How to Conduct Affiliate Recruitment Research for Brand (2024)

According to Forrester Research, 52% of marketers believe that their affiliate programs provide high-quality leads. Over half of marketers also say that these programs promote customer loyalty and improve performance transparency. 

To build a strong, high-performing affiliate program, it’s crucial to invest time and effort into affiliate recruitment research.

This article will walk you through process of affiliate recruitment research, from understanding the different types of affiliates to evaluating their performance & building long-term relationship.

Let’s go.

What is affiliate recruitment research?

Affiliate recruitment research is the process of identifying, evaluating, and selecting affiliates who are the best fit for your affiliate marketing program. The goal is to create a list of affiliates who can effectively promote your products or services, drive traffic, and generate sales.

Rather than simply reaching out to a broad group of influencers or marketers, affiliate recruitment research focuses on precision. It helps you target affiliates whose audiences align with your brand, ensuring that your partnership will be mutually beneficial. This research includes understanding the different types of affiliates, assessing their potential to convert customers, and analyzing key metrics that indicate whether they can drive high-quality traffic to your site.

Effective affiliate recruitment research goes beyond just finding affiliates; it’s about building a program that attracts affiliates who will actively engage with your brand, deliver results, and maintain a long-term partnership.

How to conduct affiliate recruitment research effectively?

By taking the time to properly research and vet potential affiliates, you ensure that your affiliate program remains competitive, efficient, and profitable. So it’s high time to dive into the process of affiliate recruitment research.

Step 1: Understand types of affiliate

To conduct effective affiliate recruitment research, it’s essential to understand the different types of affiliates that exist. This helps you tailor your recruitment strategy to attract affiliates who can best support your affiliate marketing goals. Broadly, affiliates can be classified into various categories based on their role, audience, and the methods they use to promote products. 

After following steps of affiliate categorization in this section, you might have a sheet like this (image)

Here are some of the main types of affiliates:

• Influencers: These affiliates have large followings on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. They often have a high level of trust and engagement with their audiences, making them valuable for promoting products. Influencers are especially effective when they align with your brand’s image and values.
• Bloggers: Bloggers typically have established platforms where they produce in-depth content on specific topics or niches. Bloggers are ideal for content-driven affiliate programs.
• Content creators: This category includes people who create videos, podcasts, and other multimedia content. Content creators can be influencers or independent creators who focus on specific topics and have a loyal audience.
• Coupon/Deal sites: These affiliates promote your products through special discount codes or deals. They are often effective for driving short-term sales but may not be suitable for long-term brand-building.
• Email marketers: These affiliates have large, engaged email lists that they use to promote offers to their subscribers. Email marketing affiliates are ideal for driving targeted sales to a specific audience.
• Review/comparison sites: These affiliates focus on comparing products or services, often in a particular industry like finance, insurance, or tech. They can provide valuable referrals for users looking for the best deals in their specific sector.

To maximize the potential of your affiliate program, consider tiering your affiliates based on their reach, influence, and performance. By creating different tiers, you can incentivize affiliates and structure your compensation in a way that motivates them to perform at their best.

• Top-tier affiliates: These affiliates are influencers or content creators with large followings and high engagement. Due to their ability to drive significant traffic, top-tier affiliates are typically offered higher commissions, exclusive perks, larger bonuses or even sponsorship. Their wide reach means their promotional efforts can lead to brand awareness, but not all the time substantial sales.
• Mid-tier affiliates: These affiliates might not have as large a following but still possess a dedicated and engaged audience. They are often willing to work closely with brands and are great for more niche marketing. Commission rates for mid-tier affiliates may be lower than those for top-tier affiliates but still competitive.
• Micro-affiliates: These affiliates have smaller audiences, often under 10,000 followers. While their reach is limited, they can still be incredibly valuable due to their high engagement rates. Micro-affiliates are more likely to form close-knit communities, which can result in higher conversion rates for specific audiences. You can offer lower commissions to micro-affiliates but incentivize them with bonuses or exclusive perks for strong performance.
• Niche affiliates: Niche affiliates have enormous influence in some small niche, such as golf, fishing or men style. These affiliate can be at all sizes, but typically they are micro affiliates and sometimes are mid-tier affiliates. While their number of followers might seem to not be significant, their actual influence can actually reach to the entire community.

By understanding and tiering affiliates in your program, you can build a diverse and dynamic recruitment strategy that ensures both big influencers and smaller affiliates are incentivized to contribute to your brand’s success.

Step 2: Identify the Ideal affiliates 

One of the most important steps of affiliate recruitment research is identifying your ideal affiliates. The ideal affiliates are the ones who align with your brand and can drive the best results. A well-defined set of standards will help you select affiliates that will not only promote your products but also authentically engage with your target audience.

