20 Common and Dangerous Affiliate Program Mistakes to Avoid

Joining or launching an affiliate marketing campaign can be thrilling, and this niche itself can seem very promising. True, affiliate marketing could be an incredible opportunity for you or your company, but one should also always remember that there are some things that you should be aware of. So when it comes to affiliate marketing programs — what are these things?

Well, stick with us because we are about to delve right into this topic and share with you the 20 most common and perilous mistakes to avoid in affiliate marketing! Knowing these can not only help you navigate through all the potential pitfalls, but also improve the results of your affiliate campaign!

Common and Dangerous Affiliate Program Mistakes to Avoid

Affiliate Program Mistakes Referring to Setup

The first type of danger you can run into is an incorrect setup process of an affiliate marketing program. These are the types of errors you can make during the initial stages of creating and structuring an affiliate marketing program, and some of the most frequent among them are:

1. Leaky, Poorly Designed, Low-Converting Merchant Website

This is probably one of the most damaging affiliate program mistakes one can make. You see, before you think about launching an affiliate program, you need to make sure that your website is fully secure from any leaks; Otherwise, you run into a bunch of risks. 

If your platform has some leaking issues — distracting outbound links or unclear calls-to-action, for instance — it can drive away potential clients, leading to poor conversations and loss of profit. Furthermore, your company may even face some legal issues, regarding the handling of personal information.

Thus, always make sure to perform a security audit and ensure that there are no leaks — this has to be done not only before you start an affiliate marketing program but also regularly.

2. Neglecting the Affiliate Program Agreement

An affiliate program agreement is a legally binding document, which outlines the terms, conditions, and expectations for the relationship between the merchant and the affiliate, so trust us — it's not something you want to neglect! If this contract is not done well, or if you don’t overview it thoughtfully before agreeing to a partnership, then it can lead to misunderstandings and disputes — maybe even legal ones.

So what can you do to avoid this issue?

• If you’re a merchant who creates a contract — be sure that the contract outlines all the most important details so that an affiliate knows what to expect and what is expected of them;
• If you are an affiliate about to sign this deal, pay close attention to crucial details such as commission structures, payment schedules, promotional guidelines, and termination clauses to ensure alignment with their own goals and objectives.

3. Poor Choice of Platform and Tracking Solutions

Some people may underestimate the importance of the platform and tracking solutions, but this is just another mistake we hope you will avoid.

The thing is, when you choose inadequate or unreliable tracking software this can lead to inaccuracies in monitoring the effectiveness of your affiliate campaign, misattributed sales, disputes over commissions and so on. Similarly, selecting a platform that doesn’t have all the important features or scalability can hinder the program's growth and limit its potential for success. 

Thus, be sure that you select only the right solutions and platform, and here are some tips on how you can do it!

1. Foremost, you need to assess your specific needs and objectives. Considering factors such as the volume of traffic you expect and the complexity of your commission structure.
2. Review available tracking solutions, paying attention to how easy it is to use, and how accurate they are and so on. If you’re looking for platforms, make sure that they offer good tracking capabilities, including multichannel attribution and real-time reporting, to ensure accurate performance measurement.

4. Low Commission Rates and Short Cookie Life

Short cookie durations and setting low commission rates are huge issues which you should avoid if you want your affiliate marketing campaign to function well & bear fruit.

It’s not hard to understand why both of these are problematic. If the commissions you set are low, then affiliates would not wish to work with you. They invest time and resources into promoting products or services, and low commission rates can significantly diminish their motivation and willingness to participate in the program. 

Similarly, short cookie durations limit the affiliate's ability to earn commissions on delayed or repeat purchases — this can potentially deprive them of earnings. 

Therefore, we urge you to set competitive commission rates to invite and motivate affiliates, as well as to extend cookie durations so that your partners can have more opportunities to earn commissions. It may seem costly now, but it absolutely helps in the long run!

5. Neglecting Management

Of course, we can’t forget to highlight the importance of managing your affiliate program! By investing in effective management, you can unlock the full potential of their affiliate program, since neglecting your program (without assisting, providing feedback about the affiliate’s work and so on) will most likely hinder the results of all your hard work. Without proper support, affiliates will not be as motivated and happy to work for you, and you can miss out on some opportunities to improve or fix your marketing campaign.

Thus, always prioritize proactive management practices: conduct regular performance reviews, communicate with your affiliates and so on. If you can afford it, it would be an even better idea to hire an affiliate manager to handle all these affairs.

Affiliate Program Mistakes Referring to Management

Speaking of affiliate management, this is also another area where people can make a lot of errors. Among some of the most common of them are:

1. Underestimating the Importance of Continuous Affiliate Recruitment

Some companies can make the mistake of focusing solely on theory existing affiliates, thinking that once they have partners to work with, there is no need to further expand their affiliate base. 

In reality, it’s always useful to continue to look for more opportunities to collaborate with affiliates. This allows you to reach a broader audience, find some new ideas for your affiliate campaigns, and reach new audiences and markets, plus you can hire new, professional affiliates if needed.

2. Terminating Inactive Affiliates from Your Program (or Ignoring Them)

Usually, the decision to fire underperforming people seems obvious and reasonable — and that is true —  but don’t be so quick to do this when it comes to affiliates. Before you decide to end your partnership with them, find the reason the affiliate is inactive or delivers poor results.

Sometimes, especially when you ignore them, affiliates can struggle due to a lack of responses or guidance — in these instances, it would be helpful to implement some strategies to re-engage inactive affiliates, such as providing additional resources, and offering special incentives or promotions, instead of outright termination.

