ShareASale to AWIN Upgrade

Vol. 178: Here's what you need to know.

Dec 10, 2024

HelloZ

Today’s public post will address “all the things” surrounding ShareASale as a network and its upgrade to AWIN. There’s been a lot of here say around the topic and I’ve been getting a ton of questions, too. As a fan of ShareASale/AWIN and their insanely awesome team, I actually had a conversation with them and explained that they might want to get ahead of any false narrative by putting out their own news about upcoming timelines.

Today, they delivered.

I’ll recap down below, and of course, include my thoughts on the matter, so fasten your seatbelts and LFG, people!

NewZ and ShowZ

Hate it or love it, the underdog’s got himself a TV channel. Grammy winner and actor Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and his G-Unit Film & Television and Lionsgate are launching the 50 Cent Action Channel on The Roku Channel on Tuesday, December 10. Curated by 50 Cent, the FAST channel will offer his favorite movies and TV shows from Lionsgate’s library, along with the series “Power,” which he produced.
Anyone like the game of Monopoly? Omnicom Group, the world’s third-largest advertising company, has agreed to acquire the fourth-largest, Interpublic Group. The combined company would be the world's largest ad agency, surpassing WPP, with $25 billion in revenue and over 100,000 employees. The company would retain the Omnicom name, as well as John Wren as Chairman & CEO of Omnicom. Interpublic CEO Philippe Krakowsky is set to join Omnicom’s Daryl Simm as Co-Presidents/COO. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Netflix nabbed the most Golden Globes TV nominations with 23, followed by HBO/Max with 14 and FX/Hulu with 10. Competing in the musical or comedy TV series category are ABC’s “Abbott Elementary”; FX/ Hulu’s “The Bear”; Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building”; Max’s “Hacks”; and Netflix’s “The Gentlemen” and “Nobody Wants This.” On the drama series side are Apple TV+’s “Slow Horses”; Hulu’s Shogun”; Netflix’s “The Diplomat” and “Squid Game”; Peacock’s “The Day of the Jackal” and Prime Video’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” The ceremony is set to air Sunday, January 5 on CBS.
Concert special “An Evening with Dua Lipa” will be broadcast Sunday, December 15 at 8:30p on CBS. The London show, which was filmed at Royal Albert Hall, marks the first time the Grammy winner took the stage accompanied by the 53-piece Heritage Orchestra.

ShareASale to Awin upgrade

As you may have heard (you definitely have), ShareASale is “sunsetting.” That’s a really nice term for “all the brands are going to get upgraded to AWIN, the superior platform.” Awin/ShareASale issued an official letter about that today, so here I am to help you digest the info. Note that most of this language is pulled straight from the correspondence.

What Can I Expect From The Upgrade?

The ShareASale to Awin platform upgrade will give you and your clients set up for long-term success.

But what does that actually mean?

Improved network partnership quality and compliance

Expanded tracking options and easier ecommerce plugin integrations

More reporting and commissioning options

Support you already love and trust

By upgrading all customers to the Awin platform, we can provide you with everything you value from ShareASale, and more

When Can I Expect The Upgrade?

ShareASale customers will begin upgrading end of Q2

Starting at the end of Q2, we will begin upgrading all existing ShareASale advertisers and publishers to the Awin platform. Good news, no action is needed from you or your clients to get started. Unlike a traditional migration, this doesn’t require any technical work or heavy lifting on your part – it’s a true upgrade!

How Will The Upgrade Happen?

If you have not already, between now and January 5, please verify all email address tied to your merchant accounts via a prompt in the ShareASale platform. This will ensure all users receive our emails around the upgrade. It’s important to note that, after January 6, you won’t be able to use the platform until you’ve completed the verification, so we recommend completing this step as soon as possible.

A few months’ prior to a merchant’s upgrade, the main login email address will start receiving communications from us to get prepped and ready for the move. This will include training materials, access to live webinars and more.

When the time comes to upgrade, we will email all users registered to the account letting them know the process has started. And once the new Awin account is ready, everyone will receive another email inviting you to access the Awin platform. Exciting! Once logged into the new account, everyone will enjoy a helpful walkthrough of the platform to immediately take advantage of all the enhanced features now available at your fingertips.

Best of all, there’s no need to install new tracking, we’ll automatically switch that over. Your brands’ publishers will also be moving in tandem with their individual upgrades, ensuring no gaps during this transition.

And last but not least, everyone will continue to receive best practice guidance and recommendations from us as you get acclimated to Awin.

