Affiliate platforms for promoting Shopify apps (Shoffi alternatives)?

[cldhks]

Hello Shopify app developers,

I would like to find an affiliate platform to promote my Shopify app.

There are many affiliate platforms to promote stores and products in stores.
However, I don't seem to find many platforms to promote Shopify apps.

I've found Shoffi which looks promising but I'd like to compare it with other solutions.

Have you come across affiliate platforms like Shoffi?

Thanks:
Csaba

[Alex_Sch]

Hi

How did your affiliate search go? Are you using one? Im also looking at affiliates to promote my App.

Thanks

Alex 

[Imogen]

Hi there, @cldhks and @Alex_Sch. Thanks for taking the time to reach out to the Shopify Community with your questions around marketing your applications! My name is Imogen. It's good to meet you!

Though we don't have a specific, third party affiliate option to recommend you, we have taken the time to collect expert advise from other Shopify App Developers to build some resources to help Partners get their apps out there more easily, and accessibily! If you haven't had the chance already, I definitely recommend checking out our Partner Blog on expert app marketing tips, so you can get your app out there and visible to more merchants! 

[cldhks]

Hey Alex,

Shoffi is the only affiliate platform for Shopify apps that I've found.

cheers,

Csaba 

[Mat_Brummitt]

I'm also currently researching:

• Shoffi
• Mantle (heymantle.com)
• PartnerJam (partnerjam.com)

Shoffi appears to be the most expensive to use, but they claim to have a marketplace of affiliates, whereas the others seem to provide a tracking solution to know which affiliates you need to pay, but don't appear to have a marketplace of affiliates who can find you via the platforms - I think you're expected to seek out affiliates yourself.  Shoffi appears to list you so that other partners can see what you're offering and choose to promote you. 

I've just sign up to Shoffi, but if the marketplace side of it turns out to be a flop, I'll most likely be switching to PartnerJam as I liked their setup, and the listing page you get for promoting your affiliate program looks quite nice.

[Olllie]

Hey Mat

Just wondering how you found Shoffi? Did you get many installations through the app?

It seems quite expensive once you factor in the monthly cost and the commission, so it would need to be pretty effective! 

[Mat_Brummitt]

So far, very disappointed with it to be honest. The reason I chose Shoffi was because it was claimed they have an affiliate network of thousands of store creators and content creators.  Maybe I was expecting too much, too soon, but we've been live on Shoffi for 4 days now and have just 9 affiliates on the program, and a single click attributed to one of them (that's a click, not an install and I suspect that click was the affiliate themselves).

The quality of those 9 affiliates varies just from my initial checking of them. 1 or 2 of them appear to be proper store creators with a nice web presence. The others all seem to be App marketplace clones or individuals with no web presence to their name, or at least none that is shared via their Shoffi profile - typically they all have gmail accounts which is a bit telling.

As I say, it might be early days but a single click from 9 affiliates, only 1 or 2 of which seem like they may be worth having is a little bit disappointing for $100 per month.  I intend to give it 3 months and reassess based on the data. I feel that after 3 months we should have seen something of value or we never will.  Obviously our app offering needs to be good enough for affiliates to want to promote, and for merchants to install. However the app we are featuring is a rebuild of an existing app which has been popular, and many of our merchants communicate with us regularly - they are loving the new app. They loved the previous version but appreciate everything the new app does better. I think the offering is good, so it really comes down to the affiliates who need to do their part to promote the app. I'll add that we are offering 3 years of revenue which is much longer than most do on Shoffi, and a higher percentage of revenue also.

What do you think? Is 4 days too short a time period to judge based on the above details?

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Mat

[Olllie]

Hey Mat, thanks for the detailed response - I think I may have also read your post on Reddit! 

I agree that for $100 per month, you would expect to see a few installs (surely a partial commission per success paid to Shoffi would be a better payment model - as with the current model, all risk is put on us Devs). I'm a little concerned about the quality of the affiliates too, if they don't really seem to have an online presence. 

I recon 4 days is a pretty short time frame - so things may turn around. I understand your app is a fresh build - does it have many reviews? I guess no reviews might make affiliates less likely to push your app? 

I'm interested to hear more. And I'll also reach out if I come up with any good marketing ideas. My app (I'm the SEO niche) is popular, and has a healthy subscriber base - but I'm currently working on boosting my numbers! 

[Olllie]

Hey Mat,

Sorry to bring up such an old topic again, but I've been thinking about affiliate programmes for Shopify apps and was wondering if you'd had any luck with any of the ones you tried?

Ollie

[Mat_Brummitt]

Hi Ollie,

I eventually downgraded the Shoffi plan we were running as it was seemingly a waste of time.  I just checked, and a total of 16 a so-called affiliates have signed up to the program (at least one of which was invited to join privately by myself), and between them, 3 total clicks to our app listing and I suspect those are the affiliates themselves, clicking through to test things.

I plan to switch to an alternative platform for affiliates at some point, but it's been a low priority while we've had bigger things to take care of. At the moment it's costing something like $35 per month to have a program on Shoffi, and requires us to find our own affiliates to join the program.  We've tried promoting it in various places but not having any success with it, despite our app being popular.

My advice is that if you sign up for something like Shoffi, don't be fooled into thinking that being in the marketplace will bring you a flood of new app users - in my experience it was a complete waste of time/money.  Having a "hidden" program for less money is possibly worthwhile if you have a good plan for how to market it to the right people - we haven't found the magic formula for that.

I hope this helps.

Thanks

Mat

[Olllie]

Hey Mat,

Cheers for the detailed reply. I’m in the same boat as you – a popular app, but still hoping for more users.

It sounds like Shofii and similar alternatives aren’t really worth it at this stage, then. I’ll need to explore other options to boost my numbers. If I come up with any successful, out-of-the-box ideas, I’ll be sure to let you know!

Thanks again for the response.

[ItayHaritan]

Hi Ollie!
Itay from Shoffi here.

I will reply to some of the points raised here regarding our platform from my point of view, and I hope it will help you make the right decision.

Shoffi, just like other PRMs, is a technical tool to help you manage your partners' programs. It can't guarantee success or make this channel successful just by signing up.
A good partner program requires time, connections, and work; like every business relationship, it has to benefit both sides.

We see many partner programs on Shoffi, and the most successful ones are those who take this channel seriously. Some have a partnership manager who takes care of partner-specific newsletters, events, and customer success.

Saying that, we do the most we can at Shoffi to create new connections and opportunities with our market and, soon, with the Shoffi Network. But that won't be enough if your app is not useful for the partners or your offer, whether financial or other, isn't beneficial enough for them.

In the long run, partnerships are the most cost-effective channel for apps (as a previous Shopify app owner myself), but unlike PPC channels, for example, you don't just pour money and start seeing results; it's a long-term game.

If you are worried about costs or if it works for you, start a partner program manually with a simple form and spreadsheet tracking. Contact your best users or agencies you know using your app and offer them to join. If you see a potential from their interest and what you can offer, then it might be worth checking a PRM solution.

I hope that helps 🙂
Itay from Shoffi.

[phstc]

Hi Mat,

Are you looking mostly for external affiliate or an internal customer referral program, for example, "Refer and earn" or both?

Shoffi and Mantle seem more polished. They use Google Analytics + BigQuery for attribution. PartnerJam is based on a cookie, then checking if a user logs in your app with that cookie. It seems a bit more fail-prone.