12+ Affiliate Marketing Program Mistakes

Thinking about launching an affiliate program for your SaaS?

Right idea.

But before you do, I’d suggest thinking about how you want your affiliate program to be competitive against other programs out there.

Below we’re going to get into some of the top mistakes I’ve seen across countless affiliate programs, so you don’t make them.

1. No real program ownership

I’m starting out here because when I’ve audited so many programs, it’s clear there isn’t an “owner” of the program.

Usually what happens is that someone will set-up the program, put the affiliate program in the bottom of the footer, and leave it at that.

Now, this can work to some capacity if you have automations set up for the program to run on “autopilot”, providing affiliates most of what they need to be successful.

But, in the long-term… this just won’t work.

Your goal is to build long standing partnerships that drive real growth for your business. Not paying attention to your partner's needs, will lead them to lose faith in the partnership.

Tip: When setting up the program, dedicate the program to someone who will be responsible for day-to-day communication with affiliates, payouts, negotiations, etc.

2. Lack of communication with partners

This comes back to not having someone who is the main point of contact for the affiliate program.

You can have all of the automation in the world set up for your program.

But, partners will have questions.

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Especially if your program is built into different tiers like affiliates, influencers, technology, agencies, etc.

Make sure you have some form of cadence in place to communicate with partners. A technology like PartnerStack makes it seamless to maintain communication.

3. Insufficient affiliate incentives

Setting up your program with just a 20% commission rate just isn’t enough, especially if your product is only priced at say $50/month.

You need to be a bit more creative here with your incentives for affiliates, outside of just your standard commission structure.

Think about things like:

• Providing backlinks to partners to help improve their SEO
• Launch challenges to motivate partners to refer more business
• Allow partners to guest contribute to your blog

4. No creative recruitment strategies

Many companies I’ve come across who set-up their affiliate program forget the number one most important thing when it comes to a successful affiliate program:

Affiliate recruitment.

Many resort to just passive affiliate recruitment, which can be okay if you have minimal resources at hand and you’re just testing the channel.

But if you’re really looking to see the full potential of an affiliate program, you’re going to need to be active with your affiliate recruitment.

Whether that’s doing outbound, launching with an affiliate network like Impact, Everflow, or Impact.

Or just getting affiliate referrals through other affiliates within your affiliate network.

Be sure to have some form of affiliate recruitment strategy in place to grow your program.

5. Isn’t creative with affiliate offers

Starting off with a blanket % commission for a sale is a great starting point. You’ve already done more than many other companies by setting up your affiliate program.

But, when you begin to really grow your program and attract other forms of affiliates, you’re going to run into quite a lot of negotiations outside of your % commission offering.

Here are some things I’ve found:

Influencers - Typically want payment upfront

Affiliates - OK with commission, but some will want alternative offers (CPL, CPC)

Youtubers - Typically want payment upfront (Some OK with affiliate commission)

6. Not paying affiliates out on time.

Many SaaS businesses tend to forget that affiliates also run a business.

Cash flow is just as important to them as it is to your business. So, with this one, it’s important to always payout affiliates on time and be transparent with your communication when this will occur.

7. Thinking more transactionally.

Don’t go into these relationships with a transaction in mind.

Meaning - Don’t go to the partner saying “join our program and we’ll pay you 20% commission”. A lot of the time this just doesn’t work because affiliates are offered these types of offers all of the time.

Instead, go into these discussions with “Hey I linked back to this article about top CRM tools because I thought it was super insightful. Would love to hear how you’ve been able to grow yur website”.

Just an idea, but the goal is to be more relationship driven.

8. Partners don’t see long term growth opps

When your partners don’t see light at the end of the tunnel with the partnership, you have an issue.

Your program today shouldn’t look like what it is 6-12 months later.

Be sure you’re getting feedback from your partners early on, make adjustments, and grow from there.

9. Poor attribution.

This one comes from Adam Glazer, close friend and founder of PartnerCommerce, a B2B affiliate agency.

“Poorly applied attribution leading to under crediting affiliates for referrals they should be winning credit for.”

