Photo from Unsplash

Originally Posted On: https://www.getreditus.com/for-saas/blog/what-is-a-saas-affiliate-program

 

An affiliate program is defined as a venture in which a company pays a commission to its referrals or affiliates for promoting companies’ products or services. These commissions are received every time a customer purchases something through an affiliate link or completes a specific action on the provider’s product, usually involving a subscription. SaaS or Software-as-a-Service is a delivery model that licenses software stored on the cloud to companies on a subscription basis.

Once subscribed, you can use the product purchased online-the software and access it through your desktop computer or Mobile phone. The SaaS cloud technology is an upgrade from the traditional access where software installation was only available from a CD. Users had to physically purchase and port the CD to install the software. SaaS applications are stored on the cloud in the provider servers and are accessed through the internet.

In simple terms…

Say you have your eCommerce store or website selling a particular service. You want to add a live chat feature to your site to increase your customer interaction and respond to your customers in real-time. You shop around for the best live chat providers and their applications, and finally, you find one. You pick out the premium version and finalize the purchase, and you get access to the service for the time of your subscription. You install it, and you now have a live chat Icon on your site. The live chat is the SaaS service, and the developer of the live chat is the SaaS provider. If you purchased the Live chat by recommendation from a site that reviews the best applications, they might be in a SaaS partner program with the developer.

SaaS affiliate programs

SaaS affiliate programs represent different advantages users get, like discounts or limited free trials for purchasing your software through a given link on another site. B2B Affiliate marketing involves setting up a SaaS Partnership program and finding the right SaaS affiliate partner with the ideal amount of traffic that matches your niche and growth projections.

SaaS affiliate programs promise impressive ROI with a lower risk. But breaking even is the tricky part. Getting your SaaS affiliate network up and running and realize significant returns takes a lot of tweaking, pitching, pricing, and optimization. You will have to find ways of defining your KPIs and aligning them to your targets along the way. This could be achieved through Affiliate software tracking that checks if an affiliate partners’ performance is going well or they need to improve.

SaaS partner programs are perfect for startups and newcomers with limited marketing resources. The increase in exposure and boost in selling gives them the market permissiveness that would otherwise take years to obtain. When a company is selling SaaS software, a profitable SaaS affiliate program is a great way to hit the ground running.

B2B affiliate marketing basics

Cloud-based applications are relatively easy to market. Depending on the specific service provided and the ease of installation and set-up, affiliate programs usually have to convince their members to sign up for the product either with a free trial or a redeemable discount code. Combine this with the extent of digital marketing, and the potential of partnership programs is limitless.

SaaS affiliate programs come in different types. Depending on the product you advertise from Inbound marketing and sales software, marketing tools, productivity and activity management tools, collaboration and project management tools, the SaaS provider will determine the type of software you will advertise and the payment options.

SaaS companies gain more from affiliate programs as they have a much lower churn rate and their lifetime value per customer is higher. The lifetime benefit of running a successful SaaS affiliate program is a higher ROI and an overall reduction in the Customer Acquisition Cost. Since the ultimate goal is growth, b2b affiliate marketing programs hand it to you if you get the right SaaS affiliate partners and comprehensive Affiliate program software to keep you in the loop.

How a SaaS affiliate program works

In its basic form, a SaaS affiliate program is the process that deals with an affiliate promoting a given SaaS product and receiving a small commission when the person they referred signs up to use the product. The sales are tracked through Affiliate software tracking involving affiliate links that redirect the referral to the official SaaS site and store a cookie for their activity.

The affiliate partner program is a quick way for affiliate marketers to earn extra passive income-popular today while engaging their customers and raising their brand image. Depending on the affiliate provider-affiliate marketer relationship, the payment and commissions reflect the affiliate partner’s performance and the remuneration owed.

What SaaS affiliate partnership programs offer Affiliate marketers

An affiliate program software offers a comprehensive look at your clicks, trials, sales, and commissions. The affiliate software tracking reviews your earnings, tracks the performance of your affiliate marketing strategies, and offers suggestions to boost your metrics. The longtime benefit of joining a SaaS Partner Program that sells is that your brand grows, there’s a significant increase in your website’s visibility and more sales. The SaaS affiliate program also gives you access to and options to create large creative inventory such as demo videos, banners, and copy examples designed to help you earn the most commission possible.

why SaaS affiliate programs work

Most SaaS products have low price tags that are affordable to the users. This makes it easier for the B2B SaaS affiliate marketers to sell the product. The affiliate providers can only pay when they have subscribed through the affiliates’ link or make a purchase.

Result based remuneration

For SaaS providers, the cost spent on advertising campaigns and marketing strategies is significantly reduced. The SaaS affiliate partners take over the marketing and sales, and you need only pay if they make actual sales. The affiliate partners already have an audience that is suited to your product and much easier to sell. The recurring commission feature is particularly lucrative for B2B affiliate marketers.

Everyone needs something

The dependence on tools to optimize, automate, fast-track, and manage different aspects of the business or personal activities makes it easier to convince the users to sign up for a given SaaS software. From tracking software, payment methods, inventory management tools, productivity tools to media consumption tools, software sells.

Straightforward

SaaS affiliate programs have a simple methodology where every participant knows their role and plays it well. The SaaS affiliate partner has to make exceptional advertisements, including video ads, banners, blog post links, and utilize every related marketing strategy to get more leads and drive sales. The SaaS software provider has the role of optimizing their landing pages, successfully onboarding and refining their subscriptions to meet the current demands. Everyone does what they are good at.

Performance metrics

SaaS partner programs implement some Affiliate software tracking to keep abreast of the affiliate program partners’ performance and determine the appropriate remuneration. The performance indicators could include cookies saved when the user visits the site and makes a purchase or scripts coming with the Affiliate program software.

The Reditus B2B SaaS program 

The SaaS partner program is a partner management tool that lets software companies have affiliate program partners who refer their software to other people in return for a recurring commission.

The SaaS affiliate partner shares their product link on the relevant platform, and referrals click on the link. When they click, the referral gets a cookie with a limited timeframe, and if they sign up, the cookie will contain the information of which site they signed up from.

The referred SaaS user can either choose to go for the paid annual or monthly subscription for the software or not. When they decide to subscribe, the SaaS provider gets the payment, and a commission for the B2B SaaS affiliate is calculated. The affiliate is then paid the agreed-upon %. This process repeats itself as long as the subscription is active and the referral is still a client.

Why choose Reditus

We offer an exclusive Privacy Certified tool that keeps track of the necessary data related to the site. We do not create or distribute a profile of the visitors.

We offer SaaS affiliate programs a Partner program tool with a marketplace that allows the SaaS business to get listed and be visible to agencies, bloggers, influencers, and potential SaaS affiliate partners outside of their own network.

Reditus gives SaaS companies full program control and guarantees unmatched transparency. We offer SEO-friendly links that make it easier to embed into the blog posts and marketing sites without getting flagged or coming off as spammy. As a B2BSaaS program partner, you can manage all your programs from one dashboard.

With a little bit of connection and luck finding the right channel to advertise on, any SaaS provider can harness the magic of SaaS affiliate partner programs and reap well from passive income without having to go through the exhaustive marketing phase.