8 CEOs Reveal the Secret to Boosting Profit with Affiliate Marketing

The right affiliate program can skyrocket your business’s growth, with 60% of merchants making $5 million or more through affiliate marketing and major brands receiving up to 25% of their overall online sales from affiliate marketing. With eager affiliates on board, you’ll be able to reach a huge audience fast—and bring in customers.

We talked to 8 CEOs from various industries, getting their thoughts on the benefits of affiliate programs. Let’s look at the key benefits we uncovered and how these can help your business take off.

What Makes Affiliate Marketing Programs So Valuable?

Affiliate programs are a game-changer for many SaaS, e-commerce, and subscription-based businesses because they make it possible to scale fast—even if your audience is tiny and your budget is tight.

In particular, affiliate programs are tailor-made for:

• Cost-effective customer acquisition
• Expanding your reach through trusted partners

Cost-Effective Customer Acquisition 

Stanislav Khilobochenko, VP of Customer Services at Clario, says:

With affiliate programs, you’re only paying for results, not just hoping your money works. Compared to other marketing strategies that can cost a lot upfront with no guarantees, affiliates give you far more control. You don’t spend a cent until someone actually delivers—whether that’s a lead, a sale, or whatever you’re after. It’s a powerful way to keep your costs in check while making sure your money gets you real results.

Stanislav KhilobochenkoVP of Customer Services at Clario

There are many ways to get customers for a new business … but many of them come with a daunting up-front cost. Running social media ads, for instance, is a fast way to build your customer base—but it requires a hefty upfront investment of cash.

Affiliate programs shine here because you only pay out after you get a customer. So long as the commission you pay is lower than your customer’s lifetime value, you’ll profit.

Expanding Your Reach Through Trusted Partners

Jonathan Feniak, General Counsel at LLC Attorney:

Affiliates already have their audience’s trust, so when they talk about your brand, it feels real and convincing. That trust makes your message more impactful. Their audience will feel connected to you because of their good relationship with the affiliate.

Jonathan FeniakGeneral Counsel

Your affiliates can get you an “in” with audiences that otherwise might be closed off to you. Maybe your target audience is wary of buying online or has misgivings about corporations. 

Affiliates have a strong rapport with their own audience, and if they vouch for you and your product, that makes you look much more trustworthy. They’ll bring on board customers who are a great fit for you—who may even go on and become affiliates themselves.

Key Affiliate Program Benefits for Online Businesses

Whether you’re running a SaaS startup, a big ecommerce store, or selling subscriptions, affiliate marketing will have massive benefits for your business.

As well as being uniquely cost-effective and letting you into new markets, affiliate programs can also help dramatically improve your brand awareness, offer better sales tracking and insights, and scale with your company.

Affiliate Programs Accelerate Brand Awareness

Michael Nermeroff, Co-founder & CEO at RushOrderTees:

When partners and affiliates share your product or service, it’s like having an extra marketing team working for you, but without the overhead. They’re out there spreading the word, introducing your brand to new audiences, and getting people excited about what you offer.

Michael NemeroffCo-founder & CEO

In many cases, affiliates will be your customers and fans. They can talk authentically about your product or service, promoting it with genuine enthusiasm to their audience.

Even if prospects don’t convert straight away as a result of the affiliate promotion, this social media buzz about your brand is hugely helpful. The more familiar you are, and the more popular your product or service seems, the more likely it is someone will buy the next time they see your product/service mentioned.

Affiliate Programs Help You With Sales Tracking and Insights

Tom Golubovich, Head of Marketing & Media Relations at Ninja Transfers, admits:

Affiliate analytics let you see exactly what’s working and where you’re making sales. Our affiliate program lets us refine our campaigns, doing more of what works and ditching what doesn’t. If you don’t know where sales are coming from, you’ll rely on guesswork at best.

Tom GolubovichHead of Marketing & Media Relations

One often-overlooked benefit of a good affiliate program is that it’ll give you advanced sales tracking tools—and detailed insights into exactly where your sales are coming from. Tapfiliate, for instance, offers real-time in-depth reports that help you optimize your affiliate campaigns.

By running reports through your affiliate program, you can find out:

• Which affiliates are driving the most sales
• What specific products or services are being purchased most frequently via affiliates
• What ratio of clicks to conversions you have

…and much more.

Affiliate Programs Will Scale With Your Business

Chris Aubeeluck, Head of Sales and Marketing at Osbornes Law:

Businesses of all sizes use affiliate programs, from tiny startups to huge enterprises. This means affiliate programs are a great fit for companies that plan to grow fast. 

With cloud-based affiliate marketing tools like Tapfiliate, you can effortlessly track and manage hundreds or even thousands of affiliates. The platform allows you to easily adjust commission rates, set up custom coupons, track links, and more. As your affiliate program grows, Tapfiliate scales with you, ensuring you maximize affiliate-driven revenue.

