Whenever a consumer buys something online, their journey often begins in the exact same way: via a third-party website.

In addition to things like price comparison sites and forums, consumers are using blogs, news articles and even social media posts during their research. Those referrals are an essential part of bringing the buyer to a particular online store to make a purchase. To help maximise your coverage on these sites, you can partner with them to offer rewards for their referrals.

That, in essence, is what affiliate marketing is all about.

How Affiliate Commissions Work

In the world of affiliate marketing, any outside source that drives referrals - like those blogs, news articles and social media posts outlined above - are commonly referred to as publishers or affiliates. Every time they refer a customer that ends up in a sale, they're awarded a commission for their efforts.

But to fully maximise your relationship with these sources, it requires careful tracking and delicate management. This is done in several ways - most importantly by tracking things on a sale-by-sale basis. An affiliate link can be used to track the buyer's journey and to reward the partner when a sale is made that was a direct result of their actions.

Affiliate links can also help unlock a wealth of other valuable insight thanks to performance metrics, too. These metrics show things like leads, clicks, banner impressions and more - all of which help clue you into HOW a publisher is driving potential sales.

How Metrics Are Tracked

Overall, it's of critical importance that these performance metrics be carefully managed by an objective third party who can better understand what is working and, most essentially, what isn't. This creates a mutually beneficial situation for everyone involved - one where the retailer generates as many sales as possible and those affiliate partners get as high of a commission as they can.

One of the major benefits of affiliate marketing is that, because rewards are earned based solely on performance, it typically relies on a minimal use of personal data. It provides a simple, transparent and reliable form of advertising for retailers - all by allowing them to partner with publishers who can then help convert their own audiences into paying customers.

How to Work with Partners

A key component of success in terms of affiliate marketing involves taking the time to build relationships with your partner base. This is not unlike the process you would go through with any other supplier. They need transparency on how you process your sales, as well as flexibility when negotiating rates. A solid communication system will be pivotal to that end, as well as establishing a good variety of dependable partners who can consistently deliver the right type of sale time and again.

In the end, successful affiliate programmes can generate as much as 15% or more of your total online revenue - all while building more awareness of your brand at the exact same time. All of this is why, if you haven't already begun to experiment with affiliate marketing, now would be an excellent time to start.