Affiliate marketing software allows advertisers at companies to grow, track, and manage affiliate marketing campaigns. Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which affiliates, such as industry experts, publishers, content creators, consultants, or other business partners, promote a company’s offerings on their own platforms or channels. The affiliates then receive a commission based on the amount of traffic, conversions, or sales generated by the promotion.
Affiliate marketing software helps companies manage affiliate partnerships by generating unique links to track activity, referrals, and performance for optimization. It also manages commissions and can automate payouts between companies and affiliates while measuring the revenue impact of affiliate marketing programs. The marketing or partnerships teams within the company primarily use affiliate marketing software, while other teams like sales, RevOps, and finance support return-on-investment (ROI) measurement, lead management, and payments. Affiliates have access to a portal where they can monitor their own performance and manage promotional assets. Companies may also use partner management software to optimize relationships with their sales partners, including affiliates.
Many of the best affiliate marketing solutions offer proprietary networks that help advertisers at companies identify and connect with affiliates that align with their target audience. Using AI-driven recommendations and customizable filters, companies can discover and recruit a wide range of relevant affiliates.
To qualify for inclusion in the Affiliate Marketing category, a product must:
- Allow companies to recruit, onboard, and manage affiliate partners
- Track referral activity and attribute results to the correct affiliate
- Provide reporting and analytics that measure affiliate-driven performance
- Support the creation and management of affiliate campaigns and promotional links
- Facilitate the calculation and distribution of affiliate payments
- Enable companies to define and manage commission structures
- Allow affiliates to have access to a portal where they can monitor performance and manage their promotional assets
