What is an affiliate network?

An affiliate network works as a “middle-man” between the merchant and the affiliate. The network’s role is to set up the affiliate marketing offering for affiliate programs or merchants so website publishers or affiliates can easily find and participate in them. It allows affiliate programs to reach more people and consumers to take advantage of cross-promotional deals.

Affiliate Networks

Affiliate networks take away all of the back-end work in order to organize your affiliate marketing, and isn’t that the dream after all? As per its name, when you join an affiliate network, you are joining a group of potential affiliates, waiting to market your product and improve your online marketing strategy.

There are four players involved in an affiliate network: brand, network, affiliate, and consumer.

Merchant – The merchant is the seller looking Photo Editing Services to sell its product or service. An online business using affiliate marketing can range from small businesses to massive corporations.

Network – The network serves as a “middle-man” between the merchant and the affiliate. The network’s role is to set up your entire affiliate marketing scheme for you, allowing you to focus on your brand and the things you really enjoy doing.

Affiliate – The affiliate is the person doing the marketing work out in the field. The affiliate’s goal is to lead their followers and your potential consumers down their funnel, leading to a purchase. Affiliates make money based on a percentage or a fixed transaction fee for each sale. This type of marketing can be lucrative for affiliates and therefore they have the incentive to try and sell as much product as possible.

Consumer – At the end of the day, every company’s goal is to sell. The consumers are what makes this possible. Consumers purchase products from the affiliate’s link/code and therefore are part of a successful affiliate marketing campaign.

Pros and cons of affiliate networks

Affiliate networks can be a time and energy-saver. You can join a network and get started on your affiliate marketing almost immediately. No need to search for the right affiliates, set up campaigns, sort out monitoring, commission structure, or a payment system. An affiliate network will take care of all of these things for you so you can start winning new customers quickly.

Another benefit of an affiliate network is being able to research the various networks and their effectiveness. You’ll have access to statistics about the networks’ success with other brands, which fields they specialize in and they’ll even likely be able to give you tips, templates, and advice. At the end of the day, the network is interested in everyone succeeding.