The world of affiliate marketing is exploding and one area that stands out is Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS affiliate programs offer attractive commission rates, recurring commissions, and a variety of products to promote. But with so many options available, how do you choose the best program to promote?
In this article, Adsnextgen has compiled a list of the top 15 SaaS affiliate programs in 2023, along with commission rates, cookie usage times, and program URL links. Whether you are a blogger, content creator, or online marketer, these programs are worth considering increasing your affiliate income.
What is a SaaS affiliate program?
A SaaS (Software as a Service) affiliate program is a type of affiliate marketing program specifically designed for SaaS companies. In this program, individuals or businesses can sign up as affiliates to promote a particular SaaS product or service. Affiliates earn commissions for each successful referral or sale they generate for the SaaS company.
SaaS affiliate programs typically provide affiliates with unique referral links, banners, and marketing materials to promote the SaaS product. Affiliates can leverage various channels such as websites, blogs, social media, or email marketing to drive traffic and encourage potential customers to sign up or purchase the SaaS offering.
You may keep track of the number of referrals you made, the number of individuals who purchased items through your affiliate link, and the money you earned by utilizing an affiliate marketing platform provided by the company. It takes a lot of work to persuade someone to buy your goods. So, choose digital products that offer something unique to your target demographic.
Why should you become a SaaS affiliate?
1. SaaS affiliate marketing statistics for 2022
- SaaS affiliate programs generate 26% higher conversion rates on average compared to traditional affiliate programs. (Rakuten Advertising)
- The SaaS market is projected to grow by over 17% to $227 billion in annual revenue by 2025. (Mordor Intelligence)
- Recurring SaaS commissions earned by affiliates often range from 20% to 40% lifetime value. (AWIN)
- 83% of SaaS merchant partners say affiliate marketing will become increasingly vital over the next few years. (Rakuten Advertising)
- Top verticals for SaaS affiliates include cybersecurity, marketing automation, HR, eCommerce platforms, and collaboration tools. (Impact)
- 41% of businesses use affiliate marketing to acquire customers making it the 3rd most popular customer acquisition channel. (workstream.is)
- Cookie durations for SaaS affiliate programs range from 30 days to 365+ days, with 90 days being the most common. (Partnerize)
- The top reasons SaaS merchants work with affiliates are new customer acquisition (56%), brand awareness (49%), and cost-per-acquisition at scale. (Rakuten)
- 78% of affiliates say promoting SaaS offers has grown more profitable over the past 2 years. (Rakuten)
- On average, 15% of businesses plan to spend more on SaaS affiliate partnerships in 2022. (workstream.is)
In summary, affiliate marketing is becoming a major customer acquisition and revenue channel within the fast-growing global SaaS industry.
2. Best Reasons should you become a SaaS Affiliate
If you still need persuading, consider the following six reasons why SaaS items can result in higher affiliate commissions than many physical products:
- Commissions at the highest levels. Typically, 10% to 30%
- You have a large selection of things to pick from. You don’t have to worry about things being out of stock since corporations don’t retain actual inventories.
- Commissions are often recurrent. This means you’ll be paid every month as long as the client you suggested remains with the firm. If there is one feature that distinguishes SaaS affiliate networks, it is the recurring commissions.
- Products that are sticky. Many goods, once acquired, need time and effort to set up and install. However, once they’re there, switching later needs significantly more work. This implies you’re more likely to retain recurring commissions than you are for things that may be quickly canceled or returned.
- Above everything things, SaaS is exploding right now. You don’t want to be left behind with revenue estimated to reach $623 billion in the next 3-5 years.
>>> Learn about what CPA Networks is. Why should you join if you do affiliate marketing?
Top SaaS Affiliate Programs for 2023
1. Shopify
| URL | https://www.shopify.com/affiliates |
| Commission | $150.00 per online sale |
| Cookie duration | 30 days |
If you want to start your own e-commerce store, you may do so yourself or just utilize Shopify! It is an excellent e-commerce platform for new businesses, and it also has an excellent affiliate network. Affiliates receive a 200% commission for every successful retailer they introduce to Shopify. After the merchant has been active for two months, they earn twice the monthly plan price chosen by the merchant they referred.
