But do you truly know who your Publishers are? Two questions I think are important to analyze are: “Which Publishers are driving your sales?” and “What kinds of sites are your sales coming from?”

Just like a tree, for a program to fully flourish and bloom it must have many strong roots.

Performance Percentage

Take a look at a monthly performance report of the program. When you pull out all the sales from the month, group the transactions by Publisher.

Count up how many individual Publishers are actually sending the sales from the month and what percentage of the sales each Publisher represents. You want to be able to identify if the program is overly reliant on a very small number of Publishers.

So for example, you may have 100 transactions in a month and realize that all of the transactions were sent from just a fraction of your total Publisher base. If this is the case, there is an opportunity to increase performance by activating a greater number of Publishers in the program.

It would be stretch to say that a program could have 100% of their approved Publishers driving sales, as there will always be some level of inactivity. That is to be expected. But, as a general rule of thumb, I like to maintain the following ratio: 30% of the Publisher base consistently driving traffic, and 10-20% of those Publishers consistently driving sales.

The other percentage to look at in your monthly sales report is what percentage of overall sales is represented by each Publisher? Perhaps there is a  good number of individual Publishers driving sales each month, but if one Publisher is responsible for 90% of the sales, the program is very vulnerable.

If the foundation of your program lies in just a handful of Publishers, the whole program will crumble should you lose that Publisher.  Just like you wouldn’t build a house on top of one pillar, you don’t want to build your whole program around just one Publisher.

Publisher Diversity

While you have those monthly numbers pulled, the second piece to look at is the sites bringing in the sales. As you review the list of Publishers that have generated sales,  take a look at what types of sites your transactions are coming from. The more diversity there is in the make-up of your transactions, the stronger the program will be.

One way to build diversity in the program is to create activation campaigns that are targeted for the specific types of Publishers you are looking to engage. For example, if the program sales are mostly comprised of coupon sites, the Advertiser may want to focus on activating product niche, or content Publishers.

Below are a few examples of the different types of Publishers and the tools they could use to start generating sales.

Coupon Publishers – Coupons! Provide regular fresh deals such as free shipping, site-wide sales, dollar or percentage-off specific product, BOGO. Beyond providing deals and coupons, consider offering exclusive coupons or codes to your top Publishers. Be sure to always provide the deals well in advance allowing the Publisher time to post the coupon.

Paid Search Publishers – Provide keyword lists of some top terms and phrases that you see traffic trending from. Include long-tail phrases and variations of common terms. These Publishers would also be interested in some of your consumer demographics to help them identify high potential ad regions or even to create compelling ad copy.

Bloggers – These are content focused sites that will be looking for story ideas.Provide background information on specific brands or products you carry. Or send samples of new product releases. Bloggers would also benefit from knowing the seasonality and demographics of the site.

Product Driven – Sites that feature specific products such as price comparison sites or niche sites will be looking for a well categorized and up-to-date product datafeed. Be sure your datafeed includes clear images, product descriptions, current pricing, available stock, and indicate best sellers and new arrivals.

One important piece of your research puzzle is to get a feel for the competitive landscape. Without knowing what the base line should be, it can be very difficult to determine if your program offer will be attractive to potential publisher recruits.

The tool I like to use when doing groundwork research is a competitive matrix. A competitive matrix will provide you with a nice benchmark to compare your affiliate program against your competition within the same niche, so you can see how your program stacks up in terms of tools and payout.

The Nine Key Categories

You’ll want to compare program vitals such as commission rate and cookie duration to get an idea of what the normal payout expectations are in your space. The matrix will also give you an idea of what typical marketing tools are in use by your competitors.

There are nine categories I consider when putting together a matrix:

• Base Commission
• Cookie Duration
• Publisher Sales Incentives
• Datafeed
• Newsletter
• Coupon/Deals
• Creatives
• Auto Deposit
• Auto Approve

Here’s an example of a competitive matrix:

Depending on your needs, you may want to include more in-depth data  to get a clearer, more detailed picture of what you’ll need to provide to be competitive.  For example, it might be of interest to you to not only know that a competitor has a datafeed, but perhaps you want to know how many products they have available, or how often that feed is updated.

