The best SaaS affiliate programs are an excellent way to make some extra income. Currently, the global affiliate marketing industry is worth over $17 billion, and around 31% of publishers say affiliate marketing is one of their top three sources of income.
As one of the most versatile monetization options available, affiliate marketing can offer individuals a great way to make some extra cash on the side or start a new business endeavor from scratch. The SaaS landscape is particularly rich in opportunities for affiliate marketers.
As “software as a service” continues to gain more attention around the world, digital innovators, thought leaders, and influencers could partner with SaaS businesses in mutually beneficial agreements. The SaaS company gets more attention from potential leads, and the affiliate marketer gets a consistent and even passive source of income.
The question is, which SaaS affiliate programs should you be using?
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What are SaaS Affiliate Programs? An Introduction
SaaS affiliate programs are affiliate marketing opportunities connected to the “Software as a Service” space. They work in a similar way to any other affiliate program. Individuals such as content marketers and social media influencers sign up for a “partnership” with a SaaS company.
After signing up, these individuals access special affiliate codes and a “UTM” link companies can use to track where their new customers come from. The affiliate marketer then promotes this link through different types of content. For instance, they might post the link on social media, include it in a blog post, or add it to a YouTube video.
Whenever a customer clicks on one of these links or uses an exclusive affiliate discount code, the SaaS company is alerted and releases a “commission” to the affiliate. This mutually beneficial relationship allows the SaaS company to reach new customers while providing the affiliate with a consistent source of “passive” income.
7 Reasons Why SaaS Affiliate Marketing Is Right For You
In recent years, affiliate marketing has grown particularly popular as more customers search for products and recommendations online. Around 56% of advertisers and agencies say they increased their affiliate channel budget starting in 2020. Affiliate marketing represents an excellent way for companies to sidestep the issues of traditional marketing.
Most consumers today don’t trust traditional ad campaigns, but they will trust a recommendation delivered by someone they already respect, like an influencer or blogger.
Here are some of the top reasons why SaaS affiliate marketing might be right for you:
- The SaaS industry is growing: The SaaS industry is a particularly lucrative space for affiliates, particularly now that interest in software as a service is ramping up. The SaaS sector is expected to reach a value of around $344.3 billion by 2028, and countless companies are now relying on software for recruiting, marketing, IT security, communication, video interviewing, collaboration, and more.
- It’s easy to get started: You don’t need to invest a lot of time and effort into launching your own affiliate marketing business. All you need is a little time to devote to content creation and a connection with the right target audience. Once you know how to build a blog and market yourself effectively, you’ll be halfway there.
- Complete control: As an affiliate marketer, you get more control over your career and revenue. You can decide which companies you want to work with and promote. You’ll also be able to decide how often you want to work on promotion. Just keep in mind the amount you earn with your affiliate career will depend on the amount of effort you put in.
- Passive income: Most people have to “work” constantly to maintain a consistent income. However, with affiliate marketing, you can create content once, then earn money when you sleep. It’s an excellent supplementary source of income, which can take very little effort to implement. You can earn a regular income in no time.
- It opens doors: Working as an affiliate marketer in the SaaS world can also open the door to a range of other career opportunities. You could branch out into paid content writing or act as an influencer or ambassador for a SaaS brand you build a strong connection with. You may find you have built an entirely new career in the digital landscape.
- It’s mutually beneficial: Both affiliates and the SaaS companies they promote benefit from affiliate marketing. You get to build a stronger relationship with your audience, recommending services you actually think are worthwhile while earning money. The companies you partner with get new lead sources and growth opportunities.
- No prior training required: Although it helps to have a basic knowledge of content marketing, social media marketing, and blog building as an affiliate, you don’t necessarily need any specialist training. Some SaaS companies have a specific set of guidelines for admitting affiliate partners but others make admission to the program really easy. You can start affiliate marketing regardless of your background, even if you’re relatively new to the SaaS space.
The 23 Best SaaS Affiliate Programs
Now we’ve discussed why you might want to get involved with affiliate marketing, and it’s time to start looking at some of the best SaaS affiliate programs on the market. We chose the options below based on their exceptional results for affiliates and their overall reputation.
1. Saleshandy
Saleshandy is a cold email outreach platform designed to help companies find new leads and opportunities for their sales funnel. The tool is packed with brilliant features to help boost deliverability and help companies achieve long-lasting results through meaningful customer relationships.
- Network: Saleshandy Affiliate Program
- Commission: Recurring 25% commission on all sales (Plus extra awards for top affiliates)
- Cookie duration: Up to 90 days
Why we love it: Saleshandy offers a wonderfully lucrative affiliate marketing program to affiliates in the SaaS landscape. Not only do you get a 25% commission, but you can also get bonuses of up to $50 when you refer a specific number of customers at a certain time. You also don’t need to purchase any plans before becoming an affiliate.
2. AnyTrack
AnyTrack is a SaaS solution that helps companies to track crucial data and make more intelligent decisions. Hundreds of DTC brands, lead generation agencies, and e-commerce brands already use the software. There’s also a fantastic affiliate program available which is suitable for integration partners, referral partners, and educational partners alike.
- Network: AnyTrack Affiliate Program
- Commission: 15%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Why we love it: AnyTrack allows affiliates to promote a service with core features that can’t be found in any other marketing platform. This gives you a competitive edge. There’s also a range of popular integration options available to help you add your link to any content you like.
3. Unbounce
If you’re familiar with using landing pages to generate leads and sales, then you may already know Unbounce. The company offers businesses access to an AI-powered solution for creating smart pop-ups and pages in minutes, with no coding required. There’s also a built-in AI writing tool to help with creating a copy.
- Network: Unbounce Partner Program
- Commission: 20% recurring revenue
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: Unbounce actively helps affiliates to grow their earning potential with a dedicated partner coach to help beginners out. There’s a custom tracking dashboard for monitoring your income and ready-to-use promotional assets, templates, and training materials too.
4. Mailmodo
Mailmodo is a SaaS company in the email marketing landscape. The solution is designed to help companies bring all of their email marketing strategies into one place. You can add widgets and forms to emails without coding and access managed inbox deliverability and support.
- Network: Mailmodo Affiliate
- Commission: 20% recurring revenue
- Cookie duration: 60 days
Why we love it: Mailmodo makes it easy to get started with affiliate marketing, providing beginners with a range of rich and educational content assets they can share, such as banners and landing pages. There’s also a fantastic, dedicated support team.
5. LiveAgent
Built for the age of digital customer service, LiveAgent is a helpdesk software created for customer-facing teams. The software solution makes it quick and simple for companies to leverage the power of live chat to manage conversations. Plus, there are various amazing integrations and tools included to help improve customer experiences.
- Network: LiveAgent Affiliate program
- Commission: 20% recurring revenue (Plus $5 when you sign up)
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: LiveAgent gives affiliates access to their own success manager, so they can get answers to any questions they might have easily. Plus, there are content materials, links, banners, and various other resources available.
6. Woorise
Woorise is another lead generation software solution for modern brands. The solution helps companies to create contests, forms, surveys, landing pages, and more, all designed to attract more people into the buying funnel. You also don’t have to be a Woorise customer to get started.
- Network: Woorise affiliate program
- Commission: 30% recurring revenue
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: Woorise helps you to make the most of your affiliate marketing strategy with insights into meaningful analytics and dashboards. You can track which posts or content campaigns drive the most sales and adjust your strategy over time.
7. AWeber
AWeber is one of the better-known email marketing software solutions in the digital market, with endless templates and tools to choose from to boost online sales. The AWeber ecosystem includes access to a range of powerful reports, templates, and tools. Plus, you can create e-commerce pages and landing pages alongside email campaigns.
- Network: AWeber referral program
- Commission: Up to 50% recurring commission
- Cookie duration: Up to 365 days
Why we love it: AWeber comes with a complete advocate toolkit for affiliates, which includes visitor and sales stats, email sale notices, and customer referral newsletters. The SaaS company also has an extra-long cookie lifespan, so you don’t have to worry about updating your links constantly.
8. Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe is probably the most popular company around for video editing, graphic creation, and photography. Though there are dozens of pieces of Adobe software for companies to explore, they’re all connected within the wider “Adobe Creative Cloud.”
- Network: Adobe Affiliate Program
- Commission: 85% of the first month
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Why we love it: Adobe is one of the best-known names in graphic design, so it’s easy to find potential buyers. Plus, you get access to a comprehensive selection of promotional resources to help you increase your sales.
9. HubSpot
One of the most versatile SaaS market leaders around, HubSpot offers access to everything from sales and marketing tools to service solutions for major brands. The popular platform has something to suit virtually every need within the business landscape.
- Network: HubSpot Affiliates
- Commission: 15% recurring or 100% of the first month’s revenue
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: HubSpot’s affiliate program is customizable to suit your needs. You can decide to sign up for recurring revenue or just get 100% of the first purchase made by a customer. There’s also access to plenty of marketing materials to get you started.
10. SEMRush
If you’re interested in content marketing and search engine optimization, then SEMRush could have the perfect affiliate marketing option for you. The tool is built to help companies improve their online visibility and enhance their insights into their market efforts with meaningful analytics.
- Network: SEMRush affiliate (via Impact Radius)
- Commission: $10 on trial, $0.01 for registrations, and $200 for purchase
- Cookie duration: 120 days
Why we love it: The affiliate marketing program from SEMRush comes with access to experienced account managers to help support you in your journey. There are also various other partnerships available if you want to increase your earning potential.
11. Leadpages
Leadpages is another marketing-focused SaaS solution built to help companies attract new leads and prospects online. The solution comes with tools for creating landing pages, pop-ups, and other tools you can use to attract and convert customers. The platform even comes with the option to create amazing code-free websites.
- Network: Leadpages affiliates
- Commission: 50%
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: Leadpages has a dedicated affiliate support team, a networking group where you can collaborate with other advocates, and a range of copy resources. You can also access periodic special promotions and get early access to new Leadpages features.
12. Moosend
Moosend is a popular and affordable email marketing and automation software that helps companies to send powerful email campaigns. The comprehensive product comes with CRM tools, landing pages, subscription forms, e-commerce AI, and reporting and analytics tools.
- Network: Moosend Affiliates
- Commission: 30-40%
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: Moosend has a unique tiered affiliate program that allows you to earn more based on the amount of effort you put in. The more customers you refer, the more commissions you earn. You can also earn commissions on clicks and free trials.
13. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a powerful “Customer Relationship Management,” or CRM tool for sales teams designed to help you streamline your sales funnel. The solution includes sales automation software, lead management, reports and insights, email marketing tools, and more. There are even plenty of insightful reports and analytics available.
- Network: Pipedrive affiliate
- Commission: 20% recurring revenue
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: Pipedrive comes with a best-in-class reporting dashboard for affiliates from the PartnerStack team, as well as a dedicated support team just for affiliates. You’ll also have access to a wide range of marketing assets to help you increase your sales.
14. Canva
Another excellent SaaS affiliate marketing program for the graphic design landscape, Canva’s solution makes it easy to drive leads to a powerful design platform. The Canva solution is an easy-to-use platform for building banners, blog content, social media content, and even logos from scratch, with ready-to-use templates.
- Network: Canva Pro Affiliates
- Commission: $36 for each Pro plan
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Why we love it: Canva gives its affiliate partners priority support via email and chat and delivers payments rapidly, so you can make money fast. There’s cookie-based tracking software included to help you measure your performance and plenty of ad templates just for affiliates.
15. Freshworks
Freshworks is a SaaS solution focused on the customer service and productivity landscapes. There are countless products included in the Freshworks ecosystem, including service desk tools, project management tools, and solutions for team collaboration. Already, it’s trusted by 50,000 businesses and 25,000 affiliates worldwide.
- Network: Freshworks Affiliate program
- Commission: 15%
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: Freshworks supports affiliate programs for both individuals and groups, so you can decide how much you want to grow your new venture. There’s also a personalized dashboard where you can withdraw commissions, keep track of referrals, and view insights.
16. Akurateco
Akurateco is a white-labeled solution for payment processing with three core products. The company offers businesses a payment orchestration system, payment gateway source coding, and white-labeled payment gateways. Their affiliate program is one of the most lucrative around if you can convince people to sign up for the products.
- Network: Akurateco affiliate
- Commission: $1500 for every onboarded white-label customer, $500 for payment orchestration customers, and $20,000 for every source code customer
- Cookie duration: 180 days
Why we love it: Akurateco really invests in its affiliate marketing program, paying partners huge amounts for their referrals. You also get access to a range of promotional materials to get you started and a convenient admin portal for tracking traffic and conversions.
17. Omnisend
Omnisend is another strong SaaS affiliate marketing solution in the email marketing space. The company makes it quick and simple to design SMS messages, push notifications, and automatic email campaigns from scratch. There are also tools for reporting, pop-ups and forms, and audience segmentation, for personalization.
- Network: Omnisend Affiliate program
- Commission: 20% monthly recurring
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: Omnisend offers access to a dedicated account manager to help you optimize your earnings with materials and priority support. You can also integrate your links with around 80+ e-commerce apps and 3+ of the main e-commerce platforms.
18. Wix
Wix is an online website and e-commerce building platform which supports around 200 million people worldwide. The company simplifies the process of website building with drag-and-drop tools for both mobile and online sites. Plus, they have some fantastic tools for logo creation too.
- Network: Wix affiliate program
- Commission: $100+ for every commission
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Why we love it: One of the best things about the Wix affiliate platform is the intuitive dashboard you’ll have access to as a beginner. You can customize reports, check your payments, and arrange for withdrawals via a variety of payment options.
19. Shopify
When it comes to e-commerce site building, few names are better known than Shopify. The SaaS solution offers a range of tools to online developers and site designers to help them stand out online. There’s even an environment for building headless commerce stores.
- Network: Shopify affiliates
- Commission: 15% on the first ten conversions, 20% to 50 conversions, and 25% after
- Cookie duration: 60 days
Why we love it: Shopify has already earned thousands of affiliates from around the globe thanks to its amazing approach to user experience. You’ll have a library of global ready-made lead magnets and educational resources. Plus, you’ll be able to track lots of useful performance insights with a personal dashboard.
20. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is an online marketing platform designed for content creators. The company offers a range of powerful tools to online companies, including automated email marketing solutions, landing page-building options, and creator profiles. There’s also a variety of tools to help people sell their products and services online.
- Network: ConvertKit Affilaite
- Commission: 30% recurring for up to 24 months
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Why we love it: ConvertKit gives affiliates plenty of useful resources to help them promote their products. You’ll have Evergreen webinars you can use in funnels, graphics, and video assets and a training course with Pat Flynn to help you. There’s also a dashboard for tracking your progress.
21. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is another fantastic e-commerce platform that helps companies to create their own stores, transform sales, and automate marketing. The open-source environment is excellent for businesses in search of headless e-commerce solutions. It’s also designed specifically for bigger brands, so you can earn some decent commissions.
- Network: BigCommerce Affiliate Program
- Commission: 200% for the first monthly payment
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: BigCommerce offers some of the most high-paid affiliate bonuses in the business. You’ll receive 200% on the first payment for each referral, and an extra $1500 for each enterprise referral, with no commission caps or minimum commitments. The more referrals you drive, the higher your commission percentage can go.
22. FreshBooks
Delivering valuable accounting and financial management tools to companies throughout the world, FreshBooks is ideal for managing VAT, taxes, and other financial insights. The FreshBooks ecosystem is used by businesses all around the world, and it comes with small business tools like invoicing, payroll management, time-tracking, and more.
- Network: FreshBooks with ShareASale
- Commission: $10 per trial and $200 per upgrade
- Cookie duration: 120 days
Why we love it: FreshBooks is one of the few SaaS companies offering affiliates commission payments even when a customer just signs up for a trial. You’ll have access to a range of tracking tools to monitor your progress and a wide variety of promotional resources too.
23. Teachable
One of the top companies in the evolving online education space, Teachable is a platform that helps creators and educators to create their own course websites. With Teachable, coaches can control everything from the branding of their courses to their student information, pricing, and messaging strategies.
