You could think of affiliate marketing as a way to introduce luxury goods to your ideal customers through some of the most stylish people and publishers they follow. This could include bloggers, online magazines, shopping comparison sites, review sites, and more.

According to the 2022 Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report, interest in this tactic for growing an eCommerce business grew 300% between 2017 and 2021. On average, it represents 9% of marketing budgets and is set to grow into a $13 billion industry this year.

Given that more than 10,000 firms are offering or specializing in such services, however, we’re going to focus on the Awin affiliate program. In this post, we’ll show why this is an opportunity worth pursuing. But first, what is Awin? Read on to find out.

What Is Awin?

Formed in 2017 following a rebrand of affiliate marketing firms Zanox and Affiliate Window, Awin has grown into an organization employing more than 1,200 people who work in 17 offices around the world.

What is Awin, though? In a recent post on Forbes, the company’s CEO Adam Ross describes Awin as a provider of pay-per-performance advertising. Its Awin affiliate program offers a way to streamline the process of working with publishers and influencers who have an audience that aligns with a brand’s target clientele. It offers an income stream to those creating the content while providing fashion and other retailers with steady sales.

How does Awin work?

If you’re wondering, ‘How does Awin work,’ the program is consistent with many similar affiliate marketing services.

Awin acts as a liaison between brands and publishers or creators, placing links to their eCommerce store on pages with content that interests its most coveted shoppers.

Imagine a fashion blogger has posted a guide to finding the perfect designer belt, for example. When readers click through links via the Awin product feed about belts that interest them, Awin pays the blogger a commission on behalf of the retailer for referring the traffic.

The answer to “How does Awin work,” therefore, is that it allows brands a simple way to outsource tasks such as link placement, recording transaction data, and managing commissions.

Benefits of using Awin in your Affiliate Marketing Strategy

Affiliate marketing not only lets online sellers increase their visibility across international markets. It can also deepen relationships with partners that can drive greater marketing results.

Just look at Polish fashion retailer Born2Be. In its publication The Awin Report a few years ago, the company showed how Born2Be was able to offer different incentives for publishers and influencers. These included an “introducers” level for those who brought their audiences’ attention to its products, while “retainers” gave a higher commission to those who generated traffic to best sellers, seasonal offers, and high-margin products.

The result was a 70% increase in sales targets achieved and a new customer rate of 45%.

What is a product data feed and how do affiliates use them?

Your affiliate marketing strategy can begin by setting up a product data feed. Instead of manually setting up and configuring links to each of your products, for instance, a data feed automatically conveys details about product names, sizes, colors, prices, and other attributes to the publishers in the Awin affiliate program.

A data feed is essential to successful affiliate marketing because it ensures your stock and inventory information is up to date, and that you can accelerate the process of connecting with premium affiliate partners.

How to create an Awin product feed

The process of creating an Awin product feed will vary somewhat depending on whether you’re working with an existing Google data feed, or integrating with an eCommerce platform such as Shopify. Fortunately, the company has provided the basic steps for Awin product feed development to get potential brand partners up to speed.

Rather than tackle this all on your own, however, there are organizations like Suvae.org that can create and optimize Awin feeds that respond to specific business needs.

Affiliate marketing tools to help you win with Awin

A lack of experience in working with affiliate marketing services should never be a barrier to taking the next step.

Many brands gain greater confidence in moving forward with an opportunity like the Awin affiliate program by working with Suvae.org, for instance. Our product feed management solutions and industry expertise can provide value at every stage of the journey. This includes marketplace integration services, as well as guidance on strategies to help your products stand out and increase conversions among your most coveted shoppers.

In today’s economy, every online seller is looking for a win. You might be able to get one by exploring affiliate marketing with Awin.

Learn more about Suvae.org’s affiliate marketing service or reach out to us to get more information on how we can help you get started.

The post Awin Affiliate Program: Why eCommerce Brands Should Join appeared first on Suvae.org.

