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Everything You Need to Know About YouTube Affiliate Marketing in 2024 (+ Expert Tips & Examples)
If I were a creator, one of the first channels I’d explore is YouTube affiliate marketing.
Think about it: Whether you’re sharing a tutorial or a product review, you can add affiliate links to every YouTube video description you create.
Not only that, but you can also stack multiple links to products you recommend without having to put them all in one “link in bio.”
Plus, you don’t have to worry about viewers leaving your page to go search for your product recommendations. Instead, all they need to do is scroll down while watching your video.
While affiliate marketing is often seen on other channels like Instagram, TikTok, or blogs, creators sometimes overlook YouTube as a worthwhile affiliate channel.
So, I want to explore whether or not YouTube affiliate marketing works and how to do it well, according to experts.
Table of Contents:
What is YouTube Affiliate Marketing?
YouTube Affiliate Pros and Cons
YouTube Affiliate Marketing Done Well
YouTube Affiliate Marketing Blunders
Does YouTube Affiliate Marketing Actually Work?
Like other affiliate channels, YouTube affiliate marketing relies on custom links to track the sales you generate from promoting to your audience.
On average, creators earn anywhere from $100 to $5,000 per month in affiliate revenue, according to data from Statista.
And while other channels like Instagram or blogs can be used for affiliate marketing, the industry’s investment in video is one reason creators and marketers should consider YouTube for their affiliate marketing platform of choice.
In fact, 52% of marketers leverage YouTube as part of their social strategy as video becomes a higher priority. You can learn more about YouTube marketing in this HubSpot Academy course.
YouTube Affiliate Marketing Pros and Cons
While I’ve watched many YouTube videos and purchased products using creators’ affiliate links, I’ve never experimented with YouTube affiliate marketing myself.
I was curious to learn what makes YouTube a good channel for affiliate marketing, who it’s best for, and why other channels may work better, so I talked to a few marketing experts.
Pro: Building Trust (with Users and Google)
The first advantage is that it allows creators to reflect their personalities and demonstrate their expertise and qualifications more easily.
“In the age of AI, consumers no longer follow text recommendations at face value,” suggests Austin Tuwiner, head of growth at Geniuslink and a long-time affiliate marketer and YouTuber.
“It’s more about who is behind those words. By establishing a history of videos and expertise in a niche, you will become an industry leader and a go-to source for information.”
Jesse Lakes, CEO and co-founder of Geniuslink, reiterates that trust is a factor not only with your audience but also with Google.
“YouTube’s search API isn’t experiencing the havoc caused by Google’s recent updates for website search, where many affiliate-based websites are getting penalized, unlisted, or just seeing their traffic radically drop,” he says.
Pro: Clickable Links
I don’t know about you, but one of my pet peeves about Instagram is not being able to click on links unless they’re in the bio.
When I get product recommendations from an influencer’s video or post, I’m sometimes deterred from visiting someone’s “link in bio” if it means having to click away from what I’m doing.
One of the greatest benefits of using YouTube for affiliate marketing is that it allows you to add many links to the video’s description.
Instead of having to click away from the video or open a new tab to search for the product mentioned, you can simply scroll down a bit to click on the affiliate links.
Plus, Lakes suggests that regular YouTube users are already familiar with the act of finding a product link, so there’s no need to “train” your audience to perform a specific behavior.
Pro: Long-form Content
Another advantage of using YouTube for affiliate marketing is the ability to thoroughly discuss and consistently feature the product in videos.
This is due to the long-form nature, suggests Samantha Zink, founder of Zink Talent, an influencer talent agency.
“Unlike static images or quick videos on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, YouTube allows for a vlog-style approach, providing ample time to showcase and sell the product effectively,” says Zink.
She adds, “Longer-form videos offer more opportunity to engage the audience and highlight the product‘s benefits. YouTube’s audience tends to appreciate vlog-style content, fostering a deeper connection and potentially increasing purchase likelihood.”
Con: Platform Risk
Like all other social media channels, you don’t own your audience. YouTube isn’t immune from algorithm changes, and most creators rely on the algorithm to drive traffic to their videos.
Tuwiner highlights this risk, saying that, “Even if you master the algorithm, it can change at any time, sending your traffic and affiliate commissions downhill.”
If you’re like me, this might make you a little uncomfortable and will be a risk that you have to weigh as you move forward with your affiliate marketing.
Con: Production Time
Another consideration while pursuing YouTube affiliate channels is that it usually takes much more time and resources to create content for YouTube than other channels.
Creating a long-form, high-quality video requires recording (which usually entails multiple takes), editing, and then optimizing for YouTube search.
Depending on the type of content you create, you may not want to spend a lot of time making this kind of video.
However, Tuwiner suggests that if the ROI is good enough, the time investment is worth it.
Con: Limited Tools
Lakes also suggests another potential disadvantage of using YouTube affiliate channels is the lack of platform-specific tools.
“YouTube has been trying to roll out tools for improved product recommendations but the general consensus so far has been that they aren’t great or very rewarding,” he says.
Affiliate Marketing Done Well
So, how does affiliate marketing on YouTube look in practice? I found some videos that demonstrate how to execute YouTube affiliate marketing successfully.
Life With Mar
Product reviews are some of the best types of videos for affiliate marketing, and I wanted to include an example of a product review video demonstrating how to successfully use YouTube as an affiliate channel.
Below is a clothing review and try-on video created by blogger and YouTuber Life With Mar.
In this video, Marlene Srdic, the creator behind the channel, reviews multiple items from the lifestyle brand Quince. I personally am a fan of that brand, so I was curious to hear someone else’s unfiltered opinion.
In the video, Srdic shares multiple outfits that she put together using pieces from her Quince haul. However, she also pairs the Quince pieces with clothing and accessories from other brands and adds those affiliate links to her description.
As you can see in the screenshot of her video description below, Srdic adds affiliate links and codes for everything she is seen wearing in the video, even if she doesn’t specifically mention it.
In fact, Srdic shared with me that link organization is key for YouTube affiliate marketing.
