Tips & Guides — 22 Oct 2020
Moving Affiliate Program to SaaS: Myths And Facts
With the number of industry-specific SaaS platforms, there are hardly any arguments in favor of a solution from scratch. Think about all the time you waste developing an in-house solution, while you could sign up at a SaaS platform and start growing your business straight away.
But what about those who run their business on in-house solutions?
The majority of vendors who manage their business on in-house software solutions must have started ten or more years ago. At that time, the market was not that saturated, and finding a comprehensive SaaS provider might have been challenging. Thus, we can imagine that back then, developing a solution from scratch was an option.
Nowadays you won’t see a startup choosing an in-house software solution over a SaaS platform. Moreover users will have a big deal of comparison to do among similar SaaS products before making a final decision. But still, there are certain misunderstandings when it comes to SaaS tools, mainly spread by the adherents of solutions from scratch. Not everybody is aware of the possibilities that SaaS platforms can offer.
We prepared the list with the most common delusions about SaaS platforms’ capabilities to dispel certain misperceptions. Let’s see together what is a myth and what is a fact.
Some people may say that SaaS platforms use your data for their purposes and merge your offers. Thus, you can’t fully trust it. Myth or fact?
This one is an unforgivable delusion! No technology would stand a chance to survive at present unless they insure total data privacy control. All SaaS suppliers are responsible for the maintenance of the data that customers share with them. Therefore, it is essential to ensure the security and confidentiality of customers’ data.
Affiliate marketing platforms involve sometimes tracking tons of information on users across different devices. Thus SaaS platforms serve solely as data processors and have no direct interaction with end-users. They value transparency and fulfill obligations under the GDPR towards existing customers and their employees. Among those obligations are the right to be informed, the right to data portability, legal requests to object to or restrict processing, delete data containing end user’s data, or any personal data a SaaS partner platform may store regarding its customer’s employees, affiliates, and advertisers.
Speaking on behalf of Affise, we have many years of experience designing and developing software for the partner marketing industry. This broad expertise makes us aware of the main interaction points where data security must be addressed particularly rigorous. Numerous regulations, GDPR compliance, and ePrivacyseal, in particular, prove our trustworthiness.
Clearly, that’s a myth.
In reality, you can hardly predict all expenses unless you have a team that knows the industry inside out. And that involves a team of different professionals, from developers to business analysts, who can collaborate on developing a platform for the current needs and the perspectives. Trends are changing, and you always need to adjust your technology for a rapidly evolving industry.
Developing in-house software for affiliate management may cost you from $250,000 up to $500,000. And that’s not all yet. Add rough $15,000 of monthly expenses on developers to maintain the platform’s stability and costs on servers. The final price range is vast. Everything depends on the volumes you work with. A more accurate price can be available only after proper business evaluations, for which you will have to pay as well.
Majority don’t know what they need – obviously a myth.
You may know which functions you need right now, but you can miscalculate when it comes to privacy or tracking updates you need to adjust the platform for. You risk lagging behind only because of the development issues that will take some time on your side to research. In contrast, it will take much less from experience in a particular industry SaaS vendor to implement.
For example, you might be unaware of the troublesome process of offers transfer to the platform, which requires a whole separate tool, like CPAPI. Or, once the basic functionality is done, it may take ages to develop custom features, such as offers schedule, commission tiers, traffic distribution, tags management, etc. The list can go on and on.
Another common myth.
And again, maybe it was an issue ten or even more years ago, but we can’t say it about nowadays.
Besides providing the core business solution, all SaaS platforms are striving to help users have a unique experience that will ensure long LTV. To achieve this, they leave a lot of space for platform customization, which involves both customizations in terms of design and extra integrations. Thus, users can reflect their company’s identities with custom design, they can arrange the settings in a convenient way for their business, and they can connect any needed tools.
Today many SaaS platforms are already integrated with the most demanded services for various workflows. And even if a particular tool you use is not there or you have some dedicated solution, it can still be done via API integration.
Too good to be true, isn’t it? But you indeed can start working within 24 hours!
However, there is something you should have in mind. It all depends on which platform you choose and what stage your business is at. If you’re only starting out, then you can launch your affiliate program at ease within 24 hours. However, if you are migrating your business, you will most likely need morу time to transfer your offers.
And the defining moment here is whether a SaaS platform you migrate to offers any supplementary tool to help pull your advertisers and offers in bulk. Like CPAPI, for example, which connects sources of offers with a recipient system and pulls any amount of offers into a tracking platform.
Although all SaaS, by definition, is available via subscription and is designed to deliver one primary function of its users, you can add numerous options to the basic SaaS package.
Let us tell you more about the possibilities of managing a partner/affiliate program at Affise, a SaaS marketing platform.
Content Manager
Yulia is a Content Marketer with a love to a great story and an eye to small details. Carrying a voice and delivering an accurate message - that’s what Yulia believes content marketing is for. Looking for thorough research and long-reads? You came to the right person. Her goal is to produce content that educates and entertains, and most importantly, has an impact. Challenges and something that is yet to be explored are her main motivators.
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