Network Publisher Recruitment Provides Sustainable Brand Growth

In affiliate marketing, the recruitment of new, quality Publishers, and nurturing those relationships, is critical to long-term growth.

Network publisher recruitment offers Advertisers diverse partnership portfolios that enable new and increased audience reach, as well as the ability to match various publisher models to relevant Advertiser goals.   

Key Takeaways:

• Publisher Development Takes Time, But It's Worth it: Publishers may take up to five years to build substantial revenue. But when they do, they’ll make up a considerable percentage of your long-term growth and revenue base.
• Ongoing Recruitment Fuels Long Term Growth: Annual recruitment is necessary to sustain long term growth. Select a network who has a new publisher onboarding focus to recruit sustainable, quality publishers (vetted by dedicated Network Quality experts).
• Leverage the Power of the Network: Ask your current affiliate provider about what kind of recruitment support is offered. Select a provider with a core competency of recruitment in order to help you recruit new publisher relationships so you can capitalize on smart, future-proof growth.

Publisher Development Takes Time, But It's Worth it

It can take Publishers time to deliver strong revenue as it requires diligence to truly understand an Advertiser’s products and business, determine how to properly position that brand to their audience, and understand just what promotional triggers are needed to achieve a high conversion rate. That said, Advertisers can accelerate this process by understanding what their Publishers need to be successful. For example, a content Publisher requires very different deliverables than a loyalty Publisher. Effective and ongoing communication is key in order for Advertisers to build a relationship with their Publishers, and it allows both parties to align on goals and focus on the right results.  

Ongoing Recruitment Fuels Long-Term Growth

Our network data shows that the Publishers recruited into programs over the last five years deliver nearly half of a program’s revenue, resulting in strong year over year growth. After five years, over 55% of the revenue in a program is driven by new publishers recruited from the network. This makes sense as recent affiliate marketing trends (commerce content, influencers) have brought about significant new relationships that are just getting started, while more tried and true players continue to provide meaningful results and introduce new opportunities.

Because Affiliate Marketing is centralized around relationships and discovering new opportunities, it’s important to bring new partners into your program mix and discuss fresh opportunities with your existing Publishers. With nurturing, many Publishers will become large contributors to growth, offering different and exciting ways to reach consumers.  That said, don’t expect all new Publishers to produce the same results. Some trends or promotional methods will deliver growth for a year or two before falling out of fashion.

Affiliate Marketing can’t be a set it and forget it channel. The results show that with proper attention, both new and existing Publishers can help you capitalize on current and long-term shopping and promotional trends—contributing to ongoing, sustainable growth.

Leverage the Power of the Network

The network effect plays a critical role in ensuring that an Advertiser has a well-rounded and cutting edge marketing strategy. Because growth is a top priority, and recruitment enables efficient, long-term, scalable, and cost-effective growth, Advertisers should make sure that recruitment efforts are top priority.

It’s important for marketers to make sure they select affiliate providers that place a strong emphasis on Publisher recruitment and education, provide recruitment tools and services as a core function. The risk for marketers who neglect to focus on growth is putting a time-delayed cap on their revenue by limiting their long-term success.