Q: I’m researching possibilities to grow and expand our affiliate program and would really appreciate your expert advice on the following. Currently our company is present as a merchant on CJ, ShareaSale and we have in-house program (powered by HasOffers) as well. Do you feel there is much to be gained in joining another affiliate network (i.e. LinkShare or Pepperjam) or is there too much affiliate overlap between platforms. If adding a 3rd network is worthwhile, which one(s) would you recommend?
A: First of all, I think you probably already have one platform too many.
It’s totally sufficient for most companies to work with one affiliate network.
In the event you have a number of partners that you’d prefer to manage outside of the network affiliate program, it can make sense to have an in-house affiliate program, too.
I managed affiliate programs for small companies up to huge brands over ten years, and I never really found a need to be in multiple networks. I did it in some cases, and it multiplied my work without a significant lift in sales.
The majority of big affiliates, in my experience, have accounts on all of the major affiliate networks.
There may be some out there that are loyal to a certain platform, but I never ran into that issue.