Affiliate For Shopify: Best Practices To Run A Profitable Campaign

Modern customers don’t trust ads; they trust people. Instead of over-investing in paid campaigns, consider tapping into affiliate marketing—a strategy that drives sales through trusted, word-of-mouth endorsements.

Affiliate marketing offers three key benefits:

• Improves profit margins through cost-effective strategies.
• Extends your reach into niche communities.
• Provides social proof to drive trust and conversions.

That’s why companies allocate 9% of their marketing budget to affiliate marketing. In fact, 24% of decision-making marketers say that it delivers a high return on investment. 

This article explains why affiliate marketing is essential for Shopify stores and outlines best practices for success.

Why affiliate marketing matters for your Shopify store

Here are 3 reasons why affiliate marketing strategy should be a priority for your Shopify store:

1. Cost-effective customer acquisition

Paid ads are expensive, which can strain the budget of smaller Shopify stores. Affiliate marketing offers a cost-effective alternative with minimal upfront investment. 

You pay commissions only on successful conversions. This aligns digital marketing expenses with revenue, reduces acquisition costs, and lets brands convert potential customers with a predictable return on investment.

2. Access to niche audiences via affiliates

Partnering with affiliates helps you tap into niche communities where traditional marketing often falls short. Some affiliates are loyal customers who recommend your products to their friends and family. Their endorsements feel personal and trustworthy, often carrying more weight than conventional ads.

Others are social media creators with highly engaged, niche audiences. While they may not have massive followings, their credibility within their communities makes them effective partners for promoting your brand. Their followers trust their recommendations, which can significantly boost your reach and conversions.

By building a network of diverse affiliates, you can effectively target audiences with specific preferences or needs. This approach is not only more precise but also more cost-effective than broad-spectrum advertising.

Increased sales and brand visibility

Building revenue through organic content takes time, but affiliate marketing can accelerate the process. By leveraging your brand advocates’ existing reach, you can drive targeted traffic directly to your website, boosting both visibility and sales opportunities.

Affiliate partners introduce your brand to their online communities, sparking conversations and generating interest. These engagements don’t just drive immediate traffic; they also help build long-term brand awareness.

Unlike paid ads, which many consumers perceive as overly promotional or intrusive, affiliate marketing feels more authentic. When affiliate partners promote your products, it serves as social proof, fostering trust and driving higher engagement, brand awareness, and conversions.

5 best practices to boost your Shopify affiliate program

You must apply tried and tested strategies and best practices to run successful affiliate marketing campaigns for your Shopify stores. Here are some crucial ones:

1. Create an attractive commission structure

Generic rewards won’t keep affiliates engaged for long. To retain them and boost their performance, you must design a competitive commission structure. The more lucrative your incentives are, the more interested your brand advocates will be, even in longer sales cycles. 

Start by calculating your COGS, including production, shipping, and operational expenses, and measure profit margins. This analysis will determine how much budget you can allocate to affiliate commissions while maintaining profitability. 

See what commissions your competitors are offering and what their incentive structures look like. Go through industry reports to understand typical commission rates as well. This will set a competitive benchmark. 

Some brands offer flat commission rates for a specific threshold of referrals while others provide discount codes and free samples as rewards. 

A tiered reward structure is a good option here because:

• It provides the affiliate with a tangible sense of achievement. Every level the unlock pushes them to promote more, keeping your program effective. 
• It balances commissions with ROI.
• It gives your affiliate marketing program for Shopify a competitive edge since only 4.3% of companies use a tiered reward structure.

PurelyB, a superfood brand, motivates affiliates with a tiered reward system with clear milestones and increasing commission rates. After signing up, affiliates get detailed information on the tiers and associated requirements. For example, Tier 1 offers a 10% commission for each sale, up to 15% in Tier 2. 

2. Create seamless affiliate onboarding processes

Even with attractive rewards, a lengthy or complicated onboarding process can frustrate participants and lead to dropouts. 

While creating the form, make sure to include only the most important fields for a quick sign-up. 

For example, Divi streamlined its onboarding process with Social Snowball, simplifying sign-ups and reducing friction for new affiliates.

We let you add required fields and even add Terms & Conditions to your sign-up form in the Text editor tab. You can choose to approve each application manually or let our system auto-approve them. 

To make it even simpler, you can turn on our automatic affiliate onboarding toggle button. This way, the moment a new customer buys something from your online business, their affiliate account will be created automatically.

Here's what the CMO of collagen supplement brand Obvi, Ashwin Melvani, has to say about this feature: 

3. Leverage real-time analytics and reporting

Tracking real-time affiliate metrics allows you to address performance gaps and optimize your campaigns. 

