The ever-growing affiliate marketing spend and increasingly-complex affiliate networks – Amazon Associates alone unites over 900,000 affiliates – bear eloquent witness to the success of affiliate marketing. A mind-boggling 80% of companies run at least one affiliate program, with 70% of affiliates partnering with three or more affiliate networks and multiple affiliate marketing programs.
But affiliate marketing isn’t a free ride — only around 21% of affiliates can boast an annual income over $10,000, with the majority making significantly less. You must go the extra mile to set yourself apart from the competition.
The good news is that there are tools to get an edge in affiliate marketing:
- Lead tracking software
- Lead distribution software
United into a comprehensive lead management system, these tools can increase revenue per lead and tap into revenue streams unavailable to competitors. For example, advanced lead distribution enables new sales models, such as selling leads based on their quality, location, status, or other parameters.
- Long story short, an effective lead tracking and distribution solution like Phonexa’s LMS Sync will give you an advantage in affiliate marketing.
If that’s what you want, read on.
What Is Revenue per Lead and Why Is It Important?
Before we jump into the nitty gritty of affiliate tracking software and distribution solutions, let’s put the revenue per lead – one of the main benefits of lead tracking and distribution solutions – into context.
- Revenue per lead (RPL) is a marketing metric that calculates the amount of money a lead brings on average. For example, if 50 leads got you $10,000 – say, 20 converted into $10,000, and the rest 30 bounced – your revenue per lead is $200.
Revenue per lead is a crucial metric for pay-per-lead (PPL) affiliate campaigns, as it predicts the success of affiliate marketing endeavors and the price range for specific leads within a lead market.
Knowing revenue per lead regulates the affiliate market in two ways:
- On the one hand, RPL limits the maximum ask. Knowing that a lead can only bring $200 to an advertiser, an affiliate will likely sell them at a lower price. Otherwise, chances of selling these leads would be very low — not to mention unattended leads inevitably decrease in price.
- On the other hand, RPL gives advertisers an understanding of the optimal bid. Knowing a lead can bring you $200 — and considering related expenses — advertisers can accurately determine the highest bid for the leads they want.
There’s a nuance, though: revenue per lead only bears power within the lead market. It may end up that you monetize anything but leads: impressions, clicks, email subscriptions, software installations, etc. If you don’t sell leads or lead sales accounts to boost your income, you may not benefit from increasing your RPL.
Lead markets are exceptionally popular with affiliate networks and offer maximum flexibility for all parties. With dozens of settings available to advertisers and affiliates, finding the middle ground is rarely a problem.
What Does Lead Tracking and Distribution Mean for Affiliate Marketing?
Anyone using a lead management system for their business won’t have trouble adapting it for affiliate marketing. A lead management system – typically comprising lead tracking, distribution, and analytics software – will dissect your referral leads the same way it dissects regular leads.
- Lead management software will unlock the lead data for your affiliate network. You will know everything about your leads, whether you buy, sell, or reroute leads to your internal sales department.
Lead management software automatically taps into your lead data to evaluate leads, affiliates, and advertisers within your network. Lead data might be the missing puzzle for affiliate networks, but not with lead management software at work.
How Lead Tracking Will Increase Revenue per Lead for Your Affiliate Network
From the first ad display until conversion, leads leave game-changing customer insights – even if they eventually bounce. Lead tracking software interprets lead tracking metrics into profitable strategic decisions. For example, important affiliate marketing solutions like setting up fees can be made with the help of customer insights provided by lead tracking software.
Unsurprisingly, most marketers struggle with tracking conversions, having no access to lead tracking software or a chance to track conversions manually. Even the most basic tracking – affiliate link tracking – leaves much to be desired with most affiliate marketers. But you can fill that gap with lead tracking software.
Lead tracking software collects three-dimensional affiliate marketing data:
- Customer data: demographics, psychographics, interactions, previous purchases, etc.
- Marketing data: channel and keyword that generated a lead, whether the lead converted, etc.
- Sales rep data: activity, performance with affiliate-driven traffic, etc.
Advanced lead tracking software may go even further than tracking leads. Lead generation powered by analytics software creates an all-encompassing lead management system that covers the entire marketing landscape, including the dimension of affiliate marketing.
