Affiliate Marketing Fits Right In With B2B's Move to Digital

B2B affiliate marketing is a relatively new phenomenon. It has experienced significant growth as brands, partners and networks adapt to the distinctive needs of businesses targeting other businesses. Challenges—such as subscription models, high-price-point products, no discounting, extended sales cycles and multiple conversion events—have expedited the need to reconsider how affiliate can be effective for B2B SaaS brands. With a history of diverse partnerships, these brands recognize collaboration's importance—yet, until recently, affiliate was mainly seen as an option for only larger B2B brands, ones who could control their cost per action through one standard commission rate, plus some basic assets that could sell themselves. The shift to remote work due to Covid-19 boosted confidence in making high-value purchases online. This led to an expansion beyond traditional sales models and increased overall competitiveness in the industry. Meanwhile, B2B buyers' interactions in their purchasing journey are on the rise, predominantly from digital channels: According to a recent McKinsey study, the average number of distinct channels that B2B customers used during their decision journey was five, climbing to 10 in 2023. All this has spurred B2B brands to explore the potential of an affiliate program—a scenario in which partners can effectively tailor messaging and content across the buyer's digital journey. Historically, CMOs were apprehensive about the perceived lack of control in affiliate marketing, the challenges of a one-to-many sales approach and the absence of suitable partners to justify the investment. However, trends indicate a shift as CMOs advocate for heightened digital expansion, mirroring strategies employed by consumer brands for years; as stated in the McKinsey report, "the consumerization of B2B buying appears nearly complete." Exclusive: How Affiliate Platform Howl Fell Months—and Millions—Behind on Publisher Payments Per the study, leading B2B companies are embracing ecommerce, expanding omnichannel footprints significantly and extending beyond conventional sales team structures. The trend is shifting toward online transactions for business purchases—two-thirds of buyers in 2022 opted for remote human interactions or digital self-service at the ordering and reordering stages—and affiliate has emerged as a pivotal strategy in sustaining this growth. With the affiliate strategy primarily digital, partners can reach new audiences across various channels. Additionally, partners can help enhance the sales team, providing new outlets to support buyers throughout the purchasing cycle. By working with different affiliate partners, products can penetrate the market quickly because partners have an existing audience and a wide range of digital channels to engage them. What a diverse B2B affiliate program looks like For simplicity, I'll break down the funnel into three basic categories—low-intent Brand Builders, Lead Generators and high-intent Closers. Typically, these three run very differently from each other, with very different partners, KPIs, payouts and assets. However, they can blur across category lines depending on a brand’s strategy. Brand Builders target a broad audience interested in industry-related content but not yet considering a particular product. Media publications: Not all larger media sites are willing to work on a performance model, but they are often part of affiliate networks and are open to tracking so leads or sales are tracked properly. Also, there are affiliate partners who buy remnant ad space on larger media sites and essentially resell that real estate. Content syndication partners: Sometimes part of a lead-gen team, and usually driven by content to download or a webinar to join, conversion takes place directly on the partner's site, significantly improving user experience. Influencers: With the shift toward consumerization, nothing is more evident than the eagerness B2B brands have to work with influencers. While influencers quickly stormed onto the consumer scene, it’s been a long process for B2B brands to figure out how to get a positive ROI with them. Lead Generators target a more focused audience related to the product and its specific users, though not always in the decision-making or purchasing stage. Bloggers: A blogger is an influencer who primarily uses their blog to create a following around a specific topic. Affiliate bloggers work well for niche or very targeted topics, especially when the content aligns with the reader's current stage in the buyer lifecycle. Social communities: Social groups such as Linkedin, Facebook or specific industry portals and communities can be strong partners for B2B brands. A captive and closed community can be effective if you contribute value to the ongoing conversation. Comparison sites: Comparison sites sit further down the funnel, somewhere between the Lead Generators and the Closers. B2B demand-generation or marketing teams prioritize these websites because of the generally high-quality leads. However, these responsibilities often lie with affiliates equipped to efficiently track, manage and compensate these vendors. Closers target people who have demonstrated a stronger interest in buying a particular product, either based on their online searches or the type of content they engage with. Paid media: Paid media partners tend to attract users with very high intent because much of their traffic is driven by specific keywords or other sophisticated targeting. The first group is a blend of comparison sites that build their own landing pages specifically to drive traffic from paid search keywords. The second group consists of paid media partners who work closely with you on a performance basis to drive direct traffic back to your site through paid search, paid social or more traditional digital advertising platforms. Strategic partners: Strategic partnerships can take various forms like a simple cross-promotion with a non-competitive brand. Alternatively, it could entail a comprehensive tech integration with a competitor, allowing the opportunity to enhance your customer's purchase with an add-on from a competitor—something that you may not offer. Agencies and consultants: Having an agency-specific program is typically the optimal approach to address the distinct needs of this segment. However, many programs either use affiliate as a testing ground for agencies and consultants or lack the systems and processes to manage them separately. It’s worth mentioning that there is still an opportunity in B2B to work with coupon, loyalty or cashback sites. These sites sit further down the funnel and can be quite impactful when leveraged strategically. But it depends on the product, audience and conversion events being tracked. Common discounts we see are "% off" an annual plan, a free upgrade to a higher plan or an extended free trial—all of which can make a difference to price-conscious businesses, startups or entrepreneurs. With Its Novel Affiliate Model, The Sporting News Bets on Lifetime Value If you’re not working with comparison sites, your competitors likely are. If you’re not developing a strategy to reach your audience through social influencers and groups, your competitors are likely there as well. The speed of growth—what McKinsey refers to as the "multiplier effect"—will accelerate for those who invest, while those who don’t will fall behind. B2B affiliate won’t replace an entire digital channel strategy on its own, but it can provide a strong entry, complement or upgrade to expensive and ineffective marketing channels. In the end, the future of B2B affiliate looks promising—technology has evolved, new partners consistently emerge to fill digital channel gaps. Now is the opportune time for B2B organizations to embrace digitalization.

B2B

B2B’s Move Toward Digital Is Here, and Affiliate Fits Right In

Despite apprehension, CMOs would do well to start building diverse affiliate programs now

Jason Lilien

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Jason Lilien