The ultimate goal of any affiliate marketing strategy is to generate revenue — ideally as much as possible. However, affiliate marketing is also about connecting the right brands with relevant publishers. Brands want to be promoted by publishers that align with their target audience. While commission rates are a key part of affiliate earnings, they are just one piece of the puzzle. That’s why the Sovrn Commerce Demand team is dedicated to helping publishers maximize their revenue by creating valuable connections and optimizing affiliate content.
You may not realize it, but one critical part of the Sovrn team’s mission is optimizing affiliate rates for publishers by negotiating directly with our merchant partners. Here’s how it works.
A hybrid approach to negotiating affiliate rates
The Demand team combines two strategic approaches to ensure publishers are earning the best possible commission rates:
- Proactive: The Demand team is in constant communication with the brands in our extensive merchant network. One element of those conversations is helping brands to recognize the importance of offering competitive rates and the value of incentivizing publishers through increased payouts.
The team often shares benchmark data to help brands understand what comparable merchants are paying and guide their rate decisions. This ongoing communication and education helps to keep commission rates competitive.
- Reactive: The Demand team can also work with specific brands on the publisher’s behalf, to negotiate rate increases just for you. For example, you may notice that a particular merchant is paying a lower rate than its competitors. If you reach out to the Demand team and request a rate increase, they can engage that merchant on your behalf and make the case for a higher commission rate.
You may be asked to provide some supporting materials — like your media kit, affiliate performance stats, or information about your content strategy — and then the Demand team will handle the rate negotiations. Of course there’s no guarantee of success, as brands often have budget limitations and other constraints that influence commission rates. But reasonable, data-backed requests often lead to higher rates.
In summary, the Demand team is always working behind the scenes to help publishers earn the best possible rates — and they can also negotiate specific rate increases on your behalf.
Optimizing affiliate rates is a win-win for publishers and brands
It’s obvious that publishers benefit from higher commission rates, because they earn more money. But optimizing affiliate rates is not a one-sided equation. Brands can also gain significant advantages by raising their affiliate rates, including:
- Increasing exposure to new publishers and new audiences
- Attracting higher quality and higher profile publishers
- Strengthening relationships with high value publishers
- Earning premium placements in a publisher’s content
- Being featured more prominently than (or in place of) your competitors
Each of these gains can lead to more clicks, more conversions, and ultimately more revenue for the brand — so everybody wins.
Put our Demand Team to work for you
Working with Sovrn’s Demand Team is a great way to boost your affiliate revenue. And there’s no additional cost to take advantage of their unique optimization programs — including rate negotiations, closed program approvals, and sponsored content.
These affiliate optimization programs are open to any Commerce customer, but they’re best suited to publishers with a well-established track record — especially traditional content and media outlets. If you’re a current Sovrn Commerce customer, reach out to learn more about how the Demand team can help boost your affiliate earnings.
If you’re not already earning with Sovrn Commerce, sign up for a free account! It only takes a few minutes, and once you’re approved you can start earning right away.
