Affiliates: 10% of revenue (fixed CAC)

Not every channel needs to be a "silver bullet...".

Nor does it need to make up 30 - 50% of your revenue, especially when most of those channels are variably cost channels (paid ads, TV, OOH, etc.) where CAC can fluctuate from minute to minute.

Channels like Affiliates are a great addition to your channel mix. In some cases, I've seen this channel make up 25% of a B2C's revenue. 25% that is fixed-cost, regardless of the size and scale of the channel.

Even as a baseline, Affiliates typically make up 10% of a sustainable growth engine. That's 10% less worry for me about costs changing over time.

I'll dive into the high-level actions needed to set up a strong affiliate program in this playbook. If you're looking for someone to build and scale the channel, I know someone who is amazing at the channel and is happy to do an intro! ??

1?? Look for communities to tap into

ACTION: Similar to other external community-based growth channels, it's essential to do your research. ee if there are groups you can tap into before going wide with an open affiliate program. Doing this will help you understand what topics are being discussed, who the big players are in the space, and what type of offers will work if you equip those community leaders.

2?? Choose a platform your partners are comfortable with

ACTION: In some cases, most of your big partners are already comfortable navigating the platform, so can move faster when you are ready to start The big things to plan for will be:

• Tracking - Your partners should be able to see traffic, regs, and sign-ups. They are marketing your services, so the more data you provide them, the better they'll perform.
• Payment - Make it as easy as possible to pay your affiliates.
• Partner Management - The solution you choose should be easy for your internal Marketing team to add, update, and remove partners at will.

3?? 20% of your affiliates will drive 80% of your growth

ACTIONS: Very quickly, you will see that your top 10 partners drive 80%+ of your channel growth. Make sure you treat them like any other high-performing marketing channel and give them what they need to drive more conversions. I've set up bi-weekly calls with our top partners to understand better what works and how we can enable them to do more. It's not a set-it-and-forget-it channel.

4?? Attribution is key to channel growth (policing).

ACTION: Similar to my article on scaling podcast marketing, ensuring you have solid tracking and attribution for this channel is critical. In most cases, the tool you pick will have tracking and reporting built in. still need to, however, ensure you see the same impact on the business. Affiliates use promo codes and can sometimes get posted to sites like Retailmenot, which would inflate the performance of the code.

5?? Pay only on real impact, not top-of-funnel metrics

ACTION: This might be one of the most important points to take away from the playbook. I've seen countless companies set up their payment structure with affiliates where they will pay out a bounty for a conversion and top-of-funnel triggers like registration. In many cases, the cohort of users you pay for on a registration basis ends up being total trash. This is key to knowing and building a clawback policy if necessary.

BONUS: Affiliates want unique offers, promos and discounts. This is to ensure other marketing channels/efforts won't steal performance from their audience. The more attention you pay to your affiliates, the better they will perform. Don't be afraid to run affiliate-only campaigns, messaging, and offers. It will likely drive more fixed-cost conversions than most of its channel counterparts.

From my experience, you can get this channel up and running in a matter of 60 days or less. This will take focus and dedication from someone on your marketing team. Give them the right amount of time to be successful. Don't pull them off to focus on "silver bullets".

You got this! ??