2021 White Paper

GUIDE

ON PARTNER
PROGRAM CREATION
IN 2021

All rights are reserved and belong

to Affise Inc.
Your Guide to Successful Partner Program 02
Prepared by Affise

Your Guide to Successful

Partner Program
Since you downloaded this guide, we presume you are thinking about launching a partner
program to grow your business and expand your business partnerships' list.

Good call! Partner programs can significantly boost your business without having your full
attention put into product promotion. However, it has some pitfalls you need to be aware

of should you want to succeed in these efforts.

To help you start your partner program, we created this guide that will walk you through

all aspects of partner marketing. It draws attention to the business side of the matter,

such as the typical payment schemes, the top ways of product promotion, advice

on partners recruiting, and provision of tech maintenance to manage the program itself

and all partners' relations.

First things first, let's figure out where you are now in your
partner marketing journey. Are you a total beginner, or have

you already been there for a while?

If you fall into the first category, we highlight the basics

of partner marketing, its state in 2021, and perspectives

in the guide's first part. In contrast, the second part focuses

on concrete advice on setting a program and working

with partners.

I hope you will find the guide helpful, and after reading it,

you will already be halfway to success.

Contact us if you have any industry or technology-specific

questions. We will be happy to help!

Stanislau Litvinau
CEO at Affise

Affise is a partnership marketing platform for brands, advertisers and agencies to automate
and scale their partner relations via all possible performance marketing channels: traditional
affiliates, influencers, networks and agencies. The synergy of technology and the long
standing experience allows Affise’s clients to make partnerships manageable and revenue
predictable marketing channel.

To learn more, visit affise.com.

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Table of Content 03
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Table

of Content

Part 1.
Partner Marketing: How it works, its key players 04
Partner
Types of partnerships 06
Marketing 101

Part 2.
Setting Partner Program Goals 13
Planning an Setting Partner Program Policy & Rules 16
Effective Partner Creating Marketing Collateral 19
Marketing Strategy Ensuring Brand Safety 20

Part 3.
Recruiting Affiliates 23
Starting
Managing partner program: what to consider 30
a Partner Program
Starting a partner program: 2 scenarios 34
from Scratch

2021 White Paper

Part 1. Partner Marketing 101 04
Prepared by Affise

Part 1. Partner Marketing 101

Partner Marketing:

How It Works, Key

Players

Partner marketing is about the possibility for a business to promote a product with the help

of affiliates (publishers) and optimize the marketing budget by paying only for the final result.

The basic partner

PARTNER PUTS YOUR
AD ON THEIR WEBSITE

marketing model
involves three HOW DOES

PARTNER
compulsory parties:
MARKETING
WORK?
a product owner,
PARTNER GETS

A COMISSION, YOU
CUSTOMER CLICKS
& CONVERTS
GET A SALE!
a promoter, and

a customer.

CONVERSIONS

ARE TRACKED

In the traditional model, partner marketing In 2020 partner marketing looks more
will look like the following example: person A complicated. The goal can be presented not
has a flower shop, person B has a blog about only by sales but also by variety of other
hand-made decorations. Person B can actions, like impressions, clicks, registrations,
recommend buying flowers via a link
installs, etc. Depending on the agreement,

to the shop of person A. Thus a customer buys a publisher is paid upon reaching

flowers from person A, and a person B gets

one of the goals.
a commission from the sale.

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Part 1. Partner Marketing 101 05
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Let's have a closer look who is involved in partner marketing:

Product owner You will find many names for this role in the partner marketing
life cycle. In traditional partner marketing, a product owner is
often referred to as a vendor or merchant. It can be an individual
entrepreneur, a small or mid-size company, or a large enterprise
with a product or a service to sell. By product, we mean either
goods or services, both online and offline. In digital marketing,

a product owner is also known as an advertiser. In 2021

in this role we see a lot of brands from different industries from

eCommerce to SaaS products that want to boost their growth.

Partner Also known as a publisher or an affiliate. Partner is responsible

for promoting a product, presenting it in the most appealing way

to the target audience so that people would like to purchase it.
Should an affiliate succeed in selling a merchant product, he or
she will receive a commission from the sale.

Consumer The one who purchases a product, an end-user of the promoted

products. Not all consumers even realize that they buy from

affiliates. Affiliates are very good at hiding this fact and

promoting a product in a very native way, employing
recommendations, story-telling, and other content types.

Some affiliates disclose the presence of affiliate links to be fair

and develop loyalty around their audience. However, this can
deter customers who are not aware of partner marketing
business schemes. They might think that in this way they pay
more and go directly to a product's webpage. As a matter of fact,
affiliate commissions are deducted from the product price.
Buying from affiliates never ends up in a higher price.

The important players in partner marketing are affiliate

networks (ad networks) or agencies that consolidate offers

from numerous advertisers and publishers from different niches

and regions. They serve as an intermediate between advertisers

and publishers, matching advertisers with publishers that fit

IN their profile.

PLAYERS MAY INTERCHARGE

AND CONVEY TWO ROLES

In 2021 with all the complexity of actors, some typical market
AT THE SAME TIME
players may interchange and convey two roles at the same time.
You may find it confusing at the start, but do not let it mislead
you. Keep in mind the basic model that there is also a player

who promotes somebody's product and receives a commission.

