How to Choose the Right Affiliate Marketing Solution for Your Needs

Whether you’re an ecommerce startup or a big-name SaaS brand, you can’t ignore that major brands get up to 25% of their online sales from affiliate marketing. 

But to hit that kind of sales and revenue, we’ll bet almost all of those brands have an affiliate marketing solution to manage and optimize their program. 

We’ll walk you through the top affiliate marketing platforms available, including a comparison of key features and pricing. Then, we’ll guide you through a selection process to help you decide on the best tool for your business. 

How to Choose the Right Affiliate Marketing Solution: 6 Steps

The right affiliate tool can take your affiliate relationships, sales, and revenue to the next level.

You just need to pick one that matches your business landscape — here’s how. 

Step 1: Identify Your Business Needs

Every brand will have a slightly different approach to affiliate marketing, depending on: 

• Industry: Ecommerce and SaaS businesses have varying customer lifecycles, funnels, and pricing models that might impact their affiliate programs.

• Niche: Some niches, like finance, might require more effort to build customer trust than others. Travel niches might be oversaturated and require additional effort to stand out from competitors. 

• Stage: New businesses need to invest time in building brand awareness, whereas established ones might focus more on scaling. Similarly, affiliate software might offer different features to cater to brands still building their affiliate program compared to ones looking to improve existing relationships with affiliates or scale their businesses. 

What does all this mean for affiliate software? It’s best to select one that has demonstrated experience helping clients with your business needs. So if you’re a brand new ecommerce business just starting out with affiliate programs, the software you choose should have case studies and reviews from companies similar to yours.

We covered a more landscape view of your business that corresponds to certain business needs. Now, let’s lay out some of those business needs. 

• Brand awareness: More organic traffic, social media mentions, brand recognition
• Leads: More email newsletter signups, lead form submissions, followers on your social media page, inquiries, and demo requests
• Sales and revenue: Higher average order values (AOVs), increases in sales amounts and numbers, overall increase in return on investment (ROI) 
• Customer loyalty: Improve number of repeat customers, nurture engagement with existing customers, build trust across target audience

Most affiliate software offer features to help you build on these needs. 

For example, reporting dashboards offer valuable insights to help you improve sales and revenue. Affiliate engagement and promotional materials can improve brand awareness and consistency, while features to build affiliate referrals improve leads and awareness. 

It’s not only about the features available, though — we need to dive deeper into the functionality of those features to assess whether they make sense for your business and affiliate programs. 

Step 2: Evaluate Key Features

So, what does an affiliate software do? Here are some core features to look out for: 

Real-Time Tracking and Reporting

Accurate tracking is paramount to affiliate software. They might use cookies, pixels, S2S, coupon codes, or affiliate link tracking. Look for software that tracks both clicks and conversions, as you’ll gather more audience and affiliate data this way for your reports. 

Reporting dashboards should be customizable to show metrics that your business values most. For example, you might want to compare affiliate sales for particular subscriptions for your SaaS brands or compare performance across different affiliates. 

Affiliate Commissions

An affiliate solution will offer few or many options for commission rates and structures. Your job is to decide which model works best for your business and see if the platform offers it. 

Here are some commission features you might see: 

• Flat-fee commissions: A set amount of money awarded per sale or conversion. 
• Percentage-based commissions: A percentage of each sale is awarded to the affiliate. 
• Lifetime commissions: The affiliate earns a commission for the first and all subsequent purchases made by the customer they brought to your brand. 
• Recurring commissions: The affiliate receives commissions for every subscription payment, which is ideal for SaaS brands. 
• Product-specific commissions: You can toggle a different commission model or amount depending on the product that an affiliate sells. 
• We also recommend evaluating how flexible each commission structure is. 

For example, can you offer different commission rates and models to different affiliates, or must they all be the same? Similarly, consider whether there’s an option to increase commission rates automatically, perhaps based on performance. 

Explore Tapfiliate’s flexible commission features. 

Integrations

Integrations link your affiliate software to other tools in your tech stack. Ideally, your affiliate marketing solution should integrate with other software that you use regularly. If you use Mailchimp, PayPal, WooCommerce, and Shopify, you’d want your affiliate tool to link to them all (like Tapfiliate does). 

Additionally, consider the type of integration. Direct integrations are plug-and-play, meaning you can link your software within a few clicks. 