The challenges with attributing tangible results to their efforts are just one of the reasons CMOs and their teams are increasingly turning to performance-based marketing as an alternative.

What is Performance-based Marketing?

As the name suggests, performance-based marketing service providers are only compensated based on established metrics, such as cost per click (CPC), pay per click (PPC), or cost per thousand (CPM) impressions. Performance marketing also makes sense as more brands make use of digital channels that offer greater visibility into consumer behavior during a campaign. Activity can not only be tracked across a brand’s website but social channels, third-party publishers, and other online properties.

5 Tips to make the most of Performance-based Marketing

While performance marketing strategies will need to vary depending on a particular brand’s objectives, here are a few principles to keep in mind to position yourself for greater success:

1. Diversify storytelling approaches to drive visibility and engagement

Consumers can get fatigued by intrusive advertising, to the point of ignoring or avoiding them altogether. One way to mitigate that risk is by developing ads and other performance marketing creative materials in multiple formats. Digital ads with high-impact visuals might always be a standard part of your campaigns, for example, but don’t stop there. Work internally or with agency partners to create mobile-first designs, video-oriented stores, and even audio formats that could be used in podcasts.

2. Align affiliate relationships with partners that reflect your audience’s interests

Publishers have increasingly become a valuable part of the performance marketing ecosystem given the credibility, trust, and reach they have to large audiences. These media sites have a vested interest in monetizing their traffic through affiliate relationships that compensate them every time someone clicks through a mention of a brand in their content.

Before allocating the majority of your budget to general-interest publishers, however, consider niche sites or even blogs that have a proven track record with your specific customer segments. Luxury brands, for instance, might gain traction faster with a more fashion-oriented publisher whose content is more clearly aimed at its target persona. Ask about any contextual targeting you can do based on the data a publishing partner has at its disposal.

3. Set clear expectations around marketing performance activities

Paid social advertising is another popular performance marketing tactic, but it also offers a case in point of where it can go wrong. Consumers might press a “like” button on a paid social post, for instance. They might comment on the ad, or even share it with their followers. There can be large numbers attached to these activities, but they won’t constitute “performance” for many brands.
E-commerce checkouts or even completed contact forms might represent far greater value for many marketers. This needs to be clarified at the outset of partnerships and campaigns.

4. Harness the power of data and product feeds to attract VIP customers

Plenty of men might shop for designer dress shoes when they have a special occasion like a wedding, but those working in executive roles might need to buy them more often — and be willing to pay for higher quality. The only way to truly compel your VIP customers to click through is by ensuring you build your campaign based on quality data and take advantage of a product feed management platform that can display your content in all the right channels.

Product feed management tools add a layer of intelligence to performance-based marketing by tying directly back to your internal analytics. This means whether you’re focusing on SEM, social media, or retargeting, you’ll be able to properly assess campaign effectiveness.

5. Evaluate, iterate, optimize, repeat!

Performance marketing isn’t just a way of holding your partners more accountable. It should also provide opportunities for greater testing and ongoing adaptation of your marketing content over time. Depending on the early results you see, for instance, consider the changes you might want to make in terms of your key messages, special offers, or where you’re targeting the content. Conduct A/B tests with a segment of your budget to see if one approach will work better than another.

Bonus tip: Find a product feed partner to maximize performance marketing ROI

To make your performance marketing successful, you’re also going to have some technical pieces in place. These include setting up tracking for data feeds, online ads, affiliate programs, retargeting, and more. Having accurate high-quality data can help you better promote your products. Suvae.org specializes in performance marketing feeds and offers you optimized product data to ensure strong sales results.

Your performance-based marketing efforts can have a major impact on your bottom line. No matter the channels or the partners you turn to, make sure your brand is ready to perform at its best.
Get the most out of your budget and ad campaigns. Talk to our experts for a free consultation.

The post Performance Based Marketing: Your Path To Higher Conversions appeared first on Suvae.org.

