There are a number of misconceptions and mistakes made when it comes to affiliate marketing. Here are 10 common mistakes that I have collected from my time at TradeDoubler, Europe’s largest affiliate network.

1. Limited time frame. Affiliate Marketing differs from ad campaigns in that they have a long term focus. It is an ongoing process to build relationships with affiliates. If an affiliate program is shut down at any point, affiliates will see it as unstable and you will have a difficult task in winning them back again.
2. Providing generic ads. An attractive affiliate advertiser is able to provide attractive content for the netizens visiting the affiliate. Generic ads that do not target specific audiences will perform badly.
3. Limited budget for an eCommerce program. An affiliate marketing program is not a campaign. Campaigns have limited budgets and time, whereas with the right commission model you can let affiliates sell you as much as they like. You pay them per performance, which means that you need to have a flexible budget. Do not make the mistake of using a marketing budget for affiliate marketing – it should involve your sales budget as well, as long as you sell online. Some marketers close their affiliate programs temporarily or permanently because of too much success – affiliates have generated “too many” sales, which costs too much. The fatal flaw in this scenario is that the advertiser sells a lot less by closing the affiliate program.
4. Not communicating with affiliates. You cannot expect to open an affiliate program and let it manage itself. You have a lot of competition that is trying to get each affiliate’s attention. As long as you stay in affiliates’ top-of-mind, you will be able to manage a successful affiliate program.
5. Blocking access to products. If you have a webshop and do not give access to a product feed (or data feed) to affiliates, you are severely limiting your success potential. A product feed lets affiliates download your products to their databases and link directly to each product. The conversion rate of product feeds is several times higher than banner ads, and they need to be in your portfolio if you sell products online.
6. One price fits all. Affiliates need to think they are special. Reward the ones that are doing well, by upgrading their commission structure. Be specific. If an affiliate that is doing very well asks to be rewarded per click only, set that up. Just remember to keep track of your own ROI, but as long as it is profitable for you, humor the affiliates in what they ask for.
7. Not keeping your ads up to date. Ads have a tendency to become stale and outdated after a while. Make sure your ads are updated, even if you are displaying the same message. In affiliate networks, affiliates can sort ads by the latest updated ones – you can benefit by making sure yours are frequently on top in that list.
8. Not keeping your offers up to date. If you run a campaign offline or through other online channels, make sure your offers in the affiliate marketing channel is up to date. The affiliate channel is frequently forgotten or not prioritized when it comes to campaigns. You will see a good benefit in always keeping your offers up to date with affiliates.
9. Forbidding keyword buying. You, or your media agency, may be really good at SEM (Search Engine Marketing). However, you cannot cover all bases, and affiliates frequently come up with ideas you haven’t thought of yourself. Use a smart keyword policy, keeping your own brand to yourself, and let affiliates bid on keywords in general. Pay them on performance (CPA) and let them choose the keywords they buy for you.
10. Not measuring performance. The most important part of online marketing is being able to measure results. You keep track of your affiliate marketing channel and compare its results to your other channels. Probably the single worst mistake you can make is not keeping track of your results.

Affiliates can work as your sales force, where you reward them on their performance. This is a win-win situation, where your customer hopefully shares the benefit. It is not difficult to be an affiliate marketing manager, but it requires a lot of time, communication and management of resources to be successful.

Use an affiliate network (like the ones I’ve mentioned in Denmark and Sweden) and make use of their expertise. Affiliate networks know their field well, and can help you be successful in affiliate marketing.

photo credit: itsray

Filed under: Performance Marketing
Tags:Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Networks, Tips