Affiliation as a marketing model: the keys to success for advertisers

How does membership work?

On social networks or their website, publishers promote products or services. They entice their audience to click on their affiliate link, which then redirects the potential buyer to a product page or to the company's website.

Cookies are used to follow these recommendations. When a visitor visits an affiliate website and clicks on an affiliate link, a tracking cookie identifies the affiliate, company, and account to pay the commission to. The advertiser can then access a transaction report listing all commissionable sales, usually available on the affiliate network's platform.

Affiliate Trends

Before discovering the keys to success in terms of affiliation, it is necessary to look at the innovations of the sector and the interest for advertisers to use them:

1. Acquisition of new customers

Affiliation is increasingly seen as an effective way to acquire new customers. According to 2016 studies, 38% of marketers consider affiliate marketing a top method of customer acquisition, as publisher sites create new audiences of potential buyers for brands . Considering that publishers can take years to build a loyal audience that gives credit to their recommendations, customers won in this way often have a higher customer lifetime value . This can increase the brand's overall affiliate ROI. That's why it's worthwhile for businesses to consider shifting their resources to affiliate programs.

2. Convergence of content and influencer marketing

Incentive-based membership tends to dominate the industry, but content has long been an important marketing tool for advertisers. This trend is set to continue, as 72% of marketers say having a good content strategy was one of the keys to their success in 2018. Advertisers are fully realizing the strength of the alliance between affiliate and influencer marketing, and allocating more budget to content publishers.

Development of a partnership model based on affiliate performance

Any successful affiliate model relies on the commitment of all parties to work together to increase overall revenue. At the same time, some flexibility in customizing the model should be considered to determine what works best for the advertiser's business and their affiliate network.

In the affiliate ecosystem, virtually any deal is possible in terms of commission. You can thus provide compensations as you wish to encourage your affiliates to obtain the expected results. So, if your business model relies on outsourcing, and you don't do everything in-house, why not include an affiliate-type model in your distribution strategy? Here are three easy ways to leverage the affiliate model to increase your revenue in a profitable, strategic, and resource-efficient way:

1. Delegate responsibility for execution

Businesses no longer need to have all the resources they need to operate. The value of a company lies more in creating a profitable turnover, thanks to its systems, products and services. The strategy determines what should be outsourced, what activities are kept in-house, and what aspects of the business require a hybrid approach.

In most affiliate models, the internal marketing team focuses on branding, creative and promotion initiatives and works with a set of partners to expand their geographic reach or improve the brand's ability to penetrate lucrative vertical sectors on a "pay-as-you-go" basis.

As part of your brand's affiliate program, you pay your publishers a commission for every lead they drive to your website or every sale made through them. One of the main objectives of this action plan is to find affiliates with access to markets that have not yet been tapped by your brand. Introducing your brand through a “trusted” content publisher can grab the attention of a potential customer that you might not have reached through your own website or social media.

Since this is your program, you decide the rules. However, it is important to follow the practical advice of your network and the IAB to ensure that your program is appealing to affiliates and competitive in your market.

You can also outsource the majority of your online marketing activity to your affiliates.

Brands need to understand the strengths of their publishers and use them accordingly. By doing so, you should be able to find niche partners whose audience and expertise matches your strategy and budget.

2. Develop an affiliate program

The main advantage of affiliate programs is that brands only pay for results. A study by eMarketer reveals that 7.5% of online stores' digital spend is related to their affiliate campaigns.

Once the structure and parameters of the affiliate program are defined, the actual execution depends on your network of publishers. The 80/20 rule also applies to membership; the majority of your affiliate revenue will indeed come from a small percentage of publishers. However, this trend is changing as more and more brands opt for progressive payment models that not only reward publishers at the last click, but also further up the path to purchase. Payouts linked to influence, participation or flat fees and hybrid models help balance publishers within an affiliate program. This helps prevent an advertiser from being too dependent on certain types of publishers.

Once the basic framework for your affiliate program is in place, look to recruit a small number of affiliate partners. Remember that affiliates are an extension of your sales team and reflect your brand online. Be selective in choosing your affiliate partners. Affiliate-focused events, such as the European Affiliate Summit 2018, are great ways to learn about the capabilities and experience of potential affiliates. It is also the ideal way to discover the role of the different players in the affiliate industry.

3. Affiliate relationships are based on real-time performance

Membership is based on performance. Be sure to regularly review your affiliate links to ensure that all of your partnerships are profitable, both short and long term. It will also help you identify new partners that are particularly beneficial to you, so that you can optimize your relationship with them in the future. Niche marketing through affiliates works best when all parties understand what to expect, communicate transparently, and are willing to invest in the success of the relationship. Therefore, make sure all your brand partners know exactly what they are supposed to do to increase your revenue.

This is why performance-based partnerships are essential when it comes to affiliates. Affiliate partnerships help attract distinct customer segments, and once particular customer behaviors are communicated, identified, and closely tracked, payment is recorded in real time to enable action-based decision making. data.

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