Does affiliate marketing work for small niches?

[programcsharp]

Hey guys, first time poster here. I'm developing a marketing strategy for my vacation rental software. Its a SaaS for managing bookings, ecommerce, marketing etc. for vacation rental owners and managers.

That's the target market -- folks who own their own vacation homes and medium sized managers of vacation rental homes with 20-50 properties.

Right now we're on Capterra and AdWords for PPC. I'm looking for ways we can increase lead volume without scaling up ad spend per signup/paying user too much. A paying user is worth $20-$100/mo so there is some good opportunity here.

Is an affiliate program an option for something this niche? I've been researching all day and see a lot of general affiliate programs - 6 pack abs, mortgage signups, etc - but nothing that seems like has specific targeting to a niche like vacation rental owners. It's a $100 billion market so it seems like it should be viable, but everything I've seen is targeting guests that want to rent properties, not people who own them.

Am I barking up the wrong tree with this affiliate idea? Are there better options for lead gen in a tight niche, or should I just go ham on Capterra and AdWords?

 

[azureus]

Maybe not affiliate marketing but rather leadgen. In small niches there will be more negotiation involved - you can't expect top affiliates signing up for your programme just by themselves.

And it's definitely more attractive for affiliates to offer them revenue share if they can deliver them a user with a high life-time value.

 

[programcsharp]

Mmm. Leadgen is a good idea. Doesn't seem as common online, more old school.

Any ideas where where to find folks with vacation rental owner leads? Other than posting over in the leadgen forum lol.

At our current 30% payout, that's 6-30 bucks a month once a lead converts to paying. I'd be happy to pay that, or even more if there is a good volume of high converting leads.

 

[David Crossan]

I don’t see any reason for it NOT to work. I think it can certainly work but it’s not easy at all. So, once we are certain that we are willing to put in effort for it then it is going to work. The mindset is what makes all the difference; it is something that got to be positive!

 

[Jessie David]

not that well, at least for me, i tried like 3 times with different corporations and issuing but nothing too well