Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing
Your brand’s affiliate program might have a solid roster of publishers that power juicy conversions and affiliate web traffic, plus genuine engagement from the customers that respect your affiliates’ publications. But what happens if conversions start to slip? Something’s up with your affiliate strategy. The solution? Affiliate tracking software.
That’s where affiliate marketing solutions like LeadDyno come in. These platforms help you manage and scale your affiliate program, plus track important metrics you need to continue informing your strategy with the best insights. We’ll walk through LeadDyno as an affiliate tracking tool and compare it with Tapfiliate as a worthy alternative to maximize ROI on your affiliate program.
LeadDyno is an affiliate marketing platform that’s tracked over $161 million in affiliate sales in 2022. Most of their 2,000+ brand clients are in the SaaS, fashion, and health & wellness niches.
The software accompanies brands in every step of the affiliate marketing process, from affiliate onboarding and engagement to sales tracking and reporting. A notable feature is the lead conversion capability that helps you collect information from potential customers, automate email comms, and import those leads to your platform of choice.
LeadDyno’s recruitment features don’t include an actual marketplace to browse through or recruit new affiliates. However, they do offer an automated customer referral program to help you recruit existing customers as affiliates. Additionally, you can easily import existing affiliate partners to the platform.
Potential affiliates can apply to your program via your custom affiliate website. You can manually approve each one or set up automated approval criteria to save time.
LeadDyno stands out with its features to enhance your affiliates’ experience. From automated email newsletters to customizable branded assets, you can keep them in the know about product updates and offers while engaging them to perform their best.
Another tool is LeadDyno’s “What’s Selling” feature, ideal for ecommerce clients that use Shopify, Ecwid, Infusionsoft, or BigCommerce. Here, you can share affiliate performance with individual affiliates, covering the products, order values, and quantity of sales they’ve achieved for your brand.
Commissions aren’t “one-size-all,” as LeadDyno puts it. Accordingly, they offer a wide range of customizable commission options, starting with type. You can choose whether you’d like to reward commissions by lead, sale, or web visitor.
LeadDyno lets brands decide how long to wait before dispersing commission payments, which helps avoid paying affiliate commissions on refunded orders. On top of that, the platform allows unlimited commission groups to help you award commissions based on performance from specific affiliates. Both one-time purchases and recurring ones (like SaaS subscriptions) are permitted as well to accommodate different business models.
The thing that’s missing? SKU-specific commissions and flexibility, like reviewer Dan, a professional in the furniture industry, shares on Capterra:
Wire transfer, check, PayPal, and even gift cards are all feasible payment options in LeadDyno’s affiliate software. They also have the option to pay affiliates through cryptocurrency via the platform’s integration with Coinbase. Users can customize minimum payment thresholds and payment frequency to disperse payments either weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
LeadDyno offers automated lead management tools, which are great for improving your conversion rate. These tools include customer email collection on your affiliate website, automated email triggers and sequences, and easy importing to platforms like Hubspot, MailChimp, and Klaviyo.
You can view performance data, including revenue and activity, by lead, customer, visitor, and purchase on the LeadDyno dashboard. A simple click lets you see data for individual affiliates as well, including a historical timeline of their activity and comparative data across other affiliates. Other reporting tools include a social media sharing widget and marketing tracking for campaigns on Google Ads and Facebook.
While you can visualize data from all your affiliate’s performance, you can’t order custom reports unless you purchase LeadDyno’s most expensive subscription tier at $749 per month. This is a common concern across some reviewers’ criticisms online.
Brands can track affiliate activity and conversions via customizable and unique URLs or tracking codes that can act as coupons. And if you’re working with multiple marketing channels (for example, a publisher’s website blog and Instagram), you can easily create subIDs to dive deeper into an affiliate’s performance by channel.
View tracked data in real-time on dashboards in the platform’s reporting suite. Here, you’ll also see the numbers of visitors, purchases, and leads by affiliate. Finally, LeadDyno offers a historical view of all affiliate performance, helping you map out timelines for each conversion and the amount of time in between.
Brands can set up an MLM structure with 10 levels of commissions, likely based on the quality of the referral. This structure helps you reward affiliates for recommending more worthy affiliates to your program.
LeadDyno offers solid customization options in workflows, affiliate experience, and content assets. Starting with your own unique affiliate website, LeadDyno lets you design and tailor web elements to fit your brand voice and vibe. This includes adjustable color schemes, unique welcome messages for affiliates, program descriptions, custom CSS, and logo placements.
As for content assets? Brands can plug shareable marketing materials into the platform with styling capabilities for text, banners, and images. You can also share resources like blog posts via email and text with your affiliates.
