The Best Practices for Affiliate Marketing in India – IAMAI Research Insights with vCommission

Affiliate marketing has been emerging as a very popular method of earning money online, especially in India. More and more companies are attempting to sell goods and services over the Internet, and affiliate marketing is a powerful way of acquiring new customers. With a spending of around 331 million USD, it is expected to grow to 420+ million USD in 2025. To ensure sustainable growth of affiliate marketing, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) framed and published the Best Practices for Affiliate Marketing in India.

These practices are a result of a year-long effort of a task force established by IAMAI in October 2023, comprising eight affiliate marketing companies, including vCommission. Understanding best practices in affiliate marketing will help marketers and businesses perform well in this competitive market. In this blog, we are going to discuss IAMAI’s research insights, its objectives, and the affiliate marketing best practices in India.

Introduction to IAMAI

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is a not-for-profit industry association with 583 members, including Indian and multinational corporations and start-ups. IAMAI facilitates the development of India’s digital economy by advocating fair competition, progressive policy, and consumer trust and safety. Its mission involves policy advocacy, research, and support to start-ups with a focus that guiding the affiliate marketing industry towards transparency and ethics through the best affiliate marketing strategies.

Objectives of IAMAI’s Best Practices for Affiliate Marketing

IAMAI’s Best Practices for Affiliate Marketing are intended to promote the ethical and sustainable development of the industry. The major goals of affiliate marketing strategies are:

• • Standardisation: Providing transparent guidelines for effective and ethical campaigns.
  • Trust Building: Promoting communication and transparency among all the stakeholders.
  • Compliance Guidance: Assisting stakeholders in complying with legal and ethical processes.
  • Performance Optimization: Providing monitoring and optimising tools for campaign performance.
  • Risk Mitigation: Minimizing disputes with transparent contracts and terms.
  • Industry Growth Support: Assisting companies to expand in accordance with the industry.

Best Practices for Affiliate Marketing in India

Here are some of the important affiliate marketing best practices that have to be implemented by marketers and businesses:

1. Know Your Target Audience

Knowing the target market is the secret to successful affiliate marketing. It will allow you to choose the right products to sell and make your marketing a success.

• • Know the Demographics: Get to know where your audience is, what gender, age, and interests they possess. Having knowledge of your audience allows you to create focused campaigns that appeal to them.
  • Analyze Behavior: Identify how your audience acts—what they are looking for, what kind of content they engage with, and what problem they are attempting to solve. Targeting their problem-solving, you can create content that stands a greater opportunity to convert.

Tailoring your campaigns to your audience’s needs and interests is crucial for success in affiliate marketing.

2. Choose the Right Affiliate Program and Network

One of the crucial choices you will make as an affiliate marketer is choosing the appropriate affiliate networks and programs. Effective affiliate marketing strategies give you the resources, tools, and assistance you require to be successful. 

• • Partner with Trustworthy Networks: One of the top affiliate marketing networks in India is vCommission, which gives users access to premium campaigns and advertisers. Affiliates who work with a reliable network have access to top-notch programs, prompt payments, and knowledgeable support.
  • Examine the Commission Structure: Prior to entering any program, learn the commission structure. Various affiliate programs have different models of compensation including cost per click (CPC), cost per lead (CPL), cost per sale (CPS), or cost per install (CPI). Select the model that best suits your objective and provides the maximum opportunity for income.
  • Identify High-Converting Products: Choose programs with high-converting products. High conversion rate means that your marketing efforts have higher chances of converting to sales, and subsequently higher profits to you in the form of commissions.

Choosing the right affiliate marketing tactics will give you the highest possible chance of success and making profits.

3. Ensure Transparency and Compliance

In order to safeguard customers and prevent unfair practices, affiliate marketing is subject to many rules in India. It’s wise for affiliate marketers to abide by these laws in order to build reader trust and use ethical affiliate marketing tactics. 

• • Disclosure of Affiliate Links: Be truthful. Always make clear that you’re making use of affiliate links. Tell your audience that you’ll receive a commission if they purchase something through your link. This fosters trust and compliance with legislation such as the Consumer Protection Act 2019.
  • Avoid Deceptive Claims: Do not make false impressions about the products that you are selling. Be true to your review and offer only those products in which you have confidence. Deceiving your consumers can ruin your reputation and will cause long-term loss to your affiliate business.
  • Follow Data Privacy Laws: India’s Information Technology Act, 2000, and the coming Personal Data Protection Bill require affiliate marketers to protect the privacy and security of user information. Gather and keep data ethically.

Being transparent and compliant will establish you with a reputable relationship with your audience and prevent any legal complications.

4. Track and Optimize Your Campaigns

It is essential to monitor and measure the performance of your affiliate campaigns. If you don’t monitor, you won’t know which campaigns are performing and which are not without monitoring. IAMAI’s report highlights the importance of leveraging analytics tools to monitor and measure all key metrics and make informed decisions.

