{"posts":[{"id":"63726bfb3840c700213877b9","uuid":"15d42c46-bee6-498f-a61a-abe85ecb2369","title":"Five Ways to Improve Your SaaS Affiliate Program","slug":"five-ways-to-improve-your-saas-affiliate-program","html":"

SaaS (Software as a Service) refers to any online business mainly selling and promoting its software as a product or service online. SaaS marketing is quite a \"hot\" practice, predominantly since most of the world operates online.

And while this is great news if you're looking to spread your SaaS marketing campaign, it may be frightening knowing that you'll have fierce competition. Therefore, we suggest you rely on affiliate program marketing to carry the brunt of your promotional burden.

Combining two online trends in one may be more realistically feasible and beneficial than you might have imagined. Keep reading our guide to affiliate marketing for SaaS and discover the top five ways to improve your SaaS affiliate program!

Does Affiliate Marketing Work for SaaS Businesses?

In short, \"Yes!\". SaaS revenue has been proven to increase by 30%. Seeing how affiliate marketing mainly hinges on influential internet personalities with a solid social media following, it makes sense that their followers would easily be tempted to click on the particular SaaS they're advertising.

Yet, not all is sunshine and rainbows; for your SaaS affiliate marketing program to work, you'll need to know which strategies to employ.

SaaS Affiliate Program Best Practices

The principal SaaS affiliate program recommendations revolve around establishing a firm foundation before you even start offering your service to promote to affiliates.

Knowing which affiliates to look out for, how to approach them, and, most importantly, how to evaluate their effectiveness in your SaaS is essential to gathering the required experience to conduct a successful, long-term SaaS affiliate marketing program. Our five suggestions are the following:

\"Key — Key Factors to Consider for Your Affiliate Program - trackdesk

Design Your Very Own Affiliate Program and Payment Model

First, start by researching and creating your affiliate program and payment model from scratch. It will be similar to most other affiliate models available online, except tailored to suit the particular needs of your business.

This will depend on several factors, such as:

Your particular SaaS niche;
Your budget;
Your development status (are you a start-up, a small, up-and-coming business, or already a developed SaaS provider?);
Your geographical location;
Any extra factors that may need to be taken into consideration.

Based on these, you will design affiliate program terms that will suit you and a payment model that will ensure a fair distribution of commissions to your affiliates. Doing this, you will know that you control the marketing program and the funds spent on affiliates in all situations.

Rely on an Affiliate Tracking Platform

An affiliate tracking platform can be used for several operations, but, to simplify things, you can use it to:

Look for potential affiliates online
Track the progress of your current affiliates

Both of these are essential. With the first aspect, you'll rely on this platform to search databases for you and suggest compatible affiliates that may benefit your SaaS. With the second aspect, you'll be able to constantly and quickly oversee your affiliates' work, the revenue they're bringing in, and the types of customers.

Moreover, you'll be able to compare affiliates operating through various affiliate programs. You'll see how their work and effort compare, concluding which affiliate is better. If you made a different contract with these affiliates, you could see which one was more motivating for them and incorporate your findings in future negotiations.

Implement Affiliate Marketing KPIs

We need to focus on one particular aspect of affiliate tracking: affiliate marketing KPIs. KPIs stand for Key Performance Indicators, and they are used to oversee many factors related to the output of your company's marketing strategies and your affiliates' performances.

For instance, KPIs can be used to set any of the following patterns:

Desired conversion rates from affiliates (within realistic expectations);
The ideal number of qualified leads;
Overall revenue goals per month or year;

And as a response, KPIs can track all of the following:

Number of sales per affiliate or link;
Overall revenue achieved within a set time frame;
Comparison between the leads and conversion rates brought about by different affiliates;
Comparison between revenue goals within a specified time frame and actual revenue achievements within that time frame.

Thus, through KPIs, you'll see your marketing strategy's success and which affiliates are doing the most of your work.

Know How and Where to Recruit Affiliates

Of course, no SaaS owner wants to be dissatisfied with any of their affiliates, so one of the critical tips we'd give is to be meticulous when choosing how and where to recruit affiliates. First, you need to know your niche.

After that, all you need to do is find affiliates in that same or adjacent niche! Do proper research and approach only those individuals with a large following, a faithful base of supporters, and a firmly established social media presence.

If you hire a successful influencer, especially one who's somehow connected to your SaaS, all of their followers will get exposed to your software, resulting in several leads and conversions.

Organize SaaS Affiliate Commissions Based on Clicks

Finally, use leads, conversions, and clicks as the parameter for SaaS affiliate commissions. By tracking the input and success of each of your affiliates, pay them commissions by a click for every lead.

This way, you will not financially overcompensate ineffective affiliates while keeping the commission low for faithful contributors to your business marketing branch. Everyone will get suitable compensation for their work and effort.

Affiliate Marketing Success for SaaS is All But Guaranteed

Follow these tips, and you'll immediately see an improvement in the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. Like all other business decisions, the success of your affiliate program depends on how dedicated you are to locating the best potential affiliates and investing the necessary time and energy into creating the best possible affiliate marketing program.

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