How to Find Affiliate Partners

What is an affiliate partner?

An affiliate partner can be anyone, whether it’s a blogger, influencer, content creator, or even another business, working with your company to spread the word about your brand, product, or service. In return, they earn a commission for any sales or sign-ups they bring in through their marketing efforts.

Take Shopify’s Affiliate Program, for example. Bloggers, YouTubers, and other content creators join to promote Shopify’s e-commerce platform. They might create tutorials, write blog posts on building online stores, or share referral links on social media. Whenever someone signs up through their link, they get a commission. It’s a win-win—Shopify gains new customers, and affiliates get paid while boosting their own credibility!

But it's not just for big corporations like Shopify that make use of affiliate partners. Businesses of any size can tap into the power of affiliate programs to grow their customer base. For startups and online businesses, in particular, affiliate partnerships are a great way to build brand awareness quickly and without hefty upfront costs.

The real challenge? Finding the right affiliate partners that resonate with your target audience and drive real results for your business.

Finding your perfect affiliate match

Affiliate marketing has surged to over $17 billion in market value as of 2023, with projections hitting $47 billion by 2027—a huge 63% boost! This shows just how crucial it is to find the right partners as your affiliate channels keep expanding.

Today’s affiliate landscape includes more than just traditional affiliates; it now encompasses ambassadors, social media influencers, content creators, and even customer advocates, also known as referral partners.

Before reaching out to affiliates, start by understanding your audience—know their interests, needs, and behaviors on social platforms. Seek out affiliates whose followers match your target demographic and share your brand’s values. It’s not just about follower numbers; focus on engagement metrics like comments, likes, and shares to gauge their real influence. It’s also crucial to evaluate the quality of their content to ensure it resonates with your brand’s voice and style, and look into their past performance to see if they’ve driven results in similar industries.

By thoroughly evaluating potential partners across these areas, you’ll be able to identify affiliates who will drive meaningful results and build mutually beneficial partnerships. Brands like Sephora and Decathlon have nailed it by collaborating with partners who align with their values and goals, driving long-lasting mutually beneficial affiliate partnerships.

Types of affiliate partners

Understanding the types of affiliate partners available is crucial for establishing well-rounded affiliate programs. Each type brings something unique to the table, and knowing how they differ will help you decide which ones best suit your brand's goals.

• Content partners: Create engaging content like blogs, guides, or videos to inform and educate about a brand’s products, building trust and driving interest.
• Influencers/creators: Use social media platforms to promote products to their loyal followers, creating authentic and resonant content.
• Deal and coupon partners: Offer promo codes and exclusive deals, attracting bargain hunters and driving traffic, especially during peak seasons.
• Loyalty and cashback partners: Reward customers for purchases, boosting retention and encouraging repeat business through platforms like Rakuten
• Review and comparison partners: Provide detailed evaluations and endorsements, enhancing brand credibility and driving sales through sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp.
• Sub-affiliates: Operate through networks that offer access to multiple brands' promotions, scaling programs and reaching a broad audience efficiently.
• Tech partners: Provide tools like browser extensions that apply promo codes or check for cashback, enhancing the shopping experience by making savings easy to access.
• B2B partners: Collaborate with complementary brands to co-brand and market each other's services, building trust and expanding customer reach. For example, a commercial accounting service partnering with a tax-preparation software company.

By collaborating with a variety of affiliate partners—such as influencers, sub-affiliates, and niche sites— you can access different market segments, enhance your brand's appeal, and drive more targeted engagement. This strategic approach helps you capture the attention of a wider audience and fosters deeper connections with potential customers, ultimately boosting your brand's growth and reach.

To learn more about affiliate partner types, make sure to enroll in this free Discover and Recruit: Affiliate and Partnerships Industry Training – Associate course.