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Part 1. Partner Marketing 101 06
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Types of

Partnerships

Most searched online Coupon Deals and Coupons

Categories as May of 2020
Deal and coupons websites are aggregators

of various discounts that are kept together to create

Household
Items 46% the experience of a discounted eCommerce
platform. It is a convenient marketplace of different
Restaurant/

Delivery 41% offers where customers can compare products,

companies, and prices.

Grocery/

Delivery 40%
Though some people may think that coupons

Electronics
37% are the forgotten past and could have been effective
only in the 1990ies, the real situation with deals

Apparel/

35% and coupons is different. They won't die as long

Fashion
as people dig for discounts. You might be surprised
Beauty/

24% but 93.75% of American adults used coupons

Makeup
in 2019. Also, the data shows that 60% of consumers
Health/
are more likely to shop from a new brand if it has

Medicine 23%
a discount coupon on offer. Furthermore, 92% of
Pets shoppers in the United States who search for deals
22%
or offers before making an online purchase. Thus,
Toys/
coupons can be a part of a marketing strategy

Games 20%
for new products on the market.

Home/

Furniture 18%
To have the overview of the industries for which
Automotive coupons work the best, you can have a look

11%
at the recent overview from May 2020 that shows

Baby/Kids the most searched categories during

11%
the coronavirus pandemic. While the coronavirus
Travel pandemic will be over once, the online shopping
11% habits remain in customer behaviour.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Source - Coupon Follow ©Statista 2020

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Part 1. Partner Marketing 101 07
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Loyalty partnership

Loyalty partners come in many forms but generally, they aim to involve websites, apps,

or companies to stimulate potential consumers with a reward in anticipation of the desired

action, which can be a sign up for emails, signing up for a trial offer, but most typically

a product sale.

Also, one brand allows its customers to exchange loyalty program bonus points for products

of another brand in a loyalty partnership. Loyalty programs enable elite brands not to spoil their
image by offering cashback or frequent sales. In fact, it's a way to give severe discounts without
actually adding any money.

Frequency Volume Advocate

The more frequent
The more a customer Loyal costumers that

a customer purchases buys goods or services,

support and promote
a product or uses
the greater is the reward the brand. The reward
a service, the more that a customer receives. is often in the form

rewards a customer of extended bonuses.

receives.

Influencer marketing

Previously known as promotion on social media solely from celebrities has shifted to bloggers
and opinion leaders.

The key in this model are people that have an influence in certain subjects and are followed

by a great number of followers that share their opinion and listen to their views. In this way,
influencers have rather a high impact on the mass audience, making it easier for companies

to get their product or service promoted to thousands or millions of people. In addition, since
influencers act as opinion leaders, companies get much closer to the target audience, which,

in turn, feels the urge to keep closer to the opinion leader, their lifestyle, and, consequently,

to the companies. Working with influencers brands have high chances to increase brand
awareness and sales.

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Paid-per-post
Also sometimes referred to as “À la carte”
pricing, this pricing model compensates

the influencer based on the number of posts

he or she creates for a brand. It can be in

the form of a blog post, a tweet, an Instagram

photo, or a Youtube video.

Influencer marketing udage rate

Brand Ambassadors
in the United States from 2019 to 2022
A brand ambassador is someone who is paid
to not only talk positively about the brand but

80% to embody the brand they are endorsing.

Brands always train their ambassadors

72,5%
67,9% on their products and services and their
Shar of Companies

60%
62,3%
company mission and values. Because of this,
55,4%
40%
ambassadors have inside knowledge and
become dedicated brand experts. Brands

and their ambassadors always have

20%
long-term partnerships.

0%

2019 2020 2021

2022

Source - eMarketer ©Statista 2020

Share of marketers from selected As you can see influencer marketing usage

industries that increased spending on is steadily growing from year to year. Only
influencer marketing worlwide in 2020 throughout 2020 several industries increased
spending on influencer marketing worldwide
by at least 70%.
100%
Shar of Responding marketers

80%

79% 79%
75% 73%
60%

40%

20%

0%

Retail Legal Manufacturing Average

Source - eMarketer ©Statista 2020

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Part 1. Partner Marketing 101 09
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Use of content marketing in Content marketing partnership

organizations worldwide as of June
2019 Content partnerships offer a variety of forms

for companies to cooperate. While the most

9%
famous content form is a blog article, content
marketing embraces also videos and podcasts,
interviews, case studies, in-depth white-papers,
No
91% infographics, different on-site quizzes,

and games.

Yes While content partnership fits into

the promotion strategy of any product,

it is particularly a great fit for native advertising

of more sophisticated products that have

a longer conversion cycle and require more

information about the product, particularly

its characteristics, instructions on how to use,

independent reviews etc.

Source - SEMrush ©Statista 2020

Content marketing types trusted

Co-creation
by target audiences according
Both brands can work together on content
to marketing professionals worldwide
creation and share it on their respective
as May of 2019
platforms. Joint process of content preparation
with mentioning each other products can help
Research/
both parties gain new markets' attention.
Case Studies 60%
Photos/

Infographics 34%
Link Sharing
Blog Posts/

Articles 30% A different strategy, when one brand works on

content creation, and another brand distributes
Email/

Enewsletters 30% it within their channels. For example, link from

a relevant article at their blog post.

