Tips on Finding the Right Affiliate Marketing Platform

A lot of crucial factors need to be taken into account, regardless of whether you're managing an online-only company or attempting to set up an affiliate marketing scheme for your physical store. Developing an affiliate marketing program is a challenging task, therefore you must select a partner platform that can assist you in creating and managing the program.

Finding an affiliate marketing platform necessitates paying attention to the platform's alternatives, regardless of whether you don't currently have one or are attempting to leave an internal affiliate marketing program. When selecting an affiliate marketing platform, keep an eye out for these seven aspects.

1. Simple Interface

Especially if your affiliate program is fairly new, it’s important that you’re good at navigating it. If the user interface is extremely complex and difficult to understand, then you’re not going to want to use it as much, and you might not be able to get everything you want out of it. Additionally, a complicated program interface also usually means a complicated affiliate-facing interface, which can make affiliates themselves less likely to use the program.

An easy-to-use dashboard is an important part of your affiliate program for both your in-house affiliate managers and the affiliates you’re reaching out to.

2. Helpful Affiliate Marketplace

An affiliate marketplace is one of the best ways for both affiliates and affiliate marketers to connect with the people they’re looking for. With an affiliate marketplace, you don’t have to just hope that affiliates will stumble over your program; you can actually reach out to them directly and let them know what you can offer them as part of your program.

Especially if you’re just starting your affiliate program, an affiliate marketplace is key for getting it running.

3. Intentional Security for Your Account

High-quality affiliate programs take security seriously. You want to make sure that your affiliate platform is dedicated to fraud detection, general internet security, and data privacy. The last thing you want is for your affiliate program to be negatively impacted by a fraudulent actor.

High-quality account security will bring peace of mind to both the company running the program and the people signing up for it.

4. Integration with Ecommerce Platforms

All affiliate platforms should integrate on a very basic level with SaaS platforms like BigCommerce, Shopify, PayPal, and other ecommerce products. However, it’s also important that the company doesn’t just stop at the absolute basics. You want your company to include as many third-party integrations as possible so you can use them effectively.

While the ecommerce tools you currently use are the most important integrations to look for, checking for all integrations can help you expand in the future.

5. Effective Tracking and Data

It may seem obvious, but it is important that you specifically look at the tracking capabilities and data that an ecommerce platform provides. This is important on both ends. For you, higher levels of tracking and data allow you to see which affiliates are doing the best job. For your affiliates, higher levels of tracking and data allow them to understand what works and what doesn’t.

More tracking is always better when it comes to affiliate marketing, regardless of which side you’re on.

6. Helpful Customer Support

If you have a problem with your affiliate program, who are you going to ask about it? Most of the time, you’ll need to contact customer support. If customer support is slow to respond, then affiliates may lose patience with the program altogether, while affiliate marketers may not be able to get the most out of their program. Plus, as you decide to scale up your affiliate program, you’ll need to get help making sure you’re always blazing a strong path.

A strong customer service component can help your business grow and help your affiliates do more with the program.

7. Affordable Cost for Your Business

Ultimately, even if it might not be the most crucial aspect of any affiliate marketing program, you should nonetheless consider the cost. The monthly cost of affiliate marketing can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, according to AMNavigator, and a large amount of that is due to the charges associated with your affiliate marketing platform. You can obtain a tremendous return on investment as long as you budget for these expenses, so bear that in mind when you set up your affiliate marketing program.

For novices, a cheaper price is usually preferable, but as your needs grow, you should search for a program that can grow as well.

Selecting the Appropriate Affiliate Network

If an affiliate program fulfills each of these requirements for you, it's the correct one. It's critical that the affiliate program you choose offers you a user-friendly interface, a marketplace for finding new affiliates, online security, platform integration, extensive tracking and statistics, all at a price you can afford. Refersion is the answer for a lot of folks. These seven stages will help you ensure that the platform you choose fulfills all of your needs, regardless of the platform you ultimately decide on.