What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing channel in which a publisher is awarded for sales that they generate for an advertiser. Publishers, also known as affiliates or partners, are the people that promote a product or service on their website for their readers. Advertisers, sometimes referred to as merchants or brands, is the term used for the person or company that has the product to sell. The third party in the affiliate marketing triangle is the consumer, who purchases an advertiser’s product or service via a publisher’s website.
Publishers are rewarded commission when a visitor to their site clicks an affiliate link, (for example, a banner, logo or text link), goes to a particular advertiser's website and performs a certain action on the advertiser's site. Usually, this is completing a transaction. However some advertisers ask publishers to refer them traffic that results in a lead instead of a sale, perhaps through the completion of an online application form, or the submission of the user's email address.
What is an affiliate marketing network?
An affiliate network, such as Awin, controls tracking, payments and facilitates the relationships between publisher and advertiser.
Once signed up to Awin, publishers have the freedom to browse an array of different advertiser programmes via the User Interface or Advertiser Directory and can request to join them. Once a publisher’s request to join an advertiser programme has been accepted, they can begin promoting the advertisers products on their website and earn commission on sales that they generate. Vice versa, an advertiser can search the Publisher Directory and invite new websites to join their programme to promote them.
The User Interface dashboard hosts different tools to enable the tracking of the customer journey, and a range of reports so that advertisers can keep up to date with performance data.
Part of the Axel Springer and United Internet Groups, Awin is a global affiliate network with 20 years of experience in the industry. Together with ShareASale, the Awin group is comprised of 1,200+ employees, over 241,000+ contributing publishers and 21,200+ advertisers, connecting customers with brands in over 180 countries. Their network offers a global community of people, technology and business intelligence insights. Operating across the retail, telecommunications, travel and finance verticals, Awin generated £12bn billion in revenue for its advertisers and £920 million for its publishers in the last financial year.
How does Awin support small businesses?
Awin have developed a self-managed service tier called Awin Access. It is the perfect option for smaller businesses, start-ups, accelerators and entrepreneurs, giving these advertisers the chance to try out affiliate marketing without a long contract commitment or with the burden of heavy costs. The publisher directory is unrestricted, allowing advertisers to form new and exciting partnerships with as broad or as niche websites and technical solutions as they please. It’s also a fantastic tool to centralise any existing, direct relationships, bringing them all onto the Awin programme to report, monitor, optimise and pay.
What are the costs to launch affiliate marketing with Awin?
In order to support start-ups and small businesses during this period of economic uncertainty we are pleased to offer the following performance-based payment model and special terms:
Join Awin Access today and get free use of the platform for the first month
-
- £75+VAT per month
- Free use of the platform for the first month
- 2.5% tracking fee*
- 3 month minimum term
*You choose the commission to pay your affiliate partners as a % of the transaction value. The Awin tracking fee is an additional 2.5% of the transaction value.
For example, if you wish to pay 6% of the transaction value to your affiliate partners and the transaction was £100, £6 would go to the affiliate partner and £2.50 to Awin.
If you operate a business within finance or telecommunications where no transaction value exists, alternative rates will be shared.
To check if you qualify for this rate, please complete the contact form below. You will then receive a notification that will include a link to the full application form and a guide on next steps.
Complete the form below to arrange a free consultation with one of our experts and to secure the no risk fees.
