beat the competition with the right tools
TRANSCRIPT
Beat the Competition with the
Right Tools
Moderated By:
With Special Guests:
Introductions
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Greg Shepard CEO, AffiliateTraction the largest Affiliate Marketing Agency in the world
Lori Weiman
CEO, The Search Monitor
Monitors Paid & Organic Search, WorldwideReports on rank, copy, market share, and compliance with TM’s & affiliate programs
Max Teitelbaum
COO, WhatRunsWhereMonitors Display Advertising, WorldwideReportson reach, ad content, & networks
Meet the Vendors
Affiliates Are Competitive…Look at the Stats
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Earlier this year, Forrester estimated the affiliate marketing industry would grow to
$4.5 billionby 2016
The Presence of Affiliate Marketing
Compiled by: The Search Monitor
Sources: Shoppertrak, Adobe, IRM
Consumers that shop via affiliate linksspend an average of $7 more than the average shopper
Online shopping through affiliate referrals are 43% more likely to convert than average
Merchants on average see 23% of total online sales coming from the affiliate channel.
Together, Display & Search Marketing make up more than 1/3rd
of the Affiliate Marketing Promotions space
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Affiliate MarketingWhy So Competitive?
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search MonitorWhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Top Affiliate Marketing Niches
Presence Continued
Health & Wellness Diet Education
Auto Insurance Online Gaming Dating
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5 Ways to UseCompetitive Intelligence
1. Affiliate Recruitment / Lead Generation2. Campaign Building3. Client Reporting4. Compliance5. Benchmarking & Self Review
Number 1:Affiliate Recruitment
Discover Opportunities
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Affiliate RecruitmentPaid Search
Over 30,000 Affiliates
Advertise Using Paid Search Ads
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Discover OpportunitiesPaid Search
Find Verticals with Lower Competition
Source: The Search Monitor
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Discover OpportunitiesPaid Search Product Listing Ads
Consider Sharing PLA / PPC
Merchant own PLA.Affiliate own PPC.
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Discover OpportunitiesDisplay
With online advertising numbers increasing daily…• More sites are offering ad space,• More networks are helping power campaigns• More affiliates are seeking offers to promote, etc.
Use competitive intelligence to solve these problems:• Find advertisers working with competing publishers to reach out
to• Find advertisers active with other networks to reach out to• Find offers other affiliates are promoting, etc.
Source: WhatRunsWhere
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Discover OpportunitiesDisplay
Ex. For Advertisers: Search a category that relates to your niche to find offers already being promoted
These two ads are from gamingwonderland.com– an affiliate in the gaming industry can find them and contact gamingwonderland about their affiliate program + learn how gaming ads are commonly being promoted
Source: WhatRunsWhere
Number 2:Campaign Building
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Campaign Building Use the Data
• There are various questions to ask during campaign building:• Where will I place my ads? • Where is there the most traffic?• Which ad creatives work best?
• Answer these questions with data from your competitors, including:• Which ads competitors have run the longest• Which sites or keywords they’ve placed ads on the longest• What ads they’re currently testing
Use this data to build and optimize your own campaign
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Campaign Building Display Data
Through the traffic sources function, on business2community.com we can see…• They’ve been seen here on 453 days over the past 2 years• They have a very high prevalence score here (meaning they’ve been seen a lot)
A competitor of Sprout Social can then consider:• Should we run ads here to compete with Sprout Social?• OR should we find somewhere new since they are so prevalent there?
Source: What Runs Where
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Next, let’s see some patterns from Sprout Social’s top performing ad creatives…
Apply these findings to your own campaigns – what has or has not worked already?
Campaign Building Display Creatives
Source: WhatRunsWhere
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Campaign Building What Keywords?
Find Keyword Opportunities – Compare the Number of Advertisers:• Lowest Competition: “Aviator Sunglasses” with 10 – 18 advertisers• Highest Competition: “Clip on Sunglasses” with 25 – 30 advertisers
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Campaign Building Ad Creatives?
Advertiser: TheClymb.com• Creative: 90% off Deal• Success: Ad has been running for over 2 years (463 days)• Budget: The ad shows 100% of the time for searches on the keyword ‘Snowboard Boots’
on Google Mobile. This indicates that the advertiser puts money toward it.
