There is no “one-size-fits-all” affiliate program, but there is a program best suited for you. If you’re dissatisfied with your current affiliate platform, you aren’t stuck (although it may seem that way). Migrating to a new affiliate platform is intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be. We’re going to address common barriers to changing affiliate platforms, how to research platforms, and when to know the right time to bid adieu to your current affiliate platform.
When to know the right time to leave an affiliate platform for another one
#1 You’re not satisfied with the level of support you’re getting
Having a strong relationship with your affiliate platform provider is necessary to building a successful program. There are going to be times when affiliate-related issues arise for your program. During these times you need an affiliate platform provider to promptly respond and resolve the issue. Plus occasionally you may have questions about billing or other account problems.
The best affiliate platforms offer stellar support. For example, if you’re having trouble setting up your commission structure, our team can help.
If your affiliate provider is difficult to communicate with, provides inadequate solutions, or doesn’t offer acceptable support, consider changing affiliate platforms. While you can get by without a quality customer service team, you want to know that your affiliate platform has you covered in times you really need them.
Get started with affiliates today
Easily manage affiliates and their payouts, so you can focus on what you do best – running your business!
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#2 You’re not happy with the price
Affiliate marketing is a passive way to make income and is generally low-cost. However, when your business grows so does the cost to run your program. Affiliate marketing platforms are a recurring expense. It’s sometimes the largest expense associated with running your program (other than commission payouts, of course).
With affiliate platforms (and most anything in life), you do get what you pay for. But, sometimes the most expensive plan isn’t the best plan for your business.
If your affiliate platform is too expensive to justify, it might be time to move to a less expensive option. Our Starter plan starts at $49 for up to 3000 unique visitors per month. Have more traffic? No problem. We offer scalable plans so you can upgrade at any time.
If you find your company’s disbursing more money for affiliate marketing than what your program makes, consider downsizing or switching platforms to stick to your budget. There’s no reason to break the bank if you don’t have to and besides, it never hurts to save money every month.
#3 You’re not happy with the platform’s features or lack thereof
Is there a feature you want but you don’t have? This is another valid reason to change affiliate platforms.
Investing in features you need is wise. Even if you need to pay more or spend arduous time migrating to a new platform, it’s worth it for the features you’ll gain.
Some important affiliate features:
- Integration apps
- Portal customizations to add your own logo
- Shareable social media content
- A mobile application for your affiliates to login no matter where they are
- Visitor data and tracking
- Multi-level marketing
- The ability to bulk pay your affiliates
All of these features (and more!) comprise LeadDyno.
#4 You find the platform difficult to use
Sometimes platforms are confusing. Clunky dashboards, little to no guidance or how-to articles, excessively complicated layouts—whatever the confounding issue is, this is another good reason it might to time to leave your current platform. It doesn’t mean the platform is bad but can mean there’s a need mismatch. You need the program to perform or function a certain way and the program is unable to meet that demand.
Oftentimes when something is difficult to use, we’re less likely to use it. If you’re paying for the service, you may as well get the best platform for you. Invest a little time in migrating so that you can enjoy every aspect of your affiliate marketing program.
What to do if you want to change affiliate platforms but don’t know where to start
Research new affiliate platforms
First, check if they have features missing from your current provider. Then, start to analyze the rest:
- Who are their customers?
- Do they align in terms of the size/industry you’re in? If you have a smaller program, chances are you can fit into the most affordable affiliate programs. But, if your program has medium to heavy traffic, fitting yourself into a plan may be trickier. Find your unique daily visitor count (if you’re having trouble, contact your hosting provider to help you find this number) and then find an affiliate program that offers plans to match this daily visitor count.
- Analyze the pricing policy
- What happens if you exceed your daily visitor count?
- Are there any other conditions or terms you need to consider?
- Look at the migration process
- Migration processes aren’t made equal so it’s important to research every company’s migration process.
- For example, at LeadDyno, we offer affiliate imports. All you need to do is organize your affiliates into a CSV format spreadsheet. Once your affiliates are formatted, our customer support team takes it from here and migrates your affiliates over for you for free (with the cost of the service).
Note: If you have specific requirements for importing, chances are, we can accommodate it! All you need to do is email us your custom important requirements and we work with you to make the process as smooth as possible.
- Try out different platforms using their demos/free trials.
- Most affiliate providers offer a free trial period, money-back guarantees, or demos. What better way to learn about the product without investing too much money? Try out the service and see if its features align with your needs.
LeadDyno offers a 30-day free trial. You can launch your affiliate program in a matter of minutes, get your links share-ready and share to social media platforms in a single click. Simply type in your email, password, website, select a plan, put in your credit card, and away you go to affiliate success!
Figure out the platform migration process
Every affiliate platform offers different migration options. Before you move, it’s important to know how you’re going to do it. Some programs do it for you and others offer bulk import options from excel files.
Consider the following questions:
- Do you need someone to help you migrate the data?
- Does the platform provide a tool to sync the platform data and transfer it for you?
- How much is it going to cost?
Some affiliate platforms offer free migrations and others don’t. Knowing this information ahead of time prevents any surprises from occurring during the migration process.
