Businesses that advertise through affiliates often employ affiliate managers. Affiliate managers are entities that work harmoniously with advertisers and publishers to ensure that both parties can benefit fully from the program. Usually, they communicate on behalf of the advertiser.
It benefits all concerned if affiliate managers are up to the task. He can help your business prosper in face of competition by attracting affiliates and thus more business. He is not only responsible for getting new affiliates but also retaining existing ones. In any business, it takes less effort to retain existing clients than it does to get new ones. And a good affiliate manager knows how to keep present affiliates, particularly the well-performing ones, the so-called super-affiliates, busy. They are the ones that bring you business and you just cannot afford to lose them.
The manager is a part of the advertiser's marketing team and his knowledge-driven approach to managing affiliates is an important element in the success of a program. Affiliates that put in their time and money in pushing an advertiser's product or service do so in the hope of making money in return. The advertiser has to help them realize this hope and the affiliate manager is the "Go-to" man in such instances. Operational issues are bound to crop up, a link may not work, a banner may not redirect correctly, an affiliate may ask for some customized marketing matter, some-one may mistakenly not adhere to policy guidelines, etc.
There are other issues as well. Program security has to be maintained. If an affiliate detects malicious trojans infesting an ad link, then the first person he gets to talk to is the affiliate manager. The manager is supposed to be a single-window for all the help an affiliate can hope for. This also includes information on new promotions, personalization of ads, industry news, latest trends, etc. Because the affiliate management entity is more tuned into related information and often privy to information that publishers can normally not access, they are a very useful source of knowledge.