If you are running an online store or an ecommerce website to be precise, there is a high probability that you are running an Affiliate program. Given that a substantial portion of your income generates from these programs, it would be a better idea to manage these multiple affiliate programs using a trusted affiliate tracking system.
Having a powerful affiliate marketing software is one of the prerequisites these days to run your affiliate programs smoothly and successfully. However, due to the rise in the number of such feature rich software it gets difficult to make a choice. While purchasing an affiliate software for your online store, there are a few things that you must keep in mind to ensure that you find the right for you. Today in this post we will guide you through the major aspects to look at while shopping for an affiliate software.
Why use an affiliate marketing software?
Given that there are multiple affiliate programs and each vary based on the way they function and their payout, affiliates have started using affiliate software to run affiliate programs. This is because some of the online stores offer affiliate programs directly using the software and are chiefly managed by affiliate managers. A single software account can help manage numerous affiliate programs based on the software. So primarily, these softwares are used for tracking each of the affiliate conversions or sales along with the commissions, supervise the auto creation of the invoices, and keep a check on the functioning of the affiliate programs.
What makes great affiliate marketing software?
There are umpteen affiliating marketing software in the market these days and each one has its own special features and functionalities. So, while selecting the one that matches your requirement, you should look for some of the essential features like as below:
Offers simple setup process
No one wants it complicated these days and so, the affiliate software should be easy to set up for a hassle-free installation. Efficient software would require no plugins or tools to be downloaded. It should be already equipped with built in facilities where you would require no HTML skills to launch it. All usage instructions should be included with it on how to start with the software and how to use it to ensure that you do not need a software or a web developer to help you with the same.
Connects you with a wide affiliate network
Leading affiliate tracking systems by LeadDyno has a wide network of affiliates who can help you with promoting your product. They help you list your affiliate program in their directory, advertises your newsletter to their affiliate network, they join your program and start promoting your products straight away.
Endless installation of affiliate programs
If your online store offers a wide range of products for example, apparels, shoes, jewellery, or accessories to electronic devices or household items, it will be advantageous for you to get an affiliate software that enables you to add more than one affiliate programs. An efficient software program would have the capacity to analyse which affiliate programs would fit in.
Ensures secured hosting
Security of your website is foremost and so the affiliate marketing software should host the program on its own server and not on a dedicated server. This will ensure secured hosting along with credibility while doing away with any requirement for upgrades, backups, software upgrades and the management of tasks related to security.
Accessible through mobile phones
Mobile phones being the essential gadget these days used all across the world, accessibility of the affiliate programs through these devices is extremely important for a wider reach. Not just that it makes it easier for the affiliate marketers to sign up for programs for their handsets. Moreover, they can also keep a track of their commission and manage the other aspects of the program conveniently through the mobile devices.
Easy merchant integration
It’s a great relief for many merchants to integrate their online store with a payment gateway or the shopping cart and this, can be achieved by using an effective affiliate software.
Offers total management control
A good affiliate software will always offer different sets of tools to the users that will ensure full management control within the industry. From hosting the website, for business, or shopping to multi-tier functions, the software should help you with full management control of activities like assimilation with other software mechanisms, running more than one affiliate programs at one time, marketing of newsletters via email, and more.
Facilitates with social media sharing
A trusted affiliate software would offer the facility to get continuous alerts on social media from your affiliates and that’s all possible due to the sharing alternatives. You can easily preload content for the affiliates using the software that will enable the affiliates to share their affiliate links on popular social media channels like, Facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc.
Successful tracking without cookies
Excellent affiliate marketing software would not just offer the regular tracking cookie to track and award conversions via the affiliate links, but also offer different methods to track the sales despite the user deleting the cookies. For example, adding a flash cookie in addition to the regular cookies can help you track that the buyer clicked on the affiliate link and the sale was completed. If the cookies fail, the software should still be able to track the buyer activity using their IP address helping the affiliate get credit for conversions.
Offers improved SEO & SEO friendly affiliate links
Getting ranked in the top tiers of Google is essential for any business, especially if you own an online store. Hence, make sure that the affiliate software you choose provides services to help enhance your search engine rankings with effective SEO techniques. The software must also equip the affiliates with links that are SEO-friendly thus, helping them with increased profits,
No long-term agreements
Trusted affiliate marketing software must not force the clients to get into a long-term agreement. This develops dissatisfaction among clients as they are forced to stick around till the agreement is over. A pay-as-you go or a monthly option is much more preferred and satisfactory for clients rather than getting into an obligation.
Free Trial period
Reputed affiliate marketing software would mostly come with a free trial period, for example, a 14-day free trial period that will help you to get insights on the software and to find out how effective it is.
24 hours customer support
The 24 hours customer service via chat, email and phone is always a relief for clients to be able to contact the company and get their issues resolved then and there for efficient and non-stop functioning of business, to avoid any downtimes, setbacks in application.
From getting discounts on usage of the affiliate tracking system to achieve improved sales, there are several such features offered by a reputed software that is otherwise not available with the regular options. So, start getting increased sales and traffic by finding the best affiliate software for your online store that offer the above features.