Videos/

Motion Graphics 30%

Link exchange is an effective way to build

Webinars/
a connection between non-competitive brands
Online Events 28%
while also boosting SEO of your website.

Traditional/

Digital PR 23%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Share of respondents

Source - Ascend2 (and Research Partners) ©Statista 2020

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Part 1. Partner Marketing 101 10
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Affiliate marketing

The most common partner marketing method is probably affiliation. Affiliate marketing

is a promotion model where affiliates or publishers promote your product or service on their
website in return for a commission. Due to its measurability and accurate ROI calculation

this type of partnership perfectly fits the partner marketing matrix.

Partner program Networks Agencies

A brand can launch its An affiliate network Brand can work with

own partner program, serves as an intermediary a marketing agency that

where he would set his between brands and manages the portfolio

ad campaigns, recruit partners. It offers brands of publishers and all ad

affiliates, specify rules access to publishers campaigns operations
and policies, configure participating in
behind it, such as ad
payouts and conduct
the network. For banners and referral links.
all communication with adertisers it is an easy way
affiliates/publishers. to find and join partner
programs.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is a way to increase brand awareness by financially supporting an event, person,

or product. The most common place where you could see sponsorships are various sports events.

Awareness
Awareness is the most general usage of sponsorship. Link your product to a mass event

to maximize your brand's reach for existing and new consumers.

Association
It's a more profound connection of the brand with an event or a person to create a close
association in the consumers' eyes.

C onsumer Understanding
Sponsorships can help educate consumers about what a product has to offer. For example, a brand
might sponsor an event that, among other things, showcases a product's capabilities.

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 Part 1. Partner Marketing 101 11
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Distribution of affiliate marketing sales

in the United States in 2018,

by publisher type

Loyalty &
43% Cashback

Why do so many product owners

30% Voucher
consider partner marketing

code
in 2021?

Sub

11% Marketing efficiency

Networks

Great way to multiply marketing efforts,

involve more channels of promotion and
partners (affiliates) that will generate your
Social
6% product's sales through their online platforms.

Competitiveness of digital advertising

Comparison
5% engine According to the data collected by WARC,

almost $560 billion was spent globally on

digital advertising in 2018; and the forecasts

project an increase by at least 13% by 2022.

4% Content
It is challenging to stay competitive in online
advertising by managing marketing solely
in-house.

1% Search
Division of responsibilities
A brand can fully focus on improving

a product and development

1% E-mail of supplementary products, while others

actively promote it. You can compare

this scheme with partial outsourcing

Tech of marketing activities where all parties

1% partners are interested in driving results.

1% Display

10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Share of sales

Source - Awin ©Statista 2020

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 Part 1. Partner Marketing 101 12
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Smart marketing budget distribution

Brands don't waste money in vain. In partner marketing you pay for tangible results, for sales or
other agreed actions.

Promotion through a partner program fits any business

Not only big brands can actively use it as a part of their promotion. Owners of smaller and
relatively new products can easily integrate it into their marketing strategy.

You can see from the picture the steady growth of affiliate marketing spendings, which proves

it to be a popular promotion channel.

It wouldn't have grown that much if it was not for the results it gives. More and more industries start
working with affiliates by launching partner programs. In the following chapters we will talk about
aspects of a partner program creation.

Affiliate marketing spending in the United States

from 2010 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

10
8.2
7.4
Spending in billion U.S. dollars

8 6.8
6.4
5.4 5.9
6 4.8
4.2
3.4
4 2.9
2.5
2.1
2
1.6

2010
2011 2012
2013
2014
2015
2016 2017
2018
2019
2020 2021
2022

Source - Forester Research; Rakuten; Business Insider ©Statista 2020

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Part 2. Planning an effective partner marketing strategy 13
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Part 2. Planning an Effective Partner Marketing Strategy

Setting Partner
Program Goals

Sales growth A natural goal of any business is to make money. By increasing

the market reach and a number of business partners
companies acquire new customers, and as a result sell more.

One of the most common reasons behind starting a partner

program is an increase in the amount of sales. From this
perspective, the results of the partner marketing are easy

to evaluate as they are estimated in the amount of new

customers, returned customers and the total revenue.

Users retention & If you want to increase your customers LTV, you focus on
Traffic quality retaining current users and ensuring quality traffic on your
increase website. Here, partner marketing is a way to narrow down

to a particular niche that is a natural fit for your product.

No wonder people say that half the battle is knowing your

buyers' persona. Understanding your target audience helps

to focus marketing efforts on reaching the exact group of

buyers instead of mass advertising that may include similar

but not exactly your product audience.

Brand awareness Partner marketing can be a solution when you want

increase to increase your brand awareness, activate new channels

of promotion, discover new markets and make a strong image

inside users' minds. You are very likely to find partners for

the niches or promotion channels you didn't cover before.

Brand awareness campaigns are great in introducing a product

in the most native way, especially if you work with influencers.
Thus, partner marketing is a good fit when you want to improve
a brand's recognition relatively fast.

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While brand awareness campaigns have been always considered

the most difficult when it comes to measuring the results,
partner marketing is a game changer. All partner marketing
relations are managed with in-house solutions or at designated
SaaS platforms that will provide you with analytical reports

on the amount of impressions and view through rate.

