Building an Affiliate Program? Check out these 5 Affiliate Platforms
Affiliate Marketing is increasingly becoming an important element of the PR process. Orca Communications invited affiliate marketing expert & founder of Jump.Shop, Luiggi Pera, to write a guest post to help businesses better understand the different types of affiliate marketing platforms.
July, 2022 | Luiggi Pera
Today is likely one of the best times in history to market your business. Back in the day, you were limited to standing on a soap box yelling out your company’s name and its perks, or having to buy an expensive billboard. All of these are still valuable marketing strategies; however, at least now you have more efficient options – like Affiliate Marketing.
Affiliate marketing isn’t just one of the most efficient forms of marketing but it’s also one of the least expensive. Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing where people and organizations ‘outside your company’ can sell products for your brand usually on a commission basis. This means your brand only pays an affiliate marketer when a sale is made. It’s a win/win.
This is why building an affiliate program is a MUST for most brands. I’d like to note that if you just launched your brand and don’t yet have repeatable customers or a community around your brand – then an affiliate program can certainly wait until you gain traction.
But for those brands that have some wind under their sails – having the right Affiliate Management Platform is just as important as your core sales strategy. (Orca notes that it is also becoming increasingly important for a successful PR campaign).
So let’s check out some of today’s top affiliate platforms and how they can help your Affiliate Marketing mission.
1. ShareAsale (Cost: $625 Activation Fee and 20% of Commission Payouts)
ShareAsale is the most popular affiliate program in the market with almost 50% market share and has been around for more than 20 years. ShareAsale uses referral links to track purchases and leads back to specific affiliates in order to give them a commission. ShareAsale is also easy to integrate since it’s a download away from your current eCommerce marketplace. Although they are one of the most trusted platforms on the market, you may see a lot of affiliate turnover because they also market other affiliate opportunities to your affiliates.
2. Jump Shops (Cost: $500 Integration Fee and $135/month)
Jump Shops is certainly my top pick for affiliate platforms but that may be due to my bias as its co-founder and CEO. One of the biggest differences between Jump Shops and all other affiliate platforms is that instead of a basic referral link that brings customers back to your brand’s homepage, Jump Shops actually gives each of your brand ambassadors their very own Ambassador profile page that recommends specific products. Jump Shops is an all-new type of affiliate marketing that converts 5x better than referral links with this new model. Our downside is that it may take up to 5-7 business days for the Jump Shops’ team to fully integrate the platform into your website.
3. Refersion (Cost: Need to hire developer for integration and $99/month)
Refersion is another popular platform for building an affiliate program known for its multiple integrations such as Google Analytics and Mailchimp to name a few. Refersion affiliates use referral links as most do in affiliate marketing but another cool feature they offer is SKU tracking. This platform focuses its affiliate model on good analytics and data. The downside is that your brand would require its own developer to help integrate the platform. Refersion is an amazing affiliate tool and is the one I would recommend for larger brands with a more established affiliate base as it is very data-driven and metric-centric.
4. Goaffpro (Cost: Premium is $24/month and Enterprise is $199/month)
Goaffpro is definitely a fast-growing affiliate platform due to its affordability and focus on referral links. It is also one of the few platforms that have a freemium model which is perfect for early–stage brands still figuring out their affiliate strategy. Goaffpro also makes it easier to navigate through their dashboards with their simple design. Their downside is that they have limited features and are known to lack in the customer service department. But at this price point, they are certainly worth exploring for early-stage brands that are just getting started with building an affiliate program.
5. LeadDyno (Cost: Starter is $49/month and Accelerator is $79/month)
LeadDyno is a great affiliate program because they share access to their affiliate network with each brand. This is great for new brands looking to build an affiliate strategy and grow their affiliate base. Plus they offer a 30-day free trial with no strings attached. My favorite feature of LeadDyno is that you can customize unique affiliate dashboards. Their downside is that they lack customer service and can see affiliate turnover due to affiliate poaching inherent in the platform.
Please make sure you perform your independent research on each of these platforms to see which one best suits your brand’s needs.
Overall, there are many affiliate platforms out there that can help both incoming and established brands, it just depends on your budget and your affiliate strategy. My rule of thumb when you’re choosing an affiliate platform is to make sure that you have a solution in place for each part of the Affiliate Strategy funnel – and that’s (1) Recruiting, (2) Engagement, and (3) Management. With a solid affiliate strategy and platform in place, you will surely get a return on your investment – and then some.
Good luck to you and may the force be with you!
Luiggi Pera is Co-founder & CEO of Jump Shops, an Affiliate Marketing Platform. He is an affiliate marketing expert, serial entrepreneur, and startup investor. When he isn’t hanging out with his kids or building a company, he likes to work out and play Nintendo Switch. Don’t judge him. 🙂
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