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SaaS affiliate programs are one the most popular ways to monetize these days. This referral-based partnership allows you to have an extra source of income without costing you an arm or a leg.
Because you don’t need a big team to carry out the project. With your strong networking and connections, you can enjoy the affiliate program’s perks all by yourself.
An affiliate program is not limited to any one industry/niche as everyone is testing the water and trying to create a win-win situation for both (the company and the affiliate).
In this blog, we will get into the details of the SaaS affiliate program and some best programs out there.
At the end of this blog, you will have a clear idea on:
- Why should you consider becoming a SaaS affiliate?
- What to look for in a SaaS Affiliate Program?
- Best SaaS Affiliate Programs
Before we get into the depth of affiliate marketing for SaaS, let’s get some basics right:
- Affiliate programs are a performance-based marketing technique where you earn a commission by marketing the products and services of other companies. You get a commission each time a transaction is done using your affiliate link.
- There are generally three parties involved in an affiliate program.
- Product creator (also called the merchant) who owns the product
- Affiliates the one who promotes the product (you)
- Customer the one who makes the purchase
Why should you consider becoming a SaaS affiliate?
The SaaS industry is bringing some fresh light to the affiliate marketing world. For a few years, affiliate marketing has been discredited due to some unethical practices by some merchants and affiliates, but that doesn’t mean affiliate marketing is not here to stay.
As per a report by Influencer Marketing Hub, over 80% of brands have an affiliate program. Giants like Amazon, Walmart, Microsoft, and Shopify are already making the most of these programs.
Speaking about the SaaS (Service as a Software) industry, currently, the sector is growing and thriving like never before. As per a report, the SaaS sector is expected to reach $623 billion by 2023.
You can be a part of this growing model by becoming a SaaS affiliate. Here are 3 reasons to become a SaaS affiliate:
- SaaS affiliate programs are more transparent with their pricing and commission. You can earn a commission between 10% to 30% or more, depending on the ticket size.
- You can earn a recurring commission as SaaS companies are looking for customers willing to pay them month/quarter for using their service. This can yield you a recurring commission each time a customer pays using your link.
- You don’t need to invest heavily in the product like you don’t need to buy their product or services. You just need to understand the framework and the company and make the product available to the right audience.
What to look for in a SaaS Affiliate Program?
Hopefully, the above points were convincing enough for you to be a saas affiliate. Before getting to the list of some software companies with affiliate programs, you need to be aware of some criteria and pointers to look for while picking any affiliate program.
These pointers will help you think straight and pick a program that will add value to your efforts without being misguided at any moment.
Brand Recognition
You would like to partner with brands with good market recognition because if you pick a program where the brand is still unknown to the audience, you won’t be able to monetize from the program.
Feel free to ask the merchant about the brand, read reviews about them on trusted sites, and discuss the revenue scale to get an idea of the brand’s well-being.
Cookie Lifespan
Generally, an affiliate program works with cookies. While picking any software company with affiliate programs, look for a long cookie lifespan. This is how it works: You earn a commission based on purchases done within the cookie life span.
30 days cookie life span is less as it might take time for your efforts to turn into actions. Aim for a program with a cookie lifespan of 60-90 days.
Commission Rates
A good commission rate for a saas affiliate starts at 20%. You also enjoy an additional bonus when you grab high-ticket clients for the company. As we mentioned in one of the points above, you get a chance to earn recurring income at a good rate.
Ideally, look for rates starting at 20% because less than that will take more effort, and the returns would be less.
Affiliate Dashboard
An affiliate dashboard is not a must-have but a good-to-have feature. You can easily access your progress from one place without moving around too much.
Now that you have a clear idea of saas affiliates and what to look for in an affiliate program. Let us move ahead and know which are the best saas partner programs in the market.
Best SaaS Affiliate Programs
- Saleshandy
- AnyTrack
- Unbounce
- Grammarly
- LiveAgent
- Sumo affiliate
- Woorise
- AWeber
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- HubSpot
- Semrush
- LeadPages
- Moosend
- Pipedrive
- Livechat
- Freshdesk
- Castos
- 10Web
1. Saleshandy
Saleshandy is a cold email outreach that helps revenue teams to close more deals through their cold email outreach campaign.
The tool is packed with features considering essential components a salesperson or a business developer would need to get a step close to their prospects.