Hands-On Tips for Running Affiliate Programs

You’re convinced of the benefits that a great affiliate program will bring to your business—but how do you actually go about setting one up?

Here are some crucial tips based on advice from a range of company CEOs.

Step 1. Use Reliable Affiliate Software

Nick Esposito, Founder at NYCServers:

Using quality affiliate software is vital to the success of our affiliate program. The software takes care of the heavy lifting when it comes to tracking performance, managing payouts, and organizing affiliate data in one place. With the right tools, you get accurate insights into what’s working and what isn’t, plus you can be confident that there won’t be mistakes that annoy your affiliates.

Nick EspositoFounder

The affiliate software you choose can make or break your affiliate program. It’s a good idea to try out the software before committing, which is why Tapfiliate offers a 14-day free trial.

Whatever affiliate software you choose, look for reliable, well-established software with great user feedback and testimonials. It’s also a good idea to start thinking about future-proofing your affiliate program. You want software that can grow with you, so check for a custom, enterprise, or unlimited plan if your company gets big fast!

Step 2. Offer Competitive Commissions

Peter Čuček, Owner of Tuuli says:

“Giving affiliates a solid commission isn’t just about being generous—it’s about motivation. If they see real value in promoting your brand, they’ll put in the effort to make it work. When affiliates feel rewarded, they go above and beyond, treating your products like their own. Fair incentives create a win-win situation: they grow their earnings, and you see more sales roll in.”

Figuring out what affiliate commission rate to offer can be tricky. If you’re used to affiliate programs like Amazon’s, you might be thinking of a measly 5% as generous. But many SaaS companies offer as much as 50% commission—so it’s important you work out a rate that incentivizes your affiliates to share your product or service, not someone else’s.

A good place to start is by looking at your competitors’ affiliate programs. What rate are they offering? Can you match or even beat it and still make a good profit?

Step 3. Bring On Board the Right Affiliates (And Communicate Well)

Murtaza Oklu, Owner of OMO Transfer:

“Quality over quantity is what really counts with affiliates. It’s not about having a huge list; it’s about teaming up with the right people who get your brand and audience. A few solid partners who truly connect with your product will always beat a big group that isn’t a good fit. These focused partnerships bring better results, stronger conversions, and authentic representation for your brand.”

While you might have your affiliate program open to anyone who signs up, personally approaching potential affiliates is also a good idea. 

Be strategic about this: you’ll want people with a big audience, but don’t just go for anyone. Look at your existing customers and fans first—might any of them be a great fit for you?

Ideally, you want people promoting your product or service who can truly vouch for it. If they love it, there’s a strong chance their audiences will love it too.

It’s also important to stay in touch with your affiliates. Keep them updated about any new features you’re adding or any special sales or promotions coming up. Let them know how much you appreciate them, too. Some companies run an affiliate leaderboard during big promotions and give out prizes to top-performing affiliates.

3 Common Misconceptions About Affiliate Programs

Do you still have some concerns about setting up an affiliate program? Perhaps you’re not quite sure it will benefit your business. Here’s what you need to know.

Misconception 1. Affiliate Programs Are For Big Brands Only

Some startups think they should wait to set up an affiliate program until their company grows. But affiliate marketing is incredibly affordable at any stage of your business … and by getting affiliates on board early, you’ll grow much faster.

Even the smallest companies can use affiliate programs to promote their brand-new product or service. When your advertising budget is tiny or non-existent, affiliate marketing lets you get the word out without paying a cent up-front.

Misconception 2. Affiliates Will Do All the Work

While your affiliate software will handle the admin and analysis for you, your affiliate marketing shouldn’t be fully hands-off. You need to see affiliate relationships as a true partnership, where you’re working together with your affiliate. 

You might want to offer special perks (like advance access to new features) to affiliates, send out regular updates, or have a goal for how many new affiliates to recruit each month.

Misconception 3. Affiliate Programs Are Too Complicated

If you’ve never set up and run an affiliate program before, you might be feeling daunted. Maybe you’re worried about how to give affiliates the resources they need, like logos and graphics. Perhaps you’re not sure how to keep track of everyone’s earnings and handle payouts. And what if a customer wants a refund?

A good-quality affiliate platform will make your life easy. With Tapfiliate, for instance, you can automatically approve affiliates, handle refunds and disputes automatically, and set up other integrations through Zapier.

You’re Losing Money: Set Up Your Affiliate Program Today

If you don’t yet have an affiliate program for your service or products, you’re losing money. It’s as simple as that.

Your affiliate platform could pay for itself many times over in just your first month. Tapfiliate gives you a 14-day free trial plus a 30-day money-back guarantee, meaning you have over 6 weeks to get started risk-free. All the CEOs we’ve quoted above have seen the benefits of affiliate programs. If you haven’t, set up your affiliate program today, reach out to your best customers and biggest fans, and get ready to watch the sales coming in.