The aim of every affiliate manager is to build a successful and healthy affiliate programme. It’s not an easy ride for sure, so here are a few tips from our in-house expert Ioana Dobos to keep in mind that will help you out when starting out in affiliates.
1. Define your goal
Sit down with your team and discuss the overall business goal, then adapt your commission structure to support this. Always think of the bigger picture, rather than viewing the affiliate channel in silo. What is your goal?
- Acquire new customers
- Increase brand awareness
- Higher AoV
- Increase conversions/revenue
2. Choose the right affiliate network
There are a variety of affiliate networks out there, but it’s not always a straightforward decision when determining the best one to choose. Taking time to book demos and discuss the benefits of each network is the recommended approach, as the chosen network often determines the success of your affiliate programme. Here are a few things to keep in mind when discovering the best affiliate network.
- Are fees within the budget?
- Does the network have a strong presence within your niche?
- Is the network well-known within the chosen territory?
- Are competitors on the network?
- Is the platform easy and clear to navigate?
- Are reports clear and understandable to read?
3. Diversify your publisher mix
Working with just one or two publisher types and relying on very few publishers to drive revenue, is not going to give you the results you’re hoping for. Working with a variety of publisher types will open doors to targeting new audiences that you might not be able to reach through your current marketing efforts. The key to running a healthy affiliate programme is building strong relationships with new and existing partners – the stronger the relationship, the more effort partners will put into driving strong results for your brand. So, take time to get to know your publishers to build trust and loyalty!
- Recruit publishers across each level of the marketing funnel
- Schedule regular catchups with your top players
- Do not neglect your mid and low-tier publishers!
4. Give publishers the right tools and resources
Once you’ve onboarded the right affiliates, make sure to regularly communicate programme news and offer updates to them. Affiliate networks offer several different tools that can support this, so take advantage!
- Use the communication centre for regular newsletter send-outs.
- Refresh creatives regularly and inform your publishers.
- Incorporate exclusive discount codes as part of your strategy (watch out who you give them to though!)
- Be flexible with your commission and incentivise publishers for their strong performance.
5. Measure results and optimise
Wanting a successful affiliate program without measuring the results? Sorry to break it to you, but it’s not going to happen!
It’s essential to ensure that your affiliate network has a clear and easy-to-navigate report section, as this is going to facilitate your analysis process. Regularly monitoring your publisher performance and overall results, is key to the long success of your affiliate programme.
- Regular monitoring of your programme performance is recommended – Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly.
- Optimise based on your successful publishers
- Reach out and build stronger relationships with the lower performing publishers, try to get them at the top.
If you’re interested in finding out how our team can help you with your affiliate marketing strategy, drop us a message at team@modo25.com and we’ll be more than happy to chat with you.
