Growth in Affiliate Marketing. How Can a Solo Affiliate Marketer Scale Into a Team?

At some point, a solo affiliate marketer starts to feel constrained. A specialist may come to realize they've fully unlocked their potential and reached their ceiling. They have ideas, but not enough time — and sometimes not enough resources — to execute their plans. It's precisely in these moments that the idea of scaling up, building a team, and earning more begins to take shape.

This material was prepared by the Traffic Cake team. We work with top gambling and betting offers, so we know our traffic sources well. Traffic Cake is an authorized partner of IceCasino, Verde Casino, GG.Bet, and other brands. We operate on CPA, RevShare, and Hybrid models. We provide free mobile apps and PWAs for media buying.

For a solo affiliate, building their own team brings a wealth of benefits. First, working solo comes with limitations on the number and variety of campaigns a single buyer can manage. A team makes it possible to scale up workload and reach. In addition, team members can bring diverse skills and specializations — creative, designer, SEO/SEM specialist, and so on — which enriches the strategic approach to affiliate marketing. It also creates an environment for sharing experience and ideas, which can have a positive impact on campaign performance and final profit.

Growing a team also helps reduce risk, as responsibilities and tasks are distributed among several people. An affiliate can delegate some of their duties to others, freeing up their own time and improving the quality of execution — because when multiple specialists take on the work, each one is responsible for their own area and dedicates their full working time to it.

Another important aspect is business scaling. With a team, you can move into new GEOs and verticals faster, which is a key growth factor in affiliate marketing. Equally important, a team can support one another — something that matters greatly in a high-competition, high-stress business environment.

Standing still in our industry can lead to a loss of competitiveness. The market is constantly evolving, growing, and expanding in scale, so affiliates need to keep moving forward to consistently grow their revenue. Developing your team and strategies is a critical step toward ensuring sustainable success in affiliate marketing.

Where to start? 

Of course, it's not that simple. Founding your own affiliate team requires clear planning and an understanding of the key roles needed for effective operations. It's worth recognizing that from this point on, you're no longer alone — other people depend on your decisions, so you'll need to learn how to manage a team if you haven't had that experience before. Here are a few steps and recommendations for building a team:

• Assess your needs and goals. First and foremost, define what goals you want to achieve with your team. This will help you understand what skills you need to have within the group.
• Start recruiting. You can find the right specialists through various channels — for example, affiliate chats where fresh job postings are published regularly. Don't overlook social media, professional forums, job listings on specialized platforms, and so on. The key is to find people who share your values and vision.
• Establish processes and communication. An effective team requires clear workflows and communication practices. This includes regular meetings, reporting, task distribution, and more.
• Build a company culture. Creating a positive and productive atmosphere within the team is essential for long-term success. Team engagement and motivation are key factors in long-term collaboration, so pay close attention to this.
• Continuous learning and adaptation. The affiliate space evolves rapidly, so it's important to invest in training and team development to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies.

What does it look like in practice? An interview with the Wild Wild Leads team. 

Any analysis of this topic is incomplete without input from practitioners who have already walked this path and founded their own affiliate teams. To that end, the Traffic Cake team spoke with the founders of affiliate team WildWildLeads to find out how they got started, how many people were on the team at the beginning, and what budget you can launch with.

Traffic Cake (TRC): How did you get started, how many people did you have from the very beginning, and how many do you have now?

We started in March 2022 — there were three of us, who met in information resistance chats. Just two months later we were 25, by July around 50, and by September the company had 70 people.

Wild Wild Leads (WWL)

TRC: How much capital is needed for a minimum launch?

If you're starting cautiously, around $100K. At that point you either play with your own money or bring in an investor and split the percentage with them. It's a big plus if the investor has expertise in the niche or in building businesses — they invest their experience along with the capital. That increases your chances of success even more than money alone.

WWL

TRC: Which positions are essential from day one, and which can be hired after launch?

First, you need to look at who's already on board — what expertise you and your partners bring to the table. For example: one person might be a traffic expert, another might handle business operations or financial accounting. From there, the search for people tends to happen quite organically, starting with a minimal set of open positions. It makes sense to work from your own needs — you may require assistants or operational managers who can take routine tasks off your plate. 

Another approach — though not recommended for those who haven't built at least a few successful businesses before — is to go big from the start: hire top-tier staff and build the infrastructure around them. But you need to understand that in the early stages, the business will operate at a loss while it's still gaining momentum.

WWL

TRC: Who are the essential people to launch a team, and what key points should you pay attention to?

First and foremost, you need the people who will actually drive results: webmasters, team leads who run traffic, solo buyers — or you yourself running traffic, it doesn't matter. They're your starting point, and you build the infrastructure around them. 

