The Affiliate Blogger

so, turns out Google, who own boutiques.com will be becoming an affiliate, setting up a site dedicated to pushing fashion, its surprising its taken this long, but i guess at the same time the fashion industry has taken just as long to come online. its a real shame i can’t find more information on Googles move to becoming an affiliate, especially given that boutiques.com only shows a blank site with a user and password access, clearly the announcement of Googles affiliate site was a tad premature. Interestingly I’ve always considered Google an affiliate, and whilst their commission isn’t paid on a CPA sale basis, it does oporate on a CPC basis, and the mechanics, or more accurately the principles of that business model oporate in the same way.

as far as googles choice to be an affiliate in the fashion sector, it think thats a loaded dice, fashion by its very nature is the pinnical of a ‘false’ consumer industry, in so much as you don’t NEED the latest fashion, there is no NEED for fashion to change every season, yet, we lap it up like heroine. as such Fashion is actually an excellent industry for affiliates and for google to focus on, after all, it changes every few months, there are enough varity just in a single style (sizes, colours, material), its elitist in as much as you have to earn enough plus you need style, its the female equivalent of the mobile phone and electronics market, add to this celebrity endorsment and how much opinion goes into certain styles (what did you think of the Nu Goth movement?) thats a lot of content thats totally opinion led that can be generated!

i think aside from being a threat to smaller fashion oriented affiliates, this move by google will do good things for the affiliate industry and be a good thing for consumers. whether fashion affiliates will be affected and whether google’s affiliate site will be a success remains to be seen.

this last year has seen loads of premium high street retailers move online, sure ASOS, Next and so forth have been doing it for some time, but it was interesting to see the likes of Puma, Mango, even Zara not only build ecommerce and mobile sites, but also setup affiliate campaigns, most seem to have gone to Linkshare UK, which i’d question as being an ideal network, but thats an post for another time. I think its a good thing to see high fashion moving towards the online world, it seems they have been slow to react to the decline in high street and the recession has pushed them in this direction, especially when you look at the data, which indicates a drop in high street whilst online continues to grow. I find it odd that fashion brands have taken so long to get to this point. it seems a little like an act of desperation, though i can’t complain as it means more business for us!

Fashion is an interesting concept, its basically founded by peoples insecurities, aspirations and need for individuality, as such there are really only so many ways you can cut a shirt, or a pair of jeans, there are only so many colours and so many materials, and really when you look at fashion on the high street, all fashion broadly follows the same trends, meaning that its harder for individual brands to stand out aside from a few core details, such as quality etc. fashion also changes more and more rapidly with 4 seasons a year the landscape is ever changing, now online has always been able to cater for this, but what hasn’t really been figured out is how to communicate that in-store experience online, now add to that the fact that online you have more competitors, sometimes brands are actually competing against themselves and their suppliers, its a difficult market to stand out in, even if you are a brand, and given that social media is so prevalent, controlling your brand which seems to be a big part of any fashion label is near impossible.

add to this that fashion is all about looking good, you have an issue with helping consumers to try and mix and match. whilst there are solutions to this its never going to replace a store.

now one of the big issues for fashion brands is being able to control their brand, which is possible online but more difficult, this explains some of the resistance brands have had to affiliate marketing. but really its about being transparent and managing the affiliates in the correct way. naturally these brands don’t want to appear to be discounting and have a resistance to voucher sites, but how much of this is a result of the actual data and how much of it is based on fear? unless fashion merchants are willing to learn and understand the finer points in affiliate marketing, they’ll never be performing to the fullest of their potential, and given some of the site reviews i’ve seen about some of these fashion brands, their venture online will amount to nothing more than a half hearted attempt.

anyways, more info here.

really cool tools here, first for ppl who want more control of display CPM activity, but could equally be applied to affiliate networks is invizua.com, check out the video, seems like a pretty cool idea, though i have to point out i’ve not actually used it.

here we have datamanager i think its run by the same company, the cool thing about this is the visual processing of huge amounts of data, with the level of granularity we can now get to, tools like this really are invaluable, if i could link this in with multiple systems one could potentially automate huge swathes of processes, eg. this could take user browsing data along with stock level data and feed out to an automatically automated PPC bid management process. see the demo here.

i’m not an expert in social media but with digital marketing converging there are very few areas that sit totally apart from all the data and the level of direct management planning and control that we see in affiliate marketing, social media and viral marketing are two areas that still continue to me more difficult to measure and control, this makes sense after all you can’t control what people like and choose to share, ironically, this is what makes these two channels not only effective but also its part of the reason why a marketer would choose to use these two channels, trying to control or even measure it, therefore is a moot point. anyways there are ways to strengthen the odds in your favor to get a campaign going viral, i found this article here which gives you some idea of the considerations during the planning stages.

conversion rates are something that affiliate marketing hinges on after all if you paying on sales the ability for the site to convert the traffic from users visiting the site to users actually making a sale is key, and point to note, this isn’t something affiliates or even the network or agency has any influence over, it boils right down to how the site is built, how compelling the offer is to the consumer and that great equation value = benefits/costs.

