We explain what affiliate marketing is and how much a media buyer (affiliate marketer) earns. If you don’t yet know how affiliate marketing works, we recommend reading the article. Salaries in the profession vary, since everything depends on the grade, as in IT. But they can reach several thousand dollars if the specialist is experienced and holds a senior position. In this article, we’ll break down how much both beginners and experienced media buyers can earn in affiliate marketing.
| Position | Salary |
|---|---|
| Farmer | from $400 |
| Affiliate manager | from $800 |
| Technical specialist | from $800 |
| Media buyer’s assistant | from $400 |
| Junior | from $800 |
| Middle | from $1,200 |
| Senior | from $2,500 |
| Head/Team Lead | from $2,500 |
Where to start in affiliate marketing? In short — with training. For example, at the international academy Arbitrage Up. Here, among other things, you can learn the profession of an affiliate manager. You can get acquainted with the realities of this specialist’s work through an interview. Without a solid theoretical base and the desire to keep moving forward, it is practically impossible to earn decent money in affiliate marketing.
How does a career in affiliate marketing start?
Most beginners in affiliate marketing start as a media buyer’s assistant. People stay at this stage for about three months on average. Pay here depends on the specific team — it can be 400, 500 or 600, and sometimes even $800. The main task of a media buyer’s assistant is to learn media buying; as a rule, such specialists do not yet run traffic on their own, and if they do, they receive no percentage from it. Beginners who are serious stay in this role only briefly — just a few months — and then move up to the Junior Media Buyer position.
There is no fixed salary for an affiliate marketer here. At this stage, it is critically important to work closely with the team lead: communicate, absorb experience and actively learn to run traffic. A good team lead is always interested in his junior progressing quickly and reaching a decent income. Success here is built on the coordinated work of the junior and the team lead. With such synergy, you can count on an income of at least $800. This stage usually lasts up to seven to nine months.
The salary of an affiliate marketer with six months to a year of experience is more than $1,200. And those who have worked in the field for more than a year or two can count on a salary above $2,500. The thing is that competition for good middle and senior buyers on the market is high: such specialists are often “headhunted,” “lured away” to another team with a higher salary.
What else affects earnings in affiliate marketing?
The typical pay model in affiliate marketing is a base rate + a percentage. So the more and the more effectively you work, the more you earn. An affiliate marketer’s income also sometimes depends on the niche they work in. For example, those who run traffic in the nutra vertical usually earn more consistently than specialists in iGaming.
However, we advise joining not the team that offers the largest monetary reward, but the one that has already proven itself on the market and has an excellent reputation. Some teams, including One Media, are ready to take on promising beginners in order to “grow” top specialists out of them within the holding’s ecosystem, with regular review of the affiliate marketer’s salary.
Solo vs. team: what should a beginner choose?
Interestingly, the earnings of solo affiliate marketers and those working in a team do not differ that much. The main difference is stability: in a team, an affiliate marketer receives a certain guaranteed minimum every month. So if financial stability matters to you, working in a team is the optimal option. But working solo is considered to give more “freedom”: you can work anywhere and anytime, at your own pace, for example, part-time.
However, we advise beginners to work in a team for at least some time, gain experience and understand how the affiliate marketing market works from the inside. Our field changes dynamically: approaches that worked just a year ago can suddenly lose relevance. So working solo, “in a vacuum,” is impossible. You have to be an active part of the community and watch the actions and approaches of colleagues, even when working for yourself.
Often those who have worked in a team for years become solo buyers, because it simply becomes more profitable for them. Many of them build successful teams — small, but with an experienced owner.
What salaries in affiliate marketing are offered on job sites?
Since we have already covered the theory, it’s time to turn to practice — to see how much you can earn in affiliate marketing on popular job sites such as Work.ua, Robota.ua and others.
Let’s start with juniors. It’s important to understand: it’s not only about money here — the team is interested in properly teaching a beginner to run traffic in the chosen vertical and growing a strong specialist out of them.
Middle-level specialists can count on at least 55 thousand hryvnias — in most cases, on significantly higher amounts.
And top experts with many years of experience and deep knowledge of the industry are invited to work for a salary of 200–600 thousand hryvnias — amounts almost unattainable in most other professions.
Affiliate marketing gives you the chance not only to earn, but also to be part of a team of like-minded people, exchange experience with colleagues, and attend industry conferences and themed events. Also, as we can see from some vacancies, affiliate marketers can count on a draft deferral as well.
Conclusions
Earnings in affiliate marketing depend on many factors: experience, skills, the chosen niche, etc. Beginners usually start as media buyer’s assistants with an income of $400, and later move up to the media buyer position, where they already work for a percentage of profit combined with a base rate. At this stage, synergy with the team lead and willingness to learn play a key role — this is what allows you to reach an income of $800 and later several thousand dollars.
The main advantage of our field is that there is practically no upper limit on earnings — over the years you can reach ever higher income levels. High earnings set affiliate marketing apart from other online professions, but in reality this field can give much more than just money.
