Affiliate and Partner Marketing? What’s The Difference?

What is the difference between affiliate and partner marketing? Is there one or is it just a question of semantics?

The phrase ‘affiliate marketing’ is one that can evoke quite contrasting reactions from digital marketers. The channel, and the practices within it, have constantly evolved over the past few decades. This means that, depending on when your interaction with affiliate began, you can have good, bad or indifferent feelings towards the channel. You may have also heard the terms ‘affiliate’ and ‘partner’ marketing referred to interchangeably.  So, as each term can seemingly have the potential to evoke differing connotations, it’s important to further discuss how the concepts of affiliate and partner marketing, both as one and as separate entities, are promoted and established.

A rebrand of affiliate marketing?

For many people, affiliate and partner marketing can be viewed as very niche, sitting outside of the traditional marketing mix – one that is budgeted for very differently and seen as a luxury addition, rather than a fundamental channel to ensure strong performance. 

So in some instances, the phrase ‘partner marketing’ almost feels like a rebrand for ‘affiliate marketing’. Just swapping the words of affiliate and partner marketing can remove any potential negative connotations and lead to a clean slate for introducing brands and retailers to a broad range of brand advocates who want to work with them in exchange for a commission. 

Personally, it feels dismissive to think of any organisation or brand on a programme as being less than a partner for the provider whose programmes they are listed on. There needs to be cooperation for these relationships to work and that cooperation can be the most straight forward type. This may vary from adequate tracking being provided for a standard commission to be paid for a tracked conversion, through to paid for content or website takeovers, where a brand positions itself front and centre on an affiliate website or social media platforms. 

Again, it’s an affiliate relationship, however to work that closely or commit that much resource to a third party makes it hard to see them as anything less than a partner.

Size matters

What looks to be a widely accepted differentiator amongst digital marketers, is how the size of an affiliate programme can alter the depth of relationships between a brand and its affiliates. Whilst some programmes take the approach of recruiting as many affiliates as possible because that is the best route for them to succeed,

Here, arguably, you can see how you could have a ‘bank of affiliates’ and a ‘selection of partners’. Bringing a brand into a small group like that can certainly elevate the relationship and the term partner is a fitting title for sure – highlighting the relevance of the terms affiliate and partner marketing being used in similar contexts.

Deep discussions and a whole lot of trust!

Similarly, some brands – such as those using technology solutions on websites to interact directly with customers – can find themselves in the realm of ‘partner’ marketing rather than traditional affiliate marketing. This is due to the level of interaction required to make them a successful addition to your programme. This type of relationship will need a lot of strategic discussion, a sharing of resources and a huge level of trust. It might also be that a conversion metric outside of revenue, such as email capture or form fills, is the barometer of how beneficial a relationship is.

So, what’s the difference? Like most relationships – it’s complicated!

Whether we choose to use the terms affiliate and partner marketing separately or interchangeably, viewing affiliates as partners is key. Whether there are 10 or 100 brands on your programme, all relationships are valuable and involve people working to promote a retailer’s website. What we are seeing though, and where the term partner marketing can have different connotations, is the level of interaction involved to make the relationships succeed, and what metric is being used to define success.

It is certainly more than a rebrand of affiliate marketing, but if using the term provides a clean slate for all brands on a programme, then that is a real positive. If affiliates can become brand partners, whilst still keeping a place for traditional affiliates on their programmes, this development only reinforces the value of operating in the channel in the first place.

To discuss how our well-connected team at Fuel can help you grow your business, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or drop us a message.