A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding the Key Performance Metrics in your Weekly Performance Digest and Implementing Effective Strategies to Optimise Your Affiliate Program
The Weekly Performance Digest email provides valuable insights into the performance of your affiliate program on the Commission Factory network. By understanding and acting on these metrics, you can optimise your campaign strategies, strengthen affiliate relationships, and drive better results. This guide explains each section of the email, how to interpret the data, and offers strategies to enhance your affiliate marketing efforts.
1. Performance Metrics
This section offers a quick overview of your program’s key performance indicators over the last 7 days, helping you assess the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing efforts.
Sales Generated:
This metric shows the total revenue generated by your affiliate program in the past week. It directly reflects the effectiveness of your program in driving sales.
Strategies:
Analyse Trends: Compare this figure with previous weeks to identify trends. If sales are consistently rising, investigate which affiliates or channels are driving this increase and consider scaling those efforts. If sales are declining, look for potential causes, such as seasonality or changes in market demand.
Promotional Activities: Correlate sales spikes with promotional activities or affiliate campaigns. High sales during specific promotions indicate effective strategies that can be replicated or expanded.
Average Order Value (AOV):
Calculated as Total Sale Values / Total Transactions (last 7 days). AOV provides insight into how much customers are spending per order on average. Monitoring this helps you understand purchasing behaviour and the impact of any promotions or discounts.
Strategies:
Upselling and Cross-Selling: Implement strategies to increase AOV, such as upselling premium products or cross-selling complementary items. Provide affiliates with targeted offers that encourage higher-value purchases.
Promotions for Higher Spending: Offer discounts or free shipping for orders above a certain amount. Share these promotions with affiliates to help drive higher-order values.
Transactions Generated:
Displays the total number of transactions recorded in the last 7 days. It indicates the volume of sales your affiliates are driving, which is essential for evaluating the reach and engagement of your program.
Strategies:
Identify Active Affiliates: Focus on affiliates who consistently drive high transaction volumes. Consider offering them incentives, such as higher commission rates, to encourage continued performance.
Review Affiliate Engagement: Low transaction numbers may indicate a lack of engagement or visibility. Provide affiliates with fresh content, creatives, or exclusive deals to boost activity.
Total Spend:
Represents the total amount spent on commissions and overrides over the past 30 days, calculated as TotalCommissions + TotalOverrides (last 30 days). This metric helps you track your investment in the affiliate program and manage your budget effectively.
Strategies:
Budget Allocation: Use this data to allocate budgets effectively. If certain affiliates or campaigns are generating higher returns, consider shifting more budget towards those areas.
Cost Control: Monitor total spend against sales generated to ensure that spending is proportional to revenue growth. If costs are rising faster than sales, reassess your commission structure or negotiate terms with affiliates.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS):
ROAS is a crucial efficiency metric calculated as Total Sale Values / (Total Commissions + Total Overrides) (last 7 days). It measures the revenue return for every dollar spent on the program. A higher ROAS indicates more efficient spending, where less investment is needed to generate higher sales.
Strategies:
Optimise High-ROAS Channels: Focus on channels or affiliates that deliver the highest ROAS. Allocate more resources to these areas and explore similar partnerships or marketing tactics.
2. Partner Pulse
This section focuses on your interactions and relationships with affiliates, providing insights into the health and dynamics of your affiliate program.
Total Partnerships:
Indicates the total number of active affiliate partnerships. A higher number of partnerships generally provides greater reach, but it’s important to balance this with the quality and performance of each affiliate.
Strategies:
Quality Over Quantity: While expanding your affiliate base is important, focus on building strong relationships with high-performing affiliates. Regularly review partnerships to ensure they align with your brand values and performance goals.
Segmentation: Segment affiliates based on performance, niche, and engagement levels. Tailor communication and incentives to different segments to maximise their potential.
Pending Partnerships:
Shows the number of affiliate applications awaiting approval. This gives you an idea of the interest in your program and may indicate the need to expedite the approval process.
Strategies:
Streamline Approval Processes: Ensure a quick turnaround for affiliate applications to maintain momentum and interest. A fast approval process can help onboard promising affiliates sooner.
Evaluate Criteria: Regularly review and refine your approval criteria to attract high-quality affiliates. Balance between being selective and open to new opportunities.
New Partnerships:
The number of new affiliates that have joined your program in the last 7 days. This helps you gauge the growth and expansion of your affiliate base.
Strategies:
Onboarding Programs: Implement a structured onboarding process to educate new affiliates about your brand, products, and best practices. Provide them with promotional materials and strategies to get started quickly.
Monitor Early Performance: Keep an eye on the initial performance of new affiliates. Offer support or guidance to help them become productive members of your affiliate program.
Transaction Active:
The count of affiliates who have generated transactions in the past 60 days. This shows the proportion of your affiliates actively contributing to sales.
Strategies:
Re-engage Inactive Affiliates: Reach out to affiliates who haven’t generated transactions recently. Offer incentives or provide new marketing materials to rekindle their interest.
Nurture Active Affiliates: Support active affiliates with ongoing training, exclusive offers, and higher commissions to keep them motivated and engaged.
