What is high ticket affiliate marketing?
High ticket affiliate marketing is an online business model that entails promoting expensive products to earn high commission payouts. High ticket affiliate marketing explained in simple terms is convincing people to buy a high value product from a third party company to earn a share of the sale. Affiliate marketers that promote high ticket products can also earn money for actions they drive beyond sales, like through sign-ups, downloads, or leads. However, the term high ticket affiliate marketing typically refers to driving sales specifically, because that is the action that awards a large enough commission payout to be considered “high ticket”.
What is high ticket affiliate marketing meaning? The meaning of high ticket affiliate marketing is the promotion of expensive products to earn a portion of the sale proceeds.
An example of high ticket affiliate marketing is making a YouTube channel that teaches people how to create websites to promote the web hosting service WP Engine which pays $200 per sale.
What is a high ticket affiliate product?
A high ticket affiliate product is a product of high value that is made available for affiliate marketers to promote by the brand. High ticket typically refers to products of at least $1,000 in value, according to sales productivity platform Yesware. However, it’s not uncommon for products below $1,000 to be referred to as “high ticket” affiliate products as well. Product sale price aside, high ticket affiliate marketing products should earn affiliate marketers at least a few hundred dollars in commissions on a single sale.
How does high ticket affiliate marketing work?
High ticket affiliate marketing works by signing up for a brand’s affiliate program to access a custom affiliate link in order to promote its high ticket product and earn commissions. High ticket affiliate marketers use various digital marketing strategies to reach the brand’s target audience and promote the high ticket affiliate offer. You can promote high ticket affiliate links using digital sales channels like:
What is the purpose of high ticket affiliate marketing?
The purpose of high ticket affiliate marketing is to support brands in selling high ticket items. Affiliate marketers excel in generating traffic on the internet and convincing people to make purchases. By leveraging affiliates to promote its high ticket product, a brand can effectively generate greater sales. In fact, affiliate marketing is often viewed as the most effective marketing strategy because a business outsources the burdens of marketing to third parties and only pays when their actions result in the business making money. Instead of putting resources into marketing initiatives like content creation and paid advertising, a brand with a high ticket product can just pay affiliates a piece of each sale, while still keeping the majority of the profits for itself.
How much do high ticket affiliate marketers make?
Is high ticket affiliate marketing profitable? High ticket affiliate marketers typically make between $500 to $1,000 per sale, according to Authority Hacker. However, some high ticket affiliate products can generate $10,000+ in commissions on a single sale! According to data from job recruitment platform ZipRecruiter, the average salary for a high ticket affiliate marketer in the United States is approximately $77,000/year, or $37/hour.
However, the earning potential for high ticket affiliate marketers is basically uncapped because your results depend on the amount of work you put into your business. Some affiliate marketers that promote high ticket products, like Pat Flynn or Neil Patel, earn millions of dollars each year. Still, many other high ticket affiliate marketers earn little to nothing from their affiliate marketing efforts.
What are high ticket affiliate marketing niches?
High ticket affiliate marketing niches are niches that have expensive products and high financial incentive to sell those products. The most important aspect of high ticket affiliate marketing is that the product is expensive enough, and the commission is structured in such a way that the affiliate can earn a considerable sum from their work. However, the majority of niches don’t offer that combination and so aren’t favorable for high ticket affiliate marketing.
High ticket affiliate marketing niches include:
17 Popular high ticket affiliate marketing programs in 2024
- Fiverr - Fiverr is a leading freelancer marketplace where businesses find and hire high-quality talent. Through the Fiverr affiliate program, you can earn up to $150 by connecting businesses looking to fill roles with one of the best freelance platforms around.
- WP Engine - The WP Engine affiliate program allows you to earn an affiliate commission by promoting managed WordPress hosting plans to website domain owners. The program pays out $200 per sale and also includes bonus commissions for generating multiple sales per month. For example, 5 sales in a month pays out a commission bonus of $100, while 60 sales in a month earns a higher commission bonus of $1,500.
- Shopify - Affiliates in the Shopify affiliate program can earn $150 per qualified referral made to this Ecommerce platform. In order to get accepted into this affiliate program, you need to have experience with Ecommerce and have a website with an established audience.
