Launching an Affiliate Program: What Are Your Best Practices?

Hey Cem, This is my failed attempt managing affiliate program. Few learnings. 1. We hired everyone who signed up. Focused on volume. Yet 95% of our revenue were from just one affiliate. 2. The platform we used had a lot of issues. Chargebacks, commission payouts (we had recurring commissions) was a mess. Not naming them since they've improved a lot since then. 3. Few affiliates started bidding for our brand keywords. THis caused a dip in our organic traffic. Have to add it in the affiliate clause. 4. While hundreds signed up only a mere handful of them were active. We tried gamification, training programs and what not - most of them just didn't look into the program after they signed up. Not sure if these are helpful, but if there's anything useful, do take it. Looking forward to learn from your experience. Wishing you the best

I guess it depends on your goal. Are you trying to reduce CAC or accelerate growth. That will impact how you construct the program, how generous you are etc. so it's probably useful to think about

Definitely agree on the importance of vetting affiliates to ensure they align with your brand and provide value to your audience. Some best practices I've seen work well: 1) Clearly communicate your brand values/guidelines to affiliates upfront 2) Implement a screening/approval process before activating new affiliates 3) Regularly audit affiliate content/tactics and remove any bad actors 4) Provide affiliates with helpful resources/tools to represent your brand well. Hope this helps, and best of luck with your affiliate program launch!

Congrats on the affiliate program launch @connectgenieAI! A few best practices I've seen work well: 1) Choose affiliate partners wisely that align with your brand 2) Provide quality creative assets they can use 3) Engage personally with top affiliates to build strong relationships 4) Analyze data regularly to optimize. Hope this helps, wishing you success with the program!