Optimize Everyone is interested in the most effective promotion and

marketing budget nobody wants to overpay. In particular cases when a company

and increase ROI is on a tight budget and/ or wants to cut marketing expenses,

a partner program is a way to reduce spending as the model

allows you to pay only for final actions. In this way brands see

the direct result of your partnership campaigns that you pay for.

Partner The more partners you make, the less is the risk of not having

diversification a sufficient amount of sales. It is as simple as that.

Diversifying the portfolio of partners is not solely about

the amount of partners and potential amount of sales they

can make, it is also about diversifying the channels of promotion

and discovering news ones. It is about finding new content and

a way of promotion. If for some reason one of the channels

doesn't drive an expected amount of sales, you are secured by
other sources. In this way you cover more channels and niches,
you are present throughout desktop and mobile web, and in app.

Opportunity
Besides all possibilities that partner programs present, it is also

to measure a great opportunity to keep all your partners under one roof

marketing results and measure their results. It may be a case that a company

has been successfully working with agencies or different

independent contributors and while the overall results were
satisfying, the brand was lacking accurate reports on

the performance.

M anaging a partner program on a reliable platform provides

new opportunities. A brand can become a true owner of all

promotional activities done on their behalf. With the help

of a partner program brand can manage every single partner

and analyse their performance.

With the help of a partner program brand can manage

every single partner and analyse their performance

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Examples of possible partner program goals

Increase leads or sales

Increase leads or sales

from a specific partnership in s specific GEO by X%

channel by X%

Generate a minimum
Acquire at least X new
of X amount of revenue
customers/qualified leads
with the partner program
through the partnership

in a given period of time in a given period of time

Increase website visitors

Increase social media
by X% engagement and amount

of followers by X%

When starting a partner program you obviously don't pursue one single goal, so do not take

the above mentioned goals as a "choose the one that suits you the most'' list. You will relate

to different goals as it is about your strategic product promotion. Treat this list of the goals

as a check-list of what you can and need to achieve. Choose the goals that are the most relevant

for you at the moment and from that you will have a list of requirements of what you need in

your partner program. Often particular features are a defining moment when you are choosing

a platform for managing a partner program.

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Setting Partner
Program Policy &
Rules

A partner program policy is a binding Determining remuneration

agreement between you and your new schemes in partner marketing
affiliates. Properly drafted, this
documentation controls the rules, There are different payment schemes in
responsibilities, and dispute resolution partner marketing. We will walk you through
mechanisms that both parties must follow. the basic payment schemes and give
The partner program policy serves to restrict reasons for and against them, depending on
shady promotion methods, marketing a case of usage.
channels, and payment issues and help
recruit affiliates.

Pay per click

If you decide to draft your partner program Pay per click is a payment scheme under
policy and rules by yourself, we recommend which you pay affiliates based on the number
to address the following subjects: of clicks they generate for your product.

When and how you pay affiliates; PPC is particularly popular among bloggers

or affiliates with high traffic websites. It works

What promotional methods or marketing for them the best as, first, they don't need

channels are restricted; to sell anything; second, their goal is only

to bring users to a product’s page.

What physical products or affiliate product And by clicks, they can fairly measure it.

categories (discounted, low-priced, etc.)

are excluded from your program; PPC's drawback is a probability of fake clicks –
a fraudulent method of inflating the number
Other cases when affiliate action
of clicks through unethical ways like 'bot clicks'
will be banned. or merely a large group of low-paid workforce
repeatedly clicking on ads. Luckily nowadays,
there are plenty of solutions to identify this
kind of fraud. And once proven that clicks

are fake, for example, an unrealistic amount

of clicks is coming from the same ID,

an advertiser has all ground to refuse to pay

for this traffic.

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Pay per mile

"Pay per mile" means paying terms for
For advertisers, it is a more reliable scheme,

one thousand impressions with advertising as they pay for particular results.

materials, commonly ad banners. Because

the significant half of impressions don't reach One more reason why so many marketers
a final conversion (sale), this payment model prefer the CPA payment scheme is its
doesn't work for all ad campaigns. It is most resistance to fraudulent patterns. CPM or even
suitable for brand campaigns where CPI (click per install) plans are more volatile
advertisers want to evaluate the number
when it comes to fraud spikes. Additionally,

of people acquainted with the brand. to paying your partners based on one

of the schemes mentioned above, you can also

motivate them with a tiered (incentive-based)
Pay per acquisition
commission structure. Let us explain what

Also known as CPA - "cost per action" scheme. it means.

Under this payment scheme, an advertiser

pays a publisher only for the result. That's why

To motivate partners to drive more conversions,
it has remained one of the most popular brands and agencies from different industries
payment schemes for the last few years. award their partners with various bonuses

Advertisers pay to its affiliate upon

for achieving specific performance goals.

a particular action, sale, lead, install, or These special offers aim to increase partners’
registration among the most common.
loyalty and encourage their progress.

The commission that affiliates receive is up

to the program vendor. The CPA-based Commission tiers allow you to calculate

pricing type mostly suits product owners, the earned commission plus performance
companies, and big brands who want
bonuses automatically. In your system, you set

to promote their products.

a specific rule under which rewards will be

applied to your partners' commission. You do
This scheme under CPA is beneficial for both that, and you forget about manual calculations
sides. Affiliates can make more money, as
of bonuses.

the commission is usually higher than in PPC.

