7 Ways To Optimize Your Marketing Budget For Partner Programs

Start by setting goals that help move the needle forward on broader business objectives.

For Example,
If the business is looking to increase revenue by a certain percentage, your affiliate marketing program could have a corresponding objective to convert X number of new customers. 

From a budgetary standpoint, having this clarity can help you with budget allocation and determine how much of your overall marketing budget to spend on affiliates.

It can also help you identify where to spend your marketing dollars (e.g., with which partners) based on how well suited the partner is to helping you reach those goals.

In addition, these objectives should be paired with specific key performance indicators (KPIs), like conversion rates, so that your team can continually track how you’re performing to guide your budget decision making accordingly — more on this below.

What this looks like in practice :

• Review your business goals and your broader growth and marketing goals
• Set specific objectives for your affiliate marketing program and give them KPIs 
• Use this process to determine the percentage of the budget that goes to your partner program in relation to other marketing tactics and channels

According to research from Forrester, 80% of teams spend at least 10% of their marketing budget on partnerships.

While you may want to start with a smaller proportion, you should make sure you’re giving the program a chance to succeed.

For Example,
you will likely need time and resources to test different affiliate partners and determine which avenues make the most sense for your brand and target audience. 

Other considerations that can help guide how much you allocate to this program include the following : 

• Are there any other big marketing investments your marketing and growth teams are making this year? 
• Do you need new people to help run the affiliate marketing program? 
• Are there any product innovations, marketing analytics tools, or new digital capabilities that your team is adopting? 
• Have there been any significant cuts to the budget? 
• Understand your product’s attractiveness and competitive edge in the market

What this looks like in practice : 

• Conduct benchmark research on how much similar financial brands are spending on affiliate marketing 
• Establish where affiliate marketing fits in your broader marketing strategy and how it effects your overall budgeting 
• Determine how much budget to allocate to affiliate marketing compared to other investments
• Review this percentage on a yearly basis.

Once you know what you’re trying to accomplish and how much you’re willing to spend, now it’s time to identify the right affiliate partners for your marketing campaigns.

This could be an influencer, a grocery store chain, or a financial publication, depending on the audience you’re trying to reach. 

As you evaluate potential partners, consider the following elements that will impact your budget:

• How much do they charge per conversion?
• What is the size of their existing audience?
• What is their success rate on past campaigns?
• What is the acquisition cost in your other channels?

With Fintel Performance financial brands can streamline a lot of this work.

Our vast affiliate network was built exclusively for the financial industry so that you can find pre-vetted publishers and influencers that make sense for your products. 

What this looks like in practice :

• Research the types of publishers that feature your products and your competitors
• Evaluate their pricing models and how those might fit into your budget
• Establish how many publisher campaigns you would like to spend your budget on
• Have ongoing conversations with affiliates about your budgetary expectations
• Establish agreements that allow for collaborative cost management

Discover how to optimize your partner program with Fintel Connect.

Transparency is key in affiliate marketing relationships.

As you build a new partnership, be open and clear about what your budgetary expectations are as well as any marketing spend limits you might have for their campaign.

You can also take a collaborative approach with your publishers, finding ways to jointly manage costs as part of your agreement.

One of the core benefits of affiliate marketing relationships is that you win together, so collaboration and clear communication serves both parties.

What this looks like in practice :

• Have ongoing conversations with partners about your budgetary expectations
• Establish agreements that allow for collaborative cost management 
• Remain receptive to your partner’s expertise to help inform your direction

To ensure you’re doing the most to spend your budget effectively, you should be able to track the performance of your campaigns.

If you don’t, you risk having underperforming programs as well as limiting your potential for success. 

To this end, establish a robust tracking system that continually reviews your expenses.

Make sure your marketing activities include regularly reviewing this data and using it to make informed decisions in the short- and long-term. This will also allow you to find cost-saving opportunities and get the most ROI.

At the end, it is about trial and error and about finding the right, but unique recipe for your product and vertical.

The Fintel Performance marketing platform is particularly useful here as it has r​​obust multi-event tracking and reporting capabilities.

Plus, its campaign management tools allow you to have clear visibility into lead generation attribution and how your affiliates are performing.

This means you have seamless insight into how your budget is being spent and can quickly identify where it makes the most sense to spend your marketing dollars. 

What this looks like in practice: 

• Set up a tracking system for your affiliate marketing program
• Conduct regular reviews of the performance data
• Analyze the performance results to make data-driven decisions about where to reduce or increase spending

No one likes to expect the worst, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth considering it in your marketing spend optimization as well as your overall marketing plan.

We recommend putting aside a portion of your budget as a contingency fund for unforeseen situations or changes in the market.

In a best case scenario, this money could be used at the end of the fiscal year to add more budget into unexpectedly successful campaigns that produced a higher ROI than anticipated. 

What this looks like in practice : 

• Set aside between 5-10% of your budget as a contingency fund to cover unexpected costs
• At the end of the fiscal year, see what’s left and use it for a high-performing campaign

Discover how to plan your affiliate marketing budget to maximize margins.

Remember the objectives and performance metrics you established for your affiliate program in the first step?

You should be measuring these on an ongoing basis throughout the year and showcase results to your leadership.

This will help tell a narrative of success for your program and better position your team to request additional budget either for the marketing and growth team as a whole, or specifically for the affiliate channel

Alternatively, if the results aren’t headed in the right direction, that will show an opportunity to allocate budget into additional additional market research, new marketing technology, or perhaps product updates that could improve the program’s performance. 

What this looks like in practice :

• Set up a regular review cadence to determine the success and ROI of your program
• Craft reports that show your success rates and support requests for additional budget in the future

An affiliate marketing program is a channel where you can spend as little or as much as you want and get a variety of different results.

That said, there are ways to structure and systemize your approach so that you’re achieving as much success as you can from your allocated marketing budget.

Choosing the right marketing analytical tools and tracking platforms can be a great way to facilitate that success — and reduce your spending. With Fintel Performance, for instance, our clients save up to 70% on customer and member acquisition.

That’s budget that can go into other key marketing initiatives, like ad spend or SEO content marketing, to drive the business forward, while still achieving broader goals.

Ready to do more for your affiliate marketing efforts?

Speak to one of our specialists and learn more about Fintel Connect.