Affiliate Marketing in Germany

a4uexpo London 13th of October 2010Silke Steffan, Director Webgains Germany

2

Agenda

• Short Introduction• Why Germany?• Your Affiliate Program in Germany

• The Obvious• Local Nuances• Opportunities• Market Your Program

3

A Short Introduction

About Webgains Affiliate Network Webgains UK established in 2005 Merged with ad pepper media in May 2006 Launched Germany and France in 2006 Launched Benelux, Denmark, Sweden in 2007 Launched Spain, USA in 2008 UK and Germany are our two biggest markets

About Me In Online Marketing since 2001 Webgains Germany Business Operations since 2006

4

Why Germany?

Some numbers:

› Population (2010 Est.): 82,282,988

› Internet Users, Latest Data: 65,123,800

› Penetration (% Population): 79.1 %

› User Growth (2000-2010): 171.3 %

› % Users Europe: 13.7

Internetworldstats.com

5

Why Germany?

5% year on year growth in 2009

AdEx Report 2009 IAB Europe

6

Your Affiliate Program in Germany

The obvious: Localise

▪ Site correctly translated? (Bablefish won't do the trick)

▪ Your shopping system can handle Euro? (Also in your datafeed? And how about the decimal delimiter?)

▪ Legal to target German users? ( E.g. Gambling related offers are a no-go, certain pharmaceutical products may only be bought with a prescription etc.)

▪ Consider getting a German domain (http://www.denic.de/en/)

7

Your Affiliate Program in Germany

Local Nuances: Consumer protection requirements

▪ On shop level:▪ Provider identification ("Anbieterkennzeichnung"), including full company name, commercial register, name of MD... etc.▪ Policies for Data privacy; Right of Withdrawal, Cancellation, Refunds▪ Terms and Conditions

▪ On product level:▪ Availability of product▪ Shipping costs▪ Base price (also in Datafeeds)▪ Any additional costs that might occur

> Understand legal and tax consequencesSources we follow: dr-bahr.com and telemedicus.info

(in doubt pls. get professional legal advice)

8

Your Affiliate Program in Germany

Local Nuances: Common payment options

Advance payment

Cash on delivery

Pay by invoice

Direct debit

Credit Card

PayPal

> Cheque payment extremely rare

9

Your Affiliate Program in Germany

Opportunities: You might not be a known brand (yet)...

▪ For your customers:▪ Earn their trust, be available for questions and support▪ Consider an accreditation (e.g.trustedshops.com or safer-shopping.com)▪ Your prices are good - but are you still competitive when shipping costs are added?▪ Add some Offline to the mix (PR, Print..)

▪ Same goes for your affiliates: ▪ Make your program description crystal clear▪ Make someone responsible for success ▪ Your Affiliate Manager - don't hire a good one, get an excellent one▪ Apply the same rules you do in your local market: pay on time, give good support, communicate (!), be open and honest, etc. etc.

10

Your Affiliate Program in Germany

Market your program

▪ Online resources▪ 100partnerprogramme.de▪ affiliate-marketing.de▪ affilixx.com▪ affiliatepr.de▪ Network and Agency Blogs, Tweets...

▪ Decentralized scene (Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg...) Upcoming events next year you might want to join:

Affiliate Tactixx 2011 (Munich) 12th - 13th of April SEMSEO & PubCon 2011, partnered with Webmasterworld.com (Hannover) 27th of May a4uexpo Europe 2011 (Munich) 07th - 08th of June Dmexco 2011 in Cologne 21st - 22nd of September

Thank you - questions please :-)