As I’ve been saying and leading for the past 10 years, affiliate marketing is a great complement to your digital marketing strategy.  If grown and managed properly, it can generate 20% of your overall revenue at a fraction of the costs of CPCs.

To build a program from scratch or to take an existing struggling program and turn it around are both challenging. The affiliate market has been synonymous with coupons and discounts which defines it, though they are only a part of the entire picture.

Yes, there are many coupon sites out there and yes, there is an argument about if you were going to make those sales anyway (and now you have to pay commission on that sale).  Though this is not the entire picture.

Our internal process measures new users coming from all publishers, coupon or not, and comparing that to the market average. One key metric we look at is new customers and if we drive a significant amount of new customers, then we’re doing our job as marketers.

There are also many other types of publishers which don’t get the glory but make up a significant part of the affiliate marketing industry. Loyalty sites, bloggers and content sites, search publisher and email marketing publishers. Each of these publisher segments have some ‘heavy hitters’ and it’s wise to partner with them to make your program a success.