“I usually number them on the screen and in the description box so people can find them easily,” she says. “I also try to describe the product if the product name itself isn’t super clear.”
Why I think it works: Finding organic ways to include as many affiliate links as possible is a smart move on Srdic’s part. But it’s also helpful for viewers like me who may be looking for more shopping recommendations.
And when it comes to making recommendations that your audience trusts, authenticity is key, says Zink.
“The key is to authentically incorporate affiliate products into your content, ensuring that each mention feels natural and genuine,” suggests Zink. “By consistently featuring the product across multiple videos, viewers will develop trust in your endorsement and believe that you genuinely use and love it.”
Linus Tech Tips
How-to videos and tutorials are another type of video that works well for affiliate marketing. One channel that successfully shares these types of videos is Linus Tech Tips, an industry leader in consumer tech.
Here’s an example of one of their successful tutorial videos, which has 12 million views and counting:
I like this video because it’s a helpful tutorial for anyone interested in building a PC. But from a marketing perspective, it also offers an organic opportunity to link to specific products and parts mentioned throughout the video.
Why I think it works: Building a gaming computer is not an easy task. It involves many steps and many parts. This video solves both problems by breaking down the process step by step, mentioning every part involved, and letting viewers know where they can buy those parts.
This video also integrates both active and passive recommendations, which Lakes suggests are the main categories of affiliate links you can use on YouTube.
Active recommendations are the recommendations for the products and services used or highlighted directly in the video.
Passive recommendations are typically seen in the second half of the description.
These are typically the same for each video and can help answer more general questions and recommendations, such as what gear was used to create the video or what products or services the creator regularly recommends.
Affiliate Marketing Blunders
It can also be helpful to see how *not* to do affiliate marketing on YouTube.
Out of curiosity, I searched YouTube for “freelancing tools” to find a video that recommended freelancing products and services and included affiliate links.
I clicked on the first one I saw. (Since this is for research purposes and not to shame anyone, I have blocked out the channel name).
The entire video lacks personalization. In addition to featuring stock video clips and quick product demos, I’m fairly certain it uses an AI voiceover to read its list of recommendations.
When it comes to the affiliate links, it’s clear that they were just dumped into the description in the order they were listed with no additional personalization.
All of this to say, if I were in the market for new freelancing tools to add to my tech stack, would I trust the recommendations that came from this video? The answer is no.
There’s nothing compelling about this video from a viewer’s perspective.
While the thumbnail that says “13 Best Tools for Freelancers for 2024” may have encouraged me to click the video, hearing a robotic voiceover made me want to exit immediately.
What I’d Change: This video comes from a company channel and not a creator, but I think it would be worthwhile to designate someone from the company to be the face of the YouTube channel.
I am way more likely to trust a human who’s suggesting their favorite tools over a faceless, voiceless computer making recommendations.
As Zink says, “Affiliate marketing thrives with creators who possess the skill for selling, regardless of the size of their following. It’s crucial for them to cultivate a loyal audience deeply invested in their recommendations.”
Does YouTube Affiliate Marketing Actually Work?
If you’re comfortable creating long-form videos and investing time into the channel, affiliate marketing on YouTube is worth it.
However, there’s one caveat: you have to build an audience *before* you try monetizing your videos. For affiliate marketing to work, you must first get traffic and views on your videos. This takes time and dedication.
You’ll have to figure out what types of videos drive the most traffic, try out various thumbnail designs to see what attracts viewers, and experiment with different content structures to understand your retention rate.
Lakes suggests, “Until you are actually getting some views on your videos, some engagement in your comments, and your subscriber count is beginning to grow regularly, it’s not worth focusing on affiliate marketing.”
Once you prioritize subscriber growth, views, and retention rate, you can gradually start adding affiliate links for products or services that make the most sense for your videos and audience.
Growing and understanding your metrics is also important if you want to get into YouTube ads, too. You’ll need to know what your CPM, or cost per 1,000 impressions, is to see how much advertisers will pay to reach your audience.
To sum it up, YouTube affiliate marketing works.
From what I’ve seen, you must put in the work to create valuable video content and build an audience. But once you do, YouTube affiliate channels can be a great way to increase your revenue and exercise your influence.
The Science of Productivity: How to Get More Done in a Day
It’s estimated that a shocking 60% (or less) of work time is spent productively, according to Atlassian. Time is our scarcest resource, yet we spend so much of it doing things that are unproductive — usually without meaning to.
Emails, meetings, endless notifications… We’re indeed being pulled in more directions than ever before, but it’s not just technology holding us back from making the most of our time. In many cases, we are the ones responsible for our own lack of productivity.
As a freelance remote worker, I’ve had to tango with my self-sabotaging productivity quirks more than most. I used to blame my workload and environment; it wasn’t until I was completely in control of those factors that I was left with the realization that I was the problem all along.
Like you, I’m more successful and happy when I’m productive. We’re all on the hunt for the magic bullet solution; this has led to the endless production of AI productivity tools and life-hack lists. How can we produce more while doing less?
We look over at the person who seems to get it all done while still managing to have a life, and we ask ourselves: What does she know that I don’t? Is there a secret to high productivity?
With some work, many of the barriers to productivity are solvable. However, to truly enhance productivity, you need to first understand it. Here’s what science says.
Table of Contents
The Science of Productivity
9 Science-Proven Ways to Get More Done in a Day
Data-Backed Productivity Tools
The Science of Productivity
“Productivity is the art and science of reshaping yourself and the world around you in a way that makes the world work better,” shares author and organization expert Frank Buck, Ed.D.
“While the literature on productivity is massive, it all points back to that one definition. Psychological research dating back to at least 1966 (J.B. Rotter) suggests that those who feel they can control their surroundings act upon those beliefs, persist longer, and achieve greater results,” Buck concludes.
Society has long been aware of a shared desire to improve productivity, yet the modern world has moved us further away from that dream.
Technology provides constant, endless distractions — and we feed into this by being subconsciously addicted to information.
Scientists have discovered that the dopamine neurons in our brains treat information as a reward.