On the other hand, custom integrations help you link to any tool you want that might not be listed in the direct integration list. The only caveat is that you’ll need a developer to toggle the platform’s API integration capabilities to make it happen. 

Here are some of Tapfiliate’s most popular integrations out of our 34 direct integrations: 

• Shopify
• WordPress
• Squarespace
• Stripe
• Recurly
• Chargebee
• Zapier
• Teachable

Affiliate Recruitment

If your affiliate program is brand new, you’ll need to recruit affiliates. The best affiliate marketing platform should offer a feature to do so. This might look like an affiliate marketplace where you can scroll through potential affiliates and reach out to them. But if you want a more qualified list of affiliates, a customer referral program is ideal. 

The software might offer automation features and triggers to invite your existing customers to your affiliate program. After all, they’ve already used your product and are the most qualified to promote it! Tsapfiliate’s recruitment feature lets you customize when to invite customers; for example, you might invite them to your affiliate program after 1, 2, or 10 purchases. 

Affiliate Approvals

Affiliate software will admit new affiliates to your program in one and/or two ways: 

Manual approval: You must review the affiliate before admitting them to your program. 

Auto-approval: You set predetermined criteria that trigger an approval or denial automatically. 

Both models have pros and cons; namely, manual approvals take a bit longer but give you more control over who promotes your products. Look for a solution that offers both options, and if it offers auto-approvals, test out how specific you can be in your criteria. 

Step 3: Compare Top Affiliate Marketing Solutions

Now that you have a general understanding of key features, let’s look at how different affiliate marketing solutions offer them. 

CJ Affiliate

CJ Affiliate is an affiliate network where partners and brands can connect. Its software also includes affiliate tracking and reporting features, and integrations with ecommerce tools and other types of software. 

Its standout feature is its affiliate marketplace, which features many potential partners to recruit. However, it’s more suited to enterprise businesses and Fortune 500s because the platform will kick off brands that don’t meet as certain threshold of affiliate conversions. 

Features: 

• Audience analysis via Similarweb
• Influencer discovery
• Cookieless and clickless tracking
• Clicks and customer journey data
• Shopper loyalty analysis

Pricing: 

Pricing isn’t listed, though online forums mention a $3,000 signup fee and additional costs. 

Tapfiliate

Tapfiliate is an affiliate software that specializes in managing and optimizing affiliate programs for ecommerce, dropshipping, SaaS, and subscription-based businesses. The Essentials plan is affordably at $89 per month, and includes everything you need to propel a successful affiliate program. Higher-tier features like white-labeling, product–specific commissions, more tracked clicks and conversions, and an in-platform affiliate messenger can scale your program.

Customer support options include live chat, email, and premium phone support for custom subscribers. Most customers praise Tapfiliate’s flexible commissions, automation potential with its Zapier integration, and accurate tracking through coupon codes, affiliate links, and cookies. 

Features: 

• Automated customer referral program
• Real-time reporting
• Manual and auto-approved affiliates
• Branded promotional assets
• Flexible commission types and rates
• White-labeled pages and affiliate portal
• In-platform messenger

Pricing: 

$89 to $149 for Essentials and Pro Plans; Custom pricing for enterprise businesses

*All plans come with unlimited affiliates and unlimited affiliate programs, and a minimum of 2,000 tracked conversions. 

Impact

Impact is an affiliate tool that helps brands discover new affiliates through its vast network. Its testing and reporting features help you optimize web pages and landing pages based on performance data from your customers and affiliates. 

Impact also offers features to customize many aspects of your program, including your affiliate commissions and increases, and affiliate agreements through negotiable forms on the platform. 

Features: 

• Fraudulent traffic alerts
• Affiliate sales and web traffic monitoring
• KPI tracking like conversion rate and customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Affiliate bonuses
• Automated workflows and commission increases

Pricing: 

While the company doesn’t list pricing on its website, review sites like SaaSworthy report pricing between $500 to $5,000 monthly.  

Learn more about affiliate software options on the market and how they compare in this article.

Step 4: Consider Pricing and Budget

Most affiliate platforms offer a subscription-based pricing model, meaning you pay per month for a set number or access to features. 

Some companies offer add-ons for additional tracked clicks or conversions. Others charge you a base fee and their own commission on your overall affiliate revenue tracked.