What Do I Do If I Want To Sign A New Customer in March?

From March 2025 onwards, new merchants and affiliates will exclusively be able to launch on the Awin platform, allowing them to immediately benefit from all the enhanced features it offers. This includes enjoying a self-setup wizard on Awin’s low-cost plan, Awin Access, enabling you to launch merchant programs on the Awin platform at the same speed and investment you love on ShareASale.

It's important to note there is an exception to this cutoff date. All current ShareASale advertisers will be able to continue inviting publishers to directly join their program using the Express Signup feature.

When Does ShareASale Actually Close?

Once all ShareASale users have successfully upgraded to the Awin platform, by end of 2025, the ShareASale platform will close. You’ll no longer be able to access your ShareASale account, so we recommend downloading any historical reporting you want to keep for your records.

We’ll keep you updated throughout this transition so you’re the first to know what exactly is happening when.

Why Should I Go Through With This Upgrade and Not Just Go Elsewhere?

We’re upgrading you to Awin to provide a dependable, future-proofed platform that’ll take your affiliate campaigns to the next level. This year, 34 new features were launched on the Awin platform to better support our customers’ affiliate channel needs. Highlights include:

Identifying growth opportunities to outperform your competitors with our Competitor Benchmarking report;

Creating better relationships with your partners and improving budget allocation by customizing your attribution rules with our Attribution Manager;

Improving tracking accuracy with our Chrome Attribution Reporting API and an update to our Magento plugin.

And there’s a whole lot more to look forward to in 2025. Across the Awin platform, game-changing features are being developed to continue supporting your goals (Pro tip: Bookmark Awin’s Seasonal Releases hub to be the first to know when they drop!) Beyond platform enhancements, you can also look forward to a new Awin agency certification program, personalized agency webinars, and more.

How Can I Learn More Even Still?

We’re hosting a dedicated webinar on January 14 that will dig into the specifics for both agencies and advertisers, and answer any questions you may have. Register here for agency and here for advertiser.

If you’re ready to discuss an early upgrade to the Awin platform now, we’d love to talk to you.

ZlataThoughts: ShareASale vs. AWIN vs. Impact vs. Rakuten vs. CJ

As I said, I’ve been a fan of ShareASale and felt that it served its purpose for the smaller fish clients wanting a connection to Skimlinks and the opportunity to directly connect with media pubs. As their affiliate manager, I’d then also have the opportunity to dip their toes in the water and explore additional partnerships outside of the PR world to see if they were ready for a “bigger” program. I don’t think ShareASale is necessarily great for any brand looking to expand heavily with influencers through the platform, reason being that their Recruitment Tool functionality is lacking. Basically: ShareASale has a time and a place, and that’s something I’ve always counseled as I give my clients options and go over pros and cons.

Impact is a rivaling platform (rivaling to both ShareASale and AWIN) and I also think that’s with good reason. The user experience is pleasant, their reports are bountiful, and their recruitment tool option is great. I’ve counseled clients to get setup on Impact over ShareASale at times, and it absolutely depended on their brand goals and where the brand was in its lifecycle. (Unfortunately, I have personally experienced a lot of bugs within their platform for there various clients I manage on there. One of my client’s issues cannot be fixed and I have to manage their account in incognito mode in order to gain all the functionality.) Like ShareASale and AWIN, Impact has a nice team of reps and are usually pretty timely in their responses.

The choice that you will have now between AWIN, Impact, or any other platforms such as Rakuten and CJ comes down to personal preference and the appropriate counsel for your client/brand. Outside of the very obvious pros and cons for each network as it pertains to your individual clients/brands, an affiliate marketing program is only as successful as the person managing is comfortable with said platform. Read that again. Personally, as an agency partner having undergone many trainings, I’m comfortable with ShareASale, AWIN, Impact, and Rakuten. I’m not a huge CJ fan. So when I have a new client, I tell them what I like and don’t like about the four platforms, what the benefits would be FOR THEIR BRAND and what the shortcomings might be FOR THEIR BRAND. As an affiliate marketing manager, it’s not just about the platform itself, but about the brand’s needs and whether the platform solves for them.

My sincerest recommendation is to start learning AWIN! Do not be a one trick pony and have just Rakuten or just Impact under your knowledge belt. Have all of the tools! I had extensive training on each platform and it’s for that reason that I’m able to properly guide my clients and potential clients to their best home and base it on what’s good for them, rather than “oh this is the only platform I know so I’m going to put you here.”

Those are my thoughts. Have questions? Want to talk more? Let’s do it!

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