Here are details about the affiliate program:
- Program name: Saleshandy Affiliate Program
- Commission: 25% of recurring commission (+extra rewards for top SaaS affiliate)
- Bonus: They offer a special bonus of $25 and $50 if you refer 5 to 10 customers within 30 to 60 days of you becoming a Saleshandy affiliate.
- Cookie lifespan: 90 days
Why should you promote Saleshandy?
- Saleshandy is a well-known and recognized platform in the market. Awarded one of the higher performer winter 2022 with 4 more G2 awards.
- Saleshandy offers you a good cookie lifespan and an opportunity to make a lifetime 25% recurring commission. Additionally, your commission rate will also grow if the customer upgrades their plan.
- You don’t need to purchase any plan before becoming an affiliate. You need to sign up, and you will get instant access to the dashboard.
- No bondages and no agreement. You may quit anytime, but read the terms and conditions before signing up.
- Saleshandy is a growing software, so it will always have some new features and inputs to keep adding value to its target audience, which can also help you promote the brand accordingly.
How does this work?
You just need to follow the below 3 steps to get started.
- Sign-up – You don’t need to be a Saleshandy customer. Just sign-up and get instant access.
- Start promoting – Using your affiliate link, start promoting Saleshandy.
- Earn your commission – Earn 25% of recurring monthly revenue when a purchase is done using your affiliate link.
2. AnyTrack
AnyTrack, as the name says, they help to track data to make more data-driven decisions. It is a great tool for performance marketers to analyze every action taken and make changes accordingly.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: AnyTrack Affiliate Program
- Commission: 15%
- Cookie lifespan: 30 days
3. Unbounce
Unbounce is an AI-powered smart landing page builder that helps marketers create landing pages in minutes. They can also get content copies for campaigns using its smart AI.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Unbounce Partner Program
- Commission: 20% recurring commission
- Cookie lifespan: 90 days
4. Grammarly
Grammarly offers an affiliate program that promotes its Grammar-checking tool which is an inseparable part of any write-ups. By adding Grammarly affiliate links to your content, you earn a commission when readers click on these links and purchase a plan. The commission rates are $0.20 for each free plan signup and $20 for each premium plan purchase. The cookie lifespan for this program is 90 days​​​​.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Grammarly Affiliate Program
- Commission: $0.20 for free plan signup, $20 for premium plan signup
- Cookie lifespan: 90 days
5. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a helpdesk software for customer-facing teams to provide world-class customer service. The software is loaded with integrations to connect with the customers exactly where they are.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: LiveAgent Affiliate Program
- Commission: 20% of recurring commission
- Cookie lifespan: 90 days
6. Sumo affiliate
Sumo scheduler is a customer engagement platform to book appointments, schedule them, and more to scale better.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: BOOST
- Commission: 25%
- Cookie lifespan: 30 days
7. Woorise
Woorise is a lead generation platform that helps marketers to create contests, landing pages, forms, surveys, and more. Woorise helps marketers drive engagement through these elements.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Woorise Affiliate Program
- Commission: 30% recurring commission
- Cookie lifespan: 120 days
- Additional features: Their affiliate dashboard gives you complete access to your commission, clicks, sign-ups, and more.
8. AWeber
AWeber is an email marketing solution for small businesses that helps them to create landing pages, eCommerce landing pages, and more to engage with their audience. They make email marketing easy and fun with their customized and in-built features.Â
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Customer Referral Program
- Commission: 50% of recurring commission
- Cookie lifespan: 365 days
- Additional features: They offer a toolkit for you to manage your referral program. (get an update on who visited your affiliate link, get resources to understand AWeber, and more)
9. Adobe Creative Cloud Affiliate Program
Adobe is a very popular brand for video editing and video creation. It has a creative cloud called Adobe creative cloud that offers resources for all graphic design, video, and photo editing needs.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Adobe Affiliate Program
- Commission: 85% of the first month
- Cookie lifespan: 30 days
- Additional features: You get access to ready-to-publish banners, reports, learning more about the brand, & more. They also offer an affiliate program for Adobe stocks.
10. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the best Saas products. It is a very popular CRM platform that is integrated with important tools that can benefit the sales team, marketing team, content team, and more.
