Affiliate marketing: Increase the sales of your online store with strong partners

Most online retailers will have come across the term affiliate marketing at some point, as it is currently on everyone’s lips. But what does the buzzword actually mean? And how can affiliate marketing be used to promote your own products or services? In this article, we explain why affiliate marketing and a suitable partner program can quickly have a positive impact on sales in eCommerce.

But let’s start at the beginning:

Affiliate marketing, ever heard of it?

Affiliate marketing is based on the principle of classic referral marketing. Strong sales partners draw the attention of the target group of online users to the products of an online store through recommendations on websites, blogs, information, voucher or coupon pages and links. In this way, such an affiliate network provides a huge reach in terms of topics and sectors, which would be difficult for a single store operator to achieve alone.

The parties involved in affiliate marketing are:

• Merchant/Advertiser = advertiser, online retailer, program operator
• Publisher/Affiliate = digital sales partner
• Affiliate network = interface for affiliate marketing partners

The merchant therefore uses affiliate marketing for the online sale of its products. The affiliate, on the other hand, acts as the merchant’s sales partner. They advertise the merchant’s products via their website and receive a commission in return. Depending on the condition model, the commission is only due when a purchase is actually made.

The affiliate marketing campaign is handled via the affiliate network platform. The affiliate network is responsible for both acquiring affiliate partners and setting up the program. It receives a fee for this, which is based on the affiliate commission. Depending on the respective network, either a set-up fee or a fixed amount is charged for participation.

What are the advantages of affiliate marketing?

Due to the immense reach of affiliates, corresponding marketing measures can be a significant growth driver for your online store. The advantages are obvious: on the one hand, new customers can be generated via the affiliate channel, and on the other hand, existing customers can be reminded of your listing.

Another major advantage of affiliate marketing is the combination of a large reach and manageable advertising expenditure: This is because the commission for the affiliate is normally only generated if a sale has also been made. As an advertising online retailer, you can spread the advertising risk across various affiliate partners and only pay for successfully completed transactions that were generated via the partner’s recommendation.

What are the goals of affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is not a stand-alone measure, but ideally part of a strategic mix of various online marketing activities.
Alongside search engine marketing (SEM) and social media marketing (SMM), affiliate marketing is a powerful performance channel for acquiring new customers that you should not neglect as an online retailer.

How can you make your affiliate marketing a success?

As already mentioned, affiliates are often paid a percentage or a fixed amount of the successful sale. Of course, the principle also applies here: the better the purchase probability for the affiliate, the more likely the affiliate is to sell high-reach advertising space to the merchant. There are several factors that determine the success of the partnership:

1. Commission
   The height of the commission set determines the profitability of the campaign for the affiliate. For this reason, it is advisable to base the commission rates on the competition in order to create interesting conditions for the affiliate.
   Our tip:
   Work with graduated commissions. Affiliates with good advertising performance are additionally motivated to display corresponding advertisements. As an online retailer, you create an additional basis for communication in order to remain in dialog with the partner for future campaigns.
2. Selection & design of advertising media
   The success of an advertising measure can also be determined using the so-called CTR (Click Through Rate). This refers to the ratio of ad impressions to the corresponding clicks on the ad. Good advertising media therefore follow the AIDA principle:
   Attention(generate attention)
   Interest(arouse the user’s interest)
   Desire(awakening the customer’s desire to interact)
   Action(clear request for interaction – call to action)
3. Potential of the store
   Cooperation with an affiliate should be worthwhile for both sides. While the focus for you as a merchant is primarily on the down payment of sales, the professionalism of your online store, which can be demonstrated through targeted conversion rate optimization, for example, is also a guarantee of success for the affiliate. A coherent overall concept for your online store will also help to gain the trust of affiliates.
4. Communication
   Affiliates love active programs with lots of “movement”. Communicate discount promotions or other events that affiliates can use to promote your program. For example, the Adcell network offers the free option of informing active affiliates who are already working for the affiliate program of planned promotions via a newsletter.
5. Promotions
   Regular promotions have a significant impact on the success of the affiliate program. Discount promotions, seasonal promotions or special conditions for very successful affiliate partners contribute to a better overall success of the affiliate campaign and should be anchored accordingly in your activity plan.
6. Transparent conditions
   Affiliates appreciate transparency: Create an affiliate program description with all the important information about your store, products and conditions. Affiliates apply for this partner program. Ensure that affiliate applications are processed on an ongoing basis and check the affiliates’ websites and advertising environment to assign them to the selected advertising channels and condition models.

How does performance measurement work in affiliate marketing?

The success of the affiliate campaign is measured via the affiliate network, which provides technologies for tracking. A cookie is set to determine the origin of the user and the specific allocation is made when the order is completed.
Tracking thus ensures the measurement of the affiliate’s advertising performance and the corresponding commission allocation, thereby forming the basis for transparent and fair billing.

Can you afford to do without affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing has the potential to increase the sales of your online store. A professionally run affiliate marketing program can bring you new store customers without great financial risk and contribute to customer loyalty. However, a successful affiliate program is not a sure-fire success. This is because capacities must be planned for the continuous support of the campaign.

As an affiliate marketing agency, we are happy to support you with our expertise in planning and implementing your affiliate marketing strategy. To do this, we first recommend our free analysis of your affiliate marketing potential.

Would you like to find out more about us and our services? Click here: