How CRO and Payments Can Make or Break Your Affiliate Network

Website conversion rate optimization (CRO) has been a hot topic in the eCommerce universe for the last few years. Having a solid CRO strategy in place ensures successful marketing campaigns with a positive return on investment. For brands to maintain strong affiliates within their commission-based affiliate partners, they need to generate revenue. Beyond that, they need to feel that the money they are making is in line with their expectations for how much traffic they are driving to advertisers’ pages. Without a best-in-class affiliate experience, they will likely switch their ads to a competitor, such as Google Adsense. They may even resort to a third-party web monetization service to see if they can make more with them. To convert affiliates into reliable partners, it is essential to have a great CRO strategy in place to continue growing your affiliate marketing channel. 

Paying affiliates on time is critical to growing your affiliate network. Without a strong base of loyal affiliates, your affiliate marketing channel won’t grow. Affiliate retention is based on how reliable you are. With the proper payments solution, affiliates don’t have to worry about checking in on payment statuses or ensuring accurate payments—the software handles it. Affiliates can expect a streamlined, automated payments experience.

When working with a global payables automation solution with expertise in solving partner payments, affiliate networks can expect a top-tier partner experience. Once you implement the solution, partners can shift their focus to more empowering projects, such as catering to their affiliates’ needs.  

Major Factors to Consider when Choosing Affiliates 

• Traffic from “relevant” affiliates (web publishers with traffic in your niche or a related audience that target your demographics) is some of the most coveted affiliate traffic today.
• Relevant affiliates are in high demand because their referrals are 100% incremental revenue on a performance basis.
  • Their referrals are 100% “new eyeballs” that haven’t previously been to the website. 
• Many companies that are managing an affiliate program are looking for as many relevant affiliates as possible. 
• Some even only want relevant affiliates (no coupon affiliates or browser extension affiliates).
  •  In this case, it requires constant, targeted affiliate outreach campaigns to recruit as many relevant affiliates as possible.

Five Factors to Maintain Affiliate Satisfaction 

1. Amount of revenue they earn from sending traffic
2. On-time Payments
3. Accurate Payments
4. Ease of getting paid 
5. Getting paid in the right currencies

If you want happy, successful affiliates, you need a robust website conversion rate. Without it, your affiliate program will see little-to-no growth. Knowing your CRO numbers can help attract new affiliates, but without knowing them, your business could lose coveted affiliates and you will struggle to gain any traction. If you don’t pay your affiliates on time and accurately, affiliates are likely to start shopping for your competitor’s services. When building your affiliate network, remember that your relationship with your affiliates can make or break your business’s success, so ensure that you are: 

1. Prioritizing the improvement of your website’s conversion rate
2. Ensuring your affiliates get paid on time and accurately, every time 

Reach out to Experience Advertising if you have an affiliate program you’re hoping to scale.