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Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing Attribution in 2019

As we get further into 2019, Marketing Executives are trying to better understand their buyers' journey and which marketing channels are contributing sales. They are trying to determine where and how to spend their marketing dollars in a way that drives the highest possible ROI, the most well defined cross channel transactions, and where their new customer acquisitions are really coming from.

In an effort to provide more clarity around what attribution strategies Marketing Executives should be looking at, I spoke with attribution expert, Anthony Clements, about what attribution really is, and how companies should be thinking about investing in it this year.

 

What is the difference between multi-channel and omni-channel attribution? 

It’s worth saying from the outset that these two phrases are used quite interchangeably in many aspects of digital marketing, which often creates a bit of confusion for marketers. The real difference between multi-channel and omni-channel from an attribution perspective is in the outcomes.

Multi-channel attribution seeks to measure how effective an individual marketing channel is at driving a conversion. By definition it’s conversion orientated, and helps marketers understand how important each channel is at getting customers to buy their products or services. It does this either by algorithmic or ‘place-in-the-chain’ models. Multi-channel attribution thinks more in terms of marketing channels like Display, Search, Affiliate etc than it does about the customer.

Omni-channel attribution seeks to measure how customer’s engage with a business, including different types of marketing, platforms like desktop or mobile, and will also generally look at offline engagements. For businesses that embrace the theory of omni-channel marketing – creating a single, unified commerce experience across all points of customer engagement, omni-channel attribution will help to properly understand customer journeys and also help to understand how the best / most profitable customers like to engage with a business.    

 

Example of a Click-to-Consume Path Analysis using attribution. Source: Impact

 

Why do you feel companies need to invest in attribution today?

Attribution feels like one of the slowest-burns in digital marketing. The technology and principles have been around a while, but adoption has been gradual. Adoption of digital attribution has accelerated over the last two years primarily because database technology has facilitated the advent of algorithm-driven attribution which uses data modelling to ‘score’ the effectiveness of channel engagement rather than the original ‘place-in-the-chain’ concepts which were ultimately quite biased. If a marketer favoured upper-funnel traffic then a first-click model would give them the results they wanted to see. Attribution is now more scientific and less open to individual bias.

Marketers are now being asked to invest their budgets in a range of large media platforms that all operate their own, siloed tracking ecosystems. Facebook Ads runs its own event and conversion tracking, as does Google Ads, as does LinkedIN Ads. It’s vitally important that marketers have the ability to scrutinise the results from these platforms using independent technology that helps them understand their relative importance to driving conversions, rather than simply analyse the results in isolation. Throw in a host of other marketing channels like other Display platforms, Affiliate, Email and then a variety of ways for customers to transact be it desktop, mobile web, mobile app or in-store…then the need to measure fractional contribution in ever-more complex customer journeys becomes obvious.

The industry also has a much greater handle on using attribution analysis to deliver meaningful results. Attribution doesn’t generate new traffic, and that often meant it was difficult for advertisers to justify the budget. Now, it isn’t uncommon for advertisers to redistribute up to 30% of their total spend based on new insight from an attribution model, so the outputs are powerful and actionable in a way they were not a few years ago.

 

Example of an affiliate attribution analysis, looking at "Initiator" (Top of Funnel), "Contributor" (Mid Funnel) and "Converter" (Bottom of Funnel) affiliate contributions. Source: Partnerize
Example of an affiliate attribution analysis, looking at "Initiator" (Top of Funnel), "Contributor" (Mid Funnel) and "Converter" (Bottom of Funnel) affiliate contributions. Source: Partnerize

 

What recommended next steps do you think companies should take in order to get true attribution set up correctly?

Like many digital marketing initiatives, setting up a data-driven attribution model is an iterative process. A company’s online marketing needs to be of a certain size and scope to really benefit from multi-touch attribution. This is primarily because a company needs to be ready to implement the spend and tactical marketing changes that should result from attribution analysis. We normally ensure a company is running at least three online advertising channels concurrently and is already using an online analytics solution like Google Analytics to collect and analyse customer journey data before we’d advise them to invest in attribution.

It’s also important to go into attribution work free of bias as to what channels or platforms are most valuable. This can be difficult for marketers with many years experience, but an open-mind is vital to ensuring attribution analysis is actionable.

With these things all in place the next step is to find a provider. Google and Adobe operate well-known enterprise level cross-channel attribution solutions, and VIsualIQ are highly regarded at the top end of the independent market. But these solutions are cost-prohibitive to many businesses. The market for independent attribution providers is growing fast with Fopsha, AttributionApp, Conversion Logic and in the affiliate space Impact and SingleView by ROEye all doing good things.

For businesses new to the space it can be resource intensive to find the right provider and then implement the right attribution model. Consultancy services like ours help companies navigate the ever-expanding vertical of digital analytics and attribution.

 

If you wish to contact Anthony for a full review of your multi-channel and omni-channel attribution options, you can contact him here, or contact All Inclusive Marketing for a full list of affiliate specific attribution solutions for your program this year.

How To Improve Your Affiliate Marketing by Attending Affiliate Summit

affiliate marketing podcastIf you want to improve your digital strategy as an affiliate marketer, exponentially grow your profits for you and your business, then this podcast is for you. Learn from the online marketing elite to reach your growth goals.

Welcome to the Digital Strategy Insights podcast with your host Sarah Bundy, founder and CEO of All Inclusive Marketing. The landscape of affiliate marketing has rapidly changed, which has been trying for some, but beneficial for those who have stuck to their guns.

Listen as this week’s guest Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit answers in depth questions on the ins and outs of his business. Collins has been in the business for nearly two decades and is also the founder of GeekCast.fm, co-editor in chief at FeedFront Magazine and a blogger and author in his own right. Affiliate Summit is at the top of their game when it comes to providing exceptional events for performance marketing.

Sit back and relax as Bundy and Collins take you through Affiliate Summit’s journey, how they’ve triumphed over the tough times, and how they envision the next five years.

Learn From the Best

Affiliate Summit is a name you need to know if you want to learn from the best. As a company they pride themselves on being able to provide a community of education and respect. This is why they are leading the industry in elite marketing conferences.

There is a simple formula to their success, according to Collins it is a case of trying things out, seeing what sticks and being open to collaboration. Before they founded Affiliate Summit, Collins and his co-founder felt something was missing from the events they were attending. There was too much focus on networking and not enough education. So they decided to satiate their thirst for knowledge by creating a place that could mix both.

An Affiliate Summit event is a conference open to all affiliate marketers with all budgets. Hosting the infamous ‘Meet Market’ as well as the traditional ‘Exhibition Hall’ means those who vend and those who attend are getting enough bang for their buck. Creating this alternative space gives Affiliate Summit their edge against other run of the mill trade shows and job fairs.

Increase Your Performance Marketing the Easy Way

Increasing your affiliate marketing performance could not be easier with the help of Affiliate Summit. Attending one of their shows is the easiest way to maximise your networking potential whilst educating yourself from the best. Having a focus on improving your digital strategy means their shows help you grow as an affiliate marketer. Listen the this episode to find out:

  • How have the Affiliate Summit events changed over the years?
  • Why are these shows so important in the industry?
  • What makes the ‘Meet Market’ unique?
  • How do I know if I should attend, or vend?
  • What do I need to do to become an MC?
  • What differentiates a West coast show from an East Coast show?
  • Where is Affiliate Summit going as a company?

Take 20 minutes out of your day as Collins answers all these questions, and more. This is a snippet of all the benefits you will find from attending an Affiliate Summit show and starting your journey to improving your social and digital strategies. An Affiliate Summit show is for you if you strive to give your customers the best quality marketing possible.

Want to get your hands on one of 50 scholarship VIP passes to the next Affiliate Summit event? To find out how, get in touch with Collins via email at shawn@affiliatesummit.com, on facebook.com/shawncollins, or Twitter @affiliatetip.

Want to go to the next show? It will be at the New York Marriott Marquis on August 2nd to 4th, 2015.

If you want a bite-size look into how you can improve your affiliate marketing performance and digital strategy, take a moment to listen to the Digital Strategy Insights podcast. Then feel free to reach out to us at All Inclusive Marketing (www.allinclusivemarketing.com) by visiting the website, via Facebook at Facebook.com/trusttheexperts or on Twitter @trusttheexperts.

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Affiliate Management Days 2014 A Huge Success

It shocks me to this day that every affiliate manager on the planet is not flocking to Affiliate Management Days first chance they get. Some of the worlds biggest brands and most brilliant minds come together to share their expertise, network in an intimate setting and grow their skill sets together from an affiliate management and growth standpoint.

This was All Inclusive Marketing's fifth time speaking at AMDays. In my opinion, this was the best show yet, and if you're an affiliate manager or marketing manager responsible for your affiliates, do not miss another show. 

The food was great, the people even better, and the content was bang on. I spent the first day with my clients from Norton (Symantec) filming industry veterans on the value and benefits of affiliate marketing for businesses today. The gold nuggets that came out of every corner were incredible and I was elevated by the potential this industry will bring to the world once the positive message of what we do, that no other channel can do, gets out.

On the second day I was able to listen to some fantastic sessions. I also spoke on the second day and had three of the greatest compliments of the last decade shortly after my presentation, all of which meant the world to me:

1. The Global Affiliate Manager of one of the world's most loved brands (which rhymes with Snapple) told me he found my session extremely useful and that he took a lot out of it, only to follow up with an invitation to have my book, The Art of Performance Marketing (coming out later this year), set up in their bookstore.

2.  A Gentleman who works for one of the largest camera brands in the world told me he started reading my blog about two years ago, when he felt he already knew everything, and one particular post I put up made him start thinking about things so differently, he was able to change his mindset and learn exponentially more over the last two year because of a shift in perspective, which he got from this blog.

3. Todd Crawford, Co-Founder of Impact Radius, who I find one of the smartest people in our industry and who Keynoted at AMDays this year, told me he learned about 10 new things from my session. I thought he was being sarcastic but he assured me he was being entirely sincere. There were multiple pieces of information in my session he had never heard or thought of before. As someone I truly admire for his accomplishments and contributions to this industry, that meant a lot to me.

All in all, between the opportunity to meet phenomenally smart people who I learned more from, the relationships I built with key industry leaders and the opportunity to give back to truly push this industry forward made this event incredibly worthwhile.

If you're like to see the notes from the show, check out hashtag #AMDays on twitter. Congrats to Geno Prussakov for putting on such an important and useful event.

If you are a merchant in the affiliate marketing space and you haven't been to this show yet, this is a must attend event. It covers everything you need to be successful as a program manager and team leader. I hope to see you there!

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How To Remove the Reliance on Incentive Sites

affiliate cashback sitesOf the 9 Billion pound per year affiliate marketing industry in the UK:

  • 31% comes from cashback sites
  • 17% comes from coupon sites
  • 17% comes from loyalty /reward sites

The difference come from:

  • Price comparison
  • Paid search
  • Content
  • Other (such as email marketing)

 

So how do we remove the reliance on incentive sites?

Here are a few tips to help:

  • Focus on quality vs quantity buyers. Consider the lifetime value of buyers that come in through different affiliate channels and focus your time and resources on the ones that are the highest value.
  • Attribution tracking will help you understand where the value is, however based on several UK studies, cashback sites DO in fact bring in high value buyers that are authentic incremental value leads. The "skimming" that existed amounts cash-back and loyalty sites was much lower than expected when attribution assessments were completed.
  • Changing the focus from the type of affiliate to the type of  buyer will help to determine how to best utilize affiliate groups to reach different buyers during their buying cycle.
  • Have an existing process for your segmented affiliate groups to offer tools and resources that will make them more successful. Management can't be a one fit wonder for everyone, so customizing based on specific affiliate needs will bring more success to different groups outside of strictly incentive site successes.
  • Consistently provide quality content and invest in quality resources, tools and creatives to affiliate types you want to see the most growth in. You have to be proactive about it and put the effort in.
  • Be approachable so affiliates can easily communicate how they can help you, the advertiser, more, leveraging their skill sets and assets. Sometimes your own approachability and availability is the only roadblock keeping you from increased sales.
  • Try to understand your affiliates data and work closely with them to be transparent and understand KPIs and metrics. Be open to being transparent with your data before an affiliate will be open to sharing theirs. Work closely together to build trust and synergy which will lead to making better decisions as partners.
  • Offer exclusive codes and incentives on other types of sites other than incentive sites, such as on blog posts or within affiliate email lists.
  • Look at the DNA of your business and understand how different affiliate groups help your overall brand presence, exposure and consumer engagements.
  • Be sure to dedicate enough resources to your affiliate team to build relationships, negotiate placements, create tools and monitor opportunities. If you do not have the resources in house, consider outsourcing an extension to your team, such as the-la-cart or full service affiliate management support services offered by Outsourced Program Management companies.

Developing and Implementing an Affiliate Marketing Calendar

This is a live blog post from an #AMDays session presented by Karen Garcia of GTO Management.

It doesn't matter what size company you work at, a simple marketing calendar can be your digital helpers and reminder for planning and executing a consistent marketing strategy for your company or client.

A Solid Calendar reduces stress, provides visibility, gives you more freedom, diminishes crises, allows for proactive creativity.

"Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even through they rarely stick to their plan" - Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

 

Your Current Marketing Plan

Best is proactive plan done well in advance, campaigns meet or exceed expectations regularly, track and reviews detailed KPIs regularly and tests new things consistently.

Neutral plans are attempted but not well executed, perform alright, track basic KPIs and revied only accosionally and sometimes test changes.

The worst plans are all reactive or non existent, no KPIs are tracked, nothing is tested. So just do your best to do your best proactive plan.

 

Where do you start? Make a list.

You - make a list of everything you do on a day to day basis. If you're not sure what you do, write down in a journal for three days every task you do, and you will be able to identify your task list.

Then make an exhaustive list of all the things you want to do, whether you're currently doing them or not.

Internal - obtain available marketing plans from other internal channels. Review last year's affiliate activities. Look through reports, emails and newsletters. Review last year's activities in other channels (social, blogs, customer newsletters, etc)

Your competition - review competition's affiliate activities, affiliate newsletters are often publicly available. Review competitions customer newsletters. Not signed up? Do that now. Also, set up Google Alerts, review competitions social media and blog for additional ideas.

 

Look at holidays that are NOT traditional.

  • Super Bowl Sunday
  • March Madness
  • International Tabletop Day
  • No Pants Day
  • Kentucky Derby
  • Talk Like a Pirate Day
  • Breast Cancer Awareness Month

 

Traditional Holidays you should also be ready for:

  • New Years Day
  • Valentine's Day
  • Easter
  • Mother's Day
  • Father's Day
  • Back to School
  • Halloween
  • Thanksgiving
  • Black Friday / Cyber Monday
  • Hanukkah
  • Christmas
Everything you do falls into one of two categories - Granular and Big Picture. If you don't put the big things first you'll never get them in at all. Examine details of "big picture" campaigns and create an outline. This should include objectives and goals, messaging, literature and collateral creation, other needed resources (graphics designer, coding, etc), other channel plans - and work backwards from launch date.

 

Here's a sample campaign - Father's Day

Objective and Goals:
  • Get affiliates to promote products for Father's Day
  • Increase sales from last June by 20%
Messaging
  • Consumer Message: Fun for Dad, Father's Day in June 17th
  • Affiliate message: Father's day gift Guides and Banners
Literature and collateral creation
  • Ned new banners, create gift goes, blog post, newsletter
Other needed resources (graphic designer, coding, etc)
  • Update data feed with new products
  • Father's Day holiday shipping deadlines
Other Channel Plans
  • New Top Sellers list
  • Consumer email dates.
  • Twitter Campaigns
(now do this, but put it in spreadsheet format) Use Brandeo.com to help you create your marketing calendars.
Drill Down
Now that you have your big picture, drill down into the smaller supporting, granular tasks you need to track:
Recruiting - look to niches that support your upcoming project, but  don't forget other key affiliate demographics
Delegation - determine who is responsible for various resources, such as graphics and determine their deliverable timeline
Reporting - What are your important KPIs for this campaign? What is your measure for overall success.
If you don't know what your metrics are for reporting, your campaign has already failed. You need to know what your measures are for success. Keep track of those metrics and attach them to your campaigns so you remember how they performed. Think of your affiliate marketing calendar as a taxonomy chart. Drill down as far as you need, but continue to keep the big picture in mind.

 

Contest Strategy Calendar

Develop your content in advance
  • If you publish daily, complete content 2-5 days in advance
  • If you pushes 2 times a week, complete content 2 weeks ahead
What goes on the calendar?
  • Content Title
  • Author
  • Publication Date
  • Publication Status
  • Destination (blog, print, facebook, twitter, newsletter, etc)
  • Notes
  • Any other process you require like legal reviews, images, approvals, etc
  • Metrics.
Use Daily Task Lifehack from Neville Medhora of AppSumo to stay organized. Work with your affiliates one on one to ensure the timing is right and they get to be the first ones to announce deals to end users.

Understanding the Value of the Affiliate Channel

This is a live blog post from AffiliateManagementDays.com how in San Francisco. This session is presented by Kevin Edwards of Affiliate Window.

 

The question - how do I measure the value?

Where we've come from and where we're going. Are coupon affiliates goal hangers? Am I paying for sales I already had?

The term "incremental" is important to understand in this channel. How incremental are my sales? could translate to "Would I have got my sales if I didn't run them through an affiliate marketing channel?"

What is incremental? New vs existing. Volume. Upselling. Churn. Demographics. Frequency. Profitability. Average Order Value.

Cross channel reporting is vital to understanding the affiliate value chain.

 

The incrementally of affiliates:

  • Brief : to understand how affiliates impact sales and other channels across whole online ecosystem
  • Retail client's data from August 2012
  • All channels, both paid and unpaid marketing , assessed
  • Understand how affiliates are influencers in the path to conversion. Work with them to influence the products they are promoting.
  • Work with influencers to understand how they can convert rather than just influence
  • Work with individual partners to get better placements across their sites. Alternative payment models may need to be considered.
  • Look at bespoke offers for the largest incentives sites to see how to best capitalize on their loyal membership base to drive incremental value.
There is no single measure of "incremental": Look beyond sales' volume to sales's value. Incremental in context of changing consumer habits. Cross-channel paths to purchase can show where value is added: a single attribution model does not work for all. Demand insight into publishers audiences / member bases: Build profiles for more intelligent targeting. Not all similar looking affiliates are the same.

How To Set Up an Affiliate Program Dream Team

Affiliate Program Management TeamOne of my frequent readers asked a question of me I thought was a fabulous topic, and a much overlooked question by many. The question was "How do you set up an effective affiliate / or performance marketing team? What positions do you feel are vital?" Great, question! Thanks for asking it.

The best affiliate managers I know have a variety of skills, and the best affiliate programs generally have an entire team of skilled people working on different aspects of the program. Here are the roles and skill sets I would recommend in order to build your powerhouse affiliate marketing team.

 

1. Program Manager (aka: Affiliate Manager, Account Manager, Affiliate Marketing Specialist)

This is your main contact person who executes the day to day tasks of your affiliate program. They should in extremely friendly, love helping people, be professional and responsive and have a quick turnaround on urgent tasks. They should be knowledgeable about the affiliate marketing space, know what issues to look out for, how to motivate affiliates, how to drive sales and understand numbers and at the very least, understand some basic HTML in order to understand basic tracking issues and help affiliates with code implementation on creatives like banners and text links as needed.Generally it's this person's job to take care of all affiliates, recruit new affiliates, get them set up and motive them to perform.

These people (when first coming into the industry) usually come in from either a sales, communications or customer service background.

 

2. Technical / Back-end Support

This person's job is to help with creative uploads, tracking issues and questions, fraud monitoring, reporting and at times research. They should have a technical / analytical mind and be able to handle a lot of things thrown at them at once. They should also be able to have a fast turnaround on questions / inquiries as they come in.

 

3. Graphic Designer

In order to turn over high quality banners, landing pages and other creative work, it's a good idea to have a solid graphic designer as part of your affiliate team. This person's job is to create new banners with each season, create exclusive banners when asked by the affiliate manager and keep the program and the company brand looking aesthetically exceptional. They should be familiar with banner best practices, common size requests and have several design capabilities for static, animation and flash work as needed.

 

4. Team Leader / Program Strategist

This person is responsible for managing the entire affiliate marketing team and leading them to continued success. The team leader ensures items are being completed in a timely manner, that goals are being met, that team members are performing according to internal requirements (or better), working with the executive team on placement, positioning, budgets and main messaging, then communicating that to the rest of the team for consistency and proper execution. In the case of an outsourced affiliate management agency such as our own (and even internally) that person would either be the CMO, VP of Marketing or VP of Affiliate Marketing.

For some smaller companies, one person has to fill all these rolls, however those with a more formal structure, larger budgets and a more vested interest in their affiliate marketing program will consider at least these four positions to start. On a separate note - depending on the size of the business, there may be multiple affiliate marketing teams internally focused on different geographic regions, each of which would have at least one if not all of the listed four roles.

How To Group Your Affiliates for Success

Affiliate Marketign Groups & TypesThis week the question, "What are the different affiliates types or groups you use to be successful in your programs?" was asked of me. Great question.

Although there is no "standard" answer since many businesses have their own definition and breakdown of affiliates, here are my personal 17 key affiliate types and groups that help us remain successful in our affiliate program management.

 

1. Search Affiliates (PPC)

These are affiliates who use use pay per click efforts to drive the bulk of their sites. They may have their own landing pages which include affiliate links or perhaps direct link to the merchant site using their affiliate link as a redirect. Regardless, they pay for traffic to go where they need it to.

 

2. Content Affiliates (strictly SEO)

Content affiliates create original content on static sites, such as About.com or Top10Review type sites, then use their SEO experience to drive traffic through natural search results. These can be extremely useful for article type exposure, niche sites, review sites and second and third tier search engines, not to mention international search engine rankings.

 

3. Bloggers (community, personal opinions)

Affiliate program managers work extremely hard to find and build relationships with influential bloggers because of their ability to suede buying behavior with their large communities and loyal fan base. They have dynamic opinion pieces that fall into just about any vertical or niche, rank highly in search results, often have double opt in followers and are extremely social savvy. Bloggers will continue to thrive and grow as affiliate marketers for years to come.

 

4. Social Affiliates (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc)

I've separated social affiliates from bloggers because some affiliates don't blog but do use Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest (as examples) to promote affiliate links and drive traffic to merchant sites. In these cases, as an affiliate manager, I may group someone as "social" and "blogger", for example, if they do both.

 

5. Emailers

Email marketing affiliates are generally stronger in the CPA / Lead Gen arena, but not always. Coupon and loyalty sites, for example, often have opt in mailing lists of several hundred thousand subscribers who are waiting on that next big deal. Anyone who uses email marketing to drive targeted traffic to the merchant site using their affiliate link would go in this category.

 

6. Coupon / Daily Deal Sites

Sites like BradsDeals.com and Savings.com are examples of coupon and daily deal site. They often have large followings, millions of visitors per month and turn over millions of products for merchants regularly. These are the sites that feature coupon codes for free shipping, $10 off and high discount products.

 

7. Loyalty Sites

Loyalty sites are similar to coupon sites yet they subscribe "members" who earn points, cash back or are able to select a charity to donate some of the affiliate commission to during their checkout. Although there are some good loyalty sites, affiliate managers must be very cautious in working with those with toolbars and other technologies that drive traffic away from the merchant site yet still earn commission on completed sales.

 

8. Offline (TV, print, radio, etc)

This is an often overlooked category of affiliates, yet extremely powerful when the right partners are found. TV, print, radio, and even word of mouth opportunities can be extremely lucrative for affiliate programs when exclusive landing page tracking, coupon codes and phone number are used to reward sales.

 

9. Podcasters

An area that's been growing over the last year are affiliates who are using Podcasting to drive sales through their podcast series (offline approach) or through their show landing pages which feature affiliate links. I believe this is an area that will continue to grow, especially with the introduction of PodCasting tools like Spreaker.com.

 

10. Merchant / JV

Another overlooked affiliate group are the merchants and join venture partners themselves. This works when a merchant offers affiliate links on their confirmation page or in emails to their consumers, or when affiliate program managers offer to promote non-competing yet complimentary products within their network.

 

11. Video (YouTubers)

Yes, YouTube does allow affiliate links to be displayed in the descriptions of videos, though they look a little bulky when posted. Alternatively YouTubers will use redirects or landing pages with their affiliate links and create the video to drive traffic to those pages. It's difficult these days to make money as a YouTuber strictly, but when combined with affiliate marketing opportunities can become extremely profitable.

 

12. Datafeed Affiliates

This group of affiliates uses product datafeeds to create content on their sites. Some affiliates will manipulate the core datafeed files themselves, and others will use tools such as Popshops or Datafeedr to help. The reason these are listed separately from Shopping Comparison Engines is because some affiliates will not use datafeeds for price comparisons but rather niche product listings while others have content sites or blogs they support purchasing behavior with using product feeds.

 

13. SCE (Shopping Comparison Engines)

TheFind.com is probably one of the most well known SCE affiliates out here, though Google is now dabbling with the idea as well. Some "invitation only" merchants have been able to stay listed on a performance model within Google's Shopping Engine (also known as Froogle.com). These types of affiliates are exactly how they sound - shopping comparison engines with every product you could possibly imagine.

 

14. Sub Networks

Sub networks are affiliates that have other affiliates that work under them. The merchant doesn't know who the sub network's affiliates are or how they are driving sales because all credit goes to the sub network who pays out however way they please. Examples of sub networks are skimlinks and viglink.

 

15. Mobile

The mobile affiliate segment is continuing to grow (good news) though it's still not as strong as other channels yet.  A company called JunoWallet for example was one of the first pioneering mobile affiliates in the space (who have now changed their payment model). However when they first started doing this, they created an app where people could sign up for "free gift cards" which they could download and redeem in store or online. The gift cards worked similarly to a coupon code, however instead of a code, it would actually say "$10 Gift Card" and JunoWallet would use their own tracking platform to report on downloads and redemption. This is just an example of how affiliates could use mobile apps, or PPC or storefronts to drive traffic and be rewarded on a performance base.

 

16. Technology

Some people will categories this as "other" and that's OK too. But the idea is these affiliates use technologies and service offerings they create and rather than charging for it upfront, they bill based on completed actions. An example of this is a company called VEInteractive. These guys provide shopping cart abandonment solutions on a performance base. For example, if a customer is half way through the checkout and does not compete their sale, VEInteractive will re-target that "dropout" to drive them back to complete the order. Then once they do, VEInteractive would earn commission on the sale. "But, wouldn't this get expensive after a while and be worth investing in your own shopping card abandonment options?". Yes. But for some companies who lack the short term development budget, the expertise, the time or a flexible shopping cart platform, this might be a good solution.

 

17. International

I usually group these separately because it's important to know who I can reach out to when targeting Canadian buyers, French buyers, UK buyers, Australian buyers and so on. When it comes to international affiliates (which I define by reaching targeted traffic outside of the main target geographic region) I generally tag them as "International" and whatever marketing method they use listed above.

Ultimately there are many different types of affiliates out there and more are being introduced each day, but by grouping your affiliates into appropriate types, groups or "tags" you will be able to communicate more accurate information and marketing tips relevant to their needs, which will produce higher affiliate satisfaction, more active affiliates and increased sales.

Essential "Need to Knows" for Affiliate Coupon Management

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to listen to Todd Crawford speak about coupon affiliate management at the Online Marketing Summit. He made some really great points. Here are my immediate takeaways:

 

A Few Top Coupon / Loyalty Affiliates:

  • Offers.com
  • Shopathome.com
  • Cheapsally.com
  • Bradsdeals.com
  • Clickdeals.com
  • Dealtaker.com
  • Couponsurfer.com
  • Mrrebates.com
  • Deals.com
  • Savings.com
  • CouponCabin.com
  • Amazing-Bargains.com
  • RetailMeNot.com

 

Two Types of Buyers on Coupon Sites:

  1. “Penny Pinchers” – can only afford to buy if they get a discount
  2. “Deal Seekers” – will buy (and up their order volume) only if there is a deal on

 

Challenges with Working with Coupon / Deal Sites:

  1. Margin Erosion
  2. Increased media cost (pay for affiliate plus ppc)
  3. Brand dilution
  4. Poor customer satisfaction (the coupon doesn’t work)
  5. Loss of control (once you let it loose where do you go? It gets out of control)
  6. Inaccurate analytics
    1. – how do you measure the effectiveness of one particular coupon on one particular site when it gets let loose and picked up everywhere?

 

 Alternatives to Giving a Discount Coupon

  1. Free shipping
  2. Minimum purchase amount
  3. Product, Brand or Category Specific
  4. Deal of the Day
  5. Limited Quantity
  6. Bundling
  7. Gift with Purchase
  8. Clearance
  9. Seasonal Sales

 

Marketing Goals of Working with Coupons (and you should be measuring these):

  1. Increased AOV
  2. Acquire new customers
  3. Re-engaging existing customers
  4. Limit Exposure
  5. Control media costs
  6. Extend Brand

 

How to Manage your Coupons Properly:

  1. Test with select groups of partners – try a coupon with only one or two affiliates first and see how they work.
  2. Use exclusives / vanity code
  3. Negotiate for premium placement
  4. Limit use to channel or partners
  5. Determine the right metrics to measure before you start

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