How To Run an Affiliate Program On A Budget

With a rise in small businesses to the tune of a total of over 33 million in the US alone, entrepreneurs and business owners are scouring the internet for marketing solutions to fit their needs to grow their businesses. One of the most popular channels for business growth is affiliate, also known as partnership marketing. However, running a profitable affiliate program comes at a high premium oftentimes barring budding businesses without the capital reserves from competing in the affiliate space. Whether you opt for an agency or spring for an in-house affiliate manager, a high-yielding affiliate program does not come cheap. Until now.

Mosaic has just the solutions for brands needing the power of partnerships at a price we know you can’t beat. In this article, we break down the ins and outs of traditional affiliate marketing approaches, how much it typically costs, and how Mosaic rises above the fray for a fraction of the price. Read on.

Is Affiliate Marketing Expensive?

Affiliate Marketing Agencies

According to Hostinger, the average affiliate marketing agency will run you between $5,000-15,000/month. That is steep even for this inflated economy we’re in. However unappealing this price point sounds, agencies are an attractive option for some because you get a team of managers/representatives chock full of unique expertise and intricate strategies who work on your behalf while you put your efforts elsewhere. Another selling point for agencies is their insider access to publishers and/or affiliates an ordinary business owner couldn’t even think of themselves. This kind of industry pull and convenience simply has a higher barrier of entry.

Not to pocket-watch or anything, but more likely than not, the average business does not have upwards of five grand lying around for marketing for a combination of good reasons. Particularly for smaller businesses without capital reserves or expendable income, even the lowest average cost for affiliate agencies is simply inaccessible.

In-house Affiliate Managers

So we’ve nixed the agency approach. What now? Some might turn to hiring their own affiliate marketing manager to be a part of their in-house marketing department. You might be thinking, surely, that would be more affordable. Think again. While the average freelance affiliate manager grosses around $47k a year, a salaried manager, on average, makes upwards of $94k a year. Not to mention those pesky benefits–because fair is fair–and other operating costs one might incur to enter the affiliate marketing space.  Not to mention, a lack of significant experience can render an internal ‘affiliate marketing professional’ useless. 

All in all, getting your affiliate program off the ground comes at mildly terrifying prices, to say the least. So where does that leave you? Stuck at the starting line while your competitors are making leaps, bounds, and laps ahead of you? Flying blind trying to piece together DIY marketing hacks you found on YouTube from 2018? Not anymore.

An Affordable Affiliate Marketing Approach

Trying your luck yourself seems daunting, we’re with you there. If you lack formal training in partnership marketing, it is likely you won’t even know where to start and we wouldn’t blame you. The affiliate space is quite vast, filled with nuances and niches that can, frankly, be overwhelming to the untrained mind. But what if we told you, we have cracked the code for businesses needing a cost-effective solution to run their affiliate program?

We hope you’re as excited as we are. After a decade of agency experience and aggregated data, we developed Mosaic to give a platform to brands, big and small alike. Gone are the days of the age-old agency, black box strategy approach that prices so many great brands out. We believe in affiliate marketing as a powerful performance marketing channel that every business with a product to sell should get behind. We enable expert industry insights, workflow automation, and direct partner matching accessible for your business. 

While our CRM is anything but hands-off, we’ve infused our technology with agency-adjacent expertise without blowing your budget so you can transform your business without requiring a master’s degree in affiliate marketing.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing, however effective for boosting revenue, is not always affordable for every business. While the high premiums could be worth your while, Mosaic offers a more down-to-earth approach at a more digestible price point so every business, small or large, can have the opportunity to win at partnership marketing. Request a demo to learn more about how it all works.