Partnership Overview & Best Practices

Getting started

New to Squaredance

Brands

Partners

Tracking & Integrations

Application Form Template

Name: Welcome to your new partnership with [BRAND NAME]. Please answer these questions to get started

Question 1: To run on [BRAND NAME], [insert 1 key thing that is important for your brand (ex: you’d need to send ads for approval before running traffic.) Can and will you do this? Our response time promise is max 48 hours.

Question 2: Another requirement is [add another key requirement (ex: placing respective sub ids available when you grab your affiliate link. Would you be able to do this? Failing to comply can result in the termination of the partnership.)]

C1: Your affiliate type(paid media buyer or publisher)

C2: Traffic source you’re running this traffic from (Blog name(reviews.com), Social name(FB, IG, etc), Google product(YT, Display, etc), and any other traffic source you run on)

C3: Tracking URL. This is your affiliate link that you’re using in your ads. Please place that link in this subid.

Question 3: Please tell us how you’re hoping to run traffic on [BRAND NAME]. The more detail, the better. If you’re running traffic from Google - which g prod?, a newsletter - which one? Native - which network?, etc.

Question 4: Let us know anything else you’d this is useful for us to know!

Onboarding Message

Onboarding Message Template

Onboarding message template:

Wishing you a warm welcome to our [BRAND NAME] Affiliate Program! My name is [INSERT NAME] and am here to help you with anything you need when promoting our brand!

[INSERT WHY BRAND EXISTS, HOW IT'S DIFFERENT AND HOW IT HELPS ITS CUSTOMERS] We’ve been growing a lot and our have been getting a lot of interest from partners. Should you choose to run on our campaign, here are the key requirements for our long term partnership:

Getting ads approved before running traffic
Placing data into respective subids available when you grab your affiliate link.
C1: Your affiliate type(paid media buyer or publisher)
C2: Traffic source you’re running this traffic from (Blog name(reviews.com), Social name(FB, IG, etc), Google product(YT, Display, etc), and any other traffic source you run on)
C3: Tracking URL. This is your affiliate link that you’re using in your ads. Please place that link in this subid.

As well, there are various creatives and videos for you to use in your ads. We are thrilled to have you onboard. If you’d need something specific, do not hesitate to reach out, we can be reached at: (fill_email_address)

Best Practices for Discovering and Recruiting Partners

The partner channel has the potential to be your biggest customer acquisition channel, which is why recruiting and nurturing the right partners is a crucial part of your success.

If you want to find great partners, here is a short list of places you can seek them out.

The Squaredance Platform's "Find Prospects" feature
Affiliate Marketing Trade Shows i.e. Affiliate World, Affiliate Summit, Ad World
Ecommerce/online marketing Forums like STM
Facebook Groups like Facebook Ad Buyers
Linkedin Groups - like this one

What Partner Types Should I Focus On?

Partners come in all shapes and sizes. Some are big and some are small. Some use paid marketing channels, while others rely on non-paid channels like blogs, publications, review sites, social media followers, and many others. The point is, building a well-diversified portfolio of partners across many channels can lead to massive growth in sales for your brand when executed properly.

Let’s start with the basics around affiliate types.

Below is a breakdown of some of the largest partner types that you should be focused on.

Paid Media buyers:

These affiliates specialize in driving new customers in paid social, search & display channels.

Publishers:

These affiliates promote a brand's products via content sites, such as blogs, review sites, newsletters, listicles, etc.

Influencers:

These affiliates leverage their social profiles and followers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube & others, to promote different products using affiliate links.

Brand Ambassadors:

Brand Ambassadors are happy customers that want to tell others about why they love your brand so much.

How To Navigate Partner Profiles

Learn what the information in a partner profile means to better understand and analyze prospects and potential partners (affiliates).

Partner profiles contain two types of data: Self-Reported data and Platform-Reported data.

Self-Reported Data

The metrics provided directly through the partner are termed self-reported data, which are based on the partner's interests. They list out their preferred verticals, channels, paid/unpaid media, and countries that they specialize in. What the platform does is measure their performance on their chosen interests.

