This is How You Find the Right Solutions for Your Affiliate Marketing Management

If you want to market your products and services, besides SEO and SEA, you cannot ignore Affiliate Marketing. In the field of performance marketing, the importance of affiliate marketing has increased even further in recent years. Marketing experts particularly appreciate the cost-benefit ratio and the targeted approach to their brand to their customers.

For the management of your affiliate marketing, you will now find a large selection of software and tool providers who support you in marketing your product. We give you an overview of the solutions available and how, for example, affiliate networks and software differ. You will also get an overview of suitable software that you can use for your affiliate marketing.

Why using affiliate marketing is worth it

Affiliate programs are commission systems between advertisers and publishers. Companies who sell products online are called advertisers.They find suitable publishers through affiliate marketing who stimulate product purchases on their advertising spaces.

Both sides benefit from affiliate marketing.On the one hand, it is advantageous for publishers to cooperate with merchants that fit their own online presence. This allows advertising measures for own products to be targeted more specifically and scatter losses to be reduced. At the same time, publishers are rewarded with a lot of money for a successful referral.

Another advantage that you as an advertiser benefit from is, that you can accurately control and trace how many clicks refer to the publisher's advertisement through an affiliate link.

Even users benefit partly from affiliate marketing. This makes advertising for them theme- and interest-based and, therefore, more targeted. It is important for you to know that you should not make the use of your advertising material too intrusive for your target group in order not to lose them too quickly.

The most famous representative among affiliate programs is the e-commerce giant Amazon, whose affiliate marketing, however, differs from smaller programs. Especially for beginners in this online marketing discipline, it is worth getting an overview of the different possibilities and characteristics in affiliate marketing management.

The most important criteria for affiliate marketing, which can help you in choosing a partner program (Source: acquisa).

What possibilities are there in affiliate marketing management?

Before you implement affiliate marketing as an advertising instrument or in your marketing mix, you need in addition to the affiliate marketing strategy a suitable tool that supports you.

So that you keep the effort and implementation for affiliate marketing as low as possible, it is worth taking a look at the types of affiliate networks and affiliate software.

• Affiliate Networks: With an affiliate network, you can apply with your own partner program. After admission, the network offers you its infrastructure and online interface and the possibility to manage everything related to your own partner program. Costs in affiliate networks are primarily incurred per successful commission.
• Affiliate Software: Affiliate software is (mostly) cloud-based SaaS solutions, which usually function as all-in-one platforms and can cover every aspect of affiliate management - from partner search to top partner development.

Which solution is right for your affiliate marketing depends entirely on your needs and requirements. To give you an even deeper insight, we will describe the advantages and disadvantages of affiliate networks and affiliate software in more detail in the next step.

How affiliate networks and software differ

The choice for a particular solution in affiliate marketing depends on many factors and properties. We will take a look at the most important features and how affiliate networks and software differ in these.

Access to partner programs

While affiliate networks offer you access to the classic coupon and deal sites, affiliate software also gives you the opportunity to work with different partner types, including from the content, influencers, or B2B areas. If you want to work with several partners for your affiliate marketing, you need direct approval with affiliate networks.

SaaS solutions for affiliate marketing offer many different partnership models.

Partner Management

SaaS solutions for affiliate marketing offer you the opportunity to communicate directly with your partners and make important decisions for your program. You can also maintain your partnership in affiliate networks, but compared to software, the network acts more as a mediator between merchant and publisher.

Technology

To conclude contracts with your partners, for example, supporting functions are available with which you can keep an eye on payment more quickly. You have the choice between dynamic contract and payment models as well as global payment processing. In affiliate networks, you usually have to make and set these settings manually. If you need support here, a support is available to you, as is the case with affiliate software.

Reporting

This function fundamentally differs in the expectations you have of it. If your goal is to create an individual real-time report, you will find more comprehensive options in affiliate software. You can also find the reporting function in affiliate networks, but here you can rely more on standard templates. An account manager is also at your disposal and supports you in the creation.

Fees

Unlike affiliate software, affiliate networks are tied to commissions or sales, so you must always pay a fee per sale achieved. With affiliate software, you pay a fixed license fee, which generally adapts individually to the size and users of your company. At this point, it is recommended that you think about the scope and use of your affiliate marketing. If you expect a lot of sales in the future, the fees for affiliate networks can quickly become more expensive. In addition to platform fees, there are other fees in affiliate marketing. With affiliate software, you can ensure that you pay the same costs for conversions with your program and other paid channels. Your costs are thus charged in this type of affiliate platform.

Service

The organization of affiliate software is usually implemented via internal management, external agencies or platform-based services. You have the choice and can decide for your preferred form of service with the choice of affiliate software. With affiliate networks, account management teams or third-party providers are always at your disposal.

In summary, affiliate networks can be a good option for you if you have limited resources and need the support of account management for your program. However, the costs for an affiliate network quickly add up, as you have to pay commissions for every sale made. Affiliate software rely on very individual and innovative solutions for your affiliate marketing. Here, the fees and prices adapt to your company size and your growth. You also get a direct line to your partners via the software. However, you need technical know-how to use affiliate software and possibly higher acquisition costs than with affiliate networks.

Which solution is best for my affiliate marketing?

To be successful in affiliate marketing, you have many options. Additionally, there is a large selection of networks and software that differ in affiliate networks and software.

Which type of partner program is the best, you should depend on your expectations and goals. As a summary and better decision aid, we show you which advantages and disadvantages you can expect with affiliate networks and affiliate software.