Additionally, LeadDyno enables customizable tracking codes with letters and numbers and unique URLs.
LeadDyno’s reporting and analytics screen shares data by customer, lead, affiliate, and product. Easy data visualizations display data by timeline or affiliate. And if you’re curious about a particular affiliate’s performance, you can check out the leaderboard to compare visitors, canceled orders, and conversions across your affiliates.
But if you want deeper or more custom reports to fuel your affiliate analysis, you’ll need LeadDyno’s most expensive-tier subscription.
LeadDyno offers 25 direct integrations spanning the most notable payment, ecommerce, and marketing platforms like Shopify, Mailchimp, and Paypal. On top of that, LeadDyno’s Public API helps brands integrate other useful tools in their tech stack that aren’t listed in the platform’s 25 direct integrations.
All of LeadDyno’s subscription tiers include unlimited affiliates, live chat and email support, tracked transactions, payments, and access to all available commission tiers. Brands interested in tracking and nurturing leads (web visitors) are better off with higher-tier subscriptions. The higher the tier, the higher the web visitor limit and subsequently cheaper cost for additional tracked visitors.
Additionally, all plans offer up to 18 months of historical data reports, with only the most expensive subscription allowing unlimited historical data.
We’ve noticed a couple of customer reviews citing dissatisfaction with LeadDyno’s pricing packages. Notably, Lucia Roberts of the UK felt severely overcharged:
Most of LeadDyno’s customers are both affiliates and brand marketing managers in the health & wellness, SaaS, and fashion & lifestyle spaces. Here are some examples of the brands they’ve supported and their specs:
LeadDyno boasts decent ratings across major review sites. G2 shows an average 4/5-star rating, with positive reviews highlighting the platform’s Shopify integration, real-time affiliate tracking, and ease of use. Negative notes cover LeadDyno’s limited customer service availability on the weekends (specifically the live chat), high learning curve, and slightly outdated interface.
The platform’s Capterra review page shows a similar 4.3/5-star rating across over 100 customers. Users applaud LeadDyno’s multi-level commission tiers, automated payments, helpful customer support team, text-message sharing feature, relevant affiliate onboarding customization, and ease of use. Points of criticism included expensive pricing, limited analytics potential, lack of product-specific commissions, and limited languages for customer support.
More conversions? Better affiliate partners? Greater clarity in reporting?
Whatever your business goal for your affiliate program, make sure you narrow in on it before investing in software. This will help you in the research stage. For example, if you need more support creating branded assets for your affiliates, you can narrow your software search to platforms with such a feature.
The affiliate marketing industry is filled with affiliate tracking software for both brands and affiliates. You’ll also find tools more catered to specific niche businesses or affiliate program sizes. Start with the industry’s leading affiliate programs via your typical Google Search, then explore software mentioned in the industry’s widest publications.
After that, you can research customer ratings on popular review sites like Trustpilot. These sites actually help you compare core features for different software (more on that next).
Tiered commissions, performance bonuses, real-time reporting, branded creative assets — these are just a few features that affiliate software solutions offer. But don’t get caught up in the pizzazz of variety. You need to prioritize the features that will make the most sense for your affiliate program’s efficiency and ROI.
Consider what existing problem each feature will solve and make a shortlist of software that offer those features. Then you can dive deeper into the scale of an individual feature. For example, you might prioritize software that offers performance-based commission tiers (like Tapfiliate’s flexible commissions).
“Grow your affiliate program.”
“Improve conversion rates.”
“Track performance and payouts.”
These are typical benefits and slogans for affiliate software, but here’s the thing: you won’t achieve any of that if your team doesn’t know how to use that software.
Look at customer reviews regarding user experience and navigation — if people cite a long learning curve, make sure that software at least has solid reviews about customer support to mitigate the risk of delayed ROI.
Conversions aren’t the only source of revenue for your affiliate program — so is efficiency. If your affiliate software doesn’t make your life easier, that extra time turns into valuable labor hours. Integrations with your existing tech stack help you streamline your affiliate program and make your day-to-day much easier.
Most affiliate solutions offer integrations with customer relationship managers (CRMs), email marketing software, automation apps, payment processors, and more. Just look on the software’s integration page on your website to compare it with your tech stack.
High cost doesn’t always mean high value. This is especially true for an expensive-tier affiliate software plan with features that don’t really translate into more conversions or ROI for you. Let’s say you’re just starting your affiliate business.
You don’t really need the $500 minimum spend of a pricey plan chock-full of features you can’t leverage for another year. Instead, you should just pay for the basics and scale when you’re ready. For example, Tapfiliate’s Essential plan is a solid option for small businesses and new affiliate programs.
