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Affiliate marketing is rising rapidly as the leading way of promoting products and services. Both big and small businesses, as well as startups, are opting for affiliate marketing over traditional marketing. While affiliate marketing provides great benefits such as low cost and is easier to run, it also has its own set of problems.

Here we take a look at some problems that merchants face in affiliate marketing and solutions for them

Affiliate programs take time to get established

Affiliate programs, though easy to set up and manage, do take some time to establish. When you set up an affiliate marketing program, your work begins from there. When starting, you will first need to set commissions for your products, recruit affiliates into your program and when they bring in customers, pay them for their referrals. While it sounds quite straight forward, this does take time to get going.‌

It is very important for a merchant to have patience, since recruiting affiliates and getting referral sales, both take time. It is, therefore, very important for a merchant to take their time and establish their affiliate program properly before expecting big returns.‌

Competition in the affiliate marketing space

Affiliate marketing has become one of the leading ways for businesses, both small and big to promote their products. It is to be expected that competition in promotions by affiliates is rising. Bigger companies such as Amazon and eBay also make use of affiliate marketing to fetch more sales. So it is safe to say that even though affiliate marketing has allowed smaller companies and startups to promote their products more effectively, it has also resulted in a rise in competition. ‌

More companies are shifting away from traditional marketing methods to affiliate marketing. They are making use of social media influencers to promote products and reach niche audiences. It has, therefore, become essential for merchants to be more flexible with commissions and payouts, to attract good affiliates who bring in a higher number of sales. It is also important to keep up with the industry and bring in new changes from time to time so that your affiliate program remains competent. ‌

Fraudulent activity can easily happen in affiliate marketing

In affiliate marketing models such as pay-per-click or pay-per-view, there are high chances of fraud to occur. It is because of this, that more affiliate programs are opting for the pay-per-sale model. In the pay-per-sale model, affiliates are paid their commission only when they bring in sales. Affiliates share their referral links or coupon codes with their followers and any subsequent sale that takes place using this referral or coupon code, the affiliate earns a commission on it. ‌

The pay-per-sale model also provides merchants the benefit of paying affiliates, with the revenue that comes in from the sale. This makes it financially easier for a merchant to pay affiliates and manage the program more effectively. It is also cheaper to run a pay-per-sale model of an affiliate program. ‌

Quality matters but so does the quantity

While it is true that having better quality affiliates is more important than having a lot of affiliates in your program, it is important to note that to reach a broader audience, you will need to bring in more affiliates into your program. Not all affiliates can be great at promotions or have a wide reach but having more affiliates does offer the benefit of reaching out to more number of people. So, while it is ideal to maintain a small number of quality affiliates that offer better returns with sales, having more number of affiliates also has benefits. ‌

It is, however, important for merchants to maintain some benchmark for affiliates and guide newer affiliates on how to carry out promotions. Merchants understand their products better than anyone, so it is on them to guide affiliates on how to effectively promote their product and highlight its features. This also helps in preventing affiliates from falsely advertising products where they might exaggerate the features or benefits of the product. It is very important, to be honest in promotions to create a loyal customer base.