How To Make A Sales Funnel For Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing success depends on effectively guiding potential customers from initial awareness to purchase decisions. A well-designed sales funnel can dramatically increase your conversion rates and maximize your affiliate commissions. This guide will show you how to build, optimize, and implement a sales funnel specifically for your affiliate marketing business.

If you're an affiliate marketer looking to boost your conversion rates and scale your business, there are several excellent platforms that can help you build effective sales funnels without requiring extensive technical knowledge.

The first step to making your affiliate marketing sales funnel is choosing the right platform. However, selecting from numerous options can be overwhelming, especially with the specific needs of affiliate marketing. Keep reading this guide to see our suggested picks and a step-by-step guide to making a sales funnel for your affiliate marketing business.

The Best Platforms For Affiliate Marketing Sales Funnels

When choosing a platform for your affiliate marketing sales funnel, you need specific features that address the unique needs of promoting third-party products. The ideal platform should include customizable templates, comparison tools, review capabilities, email integration, and tracking features. It should also help you create pre-sell content that warms up prospects before sending them to merchant sites. Based on these requirements, we've ranked the top 5 platforms for affiliate marketing sales funnels:

1. ClickFunnels

Get started with ClickFunnels (Free Trial) 🚀

ClickFunnels offers affiliate marketers a comprehensive solution with templates specifically designed for product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations. Its drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create multi-step funnels that pre-sell products, build your email list, and optimize for conversions. ClickFunnels includes features like order bumps and one-click upsells that can significantly increase your affiliate earnings. It offers a 14-day free trial to test all features.

2. Leadpages

Get Started with Leadpages (Free Trial) 🚀

Leadpages offers user-friendly templates perfect for affiliate lead generation. Its alert bars and pop-ups are effective for promoting limited-time affiliate offers or special bonuses. Leadpages excels at creating simple, high-converting opt-in pages to build your email list while providing value through affiliate-related lead magnets like buyer's guides, checklists, or comparison tools.

3. Unbounce

Get started with Unbounce (Free Trial) 🚀

Unbounce provides affiliate marketers with highly customizable landing pages perfect for creating product-specific review pages or comparison articles. Its Smart Traffic feature automatically directs visitors to the landing page variant where they're most likely to convert. Unbounce's A/B testing capabilities help you optimize headlines, images, and calls to action to maximize your affiliate conversion rates.

4. MaxFunnels

Get started with MaxFunnels (Free Trial) 🚀

MaxFunnels is designed with affiliate marketers in mind, offering specialized templates for review pages, comparison tables, and bonus delivery. Its link management features help affiliate marketers track performance across different traffic sources and campaigns. MaxFunnels stands out for its compliance features that help ensure your affiliate promotions meet merchant and regulatory requirements.

5. Thrive Architect

Get Started with Thrive Architect (One-time Payment) 🚀

Thrive Architect is a WordPress plugin offering conversion-focused templates ideal for affiliate marketers. Its specialized elements like product review boxes, comparison tables, and testimonial showcases are particularly valuable for creating persuasive pre-sell content. The one-time payment model can be cost-effective for affiliate marketers looking to minimize recurring expenses while maximizing ROI.

Conclusion

After evaluating multiple platforms, ClickFunnels emerges as the best choice for affiliate marketers due to its comprehensive funnel-building capabilities, pre-designed templates for product promotions, and built-in features that can significantly increase conversion rates. While it requires a monthly investment, the potential boost in affiliate commissions can quickly justify the cost for serious marketers.

However, if you're primarily focused on building an email list for affiliate promotions, Leadpages offers an excellent alternative with its focused lead generation capabilities at a lower price point.

Now that we have identified our top choice, let's show you how to make an affiliate marketing sales funnel using ClickFunnels.

How to Make a Sales Funnel for Affiliate Marketing Using ClickFunnels

Building an effective affiliate marketing sales funnel involves creating engaging pre-sell content and strategic lead capture. The following steps will guide you through making a funnel that maximizes your affiliate commissions.

Step 1: Sign Up for ClickFunnels

Create your account and take advantage of the 14-day free trial to explore all features before committing.

Step 2: Choose Your Affiliate Marketing Niche and Products

Before building your funnel:

  • Clearly define your target audience and their specific problems
  • The affiliate products that best solve these problems
  • The unique angle or value you'll add to the promotion
  • Any bonus incentives you'll offer to encourage purchases through your links

Step 3: Make Your Value-First Landing Page

  • Add a compelling headline addressing your audience's specific pain points
  • Focus on the problem your affiliate product solves, not the product itself
  • Include credibility elements like your relevant experience or results
  • Create a simple opt-in form offering a valuable lead magnet related to your affiliate product
  • Position your lead magnet as a solution to a smaller related problem
  • Use curiosity to hint at the more comprehensive solution (your affiliate product)

Step 4: Design Your Lead Magnet Delivery Page

After prospects opt in:

  • Thank them for subscribing
  • Provide immediate access to your promised lead magnet
  • Include a video or written content that expands on the problem and solution
  • Begin subtly introducing the affiliate product as the next logical step
  • Add testimonials or case studies from users of the affiliate product
  • Include a clear call-to-action to learn more about the complete solution

Step 5: Build Your Pre-Sell Content Page

Create content that:

  • Educates prospects about the problem in greater depth
  • Demonstrates your expertise and builds trust
  • Showcases the specific benefits of the affiliate product
  • Compares alternative solutions (where your affiliate product wins)
  • Addresses common objections prospects might have
  • Includes personal experiences or results with the product when possible

Step 6: Make Your Bridge Page to Merchant

Design a page that:

  • Summarizes the key benefits of the affiliate product
  • Explains why you specifically recommend this solution
  • Details any exclusive bonuses you're offering
  • Provides clear instructions for claiming your bonuses
  • Features your affiliate link as a prominent call-to-action button
  • Creates urgency through limited-time bonuses or promotions

Step 7: Develop Your Bonus Delivery System

Set up a process to:

  • Verify purchases through your affiliate link
  • Deliver promised bonuses efficiently
  • Provide additional value beyond what the merchant offers
  • Encourage product usage and implementation
  • Gather testimonials from successful customers

Step 8: Implement Email Follow-up Sequences

Create automated email sequences for:

  • New subscribers who haven't purchased yet
  • Addressing objections and concerns
  • Sharing success stories and testimonials
  • Providing additional valuable content related to the product
  • Creating urgency with limited-time promotions
  • Following up after purchase with implementation tips

Step 9: Set Up Retargeting and Abandoned Funnel Recovery

Implement systems to:

  • Retarget landing page visitors who don't opt in
  • Follow up with subscribers who don't reach your bridge page
  • Re-engage with prospects who click through but don't purchase
  • Create special offers for those who showed high interest but didn't convert

Step 10: Test, Track, and Optimize

Use ClickFunnels' analytics to monitor:

  • Opt-in rates for your lead magnet
  • Email open and click rates
  • Click-through rates to merchant pages
  • Conversion rates on affiliate offers
  • Earnings per click (EPC) and return on ad spend (ROAS)
  • Test different headlines, bonuses, and pre-sell approaches

By following these steps with ClickFunnels, affiliate marketers can make an effective sales funnel that builds an audience, establishes authority, pre-sells affiliate offers, and maximizes commission earnings while providing genuine value to prospects.