An affiliate program can be a great way to drive business on a fairly risk-free basis. That said, there are some issues that can arise when affiliates drive traffic – notably because they don’t have the same care for the brand.
Affiliate marketing tips
- Monitor for affiliates bidding on your brand terms in paid search (or any terms you’ve outlawed in your program terms)
- Decide if affiliates creating content around ‘promo code’/’coupons’/’discount code’/etc. is of value — it’s likely not (customers back out of purchases when they see a Promo Code box to go look for a code – Your affiliate then takes a cut of the commission after the customer completes the purchase after clicking through via the affiliate link)
- If you don’t offer promo codes, coupons, etc – or want to control misuse – create a content page on your web site that references codes/coupons/etc; this content can rank above those sites misusing such methods; same can be done for ‘reviews’ – collect positive reviews and post to own ‘reviews’ page
- Cookie stuffing – is this occurring?
- Monitor your competitors’ affiliate offerings and conversion rates – compare and adjust accordingly
- Monitor how affiliates are portraying your brand – especially in channels that don’t use provided creative directly (ad copy, ad imagery, squeeze landing pages, etc.)
- If paying per ‘action’, monitor lead quality on a per affiliate basis – especially if using CPA networks; Ensure can extract revenue on a per affiliate basis