Does Facebook Have An Affiliate Program? Kind Of.
With Facebook generating so much revenue through their Facebook Ads network, it has been a consistent question by affiliate marketers as to whether Facebook has an affiliate program and if so, how do you join it.
Just today, I received indication that Facebook is now offering a Facebook Ads affiliate program, or at the very least, we could call it a "referral" program.
How to Join Facebooks Affiliate Program?
If you are an existing advertisers and you own a page on Facebook that is being actively advertised, chances are you may have received a notification within your Facebook dashboard as I have today.
Here is a screen capture of the notification I have received.
From there, you can click on this and it will allow you to invite your friends to FB Ads to start their first campaign.
I would assume that FB is showing you a list of "friends" or "followers" that meet the following criteria:
- Have an existing PAGE/Company profile on Facebook
- Currently do not have any FB Ads campaigns set-up
Upon inviting, it just simply tells you that this particular individual has been invited.
I am not sure even where I go to track the results of these invites, other than the fact that I would assume that I would get a notification from Facebook if I earned a referral ad credit.
A little confusing and the referral program doesn't appear to currently have a management area, but this of course could be something that FB is considering and will implement in the future.
Facebook Ads vs. Uber Referral Programs, Lots of Similarities.
The current state of the Facebook ads affiliate program reminds me of the Uber referral program. If you refer a friend to Uber for the first time, you get an Uber credit you can use towards you next fare.
So this is in attempt to attract new customers, which all affiliate programs are, but they are taking the approach that this is more of a friend refer friend platform or business refer business platform. Neither of those really capitalize on the idea and the real value in attracting affiliates, the REACH they can offer and the clout that many have within any given niche.
Where I can see the advantages of this is on a small sale with newcomers to FB Ads that want to test it out, and those same people that can refer a few others to "test it out" (and can earn some ad money in the process). I don't really feel the Facebook referral program they have just rolled out is truly a viable "affiliate" opportunity, nor is it scalable as it indicates you can ONLY "earn up to $30".
This leads me to....
Do Any Other Advertising Networks Have Affiliate Programs?
That leads to the question, if ONE advertising network is offering this, are there others? The answer is yes.
BingAds.com, which is the advertiser platform for both Bing & Yahoo, has an affiliate program through CJ.
===> You Can View & Register to the BingAds Affiliate Program Here
I remember back to the old Yahoo Search Marketing Affiliate Program, prior to Yahoo being wrapped into BingAds.com. It was a really lucrative affiliate program and one we definitely leveraged within our campaigns. They in essence gave new advertisers an advertising credit of $50 (similar to what Facebook is doing) for trying their advertising platform.
In exchange for their affiliates inviting newcomers, they were also paying out $50USD commissions.
If you are in a niche where it would make sense to recommend BingAds or make sense to recommend Facebook Ads to your audience, then you could definitely consider leveraging the BingAds affiliate program as well as the Facebook Ads referral program.
Recent Comments
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Thank you for this discussion Kyle I'm using Bing ads their specialists are very helpful and i learn something new everyday I'm going to look in to Facebook Affiliate program Have a great day.
Yeah, I have actually always found them to be very helpful as well and at times, more knowledgeable than Google Adwords specialists which are constantly getting moved within the company (hard to have any stability with one source of help there)
I can see why we don't wanna be like Facebook Kyle. Appears lukewarm compared to other opportunities like Bing. I was under the impression that the opportunity to get into Bing cost bit more but that the returns are more worth it!
Yeah I am surprised that they didn't roll out something a bit more sophisticated than this if they are truly looking for reach. I suppose they realize how much fraud they already have to deal with and a full scale affiliate program on FB might be an absolutely nightmare.
Thanks Kyle for sharing this information. We can use any advice on additional referral programs, and Facebook Ads Affiliate Program sounds like it could be profitable and definitely worth a try.
Well it can be a way to get up to $30. Not sure how "profitable" the Facebook referral program will be at this point, but if you know of any businesses or people within your FB circle that can benefit from it, by all means invite them.
I will look into it but, I don't know like littlemama said below it sounds like you're bugging you FB friends.. I already had one last night jump all over me for sending her an invite to my FB page.
Yeah, it happens. It can be an OK way to get a few dollars in ad spend and it is non invasive compared to offering other things on FB, but you might still get some backlash.
Doesn't sound like something I would promote FB ads because you're just bugging your list of friends since you don't have an affiliate link to promote elsewhere like our blog.
BingAds make more sense since you can get an affiliate link and not capped at $30.
That is what it is. The are in essence encouraging the solicitation of THEIR service to your friends. I feel the same way, I think people have grown tired of being promoted to within social mediums by their friends.
BingAds relies on a true affiliate marketing model, which is definitely preferred. Agree with you 100% here Grace.
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Thanks for letting us know, Kyle. I've noticed the smaller advertising publishers also offer a referral/affiliate program, e.g. Infolinks. Though I'm not mad about Infolinks and noticed many other WA members feel the same way.
Does Google Adsense have a referral program?
Infolinks and some of the more "indie" publishing agencies do have affiliate programs as well, but Google Adsense does not. They used to WAY back in the day though, but phased that out as their brand recognition increased and their platform for advertisers and publishers became the best in the space.
Indie publishers need that extra advantage.