Click Active:
The number of affiliates who have driven clicks in the last 60 days. This metric provides a broader view of affiliate engagement beyond sales.
Strategies:
Click-to-Conversion Optimisation: Identify affiliates with high click rates but low conversion rates. Work with them to improve landing pages, offers, or audience targeting to boost conversions.
Content Support: Provide affiliates with content that has a proven track record of driving clicks, such as engaging blog posts, banners, or videos.
Affiliate Approval Rate:
The percentage of affiliate applications approved, reflecting how selective your program is and helping you maintain quality control.
Strategies:
Align Approval Rates with Goals: Ensure that your approval rate reflects your program’s goals. If you aim to grow quickly, a higher approval rate may be appropriate, but if you prioritise quality, a lower rate might be better.
Feedback for Rejections: Provide constructive feedback to rejected applicants. This can help maintain a positive relationship and encourage them to improve and reapply.
Average Payout Days:
Represents the average time it takes to pay affiliates. A shorter payout period can improve affiliate satisfaction and retention.
Strategies:
Efficient Payment Processes: Streamline payment processes to reduce payout times. Prompt payments can build trust and encourage affiliates to prioritise your program.
Communicate Payment Schedules: Clearly communicate payout schedules and processes to affiliates. Transparency helps manage expectations and reduces inquiries about payments.
3. Actionable Insights
This section provides practical actions you can take to maintain and enhance your affiliate program’s performance.
Unread Messages:
The count of messages from affiliates that have not been read. Timely communication with affiliates can prevent misunderstandings and ensure that they have the support they need.
Strategies:
Regular Communication: Establish a routine for checking and responding to messages. Prompt responses can strengthen relationships and address issues before they escalate.
Last Datafeed Refresh:
Indicates the last date your product data feed was updated. Keeping this information current is essential for accuracy in promotions, helping affiliates provide up-to-date information to their audiences.
Strategies:
Scheduled Updates: Set a regular schedule for data feed updates to ensure product information is always accurate. This includes prices, availability, and new product launches.
Communication with Affiliates: Inform affiliates about updates to the data feed, so they can refresh their promotional content accordingly.
Last Transaction:
Shows the date of the most recent transaction. Regular transactions are a positive indicator of ongoing engagement and sales through your affiliate program. However, if there is a significant gap between the last transaction date and the current date, it may indicate an issue with tracking. In such cases, it’s important to investigate potential tracking issues or discrepancies to ensure that all transactions are being accurately recorded.
Strategies:
Investigate Tracking Issues: If there’s a large gap between the last transaction and today, check your tracking setup. Ensure that tracking codes are correctly implemented and functioning.
Affiliate Feedback: Reach out to affiliates to confirm that they are promoting offers and to see if they have noticed any issues. Affiliate feedback can provide valuable insights into tracking problems.
Active Placements:
The number of active placements you have engaged with. Affiliates often place promotions, advertising space or sales events they are running in the Placements Marketplace. This can be an opportunity for brands to get involved.
Strategies:
Monitor Placement Opportunities: Regularly review the placements marketplace for any opportunities you would like to take part in. These opportunities can help with exposure to the affiliates audience and increase sales volume.
Further Strategies for Maximising Affiliate Program Performance
Performance Analysis and Reporting:
Regularly review performance metrics and reports to gain insights into trends and patterns. Use data-driven decision-making to refine strategies and improve outcomes. Compare current performance against historical data to spot emerging trends or seasonal shifts that may require strategic adjustments.
Testing and Optimisation:
Implement A/B testing for different affiliate creatives, landing pages, and offers. Testing allows you to identify the most effective elements of your campaigns, helping you to optimise and refine your strategies for better results.
Affiliate Communication and Support:
Engage with affiliates regularly through newsletters, webinars, and personal communications. Share best practices, success stories, and program updates. By maintaining open lines of communication, you can foster a strong sense of partnership and motivate affiliates to actively promote your products.
Customised Incentives:
Offer customised incentives for top-performing affiliates or those who show potential. These can include bonus commissions, exclusive deals, or performance-based rewards. Tailored incentives can encourage higher levels of engagement and loyalty.
Quality Control and Compliance:
Regularly audit your affiliates’ promotional activities to ensure they align with your brand guidelines and compliance standards. This helps protect your brand’s reputation and ensures that affiliates are promoting your products responsibly and ethically.
Scaling Success:
Identify high-performing affiliates and explore opportunities to scale their success. This could involve offering exclusive promotions, collaborating on joint marketing campaigns, or providing advanced tools and resources to help them expand their reach.
Affiliate Training and Resources:
Provide affiliates with comprehensive training materials, including how-to guides, product information, and marketing tips. Educated affiliates are more likely to create effective campaigns that align with your brand’s goals and messaging.
Feedback Loop:
Establish a feedback loop with your affiliates to understand their needs, challenges, and suggestions. This can provide valuable insights for improving the program and strengthening relationships.
The Weekly Performance Digest is a powerful tool that provides actionable insights into your affiliate program’s performance. By understanding and leveraging these metrics, you can optimise your affiliate marketing efforts, strengthen partnerships, and drive better business results. Regularly reviewing these insights, coupled with strategic actions and continuous optimisation, will help you maintain a successful and profitable affiliate program.