Top Tips If You’re Considering an In-House Affiliate Marketing Manager

When your firm is first getting started and you don't have as much money to devote to performing things in-house, you may frequently outsource some aspects of your business. Even though you might need to outsource during the first business push in order to create revenue streams, it will nearly always benefit your company in the long run to bring those managers in-house.

If you're considering hiring an affiliate marketing manager for your company, what information should you gather?

1. Time Spent Will Be Your Biggest Push Toward Hiring an Affiliate Marketing Manager

The first sign that you need an affiliate marketing manager will almost always be that your company is spending a lot of time on affiliate marketing. An in-house affiliate marketing program requires that you’re communicating with affiliate representatives, running campaigns, managing your affiliate partners, analyzing your competitors, looking at analytics, and much more. That takes a lot of work.

An internal affiliate marketing program will almost definitely require at least a part-time affiliate manager after it reaches roughly 10–20 affiliate representatives. Analyze the amount of time your staff is spending on affiliate marketing; if it's more than 20 hours a week, hiring a marketing manager will be quite beneficial.

2. Your Affiliate Marketing Program Revenue Needs to Be Self-Sustainable

One of the reasons that people might be hesitant to bring on an affiliate marketing manager is because they’re worried about the cost. This is fair, especially in the early stages of your business; the salary for a marketing manager may be between $40,000 and $80,000 per year. However, what you may not know is that affiliate marketing has a great ROI, and you’ll likely be able to self-sustain from your affiliate marketing program itself.

A UK study in 2017 from IAB found that affiliate marketing had, on average, a 16x return on the original advertising investment. That means if you’re currently spending only around $2,500 on your affiliate marketing program, you can probably afford a $40,000 salary manager to oversee that program. That revenue should and can be self-sustaining.

3. An In-House Affiliate Marketing Manager Can Help You Avoid Affiliate Network Commissions

Affiliate networks can be helpful – Refersion has all sorts of information about the pros and cons of joining an affiliate network versus starting your own. However, it’s significantly more cost-effective to bring your affiliate experience in-house rather than continuing to be part of an affiliate network, largely because of the commissions that affiliate networks typically take.

While your affiliate percentage may vary depending on the industry, you can expect percentages of around 15-30% through a network but about 5-15% when working directly. That can be a big part of paying your hiring manager and improving your profits overall. Plus, working directly with representatives makes it easier for you to control your brand identity and image.

4. There Are Multiple Ways to Approach Hiring an In-House Affiliate Marketing Manager

Remember that it’s completely possible to hire an in-house affiliate marketing manager in many different ways. Here are a few ways you might want to approach the process of hiring your first in-house affiliate marketing manager.

Part-Time/Contract Manager

If you’re uncertain about hiring someone new for your affiliate marketing, a part-time manager or a manager with a very short contract, such as about three months, can be a great first step. This is a great way to test the waters and learn more about how an in-house affiliate marketing manager can really help your business overall. Just remember that people looking for part-time or short-term contract work may also have less experience themselves.

Freelancer Manager

Freelancers can be a great way to get more expertise without committing completely to a full-time affiliate marketing manager. They can work full-time hours, but you may not have to pay them a specific salary, instead, paying them by the hour or in another manner. However, it’s important to remember that legally, you usually can’t require a freelancer to work certain hours; the fact that you pay them less and don’t offer benefits for them also means that they get more freedom than your full-time employees.

Full-Time Manager

A full-time marketing manager is one of the best choices for businesses that really want to work hard on their affiliate marketing programs. Full-time managers typically have more experience and may have grown in-house programs for other companies before. Plus, you’ll be able to fully incorporate them into your team.

Promoted Marketing Worker

One of your greatest options is to hire a full-time marketing manager, but where you choose that manager matters too. One great option to fill the marketing manager role without having to onboard someone into the system you've already developed is to promote from within. See whether any of the individuals currently working with your affiliate program would be interested in taking on the role of full-time marketing manager by having a conversation with them.

To get even more out of your marketing program and learn more about it, hiring an inside affiliate marketing manager can be a terrific idea. Before hiring a marketing manager, though, make sure you're ready.

You'll have no trouble building a successful affiliate marketing program for your company if you follow these four suggestions.