Recruiting the right partners is only the first step in opening a successful affiliate program. Once you have strong relationships with your affiliates, you need to monitor and track their performance. Visibility into the effectiveness of your affiliates and your strategy will make or break your affiliate program. Key metrics to track include total affiliate sales, sales per affiliate, total payout, gross margin, number of new affiliates, and number of affiliates who have left the program.

Remember to be in regular contact with the affiliates in your program. Communication often happens via email and serves to provide them with everything they need to be successful. Your emails should include any new rules or regulations, insight into your brand, and usable content such as relevant hashtags, marketing campaigns, pre-made social media posts, infographics, blogs, and more.