While this makes sense evolutionarily — having access to relevant information like the location of food sources means we make better decisions and are more likely to survive — it also means we’re naturally attracted to distractions outside our primary objectives.
Insert: our phones. Smartphones are a distraction disaster. Here’s how to overcome the hurdles that technology presents.
9 Science-Proven Ways to Get More Done in a Day
A quick Google search will show you that most productivity lists recommend artificial intelligence software (AI). I’ll share some of the top AI productivity tools in a minute, but I encourage you to take AI tools with a warning.
An unproductive person throwing AI apps at their workload is like applying wax to a car before washing the dirt off. All of the AI capabilities in the world won’t boost productivity if you still undermine your own success. Start with these tips instead.
1. Use a to-do list.
Create a task list for yourself that includes ALL of your to-do’s, no matter how small. Each item on your list should be independently achievable. Break big tasks into small, individual steps.
The benefits are three-fold:
Know what needs to be done. Task creation is a step in the decision-making process, and it’s more time-consuming than it looks on the surface.
Remove the risk of forgetting. Relying on a mental to-do list creates unnecessary strain and stress, and trying to ad-lib your workload will result in missed tasks and poor time management.
Create a workload that you can achieve. Writing unachievable task lists creates the feeling that you’re perpetually behind, and the inability to estimate your work output will eventually create a genuine problem. Technology writer Steven K. Roberts nicknamed this “The Roberts Law of Fractal To-Do List Complexity: Each item on a list is merely the title of another list.”
Why It Works
Imagine if you wanted to make a loaf of bread. You would never choose to guess and stumble your way through the process: “What comes next? Milk? I wonder how much I should use?”
No one would choose that path, yet many people approach their workload with this ad-lib mentality. A to-do list is like a recipe for your work, and it’s extremely effective when used properly.
Harvard Business Review says there are endless upsides to using to-do lists, with the only potential downside being that they don’t go far enough to push us to follow through.
“If every time we added an item to our to-do lists we also came up with a plan to specify what actions we need to take and when those actions need to be taken, that would help minimize the odds of our to-do lists becoming graveyards of unfinished items,” researcher E. J. Masicampo shared with Harvard Business Review.
Testing It Out
I’m no stranger to to-do lists. I fell in love when I was in college. I’m confident my to-do lists are the only reason I graduated, held down a job, wrote a book, or have ever done anything else productive in my life.
However, the Harvard Business Review interview made me realize that I wasn’t leveraging the full potential of to-do lists by not adding a timeframe to my intentions.
Normally, I create a to-do list for the week but don’t assign those tasks to a specific day. For the upcoming week, I tried assigning each task to a day of the week. I didn’t adhere to this perfectly, but this did eliminate the decision-making part of my morning, where I thought about what I felt like working on.
2. Just get started.
While it’s human nature to postpone tasks that feel intimidating, it’s incredibly counterproductive. Simply starting a task is a surefire way to kickstart your productivity.
For some, this might mean diving right in, even if you’re not sure where to begin. HubSpot UX Editor Beth Dunn told me that when she gets writer’s block, she just opens Google Docs and starts typing away, even if the words don’t mean anything.
For others, it might mean splitting big projects into smaller ones. HubSpot Co-Founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah said he likes to “deconstruct” the large problem at hand into smaller, bite-sized chunks.
Each of the individual, smaller things seem surmountable on their own, and it calms him to know that if he conquers all of those small things, he’s essentially conquered the big thing.
Why It Works
According to a study by award-winning psychology researcher, Dr. John Bargh, before we embark on big projects, our brains attempt to simulate real, productive work by focusing on small, mindless tasks to pass the time.
Consequently, this prevents us from getting real work done. Now it makes sense why my college dorm room was never cleaner than during finals week!
Once you get over that hump of starting, there’s good news: We feel naturally compelled to finish a task once we’ve already started, thanks to the Zeigarnik Effect.
According to Social Psychology and Human Nature, the Zeigarnik effect is “the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an objective that was once pursued and left incomplete.”
Testing It Out
I tested this theory out by making a strict plan for my Monday morning workload. In advance, I decided:
What I would work on.
Where I’d work from.
Exactly what time I’d begin working.
Which music I would listen to.
This amount of structure was foreign so I felt some natural resistance to it, but it did keep me from falling into the trap of busy work at moments in the day. When I woke up and thought about my day, I had immediate clarity.
3. Work with others.
Make yourself a part of a group, and you’ll be impacted by the focus and good habits of those around you. This can be done in person at the office or in a coworking space, or you can virtually co-work 24/7 through platforms like Study Together.
Why It Works
When you see others modeling good habits, there’s subconscious pressure to conform. You’re less likely to bust out your phone and browse social media posts when everyone in your direct vicinity is doing their work.
It’s a grown-up version of peer pressure, which Brett Laursen, Ph.D. said is really defined as influence. When interviewed on the American Psychological Association’s podcast Speaking of Psychology, Dr. Laursen said that “peer pressure follows people across their whole life course” and can be positive.
Testing It Out
As a remote freelance writer, I haven’t experienced coworkers in seven years. I’m accustomed to working alone, but I still eagerly tested out the virtual coworking space Study Together.
While this group was designed for students, I still carry a backpack and love a library work session as much as anyone, so I entered the virtual coworking session on a Saturday morning along with 213 others in my study room (pictured below: me about to enter my study room).
When I joined, there were an astounding 17,801 members active across all rooms. I was surprised to feel a sense of belonging as a result of the group size. We all worked silently alongside each other, and I really enjoyed the effect this had.
However, I think it’s much more powerful in person.
It’s important to note that coworking can also work against your productivity. The psychology of peer influence works both ways, so if you’re surrounded by unfocused individuals, you may feel yourself being negatively impacted.
4. Work in sprints.
We all know that an eight-hour workday isn’t meant to be swallowed in one bite; it needs to be broken up, but how? Improve productivity by breaking your day into predetermined work sessions with planned breaks.
