There are a few ways that influencers, content creators and bloggers discover affiliate programs.
Search engines: When influencers and content creators are looking for new affiliate programs to join, they may search for terms like "{brand name} affiliate program". Make sure your affiliate program is easily discoverable by search engines by including a link to your landing page in your site footer. You can use anything you'd like as your link text, but here are some examples from other retailers: Affiliates, Affiliate Program, Join our Affiliate Community, Ambassador Program.
The link to your landing page was sent to you in an email shortly after you signed up. If you can't find it, email support@audenticity.com and we'd be happy to send it to you again.
Existing customers: Your existing customers are your best advocates when it comes to word-of-mouth because they already have your product (no need to send a free gift) and they already love your product.
We recommend turning on post-purchase emails in Settings for an automated, set-it-and-forget-it way of inviting your existing customers to tell a friend or their followers about your products.
You can also do a one-time send to your entire email list inviting them to the program through your existing email provider. If you would like us to do this on your behalf, we can! Please send an email to support@audenticity.com with the number of recipients in your email list and we'll give you a quote for this add-on service.
Promote your program through social media: Share information about your affiliate program on your social media channels. The easiest way to do this is to add a link to your landing page from your linkin bio. You can also run paid social media ads to target influencers and content creators in your niche.
Direct outreach: You can reach out to influencers and content creators directly to invite them to join your affiliate program. This can be a good option if you have a specific influencer or content creator in mind who you think would be a good fit for your program. We also recommend sending a DM to anyone who tags you on their Instagram post and inviting them to join your program.
Don't forget bloggers! Content creators with websites and email lists, even the ones who wrote about your brand years ago, are some of the best sources for affiliates.
Audenticity platform: Your products and store automatically show up in the Audenticity Product Catalog once you've installed the app and your products have been imported. Content creators will be able to browse by brand, retailer, categories, and various other filters to find your products. There's nothing for you to do here!
In March 2023, we introduced the ability to extend tracking for commissions from 14 days to 30 days. This utilizes the theme extension scope within Shopify. To enable this for your advocates, all you need to do is click "Enable Tracking" on your Settings page. You will be redirected to a page in Shopify that looks like the below screenshot. In the upper right corner of this page, hit Save. Then you're all set!
For Shopify stores that joined Audenticity before March, please email support@audenticity.com if you'd like to enable this and we will work with you to set this up.
We all know how hard it is to start with a blank slate, so we've introduced a Brand Assets page to make it super easy for content creators and bloggers to start posting about your brand and products.
You can upload logos, images and videos sized perfectly for Instagram stories/reels/TikTok, Instagram posts, Facebook posts and blogs.
Files must be:
File sizes are:
Brands and retailers can create links to other brands and their products and earn commissions just like an affiliate.
Similar to an Advocate, you may want to do this to provide your customers with recommendations for products that share an affinity with yours. These can be used on a “Shop our Partner” page on your site, in blog posts that feature other businesses or founders, gift guides, or post-purchase emails.
To create a link:
A "gifted collab" is a collaboration between brands and advocates where the brand gifts the advocates products, in exchange for promotion on the advocate's social media platforms, blog, or website. Essentially, it's a form of product endorsement or promotion, but instead of the advocate being paid a fee, they are given free products.
This popular type of collaboration allows brands to reach new audiences through the advocate's followers, while also giving the advocate a chance to try out new products or experiences that they might not otherwise have access to. It is particularly effective for brands that are just starting out or brands that want more brand awareness.
Gifted collabs is an optional feature available to brands and retailers in the Audenticity Deluxe Plan. We set up the gifted collab opportunity and recruit advocates to apply. You then choose who you want to work with based on their profile information and send them a free product. Typically within 2 weeks of receiving the product, they will share their post. If any Audenticity advocates receive a product and do not post, please let us know by emailing support@audenticity.com. We will blacklist them from receiving any future gifted collabs.
If you'd like to offer a gifted collab opportunity to advocates and you are not currently on the Deluxe Plan, you can upgrade at any time. Then reach out to support@audenticity.com when you are ready to set and announce your gifted collab.
All retailers can flag an advocate for review on their dashboard for inappropriate content or a breach of the Terms of Use. For example, if an advocate bids on your trademarked brand or posts links to a coupon site or engages in racist or hate speech. We will review their content and either help them stay within the rules (e.g. stop bidding on certain keywords) or ban them from the site. They will then lose access to all retailers and products on our site. Note that if you sell your products on Amazon or other mass retailers, they may still be able to earn a commission through those sites.
For retailers on the Deluxe plan, you can flag and reject an advocate from earning commission on YOUR products if they are significantly off-brand. For example, if you're a medical doctor who created a baby product and an advocate has content that is anti-vaccine or anti-medicine, this is a great way to prevent them from earning a commission for your product. They would still be allowed to earn commissions on other products in the catalog and they would also be allowed to earn commission on your products if they are sold through other retailers.
Because one of our core beliefs is that everyone has influence, and that the number of followers an advocate has, isn't a measure of their worth, please do not reject or flag them for the following reasons:
1. They have a low follower count. They may promote products in other ways - group chats or forums, text messages, pinterest, blogs, etc.
2. Their content is not polished enough. Because we support authenticity in content and in our everyday lives, our advocates may not be publishing content that is as stylized or "done" as a mega-influencer or celebrity. We value authenticity over polish.
To run a great affiliate program, you want your advocates to get to the Aha! moment. That is the moment that they "get" why they should promote your brand and your products and is typically the first time they get a sale. Once they get a sale, they are then motivated to continue promoting your brand.
