Affiliate marketing is a proven way to increase awareness about your business and products. This is why most large businesses like Amazon, eBay, Hilton, etc have made it an integral part of their marketing strategy. With the growth of eCommerce sites powered by WordPress, several of our users have asked for our recommendations on the best affiliate tracking software. In this article, we will compare the 3 best affiliate tracking and management software for WordPress and highlight their pros and cons.
Why Add an Affiliate Program to Your Business?
Affiliate programs allow you to instantly build a sales army and increase your exposure. The best part about it’s that you simply only pay affiliates once they make a purchase. In other words, affiliates are sales guys who work without a base salary and only get compensated once they make a purchase.
If you’re thinking of adding an affiliate program to your WordPress eCommerce store, then you’re within the right place. Below are the simplest affiliate management solutions for WordPress.
1. ShareASale
ShareASale is one of the most popular affiliate networks on the web. It offers easy to implement affiliate management solutions with access to its vast network of affiliate marketers. They have been in business for 13 years and have facilitated over 8 million merchant/affiliate relationships. We use ShareASale for our family of products like OptinMonster.
Pros
- The software is hosted on ShareASale server so you don’t need to worry about managing or updating it.
- ShareASale takes care of tracking and sending payments to each affiliate which is a big time saver
- You get access to the large network of affiliate marketers on ShareASale.
- No monthly recurring fee, and you only pay a small percentage when an affiliate makes a sale.
- Some other features of ShareASale are real time tracking, segmentation of top performers, connecting multiple sites into one account
Cons
- Terrible User Interface – You do get used to it, but at first sight, it’s not pretty.
- There is a one-time setup fee of $550
- $25 monthly minimum must be met after the 120 day grace period. We have never had an issue meeting this after the 120 day grace period.
In our experience as a merchant, ShareASale has been awesome. The amount of some time it saves us by automatically paying out affiliates and managing/tracking affiliate sales properly, it’s totally well well worth the one-time setup fee.
There are ShareASale integrations available for both WooCommerce and EasyDigitalDownloads.
2. AffiliateWP
AffiliateWP is an affiliate tracking and management software that’s actually built as a WordPress plugin. It is developed by Pippin Williamson and Andrew Munro, the parents behind Easy Digital Downloads. It beats other solutions in terms of cost-effectiveness and therefore the control it offers over your affiliate program.
Pros
- A one-time purchase entitles you to a year of support and updates. License plans start from $49.
- You run your own affiliate program on your own site and build your own network.
- Complete integration with Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, iThemes Exchange, and other popular WordPress eCommerce plugins.
- Real-time reporting for you and your affiliates.
- See your top-performing affiliates and build lasting partnerships without paying hefty fees.
Cons
- You manage everything including plugin updates, ensure tracking is done properly, etc.
- You have to handle payouts every month manually. Currently there is no mass pay option either, so you will be paying each person individually although that addon is “coming soon”.
- No third-party experts tracking affiliate fraud.
- You don’t have access to an existing network of affiliates, which means you will have to bring affiliates to sign up for your program.
AffiliateWP may be a new system within the market and is getting used by other WordPress plugin developers to sell their products. This is an excellent solution for those who’re looking to create a little group of hand-picked affiliates. The best part about AffiliateWP is that the cost because it’s a one-time fee compared to the opposite two options during this article.
3. Impact Radius
Impact Radius offers an affiliate marketing solution where you pay just for the affiliates you’re employed with and not the network fees. This significantly reduces the cost as you pay only for the platform and the number of affiliates you work with. ImpactRadius is started by the co-founders of Commission Junction.
Pros
- Provides better analytics and insights into your marketing campaign.
- You see exactly who is bringing you more sales and develop strategic partnerships accordingly.
- Great user-interface
- Other features include mobile tracking, SEO friendly URLs, coupon tracking, integration with Salesforce and other CRM platforms.
Cons
- Monthly recurring fee, but you don’t pay the network fee for each affiliate that you bring which can be a perk for larger programs
- A smaller network of affiliate marketers.
Conclusion:
You need to settle on an answer that supported by your own budget and requirements. If you’ll pay just one occasion setup fee, then ShareASale is that the thanks to going. You will be joining a network of thousands of affiliate marketers, which can make it easier for you to urge started.
AffiliateWP is that the least expensive solution, but you buy that with time spent on updating the plugin and managing individual affiliate payouts monthly.
Impact Radius offers monthly subscription plans supported by the affiliates you’re employed with. They also offer better insights and tracking than others. It’s an excellent solution for businesses that pay a bigger payout because you avoid the network fees on each transaction.
We hope this text helped you discover the simplest affiliate tracking software for your WordPress site.