YMMV, So Get In Depth As Needed

This is the case for any of the nine categories — you may want to mark down the frequency and quantity information for tools that are tied to an inventory such as coupons/deals, affiliate sales incentives, creatives, and newsletters.Some other categories you may want to include are Network used, EPC or Earnings Per 100 Clicks, and Management (if they hired a professional agency to manage the account or not).

Typically, you can acquire most of the information you are looking for by doing an internet search for your competitors’ affiliate programs. Often times advertisers will have a link to their affiliate program on their website that would include a basic overview of their program. Or, if you have a test affiliate account with one of the networks,  you will be able to search for various advertisers and view the general information on the account.

Set Your Priorities From An Informed Perspective

Every affiliate program should have creative tools in place prior to launch so you are ready to hit the ground running. But sometimes constraints on time or resources might prevent you from investing in a really slick HTML newsletter template or a vast inventory of creative banners.

Having a matrix will allow you to best assess where to put your priorities. For example, if most your competitors send fancy monthly newsletters, you might be more apt to focus some resources into creating that for yourself sooner rather than later to stay competitive.

Once you have completed your initial matrix, you may want to update the data every 6 to 12 months to ensure that your program is always on par with the competition. This is a tool that will be ever evolving so you can always have your pulse on any new competition or any changes in landscape.

The matrix is one tool used to help you prepare a solid foundation for  your affiliate program. With the research you can do with this tool, you will learn how to position your program, both in terms of an attractive payout and in creative marketing tools.

Many new advertisers have misconceptions about what it takes to have a successful affiliate program. I field concerns all the time from new advertisers who are worried that they have not seen the results they were expecting. When I ask how long the program has been running, it’s usually only been a few weeks.

This is where I feel there is some confusion about what performance marketing is, what one can expect to gain out of it, and how quickly one can expect measurable results.

If you opened up an affiliate program because someone told you could make a quick buck with minimal effort, you have been misguided. It is very important to have realistic expectations when setting up your affiliate program so you not only know what to expect, but also so you know what is truly successful and what is not.

Managing Expectations

Affiliate marketing is not intended to be a get rich quick advertising channel. It is built on steady growth and that slow steady growth will convert into solid sales that you can depend on over time. In order to obtain steady growth, your affiliate managers need to develop a rapport and build relationships with your publishers over time.

When they do, program sales will steadily increase. It takes some time to develop a strong affiliate program, so don’t be frustrated if you’re not seeing sales in the first day, week, or even month of your program start or launch date.

Upon going live with your affiliate program, you may see an influx of publisher applications, but no immediate action as far as traffic or sales referred or even links being posted.   It is not uncommon to have publishers apply right away for a program, but they will not necessarily activate immediately.

For many publishers, they may see a product or advertiser site that sparks a marketing idea in their head, but they may not have the time to develop that idea at the moment. In many cases, publishers will join programs with the intention to build a website or page in the future.

Do The Work; Results Will Follow

The best way to assist your publishers with getting started is to provide them with the in-depth knowledge about your product or service and have marketing tools available that they can put right to use.  The effort that you put forth in this area will be reflected in results seen — “Help me, help you.”

One way to think about your affiliate program’s success is to correlate it to the effort it takes to achieve a fitness goal. When you are looking to get into shape, you may join the local gym to help you reach personal goals.

The gym by itself will not make you fit, but it has lots of tools and resources on hand that will help you get there. The results you see all depend on consistent dedication on your part, and how well you take advantage of the tools and resources provided.

Let’s break this analogy down a little bit. How exactly is an affiliate program like getting in shape? Let’s look at all the components that come into play when you start a new fitness routine.

Personal Fitness Goal Your affiliate program goal and the success you hope to achieve is like a personal fitness goal one might create. There will be target dates set as well as performance metrics. How many affiliates are actively driving clicks, increases in conversion rate, number of sales generated per month, etc.

The Gym Affiliate networks have tools and resources available to assist with finding success with your affiliate program. Networks house the tools you need such as tracking technology, performance data and reports, servers for storing creatives, and a pool of publishers for you to partner with.  The tools within the network represent the workout equipment needed for your affiliate program.

The Trainer There are a variety of “fitness” experts that affiliate program managers can call upon for guidance and resources. This would include network representatives, outsourced program managers, industry professionals, blogs and forums.  Trainers can provide knowledge and expertise to help get your program on the right track.

