Affiliate Payment Solutions

‍Payset can help. We offer a premier solution for companies looking to manage their affiliate programs. Our services are designed to address your company’s unique challenges.

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What Are Payment Processors for Affiliate Marketing?

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Affiliate payment processors are services that your company can use to pay any partners that it has recruited to its affiliate marketing program.

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Affiliate marketing programs are simply agreements between a company and any partners that receive payment in exchange for engaging in promotional activities. Typically, these activities involve referrals, recruiting, link sharing, and other similar actions. 

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How Do Payments for Affiliate Marketing Programs Work?

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Affiliate payment solutions allow you to pay affiliate partners as part of your program. First, you’ll need to decide on a marketing model and payout model. Separately, you’ll need to choose an affiliate payment solution that can complete any necessary transactions. 

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Keep in mind that you’ll need to take into account participants’ regional needs when deciding how to pay affiliates. Payment processors may allow for several payment methods, may handle foreign currencies, and may support multiple countries. Choosing a payment system that can serve affiliates globally is as important as deciding on any other feature. 

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What Are The Benefits of Using Payment Processors as an Affiliate Payment Solution?

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By using a payment processing affiliate program, your program will likely experience various benefits. Consider these possible advantages:

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Increased Popularity

Affiliate marketing requires participation from other companies or individuals who are capable of promoting your program through their own established reputation. 

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By using an easy-to-use payment solution, you’ll be able to make timely and efficient payments and demonstrate that you are easy to work with. As a result, your program will likely attract participants seeking straightforward affiliate opportunities.

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Flexible Management Options

Using a payment processor will allow you to access flexible management options and monitor all finances that flow through your account. Doing so will help you manage your operations and monitor historical data and trends related to your business and affiliate programs. Having access to this key data is a necessary part of managing any program.

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Improved Security

By using a payment processor as your affiliate payment solution, you’ll be able to ensure that all transactions are handled according to commonplace security standards. This includes encryption, anti-fraud measurements, transaction monitoring, and other necessities.

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How Do Affiliate Payment Solutions Help to Boost ECommerce Sales?

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Affiliate payment solutions can help boost e-commerce sales by attracting new users and customers. You’ll need to pay affiliates to engage in promotional activity —  typically by compensating them each time they attract a customer, encourage a sign-up or sale, or otherwise obtain a lead. Though it is an expense, this can increase your sales, especially if paid affiliate marketing turns into organic, word-of-mouth publicity among your customers.  

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In short, an affiliate marketing campaign can help your business grow quickly alongside other traditional advertising and marketing activities. 

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What Are the Key Features an Affiliate Payment Solution Should Have?

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There are many common features that you can expect an affiliate payment system to include. Below, we’ll look at payment- and usage-focused features that you might find useful.

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Wide Range of Payment Methods

Your chosen payment solution should include a wide range of payment methods, including support for various countries, payment networks, and global currencies. By offering many types of payment, you’ll be able to attract a wide variety of affiliates to your program.

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Dedicated Account Manager

With a dedicated account manager, you’ll be able to address issues that arise as you bring in more sales and work with more affiliates. This can help you improve organization and financial tracking. In turn, you’ll be able to grow your affiliate program more effectively.

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Good or Fair Pricing

You should select a payment solution with affordable pricing and fees, as this will help you minimize the cost of business as you work with affiliate partners. 

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Zero-fee services are rare: you will likely need to pay per-transaction fees, account fees, and conversion rates as part of a payment processing affiliate program. Consider your ideal fee model as well as objectively low rates when you choose your affiliate payment solution. 

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Ability to Scale Up or Down

Payment solutions may scale up or down to support larger or smaller amounts of business activity. If your business suddenly experiences large but occasional surges in activity (for example, during product launches or holiday promotions), you may want to look for a payment solution that can meet changing demand through multiple fee models. Once again, this will help you minimize the cost of doing business with your various affiliate partners.

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Collaboration Opportunities

Some affiliate payment solutions allow you to extend collaboration opportunities to select advertisers and participants. If this option is part of your affiliate payment system, you may be able to obtain an added benefit by attracting new advertisers and partners.

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How to Implement an Affiliate Payment Solution

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It’s easy to obtain an affiliate payment solution and integrate it with your business. Most services only require you to register and wait for approval before you start transacting.

