idm affiliate marketing short course - november 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Affiliate Marketing Presentation
Who Am I?• 10 Years Affiliate Marketing
Experience• Eteach.com
– Managed affiliate programme
– Managed partnership deals
• Result Media Limited
Who Am I?• AffiliateFuture.co.uk
– 8 years– Managing Director– Managed key accounts such
as Virgin Atlantic, Thomas Cook, EUI, CarphoneWarehouse, Sun Bingo and Scottish Friendly
– 280,000 affiliates– Global presence
Building a Monster!www.moneybackmonster.com
Welcome – Who are you?
• Company• Position• Affiliate Marketing Experience – Programmes, networks, success• What your looking to get out of today?
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
9.45am-10.30am
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
Performance Based Advertising
‘You pay for the advertising ONLY when something happens’
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
There is no risk (in theory!)
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Merchant Tracking Solution
Any source of traffic
Publisher
Suppliers
Paying for an action
Advertiser
Technology
Network
Software Solution
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate Types
• Affiliates Fit into 3 main types
– Content Affiliates• People visit due to the content provided by the affiliate
– Arbitrage• Buy traffic as you or to landing pages specifically aimed at
your or your products
– Professional Affiliates• Affiliate links are the content
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Content Websites
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Content Websites
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Content Websites
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Content Websites
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Content Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Content Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Arbitrage
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Arbitrage
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Professional Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Professional Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Professional Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Professional Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Professional Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Professional Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Professional Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Professional Affiliates
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Merchants
• New Customer• Customer Retention• Leads• Brand Exposure• Market Mix Weakness
– Search Marketing• PPC• Natural Listings
Please note that there is no affect on your natural listings in the search engines
Profit
Objectives
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing - Merchants
• Payments– Cost per click (visitor)– Cost per sale (cost per acquisition)– Cost per lead– Hybrid deals– Tenancy arrangements– Revenue Share
• Merchants set the commissions
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
A balanced affiliate programme should account for 10-20% of online transactions
•Brand Traffic – Type in traffic– Search engine
•Email Marketing– 3rd party– Newsletters
•Search Engine Marketing– Paid listings– Natural listings
•Advertising– Banners– Paid Content
•Social Media
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing – Tracking Solutions
• Third Party Network• Own tracking solution
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
Figures ignore lead based programmes, adult industry and gambling sectors
Affiliate Marketing accounts for 7% of online business
Data Source IMRG, and Econsultancy.com
Online Sales Affiliate Sales
2008 £43.8bn £3.82bn
2009 £49.9bn £4bn
2010 £58.8bn £4.6bn
2011 £81bn
Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
Network Turnover
Digital Window (Awin/Buy.at) £65m
Tradedoubler £58m *includes search revenues
Commission Junction Unknown
OMG £16.7m
AffiliateFuture £15m
Webgains £9m
Affili.net £4.3m
Linkshare £1.8m
The largest programmes are not run with networks
Exercise Why Choose Affiliate Marketing
10.30am-11.15am
Planning a fully integrated affiliate marketing programme
11.30am-12.15pm
Planning an Affiliate Programme
Conflicts
Management & Staff
Technology
Wild West
“Next year we’ll reintroduce affiliate marketing, but as it should be. No silly commissions being paid to grubby little people in grubby studios growing income at our expense,
getting in the way of genuine sales” Nick Roberston CEO ASOS 2007
To make affiliate marketing work you must plan it and implement it properly or it will be an expensive lesson.
Planning an Affiliate Programme
Understand your current marketing strategy and plan where they will fit in.
• Content Affiliates are generally issue free– Creative– Copy– Thinking out of the box
• Shop whitelabels• Exclusive suppliers
Planning an Affiliate Programme
Understand your current marketing strategy and plan where they will fit in.
• Arbitrage Affiliates need rules!– What advertising are you doing?– What is the cost and value of your advertising? – Staff cost – salary & training– Can the affiliates do a better job?– Can the affiliates do a better job on part of the campaign?
• Ultimately a Google keyword has a value and a cost. How can you maximise this?