• • Use Tracking Links: All affiliates should utilize different tracking links so that clicks, conversions, and sales can be tracked. This way, you can see directly which marketing channels are producing outcomes.
  • Monitor Analytics Intermittently: A mere campaign setup is not enough. Monitor your performance intermittently using the help of analytics tools. With the help of metrics like click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and average order value (AOV), you can identify the areas of improvement.
  • Split Testing: Test various strategies and discover what works best. Headline, image, and call-to-action A/B testing can enhance your campaigns and increase conversion rates.

Tracking and analytics will help you learn about your audience’s behaviour and improve your affiliate marketing campaigns with time. 

5. Create Engaging and Authentic Content

Quality content is the backbone of any successful affiliate marketing campaign. Whether you are writing blog posts, videos, or social media updates, the content that you use to promote your affiliate products is the deciding factor that makes the conversions.

• • Provide Authentic Reviews: Provide authentic, quality reviews of the products you’re selling. Say what you know about them, point out advantages as well as disadvantages, and offer authentic suggestions. Your visitors will be grateful to you for this because it might generate more confidence and conversions.
  • Create Helpful Guides and Tutorials: Aside from reviews, creating guides and tutorials on how to apply the products that you are providing can be helpful to your customers. For example, in the event that you are providing a device, you can create a tutorial on how to use it in the most effective way possible.
  • Leverage Video Content: Video is a precious asset for conveying to your audience. You can make video tutorials, reviews, or unboxings for showing off the products which you are reviewing. Video content performs better with enhanced engagement as well as possibly enhanced conversions.

The more and higher-quality content you produce, the higher is the chance that your crowd will have faith in your site and buy through your affiliate link.

6. Optimize Your Campaigns for Mobile Users

Mobile usage is at its highest-ever level in India. Because most internet users access the internet via mobile devices, affiliate marketers must ensure that their content is responsive.

• • Responsive Websites: Make your landing page or website responsive. This indicates that the page should load quickly and that the layout should be compatible with various screen widths.
  • Quick Loading Speed: Slow websites frustrate users and increase the bounce rate. To ensure that users have a satisfying experience, make sure your website is optimised to load quickly.
  • Mobile-Friendly Content: You need to make sure that your emails, advertisements, social media posts, and website are all responsive. Conversion rates and user interaction may increase as a result.

You can prevent losing a significant portion of your audience by optimising for mobile and using other affiliate marketing tactics.

7. Test and Optimize Regularly

Affiliate marketing is a continuous process that requires preparation. If you want to increase your performance and remain competitive, you must be prepared to test and refine advertisements. 

• • A/B Testing: Try out various versions of your campaigns, e.g., changing headlines, call-to-action buttons, or even product descriptions. Testing will tell you what works and what doesn’t.
  • Learn from Analytics: Make better decisions by using the information you collect. For instance, alter the offer or promotion plan if a specific affiliate link isn’t doing well.
  • Stay Up-to-date: The world of Internet marketing is always evolving. Keep yourself updated with new trends, technologies, and techniques to keep your affiliate marketing campaigns fresh and effective.

Routine testing and optimisation will allow you to improve your campaigns and help ensure that you’re always optimising for the best possible results.

Best Practices for Advertisers in Affiliate Marketing

Just like affiliates, advertisers also need to implement best practices to ensure success through their affiliate marketing campaigns. IAMAI research picks out major best practices for different campaign formats including Cost per Visit (CPV), Cost per Lead (CPL), Cost per Sale (CPS), and Cost per Install (CPI).

• • 1. CPV Campaigns: Advertisers aim to drive traffic to their landing pages. They should use UTM parameters, auto-report, and segment the audience to ensure traffic is performing efficiently.
    2. CPL Campaigns: Advertisers compensate affiliates for generating leads. To ensure quality leads, designate payable and non-payable leads, real-time tracking, and a minimum campaign duration.
    3. CPS Campaigns: Advertisers reward affiliates for driving sales. Use real-time tracking and backend reporting to attribute correct sales.
    4. CPI Campaigns: This model focuses on driving app installations. Apply mobile measurement partners (MMPs) and properly set campaign objectives to deliver app installations.

These policies assist advertisers in inducing the most ad campaign optimization, achieving actual performance measurement, and obtaining more investment returns.

Drive Affiliate Marketing Growth with vCommission

Indian affiliate marketing is evolving rapidly, and it has very promising potential for businesses and marketers. Based on IAMAI’s research affiliate marketing best practices, you can create successful affiliate marketing campaigns that yield actual returns. Keep in mind that the key to success is affiliate marketing strategies like knowing your audience, selecting the finest affiliate programs, being open and honest, monitoring your progress, producing high-quality content, and optimising for mobile devices. 

One of the most effective ways to implement these tips for affiliate marketing success is by partnering with a leading affiliate network like vCommission. We provide useful tools, a variety of top affiliate programs, and great support to help you earn more while ensuring fair payments and transparency. Join vCommission today and start planning a successful year ahead in your affiliate business!