What is an affiliate program?
An affiliate program is a framework that enables advertisers (affiliators), usually e-tailers, to offer partner sites (affiliates) the opportunity to promote their products or services, in exchange for revenue. For the advertiser, the aim of the program is to engage publishers to meet its commercial objectives.
The program is made up of various elements enabling affiliates to relay offers, such as banners, text links (or affiliate links), product feeds, discount codes, etc.
The affiliate program also includes conditions for affiliate remuneration and authorized relay modes. In this way, affiliates or publishers can sign up to the affiliate program knowing the precise conditions that will bind them to the advertiser offering the program.
The affiliation programs of many advertisers are available through affiliation platforms, whose job it is to administer, track, animate and develop these programs. Effinity’s affiliation platform, for example, includes over 650 programs in a wide variety of fields.
What is
affiliate marketing?
Affiliation: a virtuous, risk-free model
Affiliate marketing is a marketing technique whereby a company rewards partners (called affiliates) for promoting its products or services.
The model is based on a win-win relationship: the company increases its sales thanks to the affiliates’ promotional efforts, and the affiliates earn a commission for each sale or action generated thanks to the content or services they offer to Internet users. The affiliate program operates on a performance basis, meaning that affiliates only receive remuneration if they have contributed to an action that meets the company’s objectives, generally a sale, a lead, an application installation, etc.
This means the advertiser has no upfront advertising investment to make, making affiliate marketing a virtuous, risk-free model.
What are the advantages of affiliate marketing?
A lever that influences sales
Affiliation is a powerful lever for digital marketing, with an average contribution of 20% to web sales. It can be used to pursue a variety of marketing objectives, including sales, lead generation, newsletter subscriptions, application downloads and requests for quotations.
Cash flow generator
Affiliate marketing is based on a performance-based marketing model, which results in negative working capital. In other words, commercial investments are covered by the revenues generated, creating an advantageous financial dynamic.
Partner network
A diversified network of partners is essential to maximize the impact of your campaigns. By relying on a variety of partners, you multiply your points of presence and optimize your visibility on the web. This diversity enables you to reach different audiences and strengthen your market position.
New customers
Effinity has found that an affiliation program generates an average of 25% new customers for advertisers. This lever has a real impact on the acquisition of new consumers and the growth of your customer base.
Cash flow generator
Affiliation enables real-time management of acquisition cost targets. Unlike other acquisition levers, it offers total control over key KPIs, enabling strategies to be adjusted according to performance and objectives.
Inspirational leverage
With affiliation, you enable partners to inspire their audiences by talking about your products or services, through a multitude of formats (articles, videos, buying guides, etc.).
How to run a successful affiliate program
Take care of your conversion tunnel
Before opening a program, it’s essential to optimize the conversion tunnel. You need to ensure that every step after the affiliate clicks, from arrival on your site to finalization of the purchase, is smooth and intuitive. With efficient landing pages and a simple checkout process to maximize conversions.
Offer an attractive partnership
To attract the best affiliates, you need to offer competitive commissions and attractive conditions, such as bonuses for outstanding performance. You also need to ensure that the program is transparent and easy to understand. Affiliate trust is essential for motivation.
Working on program quality
The affiliate program must offer affiliates high-quality advertising media. Well-designed banners, links,kit mailings and product descriptions can significantly increase click-through and conversion rates. These elements must be constantly updated and aligned with your brand image.
Manage your affiliate program
To keep affiliates engaged, you need to make sure your affiliate program is regularly animated. For example, by organizing webinars, sending newsletters with tips and updates, and creating contests to stimulate competition. Regular communication reinforces the feeling of belonging and partnership.
Pay your affiliates quickly
Prompt and regular payment of commissions to affiliates is an important motivating factor. Prompt payment builds trust and encourages affiliates to continue promoting your products or services.
How do I choose an affiliation platform?
For an advertiser, choosing an affiliation platform is an engaging process. They must ensure that the affiliate platform meets their needs. The main criteria for choosing an affiliation platform include :
A diverse network of affiliates
A diversified network of active publishers, particularly in your own sector. It’s important to check that the network of partners is representative of the diversity of affiliates: blogs, content creators, price comparison sites, cashback, shopping guides, general and thematic portals, etc.