- Network: Teachable Affiliate
- Commission: 30% recurring
- Cookie duration: 90 days
Why we love it: Teachable uses the industry-leading technology offered by Impact to power a rapid back-end sales environment so you can get paid quickly. The solution makes it easy to earn recurring commissions and track your progress within your own affiliate portal.
How To Choose The Right SaaS Affiliate Products
There are various factors that can influence how successful you are as an affiliate. Your content marketing strategy, the connection you make with your target audience, and your commitment to constantly increasing sales will all play a role. However, probably the most important factor of all will be ensuring you choose the right products to promote.
As an affiliate marketer, the only way to ensure your customers actually trust you is to provide them with great recommendations. You should be focusing on delivering SaaS solutions with an excellent “product/market” fit. Here are some key tips to help you choose the right products:
- Check keyword competition: If you want to make sure your content grabs the attention of the widest number of customers, you’ll need to ensure you’re choosing competitive terms. You can check out the competition levels for the terms you’re going to be ranking for on channels like Ahrefs and choose products relevant to the right subject. Remember, think about the kind of items and solutions your target audience is going to be looking for. It helps to have a clear set of user personas in mind so you know who you’re trying to reach.
- Brand recognition: It’s much easier to sell products related to a brand that already has a good reputation. Look for a company with an existing presence in your target market and a strong level of positive sentiment with your target audience. If you pick a brand that is relatively unknown to your customers, you’ll need to work a lot harder to convince your customers of the value the SaaS solutions can offer.
- Check cookie lifespan: Whenever you’re choosing a SaaS product or program for your affiliate marketing campaign, it’s important to keep an eye on cookie duration. Cookies are how your affiliate partner company will track which purchases are coming from you. The longer your cookies last, the less often you’ll need to update your links to make sure you’re actually being rewarded for your marketing efforts.
- Examine the commission rates: The higher the commission rates offered by your partner company, the more you’re likely to earn. Good commission rates usually start at around 15%, depending on the price of the solution being sold. However, many affiliate programs will also allow you to earn recurring commission rates on all the subsequent purchases your customers make. This is a great way to top up your income over time.
- Tracking and reports: If you want to boost your earnings over time, you need to be able to examine which of your campaigns and products are driving the most sales. The best affiliate marketing solutions come with an affiliate dashboard where you can keep an eye on important details, like which of your posts are driving the most traffic and how much money you’re actually earning.
It’s also worth making sure the payments you’re going to get from your affiliate program are going to come to you relatively quickly. Some SaaS companies are slower at delivering payouts than others.
5 SaaS Affiliate Marketing Best Practices
While you don’t necessarily need to be a marketing extraordinaire to start a career in affiliate marketing, there are still best practices to follow. You’ll need to work on forming a powerful connection with your target audience, so you can effectively influence them to make purchases.
It’s also important to think carefully about how you can improve your chances of increasing your revenue by promoting products with the right content, at the correct times, and on the ideal channels.
Here are some key tips to get you started.
1. Consider Using Multiple Websites
The more of the SERP (Search Engine Result Pages) you own for your niche, the more likely you’ll be to make a serious profit. If you’ve found a lucrative product or keyword to target, then you don’t have to stick to promoting it on a single website. You can also branch out into other sites.
A good way to boost your chances of success here is to avoid using the same name on every website you build. You might want to create different personas for each of your sites, so you can reach a wider range of customers. Although this might sound like an underhanded tactic, it’s actually something many of the biggest names in content marketing do.
For instance, the Future publisher is responsible for Techradar, Tom’s Guide, Mac life, What Hi-Fi, and countless other sites in the tech landscape.
2. Experiment with Different Content Types
One of the most common strategies used by affiliate marketers is to write blogs or reviews connected to a product, so they can use their affiliate link to drive sales. While blogging can be an excellent tool for affiliates, there are various other ways to get your links out there too.
For instance, you could experiment with video posts that include a link to the product you’re talking about in the description. You can also promote affiliate links on social media through LinkedIn posts, Facebook, and even your Instagram bio.
