As a business, if you don’t have the right affiliate software for your marketers, you’re likely putting in more hours of work than you should be — and you may be holding back your affiliates and your reach. Affiliate marketing can be a great way to boost sales, but when it’s taking over all of your time with little results to show, it starts to lose its allure.
Luckily, there are many marketing software programs that make your life easier as a business. But many companies get overwhelmed with all the options available. It can be hard to decipher the best choice and which software isn’t worth your time.
Here, we’ll tell you what to consider when choosing affiliate software.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a style of marketing based on performance. In this model, a merchant will offer affiliates a portion of the commission for every product or service they sell. The more affiliates sell, the more they earn.
Affiliates sell their products through affiliate links, which are personal to them. When someone buys using one of these links, the sale will tag that individual affiliate marketer, and they will receive a commission.
In this type of business, there are four major participants:
- First, there’s the merchant. That’s you! Merchants create and sell the products.
- Then, there’s the affiliate tracking software, which manages the sales and keeps track of how much that person earned through their links.
- There’s also the affiliate, which is the person sharing their unique link to promote sales of your products.
- Finally, there’s the buyer who purchases the product through the link.
What to Look for When Choosing Affiliate Software
As we mentioned earlier, there are tons of affiliate software programs out there, each with a slightly different offering, So how do you know which one is the right fit for your business? Here are some features and characteristics that you should look for when choosing affiliate software.
Easy Set-Up
The last thing you want is to get stuck during the set-up phase. Ideally, there’ll be no need to download any plugin or tool to get the software working. The right program will have everything you need already built into the software. It should be incredibly user-friendly to get started.
Multiple Programs with One Installation
Most of the time, merchants offer a wide range of items they’re promoting. Your affiliate software should support these multiple categories so it can streamline all of your information into one place.
SEO Links
Affiliates and businesses alike need SEO to boost the visibility of a particular product. The right affiliate software will help your marketers with search engine optimization to give them a headstart.
Mobile Compatibility
Many people shop on their phones or tablets, so why shouldn’t your affiliates be able to monitor the shopping done through your affiliate links through their phone?
In the third quarter of 2020 alone, mobile devices made up over 50 percent of internet traffic. This staggering statistic makes it even more critical to ensure your affiliate program is mobile-compatible. Finding compatibility with mobile devices means your affiliates can check in on their commission reports and control panel to handle all the program’s critical aspects all through a phone.
Secure Hosting
You should not need a dedicated server for your affiliate software to run as it should. Ideally, you want a software host with its own server for extra reliability and security. It also eliminates the need for a backup server.
Seamless Integration
Your program should integrate easily into your merchant site, shopping cart, or payment gateway. That way, you can pay commissions with ease.
Management Control
Do you need integration with other software systems, email newsletters, or back-office management tools? Create a list of what tools you can’t live without and filter out your options from there. Keep your affiliates in mind and what features will be the most lucrative for you both.
Boosted Conversion
Does the program promise to increase conversion? Affiliates often stake their reputations on presenting themselves as trusted consumer influencers. It creates a higher potential for conversions. The more conversions the program can help your affiliates get, the more money your business will make.
Customer Support
Customer support is essential, especially when you’re dealing with affiliate marketing software. Ideally, the software company will have telephone and e-ticket support available when your affiliates run into trouble. Some companies may even offer instant chat support.
Automated Affiliate Program Management with Purply
If you’re having difficulty choosing affiliate software for your business, we have a solution for you: Purply.
Purply is an automated affiliate program management tool that offers customized affiliate recruitment and optimization strategies. We can find you a team of affiliates in a matter of seconds.
The Purply software analyzes upwards of 10M data points to provide your business with the most direct path to success. We make sure to only match you with affiliates who perform well and have active websites.
By choosing affiliate software by Purply, you get access to:
- Daily suggestions for commission rates
- New partners to check out
- Campaign ideas
- Trend forecasts
- Sales forecasts
- And more!
Purply also provides learnings designed to help you grow rapidly as a business. With new ideas and insights every day, it’s like working with a team of affiliate experts without the need to hire in-house.
Learn more about what Purplyhas to offer.