Why It Works
Have you ever heard of the “basic rest-activity cycle” humans experience when we sleep? Physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman, the pioneering sleep researcher who co-discovered REM sleep, is also well known for observing that humans alternate progressively between light and deep sleep in 90-minute periods.
According to a Harvard Business Review article by Tony Schwartz, Kleitman found that we operate by that same 90-minute rhythm during the day by moving progressively through periods of higher and lower alertness.
After working at high intensity for more than 90 minutes, writes Schwartz, we begin relying on stress hormones for energy. The result: Our prefrontal cortex starts to shut down, and we start losing our ability to think clearly and reflectively.
“We move from parasympathetic to a sympathetic arousal — a physiological state more commonly known as ‘fight or flight,’” Schwartz says.
So instead of artificially overriding periods of low alertness with caffeine, sugary foods, and stress hormones, you can better manage your time at work by respecting the human need for rhythmic pulses of rest and renewal.
Testing It Out
I’m a seasoned sprint worker, so I didn’t need to test this technique. However, I was surprised to learn that this has yielded results across diverse fields.
A man named Anders Ericsson conducted a study of elite musicians and found they don’t necessarily practice more — they just practice more deliberately. “
They focus their energy in packets,” says Gregory Ciotti in an explanation of Ericsson’s study.
This means “periods of intense work followed by breaks, instead of diluting work time over the whole day. They don’t rely on willpower — they rely on habit and disciplined scheduling.”
Ericsson’s study of elite violinists found they tend to follow 90-minute periods of hard work with 15- to 20-minute breaks.
Rest periods get a bad rap in today’s working world, but it turns out they are integral to high productivity over long periods.
5. Don’t eliminate old habits; change them.
For some of us, it’s bad habits like checking email every few minutes or opening up social media that cost us (and others) precious productivity time.
Sometimes, these habits become so automatic that we don’t even realize we’re doing them. Identify the habit that disrupts your productivity the most and replace it with something else.
Why It Works
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charles Duhigg spent years researching the power habits have over us. He found that rather than trying to eliminate an old habit, people find more success in changing that habit by replacing it with a new, less destructive one.
Why? Because every time you have an urge and you do something about it, the reward you get from it creates a neurological pathway in your brain.
When you repeat that action and experience the same reward again, that neurological pathway gets a little bit thicker; and the next time, even thicker. The thicker that pathway gets, the easier it is for impulses to travel down it.
So when you try to extinguish a habit completely, you’re actually trying to use willpower to destroy a neural pathway. It’s possible, but it’s ineffective.
So if you’re having trouble eliminating a habit that’s keeping you from being productive, here’s what Duhigg suggests you do:
Diagnose the “cue” or the urge that sets off the habit.
Diagnose the reward you get from doing that habit.
Replace your habit with an activity that’s both triggered by the old cue and delivers the old reward or a version of it.
Testing It Out
When my brain buffers and I want a quick dopamine hit, I reach for my phone without thinking. Instead of trying to quit this behavior, I replaced checking my phone with checking my laptop background.
Using Canva, I created a collage of images that cause feelings of gratitude, happiness, and anticipation. Instead of reaching for my phone, I now press “windows+M” (to minimize all tabs) and get a dopamine hit that makes me feel grateful, centered, and excited about the plans I have ahead.
Not only do I waste less time on my phone, but I’ve also replaced my normal social media scroll with something that leaves me feeling better.
6. Create productive rituals.
Speaking of building better habits, Schwartz says the best way to get things done “is to make them more automatic so they require less energy.”
As President and CEO of The Energy Project, he advises his clients to develop rituals: highly specific behaviors done at precise times that, over time, become so automatic that they require no conscious will or discipline.
For example, Schwartz makes a habit of immediately writing down new tasks he needs to accomplish and new ideas that occur to him. That way, he never has to walk around preoccupied with the burden of remembering something.
David Allen, productivity consultant and author of the best-selling book Getting Things Done, would agree: “People don’t capture stuff that has their attention. And it keeps rolling around in the organizational psyche as well as the personal psyche, draining energy and creating incredible psychic residue.”
According to Allen, when people say they’ll do something but don’t write it down, it goes into a black hole.
“That would be fine if it were just one thing, but it’s hundreds of things … Your head is for having ideas, not holding them,” Allen says. “Just dumping everything out of your head and externalizing it is a huge step, and it can have a significant effect.”
Why It Works
We mentally pick up pieces of information all day and let them slosh around our subconscious minds. Emails, tasks that you realize need to be completed — they accumulate like picking up groceries at the store until your arms are overflowing and you start to drop things.
Without rituals that dictate when you answer that email, which order to tackle your to-do list, and every other micro-decision in your day, you’re repeatedly half-handling tasks all day long.
Another version of Schwartz’s philosophy is what Harvard Business Review’s Gretchen Gavett calls OHIO: Only Handle It Once.
For example, when you go through your email, decide immediately what to do with each one — immediately respond to the ones that need answering, and delete the unimportant ones on the spot. Never read an email and think, “I’ll circle back to this later.”
Rituals are theorized to be the secret to productivity and happiness itself. “In an age of choice, rituals are the key to happiness,” The Guardian’s Tomiwa Owolade writes.
Testing It Out
For a week, I applied the OHIO technique to my inbox management system. I was guilty of checking emails around the clock just to feel updated, but I never replied to them right away. Without realizing it, I was handling every email multiple times.
This goes directly against the OHIO principle, so for a week, I only checked my email at the beginning and end of my workday, and I handled every email immediately.
My inbox anxiety essentially disappeared, and I replied to everything in a more timely manner. After a week of testing this, I removed my email accounts (both work and personal) from my phone altogether to make this a part of my routine.
7. Leverage peak productivity hours.
Everyone’s willpower is limited and generally stronger at the beginning of the day when they haven’t expended any energy yet.
You can leverage these peak productivity hours by scheduling your most important or most difficult tasks for the beginning of the day when you have the greatest willpower to avoid distractions.
Why It Works
Studies have concluded that willpower is a finite resource. Acts of self-control, like trying to remember to respond to an email or ignoring distractions, leave us with decreasing willpower throughout the day.
