In-housing marketing functions is a hot topic right now. Even before COVID-19, we saw a trend towards in-housing across digital, including affiliate marketing. We’d expect this trend to continue or even accelerate as brands take a step back and review the challenges of the last year, and how they want to set themselves up for success in 2021.
Why would a brand move their affiliate marketing functions in-house?
There are some excellent reasons why a brand would consider moving their affiliate marketing functions in-house:
Control and trust
You know better than anyone exactly what you need, and what is best for your customers. The right agency will learn this quickly, but they are not your employees.
Consistency and communication
Outsourcing requires you to have effective communication with your agency to ensure consistency across messaging and brand values. Naturally, messages can get diluted as they pass between people.
Knowing the brand and company values
You know your brand and live your company values better than an external agency will ever be able to.
However, there are also some drawbacks of in-housing your affiliate marketing programme:
Talent and resourcing
It can be challenging to get approval on hiring for new roles internally and finding the best in market talent.
Burn out
Once you do find that dazzling person, how long before they get burn out from working in the same role day-in-day-out?
Economies of scale
The benefit of working with an agency is that they can leverage their economies of scale through partnerships, employees and technology. It is difficult to do this as a lone brand.
There is no one size fits all solution, so you should consider what impacts in-housing would have on your affiliate marketing activities. A hybrid solution with agency support is an option to mitigate the potential drawbacks of in-housing.
How can an agency support your affiliate marketing in-house team?
Flexible resource
We have nearly 200 affiliate marketing experts globally, so we can support you when, how and where you need. Perhaps you need more support in partner recruitment, or additional account management in Q4, a team to launch your new programme in a new market or give an independent review of your current affiliate marketing programme. We’re here to help you achieve your objectives.
Talent
We hire the best people in affiliate marketing, with a wide range of skills sets from account handling to business development and analytics. Engaging an agency like us allows you to work with some of the best and most experienced people within the industry.
The external perspective
Whilst you know your brand and company inside out, it can be challenging to get a broader perspective on what’s happening in the market. As an agency, we work with hundreds of brands, across various sectors and countries and can offer that additional insight that you otherwise would not have.
Doing the things, you hate
Running an affiliate marketing programme can be extremely rewarding; finding new valuable partnerships and driving incremental growth. However, to run an affiliate programme successfully and safely, there are regular tasks to manage, such as compliance, sales approvals, reporting, onboarding and partner communications. We can do this, allowing you to drive the successful strategy from the top.
Whilst in-housing can add benefits and cost savings to your affiliate marketing activities. You’ll likely still need support in some areas, potentially at different times throughout the year, launching a new product/service or moving into a new market. A hybrid between your in-house team and agency can be a winning combination.
To find out more about our services, go HERE or get in touch with the team to discuss how we can work with you to build a better affiliate marketing programme.
