Should I set up Rewardful or some other affiliate software? Anyone have experience with affiliate programmes?
Hi all,
I've been contacted by an accountant who wants to help sell http://receiptrunner.com/ and I will set up an affiliate tool for him. He'll get a % of all revenue from the customers he sends my way.
From googling it seems like Rewardful might be a good fit.
Anyone got experience with such tools?
Any mistakes made?
What should I look out for?
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We're also using Rewardful, the founders have been super helpful.
They're the most affordable and have all the features we needed for our SaaS (Versoly)
How well does it work for your partners? Do they get the insights they need to measure their own campaigns?
Yes! Rewardful has been huge for us at Transistor.fm.
It provided us with a significant amount of traction, and lead to a big chunk of our growth.
Compared to ads (where you bet $$$ ahead) it’s way better. Doing those affiliate transfers at the end of the month (we share 25% of revenue ongoing) is enjoyable because you know that they brought you those customers.
I will say: affiliates don’t work for every product category. But if there’s a natural fit for your category, they’re a great option. 👍
Thanks! Did you explore other options to Rewardful?
Yup. https://www.saasquatch.com/, but their pricing starts at $1,250 / month! 😮
Make sure you reach out to any one you are considering with a few very specific questions. Will let you get an idea of their customer service before starting. Changing services after starting can be a nightmare so pick one for the long term.I've used https://www.leaddyno.com for a few projects and like all the features.
That's fantastic advice. Have to say most of them are at least very active here on IH, as we've had responses from not just one but two different affiliate tool founders in a thread of 5 responses 😂
You can also give a try to https://firstpromoter.com (I'm the founder, if you have questions about it please let me know). Besides more features for both affiliates and company side (powerful reporting across 17 data points, one-click payouts, more ways/types to set rewards, etc) our Starter plan has a higher limit of revenue, up to $5k instead of $1k for same money .
There are other tools you can check to have a complete overview like tapfilliate.com or linkmink.com, both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Btw, this might also help: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/rewardful-linkmink-or-firstpromoter-08723585fd
Thanks for the comment Virgil!
Site looks great! I love the VAT stuff, as I'm running an EU business.
How does payouts work from FP vs the others? Is payouts automatic through Stripe, or do I have to approve them in Paypal? (Approving a Paypal transfer from FP is the impression I got from the site)
Paypal Payouts are initiated and processed from FirstPromoter by clicking a button vs others that require you to download a file, upload it to Paypal, make the payment and go back to mark those commissions paid.
We're not a network so we don't use Stripe for payouts. Networks own the affiliates even if they come from your own customers (you don't have full control over them) and basically they are the ones paying them and most also take a fee for doing this (ex. Partnerstack).
VAT stuff is a must if you're from EU and use a normal tracking tool, not a network, to handle this... otherwise you'll need to chase affiliates to send you invoices and your accountant won't be happy.
Thanks!
I'm starting on setting up Rewardful and FirstPromoter now to compare the two.
First impression is that Rewardful has me almost finished with set-up (only integration left) in 1 minute, while FP requires me to wait for a manual review of my website on your end - stopping me in my tracks.
I understand that the manual review probably gives you some security on your end, but couldn't it be done in parallel with letting me set up, and then just close the account if the review turns up something fishy - or hold it in "Not yet reviewed"-mode, but let me finish setting up?
My use case is that I've set aside time to set up, and now have to wait for you guys before I can continue, so it screws up my schedule.
Thought you'd like to know :)
Best,
Daniel
Thanks Daniel for sharing your thoughts and trying us out, I really appreciate it. Manual review is something we do to make sure we work only with companies that are a great fit, which saves a lot of time for both sides on the long run.
I know first impression is important, but choosing an affiliate marketing tool is something you do once and my recommendation is to evaluate it thoroughly (beyond the first few minutes of boilerplate setup), there are a lot of features you think you don't need now and you'll definitely need if your program succeeds, it's super hard to change tools later on.
If you need help or have questions about FirstPromoter, please let me know.
Still testing the two out, and FP is definitely on top right now because payouts can happen directly to a bank account instead of through Paypal, and in general the system seems saner for EU businesses. (None of my partners have any normal need for Paypal.)
However, I'm struggling a bit with implementation. I'm using Stripe Checkout. With rewardful I could just pass the rewardful UUID to Stripe Checkout, and rewardful would listen to stripe events and then pick up that the UUID they set now lead to a sale. Is there something similar with FP, or do I have to get the email / customer ID back from stripe to register the sale?
We do have an easier integration for Stripe Checkout. You can contact us on Intercom and we'll send you a doc
Hi Daniel, checked out your site and it seems people can download the software right from your website on their device. This might not be easy as 'normal SaaS' where you can create an account right within your browser.
I think you will have to find a program which can help you with your setup, which most of the ones mentioned in this thread can't. I actually doubt if any of them can as you don't send any source information probably when people download the software + they can't create profile on your site.
If you want to start with affiliates I would first recommend to start collecting data on your website (which than can be captured by snippets).
Hope this helps.
Founder of Promote here 👋
Besides reporting, one-click payouts, engaging with affiliates, etc, we also have database of top-performing affiliates that you can recruit to promote your product. You can search by category and they are ranked based on performance.