According to Lia Steakley of Stanford Medicine’s Scopeblog, “as with physical exercise, using your self-control muscles may be tiring, but over time the workout increases your strength and stamina. So, what starts out difficult becomes easier over time. New behaviors become habits, temptations become less overwhelming, and willpower challenges can even become fun.”
As you build habits like responding to emails right away and writing down all your to-do’s, you’ll eliminate the fear of forgetting — and therefore, the burden of remembering.
The result: more energy, more willpower, and better productivity.
Testing It Out
At the end of my workday, I reviewed my to-do list for the following day. I identified tomorrow’s most important task and decided to complete it first.
I usually like to work through my to-do list based on my mood, so it was hard to force myself to work on a specific task. In complete honesty, I didn’t succeed on my first attempt, but I tried again.
Even though I didn’t achieve 100% success, prioritizing my workload still made me feel less stressed and more in control of my day.
8. Time-blocking technique.
Time blocking is the process of determining exactly when you’ll work on a specific task and scheduling those tasks as if you’re scheduling a meeting.
These tasks are added to your Google Calendar, and you will show up at the predetermined time and do the planned work.
Why It Works
Most of us wouldn’t skip a meeting just because we didn’t feel like going, but we treat our own work tasks like this all the time.
When we say to ourselves, “I’ll work on X first thing tomorrow,” and then we fail to follow through, our confidence and ability to execute our intentions dwindles. Time blocking builds the muscle that restores this ability to follow through.
Cal Newport, author of the acclaimed book Deep Work, advocates for detailed time blocking of your entire work day. “A 40-hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure,” says Cal Newport.
Time blocking is perhaps the most impactful way to improve time management. Follow-through is improved, as is the quality of your focused work.
Testing It Out
A task I’ve been procrastinating on is updating my financial Google Sheets (fun, I know.) For weeks, I’ve been thinking, “Just do it. You’ll thank yourself when tax time comes around.” However, I still haven’t made any concrete progress on this task.
I time blocked three hours on my Google Calendar for next week to handle this. Even though I haven’t completed the task yet, having put it on my calendar makes me feel less anxious because I know it will be handled by the end of the allotted time.
9. Task batching.
Identify repetitive tasks in your workload and condense these to-do’s into a single task.
Here’s a task batching example: If you want to publish a post on LinkedIn every day, you can wake up every morning, come up with a posting idea, write it, and hit “publish.”
Or, you can batch this task once a week: For two hours every Monday morning, you can come up with seven post ideas, write them all, and schedule them to publish for the rest of the week.
Not only do you sidestep writer’s block every day, but the repetition naturally speeds up the rate at which you create this content.
Why It Works
Task batching will help you complete your tasks in a more efficient way while reducing multitasking.
The human brain isn’t wired to multitask; it can reduce your productivity by up to 40%. The inverse of multitasking is monotasking: focusing on a single task, removing distractions, and completing the task at hand.
As a side effect, this task management technique also helps you improve the efficiency of your work. Inefficiencies in your workflow aren’t always easy to spot when you work on a task periodically.
When you force yourself to repeat a process several times in a row, you naturally find time-consuming steps that can be condensed or handled by AI productivity apps.
Testing It Out
Like most entrepreneurs, content creation is a part of marketing my business.
It’s something I tend to postpone because it’s not a part of my client deliverables. Pinterest is one of my business’s most important channels, and I used to schedule pins week by week.
Using the task batching technique, I planned two months of content creation at once. I created all of the pin images, wrote the descriptions, and scheduled them.
It was a lengthy process, but it was a relief to know that this to-do was off my plate for the foreseeable future.
While batching this task, I discovered just how much time I was wasting when completing it week by week. I’ve adjusted my process permanently.
Data-Backed Productivity Tools
With the psychology understood and our personal habits examined, it’s time to look at the tools and AI apps that can help take our productivity even further.
Pomodoro Timer
Remember physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman, who said that we work better in cycles? Make cycles a part of your routine with a Pomodoro timer.
The Pomodoro Technique is a method developed by Francesco Cirillo, which breaks blocks of time down into chunks of work and breaks.
You can use any time configuration, but a popular one is 25 minutes of work with a 5-minute break, then taking a 15-minute break every four work cycles.
Don’t use your phone timer as a timer; instead, install a browser extension like the Pomodoro® Assistant Google Chrome extension. It’s free and displays how much time is left in your time block on your screen, removing the temptation to check your phone.
Here’s what pops up on your computer when you’ve earned a break. Each red dot represents a completed work session:
What I like: I never feel guilty or wonder if I’ve “earned” a break when using my Pomorodo timer; I rely on data instead of emotions, and it takes all of the guesswork out of structuring my day.
AI Productivity Tools
In 2009, Apple invented the catchy phrase “there’s an app for that.” Now, there’s an AI tool for that, too. Here are some popular tasks and the AI productivity tools that assist with them:
Try AI transcription apps like Fathom.
Automate repetitive tasks with tools like Bardeen.
Analyze data with tools like Tableau.
Handle project management with tools like ClickUp.
Draft emails with tools like HubSpot AI.
Best for: Speeding up refined processes, doing mundane tasks, or automating repetitive tasks.
Task Management Software
Task tracking is an important tool in your productivity arsenal, and there’s a task management app for every style and preference.
Here are some of my favorite task management apps, which all have free versions with premium upgrades available (except for HubSpot Tasks, which is free):
Notion
Trello
ClickUp
Basecamp
Asana
HubSpot Tasks
These project management tools also incorporate AI. We compare them in our AI project management tools analysis.
Task management is never more important than when you’re working on collaborative projects. All of these apps work for individuals as well as teams.
What I like: I love seeing project updates at a glance and the flexibility to capture all ideas via endless media, attachments, and notes.
News Feed Eradicator
Anyone who works in social media management or content creation knows what a double-edged sword social media is for productivity.
If being on social media is a part of your job, you can make it less of a productivity black hole with the free News Feed Eradicator Google Chrome extension.
