How to Measure the Success of Your SaaS Affiliate Network
Ensure the success of your SaaS affiliate network by measuring these critical points.
Marketing is one of the most promising mechanisms to succeed in an oversaturated market. Many forms of marketing exist - such as affiliate - and choosing a viable strategy can lead to immense brand growth.
Affiliate marketing is a wise option if you want to boost sales and scale your business - especially if you have a few bucks to spare to go towards marketers. SaaS affiliate marketing has some differences compared to other branch affiliate marketing strategies, and we will dig deep into it in the following text.
What Is SaaS Affiliate Marketing?
Before explaining what we mean by SaaS affiliate partnerships, understanding the terms SaaS and affiliate marketing separately will be helpful.
SaaS
SaaS, or Software as a Service, is a cloud-based software for companies that don't want to purchase the full software yet want to use it and compensate for it on a pay-as-you-go basis. This allows you to "rent" the program for as long as you require and pay for it accordingly. Grammarly is an excellent example of a SaaS software where you purchase a subscription plan for a designated period.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a commission-based strategy that falls under digital marketing. Companies grow their business by promoting their products through third-party influencers, a.k.a. affiliate marketers. The promoter receives a commission with every sale or click on an ad.
SaaS Affiliate Marketing
SaaS affiliates offer businesses more advantages for a fruitful marketing plan. When customers follow the affiliate link, they can benefit by getting discounts, free trials for a limited amount of time, or demo versions of the SaaS software.
This is positive for anyone dipping their toes in SaaS affiliate marketing. Following the guide to affiliate marketing, you will notice the first steps are to create content that will entice customers to click affiliate links.
Both the promoter and the company can benefit from this situation. Promoters can get a commission just for the click - however, this depends on your mutual agreement. SaaS affiliate programs can deliver an impressive return on investment and result in affiliate marketing success.
Basics of SaaS Affiliate Partnership Marketing
An affiliate network improves the percentage of clicks, sales, and conversions. It tracks the earnings and performance of the company's affiliate marketing strategies and offers ways to boost the performance.
The SaaS affiliate partner program generates more sales for your company - resulting in a revenue increase. Marketers come up with various ideas on how to better advertise your product and brand - through videos, banners, and SEO.
This contributes to the number of clicks, which results in higher commissions for your affiliates. Reading a guide for SaaS affiliate commissions can be helpful to boost your income even further. Since the marketing industry has changed, traditional reseller partnerships are now less frequent.
The SaaS affiliate partnerships today come in many forms, including:
- Traditional affiliates;
- Commerce content;
- Ambassadors;
- Community groups;
- Industry groups;
- Educators;
- Brand-to-brand strategies;
- Native integrations.
One must ensure the SaaS affiliate network is working towards growth and success and not otherwise. The most effective way to keep constant track is to use KPIs or any of the affiliate tracking platforms.
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. KPIs are essential because they measure the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing campaign and point to any factors that may be impeding your business growth.
The following are five of the most used KPIs you can apply to measure and improve your SaaS affiliate program:
ROAS - Return on Advertising Spend
Return on Advertising Spend - or ROAS - is a frequently-used metric for discovering your affiliate marketing campaign's efficacy. The goal is to target faulty areas in your campaign and improve them enough to shift results and garner more sales and company growth.
To find out your ROAS, you have to divide the profit of your ad campaign by the costs that went towards implementing it. You know your strategy is effective when you achieve a ROAS of 3 or higher - meaning you earn $3 for every one you spend. Depending on your niche and company size, you may have to adjust the metrics to fit your financial needs.
ROI - Return on Investment
ROI calculates the rebound on a particular asset compared to the investment in the first place. Even though ROI and ROAS sound similar, they have essential differences. ROI helps you to understand if the whole campaign is worth the money invested in it. ROAS, on the other hand, has a more direct approach to understanding if the ad campaign works efficiently. In other words, ROI shows whether the overall campaign is lucrative, and ROAS shows the generating of clicks, sales, and profit of an ad campaign.
Calculating ROI is simple - divide the investment by the investment cost. Your result will be in percentage, and you'll know whether your SaaS affiliate is generating positive results.
Conversion Rate
This indicator is a handy tool, which is why one can find it among the most used KPIs. It indicates the number of clicks that result in sales. It also helps you to see the effectiveness of your affiliates.
The essence of conversion rate is it determines how many clicks generate one conversion. The formula is to divide the total attributed conversions by the total measured clicks and multiply the equation by a hundred. The final result will measure the success of your SaaS affiliate strategy.
AOV - Average Order Value
Average order value is a vital KPI in affiliate marketing. It represents the average amount customers pay when they purchase from the link you posted. Customers spend more on every purchase when the average order value is more significant.
Average order value influences the growth of a business, and it shows more actual results when combined with another metric - such as the conversion rate. Because even though the initial result might make it seem like your sales are low, your money flow could be above average.
Number of Sales
Essentially, the number of sales means the overall profit gained. Yet, this number is also essential in learning the ratio of acquiring customers. To profit, you should sell a preset amount of products within a given time. So, if the product you sell is expensive, you might not reach the targeted number of customers.
The number of sales can indicate this or any other problem that might be present with the product. Promotions, new products, discounts, or different strategies can be applied to increase the number of sales. Measuring the success of your SaaS affiliate network will help you improve it long term. Keeping track of everything will result in a consistent profit, plus you'll immediately be able to spot any recurring problem in your affiliate marketing strategy.
The SaaS affiliate market is competitive, but closely following your affiliate network growth will help you achieve the success you're aiming. Everyone has their own way of affiliate marketing, and you can use the tools to adjust them right towards your goals!
