Recruit online marketers to promote a merchant’s products online on a pay for performance basis.
The Affiliate Program Manager is responsible for recruiting, retaining and maintaining relationships with online publishers, or “affiliates.” Successful affiliates will send targeted traffic to numerous websites and earn commissions on any sales or leads that are generated. Affiliate programs typically pay out on a revshare (percentage of sales), Cost Per Acquisition (CPA - a flat dollar amount per transaction), or Cost Per Lead (CPL) basis.
Some companies will have an in-house team of affiliate managers. This might be considered a “company within a company” and many firms will choose to outsource this to a reputable provider. A third-party person or company that manages an affiliate program is known as an Outsourced Program Manager, or OPM.
Most successful ecommerce websites have an affiliate program as a traffic and revenue stream. Should an ecommerce website not have such a program, a technologically savvy OPM, or ecommerce developer will be able to install the required software and tracking technology to make this possible.
Most companies choose to join an affiliate network such as Commission Junction, Linkshare, Google Affiliate Network, Shareasale or Pepperjam. Such a network provides a platform that enables a program to scale quickly, as thousands of publisher websites are already integrated into the system. Other companies may choose to utilize homegrown affiliate tracking software or a turnkey system such as Direct Track, as an alternative to joining a network. Reputable OPMs generally have experience managing affiliate programs in networks and with proprietary software.
