This guide will help you gain a better understanding of how to navigate the ShareASale platform, and how to take full advantage of the tools located in the merchant portal.

Check out ShareASale’s video on Affiliate Marketing.

What is ShareASale?

Share-a-sale, or SAS, is a platform for merchants (online stores) to assist in controlling affiliate marketing. The platform is broken down into 4 key components:

• Sharing
• Tracking
• Communicating
• Compensating

Sharing Information with Affiliates

Merchants can share as much or as little as they please in the platform. The platform allows for merchants to upload Coupon Codes, Creative information (Banners, Designs, Etc.), Text Links, Data Feeds, and more.

In order to receive as much attention from affiliates as possible, it’s recommended to update these sharing tools as much as possible.

One important aspect of sharing information on share-a-sale is who you share information with, and how you share information with them.

Be cautious of sending out deals and discounts to specific affiliates – you may not want to be sharing deals with them for whatever reason. If you don’t send out a newsletter to affiliates with information on what is updated, they probably won’t share anything.

Tracking Sales and Performance Data

Performance tracking on Share-a-sale can be…annoying.

Merchants provide links to affiliates with the landing pages they want to use for specific deals. Affiliates then take those links, go back into share-a-sale, and build a new link. The new link that they build is the one they will use on their website, and is what feeds share-a-sale information regarding sales commission.

Because affiliates build out new links with the ones you provide them with, you are unable to integrate google analytics. You will have to use share-a-sale’s transaction detail report to sort through analytics information.

Communicating with Affiliates

As stated previously, when it comes to SAS, the newsletter tool is your new best friend. You can communicate with affiliates directly and share information.

Compensating Affiliates

SAS allows you (the merchant) to upload funds to the platform, that will then be used to compensate affiliates for sales.This can be changed for each individual affiliate, or deal. You are also able to incentivize affiliates with bonuses.

If, for whatever reason, your SAS balance dips below the threshold, SAS will not track sales and will not provide commissions for affiliates. So make sure this doesn’t happen.

Hopefully this ShareASale guide can help get you started.

Now go make some sales!