Affiliate Manager: What You Need to Know About This Profession

A new profession has recently emerged in the online management market: affiliate manager. Demand for such specialists is high, and many companies offer competitive salaries (according to work.ua, the average salary is 15,000 UAH). So, what knowledge and skills do you need to have to become a sought-after affiliate manager? What are the job responsibilities of such an employee? Let's take a look.

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I want to become an affiliate manager: what will I do?

Working with clients, but not like a regular manager. An affiliate manager is responsible for affiliate programs. In internet slang, "affiliate" means "partner." Their work involves creating, developing, and promoting existing affiliate programs and/or finding new ones to adapt them to business objectives.

An affiliate manager is essential for any company looking to promote its product online. This specialist searches for suitable platforms where people interested in purchasing a product or service can see links. In other words, they must ensure targeted traffic generation.

To understand what such a specialist will have to do, it's worth remembering how affiliate programs work. What are their goals? They increase interest in the product and traffic by placing information about the seller on the online platform (website, social network, public chat). Affiliate marketing (APM) allows you to reduce customer acquisition costs, which is the main advantage of affiliate programs.

A clear example of how an affiliate program works is the collaboration between travel agencies and online resources that sell tickets. An affiliate manager must streamline the chain.product-partner-traffic.In this case, the product is a website (or app) where you can buy tickets, the partner is a travel agency's online resource, and the target traffic is the users of that website.

Also, as examples of participants in affiliate programs, we can name car dealers and, no less, Microsoft and B2B.

What does the salary amount depend on?

An affiliate manager receives a fixed amount plus a certain percentage (depending on the affiliate plan type and its effectiveness). This means that an affiliate manager's salary may depend on the number of:

• actions (CPA);
• clicks (CPC);
• sales (CPS);
• impressions (CPV);
• downloads (CPI).

CPI (cost per install), CPA (cost per action), and CPS (cost per sale) are valued more highly than others because customers not only become familiar with an offer but also take specific actions. This gives the product/service provider the opportunity to renew their reputation in the future.

Scope of responsibilities

Since this is a new and highly specialized profession, it's interesting to know what employers are looking for. Based on job descriptions posted on the most well-known recruiting platforms (rabota.ua, work.ua, and hh.ua), an affiliate manager will be responsible for:

• searching for partners for cooperation;
• support of existing partners;
• development of a strategy for partnership cooperation and optimization of interaction with PP participants;
• preparation of promotional activities and materials for them;
• searching for new ways to promote a product through affiliate programs;
• traffic arbitrage;
• searching for webmasters and establishing cooperation with them within the framework of the "affiliate" terms;
• working with offers;
• tracking the manipulation of clicks, impressions, conversions and other signs of low-quality traffic;
• preparing reports and interacting with marketers.

A key requirement for many employers is 24/7 contact with partners. And the most common KPI in this new profession is the number of webmasters attracted.

What you need to know 

When it comes to requirements for affiliate manager candidates, employers typically clearly define their vision. Companies seeking a good affiliate manager have a clear vision of the end result and know how to achieve it. Therefore, the requirements are typically as follows:

• knowledge of online marketing;
• experience in promoting Internet projects;
• experience in arbitration and understanding of market specifics;
• experience with Google Analytics;
• conducting presentations;
• knowledge of Excel;
• literate speech, as well as proficiency in English (Intermediate level and above);
• customer focus, stress resistance, responsibility.

As for personal qualities, the following are required:

• creative thinking and analytical skills;
• communication skills and initiative;
• mastery of the art of persuasion and negotiation.

A good affiliate manager is proactive, ambitious, and productive. They don't wait for orders from management, but independently find new clients and strive to improve results. Their salary typically depends on traffic: the more traffic, the higher the income. Another important advantage of this profession is that you can work remotely.

So, if you're interested in this type of work, develop the necessary professional skills to realize your potential as an affiliate manager.