How Lead Tracking Will Grow Your Revenue per Lead
| Improving Creative Materials | Tracking your affiliate marketing leads will help you create tailor-made creative materials for your affiliates, gaining an edge over other networks. Customization is one of the reasons (alongside the commission rates and incentives) for the loyalty of your affiliates. |
| Identifying High-quality Leads | You will have an edge by qualifying your leads – for example, by type and intent – better than your competitors. Taking lead quality and type into account will enable more accurate distribution and growth in your revenue per lead. |
| Adjusting the Sales Funnel | Even with a near-perfect sales funnel, some leads may drop off without you knowing why. Tracking those leads will unleash your fullest potential as an affiliate marketer. |
| Complying with Data Privacy Regulations | Up-to-date call tracking software suites comply with data protection regulations, saving you from exorbitant compliance penalties. |
| Preventing Lead Fraud | Fraudulent leads shall not pass! Lead tracking software will immediately block fraudulent and suspicious leads from entering the market, leaving only quality leads in the pool. A reliable lead market will increase trust in your network and, eventually, your revenue per lead. |
A well-thought-out lead tracking process will improve your affiliate marketing in every aspect, from revenue per lead to brand image expansion into untapped markets. However, as valuable as lead tracking is, it doesn’t drive leads to the destination point, a task undertaken by lead distribution software.
How Lead Distribution Will Increase Revenue per Lead for Your Affiliate Network
Whether an affiliate network owner, independent affiliate, or advertiser, you want to connect leads to the product or agent they seek. And you must do it fast! Sub-optimal lead distribution will cost you an arm and a leg.
In a classic business model, lead distribution works as follows:
- You generate a lead with one of the many affiliate lead generation strategies.
- Your lead distribution software connects this lead to the matching sales rep.
- The sales rep converts the lead.
In affiliate marketing, this three-step algorithm is even simpler, as you may not need to generate leads yourself (or you can – it’s up to you).
Advanced lead distribution software will allow you to configure lead routing the way you want, from the simplest price-base distribution to mixed distribution models. You will expedite the sales process and improve the customer journey, matching leads with the best lead buyers.
How Lead Distribution Will Grow Your Revenue per Lead
| Increased Routing Efficiency | Customized lead distribution will connect leads to the best buyers while satisfying the bid and ask. For example, with location-based distribution, you can boost local businesses, leveraging the purchasing power of local customers. |
| Increased Response Rate | The lead response rate plummets by 800% if the lead is unattended for more than five minutes. Prioritizing the response time in lead distribution will allow you to connect leads to their buyers almost immediately. |
| Near-Full Automation | Manual distribution and sales are exhaustingly inefficient – most advertisers and affiliates alike will appreciate automated lead distribution. Automation saves time, increases customer engagement, enables timely communications, and unlocks upselling opportunities. |
| Granular Differentiation | While all affiliate networks trade leads, not all of them differentiate between the leads they trade. Proper lead distribution will help you create separate routing paths for different leads, such as
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| Higher Competition | All things equal, the highest bid wins the lead in affiliate marketing. Lead distribution promotes competition in the lead market while increasing the quality of leads and the revenue per lead for the affiliate network and advertisers. Imagine you have one exclusive lead to sell and three bids:
You have to choose between Bid 1 and Bid 2 + Bid 3, selling the lead for $75 or $40. You can sell the lead instantly for the best price possible ($75) or wait for more bids if you want to sell this lead as a shared lead. More often than not, waiting isn’t a reliable affiliate marketing strategy because leads depreciate over time. |
| More Affiliate and Advertisers | Advanced lead distribution will increase your revenue per lead and overall revenue as more advertisers and affiliates discover your tempting offer. |
Take Your Affiliate Marketing to the Next Level With Phonexa
Everything you need for advanced affiliate marketing comes in Phonexa’s all-encompassing marketing automation suite.
Customize your suite now to pay for what you need, or book a free consultation to learn how Phonexa can help you unlock revenue and revolutionize your affiliate marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is performance marketing?
Performance marketing is when an advertiser pays for specific actions, such as clicks, views, leads, subscriptions, or sales. Performance marketing isn’t the same as affiliate marketing, as it encompasses many other types of marketing besides affiliate marketing: email marketing, PPC advertising, influencer marketing, social media advertising, and more.
What is performance marketing software?
Performance marketing software enables tracking and analyzing marketing performance, including affiliate marketing. Although performance marketing is not the same as affiliate marketing, you can use the same software suite for tracking, distributing, and analyzing leads.
What is the most advantageous benefit of lead tracking and distribution solutions for affiliate marketing?
The most advantageous benefit is that lead tracking and distribution solutions open new revenue opportunities for affiliate marketers while increasing revenue per lead for currently targeted verticals.
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