If you’re asking yourself this question it’s because you’ve reached a point where you don’t have the time to focus on growing your business and managing affiliate partnerships.

 

You’ve grown your affiliate program, but you feel your affiliate program could generate even more revenue.

 

When you and/or other team members are spending around 20+ hours a week on affiliate marketing it’s time to consider investing in a full time, in-house affiliate manager.

 

But, this in it of itself is a major time commitment. Ryan and I have seen many businesses say they’re ready for the next step, when they’re actually not.

 

Lucky for you, you can avoid these common mistakes by learning what resources are needed to set up your new hire for success. 

 

The right time to hire an affiliate manager is usually when the timing isn’t right.

 

Ryan and I are here to help train and coach your affiliate manager to success.

 

But there are many other things we can’t teach them that are required by the business owner or boss.

 

For example, your affiliate manager is going to need to be introduced to key people within the organization. This includes copywriters, tech/development, marketing, etc. 

 

It’s crucial for the affiliate manager to understand how they fit in their department and ultimately the greater business.

 

The offer owner and affiliate manager also need to work together to determine the authority level of the affiliate manager.

 

What buttons are they able to push and which levers are they able to pull? Do they have the authority to increase commissions as needed? Is every affiliate vetted by the offer owner or does that responsibility fall on the affiliate manager?

 

You’re reading this section thinking, “well duh!”

 

But let me tell you this, have you ever met someone who said their offer stinks?

 

Nope.

 

Everyone thinks their offer is the best converting offer of all time.

 

Be honest with yourself. Is your offer (or offers) converting well enough to keep an affiliate manager busy?

 

Your problem may be that you need a new offer, not that you need an affiliate manager.

 

An affiliate manager can only work so hard with a so-so offer.

 

Additionally, a successful affiliate manager needs access to high performing creatives. Having multiple creatives (email swipes) for each offer is ideal.

 

There should also be a copywriter (either in-house or contracted) writing new creatives each week. These new creatives should be tested against the control creative with the ultimate goal of them outperforming the control.

 

If you think you’re ready for an affiliate manager, but you don’t have an affiliate marketing platform yet, now is the time to get one.

 

An affiliate marketing platform is a software that facilitates all bases of affiliate program management. 

This includes onboarding, tracking and reporting sales and clicks, managing referrals, optimizing site traffic, and paying commissions.

 

This platform should have the following capabilities:

- The ability to create unique tracking links for affiliates

- The ability for affiliates to view and track clicks, sales, and commission information as well as creative assets like email and banners

- The ability for your offers to have flexible commission types (CPL, CPA, or rev share)

 

The most common affiliate platforms are: Everflow, TUNE/HasOffers, LinkTrust, Clickbank, Buygoods, and Digistore24.

 

Each one is different and has their strengths and weaknesses. We always recommend doing research with a few affiliate platforms before picking the one that’s best for your business.

 

If you have any questions about what affiliate platform is right for you, or would like a complementary call to discuss if you’re ready to hire an affiliate manager you can email us at hello@affiliate-moguls.com.