Share-A-Sale's New Leap Frog Feature Good News for Merchants and Affiliates

shareasale's leap frog feature - share-a-saleA little insider information allowed me a sneak peak at Share-A-Sale's new feature they call “Leap Frogging” which every merchant in Share-A-Sale needs to know about. This is great news for both merchants and affiliates for the reasons described below.

In a nutshell, merchants can now submit tickets to have custom tracking set up that will credit affiliates differently according to different set rules which will significantly help with attribution.

Some of the rules created around the Leap Frog feature could include time on affiliate site, order of clicks, and so on. The "leap frog" affiliate is the one that sends traffic to a merchant first and "leap frogs" over another affiliate who would otherwise get credit for getting the last click.  This makes crediting affiliates much more fair.

Because of this feature, commissions can now either go to the first affiliate or be split accordingly – say 20% of the sale goes to a coupon affiliate who got the last click and 80% goes to the content affiliate who sent the traffic in the first place, as an example.

The features is still very new and Share-a-sale is slowly rolling it out, however they are doing it for a few companies already and it seems to be working beautifully.

 

Why This is Good News for Affiliates

If you're a blogger, content site, PPC affiliate and the like, you're probably used to having some of the high value traffic you send to a merchant be "stolen" or otherwise credited to another affiliate who got the last click, such as a coupon site or someone using a toolbar. With this new feature, you can still get full credited for your hard work if not share commissions according to the merchant's attribution design. This means a lot more sales for you!

 

Why This is Good News for Merchants

Because of the last click model that's been the norm since the beginning, and since online shoppers have changed, many affiliates who are driving high value incremental sales are not being credited accordingly. This is because shoppers often check around before they make a buying decision and possibly even end up on a coupon site half way through checkout, giving credit to the coupon affiliate instead of the affiliate who sent the traffic in the first place. This leaves your best affiliates, the ones who are driving the highest value referrals in the first place, high and dry.

Too many merchants are giving full credit to the wrong affiliates, especially when the affiliate marketing strategy is to drive new customer aquisition. As a result, many merchants rely on coupon and daily deal sites to drive the bulk of their sales. This prevents many programs from effectively growing their sales because the higher value affiliates who are sending the first click are leaving programs they cannot earn from.

With this new feature, you can now keep your best preforming affiliates happy by paying on the first click or by splitting commissions instead of always crediting the last click. This will keep your program growing properly while keeping your highest value affiliates active!

 

The steps for setting the Leap Frog feature up in Share-A-Sale are: 

  1. Determine the rules for custom tracking
  2. Determine the commission split
  3. Submit request to SAS through a ticket

 

That's it! You're now on your way to a healthier, happier program!

LinkShare UK Closed for Security Alert - New Address

I had to laugh - talk about timing. I got an email this morning from Linkshare UK that announced the new location of their head office. Then literally three hours later I got another email that their office was closed due to a local security alert. I can see why they are moving! (Kidding!:P)

Just passing on the info here if anyone needs to contact them in the UK for whatever reason effective Monday April 30th:

Address:

16 High Holborn
London, WC1V 6BX

Phone: +44 (0)20 7427 8120.

Note: this is not an endorsement to work with them, it's just an FYI in case you need to contact them and can't.

Top 50 Best Affiliate Network Comparison: 2009 vs 2011

In 2009 Website Magazine came out with a Top 50 list of Affiliate Networks that ranged from CPA (Cost Per Action) to PPS (Pay Per Sale) and PPL (Pay Per Lead) networks. In 2011, they came out with a new list of Top 100 Advertising and Affiliate Networks (which was actually only 99 if you count them). What I find interesting is the new blend of Ad Buy Search Networks vs the Affiliate Marketing Networks and the differences between them. You can read the full article here for more information about these. More Ad Networks, such as 7Search.com are popping up as well as more CPA. I also find that most networks are looking to offer additional services to be more E-Commerce 3.0 friendly. Ultimately networks are continuously looking for new ways to increase their revenues and service offering in this highly competitive industry.

Here is a recap of the lists from 2009 and 2011.

Top 50 Best Affiliate Networks in 2009

1. ClickBooth.com
2. OurFreeStuff.net
3. Copeac.com
4. XY7.com
5. RevenueLoop.com
6. CJ.com

7. ClickBank.com
8. FriendFinder.com
9. ShareaSale.com

10. Zanox.com
11. Fluxads.com
12. LinkShare.com
13. Axill.com
14. TradeDoubler.com
15. AffiliateFuture.co.uk
16. HydraNetwork.com

17. AdsMarket.com
18. AdValiant.com
19. WebGains.com
20. InstantDollarz.com
21. MarketLeverage.com
22. PantheraNetwork.com
23. LevelClick.com
24. aZoogleAds.com
25. DirectLeads.com
26. MaxBounty.com

27. MotiveInteractive.com
28. ROIrocket.com
29. ShareResults.com
30. PlatinumPartner.com
31. Rextopia.com
32. IronOffers.com
33. ClickXChange.com
34. LeaderMarkets.com
35. MarketHealth.com
36. TriadMediaNetwork.com
37. OfferWeb.com
38. ClixGalore.com
39. Convert2Media.com
40. PepperJamNetwork.com

41. iLogins.com
42. PrimaryAds.com
43. CandadianSponsors.com
44. Affiliateer.com
45. AffiliateWindow.com
46. LogicalMedia.com
47. AffiliateFuel.com
48. MoreNiche.com
49. Affiliatebot.com
50. LinkConnector.com

Top 50 Advertising and Affiliate Networks To Consider in 2011

  1. CJ.com
  2. 7Search.com
  3. AffiliateFuture.com
  4. ClickBank.com
  5. PepperjamNetwork.com
  6. AdFunky.com
  7. Revver.com
  8. BurstMedia.com
  9. Chitika.com
  10. ClixGalore.com
  11. Marchex.com
  12. LinkWorth.com
  13. BlogAds.com
  14. BravenetMedia.com
  15. Advertise.com
  16. AdonNetwork.com
  17. MaxBounty.com
  18. Text-Link-Ads.com
  19. Pheedo.com
  20. ClickXChange.com
  21. adside.com
  22. admarketplace.com
  23. leadermarkets.com
  24. brightroll.com
  25. neverblue.com
  26. popuptraffic.com
  27. ybrantnetworks.com
  28. jivox.com
  29. yieldbuild.com
  30. commissionsoup.com
  31. tremormedia.com
  32. crispads.com
  33. payperpost.com
  34. pogads.com
  35. revenuepilot.com
  36. cpxinteractive.com
  37. clicksor.com
  38. infolinks.com
  39. clickbooth.com
  40. bidvertiser.com
  41. shareasale.com
  42. adbrite.com
  43. tribalfusion.com
  44. blogsvertise.com
  45. incentaclick.com
  46. paypopup.com
  47. kontera.com
  48. copeac.com
  49. zanox.com
  50. adengage.com

49 More Advertising and Affiliate Networks to Consider in 2011

  1. linkconnector.com
  2. contextweb.com
  3. azoogleads.com
  4. fluxads.com
  5. bannerconnect.net
  6. bluelithium.com
  7. adknowledge.com
  8. 247realmedia.com
  9. interclick.com
  10. casalemedia.com
  11. kanoodle.com
  12. adap.tv
  13. enhance.com
  14. adify.com
  15. adblade.com
  16. rightmedia.com
  17. adparlor.com
  18. advertising.com
  19. fetchback.com
  20. audiencescience.com
  21. admanage.com
  22. spotxchange.com
  23. videoegg.com
  24. theepicmediagroup.com
  25. kitaramedia.com
  26. mirago.com
  27. adfish.com
  28. blinkads.com
  29. adgenta.com
  30. auditude.com
  31. fastclick.com
  32. specificmedia.com
  33. intellitxt.com
  34. valueclick.com
  35. admaxnetwork.com
  36. adpepper.com
  37. liverail.com
  38. admagnet.com
  39. adfusion.com
  40. yume.com
  41. adotube.com
  42. scanscout.com
  43. adtegrity.com
  44. adagency1.com
  45. accelerator-media.com
  46. adtoll.com
  47. adsmart.net
  48. adservingnetwork.com
  49. atxdirect.com

What I find interesting is that no affiliate network or ad network made it into the top 5 both years. Even ShareaSale dropped for #9 in 2009 to #41 in 2011, ranking far below many other newer affiliate networks Ive never even heard of before. It makes me wonder what rating criteria they are using to select their rankings and how they are assessing the quality and value of each of these networks to determine who deserves the #1 spot. Either way, you can see there are a great variety of affiliate networks and ad networks to choose from. I recommend shopping around to find the one that best suites your needs while also taking into consideration their reach, ethics, affiliate base, cost, tracking technology, back-end platform and overall reputation in the industry from people who've actually used them.

Why ShareaSale over Commission Junction, LinkShare or an In House Program?

 

I recently had a question from one of my new client's web development team asking why we'd choose to work with Share-a-Sale over one of the larger networks such as Commission Junction or LinkShare. He also suggested that we could use a shopping cart plug in for affiliate tracking instead. Here was my reply to him.

"I have worked with a variety of different in house programs as well as with the big names in affiliate networks. The big three for e-commerce are Commission Junction (CJ), LinkShare (LS) and Google Affiliate Network (GAN). There are about 1000 affiliate networks these days all offering “the best solution”.

What I’ve found over the years is that it’s not necessary to launch in one of the big name networks in order to have a successful affiliate program. Shareasale has one of the best reputations in the industry for several things:

  1. Incredible support and tool options for both their merchants and affiliates
  2. Ethical affiliate activity – they go above and beyond to ensure fraudulent activity is kept out of their network as much as possible, which allows the merchants to focus more on things like affiliate recruitment and activation instead of full time fraud monitoring and policing
  3. They are less expensive than the big networks
  4. All of the legitimate super affiliates (who do not use malicious malware, spyware or toolbars) work with them.

Aside from my personal recommendation to work with them, Pat Grady from RhinoFish had also recommended them separately from me. They have a very good reputation in many regards and we can do the job well with them.

Why work with a network vs in house program? Several reasons:

  1. Many good affiliates have been burnt by unethical merchants trying to scam them out of commission payouts and will now ONLY work with networks to ensure tracking and payouts are fair.
  2. We get additional exposure for more efficient recruitment and activation
  3. We get additional support from their in house tech team to make things easier for our internal team
  4. Many affiliates are already comfortable with their interface and do not have to learn an in-house solution to be able to participate with us.

That said, it might make sense in the future to have an in-house solution as well. Sometimes we're able to offer both and keep higher performing affiliates we've personally recruited using the in-house tracking platform, which saves on network fees."

There are many options out there, and I do encourage you to do your homework to find the affiliate network which best suites your needs. Sometimes merchants will launch with multiple networks, but that's another discussion all in itself.

For those of you who've worked with Shareasale (whether you're an affiliate or a merchant), why do you like to work with them?

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