One of the most effective methods in e-commerce marketing is affiliate marketing. Let’s look at what matters most in affiliation and how to increase sales through affiliate marketing.

Affiliate e-commerce marketing aims to build and continuously develop a loyal network of publishers who commit their potential to achieving defined goals. In affiliate marketing, publishers are rewarded with commission for successfully completed sales that were generated through their activity.

E-commerce marketing – affiliation and an affiliate program

To implement affiliate marketing, it is necessary to launch an affiliate program that publishers can join. The most important part of an affiliate program in e-commerce marketing is the virtual publishers. They are the ones who promote your products on their websites, and it is up to them how much time they devote to it. It is therefore crucial to create the right conditions that will encourage them to intensify their efforts.

E-commerce marketing – the goal and development of an affiliate program

The primary goals of an affiliate program (affiliate marketing) for an advertiser are to increase sales, acquire new customers, and promote the brand in a cost-effective way. Specifically, the advertiser aims to:

• Increase sales – publishers actively promote the products or services and receive a commission for the results, which directly translates into higher revenue.

• Reduce marketing costs and minimize risk – the advertiser pays only for specific, measurable results (performance marketing model). This means no spend on ineffective advertising.

• Expand market reach – by working with numerous publishers, the advertiser reaches new, often niche audience segments that would be harder or more expensive to reach through traditional advertising methods.

• Build brand awareness – even if a user doesn’t buy immediately, the activity of affiliate partners can significantly increase brand visibility, positively impacting brand recognition and customer trust.

• Improve market segmentation and precise targeting – affiliate programs allow the advertiser to leverage the knowledge and experience of partners in reaching specific target groups, which increases the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

• Gain valuable marketing data – affiliate programs generate detailed data on consumer preferences and behavior, which the advertiser can use to further optimize sales and advertising strategies.

To sum up, the goal of an affiliate program for the advertiser is above all to increase business efficiency by using partners as engaged and motivated promoters of products or services, paying them only for the results they actually deliver.

Ecommerce marketing – Case Study

Case Study – affiliate program for the cosmetics industry – see more HERE.

E-commerce marketing – how to grow your affiliate program

Approve publishers to the program quickly

It’s worth starting with the simplest things! Remember that publishers want to start working with you as soon as possible, so fast approval into the program is very important. If you haven’t set automatic approval (one of the options in an affiliate program), you have 3 days from the publisher’s application to decide whether that publisher should be accepted into your program. The faster you accept a publisher into the program, the faster they will start taking action.

Regularly validate transactions and pay out commissions

Another very important condition for your affiliate program to grow steadily. Publishers are more willing to expand their cooperation with advertisers who pay commissions on time and do not delay in verifying pending orders. The faster you validate transactions generated by publishers, the better.

Making money online is a tangible profit for both you and the publishers in your program. The sooner they receive their commission, the more motivated they will be to keep working. At the same time, withdrawing already approved commissions is perceived very negatively, for example when it turns out that a customer has returned the product. Fast validation is a big advantage and greatly appreciated by publishers, but if done without proper consideration, it can damage mutual relations.

Share discount codes and promotional materials

It is very important to give publishers as many reasons as possible to engage specifically in your affiliate program. Don’t forget to provide discount codes that can be used not only by popular coupon sites, but also by bloggers, influencers, and social media users.

Customers love using all kinds of discounts and promo codes, which makes information about them extremely valuable to consumers. Remember that earning money online depends on the market situation, demand for specific products, as well as trends and the time of year. Customers love deals and discounts and often look for them on publishers’ websites. That’s why it’s worth taking this into account when planning sales growth. Try to prepare discount codes for different occasions, e.g. Valentine’s Day or St. Nicholas Day, as well as completely neutral dates, in order to encourage publishers to intensify the promotion of your store. Another option is banner ads, which publishers also like to use if they match the look of their websites. So when you brief your designer, make sure the banners are aesthetic and elegant — after all, they are supposed to encourage publishers to use them!

Provide exclusive codes to your best publishers

Staying on the topic of discounts, we can’t forget about exclusive codes, meaning special discounts assigned to specific publishers. If you’ve noticed that a particular publisher has a significant impact on your store, try rewarding their work with such a code — they will definitely appreciate it! At the same time, exclusive codes can be a very effective “hook” for publishers who are not very active in promoting your program but whom you’d like to engage more. Sending them a special discount will certainly help build a good relationship and bode well for future activities.

Very often, publishers themselves contact the network asking for an exclusive code from an advertiser. If you receive such a signal from us, make the exclusive code available and see how it performs!

Analyze the statistics and data available in the advertiser’s panel

In the advertiser’s panel you have access to a range of statistics that are worth analyzing to better understand how the program operates. Apart from CPS transaction data, a very important metric is publisher conversion. This is a very useful report that shows you which publishers are the most active, who generates the most clicks and transactions. Based on this data you can, among other things, decide to grant an exclusive code or launch a premium program for a particular publisher.

You will also see whether any irregularities occur, e.g. a publisher generates huge traffic but the conversion rate is worryingly low. Remember to report any doubts to the affiliate network as soon as possible so that we can react appropriately.