Platform-Reported Data

The platform produces audience and performance metrics. The platform continuously measures data based on historical performance with Jumbleberry. They include percentage match (how likely it is for the partner to perform well for your campaign), affiliate type (paid media buyer, influencer, etc.), revenue generated in the past 6 months, and their respective tier.

How are Tiers Ranked?

Tiers categorize partners based on their capacity for volume and budget available for media buying (threshold). Tier 1 has the capacity for the highest volume and threshold, and the scale in volume/ threshold goes lower as tiers go up.

Tier 1 affiliates have the capacity for high volume and mainly focus on scaling existing campaigns.
Tier 2 affiliates have the capacity for a reasonable amount of volume and are often willing to help test and prove out new campaigns.
Tier 3 affiliates often provide low but consistent volume for campaigns.
Tier 4 Affiliates have unknown capacity because they are either new to our platform or have yet to reach our minimum volume threshold.

How To Anticipate & Solve Common Partner Requests

We asked our best advertisers what they would typically message their affiliates about, and we've compiled their answers in the list below.

Campaign Start Date

Good Example	Bad Example
I saw from your profile that you specialize in Facebook traffic, and we have a Facebook team seeing $X in return. There’s definitely a lot of potential for you to grow. Would you be ready to start this week? If not, please let me know when you’re ready. We’re excited to get you on board!	When can you start running my campaign?
• Provide specific results • Target channel relevant to the affiliate • Ask about a particular timeframe (e.g. this week) but leave it open-ended to provide flexibility • Show excitement for them to run the campaign	• Provide no incentive for the affiliate to respond sooner rather than later

Channels to Run

Good Example	Bad Example
I see you’ve run Facebook and TikTok extensively for similar advertisers on the Jumbleberry platform. That’s great to see. We actually have a Social Ads team seeing $X in return. Are you planning to run Facebook and TikTok for us as well, or did you have something else in mind? Let me know. Happy to provide any assets to make sure you launch with a BANG.	What channels will you be running?
• Comment on their existing traffic • Provide information on the results you’re seeing, if applicable • Offer to provide resources to help them scale	• No acknowledgement of their existing traffic • Provide no incentive for the affiliate to respond

Rejecting Creatives

Good Example	Bad Example
Thanks for working on these creatives. We need to make some changes, so they become brand compliant. • The background colour needs to be changed, and please follow the colours of our brand guidelines linked here for all creatives [include link]. • Replace headline font with Gilroy [include link]. • Replace “Lose weight” with “Helps you lose weight” - we need to add the supporting word “help” before claims of weight loss for all content across all channels. We’ll review again after these changes have been made.	These are not approved. They are not brand compliant.
• Acknowledge their work and thank them • Explain why they are not brand compliant with points of action • Links included to resources where necessary, so they don’t have to look for it themselves • Confirm that they need to be reviewed once more, so they’re aware they cannot use them as-is	• No acknowledgement of the work they put into the creatives • No explanation of what changes need to be made • No resources provided

Restricted Channels

Good Example	Bad Example
I appreciate your interest in our campaign. I would like to know a little more about incentivized traffic. Perhaps you would be open for a 20-minute call where you can take me through this traffic source?	Sorry, we don’t accept incentivized traffic.
I appreciate your interest in our campaign. Unfortunately, Google Search is one of our largest traffic channels, and we cannot risk losing our account.	Sorry, we don’t accept search.
Thanks for your interest in our campaign. We run our own branded search internally but would be open to non-branded Google. Here's the negative keyword list. Please ensure you blacklist these terms before going live.	Sorry, we don’t accept search.
Thank you for your interest in our campaign. I would like to know a little more about email traffic. Perhaps you would be open for a 20-minute call where you can take me through this traffic source?	Sorry, no email on this campaign.

In sum, communicating with affiliates requires both a strategy and commitment to developing relationships continuously. We hope this playbook has provided a solid foundation to get started or has improved your comfort level in taking your campaign to the masses!

On this page

Application Form Template
Onboarding Message
Onboarding Message Template
Best Practices for Discovering and Recruiting Partners
What Partner Types Should I Focus On?
How To Navigate Partner Profiles
Self-Reported Data
Platform-Reported Data
How are Tiers Ranked?
How To Anticipate & Solve Common Partner Requests
Campaign Start Date
Channels to Run
Rejecting Creatives
Restricted Channels