- Active Campaign - For high ticket affiliates with an audience of digital marketing professionals, the Active Campaign affiliate program can be quite lucrative. You can earn up to $1,350 per referral when considering the total payout from the recurring monthly commission.
- Thinkific - Affiliates who get invited to promote this online course creation platform can earn a 30% lifetime recurring commission. You can potentially earn $1,700/year for a single referral.
- DreamHost - By referring website owners to the dedicated server plan of this website hosting company, you earn a flat $200 commission per sale.
- Authority Hacker - Authority Hacker offers high ticket digital marketing training courses. Affiliates can earn up to $1,979 by promoting these courses.
- Augusta Precious Metals - This gold IRA company pays out up to $200 per qualified lead plus allows affiliates to enjoy a revenue share arrangement.
- Luxury Card - This premium credit card company offers affiliates that sign up to its affiliate program through the FlexOffers affiliate network, up to $405 per sale.
- LiquidWeb - This web hosting service company pays out anywhere from $150 to $7,000 for referring new customers to its web hosting plans.
- Smartproxy - Smartproxy is a public data access platform that offers data center proxies to help companies with data collection and web scraping. They offer 30% recurring commission and up to $2,500 per each new customer.
- Embroker - This company offers various business insurance packages. Affiliates earn an average of $250 for each company that signs up for the service.
- Legendary Marketer - Affiliates of this high ticket offer earn 30% to 60% commission on each sale. That means you could make up to $1,500 for promoting David Sharpe’s high ticket digital product courses.
- HubSpot - HubSpot is a CRM platform that offers a suite of tools for business owners. HubSpot’s plans range from $50 to $3,000/month and the company pays a 100% commission for the first month's revenue. You also earn a 15% recurring commission each month for up to a year.
- ClickFunnels - Affiliates of this website and sales funnel builder earn 30% recurring commission, with the potential to earn up to $750 for an annual subscription sign up.
- Semrush - Semrush is an online tool suite for online marketing activities like SEO, PPC, and keyword research. Their affiliate program pays a $200 flat commission for each sale you make.
- Air Oasis - This air purifier company offers a range of products to keep air clean around the home or at work. They pay a 10% commission, with a potential payout of $1,000 for selling their high ticket products that cost $10,000+.
How to start high ticket affiliate marketing for beginners?
1. Choose a niche
Picking the right niche sets the tone for a high ticket affiliate marketing business. Although there are niches like personal finance that are popular for high ticket affiliate marketing, you shouldn’t just choose a broad niche idea because affiliate marketing is extremely saturated and competitive. Instead, it’s best to “niche down” by choosing a sub niche within a high value niche. For example, instead of choosing personal finance, a sub niche with less competition would be something like “personal finance for college athletes”.
2. Plan your affiliate marketing strategy
After choosing a niche, you need to devise a strategy for reaching your target audience. Blogging and video content creation are two of the most popular methods for attracting an audience. In fact, a 2020 report by affiliate marketing platform AWIN found that blogs generate 40% of all affiliate commissions. However, video content like YouTube and TikTok has exploded in popularity in recent years, with 64% of consumers preferring video over image or written content forms.
Success with high ticket affiliate marketing entails more than just getting users' attention, though, you also need to keep their attention. Your high ticket affiliate marketing strategy should include methods to regularly communicate with your audience. For example, you can establish communication lines with your audience by:
3. Create and publish content
Now that you have your plan of action, the real work begins. You need to use resources to create content around your chosen niche. No matter what type of content you create, you’ll need to regularly publish high-quality content over an extended period if you want to grow your audience. For example, according to creator economy newsletter Ghost, it takes between 2 and 4 years to establish a successful blog with enough readers to start making a consistent affiliate income.
4. Find and promote a high ticket offer
Once your content starts attracting a consistent audience, you can monetize your high ticket affiliate marketing business. There are many high ticket affiliate programs to choose from. You can find these programs through an affiliate network like Impact, or go straight to a brand's website if they manage their own high ticket affiliate program.