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Campaign Building Most Popular Black Friday Offers of 2014
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Number 3:Client Reporting
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Client ReportingDisplay
Agencies – use client reports derived from competitive intelligence to maintain existing clients + add further value to your services when appealing to future clients
• Use reports to see:• Where campaigns are running• Ad performance• Metrics – share of voice, share of category• Competitive data
Ex. Booking.com
Source: WhatRunsWhere
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Client ReportingSearch Advertising
Agencies Share Metrics Such As:• Share of Voice• Ad Spend• Visibility Score: cross-media picture of paid search, organic, and product listing ads
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Number 4:Compliance
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ComplianceThe Rules
• Prevalent Paid Search Rules• Prohibits Direct Linking• Prohibits Trademark Bidding • Ad Copy Restrictions: Trademarks or Use of Words like ‘Free’ or Regulatory• Rank Restrictions: allowed trademark bidding with rank compliance. Usually part
of a super affiliate strategy
• Prevalent Display Ad Rules• Look for Creatives that Don’t Match Your Rules
• Advertisers – Find all existing ads for your company and where they are being placed
• Publishers – See what ads should and should not be running on your site• Networks – Find ads that should not be placed
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Affiliate AdherenceMerchant Rules on Paid Search
34%38%
10%
18%
LOW MEDIUM HIGH EXTREMEcomplies TM bids direct links direct links +
TM bids
72% COMPLY
Source: The Search Monitor
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Compliance: Direct LinkingPaid Search
• Advertiser: AutopartsWarehouse.com• Problem: CJ Affiliate using a domain ‘leadtrackr.com’ is direct linking on a trademark• Challenge: Direct Linking Increases CPC’s Very Expensive for Advertisers• How Much will It Cost?: We look at the knock-out value. In this case it is 5.26%.
This means that 5% of the time, the wrong ad is showing. CPC impact is on the lower end. Advertisers see the most impact starting at 5% and ranging to 100%.
http://www.leadtrackr.com
/leadtrackr.php?id=59995
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search MonitorWhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Super Affiliate StrategyOWN THE PAGE. CONTROL THE MARKET
Affiliates
Merchant Maintains Top Rank Achieved Using
Rank Rules MonitoringMerchant
Merchant Assures That Appropriate Ad Copy is
Used
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
ComplianceDisplay
As found through WhatRunsWhere, the-virus-radar.com features an ad which would be non-compliant on most ad networks and publishers
Why?• It appears as an official warning message• It claims it is licensed by Microsoft• Both the ad and the landing page contain forbidden copy (error messages)
Source: WhatRunsWhere
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Number 5:Benchmarking & Self Review
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Benchmarking & Self Review
• Using many networks, publishers, and campaigns can lead to confusion when reviewing your own work
• You Need to Know Where You Stand:• Reach: what is your reach compared to other advertisers?• Share of Voice: what is your market share?• Can you Improve?
Source: WhatRunsWhere
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Benchmark Competitors Who had the better strategy?
Target front loaded and then slowed down?
Walmart who grew presence over time?
What happened in October when the Paths Crossed?
A dead heat tie!
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Benchmark an IndustrySample Travel Statistics
TRAVEL
Which travel advertisers earn the best clickthrough rates?
Google,Nov. 2014.
Average across top tier advertisers.
4.1%3.7%
3.4% 3.2% 3.2%
2.2%
Attractions Accomodations Transportation Air Travel Cruises Luxury Travel
Average PPC Clickthrough Rate
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SERP Share: PPC, PLA, OrganicWhat’s Your Visibility Score?
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Benchmarking & Self ReviewDisplay
Source: WhatRunsWhere
First, using the Traffic Sources option, they can look through their various networks and the countries on which they’re advertised
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Benchmarking & Self ReviewDisplay
Source: The Search Monitor
Next they can view stats on each network one by one, through searching by network, to see which is showing them most on which sites, and with which ad creative
ASOS’ stats through
Glam Media network
ASOS’ creative placed through
Glam Media network
WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor
Benchmarking & Self ReviewDisplay
Source: WhatRunsWhere
On top of this, if they just wanted to see each of their creatives (listed by date or strength), they can view them all in one manageable place