Auto-guarantees in TerraLeads: stable income without losses

In the field of affiliate marketing, ensuring consistent income is a primary objective for publishers, as fluctuating approval rates can lead to stress and financial setbacks. To address this challenge, affiliate networks have introduced guarantees.

In this article, we explore the functionality of the auto-guarantees system, its key benefits, and how webmasters can utilise it to scale traffic without risk.

How do guarantees work 

A guarantee, also known as an approval guarantee, is an agreement between a publisher and an affiliate network or direct advertiser that the percentage of confirmed leads will not fall below an agreed value. The affiliate network, for its part, sets the minimum and maximum caps, as well as sets certain conditions for the affiliate, such as bringing at least 50 leads per day and not to use obscene materials in advertising. Only if all the requirements are fulfilled, after the traffic is driven in by the webmaster, the validation of the leads is carried out and the guarantee takes effect.

What is an auto-guarantee

TerraLeads is the only direct nutra advertiser and affiliate network that has implemented auto-guarantees in its system. This tool automatically validates leads brought in by a publisher, with no manager intervention or waiting on the part of the affiliate.

For the offer with auto-guarantees, you must bring the number of leads agreed by the parties. After the agreed number of days, the system performs a count to activate the auto-guarantee. If the actual approval is lower than the guaranteed one, the missing approvals are credited automatically.

Recommendation from TerraLeads: the vast majority of invalid leads are the result of incorrect phone numbers, so we strongly recommend the use of validators on websites.

By using the auto-guarantees in TerraLeads, affiliates obtain a stable income. The price of a lead in the source may fluctuate, but you can always get an approximate average figure. Knowing the payout rates and the percentage of approvals the webmaster will receive, they can calculate the amount they will get at the end of the cycle.

Expert opinion

Head of BDM SPT Karina shared her opinion on how auto-guarantees affect the flow of traffic:

‘Approval guarantees are a real game changer for both the buyer and the affiliate manager. They do not merely make life easier, they change the internal workings of the team. Allow me to break down the impact of guarantees, and what you need to be aware of when working with them.

I will start with the benefits. The very first thing that changes is that media buyers are calm and can easily calculate ROI, which is a tremendous advantage! This means that the buyer and the team understand in advance how much revenue they are going to get because there is a clear approval percentage.

Furthermore: the BDM department does not have to monitor the approval rate and communicate with the advertiser about it. Which saves them a great deal of time. On the other hand, if a team has a lot of guarantees, it needs to organise its work in such a way that it can request payments on time and keep track of the amount that needs to be received.

Thirdly: we should not forget that most of the guarantees have their own terms and conditions. In this context, our tactics change: we have to pay more attention to the amount of traffic we send to a particular offer.

So what are the things to look out for when negotiating guarantees?

Firstly, the approval percentage itself. If your organic approval rate is 25% and you are offered 15%, this is an irrelevant guarantee. It is also worth remembering that there is a total approval and a valid approval. Evidently, the best solution would be to arrange guarantees on the total approval percentage.

Secondly, the conditions the team has to meet. Usually this is simply the minimum number of leads per day or week that the buyer must bring to the offer. But it is worth clarifying: are we talking about the total number or just valid leads? Example: a guarantee of 100 valid leads is agreed upon. The buyer generates 100, but 20% of them get into trash. In such a case, the conditions are not met and the payment is not made. Therefore, the best option is to negotiate guarantees for the total number of leads.

Thirdly, the way in which the payment for the guarantee is accrued. Each advertiser sets their own time periods for which the guarantee is calculated. Therefore, it should be discussed at the beginning of the contract, so that there is no situation when the payment occurs after a month. It is also crucial to discuss a convenient way of charging: manually to the balance, manually to the statistics or automatically to the statistics.

Finally, the time frame of the guarantee. In the nutra, we usually use weekly guarantees, but sometimes we use daily ones. Simply put, if the guarantee is weekly, the approval percentage should be the average for the week. If the guarantee is daily, the daily approval percentage should be at least as high as the guarantee.

In general, guarantees are a win-win for both the advertiser and the buyer, which is why we actively work with them. The advertiser receives a stable volume of traffic, while the buyer receives an agreed-upon guaranteed approval rate and is protected from risk’.

Busting auto-approval myths

Myth 1: ‘It is complicated’.

Unlike usual guarantees, auto-guarantees do not require human intervention. The publisher and the affiliate network negotiate the terms in advance. After traffic is driven, the system automatically validates leads and calculates the approval rate.

Myth 2: ‘This is only for the big teams’.

TerraLeads does not impose volume limits and grants auto-guarantees to all whose traffic complies with the terms of the affiliate network.

Brief instructions for getting started

If a publisher or the team are already actively working with the affiliate network, setting up and activating the auto-guarantee will barely take an hour. New affiliates will need to do a test drive of 50–100 leads to demonstrate traffic quality (terms to be discussed individually with the manager). After that, the affiliate network will determine whether or not to approve the auto-guarantee. And by the way, auto-guarantees apply to all TerraLeads’ offers! 

Conclusion

Auto-guarantees are a reliable tool that grants affiliates confidence in the stability of their income. Join TerraLeads’ website and enjoy a stable income thanks to auto-guarantees!