Today, eCommerce affiliate marketing is integral to the success of a brand’s digital marketing strategy. By integrating with the right programs and networks, you can advertise your products through posts that show everything from basic product information to more in-depth content like product demonstrations, personal testimonials, and strong calls to action.

Some of the Benefits of Affiliate Marketing Programs include:

• Generating additional revenue
• Establishing partnerships with influencers in the market
• Increasing your brand’s reach online

Keep reading to learn how eCommerce affiliate marketing has changed over the years, what affiliate networks and programs are available for the fashion industry, and how providing high-quality product information to your affiliates can boost your products’ discoverability.

How eCommerce Affiliate Marketing Has Changed

Since the advent of the internet, businesses have found ways to advertise online. While many saw the potential of affiliate marketing, it took some time for the practice to pick up steam over the years.

Here are a few of the trends that have molded this advertising option into today’s promotional powerhouse:

• The rise of social media: In the early stage of social media, back in the 2000s, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram had just started to become popular.
  As a result, affiliate programs rarely considered them and instead looked to websites and blogs.
  Today, some affiliates operate exclusively through networks like Instagram, Pinterest, and others. Content creators have also entered the scene, monetizing their popularity and traffic creatively.
  With almost three-quarters of social networking users entrusting their purchasing decisions to their platforms of choice, it’s clear why social media is such a powerful marketing channel today.

• Mobile marketing hit the scene: Back when flip phones and Blackberries with keyboards were popular, marketing through mobile devices hardly existed.
  Nowadays, it would be unthinkable to start an affiliate program without focusing on smart devices because of the shift from desktop to mobile content consumption.
  According to Statista’s Digital Market Outlook, mobile will account for 50 percent of ad spending by 2021 and finally surpass desktop in 2022.

• A focus on quality over quantity: In the 2000s and early 2010s, businesses aimed to make their affiliate programs as large as possible to cast the widest net of exposure.
  Once advertisers understood how affiliate systems worked, they became more interested in carefully selecting the best quality affiliates, giving them the right resources and support to be true business partners.

• Trust has gone up: Affiliate programs and networks were focused more on getting as many referral fees as possible before the late 2010s. They joined multiple programs and often made poor attempts at attaching to any one brand.
  Today, trust is the theme, and advertisers want the affiliate program to align with their brand’s strategy.

Now that you’ve learned about eCommerce affiliate marketing, how do advertisers use networks and programs to drive brand awareness and generate revenue?

How Affiliate Programs Work

Affiliation programs involve partnerships between an advertiser and one or more affiliates.
The advertiser signs a contract with an individual affiliate or a network of affiliates to promote their products or services for a commission. Everything from a direct sale to new sign-ups for a free trial is tracked so the advertiser can understand how their ads are performing

A typical program follows these steps:

1. The business places an advertisement on the affiliate’s blog, website, or social networking page. A unique link helps track which affiliates are contributing to which visitors.
2. When a customer clicks on the link and makes a purchase, the affiliate network records the transaction details.
3. The business pays the affiliate the commission for those sales. It adds up to what is a profit-sharing mechanism.

Examples of eCommerce Affiliate Marketing Programs for the Fashion Industry

Affiliate programs help many industries effectively manage their digital advertising programs, especially in the fashion sector.
Some popular fashion affiliate marketing programs offer enticing advertising opportunities for brands.

• Nordstrom: This retailer is one of the world’s most well-known brands with its affiliate network. Nordstrom has a reputation for providing high-end clothing worldwide, from shoes to jewelry.
  Nordstrom has a negotiable commission rate that can change based on your needs and circumstances.
• Urban Outfitters: Urban Outfitters operates throughout the U.S. and much of Europe, providing quality yet affordable men’s and women’s clothing from various well-known brands.
  Urban Outfitters commission rates start at 2%.
• Zappos: Ever since Amazon acquired the company back in 2009, Zappos has risen from its humble beginnings as a shoe store to becoming a well-known name in the general fashion market.
  Zappos is known for commission rates of 7 to 10% per sale, and its free shipping and return policy minimizes friction during the purchasing process.