Workout routine Perhaps the biggest indicator of success is the program plan that is laid out in advance or during launch. When we need to lose a few pounds we know that we won’t reach that goal unless we hit the gym for a set period of time several times a week. The only way to see results is by putting in the sweat. The body doesn’t get into shape simply by joining a gym or grabbing the trainer pamphlets.

Just as personal fitness goals are not achieved overnight and without effort, affiliate programs goals will only be reached when there is dedication and hard work leading to positive changes and results that can be measured.

Affiliate managers often say to me, “I don’t have enough to say to put out a monthly newsletter.” But you do!

Advertisers have much more to talk about than they sometimes realize.  And more importantly, it’s information that will make a marked difference on the program’s bottom line.

Take an hour to sit down and draft out an editorial calendar. By having a marketing plan in place for the year, affiliate managers will be more organized and ready to put out meaningful and rich communication to their Publishers.

The goal of planning out the year is to provide an overall marketing package that managers could provide to their Publishers that will spark interest and action.

Personally, I like to create a marketing plan with the following items: Theme, Marketing Tools, and Publisher Bonus.

Promotional Calendar Example - click for larger version

Theme

The monthly theme is going to be the overall message or item that brings together all marketing tools provided for a given month.

Look for events that could tie into the product line such as movie and video game releases, sporting events, product launches, product sales seasonality, fashion shows, pop culture events, and even holidays.

If ever at a loss for a theme, there is surely a holiday in any given month that could be played up as a creative way to present Publishers with fresh new marketing tools.

For example, below are some events and holidays the will occur in the next two months alone.

• March 2 – Read Across America Day
• March 2 – Dr. Seuss Birthday
• March 2 – Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax Movie Release
• March 8 – Purim
• March 11 – Daylight Savings Time Begins
• March 16 – 21 Jump Street Movie Release
• March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
• March 20 – First Day of Spring
• March 23 – The Hunger Games Movie Release
• March – National Nutrition Month
• March – Nation Women’s History Month
• 1^st Week of March – Save Your Vision Week
• 3^rd Week of March – National Poison Prevention Week
• March 9-11 – Short Track World Championship
• March 10-16 – Girl Scout Week
• March 26^th – April 1^st – Figure Skating World Championships

• April 1 – April Fool’s Day
• April 1 – Palm Sunday
• April 6 – Titanic 3D Movie Release
• April 7 – Passover
• April 8 – Easter
• April 13 – The Three Stooges Movie Release
• April 15 – Income Taxes Due
• April 22 – Earth Day
• April 25 – Administrative Professionals Day
• April 27 – The Pirates! Band of Misfits Movie Release
• April – Cancer Control Month
• April – Alcohol Awareness Month
• 3^rd Monday in April – Patriot’s Day
• April 4-8^th – Track Cycling World Championships
• April 7-10^th – Women’s Ice Hockey World Championships

Marketing Tools

Utilizing the theme selected for the month, create some new creative or highlight creative that coincides with the theme. This could mean providing a storefront of related products, creating new ad banners, publishing consumer coupons, or uploading related text links.

Publisher Promotion/Bonus

Provide Publishers with an incentive that will entice them to generate more sales for the program. Don’t be afraid to get creative with the bonuses and offer promotions in addition to the common cash for sales bonus.

If each month’s promotion is unique, it can help keep things interesting. Some examples of monthly promotions could include:

• Product Sales promotions – Sell X number of specific product, earn Y promotion
• Sales from a specific creative – Generate X sales from a specific creative, earn Y promotion
• Placement – Send URL with placement of X, qualify for/ or earn Y promotion
• Personal competition – Any Publisher that increases their conversion rate by X percent earns Y promotion. Or generate X percent more in sales for this month earn Y promotion
• Rollover Promotion – Hit X target in sales for current month, earn increase of Y commission for all sales next month
• Tangible rewards – Qualifying Publishers earn gift card, specific product, gift set, product every month for a year, etc.
• Experiences – Large ticket items that could include a whole marketing plan in itself. ex. Trip to London for Olympics

Keep Track Of Successes

Always keep a record of how much interest monthly promotions generate. This will serve as a useful guide for creating the next year’s marketing plan. The data on which creatives, promotions, coupons, get the most activity  can be used to recreate similar promotions in the next year. And promotions can be dropped that were not as well received.