Affiliate Managers Definition and Function of an Affiliate Manager
Our suite of affiliate tools allow you to keep affiliates engaged and motivated to help sell your product or service. Simple tools for those getting started and more advanced options for enterprise businesses wanting to run a more complicated incentive or payment structure. Shut-down of existing underperforming affiliate program, adjustment of program strategy and parameters, and re-launch of a new program. Custom development of all aspects of program strategy including network choice, commissions, cookie duration, terms and conditions, creative, staffing, reporting, and more. Comprehensive program review focused on both assessing the quality of the current affiliate base and revenue, and setting the stage for driving the program to create more value. Develop a cost model to determine the affiliate commission structure and cost of goods sold.
It means a long stream of changes that need to be implemented consistently and strategically, not just by you as the merchant, but also by your partners and your affiliates. On one hand, you want to hold on to any shred of brand awareness and reputation you’ve already built. On the other hand, you want your new company image and actions to inspire confidence and professionalism to both customers and affiliates. Plus, it has a fraud-prevention feature called Click Shield that will keep malicious bots from harming your affiliate marketing efforts. The FirstPromoter monitoring system records and reports on 17 different metrics regarding the success of your program.
How can you succeed with an affiliate marketing program?
Now that we’ve established that you need an affiliate program manager, let’s see exactly what an affiliate program manager does. Rely on reports to measure the KPI’s that are specific to your business and campaigns. Reporting tools help measure things like sales volume, sales by affiliate, traffic volume, activity index, activation, as well as outreach metrics and figures on affiliate recruitment efforts.
Believe it or not, your partners and affiliates can be of tremendous help here. Others have surely witnessed the process implemented by various merchants they work with. Take some time to plan and prepare everything, to make sure you do it right. The process is much more complicated when running an affiliate program. You need to protect your reputation not just in front of customers but also in front of affiliates.
Compare your current offer with theirs, and see what you can improve so as to at least match but preferably beat their offer, at least for select niche affiliates. The purple dots represent every affiliate touch, while the green dot stands for the “commissioned click” (or the one for which the last-to-touch affiliate got paid). Finally, as you examine affiliate transactions, ideas on optimization opportunities should also surface. Put yourself in your affiliates’ shoes and think of ways for them to make more money with you.
Complete Guide to Affiliate Marketing Program Management
With an OPM agency, you will not have to worry about such occurrences. They have the ability to cover and compensate for their staff members and they will make sure nothing affects your program in a negative way. When you manage your program in-house, you need to provide your manager with all the necessary equipment and tools. OPM agencies, affiliate marketing tools on the other hand, already have all the tools and equipment they need, so you won’t have to worry about additional expenses. Who is your perfect customer and where do they spend their time online? It is important to understand your customers’ online behavior in order to properly asses the size of the audience and how they can be reached.
It’s a question of when, not if.Get a downloadable pdf of this checklist here. Unlike other types of advertising and promotions, affiliate marketing doesn’t involve guesswork. This is why it’s become one of the most popular forms of marketing and continues to grow year on year. The performance-based approach means your budget is invested in activities that generate a return on investment.
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But building strong relationships with affiliates is another key to success – and that takes human connection and effort. Affiliate data will help you refine your marketing strategy – collecting concrete and measurable results is key. Tracking affiliates’ sales activity helps you determine whether you’re hitting your revenue goals. Our highly skilled, creative team can supplement your affiliate marketing program with effective custom banners, marketing pages, sales copy content, and other creative channels.
They will recruit, manage the program, work with current and prospective affiliates answering questions and resolving issues. Their job also involves optimizing the program, working with the network, ensuring compliance and analyzing the program activity to find areas for improvement. It requires someone who is data-driven, can multi-task, and is relationship-focused. The common practice for when a company has an affiliate program is to include a link within their website footer than links to more information about their affiliate program. Here is an example of an affiliate program landing page from one of our clients. If you work with a competent affiliate program manager, they will see to it.
- As I mentioned above, the key to effective affiliate marketing management is building relationships with your affiliates.
- It is also a great way to leverage promotional marketing, with trackable promo codes and coupons that can be made available for affiliates & influencers.
- Your affiliate partners can earn additionally from affiliates they recruit under themselves.
- Attempting affiliate management yourself can waste a lot of time and resources you could instead be spending on your business.
If you already know when it’s happening and how long it may take, it helps to notify affiliates. Rather than abandoning your old domain, setting up a new one, and expecting all your affiliates to update their links immediately, set up redirects and update links and banners on your end. Some reviews are surely old, forgotten, buried under more recent reviews of competing products. Some affiliates have probably refined their strategies and are much better at highlighting product strengths and convincing their audience to buy. Therefore, you will have to send products with the new labels and packaging to affiliates. This way, you enable them to create new reviews or update their existing ones.