Online advertising is performance-based, which means publishers are paid when visitors to their website take an agreed action on the advertiser’s website, like making a purchase.
Choosing the right affiliate network can have a huge impact on how successful your business is. A good network presents you with powerful features that make your affiliate marketing campaign more efficient and effective. To help you gain some insight, we’ve compiled a list of nine points that will help you be sure to consider each factor.
1. Fees and binding agreements
One of the best ways to succeed in affiliate marketing is by choosing a leading marketplace that offers an intelligent and practical source of data, as well as sophisticated analytics tools to help you understand metrics like traffic. In order to ensure success, the best option is to avoid networks that require a starting fee or fixed monthly fee. If it appears that a network will not be able to provide you with enough traffic for them to make money, it’s better to seek out another. Network costs vary from company to company so talk with them about contract length and what they are willing and able to offer as a part of their services before signing anything.
2. Competitors
“One common mistake is to avoid affiliate networks that other sites in your industry use. This is wrong as, instead, you should search for networks where most of your competitors are present. Where your competitors are on a network, it makes sense to find the most relevant publishers that they’ve attracted. Become a part of the same network by offering an attractive affiliate program and reap the rewards of those resources you attract.” as discussed by Jeroen van Gils, CEO of EcoLife.
3. The right company
Control which other brands and businesses are connected to the affiliate network. Find out if the network is authorized with industries that don’t work for you. Just make sure your brand doesn’t end up in the same newsletter or blog posts from the affiliate network. You might not want to see your brand in connection with erotics, gambling, etc. Consider the extent to which a network works with larger, well-known brands as those networks tend to attract publishers of high quality that might be of interest to you.
4. Quality, not quantity
When choosing a network, you have to consider the quality of the publishers they have in mind while also assessing their effort to keep them relevant. There are many networks that are primarily interested in how much publishers can pocket from each advertiser and attract more foreign publishers or the less relevant ones. However, these networks can lead to an overwhelming amount of applications for an advertiser for not maintaining quality standards.
5. Transparency
Descriptions of certain affiliate networks are vague and unclear. Some of these networks don’t even tell you which publishers are attached to your program. This can result in an undefined invoice at the end of each month. Understanding where traffic originates will help you determine who gets compensated, and who should not be connected to the program. The better your communication with publishers, the more likely they’ll be interested in being part of your affiliate program. You should always have control over your affiliate network:
- To help you track your website’s traffic, we’ve created data labels and analytics.
- Be connected to the publishers who are going to share your message effectively and get your content read by the right people.
- When people make purchases through your site, they will specify exactly which orders they were provided. You’ll be invoiced for that specific order.
6. Technique
Ask questions about how the tracking and reporting for an affiliate marketing network works. One question that is particularly important is whether the platform is developed in-house or made available on ready-made solutions from international third-party suppliers. There can be pros and cons to each type of system, but no two are exactly alike.
7. Private persons
Understanding how payments to private individuals work is important. Many affiliate networks only allow companies as publishers, as they usually do not work through their own companies. If your blog is an important sales channel, you’ll want to ensure that the network accepts private individuals as affiliates.
8. Support
You want to be able to have a close dialogue with your affiliate network. Check the speed that they answer support requests, even at night and on weekends. You’ll do this by requesting to become an advertiser from their website or registering as a publisher and submitting to provide them with feedback. If the response takes several days, there’s a risk that you might wind up in the same situation as a customer.
9. Background information
To find the best network to join, ask yourself a few questions. What is the size of the company? Is their financials in order and how long have they been operating? Are they as big as they claim to be and do they have local employees in markets where you’re aiming for success? Make sure that any networks you are considering have answers to these questions before joining them.
The invoicing company is located abroad, so you must account for VAT if your business operates in a country with VAT. If your business doesn’t charge VAT or operates solely within a country that doesn’t have it, then you must register with the Tax Agency.
