Advantages of Affiliate Marketing Program for Your Business & Successful Stories to Learn From

Did you know that over 80% of companies (Rakuten) have affiliate programs, and even a big name like Amazon is no exception? Pretty amazing, right?

If you’re wondering why so many brands are jumping on this marketing trend, you’re in the right place.

In this article, we’ll explain what affiliate marketing is, showcase its main advantages with success stories, and give you an easy guide to starting your own affiliate program.

Here’s a quick look at 10 great benefits an affiliate marketing program can bring to your brand:

1. Low Investment Costs
2. Increased Sales and Higher Conversion Rates
3. High Return on Investment (ROI)
4. Low Ongoing Cost
5. Low-risk Marketing Strategy
6. Broader Audience Reach
7. Improved Website Traffic and SEO
8. Enhanced Brand Awareness and Credibility
9. Flexibility and Scalability
10. Time-Saving on Marketing Efforts

Want to take advantage of the benefits of affiliate marketing and create your own campaign to grow your business right away? Use UpPromote, the #1 affiliate software on Shopify, featuring a 4.9/5 rating and over 4,000 reviews, to kick things off.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based strategy where business owners reward affiliates (bloggers, content creators, influencers, etc.) for promoting their products or services and driving desired actions, such as sales or leads.

Here’s how affiliate marketing works:

1. A brand owner launches an affiliate program
2. Affiliates sign up for the affiliate program
3. Affiliates receive unique tracking links or codes for the products/services they want to promote
4. Affiliates promote the brand to their website visitors, blog readers, or social network.
5. A customer makes purchases via the affiliate’s link/uses the affiliate’s code
6. The referral sales are recorded and attributed to the right affiliate
7. The merchant pays the affiliate a commission

10 Advantages of Affiliate Marketing for Your Business

There are plenty of reasons why affiliate marketing has become so important for companies that want to expand and succeed.

Here’s why:

1. Low Investment Costs

Unlike other marketing methods that require a big upfront investment, you can start an affiliate program with little to no cost. The main initial expenses come down to choosing an affiliate marketing software or building an in-house team to manage your program.

The good news is that you don’t need extra staff to set up an affiliate campaign. With a user-friendly affiliate marketing app, you can launch your campaign quickly and affordably, starting small and scaling up as you grow.

Working with an easy-to-use affiliate management software, like UpPromote, for example, can take the stress and time out of setting up the program, as we will guide you through the setup, handle the background work, and provide the tools and resources you need.

2. Increased Sales and Higher Conversion Rates

According to Business Insider, this method brings in 16% of all online orders in the U.S. and Canada, higher than email marketing.

So, what makes this method so effective? It all comes down to trust.

Affiliates often promote products they believe in, creating authentic content that connects with their audience. They’ve already built trust through honest reviews, helpful tutorials, or engaging posts. When they recommend something, their followers are more likely to listen and become paying customers.

Think about it: would you trust a random ad or a recommendation from someone consistently providing valuable insights?

In essence, affiliate marketing leverages the power of influence and authentic connection to drive conversions and boost sales.

3. High Return on Investment (ROI)

Given the low initial costs and performance-based structure, affiliate marketing typically yields a high ROI. With affiliate partners already possessing the right audience and marketing know-how, it helps business owners maximize returns for each dollar spent.

A survey by Impact found that affiliate marketing adopters see impressive results, with $15 gained for every dollar spent (Impact). In comparison, even paid ads only experience half of that number, at $8 for every $1 spent. That’s a pretty good ratio, isn’t it?

4. Low Ongoing Cost

Once your affiliate program is in place, ongoing costs are typically minimal. You only pay commissions to affiliates when they successfully generate sales or leads, which allows you to maintain full control of your spending. This “pay for performance” model ensures that no marketing dollars are wasted on underperforming channels.

For instance, using Google Ads can get your products at the top of search results, but you’ll pay for every click, not every sale. Organic social media marketing might cost less, but it takes a lot of time and effort from your in-house team.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use these methods. However, affiliate marketing stands out as a budget-friendly option, perfect for merchants like you who want to get the most out of their marketing spend.

5. Low-risk Marketing Strategy

As mentioned, you only pay affiliates when they bring actual results. This performance-based model reduces financial risk compared to traditional ads, where you pay upfront without guarantees.

But that’s not all.

With affiliate marketing, you can pick who to work with. Affiliates apply to come onboard your affiliate program. Then, you can assess their profiles and hand-pick and approve those who are the best fit to present your products on behalf of your brand.