Their affiliate program is super impressive, and you can earn a great commission if you hit the nail on the right head.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: HubSpot’s Affiliate Program
- Commission: 15% to 100%
- Cookie lifespan: 90 days
11. Semrush
Semrush is an all-in-one tool for improving online visibility and getting valuable insights for all marketing efforts. The tool gives complete analytics to make better decisions and rank better online. Best suited for the marketing team.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Semrush Affiliate Program
- Commission: $10 on trial, $0.01 on registration, and $200 on first purchase
- Cookie lifespan: 120 days
- Additional features: They use the last-click attribute model making sure you get your commission based on the user activity
12. Livechat
The LiveChat affiliate program provides a 20% commission on each paid subscription, which rises to 22% after acquiring 5 paying customers. It features a 120-day cookie duration, ensuring proper credit for referred traffic. Affiliates can request earnings withdrawals via the Partner App once they accumulate $50.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Livechat Affiliate Program
- Commission: 20% commission, increasing to 22% after 5 paying customers
- Cookie lifespan: 120 days
13. Moosend
Moosend’s affiliate program can benefit both you and your audience. You can introduce your audience to a tool that will help them cut back on cost while increasing engagement and conversion, while you can earn a passive income through lifetime commission.
Moosend Affiliate Program Details:
- Program name: Moosend Affiliate Program
- The Moosend Affiliate program offers a tiered commission structure. More specifically:
- Bronze Group (0-5 paid accounts) with 30% recurring commission
- Silver Group (6-10 paid accounts) with 33% recurring commission
- Gold Group (11-25 paid accounts) with 35% recurring commission
- Platinum Group (26-35 paid accounts) with 37% recurring commission
- Diamond Group (36 or more accounts) with 40% recurring commissions
- 90-day cookie duration
- Payout Method: PayPal, Stripe & Wire Transfer
- First-touch attribution model
- Real-time reporting and analytics
- Promotional resources are all gathered in one place: Affiliate Resource Center
- $5 minimum threshold
14. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a CRM for the sales team to streamline their sales funnel and close more deals. It has all the features that can make a salesperson’s day looks less chaotic and direct their focus on the most important tasks.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Pipedrive Affiliate Program
- Commission: 33% recurring commission
- Cookie lifespan: 90 days
15. Canva
Canva is a super-easy-to-use tool for designing purposes. Anyone can create their design from scratch or use the ready-to-use template; from logos to documents, they have it all.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Canva Affiliate Marketing Program
- Commission: $36 for each new pro plan
- Cookie lifespan: 30 days
- Additional features: Complete affiliate resources that will help you get started, how-to guides, and ad templates only for affiliates.
16. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is an online cloud-based customer service platform that best works for support teams. It helps the support team to have an effortless conversation with customers across various channels.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Freshworks Affiliate program (Freshdesk is a part of the Freshworks group)
- Commission: 15%
- Cookie lifespan: 90 days
- Additional features: You get complete access to your partner’s dashboard, from which you can track your referral and get useful resources.
17. Castos
Castos is an all-in-one podcast hosting platform for new and veteran podcasters. It’s full of features to help you produce, distribute, and monetize your podcast. It offers unlimited episodes and downloads, free transcriptions, dynamic ad insertion, accept donations from listeners, automatic YouTube republishing, detailed analytics, and more.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: Castos Affiliate Program
- Commission: 25% recurring commission for the life of the referral’s account
- Cookie lifespan: 60 days
18. 10Web.io
10Web is an innovative web solution that empowers small business owners, entrepreneurs, website owners, and developers with cutting-edge tools and services. With 10Web, you can create a website using AI Website Builder, host it on 10Web Hosting, and optimize it with PageSpeed Booster.
Here are details about their affiliate program:
- Program name: 10Web Affiliate Program
- Commission: 50% commission on each sale
- Cookie lifespan: 60 days
Conclusion
This list can go on and on as each industry is coming up with affiliate programs every now and then. But here we have tried to list down the best affiliate marketing for the SaaS industry that helps you earn more as you pour your valuable efforts into it.
Now, it is over to you to pick the program you relate to the most and increase your income source. If you are a complete beginner, we recommend you to start small with a minimum of 2 or 3 programs, and as you get hold of everything, you can chase a higher number.
Start slow and then soar high.
Frequently asked questions
1. What is a SaaS affiliate program?
A SaaS affiliate program is a commission-based partnership between you and the merchant (product owner) where you make a commission whenever any transaction happens using your affiliate link.
2. What is the highest-paying affiliate program?
Semrush, HubSpot, and AWeber are some highest-paying affiliate programs.
3. Which affiliate program is the best?
The best affiliate program is based on what you are looking for; some of the best programs we mentioned are Saleshandy, Canva, Semrush, and AWeber.
