There is confusion and/or misunderstanding among businesses and brands about the below forms of partner and/or referral marketing.
At the same time, the word ‘affiliate’ can sometimes be misunderstood as being a form of low-quality partnership marketing that only huge chain stores or low-quality brands participate in even though this is by no means accurate (especially in 2022!).
Ambassador programs, on the other hand, are seen primarily positively by brands overall and more positively than the above options. This is due to a few factors that include the fact that brands feel they have more control in an Ambassador-Brand relationship as well as that the upfront costs for Ambassador programs (at least the type of Ambassador programs I’ll outline below) are lower per Ambassador than they would be per Influencer and are directly tied to sales.
Below is a breakdown of the main differences between Affiliate, Ambassador, and Influencer brand partnerships:
Affiliates
Affiliates receive a commission on sales made to people who click on the unique affiliate links (individual to each affiliate) that they share. Affiliates promote businesses by including their affiliate links (text links, banners, image ads, etc.) in their website content, email newsletter content, and sometimes social media content.
Affiliates, as a general rule, don’t get sent free product samples and they do not get paid any fees for anything except in the form of commission on sales they drive to a brand. They are less of a brand ambassador and more of an online business referral partner. Typically, when an affiliate joins a brand’s affiliate program, they already know that brand and that they want to promote that brand in their content.
Examples of the kinds of businesses/brands that utilize affiliate programs include hotels, tour businesses, retail businesses, software companies, consumer goods businesses, etc. Well known wine brands that have affiliate programs include Wine.com, Naked Wines, Total Wines and More, etc.
However, like most digital marketing and advertising forms, things are shifting as the lines between affiliates, ambassadors, and influencers get murkier.
Affiliates have the most flexibility (out of the three groups here) when it comes to sending clicks to specific product pages or website pages due to their ability to create their own links via affiliate platforms. This allows affiliates to do much more specific marketing, as well as to pick and choose which products they want to promote from a brand’s website.
Affiliates normally find and join affiliate programs in one of two ways. Either they find affiliate programs by searching on one of a handful of large affiliate marketing/advertising platforms (such as Shareasale, Flexoffers, etc.) or they are personally invited by a brand’s affiliate program manager or a representative of a business.
Ambassadors
A brand ambassador is someone who promotes a brand and its products to their network with the objective of increasing brand awareness and helping drive sales.
On the face of it, a brand ambassador may sound a lot like an influencer. And, historically, highly visible brand ambassadors were basically what we now refer to as influencers. They were celebrities or high-profile individuals who were paid to represent a particular brand exclusively.
But today, Brand Ambassadorships look different. It is common to see a business roll out a program that many different Brand Ambassadors can join, and where compensation comes in the form of commission made on sales. Not for simply being the face of the brand. Ambassadors don’t have to be high profile individuals or ‘influencers’ they just need to have a passion for the product/brand and have means to promote that brand and drive sales.
Individuals apply for Ambassador programs and if accepted, they receive samples of those products (if it’s a product) or resources to help them sell those products. They then receive a commission (Ambassador program commissions are generally significantly higher than the commission seen with affiliate programs) on all sales that they drive.
Those who join these types of ambassador programs may be ambassadors of several different companies (i.e. a travel company, a wine brand, an organic face cream brand, etc). However, the Ambassador-Brand relationship is much more substantial and high-touch than the Affiliate-Brand relationship. Whereas an affiliate might be promoting 30 different brands via affiliate links on their website, it wouldn’t be possible for a Brand Ambassador who promotes products via their own social media channels or within their own group of contacts to represent 30 brands.
Influencer Partnerships
An Influencer-Brand partnership or collaboration is a situation where a brand pays an influencer to create and post content on behalf of their brand. This could be a product review, recommendation, promotion, or simply involve mentioning that brand.
With Influencer Partnerships, it is most often the brand that reaches out to an influencer to propose a partnership but sometimes influencers who are passionate about a certain brand or product may approach those brands with a proposal first.
Influencers get paid for the content they create and for publishing that content or making that content visible on their channels. Their value is their influence on the people that follow them and the trust that those people place in the influencer.
Like an Ambassador-Brand relationship, an Influencer-Brand partnership is personal in that an influencer is putting themselves out there and promoting that brand on highly visible platforms. In essence, they are putting their credibility on the line when they choose to represent a brand.
Unlike Affiliates and Ambassadors (of the type I outlined above) Influencers aren’t typically paid on sales nor do they guarantee any sales or KPIs related to revenue. There are exceptions to every rule though, and it’s becoming more common to see hybrid models generated by brands in an effort to tie higher (and provable) ROI to these partnerships so that they can justify the cost and get higher budgets approved.
Where are you in the mix? Do you participate in more than one of the above forms of partner marketing?