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Fat Face
Kiddicare
Hamleys
entertaining things to do with media
this made me laugh, its part of a series found here, funny as they are there is a ring of truth to them, afterall for all of us in marketing its easy to overlook the fact that it’s all about the customer, its easy to forget this given the complex science media has become.
this made me chuckle for the simple fact that its so true! more here
now last but not least, though i hate the term ‘best practice’ there are some common guidelines that apply, and given affiliate marketing is all about conversion rates this is particularly useful as a guide to forming landing pages -
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Change is in the air
2011 has already market some significant change in the air. i think this year is going to be one hell of a year. and its going to mean a lot of pressure on smaller affiliates.
Affiliate marketing has always been an informal industry, looking round any conference you’ll see people who looked like they just stepped off a plane from Barbados (to be fair they probably have), not that its any reflection on an individuals choice of fashion at all, but you’ll assume that if you were going to be speaking to the marketing director of, lets say Sky, you’d make a little bit of an effort to look like you mean business.
which is really the crux of the issue. this year, its all about professionalism, merchants are alredy going through massive cost cutting exercises and they don’t really care for small affiliates who suck up their time with banner requests and ask for exclusive codes without really having the traffic to justify it. this year, the big affiliates will get all the attention, and the deals are going to be longer term and far more specific.
what this means for the average one man affiliate is you’re going to need to up your game, think about affiliate marketing as a business not a game or a hobby, start thinking about the client and stop thinking the world owes you a favour and an exclusive code. start thinking about how you can push the boundaries to improve the quality of your traffic and the volume of your traffic and merchant will stand up and pay attention. Ranting on the forums and sounding off about how a merchant hasn’t done such and such isn’t going to change things…be more influential on their campaign and you might just see merchants tailoring the campaign to your favour.
at the end of the day its simple. merchants want lots of new customers, who don’t use codes…if you can get this, the flood gates will open.
books to read
if you’re in affiliate marketing, or interested in the traffic element of digital marketing (i.e. SEO, PPC, affiliate, email) then your job is very much all about the numbers, looking for patterns, trends and anomalies on which to back up theories and spot problems, using this data you can then build and plan strategies that should in theory improve the performance of your affiliate program. as such i’m always fascinated by business books and economics, despite being one of the worst ever economics students when i was at school (it wasn’t until i actually started to work with the number that it all started to make sense).
so, book you simply have to read because they are all about data and finding patterns and outliers within the data -
1. freakonomics, totally amazing book and documentry film that really stresses what is a consequential result of data, what is coincidental and what is causal, really good for anyone interested in looking at why certain things are the way they are and will help you think in a way that helps you to make causality related analysis.
2. outliers – another book about causality and spotting remote yet directly connected data to help explain result, really easy to read and the kind of data shown will really blow you away.
3. blink – not so much a book about data, but kind of remotely related, and stresses how important it is to be an expert as well as to trust your gut instinct then look at the data to back up your suspicions.
if you haven’t read these i highly recommend them not lease because all are highly entertaining mind blowing books that will really sharpen your mind.
2011 in scope
finally back in the swing of things, with work already starting the mount up, i’ve not had some time to sit down and write. so, whats big in 2011 in the world of afiliate marketing?
1. retargeting – i reckon, the world of affiliate marketing will see more and more retargeting and its associated privacy issues
2. vouchers – every year this comes up, so i’m going to be a little more specific, i personally think there will be a shift from this, particularly by brands, every client i’ve worked with has asked how we can get the same volume of traffic without having to use the voucher sites. this being said, you cant ignore just how influential these sites are. regardless, its sure to drum up debate on the usual affiliate forums and no doubt we’ll see merchants starting to edge away where they can.
3. attribution – hopefully this will be the year that we actually see a working attribution model on an affiliate campaign, more importantly i’m hopeful that we’ll see a theroetical model of how multichannel, multinetwork/affiliate attribution could work
4. Mobile – apparently this is the year of mobile, and we’ve already seen a mobile affiliate network developed, i suspect we’re going to see changes in tracking to allow compatability between moblie and online, i’m sure we’ll start to see a new breed of app affiliates crop up, and hopefully doing a bit more than simply listing vouchers.
6. B2B – i think we’ll start to see more B2B businesses asking to working in an affiliate format, however its chicken and egg given we’ll need B2B affiliates as well, i suspect this is a growth area that will see movement this year.
7. new customer vs repeat customer – i think several businesses are now at a point where their internal CRM (customer relationship management, i.e. email marketing) has grown to the point where the believe they shouldn’t be pying affiliates for repeat customers, i think we’ll see more affiliate campaigns that focus on new customer, perhaps paying lower or no commission at all for repeat customers.
8. CRO (conversion rate optimisation) – i think this year will see the growth of CRO within businesses, its not a directly linked to affiliate marketing, but conversion rates always have an impact on affiliate campaigns, so growth in CRO will have a knock on effect with affiliate campaigns.
9. merchant to merchant partnerships -i think we’ll see more of merchants acting as affiliates of other merchants, though i mean affiliate in the looses sense, they payment or exchange won’t necissarily be money, but could be traffic.
10. 2011 the year of data – i think we’ll be looking at more data being captured and menipulated by merchants agencies and networks, i think that networks are going to need to be smarter and more creative with the technology they provide.
Overall, i think 2011 is going to be a strong year for affiliate marketing, especially with global economies still teetering precariously, i think we’ll see growth as more businesses start to realize that affiliate marketing is both cost efficent and safe as a marketing and payment model, which should help the industry become more organized and professions…all good things in my eyes.
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Happy new year!
hello all,
just got back from scotland, so apologies for the lack of posts, happy new year! more updates soon!
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Merry xmas and the Xmas rush
First happy Xmas to everyone, I hope you are all enjoying the Xmas period and able to spend time with all your loved ones.
Xmas 2010 has been pretty good for me in affiliate land, my own affiliate sites have been doing really well, results peaked on black Friday in the US as I expected giving my traffic sources. After that dat commissions and sales started to decline, it was the same with my google adsense commissions, all in all it’s been a pretty good Xmas, I think I’ll clear around £500 in affiliate commissions.
Workwise, the data shows that sales peaked earlier in the US than in the uk, we saw peaks the week of pay day over here, but there were issues around delivery dates and consumers being particularly concerned about getting the right products in time.
From a research point of view I’m very keen to look at the comparables -
Are people buying more?
Are people buying cheaper?is there a pattern between ppl buying more closer to Xmas? And how does this affect the basket value?
How does this compare with last year?
What has the usage of voucher codes been, and how does this affect product choice and basket values, how is this related to the time before Xmas?
What has the impact of cash back sites been?
Getting and understanding of the data is the fun bit for me and will help up start thinking about the consumer behaviour around the biggest shopping period of the year, with the weather this year having had a significant impact on consumers lives, will next year see new services and options for consumers help address these concerns?
Using the data
My job is more like that of an analyist rather than that of a creative, in affiliate marketing you ahev to blend creative and entreprenural thinking against commercial decisions, given this, its all about the data, and its all about letting the data justify your actions. we test everything and no decision we make is done with out first looking at the data, and setting up a clear question of what it is we’re looking to test, i believe that this is one of the key benefits of affiliate marketing, and most online marketing channels. after all, its the data that counts. the kind of things we look at include impressions, clicks, sales and sales volume, this is just the base level the next level is conversion rates, click through rates and comparables against other channels – i.e. cost per click, revenue per click, cost per thousand impressions, reveneu per thousand impressions.
by looking at this data on a campaign, affiliate type and individual affiliate level, we can optimise the campaign using various ‘levers’ these levers include consumer incentives, discount codes, site optimisation to improve conversion rates, creative optimisation to improve click through rates, affiliate selection and commission adjustments.
in this way we can take campaigns from simply ‘running’ to fully optimised, though optimisation never ends.
Different types of affiliate management
Affiliate management is one of those titles that no one really knows what it means, it’s a role that isn’t really defined in a way that a fund manager or accountant is defined, and in reality it’s a role that encompasses many different roles. I started my working life in affiliate marketing, you could argue that I’m one of the first generation of affiliate marketing professionals, in as much as professionals who have started their working careers in affiliate marketing. Given this I started right at the bottom of the ladder at a network, and in the grubbiest part of affiliate marketing, lead gen. I’m now pretty much at the top of the affiliate management ladder so i’ve managed to see how affiliate management has changed and witnessed many different approaches to affiliate management.
The old guard – the generation of affiliate managers before the ‘first gen’ (my generation) were able to capitalise on a newly emerging industry with few rules and only open to a select few, it was a small industry with only a few key affiliates, PPC brand bidding was rife and PPC agencies and teams weren’t common, this was how a lot of affiliates made a lot of money very quickly, and affiliate managers had their cut, it was ‘easy’ in as much as you knew who to work with and expectations and competition as well as knowledge was limited, so even a small improvement was significant. It was a case of who you knew more than anything else.
The arrival of the PPC agency- with many affiliates and agencies taking notice of Googles PPC proposition and merchants getting more experience of the online world and the numbers and implications, brand bidding started to become more limited this resulted in more competition, and a greater need to innovate, it became about content and big site, in particular price comparison, however as the price comparison grew, the affiliate marketing industry grew again and affiliate managers had to get yet more creative.
Discount discounts, everywhere – this falls well and truly in my generation of affiliate managers, in the generation we even have businesses and entrepreneurs who haven’t done anything else in their professional careers other than affiliate marketing. Discount codes have become even more significant with the the global recession really making consumers jitter and seek better value and bigger deals, it’s at this point that the industry really started to become more professional (we’re talking about 2008/09) the IAB affiliate marketing council was formed, affiliate managers were starting to get a stronger and deeper understanding of how affiliate marketing influenced the bigger marketing picture.
Different styles different strokes – these days affiliate management is done by freelancers, agencies, affiliates, and networks, everyone has a different idea everyone has a different approach and as with anything in the world of business, there is no right or wrong way of doing affiliate management. So with this, here are some different approached I’ve come across
The schmoozer – you see them at all the events wining and dining affiliate, he’s your best mate, so long as you run his campaign..but there is a bit of a catch, his campaigns really aren’t all that great.
The content writer- they’ll give you all the content you want, code it all up and generally give any affiliate what they want but when it comes to the client, you’ll struggle to find a report.
The back room loner- hardly seen at events, he’s the guy on your msn that you’ve done business with for years yet you’ve never seen him in person, he’s hard working and good with numbers, shame you’d sooner get water from a stone than any kind of bespoke strategy or innovation.
The trader – an all rounder that missed the turning into investment banking, good with numbers, good with peep, he’d see him mum just to get you to push his campaign, every things a deal and there’s no such thing as a free lunch
The analyst – it’s all about numbers with this one, want an exclusive code? You better prove it with numbers, need more reactive? Get the number, want a data feed? Yep, you guessed it, get the numbers.
The wanna be affiliate- they will always side with the affiliate, forget about what the client is trying to achieve, it the affiliates that count, they’ll get a client to allow brand bidding and release as many codes as possible just to keep affiliates happy
The innovator – affiliate marketing isn’t affiliate marketing to these folk, it simply a payment mechanic and it’s all about pushing the technology and mechanics to the n-th degree just to try something new.
The green ear – these are the marketers who ‘fell’ into affiliate marketing, they don’t get it and probably never will, then think cookies are for eating and de-duping is a kind of soap, good luck trying to explain to them a simple mechanic, they’ve made their mind up and will probably not change it even as the world crumbles around them
Letter to the Economist
I just read both the online and offline versions of this article from The Economist, as a professional at a digital agency i find this kind of thinking will push the industry back, and further alienate the industry from potential businesses who are still trying to get to grips with the internet, let alone the small but budding industry that is affiliate marketing (not that you can call £4.6bn small)
the comment that got me really frustrated was the one below -
The spam itself comes from “affiliates”—groups of criminal freelancers who are paid a high commission on every sale they generate.
my Jaw dropped at this kind of mis-leading statement, whats more from a highly respected business magazine, it reeks of poor research and sensationalist assumptions borne from a lack of understanding of affiliate marketing. I was really appalled and sent this in response -
i was very disappointed at the lack of accuracy in your blog article titled – Spamming Dissected dated Nov 18th 2010. I also read the print version of your article titled Confidence Game Dealing with Spam pg. 13 Nov. 20th 2010.
I work in the affiliate marketing industry, I am head of affiliate marketing at an agency with several blue chip clients, many have successful affiliate campaigns, so i feel this article mis-represents an entire industry and misleads readers, given your audience of readers this may well have a knock on effect on our industry.
the main offending paragraph is this one -
The spam itself comes from “affiliates”—groups of criminal freelancers who are paid a high commission on every sale they generate. They send the spam from “botnets”, networks of hacked personal computers.
The affiliate marketing industry is a £4.6 billion industry in the UK, you can see reference to this here and via econsultancy -http://www.amnavigator.com/blog/2010/09/09/2010-stats-and-trends-uk-affiliate-marketing/
clients range from – Boots, Sky, Vodaphone, M&S, Dixons amongst the 3-4000 businesses that currently have successful affiliate campaigns, including Future Publishing, and WH Smith.
To add further Irony a google search for ‘economist affiliate’ brings up this article (dated April 5th 2010)http://www.abestweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131528 – it shows the Economists very own affiliate program via the Google Affiliate Network.
I feel that your statement which misleads readers to believe that spam itself comes from “affiliates” is false and misleading, affiliates aren’t groups of criminal freelancers, in fact affiliates include such businesses as Nectar, Airmiles, Quidco, Vouchercodes.co.uk and even some retailers such as Jessops, Hilton and Lovefilm.
affiliate marketing is very simply a payment model where commission is paid on a cost-per-acquisition basis, based on a clients pre-specified requirements.
I’d very much hope that this articles misleading details aren’t symptomatic of an otherwise fantastic magazine.
clearly The Economist has something to learn about the online world…
Affiliate marketing is a model
Affiliate marketing has all sorts of connotations, you can consider it a marketing channel in its own right, you can consider it to be about partnerships, but really, when you boil it down to its core basics, affiliate marketing is simply a payment solution. Its a business model to pay for marketing in a more effective way.
is there really that much difference between an affiliate site and a blog? or a news site? or a comparison site? – not really. the only difference is how they charge for the ad placement inventory they have on their site. or in the case of PPC affiliates, how they charge for their services and costs of buying ad space from google.
when you look at it this way, then it really stands true that affiliate marketing is really all about partnerships, using the CPA affiliate marketing model as a means of accounting for the financials of the relationship. but what really matters is that relationship and the fact that marketing budgets are spent more effectively.
Affiliate marketing has always suffered from a bad name but when you look it as purely a financal model rather than being a seperate marketing channel altogether, your ability to work with affiliates and the affiliate marketing industry suddenly becomes a lot easier and more managable.
A new way of attribution?
After thing about asigning different times to different cookies based on they type of affiliate. Equally however the same logic to be applied to different channels, eg. cookie length for display should be different to the cookie length for retargeting or PPC.
by setting the cookie lengths in this way, we are already contributing towards attribution modelling, we’re suggesting that the length of time it takes for a customer to return to the site after their first visit has the influence of that channels contribution, and we’re capping that influence based on the time between the customer visiting and returning.
if you match this with the current attribution work that has been done, then the only element left to consider is the process of splitting the commission between the different affiliate and channels, this still stands in the way of attrbution commission being a truely workable solution.
somehow i don’t think this final dilemma will be resolved any time soon
Cookies how long should they last
in the UK, the standard duration for an affiliate cookie seems to have been set at 30 days to 60 days. to give you a little back ground cookies are snippets of code that sit on the users computer, they act as flags and allow affiliate marketing to track the different reporting element, where the user came from, what they baught, what the referring creative was etc. without this information, online marketing and indeed affiliate marketing wouldn’t be as effective as it is.