And we’re just scratching the surface. There are many other affiliate programs specific to the fashion industry.

About eCommerce Affiliate Networks

An affiliate network is a medium in which affiliates and advertisers find each other and organize business arrangements.
Advertisers add their affiliate programs to the network, which affiliates themselves browse through to find new products and services to promote.

Examples of active affiliate networks include companies like Adtraction, Commission Junction, Awin, Daisycon, TradeDoubler, MaxBounty, Rakuten, VigLink, and many more.
Some offer global exposure, while others focus on smaller regions that may include one or more countries.

Why Partner With Affiliate Marketing Networks

As an advertiser, you can find and contact individual affiliate partners directly or work with a network that has multiple affiliates under one platform.
However, the process of identifying affiliates/publishers and negotiating an affiliate agreement can be long and complex. And that is why affiliate networks have been picking up in popularity in recent years.

Working with affiliates can help you :

• Streamline administrative work
  A network can handle commission payments for you and manage accounts to provide daily insights and reporting features.
  Individual programs require plenty of tools and practices, from account management to link tracking to payment options.

• Measure Performance
  You want to make sure your ROI is substantial. Some networks have easy-to-use dashboards to manage all your programs and track clicks and conversions in one place.
  See which of your marketing techniques is working out the best to make more informed business decisions in the future.

• Quality control
  Affiliates typically must go through a screening process to join a network. Whenever you search for the next suitable candidate, all your options will be compliant and trustworthy.
  Those who show dishonest behavior are removed before joining any more programs.

How Do You Choose the Right Affiliate Network

There are many networks out there, and selecting one to operate in can be a daunting task. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when choosing your ideal network:

• What networks in your industry using?

  Look to your competitors and see which networks they use and which ones seem to be the most successful for them. If you’re in fashion, you want to use networks that are fashion-focused.
  Keeping track of your competition can help you fine-tune your digital strategy.

• How will you budget the network?

  Networks bill for services in different ways, such as monthly fees and initial setup costs. Larger networks might bill based on sales volume generated from your campaigns.
  Your accounting team will be pleased you considered these details when setting up your campaign strategy.

• What features and services do you need?

  Look at what affiliate tracking features offer support for international markets and the level of customer support you expect.
  Streamlining your tracking with the right support can reduce time spent on reporting.

When it comes to choosing the right affiliate for your business, your choice of network isn’t the only consideration.
One common mistake advertisers make when developing their brand affiliate programs is not providing the networks with the most up-to-date and complete set of product information for campaign success.

How To Maximize Your Advertising Results

Advertisers use data feeds to better promote their products on affiliate networks or specific programs.
Basic product listing data includes:

• Product descriptions and identifiers
• Technical specifications
• Pictures
• Pricing
• Keywords
• Product categories
• Landing page links

A high-quality feed is necessary to optimize your product data to boost the performance of your ads. To enhance the success of your promotions include as much information as possible.
Keep all data up-to-date, including pricing and stock levels. And be sure to remove duplicate or out-of-stock items from the list — it’s a frustrating customer experience to click on a call-to-action, only to end up on a dead link or out-of-stock product.

Simplify eCommerce Affiliate Marketing with a Data Feed Software

To ensure that your affiliate data feeds are up to the task, data feed management software can help you develop well-structured feeds to better boost your marketing campaigns.
Suvae.org’s solution effectively synchronizes your product information and prices with real-time APIs through efficient integration with eCommerce platforms like Shopify and Salesforce.

Reach out to our affiliate product feed specialist to discover better ways to market your products stand out and reach your marketing goals.

The post What You Need to Succeed in eCommerce Affiliate Marketing appeared first on Suvae.org.