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Payment Thresholds, Frequency, and Methods

Apart from payment schemes that you program remunerate affiliates, you also need to clearly
articulate payments threshold, frequency, and methods.

Threshold Many merchants set a minimum limit that affiliates need

to reach for the commissions to be qualified for payment.

For example, a company has a $10 minimum threshold

for affiliates to get paid. As soon as affiliates drive needed

for the commission amount of actions, they get paid. If not,

then the payment is rolled over to the following month,

and it continues before they reach the minimum threshold.

Most merchants prefer to set a threshold as it significantly

optimizes the payment processes; they don't need to make

bank transfers of several dollars each time. Also, it ensures

higher profits as even a small threshold will motivate affiliates

to promote a product actively. When applying a minimum

threshold, you need to think of a reasonable sum of money.

A threshold of $200 сan be unduly high if the product's price

is relatively low. While a threshold of $10-20 will always

be applicable.

Frequency You can choose a frequency to pay your affiliates with: daily,
weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly pay periods.

To avoid tracking issues and fees it is more recommended

to choose bi-weekly or monthly payments. However, often similar

programs can offer daily or weekly payments, which may make
you reconsider your strategy.

Methods The most preferred method of payment is a direct deposit. Gift

cards are sometimes in demand, but they should not be the only
ones available. To avoid any complications in payments, try

to provide a wide range of payment systems like PayPal, Payoneer,

MasterCard, Visa, WebMoney, UnionPay, Netteler, Perfect Money,
Skrill, bitcoin, etc.

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Creating Marketing
Collateral

It’s essential to offer your affiliates

Ad banners
clear and qualitative marketing
collateral
Articles
When offering marketing collateral,

you create a database of content that

publishers can use for ad campaigns, such

as samples of ad banners, articles, Emails

promotional emails, etc. Make it clear which
tone and usage of the logo are acceptable.

Ad copy
By doing so, you’re making it easier for them
to promote your affiliate product. And what

is more important, you ensure that your

affiliates will use the most useful promotion Logo usage
materials.

For example, you found out that banner ads

with your product outperform text links in Brand guide
conversion rate. Consequently, you mention

it in your collateral material to help your

affiliates understand what performs better.

Landing pages

Even before applying to an affiliate program,

typically, affiliates are looking for collateral or
creative materials. They want to see what they Branded content
will work with. So, it’s crucial to offer them

as many useful and incisive data as possible.

Product catalogues

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Ensuring Brand
Safety

It goes without saying that all the advertisers That is why, customising partner sign-up
want their brands protected, and want
processes can help you get higher quality
to be identified alongside the content that publishers. Request more sophisticated
compliments their brands. With all digital information from potential partners, such

touchpoints on the way to potential as the description of the affiliate's website,

consumers protecting the brand image
categories of content, website traffic

has become a real challenge. per month, description of promotional

methods, and more. Make sure you also

add a CAPTCHA field to filter low-quality

High standards for partners applications.

When you create a higher entry barrier

for potential partners, you increase

the chances to distinguish low-quality

applicants from those relevant to you.

Customising partner
sign-up processes can
help you get higher
quality publishers

Example taken from transferwise.com

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Request more
sophisticated
information from
potential partners

Example taken from transferwise.com

Know your partners Partners as brand representatives

As you want your brand to be well-presented, All your partners are brand representatives,

you should monitor to whom you delegate like it or not. If you want them to represent

your digital activities. As a rule, 10-20% of your the product properly, you need to put more
affiliates drive 70-90% of traffic to your offers. efforts into their education, and provide them
You are likely to know them well compared
with all the necessary materials so they know
to the rest 80-90% of affiliates. And it is highly your Terms and Conditions and maintain your
recommended that you know all your brand message across the channel.

partners to ensure that your brand

is represented suitably.
Let them know what you expect from them,

what they are and aren’t allowed to do, what

Do the appropriate research for both new is your target audience and so on. Make sure
applicants and current partners, check out they understand which means they can use

their websites, ask around the affiliate to promote your brand, what keywords

community at forums, request referrals, and they should bid on, what type of content

so on. This effort will minimize the chances is prohibited, and what happens when
that your affiliates’ actions will damage
violations take place.

your brand.

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Create brand guidelines For example, possible logo usage

Brand guidelines are a set of rules that

outline how each element of the brand

should be used. You can’t overestimate its
essence when it comes to ensuring that your
brand message and creatives are aligned

with your audience. These guidelines should

always be used by your affiliates when

any element of your brand is being

communicated in advertising campaigns.

Here are the basic points you should

include into your brand guidelines:
Overview of the brand’s history, its core
values, mission, vision and product’s selling
Example taken from kellerbiolo.com.br
points;

Possible logo usage in all versions and For example, possible color usage
colour variations;

Directions of creatives with examples that

reflect your brand message and values;

Preferred writing style with examples

of messages that describe your brand

personality.

Example taken from kellerbiolo.com.br

Brand typography Example taken from kellerbiolo.com.br

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Part 3. Starting a Partner Program from Scratch

Recruiting

Affiliates

Okay, you're convinced in the power of partner marketing to

skyrocket your business and you are ready to try it. "But where do
I find these publishers?" you may think. And this chapter will give
you an answer. We prepared the list of actions, people, online
and offline communities which will help you to recruit affiliates
into your program.

