Affiliate marketing is an essential channel for driving customer acquisition. As broadband penetration and consumer spending online continue to rise rapidly, so too does the importance of a successful affiliate program.
As an advertiser, affiliates are an extension of your sales force. They refer potential customers to your site, and are rewarded for those that convert.
The payment model is Cost Per Action (CPA), which means you only pay when a valid action occurs on your site - e.g. a sale, an order, an application etc. As with your own sales team, you define the action and you confirm when it has occurred.
Affiliates aim to drive high quality, converting traffic to your site in order to maximise their return. So in addition to ‘sales’, you also increase the overall traffic to your site and help to grow awareness of your brand online, at no extra cost or risk to you.
The key to success is balancing the needs of advertiser and affiliate, to maximise return for both.
Why carry out affiliate marketing via a network?
- A network-based solution provides a number of significant advantages for both advertiser and affiliate, including:
- Access for each to the other: networks bring on board advertiser programs and actively recruit relevant affiliates to promote them.
- Technological platform for ad serving, tracking and reporting
- Single point of contact for campaign management and transaction processing
- Significantly reduced administrative requirement
- Expertise and experience
- Opportunity to take advantage on existing advertiser / affiliate relationships
What will make your affiliate program successful?
- A strong customer proposition
- Compelling up-to-date creative
- An efficient online transaction process
- An Affiliate Cost Per Action (CPA) model and rate that correctly positions your program in the market to ensure maximum return for you and your affiliates
- Inviting and incentivising the most relevant affiliates to promote your program
- A single-network solution provides greater control and efficiency, whereas multi-network programs can lead to duplication of sales and network conflict
- Effective tracking and reporting; reliance on 3rd party tracking is a disincentive for affiliates due to the time delay in reporting.
