In order for affiliate marketing to work you need tracking on your website to track interactions and conversions. This tracking comes from partnering with an affiliate network, such as AWIN, Rakuten and CJ. Or use another tracking solution known as SAAS (software as a service), SAAS platforms essentially offer affiliate tracking as a network does but are often built to offer much more data insight and bespoke ways of working as they are essentially tech providers first over account management.
Affiliate tracking typically works by tracking a sale via a cookie dropping (typically a 1st party cookie), or by using bespoke methods like the AWIN Server to Server tracking solution. These tracking updates provide extra security against sales not being registered due to cookies being blocked.
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The ability to track the traffic that has landed on their website is key for any ecommerce brand or online retailer. It ensures you as a brand can see whether an affiliate marketing campaign is working or not. It does this by providing the data that allows brands and publishers to gain insight into consumers online activity, therefore ensuring brands pay their affiliates and publishers for the traffic or sales they're contributing. Put another way, if tracking is not set up correctly, you could end up paying for activity you haven't agreed upon e.g. commission for customers who haven't converted on your site into a sale.
Affiliate networks offer different tracking solutions, which enable the ability to track a range of different metrics. This allows brands to work with networks that incorporate specific tracking solutions and payment models, best suited to their businesses KPIs or OKRs.
Selecting an affiliate network or SAAS platform is important - you want to choose one that has a good presence in your chosen market and has a commercial offering that works for you. Cheapest may not always be best because if the network is not strong in your sector or market it can make optimisation much harder, the reason being that having lots of similar brands attracts lots of aligned partners - most networks have a start up offering so comparing a few is important.
It is also important to think about your programme maturity - a mature programme can sometimes benefit from working on a SAAS platform to enable deeper optimisation of already established partnerships, this is often achieved through deeper data insight and more agile tools. New programmes can benefit greatly from traditional affiliate networks as they provide direct access to large publisher bases. This access enables brands to build out their affiliate partner base at scale, as there will be less manual outreach and recruitment needed to find partners.
Want to learn more? Check out our Affiliate Marketing for Beginners Guide.