The right software should offer an initial, affordable subscription with options to upgrade as you scale your affiliate program. Be wary of companies that cap your affiliates or charge exorbitant fees for conversions.

Step 5: Read Reviews and Testimonials

Testimonials are often found on an affiliate software company’s website. Look closely at each customer’s experience and research the company they work for. 

Is the brand similar to yours in any way? If not, look deeper into reviews by checking out software review sites like: 

• Capterra
• G2
• Trustpilot

Here are some example reviews and testimonials from Tapfiliate’s website and Capterra: 

Reviews are the most valuable when they come from businesses similar to yours in terms of: 

• Industry
• Niche
• Size
• Stage
• Number of employees

If you notice plenty of positive reviews from companies similar to yours, chances are the tool will work well with your affiliate program. 

If you notice any bad reviews, pay special attention to any negative comments about: 

• Tracking: Issues around the accuracy of conversion tracking could be detrimental to your business. 
• Customer support: Long waits for customer support can hurt your affiliate relationships if a problem isn’t resolved quickly. 
• Shady charges: Assess any reviews that mention issues with being charged more than the listed subscription price. 

Still, we recommend also looking at the affiliate software company’s responses to any negative reviews. If they offer a solution and express an eagerness to repair the customer relationship, that’s a good sign. 

Step 6: Test the Tool

Most affiliate tools offer a free trial, either for one or two weeks. This trial is your opportunity to test out all the features you picked that software for. 

Navigate the tool and see how it feels to switch from feature to feature. 

Are data visualizations and reports easily accessible? Can you customize commission structures and set up triggers with ease? Look at the affiliate portal as well and imagine yourself in your affiliates’ shoes — does it feel intuitive?

Use the trial time to ask the customer support team any questions you may have. Assess how knowledgeable, responsive, and pleasant they are to deal with, as you want to ensure you can resolve issues quickly and smoothly once you’re subscribed. 

3 Red Flags to Look Out For

All settled on your new affiliate marketing solution? Great. We’re excited for you to start scaling your affiliate program. 

However, you might want to check out these final red flags for software before you hit “subscribe.”

1. Unresponsive Customer Support Team

A green flag for customer support would be multiple channels to reach them — we’re talking live chat, email, and premium phone support if you have a high-tier subscription. 

But don’t wait to pay for a subscription to test out a software support team. Examine how they communicate with you before you’re a customer and again during the free trial. And if you notice they’re unresponsive during the first couple of months of your subscription? Next! 

PS: Tapfiliate’s customer support team is highly trained, knowledgeable, and responsive — just check out our happy customers praising our team on Capterra!

2. Limited Security Features

Affiliate fraud is on the rise, especially influencer fraud. Fake traffic and compromised data amounted to about $3.4 billion in lost affiliate revenue in 2022. Meaning? Your affiliate software should offer top-notch security features to catch fraudsters in their tracks and protect your data and revenue. 

Here are some security features to look out for: 

• Secure hosting provider: Tapfiliate hosts its platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS) — a secure provider that protects your media files, storage, and internal data. 

• Data encryption: This means your valuable data is translated into another format that only qualified users can decode. 

• Separate data processing: See if the software you’re considering processes personal and tracking data separately. 

• GDPR compliance: The EU passed this regulation in 2018, which includes directives and guidelines for brands to ensure the protection of their data.  

2. Software fees increase based on your success

Some affiliate tools base subscription fees on your affiliate sales and revenue. For example, they might charge a base subscription fee and a 10% commission on all of your sales. This means that as your affiliate program grows, you’ll have to share your profits with the company on top of paying a base monthly fee. 

Our take? Tapfiliate values transparency and fairness, and we believe brands should know exactly what they’re paying each month versus having it fluctuate. Plus, we want you to enjoy the fruits of your affiliate program as it grows. That’s why our subscription fees are 

Start Growing Your Affiliate Program with Tapfiliate!

The right affiliate marketing solution can be the difference between stagnant or record-breaking affiliate revenue. Always research each company and its customers, reviews, and features before you make a decision. 

And when you’re ready to test one out? We’re excited to guide you through Tapfiliate’s innovative features to grow your affiliate program. 

Ready to tap into affiliate marketing and launch your own program in a few steps?  Start our free 14-day trial today!