impact.com

What is impact.com

impact.com is a comprehensive partnership management platform that allows businesses to manage their entire partnership lifecycle from a single interface. Founded in 2008 by the creators of Commission Junction, the company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. The core purpose of the platform is to help brands discover, recruit, manage, pay, and optimize various types of partnerships, including affiliates, influencers, brand-to-brand collaborations, and customer referrals. It provides a suite of tools for tracking performance, automating payments, and protecting against fraud, enabling companies to scale their partnership programs efficiently and drive revenue growth.

impact.com Features

• Discover & Recruit: Access a vast marketplace of potential partners, including affiliates, content creators, and influencers. The platform offers automated tools to find and recruit partners that align with your brand.
• Contract & Pay: Create flexible, performance-based contracts tailored to each partnership. Automate the entire payment process, handling commissions and payouts to partners globally.
• Advanced Tracking: Utilize robust tracking technology that works across devices and channels. This provides accurate attribution for every conversion, ensuring partners are credited correctly for the value they drive.
• Engage & Communicate: Keep partners informed and engaged with built-in messaging tools and automated workflows. Share promotional materials, updates, and performance insights directly through the platform.
• Protect & Monitor: The platform includes advanced fraud detection and compliance monitoring tools. It automatically identifies and flags suspicious activity, protecting your program from invalid traffic and non-compliant partner behavior.
• Optimize & Report: Gain deep insights into your program's performance with comprehensive reporting and analytics. The dashboards help you understand which partners and strategies are most effective, allowing you to optimize for better results.

impact.com Pricing Plans

impact.com does not offer public pricing plans. Instead, it provides custom pricing tailored to the specific needs, scale, and goals of each business. Pricing is typically based on factors such as the volume of transactions, the number of active partners, and the specific features required. To get a price quote, prospective customers must request a demo and consult with the sales team. The solution is generally geared towards medium to large businesses and enterprises that require a robust, all-in-one platform to manage complex partnership programs.

impact.com Free Plan

impact.com does not have a free plan. It is an enterprise-grade software solution designed for businesses serious about scaling their partnership marketing efforts. They do not offer a free trial in the traditional sense. The primary way to evaluate the platform is by scheduling a personalized demo with their sales team, where they will walk you through the features and discuss how it can meet your business needs.

How to use impact.com

1. Request a Demo: Start by contacting the impact.com sales team to schedule a demonstration of the platform.
2. Define Your Program: Work with their team to set up your partnership program. This includes defining commission structures, terms and conditions, and your overall goals.
3. Recruit Partners: Use the 'Discover' tool to find potential affiliates, influencers, or other partners in the impact.com Marketplace. You can also invite your existing partners to join your program on the platform.
4. Onboard Partners: Once partners are approved, provide them with their unique tracking links, coupon codes, and creative assets available within the platform.
5. Track Performance: Monitor your dashboard to see real-time data on clicks, conversions, revenue, and other key performance indicators. Analyze reports to see which partners are performing best.
6. Automate Payments: The platform handles the calculation of commissions and automates payments to your partners based on the contract terms you set.
7. Optimize for Growth: Use the analytics and insights to refine your strategy, recruit more of your ideal partners, and scale your program's revenue.

Pros and Cons of impact.com

Pros:

• All-in-One Platform: Manages all types of partnerships (affiliate, influencer, referral) in one place.
• Powerful Analytics: Provides deep, granular data and reporting for accurate performance measurement.
• Large Partner Marketplace: Offers access to a huge network of potential partners to recruit from.
• Strong Fraud Protection: Advanced tools to detect and prevent fraudulent activities.
• High Customization: Flexible contracting and commission structures allow for tailored partnership agreements.

Cons:

• High Cost: Pricing is geared towards enterprise clients and can be expensive for small businesses.
• Steep Learning Curve: The platform is feature-rich and can be complex to navigate for new users.
• No Transparent Pricing: Requires a sales call to get any pricing information.
• Resource Intensive: Requires dedicated management to get the most value out of the platform.

impact.com integrations

impact.com offers extensive integration capabilities to connect with your existing marketing and e-commerce stack. It supports direct integrations and API connections with many popular platforms.

• E-commerce Platforms: Integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, and other major e-commerce systems to track sales and commissions automatically.
• CRM and Marketing Automation: Connects with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo to sync data and align partnership activities with overall marketing campaigns.
• Analytics Platforms: Works with Google Analytics and other analytics tools to provide a holistic view of traffic and conversions.
• Payment Gateways: Integrates with payment systems for seamless global partner payouts.

impact.com Alternatives

• PartnerStack: A leading partnership platform that focuses heavily on B2B SaaS companies, helping them manage reseller, affiliate, and referral programs.
• CJ Affiliate: One of the oldest and largest affiliate networks in the world. It is a strong alternative for businesses focused purely on traditional affiliate marketing.
• ShareASale: A popular affiliate marketing network known for its user-friendly interface and large base of small to medium-sized businesses.
• Rakuten Advertising: A global affiliate network with a strong presence in the retail and e-commerce sectors, offering access to a wide range of publishers.
• TUNE: A flexible SaaS platform for building and managing your own affiliate and partner marketing programs, offering more control than traditional networks.

impact.com API

Yes, impact.com provides a comprehensive API for developers. The API allows businesses to programmatically access their data, automate workflows, and integrate the platform's functionality into their own systems. You can use the API to pull reports, manage partners, update creatives, and more. To get API access, you must be an impact.com customer. API keys and credentials are provided within your account dashboard or by contacting your account manager. Access is typically available on higher-tier plans.

Example API Call (cURL to get a report):

curl -X GET 'https://api.impact.com/Mediapartners/{AccountSID}/Reports/Performance' \
-u '{AccountSID}:{AuthToken}' \
-d 'START_DATE=2023-01-01' \
-d 'END_DATE=2023-01-31' \
-d 'GROUP_BY=Media'

Note: {AccountSID} and {AuthToken} must be replaced with your actual credentials.

impact.com Affiliate Program

impact.com itself does not have a traditional affiliate program for its software in the way that many SaaS companies do. Instead, it operates a Partner Program for agencies, consultants, and technology companies. Partners in this program can refer their clients to impact.com and may receive referral fees or other benefits based on a custom agreement. The commission rates are not publicly disclosed and are negotiated on a case-by-case basis. If you are an agency or technology provider interested in partnering with impact.com, you should contact their partnership team directly through their website to discuss opportunities.