How to find the right affiliate marketing agency

affiliate marketing agency

If you are currently looking for an affiliate marketing agency, you may start your search via Google and come across a list of hundreds of affiliate agencies. Some people will ask themselves how to find the best affiliate marketing agencies.

At this point it should be mentioned right away: there is no such thing as “the best” agency. But on how to look for and hopefully find the agency that is right for you, this article will introduce you to a few criteria.

First step: clarifying the requirements for the affiliate marketing agency

Before you start looking for possible affiliate marketing agencies, it can be very helpful to think about what is particularly important to you and to get exclusion criteria if an agency does not meet them.

The following questions can help:

Should the agency offer other online marketing services in addition to affiliate marketing (if so, which ones - e.g. SEO, SEA )?

Which competencies are mandatory (e.g. languages or tool know-how)?

How should you deal with competitions currently managed by the agency - desired or no-go?

Is physical proximity important or an advantage?

With these and other individually defined criteria, you can already filter out some agencies.

How to Find Potential Affiliate Marketing Agencies?

Many affiliate networks do e.g. B. on their website information about the agencies they work with. If you are in talks with networks or have an ongoing partner program, ask your contact person about possible affiliate agencies. He will certainly give you a handful of agencies that he can recommend.

And here we are with one of the most relevant sources: Recommendations from your business partners and friendly companies. Ask your contacts what experiences they have had with top affiliate marketing companies and what lessons they can pass on to you. Certainly, individual experiences cannot always be generalized, but first-hand reports will still help you considerably.

Evaluation of the agency's appearance

As soon as you have made an initial selection, it makes sense to take a look at the (online) presence of the affiliate marketing agencies.

You can already find out a lot via the website:

1. Service areas
2. References and customer testimonials
3. Publications and Industry Engagement
4. Certifications and Awards
5. Philosophy

1. Service areas

In the service areas, it is particularly interesting to see where the affiliate marketing agency focuses and whether the focus is sufficiently on affiliate marketing. If this area is noticeably small compared to other service areas and is more of a "follower", there could be a risk that the relevant employees will be trained less and have less experience than in agencies where affiliate marketing is one of the core competencies.

2. References and customer testimonials

It can be an advantage if the agency has already gained experience in your industry or has also looked after advertisers or affiliate programs with a similar target group. As a result, she probably has contacts with the corresponding top partners in this area, and she knows what has often worked particularly well with similar merchants and what special features must be considered.

3. Publications and Industry Engagement

Check whether the agency publishes blog posts, specialist articles, or case studies on the subject of affiliate marketing, and also check how up-to-date they are and how often something is published here.

Speaker appearances at conferences, webinars, or podcasts can also be an indication of how intensively the agency deals with current topics related to affiliate marketing. You will also get a little insight into how the agency works.

4. Certifications and Awards

Notable certifications are, on the one hand, those of affiliate networks. Many networks now offer agency certifications, which an agency receives if it looks after at least one advertiser or partner program in the respective network and takes part in network training.

The certifications are usually valid for one year. While getting the certifications isn't difficult, it lets you see if the agency works with different networks and knows about the latest tools and workings - and can also give you recommendations for network selection. The same applies to certifications of other technologies.

The BVDW quality certificate should also be mentioned. The certification is subject to a fee for both BVDW members and non-members and is in the lower four-digit range for two years. The non-existence of the BVDW certificate should not necessarily be an exclusion criterion. However, if the agency has one, that is a very good sign of the quality of the agency.

On the one hand, the agency must be a signatory to the "Code of Conduct" in the field of affiliate marketing, and on the other hand, it is checked according to the following criteria:

Experience (including business and employee structure)

Working method (network references and fraud management)

Customer satisfaction (five current customers of the agency are surveyed)

Commitment to the market (participation in industry events and publications)

In addition to the certifications, a look at the awards won or shortlist placements in the area of affiliate marketing can be interesting.

5. Philosophy

Are only phrases and buzzwords used on the website or can you get an impression of the spirit and the working method?

Insights into the day-to-day work of the agencies can also be gained via social media presence.

First talks

Most important are face-to-face conversations with your potential affiliate marketing companies. In any case, three to five different agencies should be sufficient for this selection step to get good comparability.

Regardless of whether you decide on a multi-stage pitch process or want to decide directly after the initial discussions and then receiving offers, you should always clarify a few questions. Also, pay attention to the questions the agencies ask you!