If you use UpPromote, you’ll receive an email whenever an affiliate signs up for your program. By default, their status will be inactive and require review on the Affiliate List dashboard. You can view their profile by clicking on their name and choosing to approve or deny them.

6. Broader Audience Reach

Affiliates, especially niche influencers and bloggers, usually have established communities and loyal followings. Some even have fans from all over the world.

By partnering with these affiliates, your company can reach a whole new audience that you might not have connected with otherwise, which can significantly broaden your own customer base.

7. Improved Website Traffic and SEO

When affiliates talk about your brand or products in their blogs, social media posts, or videos, they often link back to your site. These backlinks from trusted sources not only bring more visitors to your site but also improve your search engine optimization (SEO).

Here’s something cool: organic search drives 85.19% of all blog traffic (HubSpot). So, if you team up with established bloggers who write detailed, keyword-friendly content, you have a better chance of showing up higher in search results. Even better, their content keeps working for you, bringing in organic traffic and sales long after it’s posted.

8. Enhanced Brand Awareness and Credibility

Let’s be honest: not all customers know your brand. If you are working on brand awareness, using affiliate marketing can work wonders.

Affiliate marketers are great at blending product promotions into personal stories, making it easier to introduce your brand to new audiences.

Did you know that 43% of users discover new brands or products through comparison sites? Or, nearly 9 out of 10 people (84%) decide to buy something after reading about it on a blog (Research Now).

It’s clear that affiliate-generated content doesn’t just help spread the word—it drives real results and can help your business grow.

And if you are working on brand awareness and recognition, implementing an affiliate marketing strategy can work wonders.

9. Flexibility and Scalability

Once you have an affiliate marketing program in place, scaling up or scaling back your efforts is simple. Adding more affiliates or choosing to focus only on select affiliates can help you scale your business without breaking the bank.

In addition to changing the number of affiliates, you can adjust the commission and reward structures as needed to keep your affiliate payouts both competitive and affordable. You can also give affiliates discount coupons for their audiences, which they can share to help increase your sales (and their commissions).

Specifically, when structuring your commission rates, you can do it in many ways: Percentage of sale, flat rate per item, flat rate per order, or even tiered commission. It’s totally up to you as long as fitting your financial situation.

For example, UpPromote’s flexible commissions let you set flat-fee or percentage-based commissions with amounts you select. You also have the option to increase based on high performance or, similarly, decrease them if your finances become tight.

10. Time-Saving on Marketing Efforts

By letting affiliates handle your promotions, you free up time to focus on what truly matters, like improving your products or enhancing customer service.

After launching your affiliate program, it’s important to spend time training your affiliates and keeping an eye on how they’re doing. Good training helps your partners understand your brand’s value, your campaign goals, what makes your products special, and how to stay true to your brand in their promotions. At the same time, tracking affiliate performance gives you valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not, so you can make your program even better.

The good news? Affiliate tracking software makes this a lot easier. It helps you share training materials, automatically track sales, and see real-time data, so you can keep improving your program without the hassle.

Success Stories in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing plays a vital role in helping many brands grow. Let’s explore some real-world success stories and see the incredible results this strategy can deliver.

Amazon

Even a giant like Amazon doesn’t overlook the advantages of affiliate marketing.

Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, Amazon began as an online bookstore in the United States. Over time, it expanded into numerous product categories, evolving into “The Everything Store” and becoming a leader in e-commerce.

The titan taps into affiliate marketing with an affiliate program called Amazon Associates. Any bloggers, publishers, and content creators with a qualifying website or mobile app are welcome to apply and earn commissions by promoting Amazon products on their platforms.

Recently, within the Amazon Associates program, there is a special branch designed for social media influencers, known as the Amazon Influencer Program. This campaign allows influencers to create personalized Amazon storefronts and curate product recommendations for their followers.

Amazon’s commission rates usually range from 4% to 10%, depending on the product category. In some cases, though, affiliates can earn as much as 20%.

With such attractive commission rates and flexible campaigns, over 900,000 affiliate partners worldwide have joined forces with this massive company. This global promotional army has contributed significantly, playing a part in helping Amazon reach $170.0 billion in net revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Tréskin

And it’s not just for big companies—a smaller business can also benefit from an affiliate program like Tréskin. This is a top-favored organic beauty and health brand in the USA that specializes in aloe vera-based skincare, haircare, and body wellness products.

Instead of spending on ads or using traditional marketing, TréSkin chose to grow its business by focusing on affiliate marketing.

With UpPromote, the top-recommended affiliate marketing software on Shopify, TréSkin easily creates and manages its own affiliate campaigns.

