The Ten Commandments for successful affiliate marketing campaigns

Want to generate traffic, leads or sales? Whatever your objective, the Ten Commandments of Affiliate marketing you will follow. With tailored offers, innovative distribution channels and involved affiliates, a satisfied advertiser you will become.

Your campaign target you will define

Do you want to gain new prospects to expand your databases? Would you like to boost your sales? Who is your target? What level of qualification are you looking for your customers/prospects? What compensation policy for your publishers?
The key to your success: developing the most targeted, powerful and profitable campaign for publishers.
The challenge: optimising the experience curve and maximising your ROI.

Special care over your creations you will take

Creations are essential to the success of an affiliate marketing campaign. Performance marketing is subject to the same requirements as marketing in general: the form and content are closely interconnected. Communication materials must thus reflect your brand image and foster desire and commitment.

All potential distribution channels you will explore

Most advertisers consider affiliate marketing campaigns to be a 100% display advertising tool (i.e. banners mainly), when the true potential of affiliate marketing is consolidating the various channels into a single campaign. Display advertising, emailing, social media, retargeting, etc. New communication channels are constantly emerging on the web. The role of an affiliate platforms is thus to advise you on choosing among the various verticals.

Innovative promotions and offers you will introduce

Another principle inspired from marketing is innovation. To attract the attention of your prospects and build customer loyalty, what you offer must be renewed regularly.
If they always hear the same old tune, they’ll surely get sick of it!

Your customers you will look after

When defining your offer or promotions, make sure you use all possible means to satisfy your customers and prospects, regardless of your campaign objective: sales or leads. Any internet user can quickly make (or break!) an online reputation. A positive image on social networks and forums can only improve your conversion rate.

Hand in hand with your partners you will work

The purpose of affiliate marketing is to harness a number of different distribution channels to reach a wider audience. Hundreds of affiliates display your image and message through a single middleman (the affiliate marketing platform). But the key ingredient for a successful campaign remains the combination of three specialist roles. That of the advertiser, a specialist in what they offer and their market, that of the affiliate, a master of their audience and distribution channels, and that of the platform, with its experience in affiliate marketing. In other words, you have the same objectives and must walk hand in hand to achieve them.

A suitable partner you will choose

Before choosing the affiliate programme that will best meet your needs, find out more about its specific features.
How many publishers does it have in its network? In which countries is it present? When was it established? Does it have experience in your area of business? Does it offer reliable technology for managing campaigns? Will you have a dedicated account manager? All these questions need to be asked before choosing the partner of your dreams!

Highly involved you will be

To guarantee the success of your campaign, you need to ensure a close relationship and fluid communication are maintained with your account manager.  Therefore, your role, should you accept it, will be to provide as much information as possible about your market, customers and competitors to help tailor the affiliate marketing strategy. You will also need to be responsive to their advice and suggestions and quick to react when your input is sought.

Your ROI continuously you will measure

Let us not forget this is Performance Marketing. Therefore, it is important to maintain continuous control over your costs. However, managing costs does not just mean reducing them, but also conducting a cost-benefit analysis to maximise ROI. How should you do this? Select the KPI that best suit your business (display.click/double click, form/sale, etc.) and check your campaign statistics regularly.

Continually reassess yourself you will

If your targets are not achieved, don’t panic! Ask yourself the right questions and don’t be afraid to redo your homework. That’s what marketing is all about: testing, adjusting, applying more widely, re-testing, re-adjusting, and so on…

So for a successful campaign, the Ten Commandments of Affiliate marketing you will keep in mind!