Make your program grow!
A successful affiliate program benefits from finding and connecting high-quality publishers, preferably publishers who approach the same target group as the program itself. Finding and connecting quality publishers is therefore an important part of managing an affiliate program. Nevertheless, we notice that connecting these types of publishers is not easy at all. In the article below we provide a number of tips & tricks that can help you find and connect publishers for your affiliate program.
Set clear goals:
Before you start recruiting publishers, it is important to determine in advance which requirements a publisher must meet. Are discount codes and cashback publishers allowed on the program? And is it possible to place publishers’ pixels on the advertiser’s website? Compose a list with points that a publisher does or does not have to meet. The following questions can help you:
- What type of publishers are allowed on the affiliate program?
- Which rates (CPA, CPA, CPM) are allowed to set up a collaboration?
- What forms of advertising are permitted?
- Are there possibilities to set up an exclusive collaboration (think of an exclusive offer that will only be promoted by one publisher)
- Which forms of technology are possible (3rd party for example)?
Find publishers via Similarweb:
Similarweb is a tool with which website traffic can be compared against traffic of the competitor. This makes it possible to see which publishers are linking and sending traffic to your website and to the competitor. Via a handy overview you can see which publishers are (not) active for your program and for your competitors.
Besides Similarweb you can find potential publishers through Google. Search on keywords matching your web shop and have a look at the publishers that are listed. Don’t only use keywords around your product but also about your target audience.
Check publishers:
Not every publisher who seems to be suitable, is in fact suitable. Therefore, check the publisher thoroughly for spelling (mistakes), correct information and whether the website is up to date. A publisher who is inactive is more difficult to approach and direct to promote new promos.
Motivate the publishers to promote your program:
Now that you have a list of potentially interesting publishers, you will need to contact them with the request if they would like to promote your program. It’s important to persuade the publisher of the attractiveness of the program and the conditions. You can share results of similar publishers who have been promoting your program. Think about a good conversion ratio and eCPC. Show interested in the publisher by asking their opinion on a collaboration. Is a feed necessary? Which fields can’t be missed? Motivate the publisher by offering a temporary CPA increase.
Send a merge mail:
Once you have compiled a list of potential publishers, it is time to contact them. Although calling is preferable, sending a merge email is also possible. Use this option when you have a large list of publishers you want to contact. With a merge mail you send several people the same mail but with a personal salutation (and possibly other variables). Here is a short Step-by-step plan for sending a merge mail:
- Create an Excel file with the following information: e-mail address, first name and last name. You can expand this list of columns as you wish. Website name is also an opportunity to process in your mail. Save the file.
- Write your mail in Word. Do not forget to paste your e-mail signature with contact details at the bottom of the e-mail.
- Navigate to Mailings -> Select Recipients -> Use an Existing list -> Select the Excel file.
- Add a merge field to the desired location by navigating to Insert Merge Field and selecting the desired column. For example, you will receive “Best« Name »,”. You can select other variables in that dropdown, like the site name etc.
- Send the mail by navigating to Finish & Merge -> Send Email Messages -> select the column with e-mail addresses and choose a subject line. It cannot be personalized and is therefore the same for every recipient.
Keep a list:
Register which publishers you have contacted and keep track of the outcome per publisher. Highlight publishers who have started promotion green, and mark publishers who do not (yet) do promotion orange / red. Keeping such a list makes it easier to analyze publishers (what are the results after putting them live) and to contact them again (if the publisher is not yet live).
Good luck!