There are specialized networks that only serve Europe and others that are global with local affiliate partners. Depending on your business you’ll need to look at each network to see which one works with your marketing and sales objectives. This post provides a quick explanation of affiliate marketing, a list of affiliate networks operating in Europe, and when you should consider a product feed for affiliate network partners.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing involves paying a commission to affiliates on sales made to customers that have been directed to your site from the affiliate’s website. Because you only pay when a sale is made, you are guaranteed a return on your investment.

For those of you who are new to affiliate marketing, this video from Neil Patel explains the basics.

How to choose an Affiliate Network

Affiliate networks provide the infrastructure for affiliates (or publishers) to get in contact with advertisers (online merchants). These networks also provide tracking technology that tells advertisers which publishers made the sale so they can be duly rewarded. Many networks even offer services to help advertisers manage their affiliate programs.

Choosing the right network can be a difficult decision. Many factors like which industries they focus on, the affiliates included in their network and who their audiences are, the commission, how and when you get paid as a seller, and how easy it is as an advertiser to promote your products. In many cases, you need to check out reviews, talk to other businesses that have used the affiliate network, or test the network out for yourself.

European Affiliate Networks

Europe is a fragmented market with numerous languages and currencies. Some networks focus on only a few countries whereas others have a broader reach. It’s important to know if the affiliate network you choose has a comprehensive knowledge of the markets you want to target to better attract your ideal customers.

Check out the list below and find the affiliate networks that best suit your business.

Rakuten Advertising

Reach: Europe and around the globe

Enjoy Rakuten’s massive reach of over 150,000 active publishers worldwide, with a dedicated team of network development specialists who actively identify affiliates and partner opportunities across content, influencer, loyalty, and more. Rakuten has high standards for its affiliate partners and this translates into a quality audience for advertisers to attract the right customers. They are constantly monitored to ensure that the network’s rules are being followed and the content created is always good quality.

Daisycon

Reach: Europe & North America

Based on reviews of the network, Daisycon’s customers enjoy service driven-support, fast and easy payment options, and real-time statistics for their campaigns. They are one of the biggest affiliate networks in Europe with a network of more than 30,000 active websites and a vast social and mobile reach. At Daisycon you will find a wide range of campaigns within CPS, CPL, CPA, and CPC.

AWIN

Reach: Europe & North America

AWIN offer’s customers a good user experience with their easy-to-use affiliate dashboard and if you get stuck, their Wiki is a great resource for finding answers. They have many publishers to choose from and their customer support team is responsive. They primarily focus on Insurance & Finance, Retail/Shopping, Telco & Services, and Travel industries. Advertisers looking to attract customers in these industries can benefit from their expertise in these verticals.

Yieldkit

Reach: Europe & North America

Yieldkit offers a range of cutting-edge, API-based solutions to help larger publishers monetize website content and customized solutions for advertisers to increase awareness and sales. Matching occurs through Yieldkit’s machine learning technology. It analyzes publishers’ text-based content and brings together certain terms and keywords approved by the publisher with matching e-commerce offers and services from advertisers. Publishers can additionally monetize their content and advertisers have access to a high-performance in-text advertising format. They have over 5,000 publishers with 72 networks and 50,000 advertisers in more than 160 countries.

Tracdelight

Reach: Europe

Tracdelight’s publisher team has a personal line with important influencers as well as the largest magazines. They provide target group-based product recommendations and can plan targeted content campaigns. Tracdelight’s goal is to connect premium online shops & brands with first-class publishers. Their focus is on fashion, beauty, living, food, and sports.

Tradedoubler

Reach: Western/Eastern Europe & Brazil

Tradedoubler has positive reviews in the areas of customer support, data import/export features, and their analytics platform. It features an industry-leading affiliate marketing network, white-label management solution, Metapic, full-service programmatic solutions, campaign management, reliable tracking and payments, a reward platform, in-house expertise, robust tools, and reporting. As one of the leading affiliate networks in Europe, they serve merchants from a broad range of verticals across the continent. It has recently expanded its operations to include Brazil.

