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What is the difference in affiliate vs traditional marketing? More than you might at first think. While the goals of both are the same - to get more business, the approaches are vastly different. Traditional marketing markets to groups of people, while affiliate marketing markets more towards the individual person.

In comparing affiliate vs traditional marketing, it is important to know how traditional marketers think. Traditional marketing thinks like this: how do we increase the visibility and consumer memory of our product for the largest number of people? This is usually done through the use of television or radio ads, or even billboard ads. When this type of marketing is used, the marketing company tries to appeal to as large of an audience as possible. Target groups are usually large, for example, women between the ages of 25-50. Also demographic marketing is done in many instances, for example, the use of country music to sell trucks in the southern United States. When this type of advertising is done, it is nearly impossible for the company to know when their advertising is effective. Someone could see an ad somewhere, and not visit the store for a year or more afterwards. Such delays in consumer behavior make traditional advertising quite a frustrating hassle. Traditional marketing is also very expensive compared to affiliate marketing.

When comparing affiliate vs traditional marketing, affiliate marketing has an advantage because the product's target group becomes much narrower. Advertisements could be so narrow as to market for people who visit a certain blog about trees on Sundays. The product targeted for this group could be tree mulch, or some other such gardening product. People who visit skin care sites can have advertisements specifically designed for them. Affiliate marketing also gives nearly instant results. After placing an ad on a site, it is very easy to tell who visited the ad site and who bought products due to that ad. The main drawback with affiliate marketing is that generally when people see an ad on the Internet, they usually assume it is a spam site, or some other site that would likely give them a virus if they clicked on it. That is the greatest risk with affiliate marketing. However, in many cases someone might click on an ad for a product that they might be too embarrassed to look at in a regular store, such as products for hair loss, and so they would be much more likely to visit a website covering that topic. With affiliate vs traditional marketing, affiliate marketing also has the upper hand in cost. Not only are affiliate ads much cheaper than traditional ads, they are also apparent 24/7. No traditional ad can be seen for that long. Also, affiliate ads can be seen from other countries as well, which is something that traditional marketing cannot do.

So that is affiliate vs traditional marketing. If it wasn't for the fact that people see affiliate marketing as spam, it would be the clear winner for the best marketing style. As it is, probably the best marketing strategy would incorporate marketing methods for both kinds of advertising.