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Your affiliate manager can make or break the success of your affiliate marketing program. Understanding the responsibilities and tasks of an affiliate manager is challenging and high-stakes.
Without the right resources, expertise, and experience, even the most dedicated and enthusiastic affiliate coordinator cannot steer an affiliate program to its full potential!
So, what does it take to manage a truly successful affiliate program? And what does an affiliate manager actually do?
We consulted the experts at Perform[cb] Agency, an award-winning affiliate marketing agency. They have managed dozens of successful programs and know exactly what it takes to succeed.
In this guide, we’ll cover what an affiliate manager is, the tasks they need to perform, what they earn, and when to outsource your affiliate management. We’ll also examine the pros and cons of outsourcing vs. hiring an in-house affiliate manager.
An affiliate manager is responsible for managing an entire affiliate program, from end to end, for the affiliate merchant/advertiser.
Learn about the role of the affiliate coordinator in handling all your affiliate management tasks, including program strategy and goal setting, finding and recruiting affiliates, setting affiliate commission structure rates, managing pay-outs, measuring key KPIs to monitor performance tracking and optimize the program, and keeping affiliates engaged and motivated.
Brands work with affiliate managers to ensure their programs are as effective and profitable as possible, from establishing new programs to growing and scaling existing programs.
Every affiliate program needs a manager, and you can manage your own program, hire an in-house manager, or outsource to a professional affiliate marketing agency or platform (we’ll explore these two options in detail a little further down).
Source: ClickBank
Managers have various tasks and responsibilities to manage and maintain a successful program. These tasks vary depending on the program’s objectives and how it performs at the time. However, the tasks almost every affiliate manager needs to perform include:
The core of a manager’s job is to attract, engage, and retain high-quality affiliates. These professionals will find the best channels to connect with affiliates that match your target audience. They may also use email, backlinks, and social media to find and engage affiliates outside typical networks.
According to the affiliate managers at Perform[cb] Agency, it is also important to select a variety of affiliates that can drive sales at different levels of the buyer’s funnel. This will maximize conversions and sales because your brand will be exposed to a broader range of interested buyers.
This stage is crucial because how well your program performs depends on who your affiliates are and how well you engage them. Engagement doesn’t end after the recruitment process. Affiliate coordinators must establish positive brand-to-affiliate relationships. This is where communicating with affiliates and motivating them becomes relevant.
Your manager may use strategies like affiliate contests and automated emails or create rewards to incentivize top-performing affiliates.
These engagement strategies also help managers retain their affiliates.
Unfortunately, not all the affiliates you onboard will contribute to your business. If affiliates don’t secure web traffic or sales within a specified period, we consider them inactive. By no means should brands keep inactive affiliates in their networks. This mistake would waste your resources, time, and money because you’re working with affiliates that don’t meet your sales targets.
You must identify inactive affiliates to reward and invest more resources into active ones. Managers rely on data and tracking to determine which % of their affiliates are inactive and active. With this information, managers may attempt to re-engage inactive affiliates, find new affiliates, or modify the recruitment strategy to find better-suited marketers.
Affiliate managers must measure the active-to-inactive ratio consistently. Doing this will prevent your affiliate program from failing. You’ll have the insights you need to make data-driven decisions to keep active affiliates happy and replace inactive ones.
Setting and measuring the right program KPIs is an important part of finding job descriptions for affiliate managers. It allows them to gauge the program’s overall performance and the performance of individual affiliates against their goals for the program as a whole.
Monitoring the right KPIs provides valuable insights to inform your strategy on every level. The KPIs specific to each program may vary depending on its type, objectives, and the type of affiliates involved.
However, there are essential marketing KPIs that apply to every program:
AoV, EPC, and Conversion Rate should be measured on an individual affiliate basis to identify your top affiliates so that you can pay extra attention to them and recruit more affiliates like them.
Assume affiliates won’t remember your businesses because countless other brands are most likely competing for their attention. The more renown and popularity an affiliate has, the harder it is to connect with and onboard them.
Understanding what the market wants is the best way to attract top-tier affiliates. Your affiliate manager will track market trends, such as affiliate compensation, popular niches and products, and effective recruitment channels to find the best affiliates.
Researching and implementing affiliate marketing trends will help you leverage market opportunities before they become saturated. For example, in 2022, 84% of brands work with influencers for affiliate marketing because influencers have high followings and loads of organic traffic to their social media channels.