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By signing up with Payset, you only need to provide basic identity information and documents. Your account will be approved within 72 hours, and you can start making payments immediately after approval. Payset can help you quickly make global payments to all of your affiliates.

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How Much Should an Affiliate Payment Solution Cost?

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The costs of operating an affiliate payment solution vary. First, you’ll need to consider how much you will pay affiliate partners. Most estimates suggest that commission rates range between 5% and 30%, though this may vary depending on your industry and other circumstances. 

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Apart from paying affiliates, you will also need to pay account and transaction fees. These fees can vary widely depending on service – see Payset’s pricing page for our own estimates.

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What Is the Best Type of Affiliate Payment System?

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The best type of affiliate payment system is one that allows you to transact broadly and at low costs so that you can work with as many affiliate partners as possible. 

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An ideal payment system supports multiple countries, foreign currencies, and payment networks, all of which will help your business expand its affiliate marketing program globally. Payset’s services can help you meet all of these international transaction needs.

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Making Affiliate Program Payments

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Your business can pay affiliate marketers through various methods, including bank payments,  financial network transfers, wire transfers, checks, and online payments. 

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Typically, this involves making regular monthly payments based on affiliate performance. You may also make additional payments to affiliate marketers, such as bonuses and heightened commission rates, in order to further encourage engagement. Combining these additional payments with standard monthly transfers can streamline your payment flow.

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Why Is the Choice of Affiliate Payment Solution So Important?

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Choosing the right affiliate payment solution is crucial because a proper choice will determine the effectiveness and affordability of your marketing efforts. 

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Be sure to choose an affiliate payment solution that offers a combination of quality features and affordable fees. Also, be sure to choose an option that is attractive to potential affiliate marketing partners. By doing so, you’ll be in the best position to promote your company or business.

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How to Pay Affiliate Marketers

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There are several ways to pay affiliate marketers, including:

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• Bank transfers
• Financial network transfers
• Wire transfers
• Checks
• Online payments
• Gift cards and rewards
• Payment processors

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Ultimately, your business can use any widely accepted payment option to pay affiliate marketers. Payment processors like Payset can help you perform any necessary payments.

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How Often Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid?

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Affiliate marketers are typically paid on a monthly basis. This allows for amounts owed to accrue, meaning that you will not need to make a large number of small and costly payments. As such, this standard practice can save your business time and money.

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It’s also important to meet this requirement in order to compete with others in your industry, as affiliate marketers expect regular payment. However, if your affiliates have agreed to build up a minimum amount of revenue before being paid, you may be able to postpone extremely small payments to later months in order to further save on transaction costs.

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Be sure to tell potential affiliate marketers about minimum engagement requirements upfront. If your payment rules are not clear, affiliates may choose to focus their efforts elsewhere. 

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What Are the Four Types of Affiliate Payment Methods?

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You can compensate affiliates through various methods, all of which involve measuring and monitoring those affiliates’ activities. Below, we’ll examine four payment structures.

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Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

In Pay-Per-Click advertising, an affiliate shares links, messages, or ads and is paid for each click received. This ensures that you only pay when someone is interested in your advertisement, though it is possible for dishonest participants to falsify results through click fraud.

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Pay-Per-Impression (PPI)

In Pay-Per-Impression (PPI) marketing, an affiliate is paid each time an ad is seen. Because viewing rates are very high, this typically involves a ‘pay per mille’ or ppm model, meaning that affiliates are paid per 1000 impressions. For video ads, the affiliate may be paid based on the amount of time that an ad is viewed, possibly with a minimum view time requirement.

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This model is ideal if you intend to distribute your ad campaign widely, as you do not need to worry about whether your audience will actively click on your advertisements. However, web traffic can be falsified or simply irregular, making this model less cost-effective.

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Pay-Per-Action (PPA)

In Pay-Per-Action advertising, affiliates are paid when a potential customer takes significant action beyond clicking on an ad. For example, an affiliate might be paid if a customer signs up for a trial, subscribes to a newsletter, or schedules a consultation. Sign-ups demand more effort than clicks and views and are harder to falsify, so this model can help prevent fraud.

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Two-Tiered Affiliate Programs (TTAP)

In a two-tiered affiliate program, a marketer may control an affiliate network and receive commissions for referrals to and from its network. This type of model is often referred to as multi-level marketing, which can be a legitimate strategy despite the term’s poor reputation.

