How many times have you seen your favorite Instagrammer recommend a product? And how many times have you read a blog post packed with links to an eCommerce store? A lot, I bet.

That’s affiliate marketing, a powerful tactic to drive traffic to an online store by incentivizing people to promote a product or service online.

In this article, we’ll untangle the concept of affiliate marketing and tell you why you should give it a go to promote your Squarespace eCommerce. Then, we’ll go over our top three affiliate marketing platforms and their best features so you can choose the right one for your business.

Ready? Let's go!

What’s Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is all about bringing in traffic and leads for your products and services with the help of third-party publishers, known as affiliates or affiliate marketers. Affiliates are typically bloggers, industry experts, or social media influencers that have a significant reach and want to capitalize on it.

This marketing strategy involves incentivizing affiliates to promote your business or your products. They earn a commission by doing the heavy lifting for you, and you get a boost in your brand awareness. For instance, you can offer your affiliates $10 for every referral to your eCommerce or a 5% recurring commission on every new sale with their affiliate code or link.

So, it’s a win-win situation.

Affiliate Marketing vs. Referral Programs

When we talk about affiliate marketing, referral programs usually come up as well. And although both marketing strategies have some elements in common, they are not exactly the same.

As we said, affiliate marketing means paying a commission to a third party to have them promote your product or service to their audience. Referral programs, in turn, involve rewarding your existing customers for sharing your brand with others.

As you can see, they have a striking similarity: Both involve rewarding someone for promoting your brand. The key difference is that referral programs are geared toward your loyal customers, whereas affiliate marketing involves third-party brand advocates.

What does this look like in practice? Well, offering a discount or a voucher every time one of your customers refers a friend is referral marketing, whereas paying a commission to a third-party promoter is affiliate marketing.

Now, which one’s right for you, specifically? Either or both! You can use referral programs to strengthen your relationship with your current customers or affiliate marketing to reach new segments. In the end, it comes down to defining which will suit your marketing strategy and your current needs better, but it’s certainly possible to use both tools at the same time.

Choosing the right affiliate platform for Squarespace

So, now you know what affiliate marketing is and what it can offer your eCommerce, and you’re ready to set up your program. But where do you even start?

Well, there are lots of affiliate marketing platforms out there that can help you streamline your program and track performance, payouts, affiliate links, and referred sales all in one place. To cut through the noise and help you get started quicker, we’ve chosen our top three affiliate marketing tools that integrate with Squarespace. There’s one for every taste (and budget!). Let’s have a look!

Affiliatly

At Apple Studio, we use Affiliatly, an easy-to-use affiliate tracking software that lets you control and track your program from your browser.

Here are some of its best features:

Link generator. The platform includes a link generator where you can easily create your affiliate links and share them instantly with your promoters.
Fully customizable. On Affiliatly, you can customize the look and feel of your affiliate program to match your brand with just a few clicks.
Analytics. Affiliatly offers a dashboard packed with powerful data and analytics about your program’s performance, including stats for each affiliate and their account.
Unlimited referral orders. The platform offers unlimited referral orders on all their plans, and you can easily track every relevant detail.
Discount codes. One of Affiliatly’s best features is that it allows you to generate a discount code and track purchases from it.

Affiliatly is by far one of the most cost-effective affiliate marketing platforms you’ll find out there, and it gets the job done! Plans start at $16 per month for up to 50 affiliates billed, and their most expensive one goes up to $129 per month for indefinite affiliates. But here’s the best part: Affiliatly offers a 90-day free trial (yes, you heard that right) for you to get a feel of their platform and make up your mind. No credit cards or strings attached.

Peach’s

Peach’s affiliate software allows you to set up both affiliate and referral programs, and it was designed specifically for Squarespace, so it integrates like a dream.

Here are our favorite peachy features:

Tracking links and sales. Peach’s offers unmatched tracking options for visits and referred sales via affiliate links, cookies, promo codes, landing pages, and vanity URLs.
Custom branding. All Peach’s plans include custom branding, so your affiliate program will seamlessly fit your Squarespace store.
Intuitive dashboards. Peach’s offers businesses intuitive dashboards to see revenue generated and total payouts, all in one place and as clear as day.
Diverse commission structure. With Peach’s, you can offer your affiliates a percentage, fixed, one-time, or recurring commission for regular products and for subscriptions.
Vanity URLs. The platform allows you to create custom branded URLs for your affiliates for tracking referred sales (e.g., mystore.com/sarah).

Peach’s is a bit more expensive than our previous suggestion, but the higher price might be warranted since it’s the only Squarespace-specific platform for affiliate marketing out there. The basic Peach’s plan costs $59 per month, and the business plan goes up to $199. They also offer custom enterprise plans for high-volume accounts.

Tapfiliate

Finally, we have Tapfiliate. It’s also on the more expensive side, but it’s definitely the sleekest affiliate marketing tool out there, and it’s particularly great if you have a huge sales volume.

Let’s take a look at some of its cool features:

All-round customizations. Tapfiliate allows you to pour your branding into each element of your program, from affiliate dashboards to links and forms.
Language support. The platform offers six supported affiliate languages, so you can work with promoters from all around the world.
A network of affiliates. Tapfiliate has developed an extensive affiliate network where you can easily find the right advocate for your brand and start working with them right away.
Performance bonuses. Tapfiliate allows you to create tempting bonuses to motivate your affiliates to hit specific goals and boost your sales.
Automated workflows. This platform is all about automation. It lets you set up automated tasks, triggered emails, and webhooks using their Zapier app.

Tapfiliate plans start at $59 and go all the way up to $149 per month. They also offer a custom monthly plan for eCommerce businesses with a big sales volume. The good news is you can try any of their plans for free for 14 days to see if Tapfiliate is a good match for your business.

Don’t Miss Out!

All in all, affiliate marketing is a powerful tool to help you boost your traffic and connect with your target audience in a way that truly resonates with them. Think about it: Haven’t you ever considered buying a product because someone you follow online recommended it? Of course, you have. We all have.

Thanks to the platforms we’ve covered here today, affiliate marketing programs are increasingly easy to set up and track, and they can create valuable opportunities for your business to grow. Give it a try!