Beginner`s Guide to Selling on Awin

Affiliate ecommerce continues to grow significantly, with the industry projected to be worth over $27.7 billion by 2027, jumping from $14.3 billion in 2023. The sector is a key driver of online sales, with over 80% of brands utilizing affiliate programs to boost effectiveness.

Platforms like Awin play a pivotal role in this growth by offering a broad range of technologies to streamline affiliate marketing efforts. In 2023, partners on Awin generated over $540 million in sales revenue, demonstrating the effectiveness of these tools in driving sales. The platform's seamless integration of diverse technologies, without demanding significant coding effort, has gained popularity among marketers eager to explore new tools and methods. The simplicity of integration and the subsequent enhancements in performance underscore Awin's significant impact on the ecommerce sector.

What is Awin?

Awin, which is now grouped with another major affiliate network ShareASale, is a leading global affiliate marketing network that connects advertisers (sellers) with publishers (affiliates) to promote products and services.

For more than 23 years, Awin has been linking over 30,000 advertisers with upwards of a million publishers worldwide. The platform generated $19 billion in a year in revenue for businesses connected to it. Awin's services span various industries, including finance, retail, travel, and telecommunications. Operating from 17 global locations, Awin ensures a strong infrastructure for affiliate marketing, guaranteeing both efficient and secure transactions.

How Awin operates

Awin functions as an international affiliate marketing network, linking advertisers with publishers to enhance online sales and marketing through performance-based collaborations. With a diverse clientele of over 30,000 businesses, from startups to major corporations like HP and Ted Baker, Awin's platform enables advertisers to attract new customers by utilizing the marketing efforts of over 241,000 active publishers across various industries such as retail, finance, and travel.

Awin provides multiple plans to suit different business requirements, including Awin Access for smaller companies and Awin Advanced for larger firms. Through an intuitive interface, advertisers can manage their partnerships, create product feeds, communicate with publishers, and handle offers and promotions. The platform supports numerous global markets, allowing for localized affiliate programs tailored to regional demands.

For publishers, Awin offers an array of promotional tools and resources to effectively market advertisers' products. These resources include automated link creation, access to a directory of advertiser opportunities, and support for various promotional strategies, from content creation to coupon codes.

Awin’s operations emphasize ethical practices and compliance, ensuring a transparent and fair marketplace for all involved. This commitment is maintained through stringent affiliate evaluation processes and ongoing monitoring to prevent unethical activities.

Why choose Awin?

Opting for Awin as your affiliate network offers a multitude of advantages that can greatly enhance your marketing initiatives. Awin boasts a vast network of over one million publishers, enabling collaborations with a diverse array of affiliates to effectively target specific audiences. This extensive network includes leading industry figures and influencers, fostering valuable partnerships to boost sales.

Awin excels with its powerful tracking and reporting tools, delivering detailed insights into affiliate campaigns. Assess performance through reports such as the Publisher Performance Report, Journey Path Report, and Funnel Report. These documents provide actionable data to refine marketing strategies. Moreover, Awin's customizable commission structures allow tailoring rewards based on various factors like product categories, customer segments, and campaign details, ensuring cost-efficient marketing.

The platform also facilitates smooth integration with popular e-commerce systems and offers flexible commission management, enabling businesses to scale with minimal costs. Awin's commitment to transparency and cost control, with upfront commission settings and tracking fees, ensures business owners know the exact cost per sale, simplifying budgeting.

Additionally, Awin's global presence allows to effectively penetrate international markets. Their local expertise and region-specific programs help navigating different markets. This international reach is supported by Awin’s dedication to user-friendly tools, including a Chrome browser extension for easy link creation and deep linking capabilities for specific product pages.

Despite some drawbacks, such as the lack of direct customer support and PayPal payment options, Awin’s extensive features, and proven success record make it a compelling choice for businesses aiming to leverage affiliate marketing.

In essence, partnering with Awin provides the following benefits:

• Global reach: Awin has a vast network of affiliates across the world, allowing any seller to reach a global audience.
• Diverse affiliate network: Connect with a wide variety of affiliates, including bloggers, influencers, and content creators who can target different market segments.
• Comprehensive reporting: Access detailed reports and analytics to track and optimize strategies.
• Support: Benefit from Awin's dedicated support team and educational resources it provides, such as guides, webinars, and best practice tips.
• Secure payments: Awin ensures timely and secure payments to affiliates.

Steps to get started on Awin

When looking in Google for a manual on how to start on Awin, it is highly likely you'll be presented with a tutorial for an affiliate. Such tutorials are not for you since online stores are qualified by the Awin as advertisers. Advertisers pay affiliates for promoting advertiser's products.

To be eligible for using Awin affiliate service, you must operate an ecommerce website that offers products or services for sale. This criterion ensures that our affiliate partners can effectively promote your business, and generate measurable sales.

To get started on Awin as an advertiser, follow these steps to set up your affiliate program effectively:

1. Sign up and set up Awin account

Begin by signing up for an account on Awin. You'll need to provide details about your store, including goods you sell, and target audience.