This tool blocks out the news feed of social media websites, while still allowing you to answer messages, converse in groups, reply to comments, etc.
Best for: People who need social media as a part of their day-to-day work but want to limit how time-consuming it is.
BlockSite
Is there a specific website that sabotages your productivity?
Make it inaccessible using the app BlockSite. BlockSite is a free tool that’s available on Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, the App Store, and more.
The free version allows you to block three websites, and you can upgrade to add more.
What I like: This fosters a level of self-awareness and reflection that’s healthy and productive.
Do your distractions require a firmer hand? The “GO ‘FREAKING’ WORK” (expletive removed) Google Chrome extension does the same thing but offers a verbal insult every time you open up a blocked website.
Getting Started
Which of these techniques will change your life?
I can say with utter confidence that OHIO (only handle it once) has already changed my life; I’ve found myself fitting it into conversation and recommending it to everyone. There was a similar “love at first sight” effect when I discovered to-do lists and the Pomodoro technique years ago.
Whether you’re pursuing academic success, need help focusing on specific tasks, or just want to get your valuable time back, these tips will help you regain some control over how you spend your time.
Who knows what potential is hiding underneath all of your unproductive habits.
That extra time may just move mountains, alter your career, or completely change your life. Better start today!
26 Conversion Rate Optimization Tools for Research, Feedback, Analytics & More in 2024
Driving traffic to your website is just the first step in sustaining your business. You must reliably convert those visitors into customers, and that’s where conversion rate optimization tools come in.
The list below outlines many helpful conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools to help you gain new customers and improve your bottom line.
From high-level changes like landing page and email design and inspiration to in-depth insights into how your visitors navigate your content, these tools will help you turn your site into a conversion machine.
To help you understand the tools and their uses, we’ve also broken this list into a few major categories:
Lead Capture Tools
Research Tools
CRO Analytics Tools
Mouse Tracking and Heat Maps
Feedback Tools
Experiment Tools
How to Shop for Conversion Rate Optimization Tools
The Benefits of CRO Analytics Tools
Ready? Let’s start converting.
Lead Capture Tools
You will use these tools to capture more leads on your site, thus improving your CRO analytics.
While most conversion-focused content has a built-in form or call-to-action (CTA), these tools act as additional lead capture mechanisms to boost the number of leads that convert on your content.
1. HubSpot
Get started with HubSpot’s CTA Tool
It’s Google Analytics meets SumoMe meets a CRM. Sounds cool, right? It starts with an exit intent pop-up CTA, then syncs with your website’s existing forms to learn about your site visitors and their path through your pages.
HubSpot’s tools give you in-depth contact insights on prospects and current contacts in your database.
It also pairs its contacts database with a dashboard that shows you a high-level view of which marketing efforts are paying off and converting and which ones aren’t.
What we like: HubSpot is an all-in-one solution that allows you to convert customers and nurture them throughout their entire lifecycle. The CTA Tool will enable you to create conversion points for leads in seconds.
Pricing: Free
2. HelloBar
HelloBar is a lead capture tool that allows you to add a pop-up form to your website to grow your email list, promote your social pages, showcase a sale, or other lead generation strategies.
The free version allows you to create one modal that’s shown to every 10th visitor. However, premium plans offer more advanced CTA options. Pop-up styles range from bars, modals, alerts, sliders, and full-page takeovers.
What we like: Hello Bar’s practical and easy-to-use pop-ups are backed by analytics and optimization features.
Starter — Free
Growth — $29 a month
Premium — $49 a month
Elite — $99 a month
3. Sumo
Sumo offers a suite of free tools to help you increase your site conversions. For lead capture, it provides a “Welcome Mat” pop-up CTA, a “Smart Bar” to increase email subscribers, a scroll-triggered box, and a “Contact Us” form.
Along with their Google Analytics research tools, the Sumo suite helps you gain on-page insights and increase your email list.
Best for: Small- to medium-sized ecommerce businesses looking for an all-encompassing suite of CRO tools.
Free plan available
Pro — $39 a month
4. Picreel
Picreel is a versatile conversion rate optimization tool that helps capture leads and maximize conversions through engaging pop-ups.
The tool’s exit-intent technology lets you target leaving visitors with attractive offers and convince them to share their contact details.
The data collected is automatically pushed to your integrated CRM account, where leads can be nurtured and converted.
The exit overlays can be enriched with personalized messages based on visitors’ click behavior and previous purchases.
What we like: Picreel features many useful integrations with CRMs, like HubSpot and Salesforce, and email marketing systems, such as MailChimp and Adobe Marketo Engage.
Pricing: $49.97 a month
Research Tools
Before you create any content, call upon these tools to draw inspiration and check out what other intelligent marketers have seen success with in the past.
5. BuzzSumo
The best content gets shared and linked the most. So, what better way to gain preliminary insights than to compile all of the most shared content on your particular topic?
With BuzzSumo, all you have to do is enter the keyword or topic. Then, it’ll pull together the most shared and linked content on that topic. Time frames range from the last day, week, month, or year.
So if you’re trying to optimize the landing page for your new webinar on cat fashion, all you have to do is enter “cat fashion.” BuzzSumo will then give you the best articles, resources, videos, and more on the fascinating topic of cat couture.
BuzzSumo also features a keyword tool, trend analysis, and other valuable features to supercharge your content research and CRO.
Best for: Content marketers looking to stay on trend and ahead of the competition.
Pricing
Basic — $119 a month
Content Creation — $249 a month
PR & Comms — $249 a month
Suite — $499 a month
Enterprise — $999 a month
6. SimilarWeb
Knowing where your website visitors come from can (and should) significantly impact the type of content you create.
With SimilarWeb, you can see where your traffic is coming from, which keywords fuel your organic traffic, and what other sites are most similar to yours.
You can also compare analytics to determine the website conversion optimization by looking over data.
With this information, you can optimize content for your most significant traffic sources and dig in to see what competitor sites are doing to drive conversions.