3. Automatically Approving or Rejecting Affiliates

Sure, it may seem like a much faster and more convenient option, but automatically hiring or rejecting affiliates is a very poor strategy which can seriously damage your marketing campaign. 

Because the automatic process does not take into account affiliates themselves and the nuances. You can either hire a person who doesn’t fit your business niche or reject the one who may be very useful, with a lot of potential.

If you want to have the most effective affiliate marketing campaign, you need to overview all the candidates yourself and evaluate them thoroughly. 

4. Not Policing Affiliates

Proactive policing protects the interests of your company since you can detect low-quality affiliates or find areas where your existing partners can improve.

Don’t just let your affiliates completely off the hook — make sure you monitor and regularly review their activity, and also give them feedback on their work. 

5. Dictating Affiliates Which Products to Promote and How

However, don’t take our previous advice and take it too far. Managing affiliate’s performance is great and very useful, but at the end of the day remember that they are the ones doing the promotion, and they know how to do it better.

Overcontrolling your affiliates can both hinder the results (or create undesirable ones) and damage your relationship with them. After all, few would want to work with a company that doesn’t trust their professionalism and constantly monitors their every step.

6. Few and Poor Quality Creatives

Creatives, such as banners, graphics, and promotional materials, are essential to affiliates since they directly help them attract and engage with their audience. 

So naturally, when you don’t offer them any creatives, or give poor-quality ones, this significantly limits their effectiveness and also frustrates affiliates, diminishing their enthusiasm for promoting your products or services. 

Additionally, subpar creatives may fail to capture the attention of potential customers or reflect poorly on your brand's image. 

7. Tracking Gaps and Broken Affiliate Links

These two can cause big damage to the results of your affiliate campaign if are not corrected in time. 

You can try to avoid these two issues by implementing special tracking systems, and conducting regular audits to identify and resolve tracking issues, and it would also help to provide affiliates with tools that can help them.

8. Late Lock Dates and Payments

Another mistake you should avoid is to lock dates and payments too late. You need to remember that all the payments for your affiliates have to be done on time — this is not only a proper thing to do, but by paying your partners on time, you also show affiliates your professionalism and encourage them to keep working for you.

So do try to establish clear lock date schedules and prioritise timely payments for your affiliates.

9. Lowering Commissions

While it may seem like a quick fix to reduce costs or increase profit margins, lowering commissions is still a very risky manoeuvre in affiliate program management as that way you can lose your affiliates.

Because if you reduce their commissions they can not only feel undervalued, but low commissions can even drive them away, as they have little to no reason to keep working for a company that pays poorly.

10. Voiding Commissions on Valid Transactions

Valid transactions are successful conversions driven by affiliates' efforts and when you void them this seriously damages your company’s image.

If you want your brand to do good, and for affiliates to keep working for you, then you need to prioritise transparency, fairness, and clear communication with affiliates. Ensuring that commissions are voided only in cases of legitimate fraud, violations of program terms, or other justifiable reasons.

Affiliate Program Mistakes Referring to Communication

There can also be plenty of instances in affiliate marketing where you can make some communication issues, such as:

1. Impersonal, Bland, and Dry Communications

Sure, it's always important to maintain a certain level of professionalism, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be lifeless as a robot. Effective communication is the lifeblood of any successful affiliate program and sending generic, uninspiring emails or messages lacking in personality can leave affiliates feeling undervalued and disconnected from the program. Moreover, dry and technical language can be off-putting and fail to resonate with affiliates, diminishing their enthusiasm and engagement. 

So, we certainly recommend striving for more warmth, and personal communication, so that your potential partners can feel welcome.

2. Unnecessary Phone Calls and Emails

While it's important to communicate with your affiliates, there is no need to bombard them with unnecessary messages; That can be both overwhelming and intrusive. Unsolicited phone calls or emails about trivial matters or redundant updates can disrupt affiliates' workflow and distract them from their focus on promoting products or services. Moreover, frequent interruptions in general are annoying, and few affiliates would like to work with businesses that constantly nag them. 

3. No, Late, or Poor Quality Responses

Everyone needs guidance and good support, and affiliates are no exception. We’ve said it already — communication is the key, and failing to communicate with your parts is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Be sure to provide them with timely updates, give feedback on their work and tell them where they can improve and assist with anything they may ask, and your affiliate marketing campaign will continue flourishing!  

4. Lack of or Late Notifications

This goes in closely with what we’ve mentioned above — when you communicate with your affiliates, make sure that you give them all the necessary information: about updates, new releases and promotions, special offers and so on. That way, your partners can add changes to their promotional campaigns to improve them. Not only that, but all the timely updates will help affiliates avoid spreading dated or incorrect information, which will save their and your company’s image. 

5. Selective Communication and Helping

Affiliates rely on businesses they work with for guidance, support, and resources to effectively promote products or services and maximize their earnings. So needless to say, without this assistance, they will not be as effective, and will not be as thrilled to work with such businesses. 

Thus, it’s essential to avoid prioritizing some affiliates and give them special treatment — all your partners deserve to be informed and supported if you wish for them to deliver the best results.

Final Advice: Identify, Accept, Correct, and Learn from Your Affiliate Program Mistakes

What more can we say but this: no one is perfect. Everyone is bound to make some mistakes, especially if they have little to no experience in the niche they are entering. But you don’t have to fear making a mistake: instead, think of them as your — sometimes harsh — teachers. Use all the pitfalls as the curse of wisdom: if you can avoid them, make sure to do it in time, but if the mistake happens — find a way to correct it and then learn from this occurrence.