Affiliate program management is a full-time job, demanding knowledge and attention to review performance, revenue, and traffic sources from each partner in your program.

Chances are, as part of your marketing strategy you’ve already partnered with a few affiliates. They promote your brand and bring you more traffic and sales in exchange for a commission.

But what if your latest campaigns were a bust? Or an affiliate isn’t pulling their weight?

You need data to catch these issues, just like any of your other marketing channels. In other words? It’s vital to track your program performance.

The best way to do that is with an affiliate tracking software. The right software solution will record and analyze affiliate activity buzzing behind your shopping carts. You can use a single platform like Tapfiliate to measure success in your affiliate marketing program.

And that measurement isn’t just about recording data in real-time — it’s about translating that data into real-time insight and detailed reports to tweak your campaigns and improve ROI.

Today, we’ll cover everything you need to know about automatic tracking, Tapfiliate’s prowess as an affiliate marketing platform, and how you can use it to scale your eCommerce, SaaS, and dropshipping businesses.

Let’s start with the basics.

A quick explainer of affiliate marketing

Let’s say you’ve found a product or service that you absolutely love and you tell your friends and family about it because you’re so impressed. Because of your recommendation, some of your friends and family go and purchase the same thing as well.

Affiliate marketing is this on a much larger scale. Brands work with websites and influencers (and others, but we want to keep it simple) who promote their products and services to their audiences. The end goal is that people go on to buy those products and services because of the website or influencer.

 

But what is the website or influencer getting out of this? Well, they get rewarded for every sale they refer with a commission. That could be a flat rate or a percentage of the sale. It all really depends on how the brand’s affiliate program is set up. They could also receive an upfront payment on top of commissions, depending on what they set up with the brand.

Now we have that out of the way, let’s get into tracking.

What is automated affiliate tracking?

Let’s say you have two new affiliates for your whole health food store.

Affiliate #1 has a fabulous Instagram following (50,000+) featuring endless cute content about kids.

Affiliate #2 has a smaller audience (10,000) of higher-income individuals for his parenting content for parents.

You might automatically assume affiliate #1 would bring you the most traffic and revenue from her email campaigns and regular posting, but that’s not always the case. Lead quality matters too, and you can distinguish the hype from serious customers by tracking your campaigns.

How? Through unique coupons or referral links for products, co-branded landing pages, and other website assets. If we’re talking about Instagram, we could have a combination of both links and codes. Affiliate marketing software would record every transaction and attribute each purchase or lead through a unique link or discount code.

Affiliate marketing has many players. First, your affiliate network excites their audience with content, images, graphics, videos, and other promotional tactics. Their audience arrives at your website and starts buying. Then, the affiliate marketing software records affiliate and campaign performance to help you see which campaigns and affiliates are most effective.

As for you, the brand? Your job is to source decent affiliate networks, incentivize them with commissions and bonuses, and tweak affiliate campaigns as needed. And that job becomes a lot easier with the right affiliate tracking software.

What are the benefits of automated affiliate tracking?

When you are looking for an affiliate software solution there are several benefits for your business. Here are eight of them, so that you can make an informed decision.

1. Efficiency and accurate tracking that saves money: Imagine getting someone in your business to track affiliate sales manually using Google Analytics and your website backend. That’s expensive because of the time it would take someone to do, especially if your online business is big.

The chances of someone making a mistake are high (especially with Google Analytics 4) if there’s a lot of data involved. With automated accurate tracking you almost completely eliminate that risk, and it’s cheaper than getting someone to manually track sales. It will also enable you to focus on other essential tasks within your business.

2. Real-time reporting and consistency: With automated affiliate tracking, your data comes in in real-time so you can spot issues quickly and make changes if you need to. Get real-time feedback on whether an affiliate marketing campaign is performing, or whether you need to make tweaks. Additionally, with automated tracking tracking will be consistent regardless of the amount of data coming in.

3. Data analytics and insights: With automated tracking software you usually have in-built data analytics – with Tapfiliate you can see advanced analytics and detailed reports either on a broad level, or more granular with options to view an individual affiliate’s performance or your whole affiliate program with a click of a button. These valuable insights can help you to take data-driven decisions when you need to. Affiliate not performing? Then you can go to their website and check to see if they have started to promote your brand. High clicks but no sales? Could your offer be tweaked so it’s more appealing.

4. Scalability: As your business grows, and therefore your affiliate program grows, your affiliate software will be able to handle it effectively and without issues. You won’t need to lift a finger to ensure that when you scale, nothing will be missed.

5. Store and view historical data: Automated tracking software makes it easy to store and view historical data with a couple of clicks. Want to know how your affiliate program was performing in 2020? Done. Need to check how much affiliate commission you paid out in June 2019? Also done. This makes it easy for your affiliate manager to report on annual trends, monthly trends and more.

6. Integrations: Automated affiliate tracking software can be integrated with other software like ecommerce solutions, SaaS solutions, and more. Usually there is also a RESTAPI integration and a JavaScript integration for more customization.

7. Alerts and notifications: Want to know when an affiliate has signed up for your program? Or do you want to know when an affiliate successfully referred a sale? Automated systems can be set up to send notifications or alerts based on your chosen criteria.

8. Enhanced Security: Affiliate tracking software has in-built security features because they are dealing with sensitive data. If this was being done manually and in-house, there would be more risk involved.

Choosing an affiliate tracking software

Every business has their own different challenges when managing affiliate programs and choosing the right software is essential.

Tons of innovative affiliate marketing companies are creating powerful tools to support your entire process, even beginning with sourcing affiliate partners.

But which affiliate tracking software is right for you? It depends on a few factors, like:

• Budget: Some platforms cost $750+ per month. Now, we’re not saying that’s overpriced – it depends on their capabilities and features. But if you’re just starting out, you might go with a more reasonable affiliate software. For example, Tapfiliate’s Pro Plan only costs $89/month.
• Industry: Do you offer a specialized service? Or perhaps you prefer working with vendors that know your world. Some affiliate platforms advertises use cases and industry experiences for various fields, like healthcare, financial products, and more. And if you’re in one of the thousands of companies in the eCommerce, SaaS, or dropshipping spaces? Tapfiliate is your best bet, with demonstrated results and happy clients in each business.
• Features: You’ll notice some affiliate tracking software only track links, while others can track both links and coupons (click and clickless tracking). Additionally, some offer key features like multi-currency support, branded interface with customization options, specific reporting capabilities, and more. You’ll need to assess where you need the most support in your affiliate tracking program and pick a tool accordingly.

Still having trouble deciding? Check out our guide on how to choose an affiliate marketing tracking software!

But if you’re short on time, just keep reading. We’ll give you the lowdown on Tapfiliate’s functions and why it’s a great automatic affiliate tracking tool for your program.

Why choose Tapfiliate?

Our values lead us to go past simple data collection and affiliate management. We’re passionate about affiliate marketing and love enhancing its potential for businesses that want to scale. Our reputation speaks for itself, just check out our reviews.

Wondering how Tapfiliate helps you save money and improve your affiliate program? We’ll give you the power to look at valuable data to help you optimize affiliate marketing campaigns.

And if you’re in a SaaS, eCommerce, subscription or dropshipping business? Congratulations, you’re our specialty!

SaaS

The SaaS market is unique in its primarily subscription-based pricing. But how does that work when rewarding affiliates?

Is it reasonable to offer a commission for every lead?

What if the customer cancels after the free trial?

Either way, you’ll need to set up recurring commissions – something not every affiliate platform offers. But Tapfiliate does. It doesn’t always take one to know one, but as a SaaS business ourselves, we have some special insight.

We offer a wide range of flexible commission options to meet every unique challenge:

• Recurring commission: Make your life easier with monthly automated recurring commissions. You can also adjust the length of the recurring period.
• Lifetime commissions: Are you hunting for a top affiliate in your industry? Attract them with lifetime commissions.
• Flexible commission structure: You’ll usually pay an affiliate a commission for every lead they bring you. But how does it work for varying subscription types? Do you award a commission for month #1? Sounds like you need a more flexible commission structure. Tapfiliate lets you offer fixed or percentage-based commissions, depending on your business (LTV)
• Trial to customer: We’ll help you easily distinguish trials from paying customers (new lead to won) to inform your commissions.
• Commission triggers: You have full control over when you pay commission. Toggle the setting to trigger commission for customer signups or paid subscriptions.

Have a variety of partners for your SaaS business? No worries; we track links and transactions from every affiliate.

Our rich reporting helps you compare conversions across your affiliates and different tracking environments. See for yourself with our 👉 free 14-day trial!

Onto our next specialty!

Ecommerce

SaaS and e-Commerce brands are two different animals with unique challenges. From our experience, average customer spend is much more consistent for subscription-based services.

So how do you interpret sharp changes in average order value across different customer segments?

How do you account for lost revenue in canceled orders?

Can you distinguish affiliates that bring you more batched orders versus one-offs?

Our affiliate marketing tracking software helps you make sense of online stores’ eCommerce affiliate programs with:

• Plug-and-play integrations: We integrate seamlessly with 30+ eCommerce platforms (and payment gateways), like Shopify, Stripe, and Magento to catch all affiliate payments. Plus, we play well with other tools from your software stack to keep things productive and consistent (Zapier, anyone)? Don’t see your eCommerce site in our integrations list? With a little code, we’ll integrate with anything.
• Reporting and real-time analytics: Managing campaigns becomes easy when Tapfiliate captures every single affiliate purchase, including one-off purchases and batch orders. We’ll take that data and create in-depth reports to support your business strategies. Hang on, did a customer cancel an order? We’ll track that, too.
• Affiliate performance bonuses: Some affiliates perform better than others, so you’ll want to keep them around. Our advice? Incentivize them with flexible performance bonuses. Need to unload inventory? Adjust the bonus for qualifying sales. For example, you might set goals based on conversion amounts or numbers. We also offer tiered reward structures, too. You can increase the bonus after an affiliate reaches X value in sales, and so on. Plus, you’ll still enjoy lifetime and recurring commissions for those extra-special affiliates.

• Easy coupon tracking: Tapfiliate can easily track coupons from influencer campaigns without needing a click – this is essential for those influencer campaigns on Instagram and TikTok.

Your eCommerce brand is itching for a more detailed insight-driven affiliate marketing strategy. Take your affiliate program to the next level with Tapfiliate — try our free 14-day trial today!

eCommerce is one retail evolution, but not the only one.

Subscriptions

Subscription-based businesses have their own unique challenges when it comes to managing an affiliate program. Being able to track and reward affiliates for recurring revenue is essential to drive additional revenue from word of mouth marketing.

Our affiliate tracking tools can help you to manage your subscription affiliate program with ease.

• Set recurring commissions easily: You choose how long your affiliate will be rewarded for their customer referral. Whether it’s for 3 months or 6 months (or even the lifetime of that customer), you have the flexibility to make those choices. Just want to give them a one-off payment – that’s also possible.

• Track trial to paying subscriptions easily: If your subscription service offers a free trial, and you don’t want to pay commissions for customers for signing up to the trial, you can ensure that the commission is only paid out when a customer actually converts. Additionally, if you do want to reward your affiliates for a free trial signup, that’s also possible to do.
• Real-time data and analytics: Want to know how a specific affiliate is performing in real-time? Our data and analytics enable you to see exactly what is happening with your affiliate program in real-time so you can tweak your campaign management.

 

Dropshipping

Millions of retailers are embracing dropshipping as an effective business model for cutting out the middleman. How? By purchasing directly from a manufacturer and having them ship products to customers directly.

But margins can be tight for dropshipping businesses, chipping away at your commission rates. It’s harder to retain quality affiliates, but Tapfiliate has a solution.

• Retain affiliates with competitive commissions: Margins are tighter for dropshipping businesses, but our structure for flexible commissions works for you and your network. Pick from performance-based, fixed, or percentage-based commissions that work for recurring or one-time purchases. You’ll get similar benefits to eCommerce businesses with the added bonus of potentially attracting more quality affiliates with higher commissions.
• Customizable commissions: What if you sell widely varied products? You can toggle your commissions to reflect customized rates across different products or categories. On top of that, we have tiered commissions to incentivize and reward your highest-performing affiliates.
• Accurate reporting: We’ll still track every affiliate conversion and purchase from your referrals and affiliates. Then, we’ll translate that data into actionable insights with our in-depth reports.

Explore affiliate reporting features with Tapfiliate’s 14-day free trial!

General benefits of Tapfiliate

We know our stuff when it comes to eCommerce, dropshipping, and SaaS affiliate programs. But we have a variety of clients from different industries. No matter your business size, industry, and affiliate income level, our affiliate marketing tracking is the perfect affiliate program manager for you.

Our value is constant with these advanced features and benefits:

• Custom branding and affiliate links: Run out of things to brand? Invoices, banners, merch, and web content aren’t the end of the road to marking your territory. Tapfiliate lets you customize links and affiliate dashboards to solidify your brand awareness with your affiliates.

• Fraud prevention: Tapfiliate has a few mechanisms to detect fraudulent activity. We’ll capture self-driven conversions, blacklist various key attributes, and de-duplicate external and customer id values. But every brand’s anti-fraud kit should include regular affiliate link monitoring, enhanced digital security, and strong affiliate vetting for fraud protection.
• Custom signup fields: Your affiliate program is unique, we know that. You’re not going to need the same information from affiliates as your competitors. If you want to dive deeper, use our custom signup fields to choose exactly which information you get from your affiliates.
• Promotional goodies: Your affiliates are promoters by nature, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use a little oomph. We’ll help you make it easy for them with HTML5 banners, plain text ads, data feeds, and shareable branded social posts.

Tapfiliate has pricing for every price point out there, whether you are a small business just starting out, or you are driving millions in revenue.

Still have questions? Our customer support agents would be happy to help you!

Get started with Tapfiliate automated affiliate tracking today

Here’s the thing: you can’t scale until you automate affiliate tracking. Coupon allocation, reporting, and tracking links isn’t feasible without affiliate marketing tracking software.

Our advice?

It’s time to source affiliate software. You can automate the entire process with Tapfiliate’s key features, intuitive interface, and customer support. You’ll have access to affiliate activity tracking and real-time reports that’ll help you turn your efforts into a successful affiliate program.

You’ll enjoy detailed tracking and reporting features to monitor your advertising campaigns and catch any issues, so your affiliate marketing efforts will pay off. Plus, you’ll get a custom domain with a brandable interface to ensure your branding is on point for your affiliates.

You’ll feel organized and confident with automated rewards and recurring commissions, which will attract quality affiliates to work with you.

But the best part will be all the extra time you’ll have on your hands.

Ready to try a free affiliate tracking platform? Try Tapfiliate with our 14-day free trial!