site
- Electric cargo bikes are also a niche: https: //meilleur-velo-electrique.com/velo-cargo-electrique/
- When it comes to investment, SCPIs are a niche market.
In practice, this generally translates into articles that explore precise queries, responding to a very specific need:
- What's the best mower for sloping terrain?
- Which paint is most effective in protecting wood from insects?
- The best manicure tools for square nails
- What equipment to choose for sleeping under the stars
Optimize affiliate revenues
Once you've identified a niche, the next step is to produce content for your website, blog or social networks. Once you've defined your target audience, you can develop your editorial strategy. We recommend that you read the following articles to learn more about these topics:
Key points to remember
Niche markets offer a twofold opportunity in affiliate marketing: to earn commissions on profitable products via your blog or website, without falling into the trap of dropshipping, and to bypass competitors who have greater marketing resources than you do.
Upstream, strategic planning of themes, in-depth product research and the creation of targeted, high value-added affiliate content are essential for success in niche markets.
Every sector is bound to experience fashions or evolutions. Whether these are ephemeral or perennial, the preliminary checks you carry out will help you avoid wasting your time creating content in sectors that are too competitive or, conversely, that offer little revenue potential. These analyses will enable you to identify niches and specific needs on which to base your affiliate content.