Best for: Teams with a generous marketing intelligence budget looking for best-in-class digital traffic data.
Starter — $125 a user per month
Professional — $333 a user per month
Team — pricing upon request
Enterprise — Pricing upon request
7. Land-book
Getting started can be difficult if you’re creating a landing page from scratch.
Luckily, there’s Land-book, a free collection of the web’s best-designed landing pages.
With Land-book, you can explore how top companies use copy, positioning, layout, and design to drive conversions. Pick and choose your favorite elements from the Land-book database and incorporate them into your landing page.
Pro tip: Land-book has more than just landing pages. Use the site’s filters to view blogs, stores, portfolios, and other pages. You can even sort by industry, color, typography, and style.
Pricing: Free
8. Really Good Emails
In today’s marketing landscape, if you want to get your message across, you’d better know a thing or two about visual communication and design.
Don’t know a thing or two about either? Enter Really Good Emails.
Like Land-book, Really Good Emails is a database of the web’s best-designed emails from the world’s most innovative companies.
Use this as a resource to see how you can design your email to get your message across in the best way possible, as fast as possible.
(Check out this post for even more resources to find great marketing examples.)
Best for: Email marketers and designers looking for inspiration on their upcoming blasts.
Pricing: Free
9. SubjectLine.com
When sending an email, the subject line can either make or break your performance. Before you choose which one to send, check them out using this excellent resource.
SubjectLine.com has tested over 15 million subject lines and has a tool to evaluate your potential options. It gives a deliverability and marketing score, plus advice on improving.
What we like: Their new ChatGPT integration lets you leverage the power of AI to create compelling subject lines, even when you have writer’s block.
Pricing: Free
10. Attrock Headline Analyzer
Attrock’s Headline Analyzer is a tool that helps you analyze the effectiveness of your headlines by giving them a score between 1 and 100.
It looks at the headline type, readability, sentiment analysis, and more to help you create a click-worthy headline for your pages.
The tool also suggests improvements that you can make to your current headline to improve its score, which, in turn, can help drive more significant traffic to the page and boost conversions.
Best for: Content marketers who want to ensure their headlines are click-worthy and optimized for SEO.
Pricing: Free
11. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
CoSchedule’s headline analyzer gives a score of 1–100 to gauge the effectiveness of titles. The score is calculated based on word usage, grammar, vocabulary, type of headline, and character and word count.
The tool shows you your headline on Google and in an email subject line. This tool is a great litmus test to determine how well your headline will perform.
Pro tip: Consider running your headline through both CoSchedule and Attrock’s headline analyzer tools to determine the most valuable results.
Pricing: Free
CRO Analytics Tools
You will use these tools to measure and track your content’s performance.
You can use CRO analytics to comprehensively analyze your conversion rate’s dips, jumps, and fluctuations.
12. Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is a powerful analytics tool that illuminates people’s behaviors on your website and lets you leverage that data to increase revenue.
With Kissmetrics, you can learn the path your customers have taken through your website. You can also conduct A/B tests, build data sets (without SQL), perform website conversion optimization, and assess the ROI from your campaigns.
What we like: Simplicity. Kissmetrics empowers non-technical teams with insights and analytics that increase conversions.
Silver — $199 a month
Gold — $499 a month
Platinum — Custom pricing
13. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free way to track your website visitors. You can see how long it takes visitors to bounce from your pages, if they complete goals from a specific path, and which sources bring people to your website.
What’s great about Google Analytics is that it lets you see which keywords people use to find your page, what devices they’re searching on, and uncover demographic data.
However, no specific emails or contact information are associated with your site visitors.
Pro tip: Google Analytics free tools are incredibly useful for 99.99% of teams. Their premium offering, Analytics 360, is costly and only recommended for large enterprises.
Free
Enterprise pricing upon request
14. HubSpot Website Grader
Website Grader is a great way to get a quick snapshot of a website’s overall performance.
It gives insights into performance factors (speed, page size, and page requests), mobile responsiveness and appearance, SEO (page titles, meta descriptions, headings, and site map), and security.
It’s great for website conversion optimization.
From there, the tool devises a grade and provides suggestions on improving, making it easy to come up with some quick wins that’ll help you boost conversions.
What we like: HubSpot’s tool not only shows areas for improvement but it also offers actionable suggestions to make them better.
Pricing: Free
Mouse Tracking and Heat Mapping Tools
You will use these tools to see how people interact with your content, including how they scroll and where they click.
15. Hotjar
Once you’ve nailed the basics, like landing pages, CTAs, pop-ups, and content, you’re ready for more advanced conversion rate optimization.
Hotjar offers heatmaps and screen recordings. They enable you to track how much your page is viewed and how visitors navigate your website.
Hotjar also offers analytics to see how well your pages are performing. This is helpful to see what’s working and what you can change to increase conversion.
Pro tip: Use heatmaps to visualize where your users click, move, and scroll, and use that information to place conversion points in attention-grabbing areas
Basic — Free
Plus — $32 a month
Business — $80 a month
Scale — $171 a month
16. Mouseflow
Website design and conversion rate optimization are entirely based on how you understand your target customer. With Mouseflow, you see where users are engaging or dropping off on your site and identify areas of frustration.
In addition to conversion funnels and session replay, Mouseflow offers a full suite of tools, including heatmaps, form analytics, and feedback.
By using these tools, you can better understand your visitors and make the necessary changes to improve your conversion rate.
What we like: The Friction Score feature helps you quickly identify user frustration on your site to improve UX, better UI, and ultimately increase conversions.
Free plan
Starter — $31 a month
Growth — $109 a month
Business — $219 a month
Pro — $399 a month
Contact for enterprise pricing
17. Contentsquare (formerly Clicktale)
Contentsquare (formerly known as Clicktale) is similar to Hotjar.
It offers heat maps to help you determine the most valuable real estate on your pages, scroll depth (where is the “fold” on your website?), click tracking, link analysis, and much more.
Using these tools, you’ll have the information you need to organize content, CTAs, and page design in a way that makes the most sense for engagement. They also offer AI-powered insights that give automatic alerts and recommendations.
