In part 1 of this guide, we covered essential affiliate industry terminology, factors that can enhance or detract from your company’s value, and methods for forecasting profitability.
In this second installment of our three-part series, you’ll discover:
- Different types of affiliates you can collaborate with.
- Essential tools affiliates need to thrive.
- Effective onboarding techniques.
- Strategies for developing a communications plan.
Stay tuned for part 3, where we’ll delve into more advanced topics.
The Types Of Affiliates To Consider
There are many types of affiliates, and they are not all created equal. An affiliate can be anyone from a person distributing business cards with a coupon code to someone promoting a QR code scan.
Be aware that multi-payment solutions integrated into your shopping cart may incur software fees and join your affiliate program to earn commissions, sometimes without your knowledge.
Pro-tip: Leverage your data to identify the best types of affiliates for your program. You don’t need to rely solely on the network, affiliate agency, or your affiliate manager. Your data will show which affiliates add value and which do not, and you have your best interests at heart.
Ensure that all affiliate practices comply with the relevant laws in your region. Familiarize yourself with FTC disclosure, review, and endorsement laws, as well as CANSPAM regulations, and similar laws in the EU and UK.
Note from the author: While my affiliate management agency helps manage affiliate programs for other companies, we do not work with all the affiliate types listed below. The purpose of this article is to educate, not to describe how my company manages affiliate programs for our clients.
Here are the most common types of affiliates you’ll encounter, along with brief descriptions of each:
Adware
Software that displays advertisements, forces clicks, injects coupon codes, or otherwise engages with users. This includes browser extensions for cash back, displaying logos on search engine results (both PPC ads you pay for and your own branded SEO results), pop-ups, pop-unders, and more.
Apps
Device-based programs such as games, social networks, communities, and event planning apps. They often run ads within the app to direct users to your site or encourage in-app purchases. These apps may offer incentives with bonuses for shopping at your store or using your service and send push notifications with affiliate links or offers to users.
Bloggers
Content creators who produce articles on various topics, including personal stories, gift guides, product reviews, and how-to articles (e.g., recipes, crafts, DIY projects, photography).
Browser Extensions
Software installed on a user’s browser that aims to set an affiliate cookie or track events. Some extensions intercept consumers at checkout or just before they enter your website, potentially overwriting your own tracking on newsletter subscribers, PPC ads, SEO results, or other affiliate clicks. These can range from high value to low value in terms of their impact.
Co-Branded Deals
Often, you’ll encounter partnerships, perks, or co-branded promotions between two companies. In some cases, both companies use affiliate links, or one company tests an affiliate deal to gauge its audience’s interest before launching it as a stand-alone offering.
Comparison Affiliates
Comparison affiliates create content such as “vs.” posts or videos that help consumers choose between brands, products, services, or upgrades and downgrades. These sites typically optimize for mid-funnel phrases like “X brand vs. Y brand,” “Z brand alternatives,” and “Which company is better, D or E?”
Coupon Affiliates
Coupon affiliates are most commonly encountered when searching for a discount code during the checkout process. Some may appear as content or mass media websites but can be identified by their end-of-sale touchpoints, which include:
- Traffic and sales patterns that closely match your overall company sales patterns.
- Higher conversion rates compared to top-funnel affiliates or your own website traffic.
- Very short click-to-close times.
- Multiple clicks before the sale, as consumers click to reveal codes.
However, don’t dismiss coupon sites just yet! They often have large newsletter lists, engaged social media followings, and the ability to send SMS pushes. These can act as top-of-funnel sources, making it important to use your data to determine if the sales being intercepted are outweighed by the revenue gained from these top-funnel pushes.
Email Houses
Ever wonder why you’re receiving so many promotional emails? It’s likely because you’ve been opted in, sold to, or engaged with an email house. These companies send offers via paid ads, sold lists, affiliate links, or various other methods.
Major Media
Have you ever searched for “[best XYZ product]” or “[legit ABC service]” on Google? Major news and magazine sites that build shopping lists monetize through affiliate marketing, leveraging the trust and authority of their domains. The benefits include brand recognition and exposure, driving their own non-SEO traffic to the lists, and the possibility of using their logo in your PR efforts to build consumer trust on your website.
Media Buyers
Media buyers are companies or individuals who purchase traffic from ad networks and sources, directing this traffic to your website or sales funnel.
Monetization Tools (Also Known As Sub Networks)
These tools, typically JavaScripts or plugins, can be installed on a webmaster’s site to convert direct links or user clicks into affiliate links, allowing publishers, social media sites, video producers, streamers, etc., to earn commissions.
Some monetization tools can act as backdoors for affiliates you’ve previously excluded, or allow prohibited partners access. Ensure you have full transparency when working with these tools, including referring URLs and contact information for every partner that has access to your brand.
