Online merchants that maintain an affiliate program will often face the reality of migrating affiliate network as the merchant might have outgrown the affiliate solution, cost savings, or the network is shutting down like Google Affiliate Network shutting down. In any case, the merchant will need to migrate the affiliate program from one network to another network, but beyond focusing on the affiliate network technology, cost savings, and other factors – the affiliates should be the Number 1 priority.
On 10/4/19 (Friday), I received an email from a major e-commerce merchant saying that the affiliate links are no longer working, and to apply to the new affiliate network. It also went on to state that the links stopped working on Sept 20th (9/20/19), and that’s over two weeks ago where they migrated affiliate network without giving any advance notice (or at least this was the first e-mail I received). Being a bit puzzled about the cryptic message, I dug around and confirmed the authenticity of the email by going to the merchant’s website to confirm the new affiliate network currently live.
This merchant ranks second only to Amazon in US retail sales, and the the lack of notification, uninformative email, to the over over two weeks gap in tracking is a bit weird. Migrating affiliate network is highly disruptive to any affiliate program and there are huge financial implications when in any migration.
These four things to keep in mind when ensuring that affiliates migrate to the new affiliates network:
1. Timeliness
Let’s face it, affiliate migration is a painful experience for the affiliate as an affiliate will have to update all of the links on the affiliate’s website, and it is time consuming if there isn’t an automated solution that the affiliate might have in place.
Providing affiliates with 3-4 weeks of notice of the affiliate program migration, and also instructions on applying to the new program, to instructions to generate links will be greatly helpful.
2. Transparency
Be clear and honest in the reason of migrating affiliate networks, and share the long term goals. We have seen instances where merchants migrate every couple of years and it is detrimental to the success of any affiliate program. If there are any non-confidential merchant plans such as adding a secondary affiliate network, don’t forget to mention that.
3. Informative
Devise a communication schedule that is informative and actionable for the affiliate. The communication execution should have instructions to apply for the new affiliate program, commission revision (if any), affiliate program manager contact information and exact date of affiliate network migration. Within the communication plan, there should be a slot for multiple follow-up for affiliates that didn’t migrate, and also an outreach component.
4. Outreach
Establishing an outreach program to address the super affiliates and the stragglers that are unaware of the. In some instances, an affiliate might not be aware of the migration as the e-mail send out by the merchant due to spam filters, and such. Phone calls and additional e-mails from the affiliate program manager will help address this issue.
