What Is an Affiliate Manager?
Regardless of whether you’re an iGaming or sports betting affiliate, you’ll want to join an affiliate program after creating a business plan and putting your website together. But while the partnership with the operator itself is important, you also need to consider whether you’ll have a good working relationship with the affiliate manager.
Affiliate managers can play a crucial role in how much success you achieve with a particular partner. But what is an affiliate marketing manager, and what do they do? How can you ensure that you make the right choice when choosing one?
Keep reading; we’ll answer all of these questions for you.
What does an affiliate manager do?
Affiliate managers have multiple responsibilities, and we’ve outlined their three most crucial roles below.
Affiliate recruitment
An affiliate manager has to ensure that a program is successful, and the best way to achieve this is by partnering with high-quality affiliates. As such, one of the most critical areas that affiliate managers are responsible for is the recruitment phase.
Affiliate managers will recruit new partners in multiple ways. Besides responding to outreach communications, these individuals will also look at online forums and sift through social media to find the best affiliates to promote their brands.
Onboard new affiliates
You can think of affiliate managers as effectively working in a similar way that the HR department does for the entire company. After determining who will be a good fit for an affiliate program, the affiliate manager is responsible for effective and efficient onboarding.
As part of the onboarding phase, an affiliate manager should provide you with the necessary documents and guidelines that you’ll need to follow during your partnership. Moreover, they should offer a walkthrough of the software they use – along with answering any questions you may have (or pointing you in the right direction if they can’t).
Provide support for affiliates
Once you’re onboarded onto the program, the affiliate manager should be on hand to provide support within their designated working hours. You will likely have teething problems, to begin with, and your first port of call should be the person assigned to look after your account.
The best affiliate managers also provide support when it comes to growing your traffic. You’ll usually work closely with them to decide where you need to make tweaks and identify potential new opportunities for growth.
What should you look out for when choosing an affiliate manager?
Now that you know what an affiliate manager does, you’re ready to look at what you should consider when looking for programs to join. Below are three must-have qualities of a good affiliate manager.
Someone who asks lots of questions
The best affiliate managers are curious and always willing to explore new opportunities. During your introductory calls, the person you’ll potentially work closer with should also seek to learn as much about your business as possible.
Succeeding as an affiliate manager requires having a good understanding of the sportsbook or casino’s goals and how the affiliates they partner with can help them achieve this. If you feel like someone is disengaged or your goals are not aligned, you might want to consider looking elsewhere.
A good researcher
Tying in with the above, affiliate managers need to be good at research. The person you work with should have a good eye for possible market opportunities and emerging markets, and they should also keep up to date with trends and news in the iGaming or sports betting industry.
Before you explore the opportunity of working together, the affiliate manager should have also done at least a base level of research on you and your brand – especially if they reached out to you first.
Someone who communicates regularly
Most relationships in all walks of life fail because of a communication breakdown and the same applies to the partnership between an affiliate and an affiliate manager.
In addition to helping you where possible, affiliate managers must have good communication skills. Their responses should be prompt, though you shouldn’t expect them to answer if they’re on holiday or their working hours have finished.
Ideally, you’ll also join a program where the affiliate manager reaches out regularly to see if everything’s going well and whether they can help with anything.
Affiliate managers are a crucial part of any partnership
Joining an affiliate program is a rewarding experience if you pick a partner who helps you achieve your goals while also doing the same for them and the brands they represent. Affiliate managers are more important than you think and choosing the right one is arguably as crucial as picking your commission structure.
Before you sign a contract, make sure that you have a good rapport with the person you’ll potentially be working with.
Are you looking to build higher-quality relationships? Join Casino Affiliate Programs today!