services and advice

Affiliate marketing is a great way increase profits and expand your audience. There are even companies that get 95% of profits are purely from collaborations (Microsoft, for example). But how to evaluate the results? Unlike direct advertising tools, with partnerships it can be more difficult to clearly track contributions. However, it is possible, and modern services make the process easier. In this article we will talk about them and give some tips.

What metrics should you use to evaluate affiliate programs?

Like all marketing tools, you need to evaluate the “affiliate” depending on your initial goals. For example, the program may be aimed at such indicators.

Attraction of new clients. In this case, the partner receives a reward for each new buyer who came through his recommendation. Then the metrics are the number of customers (leads, orders on the website, requests, purchases) and the average bill.

Increased sales. The affiliate receives a commission for each sale made through his recommendations. In this case, it makes sense to evaluate sales volume and average check. For example, if sales through collaborations accounted for 30% of the company’s total sales, this indicates good work from partners. If it grows, it means the cooperation is productive; if it falls, it’s worth reconsidering the working conditions.

Increased brand awareness. The partner promotes the brand and receives a reward. This is one of the most difficult types to evaluate, but there are still metrics here: traffic to the site, recognition rate, mentions in the media and social networks, subscribers who came from a partner, etc.

Increased loyalty. The client receives bonuses or discounts if he brings new clients, and the affiliate receives commissions from these bonuses or discounts. In this case, in addition to the number of people who came with the affiliate program, you should monitor their satisfaction and return, and the dynamics of the level of outflow.

Spin off. For example, cashback or payments from a partner for using its services. Let's say a marketing agency purchases advertising for clients through a third-party service. Clients spend money on promotion within it, and the agency, as an intermediary, receives interest. Like that works and our affiliate program – you can receive rewards for advertising spending by clients. This is a nice bonus from such affiliate programs; but in this case, you need to weigh your costs against the benefits. The fee for the intermediary service should be worthwhile compared to independent procurement and other services.

These metrics will allow you to evaluate how profitable the program is and what reward to pay to your partner.

What should be additionally monitored?

“For yourself” it is still worth tracking such indicators.

Conversion funnel. Studying the funnel will help you determine at what stage potential customers drop out and what partner actions lead to a successful sale.

ROMI (return on advertising investment). Calculating ROMI will allow you to estimate how much money you earned for each ruble spent on marketing. If ROMI = 200%, this means that you received twice what you spent on the affiliate program.

Next, let's look at how exactly you can track these indicators.

Tips for Tracking Affiliate Marketing Performance

1. Use conversion tracking and ROMI platforms such as RoiStat, UTMSTAT, or HubSpot. They will allow you to see how many sales came through partners and what their contribution was to the total income.

2. Conduct regular data analysis using tools like Yandex Metrics, SimilarWeb, Ahrefs or SEMrush to evaluate traffic and site positions in search engines. This will allow you to understand which partners bring the most benefits.

3. To correctly compare partners with each other, select several main indicators and keep summary statistics on them. For example, you can evaluate each program based on metrics such as ROI, sales volume, and average bill. This will help determine which partners bring the most profit and which channels to develop further.

4. Use specialized promotion services to automate the process of analyzing statistics and conducting business. For example, our ecosystem helps Easily create summary reports, label ads, and calculate traffic sources.

And remember that all marketing requires constant analysis and adjustment of the strategy. More than half (60–65%) of marketing partnerships tolerate failure due to unrealistic expectations and failure to reach agreement. You should not blindly rely on the reputation of your partners and think that everything is obvious. Remember to study data, conduct tests and experiment, and the results from collaborations will not keep you waiting.