Affiliate placements are one of the most powerful tools in a performance marketer’s playbook. Whether it’s a homepage feature, newsletter shoutout, or category takeover, placements can drive marginal topline growth—when they’re done right.
Too often, placements get treated like a one-time splash instead of a strategic, repeatable driver of ROI.
If you want more from your paid placements—here are three ways to get smarter and more strategic about how you plan, track, and negotiate them.
1. Track Placements Like a Performance Channel (Because They Are)
A fast way to burn budget on placements is to treat them like a black box. Manual tracking for data fees takes time, having siloed spreadsheets, or doing zero follow-up analysis make it nearly impossible to understand what worked well.
With tools like Refinery’s Placement Tracking, you can:
- Log every placement across publishers in one place
- Automatically calculate return on ad spend (ROAS) for each feature
- Uncover trends across publisher types, placements, and formats
The key is to treat placements with the same rigor you apply to the rest of your affiliate program. When you track them well, you can learn what works well to iterate and replicate.
2. Negotiate With More Than Just Budget in Mind
Great placement value starts with great negotiation. But the conversation shouldn't only be about cost—it should be about structure and shared expectations.
Here’s what decent negotiation looks like:
- Combine Incentives: Tie placements to performance, like bonus tiers or temporary commission increases. This keeps publishers invested in outcomes.
- Set Clear KPIs: Agree in advance on what success can looks like in the funnel—clicks, conversions, new customers, or ROAS. These don’t have to be precise, but traffic should match with what the publisher is selling. If expectations aren’t met, you can have a follow up plan that the publisher knows about BEFORE the placement begins.
- Ask for Reporting: If a publisher can provide additional post-placement performance data that may not be tracked in the network, ask for it. This can help with brand awareness and making a case for working with them in the future again.
The more aligned you are with your partners, the more likely you are to walk away with value—not just vanity metrics.
3. Know the Audience— And Tailor Your Message
A placement isn’t just about where your brand shows up. It’s about who you’re showing up for. The best-performing placements speak directly to the audience’s mindset and motivations.
Before investing, ask:
- Who is this publisher’s core audience?
- What types of products and messages tend to resonate?
- How can I customize the copy, creative, offer, or landing page to match in order to boost conversion rate? This is a win-win for advertisers and publishers?
- Is there are sweet spot with seasonality that would be optimal? What other timing factors should we consider?
Using AI or past campaign insights can help identify which types of placements convert best—and which formats are worth skipping. A good experience for the user can be the secret sauce to making your placement perform to the best of its ability.
Want to see how Refinery makes placement tracking effortless (and insightful)?