Landing page

Each business has a face, the same as a person. In digital terms,

it is a profile presented by a landing page. Simple as it may

sound, it is not something to neglect when creating a partner
program. A landing page is a primary source of information users
would turn to check information and raise any possible questions.

Further, when you promote your partner program online, you can
link directly to the landing page sending all traffic this way. Some
users even search directly for partner programs of companies
they like or can potentially promote.

Example from Wargaming

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Example from Wargaming

Example from Movavi

Include a link to your partner program

on your website

You can just insert it in your website footer. Affiliates tend

to look there first as this is the typical place to link to your

partner program landing page. Create clear terms for your
program. In terms of finding affiliates, this one goes without
saying – try to offer clear and easy to understand commission
structure and payout options.

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Example from Transferwise

Website footer

is the typical place

to link to your
partner program
landing page

Example from Wargaming

Example from Hubspot

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Example from Transferwise

Example from Grammarly

Existing customers

Your best affiliates can come from people who have purchased
from you, so don’t forget about email marketing. Definitely, run
an email series for your customers to encourage them to earn
money by recommending your products to their friends and
family. Referral marketing is a great way to attract new clients.

Email signature

Include a short description with a link in your signature and tell

people from your email list you have a partner program.

Example from Wargaming

Industry-related forums

Go to affiliate marketing forums or communities that discuss

the products or where people are looking for an answer

to the product (solution you may have). You can find affiliates
there after telling them what your product can do for them.

You can list and promote your partner program there and
communicate with existing and potential partners.

Example from Hubspot

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Dedicated solutions

Today you can also fasten the process of partner recruitment with
the help of dedicated solutions that bring together various media
partners and advertisers, such as Affise reach. The platform
offers a list of the verified media partners (marketing agencies,
affiliate networks and publishers) that you can rely on.

Influencers/bloggers outreach

Invite influencers and niche bloggers to review your products.

Example from Hubspot
Google your major keywords – see if there are bloggers or info
sites that promote related products showing up in Google results.

Try to build a long term relationship – don’t just pitch your

partner program. Have them test your products for free first,

then introduce them to your partner program and offer them

to publish comprehensive reviews.

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Conferences Print publications

Take part in specialized exhibitions and

You can recruit affiliates by advertising

affiliate conferences, where you can meet

your product in professional print media

your potential affiliates. During the year,

that are related to your industry. This method

affiliate conferences are held in different

is ideal for those whose business is associated
parts of the world. Affiliates attend these with a narrow audience. With the help

conferences to exchange experiences and of advertising in professional magazines, you

news in a certain industry, gain knowledge can easily find partners, who will offer your
about new tools and promotion technologies, goods to your target audience and earn

as well as to find new partners. a certain commission rate with each sale.

Social media marketing Online ads

You can join niche-related groups on social Another way to find new affiliates

media to find potential affiliates. Take

is to advertise the program and its benefits.

the time to get to know them, show them You can use Facebook, Twitter, or even Google
your expertise. When it’s appropriate, let Ads to market the program. This works very
them know about your partner program.
well if you have a good product funnel, offer
The more enthusiastic you are about
excellent commissions, and a wide range

the program, the more they will want

of products for your niche.
Example from Hubspot
to join to earn money. If we are talking
about Facebook groups, don’t hesitate

to contact page administrators.

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Word-of-mouth

People like to talk, so if you do a good job taking care of your

affiliates and offer a great product, then super affiliates will
notice you and talk about you. Plus, when they start promoting
your products, other people in their circle will notice and join too.

Affiliate networks

Another great way to find affiliates is to list your products

in affiliate networks such as Shareasale, Clickbank or JvZoo.

Affiliate marketers who are looking for a product to promote
often go there to search for them. Make sure you offer a great
program and a lucrative affiliate commission. Include tools

Example from Hubspot

to make promotion easy. These could include articles, graphics,
banners, etc.

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Managing

Partner Program.

What to consider
Managing a partner program is a complex You might want to persuade a partner

business process that starts with basic but to join your partner program, which is easier

essential things such as communication

to achieve by personalizing a value proposition
with your partners and spreads to billing and in a separate message. If you want to share
payouts. But in between you will find a great industry trends, recent research, or updates,

deal of operational processes that you need

you may use a more generic approach.

to take care of.

And when it comes to communication
channels, the advice is pretty obvious but
Communication with partners important: to be present in all modern
communication tools. It will be a partner
Regular communication with business preference to a particular messenger that

partners is crucial if you focus on establishing will decide on the platform. You can utilize

strategic, long-term business relations.

all possible communication ways

By all possible means, you need to emphasize Messengers Telegram, Facebook, Skype
the advantages of working with you, as your chat, etc.
partners are likely to be approached by other
brands with no less tempting solutions.
Collaboration software Slack, Jira,
And communication is a way to do that
Basecamp, Clubhouse, Trello, Asana, etc.
as you show your partners that you care
about their results, that you are not solely By email both correspondence and email
driven by revenue. You inform them about newsletter
any news, changes, bonuses, new offers -

in this way they feel that they can rely on you. Through CRM auto-responses
Because even if they miss something, you

will remind them about it.