CJ

Reach: Europe &, North America

Get up and running quickly with CJ’s Shopify and Magento eCommerce plugins. They are known for their wide variety of integrations that enables tracking of the customer journey from start to finish. Formerly Commission Junction, CJ is a global affiliate network provider with operations on all continents. CJ’s impressive roster of advertisers includes companies from a comprehensive range of industry verticals. They offer a service called “real-time transaction monitoring”. The platform helps publishers and advertisers track their sales instantly and accurately.

Webgains

Reach: Western Europe & North America

Webgains’ cutting-edge technology helps advertisers at the point of conversion to take action and ensure their target audience gets the product or service into their basket with the knowledge that they made the right decision. With a focus on customer service, Webgains currently caters to clients from a broad range of verticals including fashion, home and garden, travel, online games, sports, and other retail merchants. They have over 20,000 websites as part of their affiliate network with a strong capability in promoting subject matter experts in various industries.

Partnerize

Reach: Europe and around the globe

Partnerizer’s major differentiator is their unrivaled service including the category’s only in-house support program. With Partnerize, you’re in control of the entire partnership marketing lifecycle – all on a single platform. Positioned as a premium affiliate network service provider, the Performance Horizon Group is globally focused offering targeted solutions for enterprise-level brands that sell across international borders. They deliver a fully integrated, comprehensive suite of discovery, recruitment, optimization, payment, brand safety, and fraud prevention capabilities.

Effiliation

Reach: – Western Europe & Brazil

Effiliation defines a personalized strategy for each of its clients according to their objectives, sector of activity, size, etc. A French-based network, they have successfully expanded into the major Western European markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the Benelux nations as well as Brazil. Effiliation currently has accounts covering a broad range of verticals.

TimeOne

Reach – Western Europe & Brazil

TimeOne is a French-based network that has successfully expanded into Western Europe and Brazil (and South Africa). Reach your advertising goals by leveraging TimeOne’s 60,000 publishers and work with your dedicated account manager to fine-tune your campaigns. They have experience in the following verticals: Travel/Leisure, Shopping, Banking/Insurance/Finance, Health/Beauty, Dating, Consumer Goods, Cars, Telephony, and Services.

MoreNiche

Reach: Europe, US & UK

MoreNiche focuses on a narrow range of verticals with advertisers that are willing to pay high commissions (around 30-50% of the sale value) to their affiliates. Verticals covered include Health, Nutrition, Beauty, and Weight loss. MoreNiche has offices in the UK and US and serves some non-English speaking European countries including Germany, Russia, and France. Review benefits include this affiliate network’s focus on community, their forum, and their customer support.

Optimise

Reach: Europe & Asia Pacific

Concentrating on its expertise in the Travel, Finance, Utilities, and Telecomms verticals, Optimise provides coverage of Europe as well as the emerging markets of the Asia-Pacific, India, and Brazil. Benefits from their website include things like a user-friendly dashboard to see your sales and commissions in real-time, detailed feedback from analytics experts and some of the most competitive commission rates in the market.

DoAffiliate.net

Reach: Eastern Europe and Spain

One of the leading Affiliate Networks in Eastern Europe, working in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Georgia, and other countries. Their main verticals are finance, payday loans, insurance offers, etc. On their website, they highlight their ability to track individual registration of clicks allowing you to analyze the source, IP address, and time of registration to prevent fraud and the ability to track each transaction.

When Do You Need an Affiliate Product Feed?

A successful affiliate marketing program starts with getting the right data to your affiliate partners. Affiliate product feeds allow you to advertise your products on affiliate partner websites in a structured manner that is optimized for the particular network. You need a high-quality and frequently updated product feed to get the right price, inventory, and product information to your affiliate network so that it is approved and meets the affiliate channel requirements.

A Product Feed Management partner can help you by creating, maintaining, and managing the product data feeds of your chosen affiliate networks. Let us help you by optimizing and automating your product data feeds, so you can focus on other important things for your business. Get in touch with Suvae.org Team for more details.

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