How To Run A Successful Affiliate Program: 10 Practical Tips From Experts

Learning how to operate affiliate programs is an excellent way to promote your business, spread brand awareness, and attract new customers.

According to a survey, 81 % of brands have already increased their sales using affiliate marketing strategies. In addition, major brands have earned up to 25 % of all sales through affiliate marketing. Of course, you need an appropriate strategy to get the right results from the affiliate marketing campaign.

The launch of the Affiliate Marketing Program may seem like a hard work. In addition to finding appropriate affiliates working together, you need to decide which product to advertise, select the best sourcing plan, and do team training.

Fortunately, we gather information from experts and provide tips on 10 practical affiliate marketing that will lead your program to success.

What is an Affiliate Program? The Basics

Affiliate Programs (Affiliate Marketing Programs) are promotional activities in which companies and marketing representatives pay other people to advertise their own or products. Companies partner with website owners, bloggers, influencers, bloggers and streakers. These affiliates share tracking links, coupon codes, and coupons with customers to promote the purchase of specific products.

Every time a customer uses these links and tracking code to buy something, the merchant pays the commission to the affiliate (often the percentage of uniform payments or purchased amount).

Affiliate programs are beneficial for both companies and affiliates. Affiliates have a new source of income, and companies have the advantage that exposure is increasing and reputation is often improved. Cooperation with appropriate affiliates can enhance brand reliability.

By the wel l-designed affiliate marketing program, business leaders can do the following:

• Quickly increase brand awareness and brand appeal.
• Get more customers (customers trust authorities and their recommendations).
• Track the investment ratio (ROI) of reviews, marketing and various marketing channels.
• Effectively target a specific customer group and segment.
• Grow your business without risk (pay only when affiliate raises sales).

Is an Affiliate Marketing Program Right for Your Business?

Learning how to execute the affiliate marketing program has many advantages, but it is important to note that this strategy is not suitable for all companies. First, affiliate programs work more effectively in the industry and niche fields.

According to a report, e-commerce companies (80 %) have the most benefit of affiliate programs, followed by beauty (77 %), apparel (68 %), and healthcare companies (61). %). The organization that sells subscriptions is also ideal for affiliate marketing. Many SaaS brands, from Shopify to Canva, have their own affiliate marketing programs.

In addition to niche fields, products and services to be sold, there are some factors that affect the possibility of the success of the affiliate program. For example, the following is the most effective affiliate marketing program:

• I want to guide traffic to my site and website. Affiliates do not sell products on behalf of you. Just guide your customer to your company.
• Your business can provide a good reward plan. You can reward the affiliate's efforts.
• Since your products and services are appealing to a wide range of people, it is easy for affiliates to advertise your solution from multiple landscapes.
• It has a bandwidth or ability to manage comprehensive affiliate marketing programs (tracking results, creating content, and training for partners).
• The value of products and services to be sold is high. The higher the value of the product, the more affiliate rewards you can get.

The affiliate marketing program is ideal when you already have a high customer maintenance rate. If all customers introduced by the affiliate can be turned into a customer who supports the brand for a lifetime, the payment to the affiliate can be made only once.

When to Choose Referral or Influencer Marketing Instead

Affiliates, referrals, and influencer marketing are all wor d-o f-mouth marketing, but not the same. The referral program focuses on activating customers and having your business guide your business in exchange for rewards.

If you can't afford to pay a commission in cash for each sales, or if your business is relatively new, the referral program will be a good option.

Alternatively, in the influencer marketing campaign, we will build an advertising campaign in cooperation with a specific creator to enhance the reputation of the brand. This is an effective option if you want to improve the reliability and authority of the company.

In particular, you can combine affiliates, referrals and influencer marketing.

How to Run an Affiliate Marketing Program: 10 Tips for Success

Once you know what the affiliate marketing program is and what kind of business is in reason, start creating a strategy. Here are some tips on top affiliate marketing backed by experts, guaranteed to increase the potential of success.

1. Set Clear Goals, KPIs, and Metrics

One of the biggest mistakes that companies make when learning how to operate affiliate programs is to think that their goals can be transferred unclear. The overall goal of affiliate strategies may be to increase sales and traffic, but you need to make it more specific.

Please answer the following questions:

• What kind of audience or segment do you want to reach?
• What type of affiliate (blogger, influencer, social media star) work?
• How much profit do you expect with affiliate marketing?
• What is the cost for the commission?
• How do you maintain the brand reputation (such as sharing brand lead)?

For example, HubSpot wants to attract business owners to websites in the affiliate campaign, so they target people with strong professional brands with Linkedin and personal blogs.

