Most affiliate programs think of SmartLinks as a tool for affiliate networks that use them to bring some sort of order to chaotic traffic sources. In reality, they can solve problems and generate more revenue in almost any industry if set up correctly.
Let see two simple examples.
1st scenario: Nutra / eCommerce
Imagine you’re running a Nutra/Beauty affiliate program.
Between many products, you also sell four different anti-aging creams. They all target pretty much the same audience, but each product has its own stock level, payout, landing page angle, etc. You offer variety, which is great.
Now, one of your top affiliates/media buyers wants to give it a spin and tries promoting one of these products, let’s say the one with the bigger payout.
He launches a Meta campaign, feeds some sales into the API, and a couple of days later, it turns out that the campaign has found the right audience and is profitable, so he scales the budget aggressively.
Suddenly, he goes from 10 sales a day to generating 100+.
Great news, right? Not if your warehouse has only 200 units of this product left.
At this rate, you have to pause the offer in just a few hours (until more stock arrives), or ask the affiliate to drastically reduce traffic and hope he sees your message before wasting ad spend by sending traffic to an offer that has already been paused.
The other solution would be to ask the affiliate to change the promo link (the offer tracking link) and point the traffic to one of the other available products, which are similar after all and target the same audience.
Quite a headache, right?
Well, these are exactly the small tweaks that increase the profitability of an affiliate program or network, and managing them is a full-time job for an affiliate manager, but this is another discussion.
But what if we could reduce this friction and give the affiliate, instead, a unique promo link that holds all four products under the hood?
A single tracking link where you can include all four anti-aging products you have in your inventory. A (smart) tracking link where the affiliate can, let’s say, decide which of your anti-aging offers opens first, second, third, and fourth for that traffic source, based on whatever criteria he considers valid, such as the offer payout, CR, landing page angle, etc.
With a SmartLink setup, the moment one product goes out of stock, reaches its budget, or gets paused for any reason, the tracking platform will automatically redirect future visitors to the next available offer in line.
This is a simple automation that saves a lot of time, but wait, this isn’t over.
Because if you back your SmartLinks with a machine-learning algorithm that optimizes the affiliate’s traffic distribution based on EPC per traffic source, you’ve upgraded your affiliates’ user experience to the next level while increasing their profits (and your sales).
Bottom line: your affiliate promotes one link, while the platform takes care of the traffic distribution with one single purpose: maximizing your sales and the affiliate’s profits, all automatically.
2nd scenario: iGaming affiliate programs with multiple brands or affiliate networks
This is the area where SmartLinks are still taboo for both affiliates and affiliate programs/networks.
Most of the TrafficManager clients we have in the iGaming space have barely heard of this simple setup, which has existed in affiliate marketing for at least 10 years. I am still amazed by how much manual work affiliate managers put into this industry, but let’s go ahead with our example.
Imagine you own an affiliate program with multiple brands, lots of offers/campaigns with different payouts (revenue share, CPAs, or hybrid affiliate deals), GEO restrictions, KPIs, multiple landing pages per offer/campaign, etc.
It is clear that affiliates will always try the offers/campaigns with the higher payouts, right?
Instead of manually deciding which operator to promote today and changing links every few days, imagine using a SmartLink backed by the same machine-learning algorithm as in the example above to maximize your affiliates’ earnings (and increase your active players).
You can mix a couple of CPA offers, plus some hybrid ones, under the same SmartLink and let the platform drive the traffic to the best-converting one, automatically.
The affiliate will just add the offers/campaigns to it and promote the promo/promo link. The platform takes care of the rest.
This tool can also be used by affiliates who want to automate A/B testing between different operators and put all their offers/campaigns under a single roof.
Today, Casino A converts best, so the platform keeps the traffic flowing there.
Tomorrow, Casino B launches a better welcome bonus, so the platform switches the traffic.
Next week, Casino C increases the CPA payout and converts better, and so on.
Using SmartLinks saves time and should be an affiliate marketing standard, just like S2S postbacks.
There is a specific industry, though, that almost can’t live without SmartLinks.
Affiliate networks, especially those working with dating offers, have been relying on SmartLinks for years. And they almost have no choice.
Most of the offers in their inventory belong to third-party advertisers. Margins are often relatively small, so every click matters. To stay profitable, networks usually negotiate exclusive payouts, custom landing pages, or special commercial agreements with advertisers.
From there, SmartLinks continuously optimize where every visitor should go based on performance, availability, GEO, device, traffic quality, or any other rule the network defines.
Without SmartLinks, thousands of clicks would be sent to destinations that simply don’t maximize revenue. With SmartLinks, every click has a better chance of producing the highest possible return.
So, whether you’re running an affiliate program, an affiliate network, an eCommerce brand, a lead generation business, or an iGaming operation, SmartLinks should be one of your strongest assets. And if your tracking platform doesn’t provide you with one, ask them to (or find one that does because you are leaving money on the table).
If you’re curious to see how SmartLinks and many other automation features work inside our tracking platform, TrafficManager, feel free to check out our online demo or schedule a demo video call with us here.