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Types of Affiliate Payment Commission Structures

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There are several different affiliate commission structures. Though there is overlap with the four payment structures described above, this section will focus on the cost for you instead of the amount that the affiliate earns. We’ll look at various models below.

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Cost-Per-Action (CPA)

Cost-per-action is an affiliate revenue model in which you pay affiliates for each action that a customer performs, such as a subscription, purchase, or other engagement. 

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This strategy is common. It also helps you accurately measure affiliate success: customer engagement with any paid service is costly and time-consuming, meaning that engagement is hard to falsify, and any actions that you see are likely legitimate.  

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Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

In a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) model, affiliates earn money each time that a potential customer clicks on their ad or link. While cost-per-click models may reflect user activity accurately, this model is also vulnerable to click fraud or falsified activity in some cases.

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Cost-Per-Lead (CPL)

In a Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) commission structure, you pay an affiliate for every lead or potential customer that they refer to you. Customers must typically show interest in some way — for example, by signing up for a newsletter or marketing campaign.

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Though not every lead will be converted into a customer or client, this commission structure can be an effective measurement of interest. And because this strategy is typically combined with mailing lists or marketing campaigns, you can engage directly with your audience, unlike in other models that anonymously measure clicks and actions.

Cost-Per-Impression (CPI)

In a Cost-Per-Impression (CPI) model, you pay an affiliate each time an ad is displayed or viewed. Because this model involves a high number of impressions, typically, it is measured in cost per mille (CPM) or cost per thousand impressions.

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Because web traffic can be falsified, this is not necessarily an ideal option for online advertising campaigns. Nevertheless, many online businesses use this commission model for web ads, and it is a viable option in many cases as it helps to distribute a marketing campaign widely. 

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Cost-Per-Acquisition  

Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) models measure the cost of a customer completing a specific action that leads to a conversion. This term is very broad and may include any of the above actions, including clicks, purchases, impressions, leads, or other types of engagement. 

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Revenue Sharing Model

Revenue-sharing models involve a company sharing part of its revenue with an affiliate partner. In other words, affiliates receive a portion of the company’s sales. The exact amount that the affiliate receives is based on the traffic that they direct that becomes converted to sales.

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This method has an advantage in that it attracts affiliates to successful companies, and those affiliates also have a vested interest in your business’ success. On the other hand, if your company has low revenue, this strategy may not be successful in attracting affiliates.

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Different Types Of Affiliate Marketing Programming

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Affiliate marketing programs come in many different types. It’s important to decide which model best fits your unique circumstances, as choosing an optimal model will help you succeed in business and maintain relationships with affiliate marketers and customers. 

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Consider these affiliate models.

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Classic Affiliate Program

In a classic affiliate program, affiliate markers share links, ads, or other messages. The affiliate earns a commission each time a customer follows their personalized link. Typically, the customer must complete a transaction or meet other requirements before the affiliate is credited.

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This model is extremely simple, but it does not allow for advanced affiliate marketing activities that might help your business engage with its audience more thoroughly.

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Lead Generation

In lead generation, an affiliate earns a commission whenever they secure a potential customer. For example, an affiliate may be credited whenever they get a customer to fill out a business’s contact form, get a customer to request a quote, or otherwise attract customer engagement. 

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Unlike in classic affiliate marketing, the potential customer does not necessarily need to pay. As such, lead generation requires dedicated and active participation from a business in order to ensure that potential leads are converted into paying customers at a future date.

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This model is attractive because it can generate many types of customer engagement. However, it is not as simple as classic affiliate methods and requires less effort from businesses.

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Affiliate Network

Affiliate networks allow you to select from a wide range of affiliate programs instead of choosing just one strategy. This model can be beneficial as it may allow your company to attract a wide array of engagement while relying on highly rated affiliate programs.

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Multi-Level Marketing Affiliate Program

A multi-level marketing (MLM) program allows affiliates to earn rewards by recruiting other affiliates. Often, recruitment rewards are offered alongside rewards for sales and customer engagement, similar to the other affiliate program types described above. 

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Though MLM programs are often popular, they may attract short-lived interest if they emphasize recruiting over sales. MLM schemes may also be regulated or banned in some locations.