In addition, since we want to increase the customer maintenance rate, we pay affiliate rewards not only at the time of contract, but also when the customer updates the service.

In addition to setting a clear goal, it is worth considering tracking indicators and KPIs. Do you track not only the number of clicks but also the number of impressions? Social media engagement rate, average order amount, or conversion rate?

2. Analyze the Competition

Competitors' analysis is a valuable tool for making all kinds of marketing strategies. By looking at the affiliate programs of other niche areas, you can get a lot of useful insights, from what kind of commissions to be provided to which affiliates to be in part.

For example, if you create an affiliate program for a website design solution, you can check the Elementor affiliate program. Affiliates can receive 50%of commissions every time they sell on this platform, indicating that they need to provide a large reward to attract the appropriate partners.

When analyzing competitors, please note the following:

• What is the action to be a commission payment trigger? (Sales, lead generation, impressions, etc.)
• How do you pay for affiliates? (Is the reward fixed, or is it percentage?)
• Are affiliates payments, credit, vouchers, or anything else?
• What is the average commission rate for each brand?
• How are you looking for affiliates? (Is it via a landing page or via a marketplace?)
• Is it difficult to apply for an affiliate?
• What are the conditions for the affiliate program?
• What kind of training and support are each brand provided?
• What resources do companies provide affiliates? (Blog template, banner, etc.)

If you answer all of these questions, we will do SWOT analysis. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of each program. Ask yourself what kind of opportunities you need to overcome and overcome what threats you need. For example, if you are competing with ELEMENTOR, the 50 % commission rate may not be the same.

However, Elementor has a minimum sales of $ 200, making it difficult for affiliates to earn money quickly. If you can eliminate this restriction for affiliates, you will be able to make your program more attractive.

3. Choose Your Affiliate Commission Carefully

There is almost nothing more important than choosing an appropriate reward in learning how to operate affiliate programs. After all, if you don't have enough rewards to affiliates, affiliates will leave your business or advertise other competitors.

Unfortunately, there is no al l-purpose strategy to choose an appropriate reward plan. Some companies pay the customers uniformly to customers introduced by affiliates, while others pay some percent of the total sales.

You can also consider the ste p-based commission plan settings.

For example, in the case of AWEBER affiliates, the first 10 people are paid 30 %, 40 % for the next 10 people, and 50 % for more than 50 people. The other points that should be considered when choosing a committee strategy are as follows:

• How to pay affiliate? Do you send money directly to Affiliate's bank account, or to send money to a mobile wallet like PayPal? How long can affiliates earn? Do you pay once a month, once a week, or every time a conversion occurs?
• What do you give your subsidiary? Will affiliates get actual cash as an introduction fee, or do you give your company or website credit?
• Is there a bonus? If affiliate achieves a certain profit goal, can you encourage you to achieve more results by promoting additional bonuses?

The Affiliate Committee strategy should be determined based on the analysis of competitors, knowledge of customer acquisition costs, and the understanding of customer lifelong value.

4. Use an Affiliate Marketing Platform

One of the most difficult things in the operation of an affiliate program is to grasp everything. As business grows and working with a new affiliate, it is difficult to track everything exactly from the number of sales they created to the most valuable campaign.

Furthermore, it is difficult to make sure that you are constantly paying with the appropriate schedule to maintain the loyalty of the affiliate. Affiliate Marketing Platform is useful in such cases. Tools like UPFLUENCE, UPPROMOTE, and Trackdesk provide access to various tools that make your life easier.

Useful for creating customizable registration forms and affiliate links for affiliates. In addition, it can be integrated with a payment processing tool such as PayPal, and you can set an automated payment process. In addition, you can know the background of the metrics required for affiliate performance and tracking the entire campaign.

Depending on the tool, you can calculate a sourcing strategy suitable for affiliates based on the average order amount and lifetime value of customers.

5. Choose the Right Products for Your Program

This is one of the most important affiliate marketing for beginners. Unless you have one or two products, choose a product suitable for the program.

Ideally, the average order price of the affiliate program is a high average order price. For example, if you give 10 % of commissions to products sold by affiliates, affiliates can earn more from $ 100 than $ 5 products. Also, remember that any product is not suitable for affiliate campaigns.

If you sell complex "custom" products and services, it is highly likely that customers will talk to the sales team before purchasing. In this case, it will be difficult to judge how much is due to affiliates and how much is by partner.

When choosing a program for programs, look for a method that will be as attractive to your customers as possible. For example, to make a free shipping fee with an order of a certain amount or more, or to discount for those who buy for the first time.