Another key trend for affiliate marketing is cross-device tracking. As 62% of smartphone users have purchased at least once on mobile, brands must use cross-device tracking so that it is possible to identify an affiliate’s web traffic even when a user has switched devices. Cross-device tracking is something to highlight to potential affiliates when you’re recruiting, as it makes your program more desirable to them.
Marketing managers will ensure your brand and affiliates leverage these market trends and opportunities to maximize your results.
We just explored how working with influencers is a booming affiliate marketing trend. However, not all the influencers you contact are affiliate marketing pros. Some may have experience, but perhaps your campaign uses different processes, making it imperative for them to learn how to become an affiliate for your brand.
Businesses like those in the finance sector must also adhere to strict marketing guidelines. You could have to stick to rigid advertising rules based on your location. For example, perhaps calling your brand the best is against the advertising rules in your niche or country. Your affiliates must know this to ensure they don’t put themselves and your brand in hot water.
Affiliate managers will oversee the entire affiliate training process. They will create or assign affiliate marketing courses and branded resources to teach marketers and influencers about your affiliate marketing program.
Enterprises with large affiliate networks and complex processes and rules may receive training that extends a week or two, while startups and small businesses with complicated processes may receive shorter training.
Your affiliate manager will create and manage your training, evaluate the effectiveness of their tactics, and determine which affiliates make the cut.
We explored affiliate engagement and briefly examined communicating with affiliates. Affiliate communication is a crucial aspect of campaigns that drive results, so we must discuss it separately. Your manager will create a communication strategy to engage with affiliates and keep them connected to your brand.
Affiliate managers build brand-to-affiliate communication plans to:
Your affiliate manager will create a communication strategy for your brand that entails:
Summary: Affiliate Manager Tasks
The biggest reason to hire a manager is that these professionals have expert affiliate marketing experience. They know which affiliate networks to target, how to profile your ideal affiliates, the best affiliate management software to use, and KPIs to measure. And that’s the tip of the iceberg!
Many business owners don’t have this marketing experience and expertise. So, strategies and approaches that you think work may not be the best fit for your business. Consequently, you’ll waste your resources on trial and error rather than reaping revenue-sharing rewards.
However, with the help of an affiliate manager, businesses can rely on results-driven strategies and marketing tactics that have been proven to work.
How much you and your affiliates earn is the core of marketing because it’s why you’re doing it in the first place! However, managing how much you spend vs. earn per affiliate is tricky if you don’t have affiliate marketing experience.
Working with an affiliate manager eliminates this risk because these experts know which data to track and measure for affiliate cost vs. revenue. They also know how to manage your resources, marketing materials, and recruitment and engagement to maximize your earnings.
Affiliate coordinators create reports reflecting your affiliate cost vs. revenue. These reports highlight your top and least performing affiliates and how they manage your budget among your resources.
As you can see, there are many components to consider for affiliate marketing. Running an affiliate campaign (especially if it’s high-level) demands a lot of time and effort. All these tasks, combined with running your business, are challenging, and you’ll lose track of other aspects of your business that require your expertise and management.
Brands that hire affiliate managers don’t have to stress about this concern. Instead, they benefit from an organized and streamlined affiliate campaign and management strategy led by an expert. You won’t have to communicate with teams yourself, handle communications, or attract and retain affiliates.
Top-tier affiliate managers bring fresh perspectives to the table. These professionals have most likely dealt with loads of affiliate marketing programs before. So, they have a lot of inspiration to refer to. It’s also easier for these professionals to suggest new ideas because they can view your business from an outside perspective.
Ensure you give your affiliate coordinator a voice and respect their opinions and suggestions.
It’s vital to take a cutthroat approach to finding an affiliate manager. You want a professional who’s made a significant difference to businesses and has a track record of successful ideas and strategies.
Who says you can’t get brand loyalty from affiliate marketing?
Well, with the help of an affiliate manager, you can!
The start of any brand-to-affiliate relationship covers the basic concept – they promote your products and earn commission on every click or sale via their affiliate link.
However, successful affiliate management and marketing aim to develop affiliate relationships that run deeper than this. You want your affiliates to feel a part of your brand and mission. They should be passionate about your products and value proposition, making it easier for them to market your product and contribute to your revenue.