Newsletters
Unlike email houses, which collect emails through various techniques, newsletter affiliates have engaged readers who opt into their lists to receive specific types of content directly. You can be featured in these newsletters via affiliate links or negotiate hybrid deals that include a media fee plus commissions.
Podcasters
Podcasters often mention brands and offer custom deals or discounts using the podcast’s or guest’s names. Additionally, they may include affiliate links in the episode descriptions. This allows podcasters to earn money through affiliate marketing when they don’t have sponsors or want to monetize the products and services they discuss.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
PPC marketers bid on your brand, its variations, and extensions, or engage in generic PPC marketing. They operate on all search engines, from Yahoo to Yandex, Naver to Google, and in countries worldwide. PPC can help you explore foreign markets if you’re planning to expand and can supplement your own PPC budget if it’s limited.
Remarketers
Remarketing techniques include abandonment emails or pop-ups triggered by exit-intent users. The goal is to bring users back or prevent abandonment. Remarketers require you to install their code or snippets into your system and share your data with them.
Reviewers
Have you ever watched a review before shopping or seen videos with “don’t shop until you watch this”? These are likely affiliates aiming for a mid-funnel click. This strategy is highly converting because it targets consumers already in the shopping process. To save money, consider boosting ambassador content over review affiliate content and stop paying commissions on this touchpoint.
Shopping Cart Software
Sometimes, shopping cart plugins and multi-payment tools join affiliate programs. As your customers use these tools for transactions, they might encounter an affiliate link, resulting in you paying a commission on a customer who was already completing a purchase. These tools may also tag customers with remarketing pixels, competing with or complementing your own remarketing efforts.
SMS
Similar to email houses, some affiliates send promotional SMS texts to large audiences, leveraging affiliate links to drive sales.
Social Media Influencers
When sponsorships are scarce or influencers are passionate about a product, they often promote it using affiliate links and tracking codes. Ensure that cashback and deal browser extensions, as well as coupon websites, are monitored for your brand + coupons on Google to confirm that the influencer is genuinely driving sales, rather than a leaked vanity coupon code.
Streamers
Streamers generate income through affiliate links by promoting products they love, such as consoles, controllers, snacks, fashion accessories, and event tickets, all related to their niche and audience interests.
Technology Integrations and Widgets
If you’ve booked international travel and been asked about needing a passport or visa, it’s often an affiliate arrangement. These services simplify the process for users and provide data to destination sites like banks, travel booking platforms, and service providers, helping them decide whether to offer such services directly.
Webmasters
Webmasters, the original type of affiliates, continue to thrive. They manage forums, destination sites, travel comparison websites, communities, courses/classes, and educational resources, driving traffic and sales through their platforms.
YouTubers
For consumers researching activities, gift ideas, video game hacks, repair tutorials, crafts, or recipes, video content on YouTube is often filled with affiliate links. When creators mention a tracking code or include links in their video descriptions, shopping through these affiliate links helps support their channels.
Collateral, Marketing Materials, And Assets
Your affiliates’ success depends largely on the materials you provide, covering all touchpoints. Segmenting your partners by niche, touchpoint, promotional strategy, and platform helps you become more effective. Here’s what many affiliates will be looking for:
Banners
Affiliates use banners not just on websites, but also on social media ad platforms, groups, and apps. Therefore, standard sizes are no longer sufficient. Offer a variety of sizes for all types of advertising partners, from bloggers and forums to Facebook Groups, Pinterest Pinners, and apps. At a bare minimum, provide:
- 125 x 125
- 160 x 600
- 300 x 50 (mobile)
- 300 x 250
- 468 x 60
Make sure to offer both general banners for your brand and themed banners tailored to the niches your affiliates are in.
Text Links
Given your diverse product lines and customer base, it’s important to represent this variety in your text links. For instance, if you run a t-shirt store, you should have multiple text links:
- A general link for the brand.
- Specific links for different products, such as blue, red, v-neck, and crew neck tees.
- Separate links for undershirts in white and black.
- Specific links for niche products like “funny t-shirts” and “vintage tees.”
- Links for specialized products like wicking t-shirts for athletes and super comfy tees for sleepwear.
Datafeeds
A datafeed is essentially a product catalog that can be shared with your affiliates. It can be in the form of an XML feed, a spreadsheet, or any other format compatible with your affiliate tracking solution.
Datafeeds enable affiliates to create product grids, insert products into emails, and access approved images, descriptions, stock, and price data, making it easier for them to promote your products. These feeds can often be automated through shopping cart integrations and tools like GoDatafeed (I highly recommend their service, though I have no paid relationship with them).