6. Outline Your Program Policy and Structure

Affiliate programs often look very simple on the surface. Affiliates advertise your products and brands, and pay each time the affiliate increases sales. But there are more movable parts than you think. For example, you have to decide the following:

• Will you advertise the product on affiliate blogs, websites, or specific social media channels such as Tiktok? Which platform is the highest investment return (ROI) and how do you track?
• What rules should affiliate be: Is there a specific brand guideline so that affiliates can accurately explain your brands and products? Are there any terms to avoid use or strategies to consider?
• How to track affiliate results: Use UTM Tracking Links to belong to specific sales to each affiliate or use your own promotion code. How long is affiliate cookies valid? (How long can someone get a commission after someone clicks the link?)
• How to manage the project? Is there a ful l-time affiliate program manager who is in charge of communication and training with affiliates? How do you respond to affiliates with issues and problems?
• What resources do you offer to affiliates? Is it possible to provide templates, social media marketing tools, coupons, discounts, and other materials? Can you provide comprehensive training, webinar, and videos for affiliates to succeed?

7. Create Incredible Affiliate Marketing Collateral

Many affiliates you cooperate already have your own tools, resources, and skills that help you succeed in your campaign. For example, when working with a social media influencer, they already have planning tools and report tools, and they can be used to learn about target audiences and optimize campaigns.

However, it is very useful to create additional materials for the team. The resource you provide to affiliates indicates that you are committing them to give them the best opportunity to succeed online, which means they are more faithful for your brand.

In addition, providing appropriate resources to affiliates means that affiliate campaigns are more likely to succeed. The following materials to be created for affiliates include:

• Relined blog posts and reviews
• Email ten plate
• Banner for website
• New products and marketing materials for announcements
• Brand guidelines and editing guidelines

8. Use a Range of Resources to Find Affiliates

Tracking appropriate affiliates is one of the most difficult steps for most companies that are learning how to operate affiliate programs. The best way to secure a wide range of professionals is to use the following various resources:

• Social media: Social media: Influencers, opinion leaders, innovators, etc. Find those who are connected to your industry and will advertise your product. Also, check if other companies in the same industry have collaborated and get inspired.
• Website: Use the website to attract your brand affiliate and connect to the conversion. Create a landing page to explain the details of the affiliate program, as Brevo is doing here, so that people can easily register and apply for a partnership with your brand.
• Affiliate Network Affiliate Network is the perfect resource to find experienced affiliates in your niche. Consider options like Shareasale and Rakuten ads. These networks are very easy to use and often have special resources like training.

It is also possible to directly contact those who want to work together. Some popular bloggers have more details on the contact page for companies that want to connect with them. However, make sure you are looking for a partnership between affiliates and influencers, or if you are looking for a partnership with the influencer.

9. Choose the Right Affiliates

This is one of the tips for affiliate marketing that many beginners have overlooked. It may seem like a good idea for many affiliates to advertise products, but it's important to remember that some people are more valuable for your brand than others.

Affiliates and their reputation will directly influence your brand equity. If people who seem to be low quality or unreliable are advertising your brand, it can hurt your reputation.

It is also worth noting that the more influencers, the more difficult it is to manage the campaign. Focusing on attracting people who can actually affect your sales and growth will reduce the complexity of the program and make it easier to succeed.

Create an ideal "affiliate" profile and consider all of the followers of social media, reliability, and experience in your industry and niche fields.

10. Track Your Results and Optimize

Finally, in any marketing and business development strategy, it is necessary to always find optimization and improvement methods. The same rule is applied to the affiliate program. If you are taking the above steps, you should have already decided on the indicators to be tracked, how to track success, and tools to use.

You shouldn't just pay attention to the results of affiliates once or twice a year. Always track the top affiliates, their achievements and the results of the campaign. Tell the affiliates the results and advise on how they can be improved.

For example, if you realize that affiliates have achieved the best results when advertising products on YouTube, share that information with other members of the team. Give them a video template and youtube SEO to follow.

Form a partnership with the influencer to continue achieving results and improve the program ROI.

Mastering Affiliate Marketing Programs

Learning how to operate an affiliate program may seem difficult. There are certainly many factors to be considered and movable parts to be managed. But if you can create and implement an appropriate program, the results will be surprising.

With the abov e-mentioned affiliate marketing hints, you'll get all the information you need to boost growth in the affiliate campaign.

Of course, if you need a little more help, please contact Collective Growth and introduce an affiliate marketing specialist anytime. < SPAN> Finally, it is necessary to always look for optimization and improvement methods in any marketing or business development strategy. The same rule is applied to the affiliate program. If you are taking the above steps, you should have already decided on the indicators to be tracked, how to track success, and tools to use.