We are continuing our series on some of the top affiliate networks out there today with a review on the Refersion affiliate marketing platform.
In today’s article, we are looking at everything you should know about the marketplace, from how easy it is to join to some of the programs you can find on it and other features you should expect.
Refersion is quite different from what we have seen other affiliate networks do, both in terms of the features it offers to its users and in terms of the pricing.
It can be considered more of an affiliate marketing tool rather than a marketplace itself, although there are plenty of merchants that can be found on the website, too.
The biggest downside that we would like to note if you want to become a Referson affiliate is the fact that this network isn’t free to join. There is a 14-day trial available, of course, but you still have to provide your credit card number in order to access your account.
In the past, there used to be a small Starter plan that you could opt for until you made up your mind about whether it made sense for you to switch to a more generous option. That plan used to cost just $19 a month, which is something that most affiliate marketers, including those starting out, would be able to afford.
The Starter plan is no longer available now, which means that you only have two options available — the Professional plan and the Enterprise plan, both of which are priced higher.
In other words, these days, the minimum amount you are likely to pay on a monthly basis if you wish to continue being a Refersion affiliate would be $89.
If you are wondering how to set up the Refersion affiliate program, here’s what you should know. First of all, creating an account is super easy, probably given the fact that this is a paid marketplace, so it mostly allows marketers to do their job no muss, no fuss.
Once your application is approved by a Refersion employee, you will have access to the dashboard. The Refersion affiliate program agreement is also quite straightforward, so you are not going to have a hard time going through it.
It’s also worth adding that Refersion itself has a separate affiliate program. You can convince other marketers to join the platform and for every month they pay for their subscription, you will receive a 15% recurring commission transferred right to your PayPal account.
As for the Refersion affiliate rules you can expect in this sense, we do have to note that you are not allowed to use PPC, re-targeting, or promotion on coupon websites, especially if you use the company. Still, there are a lot of ways of circumventing these requirements.
If you get booted out of the program for any reason or you decide to close your account, you will have to remove all of the promotional materials that you have used in the past to recommend Refersion to your audience.
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Once you are ready to go and you’ve gotten the green light from Refersion, you will be able to access your dashboard and handle everything from there. This platform is quite user-friendly and there is truly a huge amount of data that you can consult in your account.
You can use the Conversion Triggers feature, set up email notifications, check out all of your statistics in the Tracking section of your dashboard, and see what you can do in the way of branding.
You even have the freedom to set up SKU exclusions as well as certain IP exclusions. Finally, your account also gives you the possibility to work with other people that are part of your team since you can easily give them access to all the data.
In terms of integrations, Refersion is truly a winner. The platform basically works with anything that might have ever crossed your mind in this sense, whether that be BigCommerce or Shopify or Magento or Stripe. Naturally, these are all features that actual brands would want to tap into since they make it super easy for them to list their offers and promote them through various networks.
On top of everything, Refersion also integrates with Google Analytics, which is a handy feature without a doubt.
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As you can imagine, since pretty much any company out there can set up a Professional or Enterprise account with Refersion, the variety of brands that you are likely to discover here is truly impressive.
To date and as per the claims of the company’s website, there are now more than 60,000 brands available in a wide range of industries, whether that be fashion or health.
Just to mention a few that consistently utilize the service, you’ll come across big names such as Bosch or PuraVida here. It is quite likely that Refersion is so popular because of the features offered by the platform, but also the ability of the merchants to easily communicate with influencers and brand ambassadors. They can also quickly track their payments and whatever taxes they might have to pay.
Additionally, the marketplace makes it possible for brands to get in touch with affiliate marketers who might be interested in promoting their services or products. Communication within the network is seamless and straightforward thanks to the dashboards on both ends.
The answer to this question is that it truly depends on how seasoned of an affiliate marketer you are and what you intend to do with Refersion.
From what we have gathered, it seems to be a better choice for small to medium brands, such as those that might be in the eCommerce space with online shops and other such business models.
Even so, paying for the monthly $89 fee might not be a good option for affiliate marketing rookies.
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When it comes to some of the reasons you might want to use this platform either to market your services or encounter brands that might want to work with you, perhaps the biggest advantage you are likely to benefit from is the fact that it is an all-in-one network.
