Forum Moderators: skibum
I don't have any experience in setting up affiliate programs as a merchant so I'm looking to outsource this to an agency instead.
At the moment I'm unsure how much this will cost and also what I would get from it (one-off setup or monthly management). It would be great if anyone could let me know a rough idea about fees and perhaps recommend anyone who could help with this in the UK?
Thanks in advance,
Kev
First comes "designing your affiliate program," which includes defining all key terms and policies (for example, commission rates, types of sites allowed/excluded, whether you'll permit direct-to-merchant PPC, cookie duration, etc etc etc.). Many folks do this by just copying the terms of a competitor, but if you either hire a consultant for this OR spend some time reading through online discussion forums and other web sites, you'll probably find reasons why you should make some changes.
Second comes "implementing the affiliate program" via some technology solution, either installing some kind of affiliate-tracking software on your server OR using one of the "affiliate networks" or technology solution providers (such as ShareASale or ClickBank or any of a dozen other companies, some very reputable and some not). Using a third-party 'network' solution is probably your best bet, because it provides some credibility and confidence AND it provides consolidated payments to affiliates so you need not write many small checks.
Third comes "managing the affiliate program," including recruiting new affiliates, reviewing affiliate applications, monitoring affiliate activity, and handling affiliate questions or problems.
Most of the "affiliate networks" will offer to perform all of these tasks for you, for a fee, and there are many consultants and "outsourced program managers" (individuals and agencies) who can do this work. You may also elect to have someone "in-house" do this work; indeed, I'm not aware of any large, successful programs that don't have at least one in-house employee actively involved in managing the affiliate program (at least half-time). One strategy is to hire a consultant or agency to manage the program during the launch phase, and then bring that work in-house once you can justify the cost of hiring someone or re-allocating the time of an existing employee.
The costs for each phase can vary considerably, depending on your decisions. You may do the first task yourself, or leave this to the affiliate network to define; if you hire a consultant, you might pay $1,500 to $2,500 (or more).
Actually implementing affiliate technology will require some relatively modest work by your in-house staff (for the simplest solutions, you'd merely add a snippet of code to your "order confirmation" or "thank you" page), and will also involve fees: for example, you might face a $5,000 to $10,000 setup fee plus minimum monthly fees of $500 to $2,500 for some affliate networks; some networks have modest setup fees ($250) and low (or no) monthly minimum fee. For most networks, you will also need to place funds "on deposit" to assure payment to affiliates; this can be as little as $100 or as much as $10,000, depending on the solution.
Active management of the affiliate program is absolutely essential to success; if you simply rely on the fact that you are listed as a merchant with an affiliate network, you will NOT have a successful program. Recruitment is a HUGE project, with many dangers/risks, and must be handled by someone ethical and competent (whether in-house or outsourced). You should expect to pay AT LEAST $2,000 per month and possibly $5,000 per month or more for these services, if you hire an "outsourced" consultant or agency.
Just be careful about anyone that charges less than 2K or says they will do it on a percentage only basis. You get what you pay for in this business as in any other. Anyone who is highly skilled and knows how to build a successful program charges a minimum of 3K a month. That's in US anyway, not sure about fees in UK.
Hope this helps and best of luck!
