Travel companies looking to gain a powerful marketing edge while giving successful affiliates a way to earn money create travel affiliate programs. There are different types of travel affiliate programs dedicated to offering customers hotel reservations, plane tickets, car rentals and many other aspects associated with travel. Travel companies often combine several or all aspects of travel, giving affiliates more ways to earn money. Travel affiliate programs typically pay cost per sale (CPS) and rarely pay cost per lead (CPL). Some companies offer offline affiliate marketing, but most are for those with a blog or website.
Travel businesses often use affiliate programs to bolster sales by offering affiliates a commission, but only if the affiliate can make a sale or offer a lead. This ensures the affiliate is only being paid if he or she is successful, unlike employees that are paid by the hour, and keeps the travel company from paying money unless the company is making money. Third-party services often take over the responsibility of maintaining the affiliate program for travel companies, but the travel company sometimes will do this work without such a service.
Travel companies often offer customers myriad choices for traveling, which gives the affiliate more chances to earn a higher commission. The company will typically offer plane or cruise tickets, hotel reservations, vacation packages, tickets to theme parks or events and car rentals. For travel affiliate programs that pay affiliates a percentage of the total sale, this can lead to a large commission payment.
Most travel affiliate programs will only pay affiliates for CPS, meaning a sale has to be made through the travel company. Some travel companies pay a flat fee, or a percentage of the entire traveling cost, to the affiliate who made the sale. CPL means that when someone joins the travel company’s mailing list or requests a quote for traveling expenses, depending on the program’s terms, the affiliate will be paid for getting a new lead for the travel company. The CPL is very low, usually less than $1 US Dollar (USD).
Like most affiliate marketing, travel affiliate programs are made mostly for online use. Affiliates are supplied with tracking links and, when someone clicks the link and pays for travel, the affiliate responsible for netting the sale is rewarded with a commission. A few travel companies offer offline affiliate programs, which allow agents to make plans for a customer and receive a commission without having to own a website.
