5+ TOP Automotive Affiliate Programs [2024]

Do you like cars? Well, most people do. And they're willing to spend a lot of money on them. But it's not always easy to find a customer. Sure they can go around asking around in the family if they know anyone interested, but that's not efficient. That's why there have always been people working as middlemen, taking a cut for their efforts.

We're talking about a 500 billion US dollar industry expected to grow even larger each passing year. It is a world with a place for everyone, as long as they need a ride. This means affiliates can follow their passions for cars — if they have any — when choosing programs. It's a fairly newcomer-friendly niche that also offers plenty of opportunities for veterans.

What to Expect From Automotive Affiliate Programs

They say that a good car doesn't need a salesperson, and a good salesperson doesn't care what car they're selling. There are so many ways the automotive affiliate work is different from other branches, mostly good stuff. This is perhaps the only niche where you can advertise products from decades ago and make even more money than new ones.

Well, it's called automotive and not automobile since there are so many products and services related to cars that affiliates can promote; engines, batteries, shiny new tires, rental car services, and even insurance companies. Let's take a look and see what types of automotive affiliate programs there are and which one is the best.

What Types of Programs Are There

In terms of types of programs, the affiliate’s hands aren't tied down. If you've done eCommerce work before and have prior experience working with online retailers, those may be the programs you want to sign up with. Albeit you want retailers that sell car gear; but those aren't rare.

Car insurance companies also have affiliate programs, and unlike good cars, they need to be sold. These involve programs dealing with car accident aftereffects; anything can be claimed, from medical bills to emotional distress.

To list a few, we have:

• Car sales affiliate programs
• Car rental affiliate programs
• Car insurance affiliate programs
• Car parts and accessories affiliate programs
• Car repair and replacement affiliate programs

Speed freaks are suckers when it comes to any of these, so we can't say which one is the best. Look at our top automotive affiliate programs if you've decided to work in the automotive affiliate field. You can then determine which programs you find more attractive based on factors such as commission rate, team dedication, influence, reach, etc.

Car Sales Affiliate Programs

Major automobile manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, and others offer affiliate marketers a commission for selling new or used cars. These are at the peak of high ticket affiliate programs where even the most minor commission results in big money.

Car Rental Affiliate Programs

Car rental affiliate programs allow affiliate marketers to promote rental services and earn commission on each successful rental.

Taxi Service Affiliate Programs

Every taxi ordering service that knows its worth has an affiliate program, but the commission rates are different. Most services pay you a fixed amount per new driver you bring in. Some also pay a percentage as commission per sale.

Car Insurance Affiliate Programs

These days it's a good idea to have insurance on anything, vehicles included. Car insurance affiliate programs pay affiliate marketers a commission rate based on successful sales, the CPS model or CPL—commission-per-lead.

How to Promote Automotive Affiliate Programs

One way affiliate marketers promote programs is through means available to them. If this is the case for you, ideally, you want to have an automotive blog or be an automotive influencer. The platform you use doesn't matter; as long as you have a large enough list of followers, you can start your affiliate journey in this niche. You can run a YouTube channel for car enthusiasts or post pictures of blazing rides on Instagram.

But the tricks are different. For example, SEO is your best friend if you have an automotive blog. You need to regularly publish quality posts properly optimized for search engines to have a consistent traffic flow. But that's a good thing since many people search for repairs, parts, and rental services online.

Regardless, you may never have had anything to do with the car scene, and that's ok; you can start with your landing page and buy traffic from networks. This is how those who have affiliate marketing as their main source of income promote programs. Now let's look at the types of traffic you can work within this niche. 

Mobile Traffic

Mobile traffic happens to be the fastest-growing traffic source in the world. It's become the number 1 traffic source for almost every affiliate niche. And it's not like a decade ago when advertisers were so limited in their choices on mobile. Today you have practically every targeting option you get on desktop available, and there's no lack of ad formats. With mobile traffic, you can optimize different aspects such as operating system, carrier, and browser.