Planning an Affiliate Programme
• Compliment your activity
Planning an Affiliate Programme
Understand your current marketing strategy and plan where they will fit in.
• Professional Affiliates – The ‘wild west’ and they use your content– Voucher Codes – someone uses your voucher code, you give a discount and pay commission
to the affiliate– Feeds– Incentivises– Customising deals
Planning an Affiliate Programme
• Creative• Do you produce
internally?• Key size
– 468x60– 120x60– 120x600
• File Types
– Gif– Jpeg– Flash– HTML
• Issues– Call to action– No Urls– No Phone Numbers– Seasonality
Planning an Affiliate Programme• Treat your affiliates like a
sales team• Video Interviews with the
merchant• Marketing guides that are
both merchant and industry specific
• Branding guidelines• Examples of offline
promotions and advertising
• Additional creative resource
• Seasonality Charts• Frequently Asked
questions
Planning an Affiliate Programme
• Data Data Data• Product Feeds
– Product Names– Product Descriptions– Brands– Destination URLS
Don’t worry about duplicate content• Pricing Files
– Price– RRP– Delivery– VAT
• Voucher Code Feeds• Feed Types
– XML– CSV– Live – you are responsible for your data being correct
Planning an Affiliate Programme – Competitors
• Already Have Programmes• Commission Structures• Cookie Lengths• Consumer Offers• Incentives• Set-up
– Networks/Direct– Do they use an agency
• Resources
– Affiliate Manager– Regular Communications
Planning an Affiliate Programme - Affiliates
2 Top Level Groups• Key Affiliates – drive 80-90% of your programme• Long Tail Affiliates
• HitWise• Syntrax• Alexa• Google
Planning an Affiliate Programme
Planning an Affiliate Programme
• Affiliates Will Come To You• Define targets
– Who are your key affiliates– Number of affiliates– Traffic– Conversions– Sales– Spend
• Define Tracking & Reporting Requirements
Planning an Affiliate Programme
• Reporting Needs
– What do you need to report?• Internal KPIs
– Weekly/Monthly Reports– Annual budgets– Year on year changes
• Early warning system– Budgets– Stock issues
• Programme Optimisation/Monitoring– Spotting dropped affiliates– Poor Convertors– New affiliates
Planning an Affiliate Programme
• What if it goes wrong?– Too many sales
• Budget• No stock left
– Too few sales• Site doesn’t convert• Affiliates wont put up links
– Commission too low?– Competitors have better relations
• Affiliate take links down
Planning an Affiliate Programme
• What are you paying commissions on?– Including Vat (check your VAT rates)– Including Delivery– Product variations– Valid lead
• Are the Affiliates aware– Offer text– Communications
• Test Test and Test• It will break• You don’t want to reduce commissions
– However short term launch campaign works
Exercise – The network versus direct affiliate programme
12.05am-1.00pm
Technology
• Links – Cookies– Flash Cookies– Browser cache– Tracking references for affiliate
• Cookie Windows– Standard is 30 days
• Confirmation Page– Javascript – Image pixels– Pass order details
• Reporting Tools– Orders– Validate/Cancel Transactions– Assign commissions– Real-time
Technology
• Reliability– Links must not fail– Links must be ‘quick’– Browser compatibility– Reporting tools uptime– Cope with significant peaks and troughs
• De-duping– Last click wins
• Approving/Decline Affiliates– Brand protection
• Serving Banners• Providing Products Feeds• Customised Reporting
How To Choose Solution
• Cost
– Set-up costs• Hardware
– Monthly fees • Hosting Fees
– Override• Support
– Experience– Company Resources
How To Choose Solution
• Affiliates– Base– How attractive is your brand– Can they trust your solution
• Wont sign-up• Slow to test your programme
– All reporting requirements• Speed of launch
– Setting up technology– Setting up programme
How To Choose Solution
• Risk– Traffic through third party servers– You don’t own the data
• Control– Ability to customise the programme
Network or Self Managed - Networks
• There are 25/30 UK networks and growing rapidly• Many networks aren’t profitable
Do your Research!• Affiliates won’t work with all networks or directly with
you – Talk to them• Can the network handle your reporting needs?• Does the network have the technical infrastructure?• Is the network cost effective?• What are your competitors doing?• Overseas Reach
