The reward the advertiser is going to pay the publisher must be on the market level. If they can't provide a higher rate than their rivals do, they should offer publishers more valuable terms in other aspects of the program. Also, the advertiser can group all the products into categories and assign each a specific rate depending on the profit margin.

If the advertiser can't keep rates constantly high, they can increase them periodically (e.g. during high seasons or on the company's anniversary). It's enough to boost rates for a couple of weeks or months and do it once a half-year: such an event will be likely to attract new publishers.

The advertiser may want to set a bonus scale for publishers which will be linked to the number of approved actions or revenue a publisher generates over a specific period. For instance, if a publisher leads over 100 sales (or actions totaling over $1,000), the rate will be increased by 30%.

The more traffic types the advertiser allows, the more publishers connect to their program (which is logically consistent). There is no such a thing as good or bad traffic source. It's only about qualified and non-qualified traffic, where quality depends on whether the advertiser knows how to interact with publishers properly. The best option is to allow as many traffic types as possible and describe rules in great depth at the very beginning, and then monitor results and decide which channels to use.

The affiliate program must describe the rules of using every traffic types and advertiser brand information, including the detailed target audience description (gender, age, social status, region, interests), description of the brand and its competitive edges, the list of most popular product categories, and dates of sales. The more information the publisher has at hand, the easier it will be for them to target audience and tell it about your brand.

Advertisers who have integrated mobile tracking are more demanded in affiliate networks. This is because more and more people use smartphones to search products and make purchases. Mobile integration is vital for those programs that plan to use Telegram channel traffic. In fact, people use messengers mostly on their smartphones.

Advertisers are recommended to provide publishers with coupon and promo codes granting discounts, free shipment, gifts, and other bonuses. This tool turns especially efficient in models where publishers promote goods and services. So publishers heartily use them, forming business models based on discount offers.

Most publishers eagerly place advertiser's products on their ad spaces. To enable that, advertisers provide the assortment in the form of XML feeds (files of a specific structure). The larger the product line, the more profitable the program for the publisher.

Marathons are theme deals organized by affiliate networks commemorating e-commerce events (e.g. Black Friday, China Fest, Finance Marathon). For this events, dedicated landing pages and promos among publishers are prepared. To participate, the advertiser needs to increase the rate for the marathon period and provide coupons, banners, and landings — all to assist publishers.

The advertiser needs to provide publishers with relevant creatives (e.g. banners of all popular sizes, theme landing pages, and videos). Some materials should be provided by publisher request (e.g. custom-sized banners, localized creatives). You can delegate creative design to publishers, but we recommend providing them with a brand book and approve promo materials before publishing.

Publishers see — and give high priority to — these program parameters. Long cookie lifetime can help a publisher guide a user to the purchase even if they hesitate about whether to buy having visited the advertiser website. A shorter hold can enhance the publisher's turnover and allocate proceedings to further promotion of the advertiser.

Coupons, creatives, XML feeds, action statuses, affiliate program info — make sure everything is being updated regularly. Affiliate marketing is a dynamic, constantly evolving system that requires active efforts from publishers and advertisers.

Major publishers are market professionals developing themselves in all marketing areas. This is why it’s advisable for advertisers to connect to them closely, as they can find a new audience for a store, assess website UX, provide recommendations on skyrocketing conversions, and reducing the customer journey.