Affiliate managers have the experience and industry connections to turn your affiliates into brand advocates. They understand what affiliates want and how to connect them to your brand. Managers will also find the best possible ways to scale your affiliate marketing program while keeping it a win-win for you and your affiliates.
Summary: Why You Need an Affiliate Manager
Affiliate managers’ earnings depend on their experience and location. Managers with extensive industry experience and impressive track records will cost much more than entry-level managers. Brands would find it more cost-effective to outsource these affiliate managers than hire them full-time and pay them a monthly salary.
As we mentioned, location also impacts the salary of affiliate coordinators. The average salary for affiliate managers in the UK is £39,400 per annum, while top-tier managers earn around £41,428.
Affiliate coordinators in the US earn much more than those in the UK, with the average annual salary at $69,118. Top affiliate management earners make around $106,260 every year.
If you outsource your manager, the amount you pay them will differ from these annual salary figures. Outsourcing managers through agencies or working with specialists may change your payment structure.
You might have to pay an upfront retainer and a per-hour or per-project rate. Your per-hour rate depends on the agency and specialists and their experience. How per project rate depends on how complex your affiliate management is and how much an agency or specialists quote you.
Hiring an in-house affiliate manager or outsourcing to an agency or platform has pros and cons. These methods also work for different businesses and affiliate management strategies.
Let’s explore outsourced vs. in-house affiliate management and which will work best for you:
Your relationship with an outsourced affiliate manager will last the duration contract, making it ideal for small businesses or businesses testing the affiliate marketing waters.
Startups and small companies aren’t likely to have complex affiliate marketing programs, but they often need help configuring, implementing, and measuring them. The level of skill they need at this point often prevents them from hiring a full-time manager in-house.
Enterprises and large businesses can also benefit from outsourcing an affiliate coordinator if they have a large or complex affiliate program and lack the expertise or resources to manage it effectively in-house.
So, when should you outsource your affiliate management?
The simple answer is that you should outsource their affiliate management to an affiliate marketing agency or platform if you do not have the skills or resources in-house to:
If any of the above sounds like you, you should definitely consider outsourcing your affiliate management!
Here are the pros and cons to consider before you do:
Pros of outsourcing your affiliate manager:
Cons of outsourcing your affiliate manager:
Hiring an in-house manager means finding and hiring a new employee or investing in training to upskill an existing one. It also means investing in the affiliate management tools you’ll need to run the affiliate program in-house.
In-house managers are ideal for businesses that need a separate affiliate marketing sub-marketing department, brands that run complex programs and need a full-time professional to manage them, and perhaps some complementary marketing strategies like PPC ads or influencer campaigns.
Hiring an in-house manager is a more permanent commitment, and depending on their skill level and experience, it can be just as costly (with a long-term commitment).
Many businesses choose to use a less skilled or experienced manager because that is what they can afford. This approach works if your affiliate program is well-established and largely automated or if it is a low-priority program and you wish to keep it ticking over but do not wish to invest heavily in its growth at this stage.
Whatever your needs are, here are some of the pros and cons to consider before you decide to use an in-house affiliate manager:
Pros of an in-house affiliate manager:
Cons of an in-house affiliate manager:
Hiring a great affiliate manager is essential to leverage expert industry experience and accurate affiliate cost vs. revenue management. You can streamline your marketing efforts, too. Affiliate coordinators can also bring fresh perspectives and ideas and help you turn affiliates into brand advocates.
Businesses can outsource or hire an in-house affiliate manager. Which option will you choose?
Marketing managers commonly use affiliate networks and tracking software to recruit publishers and monitor performance. They leverage content marketing, SEO, and paid advertising to drive traffic. Data analysis helps optimize campaigns, affiliate payouts, and relationships with top-performing affiliates.
The most effective incentives for affiliate partners are lucrative commission rates or revenue share models aligned with their efforts, exclusive promotions or early access to new products, and value-added resources like training materials or co-marketing support. High payouts, unique offerings, and partner enablement incentivize top affiliates.
Hire an manager when your affiliate program has grown to a scale that requires dedicated management, the revenue justifies allocating resources for the role, and you lack the internal capacity or expertise to strategically drive growth within the affiliate marketing channel.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers
TechJury: 67+ Revealing Smartphone Statistics for 2024
Reed.co.uk: Average Affiliate Manager salary in the UK
Indeed: Affiliate marketing manager salary in United States
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