Affiliates can opt for push notifications, banner ads, popunders, and redirects. These are ad formats with high conversion rates. It may be hard to ensure banner ads are being displayed correctly across different smartphones.

Push and In-page Push Notifications

Push notifications are becoming increasingly more popular with affiliate marketers. This goes double for In-Page push since we've only had them for two years. A major benefit to push ads is that users have to opt-in to receive them, and users who do want to receive ads are much more likely to interact with them. However, In-page push ads are visible to all users, even those who haven’t consented to receive notifications. So in-page push ads reach more users while push ads have a higher click-through rate; going as high up as 30% in some niches.

In-page push ads are banner ads that resemble classic web push notifications. Like classic push ads, they work exclusively on the CPC or cost-per-click model. Then, automotive websites or blogs that offer in-page push notifications are a great traffic source for automotive affiliate programs. You can easily find these publishers through your affiliate network.

Search Traffic

Fun fact: Google is the most visited website on earth. When users have a question or need something, they don't wait around for days for an ad to appear on their Facebook feed; they Google it. Albeit search traffic is either organic or paid. When a user finds your content by searching for something related on a search engine, it's called organic traffic. Paid ads are associated with Google Adwords.

There are many benefits to organic traffic compared to traffic from paid ads. For starters, they are 7 times more likely to convert. The reasons are clear. It's the year 2022, and people trust SEO. They know that if you've appeared on the top of the results without paying, your content must be relevant and high quality.

The downside of organic traffic is that you need to spend considerable time link building and creating constant traffic to earn money advertising on your website or blog. You could go the faster, easier way and opt for Google Adwords. The cost model is CPC and is calculated by the keyword you're bidding on + how relevant your website is to that keyword. It is only fair, right? Google has its reputation for holding up.

Social Media Traffic

Looking around you on a typical day at any time, nearly everyone is staring at their mobile phones; this happens in coffee shops, in waiting lines, and even on the streets. The auto industry has always been a leader in marketing and visual communications. What automobile brands once looked for in glossy magazines, mail, and TV commercials is now possible at a wider spread across the globe on social media.

Lack of traffic isn't something to worry about with social media. If you promote it right, the quality is assured too. While most platforms offer paid ads, using a genuine account with the right amount of followers and relevant content to promote your offers is a better deal. If you are an automotive influencer, then you're in luck. Otherwise, you can pay the ones who are to showcase your ads for you.

• Facebook. Facebook is an affiliate marketer’s first social media choice. Thanks to them extracting every piece of data about their user base, Facebook offers many targeting options which are crucial to an automotive affiliate campaign.
• Quora. People ask a lot of questions about cars. Which social media do they usually find the answers to their questions? Quora. Their advertisement forms have a lot in common with SEO. There are key tags, questions, and answers, and Quora will accept your ad if your response is relevant enough. The answers section is where you can squeeze in the link to your landing or pre-landing page.

Tips on Automotive Affiliate Programs

Towards the end of the article, let's see some general tips to help you on your automotive affiliate journey.

• Petrolheads are suckers for burning rubber and shimmery metal, something to consider for your creatives and landing page design.
• Aside from GEO, you'll be surprised how much culture there is around automobiles in local areas. We have spots filled with motorcycle lovers and maybe biker clubs. There are cities where the primary cash flow comes from transportation trucks, etc.; you get the idea. This goes hand-in-hand with knowing your audience.
• Know your audience and know your cars. As we said above, the culture around automobiles is highly flexible. You can tell a lot about the owner by looking at the car, and you can probably guess what car they drive by looking at the owner. The creative you'll use for a Harley-Davidson is different from a Mercedes.
• Payment model. Most automotive affiliate programs are based on the CPS or commission-per-sale model. Some offers may include a CPL or CPA model, but those are rare. The CPS payment model is considered harder than CPA, so the automotive vertical is typically not the best choice for starting affiliate marketers.

Conclusion

Automotive vertical is among high ticket affiliate programs no matter which sub-niche you're looking at. Selling a car is just as exhilarating as driving one, especially when you see those big numbers roll into your bank account. Choose the right car affiliate program to generate a nice monthly income.