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Tiered Affiliate Program

Tiered affiliate programs allow affiliates to earn commissions by attracting others to the affiliate program. These are similar to, and may be considered a type of, multi-level marketing (MLM).

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Forms of Affiliate Marketing Payments

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Not sure how to pay affiliate marketers? Fortunately, there are many ways of doing so. We’ll look at a few examples below, starting with monetary payments.

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Monetary Payments

You can simply pay affiliates through standard monetary payouts. This model is attractive because it is simple and because many affiliates desire cash payments. 

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Unfortunately, transactions can be expensive in large quantities. If you offer monetary payments, it is best to impose minimum limits on payout requests. Doing so will allow you to wait for affiliate balances to accumulate, preventing the need for small and costly transactions.

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Credit Payouts

You can also pay affiliates with credit that can be spent at your own company. This approach can help you avoid the cost of external monetary transfers. Similarly, it will allow affiliates to purchase your products and services partially or entirely with credit (and without cash).

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However, a credit-based payout model may not effectively attract affiliates unless your company is popular and offers highly sought-after products and services.

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Discount Payouts

It is also possible to offer discounts for your company’s offerings. Like credit payouts, this model allows you to avoid external monetary transfers. Unlike credit payouts, discount-based payouts require affiliates to pay for your business’s products and services partially. 

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A discount model may not be desirable to affiliate marketers, as cash and credits offer far greater buying power. However, a discount model may be attractive to businesses that want to ensure all purchases — even purchases from affiliates — bring in some cash.

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How Can Payset Help?

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Your Payset account can be used as an affiliate payment solution. Our services include a multi-currency account and currency exchange. With Payset, you’ll have everything you need to pay affiliates and make any other business transactions.

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Verified Affiliate Identity & Fraud Protection

Payset provides extensive fraud protection and security for you and your affiliates. In addition to standard account protection and login methods, we offer fraud reporting services so that you can protect your account in the event that suspicious activity or unexpected access occurs. Transactions you send to your affiliates in 180+ countries are secure.

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Choice of Globally Preferred Affiliate Payment Solutions & Currencies For Payouts

Payset offers support for global payments. With a Payset account, you can send and receive funds in over 180 countries, exchange 38 currency pairs, and hold 34 currencies. You’ll also be able to send and receive transactions on major payment networks, including SWIFT, SEPA, ACH, Faster Payments (FPS), Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), and CHAPS.

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Opening a Payset account is easy. Sign up now to get your account within 72 hours. Feel free to contact our sales team to discuss whether Payset is right for you.

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FAQs

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What Is an Affiliate Payment Solution?

An affiliate payment solution is a service that allows you to compensate affiliate marketers. Affiliates earn commissions in exchange for promoting a product or service. This amount may be a portion of your sales, or it may be calculated according to other methods.

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How Do Affiliate Marketers Usually Get Paid?

Affiliate marketers are typically paid through commonplace transaction methods, such as direct deposit, cheques, bank and wire transfers, card payments, and online payment services. 

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At Payset, we offer support for major payment networks, including but not limited to SEPA and SWIFT, plus support for multiple countries and various local currencies. These features allow you to perform payments that meet the needs of most affiliate marketers.

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How Do You Pay an Affiliate Marketer?

If you’re not sure how to pay affiliates, you should know that you can pay an affiliate marketer in the same way that you pay any other transaction recipient. 

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If you are a Payset user, see this page for more information on sending transactions. If you use another service, refer to its help pages or contact support for more information.

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What Is the Most Common Affiliate Payment Solution?

Online payment involving traditional currency is the most common affiliate payment solution.

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Some affiliate payment solutions allow you to distribute rewards, cashback, and other types of credit toward your business’ products and services. However, affiliates usually expect to be paid with real money, so being able to perform regular monetary payments is essential.

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How Much Should You Pay Your Affiliates?

It’s generally considered reasonable to pay affiliates 15% to 20% of each sale that they secure, assuming that you follow a commission model that tracks affiliate activity based on successful sales. You can also consider the average affiliate reward rate for your industry as well as customer lifetime value (CLV) when deciding how much to pay affiliates. 

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How Much Do Affiliate Payment Processors Charge?

Affiliate payment processors, like most other payment services, charge various fees. This may include account fees, per-transaction fees, and cross-currency conversion rates, depending on your service of choice. Visit Payset’s pricing page for more information.