Communities on social media and forums

The secret of effective communication lies

On program pages, through program
in audience segmentation. tickets
Blogs

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Offers management
In terms of partner marketing, an offer

is a product or service that a brand wants

to promote with the help of various partners.

An offer can take many forms, it can be

an URL leading to a website, a promo code

from an email, radio program or metro
advertisement, or it can be a coupon for

a discount. But the most common types

of offers are promotion on the web and

in apps, leading to a product or service

landing page.

Once your partners are enrolled in your

partner program they have access to your
offers, what means they can start

promoting them.

Creating an offer means providing

a holistic description for partners

with all relevant information:

Promotion rules Partners' KPI and payout terms

Traffics sources Start and stop date

Geo Regions Time zones

Mobile carriers Tracking links

Devices and browser settings Specific codes and links

that enable partners to receive

commision for their performance

You can find a thorough explanation in

the guide on offers setup.

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Analyze campaigns performance

Running ad campaigns could be challenging
sometimes, but in the end it is an extremely
rewarding process. Especially once

the campaign is successfully completed.

However, to achieve bigger results you need
to analyze the campaigns. And you need

to do it not only at the end of the campaign

cycle, but also at some point during

the period when a campaign is running.

Checking your performance at intervals

can help to spot any possible weak points,

conclude which settings work better and
adjust them for better final performance
before the campaign is over. By analyzing

the data you can accordingly optimize

ad campaigns.

Data analyzes may sound complicated

for beginners, but with the intuitive and

customizable statistics sections

the performance of ad campaigns is easy

to read.

Thus, the core here is to choose

a strong tracking solution with

a detailed statistics section, to allow:

Overview of the campaign’s overall Break down results by channel

performance and partner type

Extract, analyze and organize large Contrast various ad format with

amounts of data in a form that

their click-through rates
is beneficial for an organization

Customize your dashboards for

Prevent fraud by defining

an intuitive overview of important

the time between a user’s click

for your metrics and a conversion

View detailed statistics in various slices Count potential revenue

and for a particular time frame

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Payouts
Billing and payments are other important
features that you need to consider. As in

the end of the day, or the accounting period,

you obviously need to pay your partners.
Seamless payouts are the core of trust in
business relations.

Your system should automatically count

payouts generated from conversions that
must be billed to partners. The goal is to find
a reliable platform that will allow you to bill
different partners depending on the payout
structure.

A partner platform should allow you

to make payouts based on different

payout types:

RPA
RPC

Revenue per Action Revenue per Click

RPS
RPM

Revenue per Sale Revenue per Impression

RPA + RPS

Revenue per Action +

Revenue per Sale

SaaS partner marketing platforms facilitate

this process by providing a ready-made billing
solution and direct integration with leading
payment services that guarantee instant
payouts to your partners.

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Starting

a Partner Program:
2 Scenarios

The decision to create a partner program imposes additional

responsibilities and expenses for the services you need to run

a partner program. Depending on a chosen solution, you

will need to either conduct a thorough analysis of the existing

solutions or devote a considerable amount of time to business
analysis and software development from scratch.

There are two possible solutions to run a partner

program:

Use a SaaS partner marketing platform

Develop an in-house solution from scratch

Below you will find a closer examination of each solution with

recommendations on how to choose and get started, useful
information on price, and extra advice based on our expertise.

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Scenario 1:

Using SaaS Partner Platform

Contrary to some misperceptions, creating your partner

program on a separate platform doesn’t imply being responsible

for the technology. Absolutely not. What advertisers need to do

is to choose a partner management platform, in a similar way,

they choose a partner network.

Affiliate tracking and management platform are dedicated

to partner programs software, which means that they

are built with all needed functionality in mind. Once you get

a subscription, you create your program in a similar way you

do it on the network. With the main difference that now

you are the owner of the program, and you have access to all

data on ad campaigns.

With the main

difference, that now
you are the owner of
the program, and you
have access to all data
on ad campaigns.

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From this standpoint, advertisers win in terms of transparency

and access to broader analytics, what is a bottom line in

ad campaigns optimization. Quite often, advertisers move

to create their programs after doing advertising for a while or

even using the services of affiliate networks. Also, new advertisers
who already expect a huge volume of affiliates and ad campaigns
consider launching their campaigns at the SaaS platform straight
away.

Step-by-step guide how to start with a partner

marketing platform?

01
You sign up

on the website

of the chosen SaaS

partner platform
provider.

02
Sales or product
03
Usually, partner
04
During a free trial

representatives contact platforms offer a free

your program is fully
you to learn more about trial during which you operational. You can
your program and help can decide whether
start running ad
you set an account. the platform goes with campaigns. You create

your program and meets a new offer, set tracking,

our expectations. specify targeting groups,
Depending on a platform add advertisers, and
trial period can vary from affiliates. Along the way,
7 to 30 days. you can adjust settings.

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How to choose a partner software?

Analytics
Analytics is an essential part of any partner program. Based on
the received data, advertisers can form proper judgments about
what worked and what didn’t and respectively update future
campaigns.

Customization
For some customization may seem not very important upfront,
but it will play a difference in the long run. Customization,

in general, consists of three levels: incorporating a company’s

brand and design, system configuration for particular operational
processes, and the possibility of new modules implementation.
The best option will be to go with a platform that allows all three
levels. In this way, you can be sure that along with your business
growth, the platform will always meet your needs.

