The 11 Best Affiliate Marketing Software
- my gen
- Feb 4, 2020
- 8 min read
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when businesses build a partnership with influencers or bloggers in their industry that have their own online audience and pay them for the leads sent to the company’s website. This is usually a percentage commission or a flat fee per conversion.
This type of relationship is typically mutually beneficial for both sides – one side gets relatively affordable advertising, and the other gets paid for said advertising.
Why do you need affiliate marketing software?
Very good question. It seems like something you could orchestrate on your own, right?
Allow me to explain:
Influencers and bloggers have built a loyal following, people who come back to their site again and again. These loyal readers trust the content they find on the blog.
When these bloggers or influencers write about your company and recommend your products to their audience, “warm leads” are sent to your website. On average, businesses that have an affiliate marketing program receive their highest rates of conversion from affiliates.
Because these leads are so crucial to your business, you need to stay organized with each of them. Affiliate marketing software provides an easy way to manage and communicate with affiliates, so that you know you are making the most of your affiliate program.
Let’s take a closer look at the best affiliate softwares out there.
1. Ambassador
Star Rating
5 out of 5
What is Ambassador?
Ambassador is an all-in-one referral software that provides a way for marketers to increase referrals, customers, and revenue through leveraging word-of-mouth advertising. Their software simplifies the referral marketing process by automating enrolling, tracking, and rewarding partners, influencer marketing, and affiliates.
Who should use Ambassador?
Ambassador is ideal for marketers of B2B and B2C brands who want an all-in-one software for affiliate marketing that allows them to streamline and automate the process of enrolling and managing their company affiliates, partners, customers, and more. The software also allows marketers to segment their ambassadors.
Pros:
Versatility in payment methods, including cash (paypal, bank transfer, dwolla), gift cards, store coupons, and voucher codes.
Excellent customer on-boarding and ongoing support
Intuitive ease of use
Fully featured/easily track all of your progress
Easily customized campaigns
Cons:
Given that it is a robust platform, it may take some upfront effort to get it setup properly
Requires ongoing commitment and focus to make the program successful
May need website developer assistance to install
Pricing
Ambassador offers plans based on the size of the company. You can contact the company for a demo and pricing.
Integrations
Ambassador integrates with a variety of third-party applications. FInd the full list here.
Link
Video
2. Omnistar
Star Rating
5 out of 5
What is Omnistar?
Omnistar is an easy-to-use referral marketing software that lets marketers easily create and manage their affiliate marketing program. The affiliate software makes it easy for businesses to recruit and empower influencers, affiliates, and customers to promote their brand.
Who should use Omnistar?
Omnistar is great for marketers who want to build their own in-house affiliate program that expands their marketing channels by creating a sales-driven customer referral program.
Pros:
Simple, easy and straight-forward to use and implement
Excellent customer support
Good for getting simple affiliate programs up and running quickly.
Easy-to-use dashboard
Integration with numerous third-party applications
Cons:
Limited payout options
Integration with CRMs only provides name and email
Knowledge base leaves some to be desired
Pricing
Omnistar offers both monthly and annual plans, as well as a 15-day free trial.
Integrations
Omnistar integrates with more than 30 applications. You can find the complete list here.
Link
Video
3. Kartra
Star Rating
5 out of 5
What is Kartra?
Kartra is an all-in-one online business platform that makes it easier for you to run your business, along with managing and tracking affiliate sales with its built-in affiliate management system.
Who should use Kartra?
Kartra is designed for internet marketers and for both beginners and experienced users. The software features an intuitive design based on drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-made templates, which helps the learning curve. For seasoned users, Kartra is a robust and flexible engine that allows for complex, customized, and advanced automated marketing campaigns and sales funnels.
Pros:
Eliminates the need for all the usual collection of various software solutions
Great for those with a need for a membership platform
Set up includes inline, easy to understand instructions
Easy-to-use page builder
Flexibility and numerous configuration options
Cons:
Can have more of a learning curve with more advanced features
User interface can sometimes be a bit slow
Email tech support could be quicker
Pricing
Kartra offers monthly subscription plans. You can contact the company for pricing details.
Integrations
Kartra offers more than 20 integrations, including custom integrations.
Link
Video
4. ShareASale
Star Rating
4 out of 5
What is ShareASale?
