“We started with initial form of affiliate marketing” – Alexander Melkumyants from AMarkets

Often for a broker firm it is more beneficial to give a part of profit to webmaster, rather than to throw away huge marketing budget. This issue was revealed by Alexander Melkumyants, the head of affiliate programs department at AMarkets on October 7, 2016 during Russian Affiliate Congress.

We’ve discussed with Alexander peculiarities of operations with financial offers, main mistakes of webmasters and their profits.

Interviewer: Russian Affiliate Congress (RACE)

Speaker: Alexander Melkumyants (А.М.)

RACE: Hello, Alexander! Tell us please how to earn on financial affiliate programs.

А.М.: There are two the most transparent and fair earning models in affiliate programs: Revenue Share and CPA.

Using Revenue Share model (“Agent” account) partners get percent of attracted clients’ funds within the whole period of their activity. Profit of the partner is estimated in USD per 1 lot (measurement unit of trading volume). An average rate in the industry is $8-10 per lot. In the long run such method of cooperation is the most beneficial for the partner.

Simple example: partner attracted the client with a $10 000 deposit. Partner made several large transactions per day totaling to 5 lots for the EUR / USD currency pair. If the rate for this tool in $10, partner will earn $50. During the month partner can get $1 100 from one such client.

CPA – Cost per Action is the most common model of income for webmasters. In AMarkets we make payments for confirmed registrations and percent of the total customer deposits during the verification of his account, i.e. 5-15 days after the first deposit.

Example: Client has replenished his account for $5 000 within 15 days after the first deposit of funds. His account has been verified, and partner has received $5 for the registration and $250 for the replenishment. The total profit is $255. This cooperation model is perfect for those webmasters, who rely on prompt income.

AMarkets provides its partners with an opportunity to work in both directions simultaneously.

RACE: Why has affiliate program appeared in your company?

А.М.: This is a good question, because it is obvious that the company is not just willing to give a lion's share of its revenue to the partners, up to 60% of what it earns.

The thing is that it is quite difficult to promote our product using conventional marketing methods. The most effective attraction channel is word-of-mouth marketing. Therefore, to give partners a share of our income is more profitable than to waste huge marketing budgets.

Like many other companies, we started with initial form of affiliate marketing – with the campaign “Invite a friend”. It has proved to be effective and has spurred us to the further development of this direction.

RACE: How to promote financial offers successfully?

А.М.: Unfortunately, there is no common winning approach. It is the same as become a successful entrepreneur: much depends on a person and his attitude to work.

In my opinion, the most widespread success factors include first of all the desire to work and earn money. Affiliate marketing should be considered as any other job: it requires the same attitude and efforts.

The second factor is product knowledge and the ability to present its key advantages. Detailed information about product features allows you to build effective marketing campaigns.

The third one is the correct formulation of objectives and strategy for their achievement. This is especially important at the initial stage, when it is unclear, whether you succeed or not.

And finally, an individual approach to work gives tangible advantages. Every day a huge number of partners around the world are working to attract customers, they are your competitors. If you have a unique component of a sales system, your chances of success will increase significantly.

RACE: You’ve mentioned the beginning of working with affiliate programs. What are the most common mistakes made by webmasters on this stage?

А.М.: First and foremost it is the lack of clear strategy and plan of actions. Most beginners do not want to spend time on studying educational content and recommendations; they burst to go into action immediately and start to distribute links randomly wherever possible.

The second mistake is connected to the first one: working with non-targeted audience. The result is a large number of registrations that are not converted into customers – it is a waste of your money. There are plenty of tools for targeting the audience, so why not to use them?

Another common mistake is the expectation of quick results. Our product is quite complex, so conversion can be reached after a long time. Sooner or later, attracted customers will replenish their accounts and start to work, but partner won’t know about it, abandoning his account after the first week.

RACE: Let’s assume that partner did everything correctly. How much can he earn using your system?

А.М.: An average earning of those working in the “Webmaster” sector is $500 per month; the more successful webmasters get $1000-2000 per month.

More profitable sector at AMarkets is “Agent”. In this segment, an average income of an active partner is $3 000 per month.

In order not to be unfounded, I will give an example of income of our webmasters: