Why Partnerships & Affiliates Are the Most Underrated Growth Channel in SaaS

When most SaaS founders think about growth, they default to the usual suspects: paid ads, outbound email, SEO, content. These channels are familiar, predictable, and easy to track. But they’re also expensive, competitive, and often oversaturated.

What if the most powerful growth channel isn’t one you scale with money—but one you scale with trust?

That’s exactly what partnerships and affiliates offer. And in the SaaS world—especially B2B—they are consistently overlooked, misunderstood, or underutilized.

This post explores why partnerships are a sleeping giant in SaaS growth, how to approach them strategically, and what most founders get wrong when trying to make them work.

Borrowed Trust: The Core Mechanism

In any go-to-market strategy, the hardest thing to earn is trust.

You can buy traffic. You can build email lists. You can spam DMs. But none of that guarantees someone believes you’re credible or worth their time.

Now imagine you skip that whole step.

That’s what a partner does for you. Whether it’s an affiliate, a platform you integrate with, or a respected service provider—when they recommend your product, they’re lending you their reputation.

Your message doesn’t land as “just another pitch.” It lands with credibility baked in.

This effect compounds when your partner already has a deep relationship with your ideal customer. You get access and endorsement in one move—and that’s a rare combination in marketing.

Why the CAC is Insanely Efficient

Let’s talk numbers.

Most growth channels scale linearly—if not exponentially—in cost. The more you spend, the more you get (until you hit a point of diminishing returns). CAC often climbs as competition increases or as your targeting tightens.

But with partnerships, you’re playing a completely different game.

Once a partnership is set up, the marginal cost of acquiring a customer can drop to near zero. A single co-marketing campaign, a webinar, or a cross-promotion can bring in dozens—or hundreds—of leads without spending a dime on ads or SDRs.

Even in affiliate models where you’re paying commission, the payment is performance-based. You only pay after revenue is collected.

That means:

• You’re not risking upfront capital.
  
• You’re not pouring money into channels that may or may not convert.
  
• You’re scaling in a way that protects margins.
  

And in a world where growth is easy to fake but profitability isn’t, that’s a real advantage.

Why Most Founders Ignore This Channel

Despite all of this, partnerships remain underused. Why?

Simple: they take time, and they feel “uncontrollable.”

Most founders love channels that produce immediate feedback. You run an ad—you get clicks. You send 100 cold emails—somebody replies. You publish a blog—you watch traffic trickle in.

But partnerships? They require:

• Research
  
• Outreach
  
• Relationship-building
  
• Custom collaboration
  
• Patience
  

It’s not instant. It’s not programmatic. And worst of all—it’s not easily outsourced at first.

But that’s exactly what makes it so effective. Most of your competitors won’t do it. They’ll stay in the world of performance dashboards and ROAS reports—never investing in the slow compounding growth that partnerships enable.

That’s your opening.

What a Good Partnership Looks Like

Let’s get specific.

Imagine you run a SaaS company that helps e-commerce brands automate customer support workflows.

You identify a Shopify app that helps brands with customer analytics. You’re not competitors. In fact, you’re complementary—your tools together help brands save time and make better decisions.

You reach out to the founder. You propose a co-branded webinar:
“How to reduce support costs and increase retention through automation + insights.”

You both promote it to your lists. You offer a limited-time bundle or discount. Leads pour in. Some convert instantly, others over time—but all of them came without paid ads, without cold calls, and with a built-in trust bridge.

That’s not just marketing. That’s leverage.

And the best part? That partner may continue to refer you clients for months or years after the campaign is over—just because they liked working with you and saw that it helped their audience.

Affiliates: The Scalable Side of Partnership

While partnerships often begin as one-off collaborations, affiliates give you a way to scale the model.

By creating a structured affiliate program, you enable:

• Consultants who work with your ICP
  
• Agencies who implement software
  
• Creators who run niche communities or newsletters
  

…to refer clients to you in exchange for a percentage of the sale.

The difference here is: you’re not just setting up a one-time event. You’re building a long tail of micro-partnerships that grow over time. This is how some SaaS companies generate thousands of MRR every month—without any ad spend at all.

The trick is making it easy to promote you. That means:

• Clear incentives (recurring commission or one-time payout)
  
• A simple sign-up and tracking process
  
• Resources (email templates, swipe files, demo videos, etc.)
  
• Occasional updates or support
  

It doesn’t take hundreds of affiliates to make this work. A few high-performing ones can outperform your top-paid campaigns.

How to Actually Get Started

If you’re early-stage or just haven’t explored this channel yet, here’s where to begin:

1. Map your ecosystem
   Who already serves your target customers?
   Look for complementary (not competitive) tools, agencies, consultants, or influencers.
   
2. Reach out with value, not asks
   Instead of pitching “Can you promote us?”, try:
   “Hey, I noticed we serve the same type of customer. Would love to explore if there’s a way to collaborate that helps both our audiences.”
   
3. Start small
   You don’t need a formal program. Begin with a single co-branded campaign or referral relationship. Prove that it works—then scale it.
   
4. Create a repeatable offer
   A discount bundle. A joint webinar. A custom integration. The easier you make it to work with you, the faster you’ll grow through this channel.
   
5. Track partner-sourced leads
   Use unique UTM links or CRM tagging to understand where leads are coming from. This gives you clarity on what’s working—and who your best partners are.
   

Final Thought

If you’re trying to scale your SaaS efficiently—especially in today’s capital-constrained environment—partnerships and affiliates may be the highest ROI channel you’re not using.

Yes, they take time. Yes, they’re harder to predict. But when done right, they unlock compounding trust—and that’s something no amount of paid media can buy.

Start with one. Build it with care. Then another. And another.
In 12 months, you’ll be glad you did.