Here are some metrics you should be tracking: 

• Revenue
• Orders
• New affiliates
• Average Order Value 
• Commissions
• ROI
• CPA
• Link Clicks

You can track all these metrics in real time using Social Snowball’s advanced analytics and reporting dashboard.

You can filter the metrics based on dates, and programs to access the precise data sets you need from one centralized portal. 

4. Gamify your affiliate program

Gamification transforms a standard commission system into a dynamic and motivating experience for affiliates. It gives them a sense of achievement, keeping them hooked to your program. 

First, you need at least 3 to 5 tiers in your commission structure with different milestones that affiliates can move through. It will be like unlocking new levels of a game, motivating affiliates. 

Create leaderboards to encourage healthy competition. You can use total generated revenue and number of referred orders as metrics for the leaderboard positions. 

You must maintain regular communication with your affiliates to get the best out of gamification. It will keep affiliates informed on program updates and opportunities. Regular communication also gives them a sense of belonging, prompting more engagement. 

So, keep affiliates excited with regular updates. When they are close to unlocking a new tier or moving up on the leaderboard, send them email and message notifications. 

Besides their commissions, give them chances to participate in giveaways. Once the giveaway ends, give the winner a big shoutout on your newsletters and email communications. Show affiliates how the winner succeeded.

5. Choose the right affiliate software for Shopify

Manual processes make it difficult to run an efficient affiliate program. It involves multiple repetitive processes like:

• Identifying and onboarding affiliates
• Keeping regular communication
• Disbursing their payments on time
• Measuring the campaign metrics for constant improvements

Missing out on any of these elements will derail your whole marketing strategy. Missed payments or lack of commissions will demotivate affiliates, leading to churn and missed sales opportunities. 

The best course of action here is to invest in scalable affiliate software with automation capabilities. 

Choose a solution with Shopify integrations to simplify setup and create a seamless experience. Make sure it integrates with popular marketing automation platforms and payment wallets as well. 

For example, our affiliate management tool integrates with Shopify.

Your chosen affiliate marketing tool should let you design commission structures according to your budget and needs. It should also offer a personalized portal where affiliates:

• Track their earnings.
• Access promotional assets.
• Refer to your best-performing affiliate marketing content.
• Seek assistance. 

Find an affiliate platform that analyzes your program metrics in real-time and generates actionable reports. That way, you can find and address strategic gaps and maintain a successful affiliate marketing program.

1 out of 3 marketers have experienced affiliate fraud. To avoid that, choose an affiliate tool with in-built fraud detection and prevention software. 

For example, besides offering scalability and customizations, our platform Social Snowball has a unique fraud prevention feature called Safelinks. 

Safelinks prevents coupon fraud by generating single-use discounts for each affiliate link. These referral links work just like any regular affiliate link. However, they won’t work on coupon sites or browser extensions, eliminating coupon fraud and affiliate attribution errors.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing lets you run authentic promotions without spending tons of money upfront. If done properly, it acts as proof on social media platforms, drives trust, and boosts conversion.

Create a tiered commission structure and make onboarding effortless. Add gamification elements to keep participants engaged. You must also track metrics and adjust strategies accordingly. 

Finally, choose an affiliate tool that prioritizes ease of use, automates repetitive tasks, lets you customize, and prevents affiliate fraud — like Social Snowball. 

Our fully customizable affiliate marketing platform will help you launch a Shopify affiliate program that delights loyal fans, keeps them motivated, and generates your targeted ROI. You get real-time insights into affiliate performance and campaign reach in a single dashboard. Plus, our Safelink protects you from affiliate fraud. 

Ready to kickstart affiliate campaigns for your Shopify store? Book a demo today!

Frequently asked questions 

How should I structure commissions for affiliates?

A tiered reward system is the most effective way to structure affiliate commissions. The prospect of unlocking higher tiers with better rewards keeps them engaged in your program. Besides that, you should also offer monthly bonuses for hitting specific targets within a set period. 

If you are just starting with your affiliate program, we recommend starting with small rewards and scaling it up as you drive more profit through affiliates. For example, you can offer discount codes at the beginning or in lower tiers. For higher tiers, product samples and merch are good options. Gradually increase the reward value as your business grows.

How can I support my affiliates with marketing resources?

To support your affiliates with marketing resources, create a dedicated portal with materials like branded banners, social media templates, product descriptions, and email campaign templates. Add your brand guide so that affiliate promotions are aligned with your ecommerce brand identity and are cohesive across various channels.  

You can also create an editorial calendar with seasonal promotions and exclusive discounts to help affiliates plan promotions. Host webinars and share performance insights on top-converting materials. Finally, set up affiliate email marketing flows with personalized guidance materials based on individual strengths and weaknesses to improve customer service.