Hiring a marketing agency to act as affiliate representation can be a daunting task. While brands are eager to incorporate this shiny new tool into their arsenal, many are unfamiliar with the inner workings, strategies and best practices of the tactic and find it difficult to vet agencies properly.

Affiliate success requires dedicated bandwidth and expertise. And since it is such a novel part of the digital marketing mix, it is rare to find in-house teams dedicated to the medium. For these reasons, partnering with an affiliate agency is usually the best bet for delving into the affiliate world.

If you are working with an agency - or considering doing so - and wondering if their promises will be delivered, this roundup is for you. Here are five warning signs that the affiliate services of an agency partner are likely to disappoint.

1. Incentive-Based Billing Structures

Be wary of affiliate partners who structure their services purely on revenue share. These paradigms incentivize agencies to drive as much revenue as possible to maximize profit and will result in misalignment, preventing the program from growing strategically.

An agency entrusted with protecting the brand’s name and best interests must make strategic decisions to carefully weigh the value of each partner integrated into the program. Opening the flood gates to enroll every affiliate partner available will reflect poorly on the brand and result in long-term negative effect on the campaign’s health.

It is standard industry practice that a percentage of the agency’s compensation be based on an incentive model, but this should only represent a small fraction of your overall budget. A performance incentive is an ideal solution, as it will empower your agency to celebrate the wins of the program’s success without tempting them to risk the overall health of the campaign by allowing dubious partners into the program. Additionally, only an agency confident in its ability to deliver affiliate program success over time will agree to these terms.

2. Affiliate-Only Offerings

Agencies that solely offer affiliate services will try to sell their specialization as a feature when it is really a bug. Simply put, affiliate should not be siloed. When possible, partner with a full-service agency that understands your other channels and allows them to work together to be greater than the sum of their parts.

Understanding how all marketing channels are contributing to the program allows your agency to best prioritize affiliate within that mix and strategically offer the advantage of attribution and incrementality. They will have a clear understanding of how your marketing channels are working together, and this holistic collaboration will extract more value from the affiliate channel.

Working in lockstep with multiple marketing arms of a brand enables collaboration that would be impossible in a vacuum. For example, when your agency understands each consumer’s path to purchase and discovery and which channels prospects are interacting with, they can determine the type of affiliates that convert. They can also optimize the marketing mix in ways like determining the retargeting possibilities that drive increased sales.

3. Short-Term Commitments

Affiliate success is heavily reliant on long-term commitments, so beware the affiliate partner who pushes short-term, one-off projects. Yes, short term wins are great from a testing perspective (and you should expect them, regardless), but much of the value that a good agency will provide is playing the long game.

For instance, holiday planning should be started in July. This kind of preparation is difficult, if not impossible, with a short-term commitment. While it can be tempting to grab for the exuberance of immediate success, it should never be done at the expense of enduring strategy.

Agencies willing to accept short-term commitments suffer staffing deficiencies. You will want to partner with an agency with a healthy client to account manager ratio. Agencies that undertake short-term commitments find it difficult to determine and commit to hiring experienced affiliate marketing pros.

4. Small Affiliate Teams

While affiliate agencies with small teams boast that their intimate size lets them pay more attention to clients, this is rarely the case.

Agencies with an affiliate team of less than five is a danger zone that you will want to avoid. The biggest issue with small teams is that they inevitably manage too many accounts. This results in clients unable to receive the attention and support required for success. An overloaded account manager is unable to prioritize their clients and their roster as a whole suffers.

Another concern is the lack of experience that comes with fewer minds in the war room. Will they have the appropriate experience in your vertical? Can sophisticated strategic thinking be delivered by a leaner team? Well-constructed larger agencies offer robust integrated teams with essential backgrounds ranging from affiliate networks, agencies, public relations, in-house, brand, sales, etc. This culmination of collective experience is simply unavailable when partnering with a small firm.

5. Account Managers Also Manage Publishers

If your affiliate partner does not offer separate client account management and publisher development teams, they are doing it all wrong.

Issues arise when client account managers work on the day-to-day program strategy while also trying to handle publisher communication, securing promotions, and long-term publisher recruitment strategies. From the publisher’s perspective, they are dealing with an army of account managers who must be provided instructions and direction individually. This makes long-term planning frustrating and alienates critical partners.

Alternatively, when each publisher works with a single person that represents an agency’s entire client roster they do not need to communicate with a hundred account managers. By dedicating this single point of contact, the publisher’s life is simplified. Who do you prefer to do business with - the organization that makes your life easier or the one who makes it more difficult?

Lackluster results from a new marketing tactic often sours a marketing team, and the executives to whom marketing reports, on that strategy for some time. As affiliate opportunities are demonstrating value, don’t let mediocre or disappointing performance scuttle the strategy for your brand. If after considering these questions you suspect your current agency can’t succeed, make a change. If you haven’t put affiliate to work for your program, start now with an agency that meets these criteria.