Affiliate marketing has become a key part of modern marketing strategies. From international brands to local companies, all use affiliate marketing not only to promote their products and services but to also establish their brand identity.
While it’s easier for giant corporations to incorporate affiliate marketing into their marketing campaigns, small businesses have to consider a number of things, costs and budgeting being one.
If you’re planning to use affiliate marketing for product promotion and sales, the first step is a cost-benefit analysis.
Here are the three primary cost categories that you must budget for:
The Program Platform
The very first step is deciding whether the program platform will be in-house or on an affiliate network. Both have their pros and cons. You should consider factors like your long-term marketing strategy, business infrastructure, target audience and the industry before you choose between the two.
From a budget perspective, you need to know that:
For an in-house program, you’ll need to start from scratch. A team for every step, from building the platform and choosing the affiliates to tracking, reporting and payment buttons, you’ll need to spend a significant amount of time and resources.
On the other hand, with a network that’s already in place, you get all services in a package, without compromising on the expertise, program efficiency or time and human resources. You pay on a weekly or monthly basis and can choose to terminate the services, if you don’t see any results.
Choosing an affiliate network is a smart decision if you’re running a small business and don’t want to make affiliate marketing a permanent part of marketing tactics. Bigger enterprises usually go for in-house platforms, because they cost less in the long-term and offer more privacy.
The Content
Both in-house and network program demand curated content for campaigns. This means you’ll need a team that can work on images, graphics, videos, landing pages, web design, banners and other materials that affiliates will use to promote your products.
You can either hire a content creation team or outsource your projects to a third-party service provider. An in-house team can be beneficial in terms of costs, especially if you’re running other marketing campaigns that may need content or graphic designing. Another alternative is hiring freelancers; however, finding reliable individuals may take time, not to mention that the work quality may not meet your expectations.
The Program Management
Once the program is ready and about to be launched, you’ll need a team for recruiting affiliates, enforcing the program policies, tracking conversions, creating new campaigns and various other management tasks.
While you can designate your own team for these tasks and keep the management costs at a minimum, you may not receive the same professional services, offered by a seasoned affiliate program management team.
From industry practices to changing audience behaviors and market trends, an expert manager can offer you so much more than wordy reports and performance data. If you compromise on management costs, your marketing strategies might fail to work like you expected.
If you want to save on costs and still deploy an affiliate marketing strategy that deliver instant results, get in touch with us.
As one of the best affiliate marketing platforms, we equip clients with a comprehensive affiliate network that streamlines recruitment and tracking.
If this is your first time deploying an affiliate marketing strategy, talk to us about your expectations and needs at +1 888 340 6425.
At LeadDyno, we can help you achieve your targets much faster, and with fewer hassles.
Want to know more? Take a quick look here!