These are the advantages of affiliate software

• Since you do not usually have to pay more than 30% to a program, you can potentially expect more turnover.
• You do not have to release data to the affiliate network, which speaks for data protection.
• Affiliate software offer you the use of your URLs (affiliate links), which also support you in search engine optimization.
• With an affiliate software, you are flexible in the cooperation with partners, because you can choose them themselves within the software
• By the possibility of automation, you can save a lot of time in the work with affiliate marketing

These are the disadvantages of affiliate software

• You need some basic technical know-how to set up and maintain the software.
• A certain budget should be planned for setting up an affiliate software.
• The billing and payment of affiliate commissions is in your hands.

These are the advantages of affiliate networks

• The billing of affiliate commissions is implemented directly via the system of the affiliate network, you don't have to worry about it.
• Your network is updated regularly and automatically based on regular updates.
• The costs for an affiliate network do not have to be taken into account in advance, as these refer to a success-dependent commission

These are the disadvantages of affiliate networks

• Generally, you should consider approx. 30% commission shares. Thus, if an affiliate receives e.g. a 10 euro commission, the network additionally gets 3 euro, so you would have to invest approx. 13 euro in total costs.
• Many affiliate networks rely on a payout account that you must preload with a minimum amount.
• Affiliate networks are not fully flexible - functions, such as partner management or payout options, are usually not integrated.
• The affiliate links generally contain the network's domain, so you can not personalize them and implement them in a SEO-friendly way.
• Affiliate networks provide you with the partners, but you do not have any decision power in the final selection.

The decision for the right software or the appropriate network is up to you and your expectations. You can use the various advantages and disadvantages to weigh up which solution speaks for you. The following points could also support your decision:

• Is the commission fair compared to the industry?

• Does the advertiser offer the appropriate advertising materials and could he deliver missing formats?

• Is there a direct support that can advise me competently on questions?

• What does the advertiser's payment status look like? Is it always up-to-date with the commission payout or is it often delayed

• Which touchpoints and events do I want to pay for?

These tools support you in affiliate marketing management

There is a large selection of networks and software available for the use of affiliate marketing management, which you can also find on our platform OMR Reviews. In the category affiliate networks outlines of the programs with the most reviews.

We now show you an overview and selection of affiliate networks and software from our platform.

impact.com affiliate SaaS platform

impact.com offers a SaaS platform that allows advertisers to establish a direct relationship with their partners. The core product - Partnership Cloud™ - covers partnership types along the customer journey, from influencers through commerce content to affiliates. With flexible contract models and (mobile) tracking technologies, the payout can be controlled and optimized over all touchpoints and marketing channels. Smart automation along the partnership lifecycle are also intended to help you scale the channel globally. impact.com was founded in 2008 in California and has had a location in Berlin since 2020. The customers of impact.com include companies such as Decathlon, Lenovo or Canva.

This is how impact.com differs from affiliate networks

The SaaS platform supports advertisers with its SaaS technology in managing their performance partnerships uniformly and end-to-end in one platform. From searching for new partners to optimization, the software automates the manual processes in partner marketing in order to be able to scale international partnerships to content creators. such as influencers, bloggers, magazines, YouTubers and classic affiliates. Due to the high degree of flexibility and the unification of tracking, reporting and payouts, advertisers succeed in getting a holistic view of all partner activities. Thus, you can identify growth potentials and benefits and pay commissions according to performance with dynamic contracts.

ADCELL Affiliate Network

ADCELL is based in the German SME sector and describes itself as the "market leader in this segment". The owner-managed company offers its users secure tracking, personal contact persons (even before the start of the programme), an intuitive user interface and straightforward handling. According to its own accounts, the company currently counts >60,000 active publishers, >2,350 advertisers, > 4 million annual transactions and more than 78,000 advertising media at the moment. ADCELL pays on a purely performance-oriented basis, without setup costs or monthly fees.

Webgains Affiliate Network

Webgains is a network for affiliate marketing that is aimed at start-ups and established companies. Webgains was founded in 2005 and has been part of the listed ad pepper media International N.V. since 2006. Webgains offers, among other things, database and shopping cart tracking, automatic tiering of commissions, and retargeting on a CPO basis. According to the company's own data, it currently has 1,800 advertisers and 250,000 publishers in 211 countries worldwide.

Vchfy Affiliate Software

Vchfy is a software solution that allows online shops to manage and control their offer management and couponing. Users can use Vchfy to create a voucher page individually adapted to their CI. This is designed to be so SEO-optimized that it ranks higher in the Google search than the known coupon portals. The advantage: No competitor offers and thus a potentially higher conversion. Features such as dynamic campaigns or gamification elements can also contribute to a higher conversion and also improve shopping cart values or margins. The Vchfy plugin can be integrated with a one-click installation.

Further solutions for Affiliate Marketing on OMR Reviews

Depending on the claims you make on your affiliate marketing, you can also find other tools that suit you. Just take a look at OMR Reviews. There you can find some affiliate networks and software including user experiences. Among other things, you can find the following tools on OMR Reviews.

• Awin
• TradeTracker
• lead alliance
• 100partnerprogramme.de
• financeAds
• retailAds
• Digistore24
• CJ Affiliate by Conversant

If you want to look for alternatives, then you can find more in the category Affiliate Networks on OMR Reviews.

The OMR Reviews Briefing on Affiliate Marketing Management

Appropriate to the topic of affiliate marketing, we also have an OMR Reviews briefing for you. The aim of our briefings is to give you a decision-making aid so that you can find the most suitable affiliate network for you. Because with so many solutions that are now available on the market, finding the needle in the haystack is sometimes not that easy. You can download the OMR Reviews Briefing free of charge.