Seeking Help Need help growing my affiliate program

[RizzUp]

Hey everyone! I am a SaaS founder (technical background) and am diving deep into marketing. I mostly focus on paid ads through Tiktok, however since it's Q4 CPM prices have increased. In response to that, I developed an entire affiliate payout system for my website, sounds great on paper. The system is fully functional however it's missing the most important element.... affiliates. So I am asking today, what steps can I take to help grow my affiliate marketing team and start finding users who will share their affiliate links to my site.

 

[T J Tutor]

I developed an entire affiliate payout system for my website

When you say you developed a payout system, are you telling us you do not have an actual professional affiliate management portal that has the three required sections of management?
1. Affiliate Portal with stats, monetary tracking and scheduling, and creatives.
2. Affiliate Program Manager for staff.
3. Backend platform management and development portal for owners/developers/techs.

Without this, you don't actually have an affiliate management system. Instead of building it, why not just use one of the many well developed, highly advanced, and reasonably priced platforms available that will easily integrate into your site?

 

[RizzUp]

When you say you developed a payout system, are you telling us you do not have an actual professional affiliate management portal that has the three required sections of management?
1. Affiliate Portal with stats, monetary tracking and scheduling, and creatives.
2. Affiliate Program Manager for staff.
3. Backend platform management and development portal for owners/developers/techs.

Without this, you don't actually have an affiliate management system. Instead of building it, why not just use one of the many well developed, highly advanced, and reasonably priced platforms available that will easily integrate into your site?

Hey TJ Tutor,

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my thread.

I have developed an in house system that tracks sales based on a users affiliate link. It then displays the amount of clicks, orders, etc the user has. It is all charted neatly and organized for the affiliate to understand. We supply users with a large amount of video creatives through our website. I guess what I'm asking more specifically is how could I integrate affiliate sales into my website in the most efficient way possible. I have tried applying to affiliate networks to list my offer but none seem to get back to me. I'm still new to marketing and mostly have my expertise rooted in web development.

Excited to hear everyones critique as I am open minded and simply want to learn.

 

[T J Tutor]

As for recruiting affiliates, well now your inexperience is showing now. Not being insulting, maybe a little flip , but building an affiliate section of your sales department without knowing how to acquire affiliates is like opening a camera store without knowing how to use a camera.

The basics of recruiting affiliates is the same as recruiting salespeople. You need to build relationships in the industry. You have to go where the affiliates are, and you need to speak their language. It is a sales skill. You need to be able to sell yourself, sell the company, sell the possibilities to prospective affiliates, and very importantly have a good product/service for the affiliates to promote.

Forums, social events, social channels, and the conventions and summits are the primary focus for most recruiters. These are places where affiliates gather. Most forums have a section for brands to list their affiliate programs, just as AffiliateFix does. Here it is free, but with an available upgrade, and the brands can recruit form our membership as long as they meet the minimum requirements. STM is $100 a month to have access to their members for recruitment, others have similar policies and access for recruitment options.

Recruiting affiliates is an art, an art that I would say 80% of the affiliate managers out there really suck at. Most of the affiliate managers today are lazy and haven't a clue about how to be a really great and successful affiliate recruiter and affiliate manager.

Take the time to learn to be a really good conversationalist, a really good representative of promoting your product/service, and then you can recruit and lead by example. Teach a person to fish and feed them for a lifetime!

 

[T J Tutor]

simply want to learn.

Message me with your site, your affiliate portal link, and I'll let you know if you can list it here so you can get some experience at recruiting.

I've attached our requirements.

 

[Graybeard]

The basics of recruiting affiliates is the same as recruiting salespeople. You need to build relationships in the industry. You have to go where the affiliates are, and you need to speak their language. It is a sales skill. You need to be able to sell yourself, sell the company, sell the possibilities to prospective affiliates, and very importantly have a good product/service for the affiliates to promote.

The best ways to do this is are:

1. POC (Proof of Concept) the proof being that the offers do convert,
2. You can offer data of paid conversions --with enough documentation to impress skeptics to putting their money on the wood promoting you
3. You can buy ads on better-affiliate platforms (like affiliatefix [plug, plug])
4. You can attend relevant trade shows and conventions.
5. Once you have affiliates profiting with you --you will get word-of-mouth advertising --that can snowball.

Someone who is new has a lot to overcome to gain reputation. Start with a real value proposition ...

I mostly focus on paid ads through Tiktok, however since it's Q4 CPM prices have increased. In response to that, I developed an entire affiliate payout system for my website,

So Tiktok is not working with a good margin for you or you need no-cost-up-font promotion by affiliates?

Got proof you converted with Tiktok? Why didn't you try Facebook or Instagram? Did you try Google ads?

If the CPM increased and you are not profitable enough to continue ... Then why even bother ...

You do not even say what segment you are in sans SaaS and Website --all I see are red flags for now ... Sorry to be the Devil's Advocate here but I have been doing this for many years like since 2004 ...

I remember when AdWords became Google Ads and raised their prices a lot --we just reduced our advertising placements (keywords bidded on and the bid prices) and kept an eye on the ROMI and the ROAS margins.

 

[T J Tutor]

Someone who is new has a lot to overcome to gain reputation. Start with a real value proposition ...

ABSOLUTE TRUTH! Awesome advice to follow!