If revamping your affiliate program was on your OKR list, here’s the piece for you. Things change fast when it comes to B2B affiliate marketing, and it’s important to stay current.
Here are some of the strategies affiliate partners can implement to drive sales, increase revenue and win more affiliates in 2026.
Try providing beginner-focused tiers
When executed well, affiliate marketing can be more effective than traditional marketing. But it can also be hard for incoming B2B affiliates to stand out in a crowded influencer marketplace. It’s equally difficult for affiliate programs to appeal to newcomers to the affiliate space over the biggest name-brand partners.
To capture the attention of prospective partners, affiliate program managers can offer a special tier for beginners. This tier might have no minimum traffic requirements or payout requirements, or base sliding scale commissions on clicks instead of sales.
Providing a dedicated, low-barrier entry point can make your affiliate program attractive for incoming partners.
Read more: How to attract better quality affiliates to your program.
Add competitive commission incentives
Many top affiliate programs stand out by offering perks on top of commissions. The additional perks can entice affiliates to work with one particular program over another.
The travel sector is a great example of this. TripAdvisor, for instance, pays out 50 per cent of the commission it receives when a user visits their site via affiliate link, then clicks out to a hotel booking site. Sandals affiliates, meanwhile, can win free trips on top of their regular commissions. The potential incentive of a Caribbean vacation becomes a motivating factor for travel influencers to partner with one brand over another.
Partner programs can also try providing freebies for affiliates to give away to their networks. This way, users get free perks while the affiliate and your company earn commissions and additional sales. It’s a win-win-win.
Support partners with dedicated affiliate management
One of the best things affiliate partners can get is answers to their questions — whether that’s through a dedicated support line or a marketing manager who works on their account.
Some top programs offer direct access to affiliate support teams. Others provide one-on-one access to account managers to help partners every step of the way. Determine what resources your brand needs to provide based on its range of affiliate partners.
When you’re working with content creators, you can also offer help creating key narratives that will help affiliate content show up on SERPs and in answer engines.
See more: AI is reshaping affiliate marketing — here’s how leaders are adapting.
Refine your affiliate program based on data
Unfortunately, the “set it and forget it” approach won’t stand out when it comes to affiliate programs. Tracking the relevant KPIs of your affiliate program and adjusting as necessary is your best bet in optimizing your affiliate strategy.
Affiliate managers can use insights gathered from data like revenue earned, conversion rates, leads generated and unique sales to rank affiliates and determine which affiliates are bringing in the most leads and sales. Then you can shift your affiliate lineups in response.
You might also like: AI affiliate programs to join to maximize revenue.
Bundle your affiliate offerings
Who doesn’t love a deal? Pairing an affiliate offer with a fellow vendor’s offer adds value, especially when the end user is receiving two goods or services for one checkout.
The incentive is manifold: new customers are incentivized with a discount, while both vendors can leverage their respective audiences as well as the affiliate’s.
Bundling can also work alongside other promotions like coupon codes. When deployed correctly, they’re cost-effective and trackable, so you can see how and where they’re being used, then make adjustments to the offering where you need to.
Turn existing advocates into affiliates
Do you have customers singing your praises? With affiliate focus shifting from big publishers to niche creators, this is an opportunity to recruit the customers who already love you as revenue-generating partners in your program. Customers who already advocate for you (or are willing to) can help you stand out in increasingly crowded spaces where it’s less about having the biggest reach and more about having the most trusted voice.
To convince them to join your program, you can offer your usual competitive commissions along with other incentives like product access — which should appeal because they already use your product.
Pro tip: Join an affiliate network
Trying to make your affiliate dreams come true? Don’t go it alone. Affiliate networks like the PartnerStack Marketplace give you access to some of the world’s most relevant B2B affiliate marketing programs and hopefully, your next partner.
Networks can be key to finding active partners. Evaluating every single affiliate that piques your interest individually takes time, but affiliate networks act as a library of service partners, giving you the full range of need-to-knows of each, all in one place. PartnerStack also has engagement-boosting features like challenges, in-app messaging and learning materials.
If you treat your affiliate program like a living system, chances are it will grow like one. Change up your routine and track growth this year, and you’ll stay on the cutting edge of successful affiliate programs.
This article was originally published in March 2023.
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