How Affiliate Marketing Can Boost Ecommerce Sales for UK Businesses

By Anthony Lynch, Managing Director, Tandem 8

The affiliate marketing channel can be a cost-effective way of getting your business, whether small, medium, or large, out to new audiences to help grow brand awareness and drive sales/leads. As the online landscape becomes more competitive, affiliate marketing allows brands to reach customers not accessible through traditional paid channels such as social media ads and search engine ads.

As the channel is mostly modelled on a CPA (cost per acquisition) reward action, it takes away a lot of the potential high marketing costs associated with other online channels. Brands only pay an affiliate if their marketing activity results in a sale or lead; all other clicks and impressions cost nothing (free brand awareness). The CPA ensures any marketing spend is linked to a successful outcome. 

Tailor Strategy Based on Business Goals

The affiliate channel is highly flexible, depending on the overall strategy and goals of the business. You can develop a clearly defined strategy and create an affiliate recruitment plan that best fits the needs of the business. For example, you can focus on:

• Target audiences 
•  Product focus 
• Define commission structures to create the preferred behaviours 
•  Set performance KPIs. 

If a business wants to drive incremental traffic and sales (new customers), it is possible to recruit affiliates that sit at the top of the marketing funnel, such as content affiliates, review sites and influencers. These types of affiliates can be recruited based on the relevance of their content to the brand’s products or services.

For example, a protein bar brand could partner with fitness bloggers, influencers, and content sites to introduce its products to potential new customers.

If you want a mix of new and existing customers to encourage loyalty for a brand, you could add in some closed-group affiliates, such as employee reward sites and cashback sites. If capturing conversions is the main goal, voucher sites could be added.

Affiliate networks offer advanced tracking technology, and it’s simple to analyse which affiliates drive new vs. existing sales. Most networks now use first-party tracking and multi-touch attribution models to make sure affiliates are rewarded in a fair manner.

Within the affiliate channel, there are hundreds of types of affiliates specialising in different marketing techniques such as:

• Content and blog affiliates 
• Cashback and loyalty partners 
• Voucher and discount code sites 
• Influencers and social affiliates 
• Technology and remarketing partners 
• CSS / Google Shopping 

Tips for Entering the Affiliate Marketing Channel

1. Get Advice from an Experienced Affiliate Professional or Manager

This is important, as early decisions made before and during the setup process of the program can determine its success. Some questions to ask:

• What is the best affiliate network for my brand? 
• What are competitors doing in the space? 
• Can my business be competitive with the commission we give affiliates? 
• Are we a big enough brand to compete in the space? 
• Does the brand have enough margin to provide offers? 

2. Select the Correct Network

All affiliate networks have strengths and weaknesses. Some networks work better for certain brands. So, it is important to choose the right network from the start. Examples of well-known UK affiliate networks are Awin, Commission Junction (CJ), Webgains, Rakuten and Impact.

3. Conduct Competitor Analysis

It’s also important to analyse what competitors are doing in the channel, what are they paying affiliates and what offers are they providing? This will help determine if you can be competitive within the channel. Free tools such as SEMrush, SimilarWeb and public affiliate network profiles can provide useful benchmarks.

4. Brand Size and Awareness 

The size of a brand can play a part in how successful the business can be. If a brand is just starting out and has little brand awareness, it is harder to get affiliates to promote it, as it won’t convert as well as bigger brands. Sometimes it takes time to build up an affiliate program. The more brand awareness you have, the more chance of succeeding in the channel.

With the correct strategy in place, and carefully selected affiliate partnerships (and a bit of patience), no matter what size the brand, affiliate marketing can be used effectively to build brand awareness and become a great channel for driving new incremental sales growth.

If you need support with your Affiliate Marketing Strategy, contact our partner Tandem 8. You can email them at info@tandem8.co.uk.