When you’re under crediting affiliates and their impact within the conversion funnel, you won’t see the true impact this channel has on your business.

Also, to be honest, your affiliates will also be upset.

They’re doing so much work promoting your business, taking a risk on their end, only to find out the leads they’ve been passing to you aren’t being paid out because it’s being attributed to “paid search only”.

I ran into this a couple years ago with a brand, but luckily they had HubSpot as a backstop for attribution to tie everything together between PartnerStack.

10. Website conversion rate.

This one comes from Evan Weber, founder of Publisher Finders, a B2B affiliate agency.

“The website doesn’t convert well enough. Most SaaS companies never even work on their website conversion rate.”

This is a GREAT call out.

If you’re having affiliate partners sending tons of high quality traffic to your website, but the conversation is awful, you have a problem.

And, affiliates will be quite upset.

Here I’d analyze the type of traffic partners are sending from: blog, social, ppc, etc.

Then I’ll identify if a new landing page is warranted per traffic type of partner placement and test that out.

11. Not Defining Ideal Customer Profile.

This one comes from Michelle Calkins, Global VP, Partnerships & BD at Cin7.

“Poor definition of ICP and lack of initial ICP overlap. So much time can get wasted investing in partnerships where the client base don't have shared needs / pains. Early, it's so critical to find the right partners, especially when trying to prove internal ROI with limited resources.”

🙌 YES! 

Defining your ICP early on is crucial to avoid spinning your wheels with partnerships that don't align.

Investing time upfront to ensure there's a strong overlap in customer needs can make all the difference, especially when resources are tight and you're working to prove ROI internally. It’s all about finding those strategic partners who truly complement your goals.

12. Lack of Affiliate Assets.

This one comes from Dustin Howes, Director of Partnerships at Inflektion.ai.

“Lack of affiliate assets. There should be email swipes, sample blog posts, review key points, and deep linking capabilities.

And if you want to get next level, co-branded landing pages that are customized to the affiliate partner's audience, complete with custom discount.”

Dustin is 100% correct here.

Not providing enough resources to partners from the jump is a huge missed opportunity, especially if you already have these marketing resources internally to share!

A lot of affiliate software out there gives you the ability to upload these assets into the portal so partners can easily grab them.

13. Not leveraging a network of affiliates

This one comes from Joran Hofman, Founder of B2B SaaS affiliate software platform, Reditus.

“When setting up an affiliate program, I always recommend checking if you can leverage a network of affiliates within the tool you are going to use. Always keep in mind off course if they have potentially access to your ICP.”

THIS.

So true. Having an in-platform affiliate discovery tool is going to be extremely helpful when it comes to recruiting affiliate partners.

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Otherwise, you’re just going to have to resort to outbound affiliate recruitment, which can take a ton of time and effort to get going.

14. Unwilling to share risk.

This one comes from Tanner Braden, B2B affiliate manager of the PartnerStack affiliate program.

“Unwilling to share risk. Too many programs only offer rev share or CPA, pushing all of the risk onto the partners. For partners that have earned your trust, you should adjust the offers and support to share the risk more evenly, often through CPC or CPL offers.”

I love the approach here.

So many companies put the risk solely on the affiliate partner, without regard to their customer conversion funnel.

While for some companies, the lead to closed-won customer can be 15-30 days, other programs may be 60-120 days!

Although the affiliate might get paid more after 120 days, the may also be out of business because of cash flow issues solely promoting your brand.

Think about getting creative with offers to affiliate partners.

15. Not knowing your numbers.

This one comes from Roo 🦘 Wright, X Super Affiliate [Sold for $9M] and Head of Partnerships at Mosaic Swift.

“Not having a clear understanding of your numbers makes it difficult to determine what you can afford to pay affiliates.”

Such a great point here.

I’ve come across so many affiliate programs where they just start out with a basic 15% commission structure, just because others were doing that.

But if you want to truly be competitive within the space, you should know what you can realistically pay to acquire a new customer.

This will help you to create the most compelling affiliate offer out there.