• Create an Awin account: Visit Awin's website and sign up as an advertiser. The process is straightforward and involves filling out a registration form. You mau need to wait for several business days to get a response on your signup inquiry.
• Complete a merchant's profile: When granted an account access, on the Account > Overview page add the descripton details about your business, including store URL, logo, business category, and contact information. A complete profile helps potential affiliates understand your business better.
• Verify your Awin account: Complete the verification process, which may include providing business documents and undergoing a review by Awin's team to ensure your business meets their standards.
• Add tracking code: For data gathering a special code snippet must be installed in store's frontend. Get this snippet on the Support > Integration page through the Tracking Installation Guide.

2. Define marketing goals and budget

• Set clear objectives: Determine what you want to achieve with your affiliate marketing campaign. For example, you may want to build brand awareness, which impacts on the publisher selection pool.
• Allocate budget: Decide on a budget size for affiliate commissions and other promotional activities. Consider the competitive landscape and profit margins when setting commission rates for publishers who promote you products/services.

3. Create an affiliate program

• Program terms: Define the terms of your affiliate program, including commission rates, cookie duration (how long after a click a sale can be attributed to an affiliate), and payment terms. Be competitive but sustainable in your offers.
  
• Promotional materials: Prepare banners, text links, product images, and other promotional materials for affiliates to use. High-quality visuals and clear, compelling messages can enhance the results from affiliates' promotional efforts.
• Product feed: Ensure an Awin product feed is available. Affiliates can use it to promote your products. This feed should be regularly updated with accurate product information, prices, and availability. Easily connect a Shopify store catalog to Awin through the product feed generated by Mulwi app.

4. Recruit affiliates

• Browse Awin's affiliate directory: Explore the list of affiliates available on Awin to find partners that align with your brand and target audience. For example, a Shopify store that sells electronics would prefer affiliates who gather the audience interested in hi-tech and gadgets.
  
• Send invitations: Invite selected affiliates to join your program. Personalize your invitations to explain why they would benefit from partnering with you. Keep in mind that affiliates examine your offering and may reject it in case it is uncompetitive.
• Provide incentives: Offer attractive commission rates, bonuses for top performers, or exclusive promotions to motivate affiliates to work with you. Consider tiered commission structures to reward high-performing affiliates.

5. Monitor and optimize

• Track performance: Employ Awin's reporting capabilities to oversee the effectiveness of each initiated affiliate campaign. Important metrics to monitor encompass CTR (click-through rates), conversion rates, AOV (average order value), and ROI (return on investment).
• Optimize campaigns: Review the data to pinpoint successful strategies and make refinements to enhance outcomes. For example, you may discover that particular affiliates generate increased sales at specific times annually, prompting beneficial partnerships during those periods.
• Maintain communication: Keep in regular contact with your affiliates to provide support for them and listen to their feedback.

Check the Awin's Advertiser Success Centre page to get answers and tutorials on the most common questions you may encounter while being a beginner on Awin. The content on this page s available in multiple languages; English, French, Dutch, Polish, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Swedish, Spanish, Italian.

On this page find answers to questions related to the following groups of problems:

Tips for successful strategy on Awin

• Prefer quality over quantity: Focus on recruiting high-quality affiliates who align with your brand and can drive genuine traffic. A smaller number of high-performing affiliates can be more beneficial than a large number of less effective ones.
• Transparent communication: Clearly communicate expectations, commission plans, and promotional rules to your affiliates. Being open fosters trust and creates lasting partnerships.
• Regular updates: Ensure that product feed and promotional resources provided to Awin's affiliates are consistently refreshed so affiliates always have the most current information. Frequent updates enable affiliates to produce timely and pertinent content.
• Leverage data: Leverage Awin's analytics to understand your campaign's performance and make decisions based on data. Experiment with various strategies and refine them according to the insights gained.
• Build relationships: Build robust connections with your best-performing affiliates to promote enduring collaborations. Offering tailored support, exclusive deals, and acknowledging their achievements can significantly enhance these relationships.
• Segment affiliates you partner with: Tailor your approach to affiliates according to their performance, niche, and potential. Offer additional support and resources to those who perform the best.
• Offer exclusive deals: Offer affiliates special discounts or early access to new products. This can motivate them to market your products more enthusiastically.
• Use influencer marketing: Collaborate with influencers who possess a substantial following within your niche. Their support can generate considerable traffic and boost sales.
• Host affiliate contests: Organize competitions to encourage affiliates to enhance their performance. Prizes can consist of increased commission rates or cash bonuses.
• Create seasonal campaigns: Align your affiliate marketing strategies with seasonal trends and holidays. Supply affiliates with appropriate promotional materials and special offers for these times.

Summarizing

Using Awin to sell products can significantly extend the reach of your Shopify store and boost sales. By implementing these steps and strategies, business owners can harness the potential of affiliate marketing.

Establish an effective affiliate program and achieve optimal results on the Awin network. Utilize Awin's resources, foster strong connections with your affiliates, and constantly refine your strategies to achieve the best results.