The brand uses social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to find affiliate partners. On top of that, it leverages the UpPromote Marketplace to share its offers and search for top influencers and bloggers in the beauty niche.

Working with these affiliates helps bring more organic traffic to TréSkin’s website. Even better, the company achieved over $120,000 in affiliate revenue in just three months.

How to Start Doing Affiliate Marketing for Your Business

Now that you understand the advantages of affiliate marketing, you might be excited to dive in—it’s truly a game-changer for growing your business.

But how do you begin?

Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

Define Your Clear Goals

Any marketing strategy requires clear goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress and success.

So does your affiliate program.

First and foremost, you need to know what you aim to achieve with your affiliate campaign. Let’s think about something like:

• Boost overall sales of your store
• Attract more visitors to your website
• Increase revenue for a specific product line

Then, you can use the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) model to set focused targets within a specific timeframe.

Here are some example goals you could set:

• Generate X in total sales over the next 3 months by working with Y affiliates.
• Drive X new visitors to your site next month by teaming up with Y bloggers.
• Boost sales of Product B by X% next quarter by offering an exclusive discount through Y influencers

Next, remember to set KPIs to help you measure your progress and see how well you’re meeting your goals. These might include:

• Clicks and traffic
• Sales and revenue
• Conversion rate
• Average order value (AOV)
• Return on investment (ROI)
• Customer lifetime value (CLV)

With clear goals and realistic KPIs in place, your affiliate campaign can effectively support your business objectives and deliver impactful results.

Look at Your Competitors

Market research might seem overwhelming, but it’s important for running a successful affiliate program later on.

Doing an affiliate competitor analysis helps you see how other brands in your niche are using affiliate marketing. You can pick up useful insights and ideas to shape your own strategies.

When conducting research on your rivals’ affiliate programs, look into details such as:

• The commission rates they offer affiliates.
• Whether their affiliates share specific characteristics.
• The tactics they use to attract and keep affiliates engaged.

To get started, visit competitors’ websites to review their affiliate program landing pages (if available). You can also explore affiliate networks like ShareASale, Impact, or UpPromote’s Marketplace to gather info about their campaigns.

Determine Your Commission Structure

After all, affiliates join your campaign to make money, right? So, setting attractive commission deals is key to keeping your program appealing and drawing in new affiliates.

Based on your findings about your competitors’ commission rates, determine how much you will pay your partners. Although you need to consider it to fit your product prices and profits, your commission should be as good as, or better than, what other companies offer.

For example, if most of your competitors in the same price range provide an average commission rate of 10%, offering only 5% might not attract top talent. In this case, you ought to think about increasing the commission rate or adding extra incentives to make your program stand out.

Before finalizing your commission structure, don’t forget to take a look at the average rates in your niche to set a competitive baseline.

Choose The Right Affiliate Marketing Software

If you are new to affiliate marketing, it could be a bit overwhelming; that is where an affiliate marketing app comes in. This solution will assist in simplifying the process of setting up, running, and managing your affiliate programs.

To find the right affiliate software for your business, here’s what to think about:

• Simple setup and intuitive design
• Automated tracking and commission management
• Affordable pricing with options to scale
• Reliable customer support and helpful training resources
• Multi-language and currency compatibility

Looking for robust software that checks all these boxes? UpPromote might be just what you need.

It’s designed to help businesses of all sizes grow with affiliate marketing and is trusted by experts and over 115,000 users around the world

Here’s what UpPromote offers:

• Affordable and budget-friendly pricing options, including a free plan to get you started without any upfront investment.
• A user-friendly interface with built-in tooltips to make navigation simple and stress-free.
• Easy setup so you can launch your affiliate program in no time.
• 24/7 dedicated customer support to help with setup and ensure smooth management.

Find Affiliates to Promote Your Brand

Building an affiliate program is just the start. To make your campaign truly active, having affiliate marketers onboard is essential. So, the next thing you need to do is find affiliates and invite them to join.

Here are some popular ways to find affiliate partners that you can apply:

• Include your affiliate program page in the website’s footer/header
• Use social media
• Join affiliate networks
• Convert your existing customers into affiliates

Include your affiliate program page in the website’s footer/header

Following an attractive affiliate registration page is making sure that it is represented on your website. A link in the header or footer puts this in an easy and noticeable place for potential affiliates to find, as with Framebridge.

💡Bonus tips: Get your affiliate registration page in front of more people to boost the chances of attracting affiliates. Share it on social media, advertise it, and optimize it for search engines to maximize visibility.

Use social media

One way to attract potential affiliates is by announcing your affiliate program on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Plus, try using relevant keywords or hashtags in your niche to find bloggers, content creators, or influencers who might be interested in promoting your brand.