For that, you need a technical specialist who will handle consumables — their distribution, procurement, or creation. Beyond the tech specialist, you need a partner relations manager. You also need someone in media buying who has a strong grasp of finance and accounting. 

Senior management is responsible for key decisions; the team is responsible for executing them. 

WWL

TRC: How do you scale after launch?

During scaling, don't forget to build a reserve fund. For quite a long time, nearly 50% of the company's revenue went toward building that reserve — which allows you to either scale faster when the opportunity arises, or stay more confident during turbulent periods, which are far from rare in this industry.

There are two approaches to scaling. Some believe it's important to focus on a single vertical and win through depth. We chose the path of diversification — running 2–3 directions simultaneously: after launching media buying, we added an app development and rental vertical. Today, these are two separate business units within the company.

If you want to focus on one area — PPC, for example — then look for strong specialists in that direction. That said, you should still think about diversification, at least across different verticals, offers, GEOs, and approaches. 

WWL

TRC: Any general advice for a solo affiliate looking to start their own team?

The first piece of advice: understand why you need your own team, how much you want to earn, and what exactly you want to be doing. Because in entrepreneurship, on one hand, there's a greater chance of winning big — but on the other, there's more responsibility and non-standard challenges you'll have to solve. That's precisely why the risk of burning out is higher than when you're working within someone else's team. In that scenario, you can lose both your own investment and your investor's.

On the other hand, if you want your own company but want to keep doing what you're already doing — because you're confident in your expertise — go the partnership route. Find someone who will be even more valuable than an investor, someone who can take on the other half of the responsibilities. Ideally, your partner should also have experience in affiliate marketing. 

And don't rush to give away equity. First, find someone you trust, spend some time communicating, see how the person operates in practice, try building a smaller project together, work side by side for a few months. 

Partners are an enormous source of energy — it's a case where 1+1=11. But finding the right partner is an art in itself. So take the time to find one and build a common language with them.

WWL

Who are the must-haves when building a media buying team?

1. A buyer — must-have. There's no way around it: a team is impossible without someone who actually runs traffic. The more experienced buyers you have, the greater your volumes will be.
2. A technical specialist. You'll definitely need someone responsible for consumables, handling the purchase or rental of apps and PWAs, and managing other technical aspects.
3. An accountant. Start working with someone who handles finances, bookkeeping, and tax compliance from day one. Down the line, this will save you an enormous amount of time and resources.
4. A partner relations manager (Affiliate Manager or BizDev). You'll need someone to manage communication with affiliate programs and select the most profitable offers for your team. This person will also handle cap negotiations and make sure caps aren't exceeded. It's a highly detail-oriented process that demands a lot of time, so operating without this role on the team will be quite difficult. The manager will also resolve disputes between the affiliate network and the buying team whenever such conflicts arise.

That was the list of positions you simply can't do without. Of course, one team member can cover multiple roles — but for comfortable operations and scaling, everyone should be in their designated place. 

Beyond the specialists mentioned above, you may also need:

• A farmer. In new teams, a buyer can take on the farmer's responsibilities if there's no capacity to bring in a dedicated person for that. Later, as volumes grow and the buyer no longer has enough time even for their own tasks, you'll need to hire a farmer. Alternatively, you can purchase ready-to-run accounts — which is significantly easier, but not always the most cost-effective option.

• Designer. Many affiliates who have basic Photoshop skills create their own creatives. But again, if you're focused on scaling up volumes — you'll need a designer who can produce tons of creatives for your campaigns. However, this person needs not only to know Photoshop, but also to understand the gambling and affiliate marketing industry. 

Of course, you can use outsourced designers, buy creatives from specialized Telegram channels, or order them from freelancers. But having your own person on the team is significantly simpler and more reliable. 

To Sum Up

Growth in traffic arbitrage isn't just about new offers or efficient use of ad budgets. It's also about building a cohesive team that can quickly adapt to changing market conditions, effectively manage resources, and scale projects. Having your own team allows an affiliate not only to control every stage of the workflow, but also to flexibly adjust strategies based on the specifics of the operation.

As we discussed earlier, the initial team setup — which typically includes media buyers, a technical specialist, an accountant, and a partner manager — is the foundation for building an arbitrage team. The initial investment in a team may seem significant, but in the long run it pays off through increased profits and cost optimization.

A well-defined strategy allows you not only to achieve your goals, but also to respond quickly to changes, adapting campaigns to market demands. So start by writing out your strategy, your vision for the company's future, outlining your goals, and assessing the risks.

Ultimately, success in traffic arbitrage depends not only on the ability to launch ad campaigns, but also on the ability to build a strong team that shares your goals and vision. And even after launch, the process doesn't stop — you need to continuously grow, train your staff, work on team culture, and respect the input of every team member. So building an arbitrage team is a major responsibility that can bring you enormous profit!