Most people tend to associate affiliate marketing with American retailers, but that’s not always the case. There are plenty of new brands popping up in other regions and if you’re from the Asia-Pacific, you’d be interested to know what Commission Factory has to offer.
Founded in 2011, Commission Factory is an affiliate network that partners with over 600 brands across various verticals. What started off as a 3-man team in the Sunshine Coast of Australia now has local offices in New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Update – As of September 2020, CF is fully acquired by AWIN, another established network with a strong advertiser base in the American and European markets. This merging is said to expose more brands to affiliates and accelerate sales opportunities across different regions.
Setting Up a Primary Promotion Method
You’ll encounter this question when creating an affiliate account and it’s basically asking how you intend to promote an advertiser. Whether it’s social media or a website, there are some pros and cons to be considered.
The good thing about social platforms is that they are free and fairly easy to set up. The options provided are Facebook (almost everyone has this one), Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Statistically speaking, however, you need to have a large following – very much like a social influencer – to actually make an impact.
A website, on the other hand, can be somewhat technical to set up and there are costs to maintaining its presence online such as buying domain names and subscribing to hosting services.
But since a website can take various forms – a blog, a forum, a coupon site, and so forth – it can generate traffic from many sources, including social media. This flexibility is key to growing an audience and boosting sales conversion moving forward.
So if you haven’t got a website yet, I highly recommend the WordPress platform because of its versatility and SEO friendliness. Create one for free by using the free tool below.
As long as your answers are genuine, selecting either one as the primary promotional method wouldn’t really affect the outcome of your application. You’ll find a welcome message in the email when you’re accepted as an affiliate and you’ll be able to access the dashboard after creating a login password.
Setting Up Your Affiliate Account
It’s quite tempting to sign up for affiliate programs the moment you joined the network, but what’s more important is to complete your profile first. This will give advertisers an idea what your niche is about and whether your marketing values are in line with their business goals.
These details play a major role in boosting your acceptance rate so take the time to fill out some of the following key information inside your account.
(1) Profile avatar – A figure identity that represents you in the online space, very much like your social media profiles. It usually comes in the form of a photo, illustration, or an icon. There are plenty of online designing tools that allows you to create an avatar for free.
(2) Personal description – Use this space to introduce your website or social media influence, who are your targeted audience, and what are your short-term and long-term marketing goals.
(3) Social media – Here’s where to connect to your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and/or Linkedin accounts.
(4) Media decks and brochures – This is basically a media deck or kit used by established affiliates to introduce their products or services to advertisers. If you’re just a beginner, don’t worry about it.
(5) Traffic Sources – This section will list all of your traffic sources – website URL, social media profiles, and email list if you’ve started collecting them already.
(6) Payment setting – There are three channels available to receive your commissions – an Australian bank, Payoneer, or a PayPal account. Choose your preferred method and then select how often you want the fund to be deposited. The minimum payment threshold starts from $50.
Searching For Affiliate Programs
Okay, now that we’ve got the groundwork set up, it’s time to dig into some monetization opportunities. At the dashboard menu, look under Marketplace and navigate to the Advertisers tab. You will see a table containing a long list of advertisers, their locations, and key performance metrics.
The typical way of searching for affiliate programs is to filter according to your niche category and that will pull out the relevant brands. You can also refine the search by checking for advertisers with specific creatives such as banners or videos.
A typical advertiser profile will look something like this. As you can see, it contains a lot of useful information here such as the company’s background, the shipping coverage, and the affiliate offers.
Another way to search for advertisers is to look at the commission rate (is it more generous than other competitors?) and the conversion rate (the higher, the better). Brands that portray strong messages and solid products/services will usually captivate more buyers. Coupled that with rewarding payouts and you may have found a handful of advertisers worth marketing for.
To obtain this information, simply click on the Commission and the Conversion Rate (CR) tab once or twice and the result will either be displayed in a descending or ascending order.
No matter which techniques you choose, remember that metrics are just guidelines. There are no hard and fast rules for picking the ‘right’ advertisers. A strong brand will not convert if you don’t put the effort into niche research or marketing. And sometimes, new brands may be more newbie-friendly and actually resonate better with your niche audience.
So long as your traffic sources are legit and verified, there are no limits to how many advertisers you can apply. Just make sure you’re signed up for something beneficial for the customers and that you also personally endorsed.
What You’ll Like about Commission Factory
(1) The network is home to some big names in online shopping such as Weight Watchers, Under Armour, Lululemon, AliExpress, and Etsy. It also has a wide advertiser selection in these categories – home/garden, fitness/sports, and health/beauty – all of which are part of the evergreen niches.
Tapping into these strong market demands means there are likely more people searching for these products online and therefore, the pool of ready-buyers is much bigger. The size of this will only grow over time as consumers progressively prioritize health, fitness, and quality of life. If you’re already involved in these profitable niches, great! If not, it’s time to get into one.
(2) Along with new advertisers being rolled out every week, the network offers some of the most attractive payouts – some are as high as $80 and 20% per sale, with generous cookies too. This is better than promoting with Amazon or eBay Partner Network where commissions and cookies are notorious for being very small and short.
(3) The Commission Factory affiliate dashboard is quite user-friendly whereby you can navigate and view your performance easily. It also comes with a deep link generator that allows you to create links for specific product pages on the advertisers’ sites, enabling your content for better conversions.
Other networks that share similar features are CJ Affiliate and ShareASale which have more brands from the US and Canada market, if you’re interested to check out.
The Drawbacks
(1) Despite being labeled as Asia-Pacific’s leading affiliate network, the majority of advertisers are from Australia. I guess this is good news for marketers who are targeting the Australian market but the choices are obviously limiting for other regions such as New Zealand and Singapore.
(2) Like most networks, there are hardly any brands here that offer instant approvals or digital products. You might find a few membership site affiliate programs but the majority are physical product related advertisers who will want to review your profile first.
If your account setting is not up-to-date or your promotion method isn’t convincing enough, the advertisers reserve the right to reject your application.
Summary
Commission Factory is highly recommended for the Australian market, especially those who are involved in promoting evergreen niches. However, the geographical opportunities may widen with the recent acquisition by AWIN.
One of the impacts the COVID pandemic has brought to the economy is that more people are now buying things online than before. E-Commerce activities have escalated in recent months and this trend is expected to shape the future of consumerism, not just in the Asia Pacific, but also worldwide.
Smart companies are already diversifying sales through affiliate marketing and more businesses are likely to follow suit in months to come. If you’re searching for established advertisers in Australia, Commission Factory is definitely a good place to start.
Don’t worry though if you’re new to all this. Running an affiliate site can be daunting sometimes so getting yourself educated is crucial in the early stages. This robust affiliate marketing training will provide you with the fundamental knowledge and powerful tools to succeed in creating a successful online business.
Join for free and I’ll be more than happy to show you around. Remember to let us know in the comment below what you think about Commission Factory before leaving.
See you in the next post.
I agree. We often see affiliate marketing being associated with American retailers and there’s very little focus on brands outside this region. I’m glad to find a network dedicated to the Australian and New Zealand market. It’s exciting to see all these new brands embracing eCommerce and propelling their business during this challenging time.