Conversion is what this game is all about, but it ultimately sits with the client/merchant. there are hundreds of factors that ultimately govern conversion on a clients site, i found this article that goes over a few of the key points – here.

really nice site, quick and easy to use, basically it allows you to send digital invites to people, having received and invite from someone using this i thought I’d recommend it given the ease of use and functionality, if only ecommerce sites took a leaf out of this and enhanced their usability and processes in the same way. see it here.

Price comparison sites have really made an impact in the way we shop online, its never been easier to find what you want and figure out which retailers offer better value. or has it? price comparison still makes the assumption that you not only know what you’re looking for but also know about the various benefits and so forth, take computers, not everyone knows about RAM, or the difference between a super drive and a DVDRW. what really matters to consumers is, will it play my films, can i play such and such a game, can i put it in a bag. it makes sense then that price comparison takes these elements into account.

Wanderfly does this for travel, its a great idea and really helps the consumer make choices in a friendly and usable way, more sites should learn from this example. see it here. interesting to note, i believe they are also an affiliate.

The Secret Millionaire is a prom gram on channel 4 that puts millionaires into poverty stricken areas of the UK and gets them involved with the local community, the aim is that these millionaires eventually part with some of their money to causes and people that have touched them over the time. its a great program and really puts a ‘soul’ behind these immensely successful individuals.

Chris Brown and Mark Pearson both appeared in this seasons Secret Millionaire, and Chris founder of Sunshine.co.uk has blogged about his experience here. really great stuff from a really great guy.

Users don’t care about affiliate sites or PPC or display ads, these are all simply tools to engage with consumers, it would be false to think that consumers have a particular affinity to one or the other. In our little marketing bubble however we often thing about the stength of a channel, PPC is better at capturing consumers than display, or what ever. but the reality is that consumers interact with multiple channels all the time, and with attribution modelling this is becoming more sophisticated and influencing our marketing strategies more and more.

being from an affiliate background, i see affiliates as being channels within a channel, so there’s no reason what i’m about to say, can’t be applied on a channel basis rather than just to affiliates.

My theory is quite simple, by mergin the site testing that Conversion rate optimisation brings to the table with both the sources of traffic and the attribution path, we can deliver a bespoke experinece to customer, even new customer when they interact with a site, not only that but the level and depth of the data we can now capture can aid us in putting together product ranges and ultimately improve conversion rates and increase sales. Think of a car salesman or an estate agent, the moment you walk in they will have made a series of assumptions of you, the consumer, and will instinctively know how to approach you and sell to you. This, is basically a digital version of that process. Now I know that some retailers are already doing this, but my theory is to extend this process as far as it can go, right through to the CRM process and retargeting process, and with each interaction a customer has with site and any advertising, the process gets more and more refined until ultimately the store and the user experience is totally customized to that individuals tastes, needs and preferences.

sure, this is the mecca of where we want to get to but my gosh, we’re so close to it already.

for anyone interested heres the presentation.

for consumers, this can be one of the big ways to project value. however whilst for a merchant this can be a relatively simple process of ensuring their logistics are able to cope. for their marketing this can cause all sorts of issues and lead to inefficent campaign results. specifically for affiliates it raises all sorts of questions which need to answered before a 365 day returns policy is setup and pushed to consumers.

1. do commissions stay pending for 365 days?

2. who the same restrain be placed on PPC or SEO, i.e. would any returns be factored into results for these channels as they would be on affiliate?

3. do you offer different types of affiliates different returns policies? how does this affect logistics? how does this get implemented? would it put certain affiliates at a disadvantage?

4. is it likely that customers might abuse the system? e.g. get cashback then return the goods? how can this be prevented? are you going to offer free returns?

these are just a few of the questions that need to be considered, but in reality there are far more. ultimately as with anything online, because of this drive towards efficency and because of the data available, what is a relative simple change has a wave of impact accross all digital marketing channels, especially affiliate marketing…simply because the controls are there to be menipulated.

Two interesting articles based on a  panel of responses from affiliates, networks, Prezzibox (retailer), mythings, and critio

http://www.affiliates4u.com/news/2010/10/behavioural-retargeting-affiliates-chalk-cheese/

http://www.affiliates4u.com/news/2010/10/behavioural-retargeting-affiliates-part-two/

this says it all IMO –

What do you think advertisers should be aware of when setting up BR?

Zak Edwards (Prezzybox): Our stats prove that a number of visitors visit the site in the day, then return to purchase on the evening. There is a possibility therefore that you could be paying commission out where you don’t have to.

What are your thoughts on Post-Impression (PI) Cookies?

Zak Edwards (Prezzybox): I’m not overly convinced at the validity of a PI cookie. With a standard cookie, there is at least some validation that the user has actively engaged with that call to action (they have clicked on a link/banner etc) whereas they may not have seen the banner which instigates the PI cookie.

A current list of Behavioural Retargeting (BR) companies are working on different metrics; some CPM, some CPC and some CPA. If BR is all about driving sales, why isn’t it pure CPA?

Zak Edwards (Prezzybox): Good point, which is another “sticking point” when it comes to the validity of PI cookies. If the BR companies had total confidence in their solutions then why would they not operate on a purely CPA basis?

Do you think advertisers can benefit from BR and if so how what would be your preferred payment metric for them?

Zak Edwards (Prezzybox): Yes. However, I think the payment metric has to be CPA, and I think the CPA has to be a LOT lower than with standard cookies. I can’t see there being a huge uptake by merchants if the BR companies want the same commission to paid for a user who “might” have seen a banner to a user who has actually clicked on a banner.

just wanted to share this…now close your jaws

having working in affiliate marketing for some time, i’ve got a natural instinct against display, its not that i don’t believe there is a place for display campaign, but i believe too much value is attributed to a channel that to all intents and purposes is very inefficent. Behavioural Retargeting is the newest buzz world on the street and seems to be an attempt by a slowly dying industry to save itself. the concept is pretty simple, ads are show AFTER the customer has interacted with the brand’s site and left, the idea being that ads will be served up that are contextually relevent to the users browsing experience, in the hope of enticing the customer back to the brands site. Makes sense. save for one small area which is in direct conflict with affiliate campaigns and overall online marketing…this small point basically takes us back a step.

Retargeting companies want a post impression cookie to take precidence over a post click cookie…erm, can any one point out the flaw in that? here’s a clue, how do you PROVE a user has seen an ad?

this pretty much sums it up in a nut shell -

Zak Edwards (Prezzybox): I’m not overly convinced at the validity of a PI cookie. With a standard cookie, there is at least some validation that the user has actively engaged with that call to action (they have clicked on a link/banner etc) whereas they may not have seen the banner which instigates the PI cookie.
add to this, the fact that the retargeting companies themselves have said it would be difficult for them to meet their margins if they conducted their business on a post-click CPA basis, and i think you’ll agree retargeting doesn’t work…afterall the objective of all this is to make sales and make money. anyways whats re-invigorated this who debate was this post, definately worth reading.

what makes a great ecommerce product page? is it nice photos? clear call to actions, good layout? all of the above, we’ve all got this tick ox of what is ‘best practice’ and makes a ‘good’ ecommerce page..but we are all different, we like different things, and ultimately we react to visual stimulus in different ways, its what makes some people like a Dali more than a van gough, or a BMW more than an aston martin. having read this post and being the data monkey that i am, i feel compelled to stress just how subjective the post is, sure the pages all meet best practice, but with out data, facts and evidential proof that the performance on those sites as improved when compared with their original versions, the fact that these pages are the ‘ten great ecommerce pages’ is totally subjective and ultimately anecdotal. In online we’re exposed to so much data, it seems foolish to ignore this for emotional opinions.

if these pages are as strong as suggested, then we should see higher conversion rates, more consumer engagement and ultimately more sales for the client, we should see heat maps that light up the key areas that the retailer whats to stress. these measurements would give stronger indication of how successful the site is, rather than simple opinion.

this made me LOL – here, its by an artist called jtnimoy.net, its meant to be  A minimal meme-sized ecommerce piece meant as a commentary on micropayment, web services, self-reflexivity, and recursion. – here
I think its quite an interesting concept, the value of $0.20 makes it so minimal in commitment that relatively few people will find it restrictive, the security of Paypal also adds a layer of protection that would encourage people to part with the relatively low commitment.  think its a pretty powerful statement to make and i’d be very interested in the data something like this could garner.