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Technical Service
Tech support plays a huge role in any tech business – you

are never alone with your program. Prompt assistance from tech
support can save you much time figuring how to handle certain
setting issues. And better look for 24/7 support. Ad campaigns
don’t have a stable eight working hours day, and can indeed

be more effective during evenings and night time.

Integrations with 3rd party services

For the operational workflow, you will probably need some

other services as well. Check the available integrations that

a platform offers. Pay attention to the most demanded, such

as fraud prevention, billing services, CRM, eCommerce platforms,

BI tools, etc.

Flexible API
If you would like to integrate with a particular operational service,
which is not yet “plugged” into the platform, the integration

will depend on API terms. If a platform offers a feature-rich API,

then conducting any future integrations won’t be an issue.

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The Price
The price for “renting” a SaaS platform will be billed monthly and
is estimated primarily based on the amount of clicks, conversions
or the revenue you generate or expect to generate per month.
Bear in mind that there may be some extra fees for additional
services or future integrations.

Don’t get confused if you see tracking solutions starting with $40.
Those are solely trackers that affiliates can use only for tracking
clicks. They can start with $40 and be up to several thousand
depending on the amount of clicks and domains.

But this is not a solution for you if you are launching your own
program. You need a more advanced solution where you

can manage all partner communication, run and optimize

ad campaigns, manage ad creatives, in other words, to properly

manage your partner program – you need a full-scale partner
management solution. The price for it can range from $500

to thousands of dollars.

When choosing a partner program have in mind the list

of necessary for your vertical or product type features. You

will find services that are tailored to specific industries and also

those that can be customized to suit any industry.

Features and Services

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Essential tools for Business Scaling Essential tools for Business Scaling

Do you want us to clarify which features

you would need?

Contact us for a free consultation

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Scenario 2:

In-house partner software

from scratch

The third option of running a partner program is launching it

on a dedicated in-house software.

Developing software from scratch is an option that not everyone

will take upon. At least, it is not an option for a newbie.
Advertisers or networks that decide to have in-house software

are usually big brands with vast volumes of ad campaigns and

numerous customization requests. Brands like Amazon and eBay,
for example, run their partner programs on in-house software.

To start with in-house software, you will first need to find

a company that provides a dedicated development team.

You will begin by identifying technical requirements and

conducting a business analysis of the whole development

course. And once the developers start their work, depending on

the level за complexity, it will take them several months to finish
the project.

The Price
The cost of developing in-house software will be much higher

than the two above mentioned options. Developing an in-house

software for partner management may cost you from

$35,000 for a SaaS MVP and $100,000 or more for a full-featured

application.

FOR A FULL-FEATURED And that’s not all yet. Add rough $15,000 of monthly expenses

APPLICATION on developers to maintain the stability of the platform, and costs

on servers. The final price range is very broad, it depends on

the volumes you work with. A more accurate price can

be available only after proper business evaluations.

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SaaS Platform & In-house solution.

Which one to choose?

With the variety of available options at the market, it’s evident

that going with a SaaS platform is wiser. Key arguments – faster
and cheaper.

Obviously, advocates of in-house solutions will emphasize

the transparency and security of in-house solutions. But with

modern days security and privacy regulations, there is no way
that tech providers will exist unless they perfectly fall under

data privacy requirements.

Don’t let yourself be misled. Instead, think about the time

that would be spent on a solution from scratch. Not to mention

the time to recruit specialists who know exactly what a partner

platform must have.

Here are key arguments in favour

of a SaaS platform

No Initial Investment High Level of Security

Seamless Availability Scalable Solutions

Integration Possibilities using Automatic Update to Latest

APIS Versions

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Why do we advocate or SaaS?

Сompetence & Intelligence

Versatile experience. You may think you know which functions
exactly you need, but you can miscalculate when it comes

to privacy or tracking updates for which you need to adjust

the platform. Owing to a tremendous experience in the particular

industry, SaaS platforms know which functional one needs to run
a partner program. And consequently, they give you precisely
what is required.

Agility
More agile for implementing new features. SaaS providers

are better at foreseeing emerging trends and company demands.

Thus, it takes them significantly less time to implement a new
feature.

Maintenance and staffing

Careless on resources. You only monitor. Since an outsourced
provider handles all updates, bug fixes, and releases, there is little
for your company left to do but monitor the results. Subsequently,
you don't need to hire additional personnel, besides, perhaps,

an account manager. But it is nothing compared to recruiting

the whole development team.

Price
Transparency and possibility to predict costs. SaaS platforms
are commercially viable as they help brands cut costs on
development from scratch and following software maintenance.
The monthly price of a SaaS platform is pegged to volume and
payment plans. Based on the evaluation of the amount

of expected performance-based events, you can predict your

expenses and the resulting ROI.

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To Conclude
So, we believe that it has been a lot of information to digest. You may need time to reread it
again and make a plan. Or you may already be ready to launch a partner program.

Do you already know what your first step will be? First thing first, you need to decide on

the partner marketing platform. Should you decide to work on a SaaS program and have

the complete control over the program - we can help you choose one.

From our side we can give you a free consultation and recommend on the plan and features
that you need for your program. Further, you can have a 30-day trial to see how it works.

Should you want to talk, drop us a line and we will

shortly get back to you to answer all your questions.

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