You won’t know if a dress fits you without trying it on. The same goes for affiliate tracking solutions. Free trials help you get a feel for a software’s capabilities, including reporting capabilities, general navigation, and affiliate management features.
The best affiliate tracking solutions are confident enough in their product to offer a free trial. Test out a couple and note which ones feel more intuitive and useful to your affiliate program.
Claim your 14-day free trial with Tapfiliate!
Today’s brands are increasingly concerned with data privacy and other unique affiliate fraud events. If you’re going to trust your data with an affiliate tracking software, you better make sure that company takes extra precautions to safeguard your data.
Look for affiliate solutions that demonstrate commitment to data privacy and security. One example is Tapfiliate’s secure AWS hosting and GDPR compliance. Customer reviews might also have insights about a software’s security measures. Look out for any negative reviews about fraudulent clicks or data breaches.
Not sure about how to use a function? That’s not always a navigation red flag. Sometimes, the issue is easily resolved with support from a customer rep.
That is, if you can get a hold of them. Some affiliate platforms lose points for lengthy customer hold times and incompetent support agents. Look for software with multiple customer assistance options and solid customer service reviews.
We’ll take a look to see how Tapfiliate compares to LeadDyno in terms of pricing, recruitment, attribution, and customer support to see if it is a viable option for your brand.
Overwhelmed with 100+ affiliates? No matter your number of partnerships, Tapfiliate tracks each one’s historical leads (clicks) and conversions to help you see exactly who drives your sales and revenue the most. Attribute leads to affiliates via custom URLs or coupon codes for offline sales and further engagement (who doesn’t like a sale). Track batch orders or one-off purchases, and even get eyes on specific products that are selling more than others via your affiliate program.
Our clients can review all this tracked data in real-time through our user-friendly data visualizations and dashboards, along with custom reports with filters and segmentation to dive even deeper into your affiliate program performance.
Affiliate marketing has tons of mini tasks and activities embodied in the process, which can eat up a lot of your time as a brand marketing manager. The solution? That automation sensation that just feels satisfying while streamlining your operations.
Tapfiliate has 35 direct integrations with some of the biggest email marketing, customer relationship, ecommerce, and payment platforms in their respective industries, helping you merge your entire operation seamlessly with our software. Additionally, you can create a custom integration with any software not included in our direct integration list via the RESTAPI.
Who better to cheerlead your products and services than your beloved customers who know them inside out? Tapfiliate’s automated Referral Program makes recruitment a breeze. Set up automated invitations via email and incentivize your customers with commissions to send you more leads. The best part? The genuineness of their promotion. Existing customers don’t come off as too promotional when gushing over your products to their close family and friends.
Additionally, our MLM feature lets affiliates invite sub-affiliates for added commissions to further drive your sales and revenue. Just decide whether you want to manually approve each one or set up criteria to automate affiliate approvals and save even more time in the process.
Tapfiliate offers all brands, no matter the subscription tier, access to the Admitad Partner Network. Through it, you can access over 100,000 affiliate publishers who can browse through your affiliate program and decide to start promoting your products and services immediately. This is a game changer for new brands looking to recruit affiliate partners, as well as for brands that want to scale their programs.
Any affiliate on this network is carefully vetted — plus, we offer fraud prevention features to place your privacy and safety as top priority.
Not all affiliates or affiliate sales are equal. Some are more valuable to your business, which is why we help you reflect that reality with flexible commissions. Tapfiliate offers recurring commissions for subscription-based businesses and SaaS clients like our European online brokerage customer Degiro. On top of that, brands can choose to award commissions on a percentage-based or flat-fee basis.
And if you notice an affiliate performing exceptionally well? Reward them with a performance bonus, or automate a commission increase once your ideal milestone is reached (for example, 1,000 conversions). We’ve received praise from both affiliates and brands for our product-specific commissions as well, which offer unique opportunities for publisher promotions and engagement while allowing brands to offload excess inventory.
You can’t scale without automating, so Tapfiliate’s done the groundwork to make your affiliate program as efficient as possible. Our applauded Zapier integration helps you automate unlimited workflows via webhooks and triggered emails. Plus, Tapfiliate automates disputes and refunds, as well as affiliate approvals (if you like — you can also manually approve affiliates).
Our 95% customer satisfaction rate reflects our commitment to responsive and engaging customer service. Every single customer has access to 24/7 live support via our online chat function, as well as a rich knowledge base of articles and how-tos based on our most commonly asked questions over the years.
