Inside the Mind of Lee-Ann Johnstone: Building B2B Affiliate Powerhouses

I began my career in digital marketing when affiliate marketing was just beginning to grow as a channel. What drew me to affiliate marketing specifically was the relationship-building side of things—seeing how brand partnerships can drive real growth. Over the years, I worked across various industries, and eventually, I founded Affiverse to help brands succeed with growing their affiliate programs, particularly in high-growth areas like SaaS and tech.

I saw that B2B SaaS needed a more strategic approach to how they bring on new partnerships, with a focus on education and data-driven growth, and that’s where Affiverse has been able to make an impact with these types of companies. It also helps that I’m a literal SaaS “tool-a-holic” and use many SaaS products in my own business to help promote our own scale. I therefore can speak the same language as our clients and understand their needs and who they want to service intently.

I find it incredibly rewarding to work with SaaS entrepreneurs and guide their marketing strategy, then seeing how these partnerships evolve and produce sustainable revenue streams for these businesses.

When recruiting affiliates, especially in the SaaS space, it’s all about targeting partners who understand the value of the product and can educate their audience effectively.

We look for affiliates who are well-versed in the specific problems that the SaaS solution solves—whether that’s through industry blogs, comparison websites, or tech influencers who produce meaningful content. Affiverse’s agency team have a very clearly defined partner recruitment strategy is very relationship-based; we focus on building trust and demonstrating how the affiliate can succeed within the program.

For instance, we engage with potential affiliates at industry events, bring them up on our media platform to give them wider exposure via our podcast and talk about SaaS products through my community on LinkedIn, or through niche communities where they discuss relevant tech solutions. The key is showing them we’re as invested in their growth as they are in our clients!

In the SaaS space, we believe it’s important to measure both revenue and engagement metrics.

It’s not just about clicks but also the quality of the leads affiliates bring in, the conversion rate to free trials or demos, and ultimately the retention and lifetime value of those customers over time. One effective strategy is segmenting affiliates into performance tiers and offering customised incentives, like increased commission rates for affiliates who consistently bring in high-quality leads. By focusing on metrics that directly impact customer acquisition and retention, you can help affiliates focus on driving long-term value and that’s how successful partnerships are sustained over time.

For us, performance metrics should always be linked to tangible outcomes, like sign ups, sales revenue and conversion rates.

I encourage programs to look beyond basic metrics like clicks or impressions and dive into the affiliate’s quality of traffic, the conversion to deposit, and overall revenue per partner. I’m also a fan of segmenting affiliates into different performance levels and tailoring incentives accordingly.

Creating a VIP tier with custom commissions or exclusive bonuses or offering personalised gifting rewards for partners can be incredibly effective. The key to a successful program is to always ensure you have a diverse mix of partners that are reaching your customers in the right places with the right offers. It’s really that simple.

That’s a really hard question to ask someone like me! (See the “tool-a -holic” comment above) There are too many!

For Affiliates I can recommend stats aggregation tools, link cloaking tools, marketing automation tools, and for Affiliate Managers , well we have a very long list of tools we usually share with people who come on our webinars starting with efficiency and time management tools through to recruitment and outreach or prospecting tools.

Like I said - the list is long, but if you want to take a peak at it hit me up with an email and I’ll send you the one’s we’ve tried and tested to help you save time looking for your own!