Join affiliate networks

​​Joining a well-known affiliate marketing network like ShareASale, Impact, Rakuten, or UpPromote’s Marketplace is an excellent way to connect with a diverse range of potential affiliates.

For instance, if you own a beauty store on Shopify, UpPromote’s Marketplace can help you find the right partners for your business.

Here are 2 ways for you to look for potential affiliates:

1. Showcase your offers on UpPromote’s Marketplace to attract affiliates:

Set specific criteria for affiliates, such as age, gender, location, or preferred promotion channels. Then go into great detail with your campaign information: commission rates, payment method, product information, and key information about your brand (your store domain, banners, hashtags, etc,.) to make your program noticeable and stand out to capture attention.

2. Reach out directly to affiliates in UpPromote’s Marketplace:

You can explore the beauty niche to find quality partners. Review their bio, relevant experience, language used, location, and social media presence. Once you find the perfect match for your brand, send them an invite to join your program.

With more than 20,000 affiliates in its network, UpPromote Marketplace offers access to a large pool of potential partners.

Discover top-notch affiliates on UpPromote Marketplace today!

Convert your existing customers into affiliates

Did you know that 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family more than traditional advertising? This highlights the incredible value of turning your satisfied customers into brand ambassadors.

How can you make this happen? By launching a refer-a-friend program.

Many successful brands, like Estée Lauder, have embraced this strategy. The brand encourages customers to recommend its products to friends in exchange for a special discount on their next purchase.

Want to replicate Estée Lauder’s approach to turning happy customers into affiliates?

UpPromote, the all-in-one referral and affiliate marketing solution on Shopify, can help you create your own refer-a-friend program for free.

UpPromote offers 2 convenient options for introducing your referral program to customers:

• Landing page
• Widget

Landing Page

With this option, you can embed a signup form directly on any page of your store. Customers can easily sign up and instantly get their referral links to start sharing your products.

Widget

Using UpPromote’s widget, you can add a floating button to your website. When clicked, it opens a popup form where customers can quickly register for your referral program and receive their referral links.

💡Bonus tips:

Of course, there are other ways to find affiliates to promote your products and services, such as attending industry events, engaging in affiliate forums, or searching through Google.

No matter which method you choose, always remember to:

• Carefully review affiliate profiles to ensure they have a strong online presence with high engagement rates and that their audience aligns with yours.
• Check their content to make sure it reflects your brand’s values and personality.

Keep Track of Affiliate Performance

Once you’ve launched an affiliate program, you’ll want it to perform well and deliver meaningful results. To ensure long-term success, it’s essential to monitor its performance regularly.

So, how do you measure the effectiveness of your program? What metrics should you focus on?

To be specific, you should use your goals and KPIs to track results. Use the data to spot trends, understand what’s working, and identify areas for improvement. For affiliate campaigns, key metrics to track include:

• Clicks: The number of users who click on affiliate links or use coupons.
• Orders: The total purchases made through these links or coupons.
• Sales: The revenue generated by the affiliate program.
• Commissions: The total payout to affiliates for the sales they drive.

With UpPromote, you gain access to real-time data through precise tracking methods and comprehensive reports on affiliate performance.

Our affiliate management system presents key metrics such as total affiliates, clicks, orders, sales, and commissions using intuitive graphs. You can also filter the data by program and date for a clearer picture of your campaign’s performance.

UpPromote makes it simple to track top-performing affiliates and identify your most popular products, helping you fine-tune your campaign for better results. You can view each affiliate’s performance on the Top Affiliate board in the Dashboard and easily download reports in various formats like Excel, CSV, PDF, and more.

Monitoring affiliate analytics allows you to see what’s working well and uncover areas for improvement. This empowers you to make informed, data-driven decisions to enhance your campaign’s effectiveness.

What about optimization? It involves:

• Adjusting incentives: Customize rewards based on affiliate performance and your campaign goals.
• A/B testing: Experiment with different commission structures (e.g., tiered commissions and special product commissions) to determine what delivers the best outcomes.

Wrapping Up

Whether you’re a new business or an established brand, the benefits of affiliate marketing are endless. It’s not just a buzzword; this is a practical, actually working strategy.

The only way to succeed in this area is to have the right partner by your side, and that is where UpPromote comes in. Our tool makes it easy to launch an affiliate program and scale it-you don’t need to have a huge budget or have been in the market for years.

Discover what UpPromote can do for you. Take a look at our pricing plans and choose which one works best for your brand. Then, get ready to take affiliate marketing by storm.