How to find affiliate partners

To find the right affiliate partners, you’ll need a mix of networking, and a bit of trial and error. Affiliate networks are an excellent way to find and connect with potential partners. They offer a vetted marketplace of affiliates, providing brands with a curated selection of partners to choose from. Once you’ve explored affiliate marketing niches, consider joining one to expand your reach and find more affiliates. These platforms typically offer tools to help you filter partners by niche, audience size, and performance, making it easier to find those that fit your brand.

Take impact.com, for example—this partnership management platform gives you access to over 4,000 affiliate partners, and the Discover & Recruit tool lets you filter by niche and performance metrics, so you can find the right match and optimize the recruitment process. Plus, brands can access social listening to track trends, monitor social media mentions, and spot emerging influencers.

Social media is another goldmine for affiliate hunting! Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok are full of influencers and creators who could be great brand partners. Explore hashtags, follow trends, and engage with potential partners directly. And don’t forget affiliate events like Affiliate Summit or impact.com’s IPX, which offer opportunities to meet potential affiliates face-to-face, leading to stronger connections.

Finally, direct outreach, can be incredibly effective. Once you've identified potential partners—whether through competitor research, social media, or events— reach out with a personalized message. For instance, if you find a fitness influencer with a dedicated audience, a direct message or email explaining why they’d be a great fit for your brand could lead to a strong partnership. You can make it easy for them to join by sharing a direct signup link in your email or embedding it on your website. If you already have a list of potential partners, you can bulk import them, or use impact AI to automatically approve high-quality, brand-safe affiliates and filter out low-value ones. With the right tools, businesses of any size can scale their partnership programs efficiently. To learn more about managing the entire partner life cycle, check out the Starter Edition fundamentals course.

By using these strategies, you’ll be able to find and engage affiliate partners who can truly drive results for your business.

HubSpot's affiliate partner recruitment success

Take HubSpot, a CRM giant since 2005, for an example. They faced some serious hurdles when it came to recruiting new partners who aligned with their goals. HubSpot needed a solution that could not only help grow its partnerships program but also streamline the process of finding the right affiliates for long-term success. Plus, the process of finding and recruiting the right partners was time-consuming and also a big challenge for them.

However, with impact.com’s Marketplace, HubSpot was able to filter potential partners based on location, audience, and engagement, allowing them to connect with the right affiliates more quickly and efficiently. These affiliates included:

• SaaS reviewers who lend credibility by offering in-depth reviews of business solutions.
• Content creators who share business insights through blogs, videos, and podcasts, helping HubSpot reach new audiences.
• Digital educators who teach online courses for professionals, making it easier to integrate HubSpot tools into learning environments.
• Product integration businesses that enhance HubSpot’s functionality by developing compatible solutions.

With impact.com, HubSpot boosted affiliate revenue and signups by more than 50% and saw a big jump in earnings per click (EPC). By using impact.com’s platform, HubSpot grew its partner network, increased revenue, and improved the overall experience for both partners and customers—proving that the right partnerships can lead to long-term growth and success.

Key takeaways

• Identify ideal affiliate partners: Align affiliate partners with your brand values and target audience who can authentically promote your products and drive meaningful results.
• Utilize tools and networks: Platforms like impact.com offer extensive affiliate networks and tools to streamline your partnership management.
• Diversify affiliate types: Engage various affiliate types to leverage their unique benefits for your brand.
• Personalize outreach: Tailor your communication to show potential affiliates that you value their brand and audience, which increases the likelihood of collaboration.

The bottom line on finding affiliate partners

Affiliate marketing can be both exciting and tricky to navigate, and with experts predicting the industry will reach $47 billion by 2027, finding the right partners is more important than ever. To build a strong affiliate network, you need to understand what makes your program appealing, find the right types of partners, and use smart outreach strategies.

Look at brands like Amazon Music, and Resident Home— they’ve all nailed affiliate partnerships to boost their marketing and grow. To follow their lead, focus on offering competitive commissions, keeping communication open, and providing support that helps your partners succeed

By using tools like impact.com, doing your research, and personalizing your outreach, you can build solid relationships that benefit both your brand and your affiliates. With the right approach, your affiliate marketing can become a powerful growth engine that drives long-term success.