Make Your Affiliate Program PrivateMake Your Affiliate Program PrivateMake Your Affiliate Program PrivateMake Your Affiliate Program Private
  • Who We Are
  • What We Do
  • Clients
  • Affiliate Training
    • Affiliate Marketing 101: A Guide for Content Creators
    • The Glossary of Affiliate Marketing
  • Blog
  • Contact
✕
            No results See all results
            Apogee Brunch and Learn – Professional Development
            July 13, 2021
            Apogee Agency: A Reintroduction To Our Brand and Expertise
            August 26, 2021

            Make Your Affiliate Program Private

            Keeping an affiliate program private can provide many benefits for DTC and B2B businesses looking to grow. However, there are several downsides as well. It is important to fully understand the pros and cons before choosing a private or public affiliate program.

            Thousands of new affiliate programs launch on networks such as ShareASale, Impact, and Refersion every year. When we talk to these companies we hear some of the same concerns:

            I don't like coupon sites.
            Why aren't affiliates promoting my products?
            Where are the sales?
            Why aren't we getting 4x ROAS from this channel?

            The good news is that these concerns can be resolved with an easy fix — a private affiliate program. Lock down the application process and make it invite-only. Stop the madness!

            During our sales process, we ask a series of detailed questions about our prospect's overall health and strategy. Of the programs launched on their own, all but a few do so before they are ready for the full impact of what the affiliate channel can do for them. They don't have enough brand recognition or margins to support the channel. Affiliates need proof of conversion. They need coupons, discounts, and deals to convince customers to click their links or use their codes. If you consider your brand “premium” or “elite” and you don't want to discount, walk away from affiliate marketing or keep it private.

            In a closed program, you can still find influencers, content creators, or mass media publishers that will link to your products through the affiliate channel. You can have fast growth this way, but it isn't sustainable. This strategy isn't going to get you year-over-year growth. The best case studies from Apogee are from programs that utilize all the available models of performance marketing and grow significantly over a 3-5 year period.

            Professional affiliates want high conversion, high commission, and the best offers available. They want to work with brands that help them make money both quickly and for the next 10 years. These are the partners that brands need for growth, but they aren't looking for you. They need an invitation from a reputable affiliate manager or a promising brand with good statistics.

            If you aren't ready for the onslaught of hundreds of non-relevant affiliates applying to your brand, just keep it private. Build your program slowly and then expand as your numbers become attractive. My team would be happy to walk into a private program that represents 5–10% of a brand's overall online sales and build it toward the 15% range. This would be so much better than us tearing down an existing program with auto-approved affiliates and no content affiliates with sales.

            Who manages a private affiliate program? You do. In-house. Whether you are the owner of the company or the eCommerce director, managing a private program for the first 18 months will be a slow but relatively easy process. Once you are ready for sustainable growth, find an agency like ours that offers you reasonable expectations and costs.

            Greg Hoffman
            Greg Hoffman
            Greg Hoffman is the CEO/CMO of Apogee, a digital advertising agency. Greg was named the Affiliate Marketing Advocate of the Year by Affiliate Summit in 2016. In 2014, Apogee, as Greg Hoffman Consulting, was the recipient of the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award for Best OPM/Agency. Greg is a photographer, vinyl record lover, a tropical fish keeper and a comic book collector. He writes with a fancy pencil to annoy his digital-minded colleagues.

            Related posts

            August 23, 2022

            Influencer Marketing v. Affiliate Marketing


            Read more
            August 18, 2022

            Understanding Affiliates


            Read more
            August 5, 2022

            What to Expect from Your Affiliate Program


            Read more

            Connect With Us!

            • Facebook
            • Instagram
            • LinkedIn
            • TikTok
            • YouTube

            For Clients

            • Understanding Affiliates
            • Influencer vs Affiliate
            • What To Expect
            • Cheap, Quick, or Easy

            For Affiliates

            • Affiliate Marketing 101
            • Affiliate Resource Center
            • Apogee Insiders Group
            • Apogee Mailbag

            Get A Risk-Free Consultation

            "*" indicates required fields

            Name*

            © 2022 Apogee Agency | All Rights Reserved
                        No results See all results
                          Manage Cookie Consent
                          We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
                          Functional cookies Always active
                          The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
                          Preferences
                          The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
                          Statistics
                          The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
                          Marketing
                          The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
                          Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
                          View preferences
                          {title} {title} {title}