It’s a winner in terms of design and user friendliness and the fact that it offers stellar customer service is another aspect worth writing home about. You can do pretty much everything with the platform, whether that be communicating with your customers and sending out customized offers through your email list or integrating it with Shopify or other ecommerce services.
The tracking capabilities are both efficient and easy to consult, so you have everything at your disposal to up the game and experience better performances.
On the downside, the cheapest plan now available is $89, which might simply be too much for people starting out their affiliate marketing journey. And while that may not be a good enough reason to skip on being a Refersion affiliate, we still think it’s more expensive than other networks out there.
In the end, it’s probably much easier to join a somewhat similar affiliate platform, pay for the fee, but make sure that everything works on its own. We’ll go into more detail on that in one of the sections below.
However, if you are a fairly established brand, the $89 cost is not going to set you back too much, and even the Professional plan will give you the opportunity to reach out to new affiliates that may want to promote your services.
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We will list some options below, but what we would like to note is that they can be utilized differently depending on your needs. If you are a typical affiliate marketer interested in generating commissions by promoting the products of companies, perhaps traditional affiliate platforms like ShareASale and ClickBank might be more suitable for you.
However, if you’d like to manage your affiliates and set up separate payments and ways of working with them, the first two options might be more up your alley.
The features that both Refersion and LeadDyno have to offer are more or less similar, so you don’t have to expect any significant differences in this sense.
However, the area where LeadDyno might be better is the pricing. The smallest plan that the company now has available costs just under $30, so it definitely speaks to ecommerce businesses and small firms that don’t estimate huge amounts of traffic coming in from the platform.
Once you get to more than 1,000 visitors per month coming from LeadDyno, the cost becomes higher. In any case, this is a fairly decent option for any brand that hasn’t acquired a high number of customers as of yet.
This one is another choice that you have available if you want to market your services through affiliate marketers. You can manage your affiliates individually with as little effort as possible. You also have the option of uploading banners and different marketing tools for influencers and other publishers.
Like Refersion, Affiliatly integrates with some pretty well-known platforms, such as Shopify, BigCommerce, CrateJoy, SquareSpace, Magento, or WooCommerce, just to name a few.
On top of everything, Affiliatly is much more affordable when compared to Refersion. There is a Starter plan available that makes it possible for a brand to manage up to 50 affiliates and that costs just $16 per month.
Even the Pro plan, which allows companies manage up to 2,500 affiliates, costs less than the Professional plan on Refersion — $79 compared to $89.
Affiliatly also works as an affiliate network per se, meaning that if you are a marketer, you can use it for that, too.
Here’s where things get a little tricky. ShareASale is extremely easy to join and use by anyone in the affiliate marketing game, but it’s not as clear for brands.
If you manage a company and would like to set up a program through this platform, you will have to submit a request, have a conversation with a ShareASale representative, and also give the company some information on the number of clients you manage on a regular basis.
For marketers, though, it’s one of the largest and most popular networks as of right now. Although ShareASale has started to include a number of digital products in the past couple of years, its main focus remains on physical products.
This UK-based network has recently acquired ShareAsale and works based on pretty much the same principles as the formerly mentioned brand.
The nice thing about the platform is that it can create customized approaches for various businesses, whether based on their industries or the number of affiliates they want to work with. Awin affiliate managers are always there to help, so that’s one less thing to worry about.
We couldn’t find any information as to how much these services cost, but they’re probably not going to be cheap since this one, too, is a fairly reputable affiliate network.
If you own a digital product and you are looking to reach a wider audience thanks to affiliate marketing, ClickBank should be right up your alley. It is extremely easy to use and join and you also get to benefit from extensive affiliate management.
ClickBank also ensures integrated payments and gives you access to a wide range of ecommerce tools and services.
The downside is that it doesn’t have the best reputation because in the past, the company didn’t have a great selection process, so it accidentally allowed a lot of shady/spammy products to appear on the platform. The situation seems to have improved in the past few years, though.
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Final thoughts
So, is Refersion the right option for you? If you’re a rookie when it comes to affiliate marketing and you can’t handle the complexity of an extensive process, it might not be the right choice. However, if you are a seasoned affiliate marketer, it might be worth trying out.
As for the brand accounts, although it is not the cheapest service in the industry, you should still give it a go for the 14 days that you can benefit from it for free. Cheaper options do exist, so you can always switch to a different service if you aren’t satisfied with what Refersion has to offer.
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