As an affiliate program owner running a program internally, you’ll want to have software which is user-friendly and provides the tools and reporting for affiliates to become successful (which means that you make more $$$). You’ll want to be able to concentrate on marketing and/or improving your products, perfecting your websites to increase conversions, recruiting new affiliates and supporting the ones that you have.
The last thing you want to be concerned about is the technology that goes on behind the affiliate program. But, as a smart affiliate program owner, you will want to be aware of what affiliate tracking technology is capable of, what features to look for and what’s considered acceptable by the affiliate community.
There’s a great deal of software out there to track affiliate programs these days. But to be very candid, there’s a lot of rubbish out there, too. If you’re going to take away one thing from this article, we’d like it to be: YOU MUST UTILIZE QUALITY SOFTWARE! You don’t want to find out after a couple of months that you’re not tracking sales properly or that there are deficiencies that make it difficult to use. You will lose your affiliates and they won’t likely come back even after you’ve corrected the issue.
While there are a number of good tracking solutions available at varying price tags, it is important to look for certain essentials that will increase productivity for both the person managing the affiliate program as well as the affiliates themselves. As comedian Flip Wilson once said, “You can’t expect to hit the jackpot if you don’t put a few nickels in the machine.”
The following are a few of the fundamentals that you should look for in a tracking software solution:
Affiliate signup process should be fully automated. An automated process allows your prospective affiliate to complete an online form and upon approval by the affiliate manager, receive information on how to get started right away. They should also be able to make changes to their profile information, passwords, etc. Having a mechanized process not only makes it straightforward for affiliates, but it also will free up a lot of the affiliate manager’s valuable time.
Flawless Tracking and Real Time Statistics. Affiliates demand the ability to check their stats either in real-time or with a daily update. Being able to see how they’re doing and how much money they’re making will motivate them to excel. Your software solution should also be able to track sales back to the affiliate through all types of browsers. In addition, it must allow for credit to affiliates for sales that visitors make whether they order single or multiple products, as well as setting return days (the number of days an affiliate-referred customer will be credited to an affiliate after their initial click).
Flexible Administrative Functions and Reports. It is important to select software that enables you to pay your affiliates on your terms, whether you pay a fixed amount per sale, percentage per sale, fixed amount per click thru, etc. Software that allows for minimum payout settings reduces the amount of checks that you’ll need to write as well as cuts down on administrative costs. The software you choose must also allow you to credit sales when refunds come in as well as make appropriate adjustments to the affiliate’s commissions. In addition, your software should permit you to run basic reports such as monthly commission analysis, etc.
Automated Contact System. Being able to email all or select affiliates anytime you want is extremely important. You’ll want to have the flexibility to alert them to promotional offers, give updates on their stats or even provide them with information on how to be more successful.
The technology providers mentioned below have developed quality affiliate marketing software that in our opinion will meet all of your affiliate program needs. They also are constantly adding features and are willing to do customization at nominal additional costs.
DirectTrack has been the power behind the DirectResponse.com Advertising networks since 1997. Direct Response Technologies, Inc. owns DirectTrack and decided to package the DirectTrack software in 2002. They have sold hundreds of merchant copies and now power over a dozen other advertising networks. By using DirectTrack, not only do merchants get a great affiliate tracking solutions – but clients also get introduced to new affiliates by giving merchants the option to post programs in the DirectResponse.com Advertising Network of 15,000 affiliates for $50.00/month.
Using DirectTrack is not like a standard affiliate network, because DirectTrack never takes a percentage of sales or affiliate commissions. There are two versions of DirectTrack: the Merchant Version which allows single websites to run their own affiliate program, and the Network Version which allows advertising agencies or brokers to power their own affiliate/advertising network. To find out more about DirectTrack, visit http://www.directtrack.com/
KowaBunga! Technologies has been providing Internet marketing solutions since 1996 and affiliate tracking and management solutions since 1998. My Affiliate Program Software (MYAP) has been used by over 2,000 merchants and over 500,000 affiliates worldwide.
MYAP merchants have access to the wide variety of value-added solutions provided by KowaBunga! like consulting, recruiting, account management and full program management through the Team Affiliate Services department; exposure to thousands of affiliates through the AffiliateCash.com program directory and the MyAffStats Performance Network; and contact and activation management through the Opt-In Pro Email Marketing Software.
MYAP is available starting at under $1,000 for the professional level solution. Enterprise solutions including SKU based reporting and management start under $4,000. To find out more about MYAP, visit http://www.kowabunga.com/myap.php
Nami Media provides marketing-tracking and analytic’s in one central platform. The software allows the user to consolidate all of their online, offline and phone sales campaigns in one centralized system. This platform is the primary solution for agencies and clients in various markets including AT&T ICDS, Video Professor, 411WebInteractive.com, Rawhidesearchsolutions.com, eBoundstrategies.com and many more.
With Nami tracking and reporting you have a consolidated system that will enable the user to manage all of their marketing results for true ROI. With it’s exclusive, patented Geo drill down analytic detail, Nami can provide continent reports, country, region and city including Nielsen ranked DMA data reports requiring no action from the web surfer for Geo sorting. For more information, visit http://www.namimedia.com.
Every backend solution has pluses and minuses. Do some digging, and ask a lot of questions before laying out your cash money for a long-term solution.
Shawn Collins ( shawn@affiliatesummit.com) and Missy Ward (missy@affiliatesummit.com) are co-founders of the Affiliate Summit (http://www.affiliatesummit.com), a pay-for-performance marketing conference to be held on November 3, 2003 in New York City . Also, Shawn is theDirector of Affiliate Marketing for ClubMom, Inc., (http://www.ClubMom.com) and Missy is the Managing Partner of eBound Strategies, (http://www.eBoundStrategies.com)