Cookies hav a life span and can be set to any duration, after which they expire and effectively stop capturing information. once the cookie stops passing information the flag that identifies the user no longer exists – this means there’s no way to track the user and therefore the sale is no longer recognised as being from a particular source or marketing channel.
so back to the original question – how long should a cookie last?
really there’s no easy answer, given it will be different from business to business, but to set it at a standard 30 days or 60 days is poor management, it doesn’t take into account the users sales journey and doesn’t correctly attribute sales in the right way.
if i told you about an amazing drink and you baught one of those drinks a year later, how could you with any certainty tell me that i was the sole reasound for you buying that drink? thats the logic behind the lenght of a cookie.
as such in order to set a reasonable length for a cookie, we first need to understand they typical users buying process, how long do they normally take if they don’t buy during the same browsing session. naturally this will be different from business to business, and most will notice it starts to tail off after 3-4 days. next we want to give sufficent time to account for lag, so in most cases a cookie lasting 5- 10 days would be more than realistic and would offer the most accurate attribution. in the case of Amazon they only offer a session based cookie.
a session based cookie helps to address (amongst other things) the quality of the source traffic.
now whilst setting a 10 day cookie for merchants makes sense, its also important to realize it may affect how affiliates respond to a campaign, with this in mind, you always need to think about having a balance.
One idea may be to think about setting different cookie lengths dependant on the different types of affiliates, based on their function, e.g. a voucher affiliate should have a shorter cookie than a review site, the next question would be how to prove this and justify this.
what it all comes down to though is that setting a 30-60 day cookie and following the crowd is ineffective and inefficent, it doesn’t really add to the campaign and the quality of the campaign.
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Vouchercodes.com IAB Ban
so some new this week, turns out the IAB affiliate marketing council have decided to ban vouchercodes.com for violating best pratice guidelines on a variety of points, this is big news for the industry, in as much as its the first time such a stance against an affiliate has been taken, i think it bodes well for the every growing professionalism that we’re seeing in affiliate marketing. below is the details that were sent out to both affiliates and merchants.
Hopefully you’re aware that Affiliate Window & Buy.at are members of the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC) and as such is bound by the codes of conduct issued to regulate affiliate marketing activity.
A key initiative of the Council is the Voucher Code; code of conduct designed to create a standardised approach to the use and display of voucher codes and associated content.
All member networks monitor the voucher code space to ensure compliance with the code and recently one voucher code site has been found to be regularly in breach of the code of conduct.
Therefore the AMC has taken the decision to suspend this affiliate (Vouchercodes.com) from the eight member affiliate networks for seven days, effective Thursday (25th Nov) morning.
The eight member networks are Affiliate Window, Affilinet, Buy.at, Commission Junction, LinkShare, OMG, Tradedoubler & Webgains. The breaches are in the following areas:
- Using “click to reveal code” and opening the site when no valid code is present or an offer/deal/sale is presented instead, without this being made clear before the click.
- iii) Opening the merchant’s site without making it clear that this will occur
During this period vouchercodes.com will not receive any commissions earned and you will not be liable for any override on transactions generated by this affiliate during the seven day period.
This decision hasn’t been taken lightly and reflects a determination by the AMC to ensure the high standards the affiliate industry has established over the past few years are upheld.
We appreciate this is a critical trading period and as such if you have planned promotions these can still run via the vouchercodes.com if they choose to run them but we stress they will not earn affiliate payments via the eight member affiliate networks.
You do not need to take any additional action. From Thursday morning the commissions for this affiliate will be recorded at 0%/£0.00. The links will continue to work and the consumer journey will be unaffected.
I hope you can appreciate why this action is necessary. We’re pleased to say it is a very rare occurrence that such decisions need to be made and we have full confidence in the channel to deliver incremental and valuable sales for you.
If you have any questions please direct them to:
Kevin Edwards
Chair of the AMC
Kevin.edwards@Affiliatewindow.com
020 7553 0354 / 079 7481 0547
Dan Redfearn
Membership Manager, IAB & IAB AMC representative
dan@iabuk.net
020 7050 6969
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Re-organizing my blog
again, i’ve let my affiliate blog get messy so time for a big clear out, you’ll find all posts before this on here.
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