9 Measures of Performance for Affiliates and What They Say About your Program

Sep 9, 2023

A properly-designed affiliate marketing channel, like every other online channel, provides data on the effectiveness of a particular program by using different measures. The measures used to determine the performance of affiliate sales are comparable to other measures used on the internet, and may bear the same name, but when viewed in relation to the affiliate market, they can provide a different picture about the performance of the programme.

Integrating the affiliate channel in your other marketing activity dashboard can help you creating not just an affiliate marketing process but also assist in rethinking your other strategies for marketing that which you may employ on the internet and incorporate them into a performance-based model also. Here is a quick outline of the primary metrics you should be monitoring and tracking to assess the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing strategy.

1. Impressions

The number of impressions determines the degree of your product's exposure in the affiliate channels of promotion. A very high volume of visits that relate to a handful of clicks or sales may indicate an ineffective affiliate tracking system, a lack of connection between people who are affiliates with the items you offer and an inconsistency between the advertisement that is targeted as well as the landing page that the advertisement directs visitors to.

*Please note that not all applications or formats for ads support reporting of impressions, so it may not be an appropriate indicator for your campaign unless you plan to compensate affiliates based on the number of views.

2. Clicks

Clicks can be an indication of the interactions between the clicks generated by your adverts and how people react to the banner or hyperlink. The number of clicks can be an indicator of the level of interest within the content where adverts related to it are displayed. In essence, a click could refer to the audience "taking another step" towards the final objective of a purchase or the action.

3. Acts

The quantity of activities represents the overall quantity of conversions that occur in an affiliate program. Sales is the most popular measure of conversions, however others like leads generation and trial downloads can also be a an element of the program that count as actions. If affiliates do not drive actions, it is important to comprehend the reasons. A lack of actions throughout a program might signal tracking or integration issues and the affiliates who are not driving actions could give you a chance to increase your program's efficiency by addressing their needs.

4. Conversion Rate

The conversion rate of affiliate marketing is typically calculated by subdividing total number of steps by the number of clicks resulted in the amount. As one of the more often used performance indicators in eCommerce, the conversion rate applied to affiliate traffic is an indicator of the effectiveness of particular affiliates and ad formats and campaigns. A conversion rate of more than 10% are generally thought of as extremely high. It can indicate that an affiliate's website shares a significant relationship with your customers, However, in some instances, it may indicate that the affiliate is using unsavory marketing strategies.

5. Cost

The simplest definition of affiliate marketing refers to the commissions you offer to your affiliates connection with the actions they take. This measurement can be broken down into various silos depending on the software you're working with, and it's essential to comprehend how costs relate to the report you're examining. Most often, calculated bonuses such as platform fees and ad-serving charges as well as any other charges associated with affiliate marketing aren't included in sales reports which only rely on figures so make sure you read and understand the complete expenses of your platform to fully be aware of how each expense ties into the total costs for the program. If your platform costs or serving charges are excessive this could affect the commission amounts you are allowed to provide or the type of advertising that you include in your program.

6. Revenue

Affiliate marketing revenue is the equivalent to revenue from any other marketing channel and is defined by the sales tracked through that system. As one step further, incremental revenue refers to additional revenues attributable to a specific channel. Although incremental revenue can be difficult to define and sort out with 100% assurance, it is especially true for marketing strategies that involve several touchpoints that are connected to many sources. It is possible to evaluate the value of incrementally your marketing strategies to some degree is essential to prioritizing the tasks of the marketing mix as and determining the type of marketing that is best in the context of your specific needs.

7. Active Affiliates

In most cases, an active affiliate has produced a click or an action or the two. Some programs use one variation of these principles to create outreach plans that assist in getting affiliates back to active state. Particularly, when an affiliate previously had active status but was recently inactive, proactive outreach to determining why this happened and the best way for an affiliate can convince them to move to active status could help ensure that your organization is running in good health. There is a chance that you'll get valuable information from affiliates concerning high commission rates, or the absence of assets.

8. Affiliate Mix

In general, affiliates are categorised based on the way they interact with their customers to increase customers and sales to your site. Commonly, they are categorized as influential people, creators of content media websites like deals and coupons that pay for search bloggers, marketers via email and even affiliate networks that operate as affiliates who are subordinate to. When you place your affiliates in groups it will enable you to message them more effectively through sending them messages specifically tailored to their specific needs. In addition, it will allow you to see areas that you could want to increase or cut down on the number of affiliates in a specific category for optimal affiliate selection.

9. Returning Orders

The returned orders simply represent an amount of returns in your system. The rate for returned orders generated by affiliate traffic should to not differ significantly from the overall return percentage. If you spot an affiliate with greater than average return rates for the transactions they've made, examine how they advertise your products as well as the methods they use to drive traffic to your website. It is possible you are likely to find that they overstate the advantages of their product and cause clients who have been refer by them to become dissatisfied as well. You may also be able to determine that they are using illegal practices to generate sales and they should be removed from your affiliate program.

Mark Jacobs Mark has been working in the realm of imagination throughout his professional career. From being an office manager and managing creative projects and also creating digital marketing strategies, managing resellers, channel sales and also being a photographer and videographer. Prior to , he managed his own Skylum affiliate program, where he created practices that remain as of today.

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