2. Aweber
| URL | https://www.aweber.com/advocates.htm |
| Commission | 30% |
| Cookie duration | 365 days |
Aweber is the best SAAS affiliate program and one of the industry’s oldest SaaS startups. That’s because they’ve been in business since 1998, long before SaaS became popular. And they’ve gone a long way in those years, introducing new features all the time.
So you now have an easy-to-use email automation platform with tagging, a drag-and-drop email designer, a large number of templates to work with, and integrations with a wide range of third-party services.
If you’re a data junkie, you’ll love going through their extensive reports to improve your email traffic techniques.
Another affiliate scheme that pays a recurring commission on all referrals. That means that as an Aweber affiliate partner, you may sell once and get paid again and again, up to a 30% commission. A recurring commission payout system may be quite valuable when combined with low-competition keywords.
3. FreshBooks
| URL | https://www.freshbooks.com/affiliate-program |
| Commission | Up to $5 per lead |
| Cookie duration | 120 days |
FreshBooks is a well-known SaaS accounting service that automates invoicing, time tracking, costs, and payment collection.
FreshBooks’s SaaS affiliate program allows you to manage your company’s finances from anywhere in the globe. However, it is most popular in the United States and among enterprises established in the United States.
FreshBooks is simple enough for small companies to utilize, from freelance writers to huge organizations. Their Lite price level begins at $15 per month.
You may earn up to $10 for each free trial, as well as up to $200 for each paying subscription.
4. Reply.io
| URL | https://reply.io/partners-affiliate/ |
| Commission | 30% recurring |
| Cookie duration | 30 days |
Reply.io is an AI-powered sales interaction platform that automates all multi-channel touchpoints throughout the sales process. Monthly memberships begin at $70 per person. Sign up for their affiliate program and you may earn up to 30% recurring commissions.
5. Brand24
| URL | https://brand24.com/partner-program/ |
| Commission | up to 30% recurring |
| Cookie duration | 90 Days |
Brand24 is a SAAS affiliate program and social media monitoring that enables people and organizations to watch mentions of their brand, goods, or services across a variety of social media platforms, blogs, forums, news sites, and other websites. Users may use Brand24 to watch their online reputation, follow rivals, find influencers, assess sentiment and interaction, and quantify the impact of their social media efforts.
Taking advantage of social media is a great way to make money in affiliate marketing if you don’t have a website yet. To clarify this further, please refer to the article affiliate marketing without a website
6. Canva
| URL | https://www.canva.com/help/canva-affiliate-marketing-program/ |
| Commission | $36.00 per sale of Pro plan |
| Cookie duration | 30 days |
Canva is a prominent web-based platform that provides designers and marketers with a variety of design templates and layouts to pick from.
Canva, which is accessible in over 100 languages, allows you to create high-quality graphics and visual designs. Canva is available for free, or you can sign up for Canva Pro, which costs $12.99 per user each month.
Join the Canva affiliate network and earn $36 for each new Canva Pro subscription that uses your unique referral link to sign up.
=>>> Read our best Nutra affiliate networks
7. Triple Whale
| URL | http://triplewhale.com/affiliates |
| Commission | Up to 25% recurring |
| Cookie duration | 90 days |
Triple Whale is a top-tier artificial intelligence data platform for Shopify e-commerce firms. Businesses can effortlessly manage marketing reports and analyze data with this robust data insight tool.
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Triple Whale
It enables them to obtain effective real-time insights on various performance parameters, allowing them to make educated decisions.
This SaaS affiliate program offers a variety of commission schemes, including:
- Blue tier (0-15 referrals): $50 for each successfully completed demo plus 15% recurring revenue for 6 months
- Silver tier (16-50 referrals): $100 for each demo completed plus 20% income for 6 months
- Gold tier (51+ referrals): $100 for each demo completed plus 25% income for 6 months
Additionally, if you want affiliate marketing without social media, you can join TripleWhale’s affiliate marketing program.
8. Microsoft Office 365
| URL | https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-us/partners/welcome |
| Commission | Up to $10 per sale |
| Cookie duration | 14 days |
Remember when Microsoft Office products were hundreds of dollars each year, keeping them completely out of reach for practically everyone? Microsoft eventually saw the value of transitioning away from CD/DVD distribution and toward a Software As A Service (SaaS) approach.
The whole MS Office suite is now available for $9.99 a month, which includes licenses for up to six persons. In addition, for that amount, you receive 1TB of cloud storage per user as well as several additional perks.