Before diving into this, please note that you can run various types of affiliate programs simultaneously to target different segments of their audience, and each program may have a differrent standards of affiliates. For example: 

• Product-focused programs: These programs focus on specific products and aim to recruit affiliates who can drive sales for particular items. 
• Service-focused programs: If you’re a service-based business, your affiliate program may center around subscriptions or services.
• Seasonal Promotions: For certain periods in the year, like holidays or Black Friday, you may run special seasonal promotions and recruit affiliates to help with time-sensitive campaigns. These affiliates might focus on generating urgency and promoting limited-time offers.

The first step is to create a standardized set of criteria for evaluating potential affiliates. Some of the most important factors to consider include:

• Niche: Look for affiliates whose content aligns with your product or service. For example, if you sell fitness equipment, you may want to partner with health and wellness influencers, bloggers, or personal trainers.
• Audience size: Determine the size of the affiliate’s following. While big influencers with large audiences might seem attractive, micro-influencers with smaller, more engaged followings can often bring better results due to their tight-knit communities.
• Engagement rates: Engagement is more important than follower count. Look for affiliates with high levels of interaction on their posts, whether it’s likes, comments, or shares. A smaller but highly engaged audience can often generate more conversions than a larger, less active one.
• Demographics: The audience demographics of your affiliate are crucial. Consider factors such as location, age, gender, and interests to ensure they match your target audience. For example, a beauty brand may want to work with affiliates whose audience is primarily female and interested in skincare and cosmetics.

Once you’ve established the basic criteria for your ideal affiliates, it’s time to refine the types of affiliates that best align with your marketing goals. For example, influencers are ideal for lifestyle, fashion, or fitness brands where personal recommendations can make a big impact while bloggers often have niche audiences and can target specific groups of people interested in your brand’s offerings. If you’re looking to boost sales quickly, partnering with coupon sites or deal bloggers who offer discounts and exclusive deals can help drive traffic, especially during peak shopping seasons or special promotions.

Step 3: Search for potential affiliates 

Once you’ve established the types of affiliates you want to target, it’s time to actively search for potential partners. There are several effective strategies and tools to help you discover affiliates who are a good fit for your program. 

• Social media platforms

Social media is one of the most effective ways to find potential affiliates. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are filled with influencers, bloggers, and content creators who could become valuable affiliates for your program.

You can use niche-specific hashtags to discover influencers who are already posting content related to your industry or search for keywords relevant to your products or services. Look for affiliates who not only have a large following but also have high engagement rates (likes, comments, shares). This will give you a better idea of who actively connects with their audience and can influence their followers’ purchasing decisions.

• Affiliate networks

Affiliate networks like Impact Radius, ShareASale, or CJ Affiliate offer a streamlined way to discover potential affiliates. These platforms allow you to search for affiliates based on categories, niches, and other criteria. 

Networks often have thousands of affiliates already registered, making it easier for you to find affiliates that fit your specific needs. Besides, these networks often provide performance data, such as conversion rates, traffic sources, and earnings per click (EPC), which can help you evaluate potential affiliates before partnering with them. You can use filters on affiliate networks to narrow your search based on niche, geographic location, and type of affiliate (bloggers, influencers, coupon sites, etc.).

• Analyze your competitors

Analyzing your competitors can also be a valuable strategy for finding potential affiliates. Look at brands that offer similar products or services and see which affiliates they are working with. 

Browse your competitors’ websites for affiliate program links. Many brands have dedicated affiliate pages where they list their affiliates or showcase success stories. Observe which affiliates are promoting your competitors’ products on social media, blogs, or YouTube. If an affiliate is promoting similar products to yours, they may be interested in promoting your offerings as well.

Take note of influencers or bloggers who work with several brands in your industry. These individuals may have established credibility and could be interested in adding your brand to their portfolio.

There are lot more strategies to recruit affiliates that you might want to try. As soon as you finished the potential affiliate phase, you can compile a list of potential affiliates who align with your niche and brand values.

Step 4: Search on the affiliate database 

Using affiliate databases and influencer marketing platforms is a highly effective way to discover top affiliates who align with your brand. These platforms aggregate data from influencers, content creators, and affiliate marketers, making it easier for you to find potential partners.

Here are some trustworthy platforms you can check:

• BuzzSumo: BuzzSumo is a content research tool that allows you to search for trending topics and identify the top influencers or affiliates within your niche. By analyzing content performance and engagement metrics, you can find affiliates who are already creating highly shareable and relevant content.
• Traackr: Traackr is an influencer marketing platform that enables you to find and evaluate influencers based on their reach, engagement, and audience demographics. It also allows you to track the effectiveness of your affiliate campaigns and measure influencer impact.
• Upfluence: Upfluence is one of the most popular affiliate recruitment platforms. offers a vast database of influencers and affiliates. You can filter through its database by niche, audience size, engagement rate, and more. The platform also helps you manage affiliate relationships, track performance, and optimize your campaigns.
• ShareASale, Impact, Partnerize, Awin: These are well-established affiliate networks that provide tools for both affiliate discovery and program management. On these platforms, you can browse through a wide range of affiliates based on categories, geographic location, and performance metrics. They offer valuable insights into each affiliate’s reach and ability to convert traffic into sales.