ShareASale is an efficient and fast affiliate marketing network that helps both businesses and affiliates with growing their affiliate program and increasing their income. The company also offers real-time tracking and click attribution to boost productivity and efficiency, as well as improve on marketing strategy.
Who should use ShareASale?
ShareASale is designed for all sizes of business looking for a fast and efficient tool that streamlines the process of building and growing their affiliate marketing program.
Pros:
Clickstream attribution
Real-time tracking
Easily run campaigns for multiple shops under one account.
Easy to generate custom links to the store product page with your affiliate ID
Fairly easy to join the program with zero experience working with affiliate programs
Cons:
Portal interface is a little outdated
In most cases, you can only see what the referring page the purchase came
The recruitment tool can be slightly challenging to use for some people
Pricing
ShareASale starts at $550 plus a $100 minimum account creation deposit. Recurring fees are also charged depending on the amount of sales generated monthly.
Link
Video
5. CJ Affiliate
Star Rating
4 out of 5
What is CJ Affiliate?
CJ Affiliate by Conversant, previously known as Commission Junction, is one of the leading affiliate marketing networks. The company specializes in pay-for-performance programs and offers omni-channel, data-driven, and innovative solutions that connect businesses with customers.
Who should use CJ Affiliate?
CJ Affiliate is for business wanting to reach and connect with online consumers throughout the world and build productive partnerships between publishers and advertisers by making it easier to build an affiliate program and reward affiliates.
Pros:
Large selection of advertisers and verticals
Ability to customize offers
Boosted lead generation
Fast revenue generation
Global platform
Cons:
Admin could stand to be more intuitive
No single support contact
Report creation isn’t the most intuitive
Pricing
You will need to contact the company for a price quote.
Link
Video
Star Rating
4 out of 5
What is FirstPromoter?
FirstPromoter is an all-encompassing SaaS affiliate marketing software that helps SaaS companies track, manage and optimize their affiliate marketing program. The software allows businesses to launch your own affiliate and referral program in minutes, and features quick integration with Stripe, Recurly, Braintree, Chargebee or with FirstPromoter’s API.
Who should use FirstPromoter?
FirstPromoter is designed for businesses who utilize SaaS and want an all-encompassing software for their affiliate marketing program. The step-by-step setup process makes it easy to launch the program, as well as track, manage, and optimize any type of referral-based marketing program for any kind of SaaS product..
Pros:
Provides fast and accurate customer service
Customizable dashboard
Fraud protection from suspicious leads
Ability to set up multi-tiered commissions
Track referrals without and affiliate link with direct URL tracking
Cons:
Reporting dashboards could be more robust
Not much difference in features between Business and Enterprise plans
Not many customer reviews available
Pricing
FirstPromoter offers three different plans, as well as a 14-day free trial.
Integrations
FirstPromoter integrates with a wide variety of applications, including more than 1,000 apps using Zapier.
Link
7. PartnerStack
Star Rating
4 out of 5
What is PartnerStack?
Formerly known as GrowSumo, PartnerStack enables companies to leverage affiliate partnerships in order to grow revenue, increase distribution, and go to market more efficiently.
Who should use PartnerStack?
PartnerStack is great for companies who want the ability to manage all of their affiliate marketing channel programs with a single dashboard. The software features a full-suite of marketing, affiliate, and referral solutions with real-time reporting and payouts.
Pros:
Intuitive dashboard
Easy payout process
Ability to manage and refer clients while keeping it all together under one roof
Can reach out to partners directly within the platform for any questions or concerns
Cons:
Product integrations may take some time
Platform can sometimes run a bit slow
Lacks some integrations
Pricing
Integrations
You can check out some of the PartnerStack integrations here.
Link
Star Rating
3 out of 5
What is iDevAffiliate?
iDevAffiliate is an affiliate tracking solution that supports customized commission payouts and offers extensive marketing features.
Who should use iDevAffiliate?
The software is great for small businesses looking for a basic affiliate software without all the bells and whistles. It performs all basic functions well at an affordable price.
Pros:
Does a great job with the basics at a good price point
Nice features list is very nice with a few important bells and whistles
Easy to use and customize
Numerous cart integrations
Cons:
Customer service could use some improvement
Templates may not be compatible with some website templates
Some aspects may have a learning curve
Pricing
iDevAffiliate offers both cloud and self-hosting plan options with a 30-day money back guarantee.