Don’t be limited in the kinds of blog posts you produce either. If you usually just write product reviews, consider experimenting with options like roundups, comparisons, resource pages, gift guides, tutorials, and how-tos. Just remember, many SaaS affiliate programs do require you to outline which channels you’ll be using on your profile.
3. Optimize Your Pages
Once you’ve started to get a feel for what kind of content reaches your audience, you’ll need to make sure you’re properly optimizing your pages. The more you improve on-page metrics like click-through rate, the more you’ll earn revenue. A few strategies to try include:
- Increasing affiliate link density: Give your audience more options to click through and find your products. You don’t have to include the product exclusively at the bottom of the page. Spread it out to give yourself more chances of clicks.
- Make links stand out: Make sure your CTA buttons and links are easy to detect on the page. Use colors that contrast with the main design of your website so they’re easy to spot on any device. You can even use bold and underlined formatting.
- Try pop-ups: While some pop-ups can come across as annoying and frustrating to customers, they can also be extremely useful for increasing conversions. Consider adding an exit pop-up to your page reminding them of the deal they can get to click on your link.
- Use social proof: Make your recommendations more credible by including reviews and testimonials from other customers in your content. You could even highlight whether a SaaS solution has a “5-star review” or won an award somewhere.
4. Use Tracking to Your Advantage
Few things are more valuable when it comes to increasing your affiliate sales than the right tracking. Most of the SaaS affiliate programs mentioned above will give you access to your own metrics dashboard, where you can keep an eye on things like click-through rates, conversions, and traffic.
You can even add affiliate marketing tools to your website, which help you to identify the content and links that are the best at converting customers. Some of these tools can even give you access to heatmaps which pinpoint the parts of your website driving the most sales.
Another option is to set up “SubID” tracking, which gives you a better idea of which content, strategies, and links are delivering the most conversions by adding extra detail to your links. The more information you have about your sales, the better.
5. Try Using Affiliate Funnels
Not every customer will be convinced to click on a link and buy a product the moment they see it in your content. This is particularly true if you’re trying to sell relatively expensive SaaS subscriptions. With that in mind, it might be worth creating funnels for your potential buyers.
You can start by generating traffic with your social media, paid ads, and SEO blog posts, then attract your customer’s attention to the product with free eBooks, webinars, and email courses, offered by the SaaS program you sign up to.
A good way to nurture your leads is to have them sign up for an email marketing newsletter with the lead magnet content you can get from your SaaS software provider. This will give you a way to reach out to your potential customers with special offers, discount codes, and sales information, which might improve your chances of earning a sale.
Choosing the Best SaaS Affiliate Marketing Programs
As the SaaS market continues to grow at a phenomenal pace, there’s never been a better time to get involved with SaaS affiliate programs. With a little work and the right strategy, you can build a consistent source of recurring, passive income and even supplement your existing work.
Affiliate marketing isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme, but it is a highly versatile and powerful tool for those with the right amount of content marketing knowledge. You can even expand your potential by hiring additional content professionals to work with you on building your affiliate site, so you can turbo-charge your commissions. Reach out to Growth Collective today for some insights into how you can hire the right freelancers for your team.
FAQs
What is the highest-paying SaaS affiliate program?
The amount you’ll earn from an affiliate marketing strategy depends heavily on you and the work you put in. Shopify and BigCommerce offer huge payouts for enterprise sales, while HubSpot pays up to $1000 for a single sale. Recurring payouts can also be extremely lucrative if you snag some long-term customers for the SaaS company you choose.
Where can I find SaaS Affiliates?
Companies looking to work with SaaS affiliates can check out social media, contact people directly through blogs, or even look for Affiliate networks. You could also consider reaching out to your existing VIP customers to see if they’d be interested in getting involved.
How many followers do I need to be an affiliate marketer?
The more follower you have, the more likely you are to increase your sales. However, there’s no set number of followers you need. Most professionals have around 500 to 15000 followers. However, quality does matter more than quantity. You need your followers to be engaged too!
Is affiliate marketing still profitable in 2022?
Definitely, the affiliate marketing industry is growing all the time. The global affiliate marketing industry is currently expected to be worth about $12 billion.