4 Actionable tips to be successful with high ticket affiliate marketing
- 1Set up systems - High ticket affiliate marketing can be a lot of work. However, you can alleviate much of the hassle by establishing systems and processes to automate your business. For example, if you need to hire writers to help with blog posts, outlining your requirements in an easy-to-follow process guide will help avoid unnecessary communications and revisions. There are also many tools you can use to automate your business. For example, you can use an email marketing software like Active Campaign to set up an email campaign that automatically sends your audience the right email sequences based on the triggers you set.
- 2Include low ticket products - Even if you establish a large audience, it’s not likely you will be able to sell a high ticket product every day. If you want to improve your chances of making consistent income from affiliate marketing, it’s best to also include some low ticket affiliate products into your strategy. That way, you're more likely to make some money every day and little sales can add up over time.
- 3Promote products you actually use - Involved affiliate marketing is a term that refers to promoting products that the affiliate marketer actually uses themself. When promoting high ticket products, it can be especially beneficial to understand the product from a firsthand perspective so you can provide your audience with explicit details. Providing your own unique experience with a product also shows authenticity and builds trust with your audience, making it more likely they will feel comfortable using your affiliate link to purchase the high ticket product.
- 4Use an omni channel approach - If you want to maximize your high ticket affiliate marketing income, don’t limit yourself to a single marketing channel. For example, instead of just relying on a blog to drive traffic to your affiliate offers, you can also incorporate TikTok videos and paid advertising into your marketing strategy. Establishing multiple traffic channels and sales funnels makes your business more dynamic and able to capitalize on different trends to optimize revenue potential.
Is high ticket affiliate marketing real?
Yes, high ticket affiliate marketing is real. Many affiliate marketers promote high ticket products and earn substantial money online as a result. In fact, online entrepreneur and influencer, Brian Jung, generates upwards of $6,900/day by primarily promoting high ticket affiliate products like Shopify. That being said, Brian has spent over five years building up his online presence to be able to generate consistent income from high ticket affiliate marketing.
Brian has also started and operated multiple Shopify stores, so he is well equipped to promote their products with firsthand experience. Therefore, if you're asking yourself, is high ticket affiliate marketing legit, it is. However, you'll need to establish a high level of expertise within your chosen niche and build trust with a large audience to be truly successful with high ticket affiliate marketing.
What is the difference between high ticket and low ticket affiliate marketing?
The difference between high ticket affiliate marketing and low ticket affiliate marketing is the value of the affiliate offer and the strategies required to promote that offer. Although you need to sell a greater quantity of low ticket products to earn the same commission as a single high ticket sale, low ticket products are easier to sell. Selling an expensive product with high ticket affiliate marketing requires a more comprehensive and well thought out sales funnel.
Unlike a low ticket product that someone will give little though in purchasing, a high ticket product can take months of consistent promotion until a customer is comfortable spending the considerable sum required to the product. Therefore, high ticket affiliate marketing earns more money from fewer sales, but it requires an extended timeframe and more innovative strategies to obtain those sales.
High ticket affiliate marketing FAQs
You get easy sales for high ticket affiliate marketing by promoting affiliate programs that have dedicated sales teams ready to close the deal for you. For example, Legendary Marketer has its own sales team. All you need to do is get your audience interested enough to click on your affiliate link for more information and a team of professional salesman close the deal so you can earn your commission.
You find high ticket products by looking in industries that involve a lot of money. You can search and view different content in these industries to see what other affiliates are promoting and discover new high ticket products to promote.
You have to be 18 years old to do high ticket affiliate marketing. Although some affiliate marketing programs have no age requirement, many like ClickBank require that affiliates be at least 18 years old in order to receive commission. Therefore, a minor's high ticket affiliate marketing opportunities are limited.
How does high ticket affiliate marketing compare to local lead generation?
High ticket affiliate marketing and local lead generation both entail establishing digital web properties to produce income online. High ticket affiliate marketing primarily uses those web properties to promote products while local lead generation promotes services. You can earn passive income with either of these business models. However, it typically takes around two years before you can start earning passive income with high ticket affiliate marketing, whereas you can start earning passive income with local lead generation in around 6 months.