Integrations
iDevAffiliate integrates with nearly every cart/checkout system in the world. You can find the full list of integrations here.
Link
Video
9. JvZoo
Star Rating
3 out of 5
What is JVZoo?
JVZoo is an affiliate marketing platform for selling digital products. The platform makes it simple easy for sellers to promote, list and sell their products, as well as give affiliate marketers some products to promote.
Who should use JVZoo?
JVZoo lets you both host and create landing pages on their own website, so it’s best for professional marketers who want to fill the internet with offers. It’s main strength is that it lets experienced marketers gain access to product launches and a huge range of online courses, while setting up sales funnels and customized landing pages.
Pros:
More products to promote which relate to Online Marketing
Not picky at all in approving vendors
As a vendor, you get paid immediately if people check out through Paypal
Easy to create a funnel
Free to join
Cons:
In some cases, you have to wait at least 30 days to get paid
For vendors, customer service could use some improvement
Lots of videos and documentation available, but you have to pay to access it (a one-time fee).
Pricing
It’s free to sign up with JVZoo. You can contact the company for more details about specific pricing.
Integrations
JVZoo integrates with a variety of third party applications.
Link
10. Zaxaa
Star Rating
3 out of 5
What is Zaxaa?
Zaxaa is a platform where product owners can sell their products without handling any payment. Sales funnels are set up, giving businesses more time to concentrate on what matters. It also includes an email automation tool to make your marketing efforts more effective.
Who should use Zaxaa?
Zaxaa is good for businesses who want an easy-to-use affiliate marketing platform that helps them manage affiliates promoting their products with no extra effort on their part.
Pros:
Features beyond a shopping cart
Easy to use platform
Integrates with popular third-party applications
Hat Cons:
Customer support can sometimes be slow
Occasional tech issues
Not as many integrations as other affiliate software
Pricing
Zaxaa offers both monthly and yearly plans with zero set up fees.
Integrations
Zaxaa provides integrations with several popular applications. See the list here.
Link
Video
11. ClickBank
Star Rating
3 out of
What is ClickBank?
ClickBank is an affiliate marketing program that has been around for a long time and focuses on digital products, particularly courses. There are few affiliate marketing programs larger than this one.
Who should use ClickBank?
ClickBank is a good choice for those who are new to the affiliate marketing game, as you can join for free without an extensive approval process. There is plenty of information available, including videos, walk-throughs, and FAQs, providing a low barrier to entry. ClickBank also offers its ClickBank University for more assistance and courses.
Pros:
As a vendor, the customer service is managed entirely by Clickbank
Easy to use dashboard
Variety of payout options
One of the largest and robust affiliate programs around
Extensive in-app tools
Cons:
Can’t control issuance of refunds
Can’t decide the length of your Money Back Guarantee
Refund policy improves conversion rates but can decrease income
Pricing
No pricing information is provided on the website.
Integrations
Connect to ClickBank to 1,500+ web apps with Zapier.
Link
Video
The Runner Ups:
There are many other options for affiliate marketing software available that aren’t included on this list. Here are a few of our runner ups:
Trackier is a performance marketing software designed for any size business and is popular among creative networks and advertising agencies. It’s a great performance tracking tool, however, it doesn’t have as much focus on affiliate marketing and managing affiliates as some of the other software options on our list.
Like with Trackier, Tipalti offers some features for affiliate marketing, but not enough to be one of the top affiliate marketing software. The platform is primarily designed as a payment management and automation system, which can help with automating payments to affiliates.
ReferralCandy is a more of an e-commerce store plugin for referral program management, rather than a robust affiliate marketing software. It lets you leverage word-of-mouth marketing and provide incentives for referrals in a variety of forms, including cash, discounts, store credit, or even free products.
PayKickstart is a comprehensive tool for shopping cart management solution that offers several affiliate management features, along with building different types of commission programs. User experience and integration technical issues are few areas where this platform could use some improvement.
Conclusion
By using one of these affiliate marketing software solutions to help track the traffic from your affiliate marketing program, you will soon discover just how valuable affiliate marketing truly is. It’s also relatively inexpensive, especially compared to PPC advertising since you only pay for actual conversions. For more information on how to start an affiliate marketing program, check out The Secret Growth Hack to Building Your Program.
Source : https://www.growthmarketingpro.com/
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