Communicate with your affiliates about the change
Changing affiliate platforms affects your affiliates as well as you so communicate this change with them early and candidly. Before you send out an email or newsletter detailing the change, produce a list of incentives for your affiliates. How will this change benefit them? What do they need to know before setting up this platform? Your affiliates benefit from the change as well so show them.
This is an exciting time to reevaluate your program. Perhaps you’ll cull your affiliate herd and let go of the lowest performers or perhaps this change will reinvigorate your lowest performers. Either way, it’s time to examine who deserves a spot in your affiliate program.
Ensure the following when emailing your new affiliates:
- Prompt communication: email your affiliates early on in the process so they’re not thrown a curveball. Provide them with at least 3-4 weeks’ notice.
- Materials: Provide detailed instructions on applying to the new program. Do they need to set up an app on their phone? Are there any chances that seriously affect them?
- Timeliness: How long will the transfer take? Are you going to pause commissions while the program is set up? Some complicated migrations can take a couple of weeks, so it’s important to detail this with your affiliates.
Once your migration’s complete, thank your affiliates for a smooth transition and let them know you appreciate their patience during this time.
Get started with affiliates today
Easily manage affiliates and their payouts, so you can focus on what you do best – running your business!
Hassle-free setup. Try Free for 30 Days
Where to Migrate Your Affiliate Program
There are dozens of affiliate programs out there, but how do you know which one to choose? We might be slightly biased but consider LeadDyno.
Why LeadDyno?
Easy affiliate imports
As we said above, migrating your affiliate platform to us is easy. Organize your affiliates into CSV format. Once they’re formatted, our customer support team takes care of the rest and migrates your affiliates over for free. More complicated affiliate imports may take longer, but we can still get the job done for you.
Reasonable prices
Our prices start as low as $49 for a whopping 3,000 visitors per month. We offer seven tiers so if you ever need to upgrade, you can!
It’s important to know that LeadDyno plans are solely based on website traffic. Every plan has a set traffic number based on unique monthly visitors (visitors visiting your website every month). Although the plans are based on unique monthly traffic, LeadDyno analyzes your traffic based on a two-month average. This way if you’re going over your traffic limit for a single month, you can receive temporary spikes in traffic without requiring upgrading.
What do we mean by unique visitors? If a website visitor visits your website multiple times a month, that user only counts as a single visitor.
Also, if your traffic creeps up to the limit, LeadDyno notifies you that your traffic is close to exceeding your current plan’s limit. If your traffic exceeds the limit, LeadDyno informs you that it’s time to upgrade your plan to one that matches your traffic levels.
Stellar reviews
Unsure if affiliate marketing makes money? Let Cents of Style persuade you to say “yes!” Cents of Style made more than $1 million in affiliates sales using our platform.
Courtney Brown, the founder, and CEO of Cents of Style paid over $200,000 in commissions saw an 80% increase in overall web sales, and has over 270+ affiliates in her program.
Cents of Style is a multi-million dollar women’s fashion brand empowering women to lead bold, fashion-forward lives.
When Cents of Style first started affiliate marketing, they weren’t satisfied with their original affiliate platform. They said it wasn’t intuitive to use (a real problem when serving diverse affiliate marketers).
So they turned to LeadDyno,
“We liked the fact that LeadDyno isn’t as web-centric as most affiliate platforms,” says Courtney. “It’s also easy to use, which made it a great fit for all of our affiliates.”-Courtney Brown
They are especially fond of our integrations, easy-to-customize platform, program transparency, and LeadDyno’s ability to identify sales opportunities.
If you’re curious how other users like our app, read our testimonials and reviews.
Resources to aid in your success
From blog posts to how-to guides, LeadDyno teaches you how to start and run a successful program.
We teach you how to keep your affiliates engaged, tips on growing a successful program, and have an essential guide on affiliate recruitment.
Demo
We offer a 30-day demo so you can try out our services and see if they’re right for you. It only requires a credit card number, email address, and the plan you’d like to try out.
As you can see, there are barriers to changing affiliate platforms, but if you diligently prepare your program and affiliates for the change, it’s not as scary as it may seem. When your program grows and revenue increases from the change, it’ll make the migration process all the more worthwhile.
Frequently Asked Questions about Affiliate Platform Migrations (FAQs)
How do I install LeadDyno?
All you need to do is add our javascript to your webpage to enable tracking. Then, you’ll set up purchase tracking.
Does LeadDyno work on my WordPress site?
Yes, LeadDyno offers a WordPress plugin to work with both Membermouse and Woocommerce.
Can I track recurring purchases with LeadDyno?
Yes, with certain payment integrations, you can track recurring payments and subscriptions.
If an order is cancelled, will it cancel pending commissions?
Yes. If the order is cancelled, the commissions will also be cancelled unless commissions are already due.
So, affiliate platform migration is definitely doable. You may be feeling a little overwhelmed right now, but don’t worry. If you need any help along the way, our team at LeadDyno would be more than happy to assist. We can walk you through each step of the process so that you can make the best decision for your business. What are you waiting for? Start researching today and find the perfect affiliate platform for your business (as long as it is LeadDyno, of course!)!
Get started with affiliates today
Easily manage affiliates and their payouts, so you can focus on what you do best – running your business!
Hassle-free setup. Try Free for 30 Days
