Affiliate marketing

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing model. You (the advertiser) work with partners (affiliates) who promote your products on their websites, blogs, newsletters or social media. When a visitor clicks on the affiliate's link and makes a purchase in your webshop, the affiliate receives a commission.

The key principle is that you only pay for results. Unlike display ads and social media ads, where you pay for impressions or clicks, with affiliate marketing you only pay when a sale is actually made.

How does it work?

The process is simple:

1. You create an affiliate program with an affiliate network (e.g. Partner-Ads, Adtraction or TradeTracker)
2. Affiliates sign up for your program and get unique tracking links
3. The affiliate places links to your products on their platform
4. A visitor clicks on the link and lands in your webshop
5. If the visitor buys, the tracking system records the sale
6. You pay an agreed commission to the affiliate (typically 5-15% of the order value)

Tracking is typically done via cookies with a lifetime of 30-90 days, so the affiliate is also credited if the customer returns and buys at a later date.

Types of affiliates

• Content sites and blogs: Write product reviews, comparisons and guides with affiliate links. These affiliates often deliver the most qualified traffic.
• Coupon portals: Collect discount codes and offers. Provides volume, but make sure it's not just customers who were already on their way to buy.
• Price comparison sites: PriceRunner, Kelkoo and others effectively act as affiliates for many webshops.
• Email marketers: Send product recommendations to their newsletter lists.
• Influencers: Promote products on social media with affiliate links.
• Cashback sites: Share the commission with the end customer as a cashback incentive.

Affiliate networks in Denmark

The most used affiliate networks in Denmark are:

• Partner-Ads: The largest Danish affiliate network with a focus on Danish webshops. Shoporama has a built-in integration with Partner-Ads via product feed.
• Adtraction: Scandinavian network with a strong presence in Denmark.
• TradeTracker: International network with a Danish branch. Shoporama also supports the TradeTracker product feed.
• Awin: Large international network with global affiliates.

Affiliate marketing in Shoporama

Shoporama makes it easy to get started with affiliate marketing:

• Partner-Ads product feed: Shoporama automatically generates a product feed for Partner-Ads so your products are available to affiliates in the network.
• TradeTracker feed: Automatic product feed for TradeTracker affiliates.
• Google Shopping feed: Can be used by price comparison sites acting as affiliates.
• Tracking: Affiliate network tracking scripts can be installed via Google Tag Manager or directly in the theme.

Pros and cons

The pros

• Low risk: You only pay for results (sales), not impressions or clicks.
• Wide exposure: Your products will appear on many different platforms and channels.
• SEO impact: Links from quality affiliate sites can provide backlinks with positive SEO impact.

Disadvantages

• Commission costs: 5-15% of order value can eat into your margin, especially on low-margin products.
• Coupon issues: Coupon portals can "hijack" sales that were already in the pipeline by inserting themselves into the buying journey with a discount code.
• Brand protection: Some affiliates use aggressive methods that can damage your brand.

Tips for success

• Choose affiliates wisely: Quality is more important than quantity. Focus on affiliates that add real value and send qualified traffic.
• Offer competitive commissions: An attractive commission motivates affiliates to prioritize your products.
• Provide good material: Give affiliates product images, descriptions and banners that make it easy to promote you.
• Monitor performance: Keep an eye on which affiliates deliver and optimize your efforts continuously.