State-of-the-art tracking
A high-performance tracking tool compatible with First-Party Cookie and Server-to-Server technologies, to track views, clicks and transactions. It must, of course, be compatible with all browsers on the market, and protect users’ private data.
Customized reporting
Customized reporting with a real-time dashboard of the publisher network’s activity, integrating all useful indicators according to the business sector and objectives pursued.
Expert support
Support from affiliation experts, who can suggest creative solutions, recruit new affiliates or analyze and optimize results as they come in.
Affiliate program compensation models
There are different compensation models within an affiliate program. These models can be combined or modified to meet the specific needs of an advertiser or affiliate.
The cost-per-action/sales (CPA) payment model
This is, without doubt, the most popular remuneration model in affiliation. Affiliates receive a commission for each specific action they contribute to. For example, a sale, a download or a registration. The publisher generally receives a percentage of the sales he generates. The rate of remuneration is variable and depends on the type of product and the business sector.
The cost-per-click (CPC) payment model
The affiliate receives a commission for every click he generates on an advertising banner, a comparator, a piece of content, and so on. This “historic” affiliation model is becoming less frequent. It is mainly used by advertisers looking for brand awareness and traffic.
The cost-per-lead (CPL) payment model
Affiliates receive a commission for every lead they generate. Payment is triggered when the visitor fills in a form, requests a quote or makes an appointment. This model is particularly suitable for companies offering services (real estate, banking, finance, insurance, automotive, etc.).
The cost-per-thousand (CPM) payment model
The affiliate receives a commission for every thousand displays of a banner ad he generates. This model is becoming increasingly rare in affiliate marketing.
How do you choose the best remuneration for your affiliate program?
In addition to brand awareness and the quality of the content included in the program, the remuneration offered to affiliates is a key criterion for success. Our affiliation platform can advise you on how to define this, and provide information on market standards. In any event, the following points should be borne in mind.
Attractive program
In order to have a competitive affiliate program, you need to be on a par with your competitors. This is because affiliates spontaneously gravitate towards programs that are most advantageous and lucrative for them.
Program profitability
Choose a level of profitability, taking care to encourage affiliates to bring you sales. Since the program’s remuneration is essentially based on a percentage, the proportion of sales that will be allocated to affiliates is fixed. This means that your ROI (return on investment), i.e. the proportion between the return (your sales) and the investment (the commission), will remain the same. For example, a 7% commission generates an ROI of around 14 (100/7). This rate should be compared with your margin to determine a commission that is acceptable to the advertiser and sufficiently attractive to publishers.
Creative compensation
Be creative with remuneration based on the objectives pursued, using hybrid or differentiated remuneration to better calibrate your affiliation campaign. For example, you can automatically modulate remuneration according to product category, or whether the sale is made by a new or existing customer. Another possibility is to offer mixed CPA and CPC remuneration to generate sales and boost traffic to the merchant site.
Why choose Effinity to launch your affiliate program?
Effinity’s affiliation experts can help you build an attractive and profitable affiliation program. By choosing our platform, you benefit from the best practices and tools available on the market.
Diversity of partners
Our platform federates over 45,000 affiliates covering a wide range of partner types. Your affiliate program benefits from a wide range of publishers, both in France and abroad, optimizing your reach and impact.
Permanent recruitment
We are constantly adding new publishers to our platform. Our teams also carry out personalized partner recruitment, perfectly aligned with your offer and objectives, to guarantee a partner network that is always relevant and effective.
Personalized support
With 25 years of affiliate marketing expertise, our experts can advise you on the best practices to implement to ensure the success of your affiliate program. We offer personalized support, tailored to your specific needs and strategy.
Business continuity
If you already have an affiliate program, we guarantee a smooth and secure transition, whatever your volume of business. Our platform change process ensures close monitoring of the relationship with your affiliates, minimizing disruption and maximizing efficiency.
Find out more about our affiliation offer for advertisers…