Clarifying the affiliate marketing agency's expectations and approach

A reputable agency would like to know what your goals, requirements, and expectations of the cooperation and your partner program are. She will also give you her assessment of this and, if necessary, present various options for cooperation. If you have an ongoing affiliate program, the agency should ask you to give them an overview of the current situation and identify any challenges and wishes for further development.

To find the right affiliate marketing consultancy, it makes sense to think about exactly these topics. What do I expect from the affiliate agency? What are the criteria for evaluating a collaboration as successful or unsuccessful? What services should the agency take on?

Affiliate marketing can be a very good supplement or extension of your marketing strategy and can also contribute to different goals via a wide variety of campaigns, be it increasing sales, increasing reach and brand awareness or placements in high-quality subject areas in which you can reach your target group want to achieve. Depending on the focus, the corresponding services and strategies should also be the focus of ongoing support.

You can get more detailed assessments in an initial consultation with the affiliate agencies if you can give them access to the account or accounts with an ongoing partner program and they can get an overview of the performance and the publisher landscape. In addition, most agencies offer at least a partially performance-based compensation structure. Therefore, it helps the agency to get insights into which partners are active and what sales they generate for the preparation of the offer.

In both cases - whether with or without account access to the affiliate network - you should ask the selected agencies about their approach and strategy on certain current topics in your partner program. Because these are very different and cannot be generalized.

If you have the feeling that an agency follows its formula without addressing your individual situation, industry, publisher structure, and key issues, that is not a good sign.

Questions about ongoing cooperation

The following questions can help you to get a better feeling for the ongoing cooperation during the conversation:

Fixed contact person, qualifications, getting to know each other possible (interpersonal!)

How is the availability and in what timeframe can "to-dos" be implemented?

In what form are developments and successes reported in the program, and how transparently does the agency inform you about measures?

Does the agency see itself as operational support for the implementation of your proposed marketing measures or can you expect ongoing, proactive suggestions for the strategic further development and optimization of your affiliate program?

With some questions, it will only become clear in the course of the cooperation whether the affiliate agency will live up to your expectations and promises. Based on the answers, however, you should get a feeling for whether you feel in good hands.

How much does a good affiliate marketing agency cost?

affiliate marketing agency

The price of an affiliate marketing agency should by no means be the biggest factor in choosing your service provider. Professional, high-quality affiliate marketing takes time. The time that agency has to invest in the training of trainees, experienced experts, and the continuous further training of employees. And the time that is invested in the further development of your affiliate program. It can be managed and maintained in a few hours.

Would you like to pay a few hundred euros a month for someone to respond to publisher inquiries, validate sales, update advertising material, create statistics and send a few emails for one or the other campaign or new publisher? You can't expect much more from this.

If you want your future agency to be able to invest the necessary time to develop your partner program in a success-oriented and sustainable manner, to acquire new partners, and to look after your program with an individual strategy and advice, you will definitely have costs in the lower to expect mid-four-digit range.

Several factors play a role here:

Size of the partner program, i.e. the scope of the partnerships to be actively maintained, number of programs/networks, number of markets/countries, and focus on new partnerships.

Intensity and variety of affiliate cooperations

Services are (partially) taken over in-house

As already mentioned, many affiliate agencies offer at least some success-based or performance-based remuneration models. This can be a combination of a monthly fixed fee plus a variable (performance-based) component or a purely performance-based remuneration (possibly linked to a monthly minimum fee).

With the variable part, you should pay attention to whether it is calculated based on the publisher's commission or the turnover, or based on the number of contracts or leads generated (depending on the business model). When calculating based on the publisher commission, the agency has an advantage if it increases the publisher commission, which means that you incur higher costs in three places (publisher commission, network fee, and agency remuneration).

Summary of the main points

Finally, here are the most important points that you should consider to find the best affiliate marketing companies for you:

Clarification of the most important requirements and exclusion criteria.

Ask for experiences and recommendations from business partners.

Collect first impressions and information about the online presence of some agencies - e.g. B. whether affiliate marketing is one of the focus areas, whether they are actively involved in the industry, what certificates and references they have, and whether the philosophy suits you or your company.

Find out in personal conversations whether the agencies respond to your current situation and what recommendations and assessments they give you, as well as whether the outlook for the ongoing cooperation meets your expectations and wishes.

Be aware that quality affiliate marketing takes time and money.

We hope this article will help you find the right affiliate marketing agency for you and your business.

E-Marketing

Main menu

Pages