Are you considering a career in affiliate marketing management? It’s a wise decision on your part. It doesn’t really matter if your intention is to run your own in-house affiliate program or preferably work with an affiliate marketing management agency. The goal of this position is to generate revenue, foster relationships, and make data-driven decisions. But let’s be honest here – what does an affiliate marketing manager do?
Daily Tasks: What’s on Your Plate?
There is more the affiliate marketing than simply placing links everywhere and praying for the best. It requires skillful planning, interaction, and refinement. The first thing you need to do is establish and manage the complete process of an affiliate program. Identify an affiliate network or tracking tool, develop commission models that motivate affiliates to generate traffic, and develop promotional content that has a high chance of being converted are the components of this step.
Good managers are active. They use affiliate partnerships and affiliates programs. The process of trying to obtain new affiliates is just like trying to obtain great players in sports – they all come with different skills. Media companies, bloggers, and influencers are the perfect affiliates that can make your program successful. But add need to be managed to make sure they are delivering value. Being in touch, analyzing results, and providing rewards all make sure that these affiliates remain active and generate high-quality traffic.
Tracking performance and traffic is another equally important aspect. Traffic is traffic, however, good traffic and bad traffic are not the same. Experienced marketers understand the difference between click fraud and other fake leads. Identifying low performing affiliates and addressing misleading promotion, fake traffic, or cookie stuffing is a regular task.
Optimization takes time and is a long-term process. Managers have to modify their approach to the campaign in each shift and find new ways to increase the boost in conversions. A/B testing different landing pages, adjusting commission structures, and refining partner strategies are some of the things that can easily take an average affiliate program to the next level.
Reporting and communications should be prioritized along with performance optimization. Having good metrics and explaining them to the stakeholders is a must to keep them in the loop. Affiliates also require consistent updates about their performance for such communication to be useful and helpful.
Performance KPIs: What Success Looks Like
A marketing program’s measure of success revolves around a number of parameters. The first and most important one being – revenue. In what terms are revenue and profits being generated through sales and leads? But revenue is not all – Profitability paints the full picture and to this full picture a revenue-affiliate marketing manager’s close attention to Return on Investment (ROI).
Recently, conversions have been a much discussed concept. A high value dealing with affiliate traffic can be undermined by the conversion rate. If there is a considerable portion of traffic that is not converting, there is something that needs solving. The solving could be in messaging, the design of the landing page, or even the communication that affiliate is using to promote. Calling this Mutation Optimization may be more appropriate.
The quality of traffic is yet another of those crucial KPIs. Fraud is forever hanging over the head of affiliate marketing. Click fraud, lead fraud, and bot traffic can all lead to wasteful spending and a loss of true data. A good affiliate manager knows this and sets up fraud detection and audits traffic sources regularly.
Retention of affiliates is often underestimated, but it is highly relevant. It is more rewarding to have a solid pool of active affiliates than to be constantly on the lookout to recruit new ones. A high churn rate may point out a problem with commission, communication, or support given.
Cost per acquisition (CPA) is a more detailed metric which specifies whether an affiliate program is economically self-sustaining. A successful program has a CPA within the company’s margins and revenue objectives. An alarming sign is when there is an unexplained surge in CPA with no corresponding increase in revenue.
Recommended Software & Tools: Your Tech Stack
Improper tools make managing an affiliate program an absolute damper. One critical tool is the affiliate tracking platform, as software that manages clicks, conversions, commissions, and ensures proper attribution, is absolutely necessary. Fraud prevention and automating affiliate processes is made easier by Hypernet.
Other popular fraud management networks include CJ, ShareASale, Rakuten, and Impact. These brands help affiliates with logistical work such as attribution and payment disbursement, while simultaneously providing affiliates with a portfolio of programs to select from.
Insight into behavior of affiliate traffic is made possible by Google Analytics and Tag Manager. These tools help identify the top performing affiliates and underperforming campaigns, so proper action can be taken.
Communications with the affiliates are made easier with customer relationship management (CRM) and email automation software such as HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and Mailchimp. Automated promotional emails, performance notifications, and app updates ensure that affiliates are always informed.
Traffic harm tools like Fraudlogix and Forensiq are essential in cutting back on unnecessary costs driven by unverified traffic. These tools help analyze traffic flow and mark unverified users before taking a toll on marketing spend budgets.
Tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs for researching content and SEO offer a glimpse of what content and keywords are relevant and receiving traffic. Most affiliates depend on organic search traffic, and if provided with optimized content recommendations, their results can improve significantly.
Real-Life Examples: Affiliate Marketing in Action
To demonstrate how these strategies are deployed in real life, consider the case of an e-commerce brand that integrated an affiliate program to boost sales. At first, they had issues with low conversion rates and high CPA. After a closer look, the affiliate marketing manager realized that some of the affiliates were driving poorly targeted traffic.
By refocusing on high-converting affiliates and optimizing landing pages with traffic data, the company was able to double their conversion rate while decreasing CPA by 30% over the course of six months. This is a perfect example of the importance of data driven analysis and optimization efforts.
Another example is a subscription-based SaaS company that relied on affiliates for customer acquisition. They implemented a tiered commission structure where higher payouts were given for subscribers that stayed longer. This strongly motivated affiliates to put in more effort in promoting the product which greatly increased customer retention rates, by 40%, to be precise.
In the travel industry, a leading booking platform managed to achieve great results in an advertisement campaign by connecting with travel bloggers and influencers. Through the campaign, the company gave travel influencers special discount codes and access to promotions which helped increase bookings and improve partnerships with top affiliates.
Final Thoughts: Are You Ready?
Being an affiliate marketing manager involves much more than the tenets of linking and payment receiving. It is an intricate interplay of high-level decision making, strategy formulation, relationship building and analytical prowess. While being employed in a company, operating an affiliate marketing management firm, or even running your own program, building these skills will always put you ahead of your peers.
And if you are looking to advance in your career quickly, begin with automating tasks using Hypernet’s fraud prevention systems. Automation means optimization which leads to higher revenue. If done correctly, an affiliate program is a cheap and effective method of growing a business which a lot of people tend to overlook.
It is within reach to have an effective affiliate marketing system under the right tools, strategies and more importantly, the right mindset. Start today by managing your program like a pro.