Once you’ve identified potential affiliates, it’s crucial to assess their performance. Many of these platforms provide insights into an affiliate’s previous campaigns, which can help you make informed decisions about which affiliates to approach. Look for engagement and conversion rate, plus traffic sources. How actively do their followers engage with their content (likes, comments, shares)? How successful are their affiliate links in converting visitors to customers? And what channels (social media, blog, YouTube) are driving traffic to their affiliate links?

Using affiliate databases allows you to quickly and efficiently identify high-quality affiliates who are a good fit for your program, and provides a clearer picture of their potential for success.

Step 5: Evaluate affiliate qualities 

After gathering potential affiliates, the next step is to assess their qualities and determine if they align with your brand values and objectives. A thorough evaluation of an affiliate’s account metrics and online presence is crucial to ensure they are a good fit for your affiliate program. 

Research affiliate account metrics, such as:

• Engagement rate: A high engagement rate indicates that an affiliate’s audience is actively interacting with their content. Look for affiliates whose followers frequently comment, share, or like posts related to your niche. This is a strong signal that their audience trusts their recommendations.
• Audience demographics: Analyze the affiliate’s audience to ensure they align with your target market. Factors like age, gender, location, and interests should match your ideal customer profile. If your target market is primarily young adults interested in fitness, you want affiliates who engage with that demographic.
• Traffic and reach: Check how much traffic the affiliate can drive. For influencers and content creators, review their websites, social media profiles, or blogs to see how many followers or visitors they attract. A large following is not always necessary if the audience is highly engaged and well-targeted.
• Content quality and relevance: The content that an affiliate produces should be high-quality, relevant to your industry, and aligned with your brand’s tone. Assess whether their content resonates with their audience and if it matches the type of content your brand wants to be associated with.

You should evaluate whether the affiliate’s values and brand message align with your business. An affiliate who shares similar values can better communicate your brand’s ethos and create authentic promotional content that resonates with their audience.

Trust is key in affiliate marketing. Look for affiliates who have a reputation for being genuine and authentic in their promotions. Influencers with transparent communication about their partnerships and product endorsements tend to be more effective in driving sales and conversions. 

Consistency in content production is important for affiliates to maintain visibility. Regular content that is aligned with your campaign’s objectives can help keep your products or services top-of-mind for their audience.

Step 6: Reach out and build relationships

The final step in affiliate recruitment research is reaching out and building relationships with your ideal affiliates. 

• Invite the affiliates

While crafting your outreach messages, you should avoid generic outreach messages. Tailor each message to the affiliate by mentioning specific details about their content, such as why you admire their work and how their audience aligns with your brand. Personalization shows that you’ve done your research and genuinely want to collaborate.

In your outreach, communicate the benefits of joining your affiliate program. Highlight what sets your program apart – whether it’s your competitive commission rates, unique products, or exclusive affiliate perks. Affiliates are more likely to respond if they see clear value in your offering.

Maintain a professional yet friendly tone. Be respectful of their time and efforts, as they are often managing multiple partnerships. Be clear and concise about what you are offering and what you expect from them.

• Build the relationships

Once an affiliate shows interest in joining your program, provide them with all the tools and resources they need to succeed. This might include affiliate links, banners, product images, or access to special discount codes. Additionally, let them know you are available for any support they may need along the way. 

Be transparent about your expectations for performance, communication, and content creation. Set clear deadlines, commission structures, and guidelines for content. Establishing these expectations upfront will avoid any confusion down the road.

An affiliate partnership doesn’t end after the initial outreach. Regularly check in with your affiliates to offer support, provide feedback, and maintain an open line of communication. Show appreciation for their hard work by acknowledging their successes, and always be receptive to their feedback.

Keep affiliates motivated by offering rewards for their achievements. This could be in the form of higher commissions, bonuses for top performers, or exclusive access to new products. Recognizing their efforts helps strengthen the relationship and encourages affiliates to continue promoting your brand.

Affiliate recruitment research: The secret to find the best affiliates

Affiliate recruitment research is a crucial step to find the best affiliates for your brand.

Most importantly: the process of affiliate recruitment is not a one-time task—it requires continuous effort and refinement. As your affiliate program expands, regularly revisiting your recruitment strategies, monitoring affiliate performance, and adapting to industry trends will help keep your program competitive and effective.

By applying the strategies and tips outlined in this article, you can build a high-quality list of affiliates who are motivated to promote your products and services, creating a strong, mutually beneficial partnership that drives sustainable growth and success for your business.

Grow your affiliate teams and watch your business blossom.