Video
If you have product demos and instructional videos, make them accessible to your affiliates! Many platforms allow you to upload video content and include links to your store when products and accessories are mentioned. Affiliates can incorporate these videos into their own guides to demonstrate techniques and enhance their content.
Email Swipes and Creative
Newsletter campaigns can significantly impact monthly performance. Provide your affiliates with ready-to-use blurbs, full emails, and copy-and-paste banners at 600px wide. Use the wording that converts best for your audience and offer options tailored to different demographics.
For example, if people in their 40s respond better to the word “free,” indicate this on the template. If people in their 20s prefer shorter content with bullet points and slang, let your affiliates know.
The more data you provide based on age, location, income, and other factors, the better your affiliates can promote your company, leading to increased revenue for everyone involved.
Vanity Coupons
Vanity coupons are custom codes that align with the branding of a website or influencer. While useful, they come with significant risks. If you provide a code to an influencer and commission them for its use, a cashback browser extension could pick it up. This might result in the influencer earning commissions on sales they did not refer, as the extension inserts the code during checkout. Similarly, if the code gets posted on a coupon website that ranks for your “brand + coupon” on Google, it can lead to misplaced attribution.
Vanity codes have their purpose, but it’s crucial to monitor them for proper attribution. Mismanagement can skew your revenue data and harm your overall attribution model. Always set an expiration date based on the promotional method’s lifespan—Instagram promotions might only be relevant for a few days, while LinkedIn promotions could last for months. Include guidelines in your program’s TOS for dealing with invalid or non-approved coupon codes that partners fail to remove.
Other Tools
The range of tools you can provide to your affiliates is vast. Consider offering HTML and JavaScript-based widgets, co-branded landing pages, and more. For instance, some affiliate programs we manage include accountants, lawyers, and consultants. We send them plaques and awards when they reach certain milestones, which helps build trust and familiarity with our clients’ brands.
If a tool or strategy can make your partners’ lives easier, give it a try. The goal is to support your affiliates effectively to drive mutual success.
Onboarding Marketing Series
An affiliate program requires a hands-on approach and a personal touch. Your onboarding experience is crucial in setting the tone for success.
Onboarding Checklist:
- Bonus Incentive: Offer a bonus incentive for the first 30 or 60 days, including copy-and-paste links.
- Welcome Series: Create a welcome series that encourages activation and shares strategies for generating evergreen traffic and success.
- Personalized Emails: Send personalized welcome emails from the affiliate manager, highlighting specific places where your company fits on their platforms.
- Activation/Re-Activation Series: Implement a series to activate or re-activate affiliates who have stopped sending traffic or have joined but not yet generated traffic or sales.
- Conversion Tips: Provide tips on increasing conversions, including effective wording, calls to action, and link placement by space, promotional method, and channel.
Beyond Email Onboarding:
- Video Tutorials: Share video recordings with demos on getting links, optimizing content, setting up newsletters, etc.
- PowerPoint Presentations: Use presentations to demonstrate strategies and introduce the brand.
- Company Blog: Maintain a blog to share promotions, program updates, and ideas on how to make money with your products and services.
- Private Groups: Create private groups for top performers to network and share growth ideas.
Personal Touch:
Providing the affiliate manager’s name and contact information is essential. A human connection builds trust, which is vital for the success of your affiliate program.
Newsletters And Proactive Management
Sending promo codes, sales, and coupons is not an effective affiliate newsletter strategy, especially for content creators, YouTubers, and value-adding partners who don’t need these. Instead, focus on strategies that help grow your affiliates’ businesses, which in turn increases their audience and benefits your program.
While occasional deals or promos can be shared, make them link-based and provide content for social media, email swipe copy, and other tools affiliates can use directly from the email.
Building Loyalty and Growth
Teaching your partners how to grow their businesses fosters loyalty and encourages them to create new content for your company. Consider these topics and newsletters:
- SEO Tips: “5 SEO phrases that convert over X% and have at least Y,000 monthly searches.”
- YouTube Strategies: “3 YouTube topics that convert at X% and have at least Y,000 monthly searches.”
- Email Templates: “2 copy-and-paste newsletters for X and Y audiences.”
- Content Creation Incentives: “Create an optimized piece of content by ABC and get $XYZ.”
- Sales Boost Challenges: “Increase sales by XY% this month and get double commissions next month.”
These strategies are best suited for established partners or high-performing up-and-comers.
Tailored Approaches
Your only limitation is your creativity. Regularly survey partners to understand their motivators and tailor promotions accordingly. Remember, not all topics make sense for every partner.
- Instagrammers or TikTok creators may not have a newsletter list.
- YouTubers may not have blogs.
- Bloggers typically won’t need a coupon code unless they also run a deals site, but a Facebook group might find it useful.
Congratulations on completing part 2!
Original news from SearchEngineJournal