1. Affiliate program with minimal functionality
You can create an affiliate program using only a few basic tools. To create a simple affiliate program with minimal functionality, a Google Analytics account and an Excel spreadsheet are enough to organize a primitive affiliate program.
Here’s how to get started:
- Set up goals on your website with your Google Analytics account
- Provide partners with their own unique tags (for example: ?ref=partner1)
- Using Google Analytics, monitor the fulfillment of your goals on your website from traffic sources containing partner tags
- Track the data from your partners’ actions
- Manual payment of remuneration according to the details of your partners
Google Analytics and Excel spreadsheets can provide all the basic features of full-fledged affiliate programs.
Although creating an affiliate program using this approach is possible, it is not very applicable in practice, as the program will have limited capabilities. If your partners do not have a transparent tool for monitoring statistics, there is no way to track pending sales. In addition, there would be no other functions available that are necessary for full-fledged work. Moreover, this method also requires a lot of manual work for your team, which is significantly more time-consuming than other options.
This method should be considered as your last option, as there are more advanced technologies available.
2. Your own development from scratch
If creating an affiliate program through Google Analytics is the most primitive approach, then developing your own program from scratch is the most technologically complex option.
You have to solve a number of issues on your own, including:
- Traffic redirection
- Correct accounting of traffic sources
- Data collection
- Statistics and analytics
- Platform interaction with partners
- Moderation and blocking options
- Internal analytics
- Monitoring of anomalies and violations
- Balance reconciliation
- Remuneration payments to partners
- And more
Creating your own affiliate program requires a full-fledged team that solves any design issues, whether on the frontend or backend. In addition to the affiliate program itself, it is also necessary to develop modern tools, such as an affiliate link generator or widgets.
In some cases, a small affiliate program can be implemented by an outsourced team. However, for an affiliate program with a large number of active partners and a huge amount of traffic, development is often required in the company’s staff.
Having your own affiliate program is the most flexible option, which is the main advantage of this approach. You are free to change or modify the functionality of your program at your discretion. This leaves the cost and time of development as your primary concern.
Teams that are able to develop an affiliate program that meets the requirements of the market are expensive. According to the experience of Localrent, a team of at least four people is required to launch an affiliate program:
- 2 Developers
- 1 Project Manager
- 1 Designer
In Western Europe, each employee costs the company about $3,500 a month (including taxes). With an average development time of 6-12 months, simply launching a program will require $130,000-240,000.
After the initial development, the product needs to be maintained and continuously developed to meet the needs of a dynamically developing market. Therefore, it is not surprising that even major brands, such as BlaBlaCar, are abandoning in-house affiliate programs in favor of other solutions.
3. Affiliate program based on SaaS solution
Instead of developing your own program from scratch, you can build your brand affiliate program using a ready-made SaaS solution.
For example, Affise.com offers ready-made technologies for affiliate programs. This is a fast, technologically advanced solution that requires less development on your part. The most affordable plan begins at $499 per month for networks and $900 per month for brands:
Ready-made SaaS solutions allow you to build an affiliate program that meets modern requirements. You will be able to track full-cycle performance, take sales throughout the lifetime of cookies into account, provide affiliate tools, as well as keep records and statistics.
SaaS is a technological solution that allows you to create a high-quality product, but does not solve other questions related to running a successful affiliate program.
Therefore, the best option for most brands is to participate in an affiliate network. In a network, brands receive a solution to technological problems and gain access to a developed infrastructure for solving other issues related to running an affiliate program:
- Available database of partners
- Expertise in the running of affiliate programs
- Payout automation
- Fraud protection, including artificial intelligence to detect violations
- Tool development
- And more
SaaS solutions is an awesome alternative for developing your own affiliate program from scratch. However, as the practice of travel brands shows, in order to work effectively with an affiliate marketing channel, it is necessary to work with affiliate networks either exclusively or in addition to your own affiliate program.
4. Affiliate networks
Affiliate networks are a turnkey solution that allow partners to access many brands at once. Brands receive a technological solution for launching an affiliate program and gaining access to a ready-made partner base.
There are general affiliate networks that do not have a specialization, such as Awin, Partnerize, or CJ, in addition to specialized affiliate networks. In the travel niche, the largest specialized affiliate network is the Travelpayouts Digital Partnership Platform.
With Travelpayouts, brands receive:
- A ready-made technological solution for launching an affiliate program in the shortest possible time
- Access to over 300,000 partners from all over the world, including bloggers, influencers, and various project owners with a travel audience
- Over 10 years of expertise of the Travelpayouts team, which runs various affiliate programs for more than 100 travel brands, including the TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and RentalCars affiliate programs.
Working through an affiliate network does not exclude the need for a brand to invest in developing an affiliate marketing channel. None of the aforementioned options provide an automatic solution that allows you to press a button and create a successful affiliate program without further investing in its development.
However, networks such as Travelpayouts offer a combination of advanced technologies, access to a huge database of partners with relevant traffic, and expertise in a certain niche, which makes the affiliate network option optimal for launching a travel affiliate program for most travel brands.
Some brands, such as Booking.com, use their own affiliate program and the Travelpayouts affiliate program simultaneously and take advantage of each approach. These options are not mutually exclusive and can indeed be effectively combined.
By creating an affiliate program from scratch or using ready-made SaaS solutions, you are left alone with the main need to make your affiliate program be successful. The developed infrastructure of Travelpayouts allows you to not only create an affiliate program in a short time, but also run it in the most effective way.
With Travelpayouts, you will gain new clients by paying only for the actual results achieved. Connecting your brand to Travelpayouts is free. You pay only for successful sales (the commission for each sale is distributed between partners and the affiliate network). Start your path to effective affiliate marketing with an application to join the Travelpayouts Digital Partnership Platform.