Tapfiliate and LeadDyno both have strong reputations in the affiliate software space. Both platforms have tracked over $170 million in affiliate sales and have positive ratings on popular review sites. However, Tapfiliate might present more accessibility and customization when it comes to customer support, product-specific commissions, and report filters and segmentation. Additionally, Tapfiliate’s access to the Admitad Partner Network gives brands more potential to scale their programs and easily recruit affiliates.
Here are a few more notes comparing Tapfiliate and LeadDyno:
Pricing
LeadDyno has four subscription tiers, with its most basic plan priced affordably at $49 per month. This includes unlimited affiliates and tracked conversions. Tapfiliate’s basic plan (1 out of 3 subscription tiers) is priced slightly higher at $89 per month; while the basic plan caps conversion tracked at 75,000, that’s usually sufficient for affiliate programs for small businesses even if they’re scaling. Furthermore, the basic plan can track up to 200,000 clicks, or web visitors, while LeadDyno tracks a maximum of 3,000.
Tapfiliate’s subscriptions are also more affordable for brands that value custom branding and customization features. Access unique onboarding fields and a custom domain in our Pro plan for only $119 per month, or custom reports with any of Tapfiliate’s subscriptions. In comparison, LeadDyno customers can only access custom reports in their most expensive-tier plan at $749 per month.
Tracking
Both Tapfiliate and LeadDyno offer real-time affiliate tracking for new clicks and conversions. They also offer custom affiliate links and coupon codes for added customization potential. However, Tapfiliate stands out with its capability to track both individual purchased items and batch orders, as well as set up custom conversion goals to help you visualize progress even more.
Affiliate program management
Tapfiliate’s customer base covers a wider range of verticals than LeadDyno’s. For example, Tapfiliate specializes in providing affiliate management software and support to brands in the SaaS, dropshipping, and ecommerce niches, and brands with subscription-based services. LeadDyno’s clients include many in the health & wellness, fashion & lifestyle, and SaaS space.
Both platforms offer multiple options for commission structures to engage affiliate marketers, though some reviews suggest that Tapfiliate has more functionality when it comes to product-specific commissions and rewards.
Support
Tapfiliate offers 24/7 customer support via a user-friendly live chat function, even on weekends. While LeadDyno also offers a live chat function, some customers lament the lack of responsiveness, specifically on the weekends. Furthermore, LeadDyno doesn’t offer any setup support to customers on its basic plan, while Tapfiliate does.
Tapfiliate adds a human element to their software, and that commitment is reflected in their 95% customer satisfaction rate.
Reviews
Tapfiliate and LeadDyno have a comparable average rating on Capterra, with Tapfiliate at 4.5/5 and LeadDyno at 4.5/5. Overall, Tapfiliate receives more praise for its intuitive affiliate dashboard, custom reporting features, responsive and multi-language customer support, and value for money than LeadDyno does. Customers praise LeadDyno’s tracking capabilities and flexible commission structures.
LeadDyno is a Minnesota-based affiliate marketing software company that helps health & wellness, SaaS, and fashion & lifestyle brands manage their affiliate programs. It offers affiliate tracking for conversions and leads, engagement features like custom email campaigns, and flexible commission structures.
LeadDyno has limited customization potential when it comes to reporting, since you can’t access custom reports without paying for the expensive $749 final subscription tier. Moreover, some customers lament the platform’s lack of variety when it comes to available languages.
LeadDyno is one of many affiliate software in the affiliate marketing field. Here are some of their competitors:
Tapfiliate: A flexible affiliate management software that’s affordable enough for small businesses but flexible to scale with larger affiliate programs. We serve dropshipping, ecommerce, SaaS, and subscription-based businesses with real-time affiliate tracking, flexible commissions, custom reports, customizable marketing materials, and the novel Aditad Partner Network to help brands scale their program instantly with new affiliates.
Referral Candy: This referral management software specializes in serving ecommerce clients and provides brands with immense automation features to spread the word via email invitations and subsequent real-time tracking.
Affise: A robust yet pricey affiliate marketing software known for extensive tracking features, responsive customer support, and in-depth reports and analysis.
PartnerStack: An affiliate marketing platform that stands out with impressive lead routing features, along with a bustling marketplace for affiliate recruitment; catered only to B2B businesses.
Refersion: This affiliate management platform supports ecommerce businesses with real-time affiliate tracking, automated product feeds, and an intuitive user interface to view data in an accessible way.
If you’re looking for more LeadDyno alternatives, check these out.
Want to start tracking affiliate sales? Try Tapfiliate’s 👉 free 14-day trial.
Chrissy Kapralos
Chrissy Kapralos runs a Toronto-based writing agency called No Worries Writing Co. She’s passionate about helping businesses communicate and share their stories. When she isn’t writing about the latest tech and marketing content, you’ll find her traveling, cooking, or watching horror movies.