One of the most important things to understand about driving more revenue by leveraging publisher payouts is that ultimately, you're simply capitalizing on the tools that are already available to you. Not only that, but you're doing so in a way that doesn't require too much effort or heavy lifting required on the part of your advertiser partners or yourself.

Using Publisher Payouts to Your Advantage

#1 Tiered Commissions

By far, one of the best ways to achieve this level of success involves testing tiered commissions to incentivize publishers across the board.

You can do this in a few different ways depending on the situation. Activations are a great way to reach those non-productive publishers who may be driving clicks, but not sales. Recruitment campaigns can also help motivate new partners into putting as much effort as possible into the affiliate program. An optimization campaign can also be a perfect way to target mid to top performing publishers within an affiliate program in a way that gets them to drive even more sales than they already are.

#2 Commission Payouts Based on Incremental Sales

You'll also want to set commission payouts based on incremental sales. However, never pay out a commission on something that you can't actually report and measure on. Likewise, don't make your payout plans too overly convoluted so that affiliates can't take action on their end. You want them to work hard to be able to achieve those specific customers - you don't want to make your goals so lofty that they become impossible.

#3 Increased Commission for High Margin Products

Beyond that, you can offer increased commission for high margin products. This is a perfect opportunity to get publishers to focus more of their efforts and the specific SKU that matter most to you.

#4 Offer Higher Payouts for New Customers

Another option involves offering higher payouts for new versus returning customers. If you choose to go this route, however, you will have to clearly define what a new customer actually is. Is it someone who has never shopped on your website before, or is it just someone who hasn't made a purchase over a specific period of time? What time frame are you talking about? Would three months be good, or is it six months or longer?

The answers to these questions are the ones that will need to drive the majority of your efforts moving forward.

#5 Invest in Paid Placement Budget

Finally, you'll want to free up as much money as you can for paid placement budget. This may require you to lower your commission payouts, at least temporarily, to free up the necessary budget. But that doesn't mean you're cutting publishers out - far from it. You're trying to find more lucrative opportunities for all involved.

Work with your trusted publishers and look for chances to test paid placements. Get a forecast of the performance of similar advertisers to get an idea of what a "best case scenario" looks like. 'Publishers may be put off by this at first, but if you can show an estimated return on investment up front you're far more likely to get them on your side.'