Affiliate Program Health Check

Follow this affiliate program checklist to learn what goes into keeping the best programs optimized.

In the digital marketing landscape, affiliate programs have become a cornerstone for driving sales and expanding brand reach.

Affiliate marketing is a game-changer in the digital world, but it’s not something you can set and forget. A high-quality program requires maintenance. This is one reason so many companies choose to partner with an affiliate marketing agency.

To keep your program in tip-top shape, include this six-step affiliate marketing checklist in your affiliate strategy.

1. Focus on the KPIs that matter.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have their role in measuring affiliate success. However, focusing on too many details can lead to confusion and “analysis paralysis.”

Don’t get too bogged down in the details. Instead, prioritize the program’s goals above all else.

For example, one day of poor performance or a temporary dip in an ancillary metric can be alarming. Still, it shouldn’t matter if you’re drawing exponential affiliate sales and top line the rest of the time.

Avoid pulling yourself in too many directions. It’s better to keep your eye on the bigger picture.

2. Push for diversity in your affiliate program.

Most affiliate programs take a multichannel approach. With this in mind, marketers should avoid being too dependent on a small group of publishers or content creators.

Program dependence on just one or two publishers can affect your results differently than if your performance is spread out across multiple partners.

At Gen3, we like to look at the diversity of a program and the dependency on certain top affiliates. There are a lot of big players in this space, and these can sometimes represent most of a program’s volume.

I never want to see a program that’s dependent on a single publisher. This holds true even if they have a great name and history in the affiliate space.

Here’s why: They could change the way they promote you overnight, wreaking havoc on the program.

Overinvesting in certain publishers – and even certain affiliate models – is much like any unweighted investment portfolio. You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket.

Keep your program flexible. You want to retain leverage if a partner decides to change things in a way that might not serve you as well.

Affiliate programs require routine maintenance and regular calibration to maximize your return on spend.

3. Maximize all aspects of your conversion funnel.

Regardless of the affiliate types you opt to work with, it is crucial to fully understand the potential of each.

It’s the difference between walking down a single hallway versus knowing the entire floor plan of a building.

For example, you could have people at the top of the funnel telling your brand’s story through content. Then, maybe you have some mid-funnel marketing where people post reviews or unboxing videos. Finally, at the bottom of the funnel, you’re looking at how others are assisting in facilitating the sale.

Brands that are getting good results from bottom-funnel activities should also include top- and mid-stage activities. This can benefit overall affiliate performance, because you’ll then have more opportunities coming through the funnel. When you want to stretch the bottom of the funnel, you’re simply going to have to put more in at the top.

In fact, one of the best times to invest in the people driving traffic to your brand is when bottom-funnel tactics are working. You’ve obviously got a whole suite of partners who know how to convert relevant traffic for you. Why wouldn’t you want to increase that traffic?

I believe a program is at peak health when it’s maximizing all aspects of the funnel. Leveraging all publisher models, publisher types, and stages of the funnel will keep a program as healthy as possible.

4. Find lookalike opportunities.

If you’re having success in a certain vein, it makes the most sense to build on those successes by doing more of those things.

For example, if you’re doing well on Rakuten Rewards, you should explore other loyalty sites. You want to see if you can replicate your success elsewhere. This move helps expand your program. It puts the product in front of a potentially larger and similar audience while amplifying demand.

People’s preferences for websites are constantly changing. Those sites are still there, but people are constantly evolving. Their preferences change. These are the kinds of shifts from which we’re trying to insulate our clients.

One way we can do this is to help our clients be everywhere their customers are.

5. Conduct a gap analysis.

A gap analysis highlights the difference between your current performance and your goals by identifying publisher partners who are not yet promoting your brand. 

A realistic gap analysis hinges on the availability of data. This is where an agency like Gen3 Marketing can be so valuable to an affiliate program. 

We have a database where we have compiled every transaction on behalf of our clients dating back to 2015. It allows us to quickly cross-reference with any program data to see where gaps exist. It can even show us who is performing well, underperforming, or even overperforming (which could indicate a compliance risk). 

These are rich, actionable insights. 

We can compare a client with the ten other clients that are most like them. It’s a powerful tool to measure yourself against industry trends. In our case, we’re measuring clients against our other clients that we’re working with directly. That’s the kind of value you can only get from an agency. 

6. Review your program’s compliance.

A lack of affiliate compliance oversight can significantly skew program results. 

Compliance can be confusing in affiliate marketing because it can mean two different things. 

In the financial services world, compliance means staying within the guidelines of regulatory agencies and consumer protection laws. 

However, it’s also making sure the program is as squeaky clean as possible. For example, using correct coupon codes, only giving credit for actual sales, enforcing terms and conditions, and ensuring accurate information. 

When evaluating affiliate marketing compliance, consider: 

• How is everyone in your program driving traffic? 

• Are you enforcing your trademarks within paid search? 

• Are you checking for fraud within your program? 

• Are you keeping updated with more recent rules and guidelines, like the FTC’s ban on fake reviews? 

• Are you doing reversals on returned/refunded purchases, so publishers don’t get the commission? 

All these things can impact the program’s integrity. 

Naturally, a lot of work goes into optimizing an affiliate marketing program. It’s easy to see why many organizations partner with an agency for affiliate management. 

We can run these checks for you, applying our experience with all affiliate networks to your program. 

Contact us today to have us audit your affiliate marketing program and see how we can get you on the path to sustainable success. 

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