Office 365 is an excellent illustration of how a “traditional” software corporation can pivot and adopt the SaaS model to save its customers money while also improving Microsoft’s bottom line.
It’s also much easier to promote a product that costs $9.99 per month as an affiliate. It pays to study the tiny print in this affiliate program. A monthly membership to Office 365 costs you $5, but an annual plan costs you $10. So, by simply changing how you structure your offer, you can quadruple your money.
9. SemRush
| URL | https://www.semrush.com/lp/affiliate-program/en/ |
| Commission | $200.00 for every first sale |
| Cookie duration | 120 days |
Semrush is a leading SaaS platform for online visibility management that enables organizations all over the globe to realize the full potential of search engine optimization, PPC Affiliate marketing, content, social media, competitive research campaigns, and more.
As customers, the corporation counts Tesla, P&G, and Forbes among its list of industry titans. Subscriptions begin at $129.95 per month.
Affiliates who join the Semrush program can earn a $200 commission on each new subscription transaction.
Here is what affiliates may expect:
- Access a wide range of comprehensive training resources.
- Make use of a varied range of pre-designed, high-converting promotional materials.
- Regular incentives and special offerings
- A timely and committed support crew, among other things
Semrush is one of the most trusted keyword and SEO tools on the market, which means that businesses looking for their services have most certainly heard of them.
Because Semrush is a well-known brand among marketers, it makes their SaaS affiliate program more appealing.
10. Privy
| URL | https://www.privy.com/affiliate-program |
| Commission | 10% recurring |
| Cookie duration | 90 days |
Privy is a cloud-based email marketing tool that enables E-commerce enterprises to launch customized campaigns, promote their items, and create new leads. Its main features include product suggestions, follow-up emails, mailing list development, and much more.
Businesses may use Privy to lower cart abandonment rates by delivering tailored messages and offers that are difficult for recipients to ignore. The privy beginning plan is available for $15 per month.
Privy pays recurring rewards of 10% to its affiliate marketers.
11. Unbounce
| URL | https://unbounce.com/partner-program/ |
| Commission | 20% recurring |
| Cookie duration | 90 days |
Unbounce assists businesses in creating more effective landing pages. It is the preferred website builder for over 15,000 companies, including household names like Campaign Monitor and Later. It has a plethora of intelligent features, including a new tool that uses more than 1.5 billion data points and AI insights to assist small businesses in driving more conversions from their landing pages.
Its different products are clearly successful, as they have been the driving factor behind over 500 million client conversions.
In terms of conversions, the Unbounce SaaS affiliate program provides a recurring lifetime commission of 20% for any customer you suggest.
That’s a really competitive deal, with rates ranging from $80 to $300 each month. To assist you in driving more traffic to Unbounce, your affiliate link offers successful referrals a 20% discount on their first three months.
12. LifeLock
| URL | https://www.lifelock.com/affiliates/ |
| Commission | Up to $110 per sale |
| Cookie duration | 30 days |
Identity theft may appear to be something that only “someone else” would experience. However, every three seconds, a new victim of identity theft is discovered. Once your personal information has been stolen, it may be utilized for a variety of illicit objectives, such as obtaining a loan or credit card in your name.
This is why LifeLock is such an excellent choice for your visitors. They will have access to a comprehensive set of systems and support resources that will either prevent them from being victims of this sort of crime or pay them for financial damages of up to $1 million USD. And they get it all for $29 a month, which is the cost of a big pizza and drinks.
13. KWFinder
| URL | https://mangools.com/affiliate-program |
| Commission | 30% lifetime |
| Cookie duration | 30 days |
So, if you’re on a tight budget and require an SEO or content marketing tool, you might enjoy what KW Finder has to offer. Yes, you get a solid keyword research tool (Miles Beckler recommends it), but you also get a slew of additional tools, such as a backlink checker, rank tracking, and SERP and website analysis tools.
With costs starting at $49 per month, there’s a lot of value here for the ordinary affiliate marketing organization.
It’s one of the greatest SaaS products on this list.
For each referral you make to their affiliate marketing program, you will receive a 30% lifetime commission. That means you’ll be paid a recurring commission as long as your referral continues as a KW Finder client. Affiliate programs that offer regular monthly payouts can generate a significant amount of passive money in a couple of months.
