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Affiliate marketing has been used by 81% of marketers and 84% of publishers in the United States alone.

Forrester Research, Inc.
Advertiser, Affiliate and Consumer

The Parties Involved

Advertiser

In the affiliate eco-system, a company who is looking to acquire new customers or leads, is known as the advertiser.

An advertiser can be a company selling clothing, software, electronics, accessories, etc., or a company generating leads for their insurance, mortgage, legal or other services based business.

Affiliate

Affiliates, also known as publishers, are individuals or companies that promote an advertiser’s product or service in exchange for a commission. This is how they monetize their marketing efforts. These marketing efforts can include a blog, content, review, or shopping comparison website, or an affiliate who is generating traffic from paid search, email marketing, display advertising, social media presence, etc.

Consumer

The most important party to both the advertiser and affiliate is the consumer.

The consumer is the one who clicks on an affiliate’s ad, reaches the advertiser’s website and makes a purchase or completes a lead, thus generating revenue for the advertiser and affiliate.

Affiliate Network

Network or Platform?

In order to facilitate the relationship between an Advertiser, Affiliate and Consumer an Affiliate Network or Affiliate Tracking Platform must be leveraged. The primary responsibility of these networks or platforms is to track clicks and conversions and attribute them to the appropriate affiliate.

This is done through the use of tracking links, cookies and conversion pixels. In addition to the technical benefits a network or platform provides, they are also used for media hosting, commission payment processing, program reporting and/or other affiliate program elements.

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The Process

An ADVERTISER acquires a CONSUMER and the AFFILIATE is rewarded!

Consumer clicks on affiliate’s link

Tracking cookie is placed on consumer’s browser.

Consumer reaches the advertiser

Website, landing page, microsite or hosted form.

Consumer completes an action (purchase, subscription, lead form, etc.)

Tracking pixel is “fired” on the advertiser’s website.

Network or tracking platform logs the action

Credit is given to the appropriate affiliate.

Launching a New Affiliate Program

Things to Consider

Goals for the channel

Brand monitoring

Commission reversals

Program restrictions

Conversion rate and EPC

Traffic funnel process

Multi-pixel management

Geographical restrictions

Attendance at affiliate conferences

Consumer promotion strategy

Approved content usage

Competitor’s affiliate programs

Affiliate segmentation

Direction program options

Data feeds

CPA network partnerships

Direction program options

Competitive analysis

Cost per customer acquisition budget

Affiliate recruiting strategy

Lead quality management

Cookie duration

Mobile readiness

Program management resources

Internal reporting needs

Affiliate bonus structure

Affiliate network selection

Affiliate newsletters

Product review component

Number of occurrences

Lifetime value (LTV) of your customer

Affiliate payment processing

Commission structure

Affiliate vetting process

Tracking integration methodology

Program media

Learn More

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an extremely powerful channel that should be leveraged by every company selling a product or service. When launched and managed correctly, it has proven to have higher returns than virtually every other marketing channel.

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