Affiliate Networks

PartnerStack
Best for affiliate marketing
Access to a global network of high-quality partners for your affiliate programme
Provides a real-time dashboard to track clicks, sign-ups, and sales
Expert onboarding and guidance to help SMEs launch partnerships quickly
Impact.com
Best for affiliate marketing
Migration assistance to the Impact partner platform
Access to partner marketplace
Cross-device solutions
Branded interface
Fraud protection
Comprehensive tracking
Introduction

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the digital world need to leverage all available tools and resources to ensure they adequately advertise and grow their business. When it comes to digital advertising, there are many ways to advertise online, such as social media and a dedicated website. One way of advertising that most SMEs don’t leverage enough is affiliate networking/marketing.

What is an Affiliate Network?

An affiliate network is a strategic alliance in which companies promote each other’s products to expand customer reach and generate sales leads. Businesses collaborate to leverage complementary offerings, grow customer databases, and reduce reliance on large advertising spends while staying focused on their core operations. In online affiliate networks, brands use link-sharing third-party channels, with partners earning commissions from traffic or completed sales.
For SMEs, affiliate networks offer a low-cost channel to promote products or services, a

Main Features

Here are some characteristic features of affiliate marketing.

Partnership

Affiliate marketing involves a partnership between the advertiser (merchant) and the affiliate (publisher). The affiliate promotes the advertiser’s products or services and earns a commission for each successful referral.

Performance-based

Unlike traditional advertising methods, affiliate marketing is performance-based. Affiliates are only paid when they successfully drive a desired action, such as a sale, lead, or click. This ensures that you only pay for measurable results.

Cost-effective

Affiliate marketing is cost-effective for advertisers because they only pay for actual results. They can set the commission structure based on their budget and desired ROI. Affiliates also benefit from this model as they have the potential to earn passive income without the need to create their own products.

Wide Reach

Affiliates can promote products or services to a wide audience through various channels such as websites, blogs, social media, email marketing, and more. This allows advertisers to tap into new markets and reach potential customers they may not have been able to reach through their own marketing efforts.

Diverse Affiliate Forms

There are different types of affiliates in affiliate marketing, including content creators, influencers, coupon sites, loyalty/reward sites, comparison sites, and more. This diversity allows advertisers to choose affiliates that align with their target audience and marketing goals.

Tracking and Analytics

Affiliate marketing relies on accurate tracking and analytics to measure the performance of affiliates. Advertisers use tracking tools and affiliate networks to monitor clicks, conversions, and other key metrics. This data helps optimise campaigns, identify top-performing affiliates, and make data-driven decisions.

Mutually Beneficial

Affiliate marketing is a win-win situation for both advertisers and affiliates. Advertisers benefit from increased brand exposure, sales, and customer acquisition, while affiliates earn commissions for their promotional efforts. This mutually beneficial relationship encourages long-term partnerships and collaboration.

Flexibility

Affiliate marketing offers flexibility in terms of campaign customisation and scalability. Advertisers can set specific commission rates, create promotional materials, and provide affiliates with unique tracking links. Affiliates can choose the products or services they want to promote and tailor their marketing strategies accordingly.

Pricing

Most e-commerce affiliate commission rates are around 5% to 15%, so you can enjoy a return on ad spend of 10-to-1 or higher.

Buyer's Guide

Here are some of the benefits of affiliate marketing for SMEs.

1. Track Sales Progress

Affiliate marketing programmes offer real-time online tracking, enabling SMEs to know precisely when a visitor clicks a link and goes to your website. Affiliate platforms also provide metrics on impressions, clicks and sales and offer custom lead conversion tools like form submissions and email sign-ups.

2. Drive Promotions

Through affiliate marketing, you can supplement your promotions with affiliate links. These links can be sent out to your affiliates so they can create hype around your product and include your promotions on their websites.

3. Provides Social Proof

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to incorporate social proof into your online business. Social proof is the idea that customers will conform to the actions of others if they believe it’s the right choice. Your affiliate relationships show online customers that another business or influential person believes in your product or company so much that they are willing to endorse it themselves.

4. Performance-based Structure

Unlike traditional marketing, affiliate marketing allows you to pay your affiliate only when a sale is made. Most e-commerce affiliate commission rates are around 5% to 15%, so you can enjoy a return on ad spend of 10-to-1 or higher. This cost-effective digital marketing strategy guarantees a return because you set your own commission rates.

5. Supports Online Business Scalability

The affiliates you incorporate into your affiliate programme are an indirect sales team. They can promote your products on their socials or websites and generate additional revenue for your business because they engage with their audiences regularly.

6. Strong Return on Investment (ROI)

Affiliate marketing has a strong digital marketing ROI. This strategy increases average order value, per-customer order average and average customer revenue.

7. Increase in Sales

As your business grows and your products/services receive more exposure, your sales will grow. Affiliate marketing is a great way to achieve this increase in sales.

8. New Marketing Strategies

For a broader marketing strategy, you will have to use more than one form of marketing. Through your affiliate marketing programme, your affiliates can leverage different advertising techniques to cover various marketing channels.

Compare our best picks
Impact.com

Pros

Access to a wide partner marketplace
Automation and flexibility
In-depth reporting

Cons

No trial or free version
Has no local pricing
Complex platform to navigate for beginners

Impact.com is the ideal platform for SMEs looking to start their affiliate marketing campaigns, access a large partner marketplace, and leverage comprehensive automated solutions to manage their campaigns.

PartnerStack

Pros

Automated payouts and onboarding.
Provides tailored pricing.
Campaign performance tracking.

Cons

Has no free trial.
Can be complex for beginners
The approval process is long.

PartnerStack is the ideal platform for SMEs looking to leverage partnerships to expand their reach and increase their sales effectively.

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