14. Omnisend
| URL | https://www.omnisend.com/affiliates/ |
| Commission | 20% recurring commission |
| Cookie duration | 90 Days |
Omnisend is an e-commerce marketing platform that assists firms with email, SMS, and automation tools.
15. ConvertKit
| URL | https://convertkit.com/affiliate |
| Commission | 30% recurring |
| Cookie duration | 60 days |
ConvertKit is a prominent email marketing platform with a variety of intriguing features. Everything from designing a simple landing page to sending a broadcast email to your list is possible. It was designed with makers in mind.
YouTubers, podcasters, and musicians will love it. ConvertKit’s premium subscription begins at $9 per month.
ConvertKit gives periodic 30% commissions to its affiliates. Their plans range in price from $9 to $2,000 per month. It’s one of the most rapidly expanding email marketing firms on the market.
Because ConvertKit now provides a freemium option for up to 1,000 subscribers that lacks some capabilities such as automation, it may take longer to realize the ROI Affiliate Marketing from this program. However, if you educate your audience on how to utilize ConvertKit’s more advanced capabilities, you’ll receive a percentage of every monthly payment they make.
Considerations for SaaS Affiliate Marketing Programs
1. High Commission
Consider SaaS affiliate networks that provide large commission rates, preferably greater than 20%. The best go so far as to give recurring commissions and increased revenue. This means you’ll work less and earn more.
2. Cookie period
Because a commission is collected on sales done inside the cookie period, you should choose those with the longest lifespans.
3. Additional features
Top SaaS affiliate marketing services include additional features such as affiliate training, specialized account managers, and affiliate dashboards.
4. Brand reputation
Choose SaaS brands and enterprises with a strong reputation. This will make it easier for you to persuade customers to buy from you. Consider reading their web evaluations beforehand and learning everything you can about the SaaS brand.
Key Takeaways for Promoting SaaS Affiliate Products
Here are some key takeaways for effectively promoting SaaS affiliate products:
- Focus on high lifetime value products that offer recurring commissions month-over-month for ongoing user subscriptions. This creates a predictable passive income stream.
- Create detailed, useful content like tutorials, case studies, and reviews tailored to attract your target audience of technical buyers and business decision-makers. Avoid overly promotional content.
- Make use of free trials, demos, and freemium tiers offered by SaaS companies. Promote these to enable prospects to try before they buy.
- Partner closely with your SaaS affiliate managers to leverage special launch promotions, product releases, discounts, and incentive programs. Timely exclusive deals can boost conversions.
- Diversify affiliate promotions across business essentials like project management, CRM, document signing, and HR, and across other popular categories like design, marketing, and analytics to cast a wide net.
- Earn potential 2-3X higher commissions by recommending annual versus monthly subscription plans where applicable to maximize earnings.
- Focus on high-volume evergreen lead-gen offers like email list building, contact management, and webinar hosting that pay for key opt-ins.
- Create comparison articles between the top 2-3 providers in a software category to make impartial recommendations catered to reader needs.
Strategically promoting diverse and complementary SaaS products as an affiliate can become a major source of recurring passive income over time.
FAQ for SaaS affiliate programs
How to start making money with an affiliate program in SaaS?
First, identify and apply to join SaaS affiliate programs in your niche with generous recurring commission structures, typically 20-40% lifetime value of referred users. Next, promote your affiliate links through content like reviews, comparisons, and tutorials that provide value and build trust with your audience. Finally, continuously test and optimize your affiliate partnerships, promotion tactics, and landing pages to maximize conversion rates and long-term residual income.
How much is the commission for SaaS affiliate marketing?
SaaS affiliate commissions often range from 20% to 40% lifetime value of referred users’ subscriptions, with 30% being the average. For lower-priced software services, commissions tend to start around 20% of recurring revenue. Higher-end or business SaaS tools generally offer 30-40% recurring commissions. The highest-tier SaaS companies will partner with mega-affiliates for 40-50% revenue share deals.
Conclusion
SaaS affiliate programs are a lucrative opportunity for marketers thanks to higher commissions and growing popularity. Adsnextgen‘s article provides a list of the top SaaS affiliate programs for 2023, including Shopify, Aweber, LoadView, Unbounce, FreshBooks, ConvertKit, and more. When choosing which programs to promote, it’s important to consider factors such as commission rates, cookie lifetimes, and the company’s brand reputation.
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