Best for: Organizations looking to invest in improving user experience on their site.
18. Clicky
Clicky gives you real-time analytics on the visitors to your website. It tells you where people access your site, how long they’ve stayed on each page, and how many visitors are online. The resource also offers heat maps and scroll tracking.
Clicky is an excellent one-stop shop for customer behavior. You’ll have multiple formats at your disposal to leverage for optimizing the performance of your website — so you can convert as many leads as possible.
What we like: Clicky’s Spy feature gives you a real-time stream of visitor activity on your website. Real time, as in right now!
Free plan
Pro — $9.99 a month
Pro Plus — $14.99 a month
Pro Platinum -— $19.99 a month
Enterprise pricing upon request
19. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg offers a full suite of heat maps and click tracking, with the additional functionality of segmenting clicks by source and evaluating link effectiveness.
The basic package is relatively inexpensive and gives significant insights into how effective each website page is.
Best for: Companies that value a user-friendly interface in their website and conversion rate optimization tools.
Basic — $29 month
Standard — $49 month
Plus — $99 month
Pro — $249 month
Enterprise pricing upon request
20. Heatmap.com
Heatmap.com is, as you may have guessed, another heat mapping and analytics tool designed to help you improve your website’s usability with actionable insights.
Heatmap.com offers real-time analytics to better understand what areas of your site are getting the most attention and which are causing user frustration and bottlenecks.
What we like: Heatmap.com’s AI-modeling features help identify areas of your site that are Revenue Drivers and Conversion Killers so you can take action in real time.
Basic — $47 a month
Business — $89 a month
Enterprise pricing upon request
Feedback Tools
You’ll use these tools to engage and receive feedback from your visitors.
Feedback tools include surveys, polls, messaging, and user testing programs.
21. Intercom
Intercom is a popular conversion platform that allows companies to communicate directly with website visitors through easy-to-install and attractive pop-up chat windows.
As a CRO analytics tool, you can use Intercom to communicate with website prospects to learn if they need additional help, find out how their experience is going, and understand how you can improve.
It also allows you to track leads and use a shared inbox with your team.
Best for: Teams that want to engage more directly with their website visitors.
Starter — $74 a month
Pro — custom pricing
Premium — custom pricing
22. Qualaroo
Qualaroo is a powerful user feedback tool that lets you deploy chat windows and targeted feedback questionnaires directly in your website or mobile app.
The Qualaroo tool is helpful at all stages of the funnel and is frequently used in ecommerce.
Advanced targeting features allow you to ask the right users the right questions at the right time, which is paramount for CRO.
Other features include branching logic, design customization, and sentiment analysis with its built-in IBM Watson integration.
Best for: Businesses looking to leverage qualitative insights and user feedback to optimize conversions
Essentials — $69 a month
Premium — $149 a month
Business — $299 a month
23. SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is a powerhouse in the survey software space. They provide easy-to-use tools to create, deploy, analyze, and manage custom surveys.
SurveyMonkey helps you gather qualitative customer data to inform decisions on web page design, copy, user experience, and more.
What we like: SurveyMonkey’s skip-logic feature allows you to customize a survey based on a respondent’s previous answers, asking the right questions and improving CRO.
Team Plans
Team Advantage — $25 a user per month
Team Premier — $75 a user per month
Enterprise pricing upon request
Individual Plans
Advantage — $39 a month
Standard — $99 a month
Premier — $119 a month
24. UsabilityHub
UsabilityHub offers a suite of creative tools that give you insight into the user experience of your website, which is extremely valuable for CRO.
They provide navigation tests and funnel visualizations to identify where users drop off, heat maps, first-click testing, and more.
UsabilityHub is a valuable tool for organizations looking to go deep in usability research to optimize conversion.
What we like: Their Five Second Test tool helps you understand a user’s first impression of your site, which is critical for CRO.
Free plan available
Basic — $89 a month
Pro — $199 a month
Enterprise pricing upon request
Experiment Tools
You’ll use these tools to manage, plan, and execute A/B and multivariate tests.
Some of these tools will help you turn ideas into experiments, while others will help you create the variations and run the actual tests on your site.
25. Optimizely
Testing is hard.
You must develop a suitable control group, find a large sample, and determine if your experiment is statistically significant.
Luckily, Optimizely helps with all of that and more.
With Optimizely, you conduct tests across all devices and platforms, then determine significance. The software offers A/B, multiple-page, and multivariate tests.
Optimizely’s software gives you a full, robust test results report (example above).
Whether it’s coming up with a new headline, swapping in a new CTA, or rearranging your page layout, Optimizely allows you to test those changes and assess their impact on conversions.
Best for: Businesses focusing on experimentation who want to make data-informed decisions.
Pricing: Available upon request
26. Effective Experiments
Effective Experiments offers a centralized space for your CRO experimentation efforts. If you have tons of Excel spreadsheets cross-referenced with Google Analytics data, you’re probably going crazy trying to keep track of everything.
This tool puts it all together and helps you determine statistical significance.
Best for: CRO teams looking to consolidate insights across multiple tools into a single, easy-to-use platform
Know — $125 a month
Flow — $255 a month
Show — $319 a month
Grow — contact for pricing
How to Shop for Conversion Rate Optimization Tools
It can be hard to shop for the best conversion rate optimization tools, so we gathered together these five tips to keep in mind:
Sign up for trials before making a decision.
Be thorough when searching for reviews.
Go for quality, not quantity, when it comes to price.
Ask other marketers what they are using.
Read reports from other companies about CRO.
The Benefits of CRO Analytics Tools
There are several benefits of selecting CRO analytics tools. Some include:
Being able to track ROI effectively.
Using tools to create an engaging headline.
Capture customer leads.
Collect marketing research data.
Now, you’re armed and ready to start improving conversion rates across your website conversion optimization and marketing efforts.
These tools range from free and for beginners to robust and more advanced. Feel out which options seem right for you, and soon, you’ll be upgrading to the more complex tools when you’ve mastered the basics.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.