Six Quick Checks for Black Friday

In this article you will find six quick check to make sure your affiliate program is ready for Black Friday. The most important thing is to be proactive and make sure you are planning well in advance – since savvy shoppers this year will be doing the same!

Update your Program Details

Check that your program’s name, description, category and all your details are correct and clear for your affiliates.

For Black Friday, focus on making sure your Program Description up to date. Include details on the sales campaigns you are running, upcoming discounts and any exclusions or specific opportunities you are looking out for from your affiliates. You should think about any specific deals you are open to – for example, allowing PPC rights on an exclusive, one-to-one basis or limited duration commission increases.

Upload a variety of seasonal Ads

Grow provides you with the ability to set up seasonal banners, text links, and vouchers using your ‘Ads Manager’. We can also host your product feed, which will dynamically update in our system so your CSS and product comparison partners always have the correct information.

For Black Friday make sure you have a good range of image ads (these can be JPGs or GIFs), text links to your key seasonal landing pages, and vouchers. You can set all of these up in advance, with specific future start dates so that they go live at specific times.

Set yourself reminders to update vouchers and offer information after the sales period has elapsed or codes have expired. Consider extending the validity dates of your vouchers a few days passed the campaign’s duration, too, to allow for latecomers.

You can also set up exclusive vouchers for your top performing affiliates and use these as leverage to ask for more exposure – but be sure to start negotiations for this well in advance!

Process your Pending Affiliate Applications

The sooner an affiliate is accepted onto the program the sooner they can begin activities and set up in time for Q4. Process all your applications regularly and even send them a message (using the speech bubble button in the ‘My Affiliates’ tab) to welcome them to your program and check in with them.

Keep in mind that publishers need time to begin their activities and add your store to their website, so do this well in advance and aim to make as many strong connections as possible.

Note that if you have ‘auto-approve affiliates’ switched on in your advanced settings (in your Program Settings) this will be processed automatically after 4 days.

Optimise early

Use your Reporting tools to check on which publishers are already performing well, and which might benefit from closer partnerships during the sales period.

Black Friday spots for exposure get snapped up quickly, so keep an eye on your email inbox for the latest opportunities or contact your affiliates directly to find out what you can get. Be prepared to pay additional fees, negotiate commission increases or provide exclusive vouchers for those you want to work.

Check that you have publishers from across all different channels and stay informed about how best to work with them. Don’t be afraid to reach out to them directly.

Check that you have a good commission for your sector – you can check out our guides, per market and category, in this article.

Maintain your tracking

Make sure that your tracking is working correctly and check for signs of issues if any changes are made to your website. Have there been any sudden drops in traffic or sales on your site recently? If you have doubts, reach out to the Grow Support team.

Keep on top of validating transactions and payments

The sooner transactions are processed (validated: accepted, denied, updated) the easier it is for affiliates to see how they are performing. Keeping on top of these throughout your peak sales season will ensure that your reports are accurate and that Grow can pay your affiliates on time. Note that your ‘pending’ transactions will be auto-approved every 30 days.

Also, be sure that all your invoices are paid on time to keep your affiliates happy. Invoices are automatically charged to the credit card provided upon registration, once issued, following the end of each calendar month. However, if the automatic payment fails, you need to amend this by updating the card details from within the platform (in your ‘My Account’ tab) and paying the invoices as soon as possible.

If we do not receive payment on time, your affiliates will not be paid on time and might decide to cancel their activities or partnership with your brand, which especially endangers your sales if it happens in the middle of Q4.

Any questions? Reach out to Grow Support for more information or advice.