Network or Self Managed – Multiple Channels
• Running 2 networks or network and direct
• Advantages– Larger Reach
• Not all affiliates work on all networks• Some networks have own traffic
– Improve relations• Affiliates have preferred account managers and
networks• Often prefer client contact
– Build on lack of company resources
• Disadvantages– Cross tracking/Cost of technology– Admin time– Costs
Network or Self Managed – Multiple Channels
• Disadvantages– Cross tracking/Cost of technology
• Two commissions against one sale
– Admin time• Checking sales• Checking affiliates• Uploading creatives• Checking feeds• Approving affiliates• This can be automated
– Costs• Multiple set-up costs• Multiple monthly fees• Cross tracked sales
– No longer as profitable for a network• Networks want exclusivity
Network or Self Managed – Multiple Channels
• Disadvantages– Cross tracking/Cost of technology
• Two commissions against one sale
– Admin time• Checking sales• Checking affiliates• Uploading creatives• Checking feeds• Approving affiliates• This can be automated
– Costs• Multiple set-up costs• Multiple monthly fees• Cross tracked sales
– No longer as profitable for a network• Networks want exclusivity
Optimised Programme
2.00pm-2.45pm
Optimised Programme
• Not all affiliates are equal– Different conversion rates– Different basket values– Different volumes based on commissions– More profitable customers
• Higher proportion of returning customers
• Not all affiliates are good for you– Sales you’d have got already– Picking up sales that other channels would have converted– Having to pay large commissions to get the traffic
Optimised Programme
• The Buying Path– People usually have multiple touch
points when buying– Do you know every point each
customer touches– Certain website start the booking
process– Certain websites finish the booking
Optimised Programme
• Affiliate Marketing works on a last click wins the commission
– But would the booking have occurred without the first affiliate.
– What happens when you have other channels involved.
Optimised Programme
• The industry is confused– They want to apportion commissions but how….– You have to pay Google per click and you have to pay tenancy regardless.
• Best Practice– Include all your marketing channels and de-dupe to the last click– Don’t include your brand search campaigns– Don’t include your own newsletters.– Watch your bookings closely to ensure affiliates are being rewarded.
If the affiliate doesn't’t earn enough they will reduce your exposure or drop you. Move affiliate commissions to ensure they are happy. Some affiliates can increase volumes if you pay them more
Optimised Programme
• Voucher Codes– Paying commissions and provide a discount– Customers who are ready to buy go and find a
code (you can track this with an analytics tool)
– But would the consumer have actually purchased?
– Would they have used another retailer with a code?
– Voucher codes are big brands now– MyVouchersCodes.co.uk receive around 6
million visitor a month– Strict programme terms– Ensure you have your own page
Optimised Programme
• Incentive Sites– No margin issue (although savvy shoppers can find a voucher!)– Loosing customers who are ready to buy
Optimised Programme
• Don’t Cull Affiliates– If they are not active they maybe active later
• Sites Not Live– Don’t reject them they may not come back– Affiliates are busy, they may never come back– Who is the next facebook?– Some of the smaller affiliates send the best quality customers– Networks don’t always provide full details
• Affiliate have multiple sites• Some site are large and not easy find your adverts
Ready for Launch?
Stephen Pratley
Shine Marketing
Who Am I?.
• Affiliate since 1996• Building and marketing
ecommerce stores since 2000
• CRM Manager at ipoints until sale to Maximiles in 2006
• Shine Marketing: Marketing optimised ecommerce stores inc affiliate integration
Launch Checklist - Issues
Business Issues• Budgets• Over delivery• Under delivery• Branding Issues• Quality checking affiliates• Poor Conversion rates• Competitors taking action
Site Issues• Technical failures• Leakage• Site Changes
– Browser bugs– Tracking codes– Data feeds– Secure Checkout
• Poor Conversions
Conversion
• Commission– Commission %
– Average Value
– Conversion
– Rejections
Phone Numbers
Leakage
Leakage
Discount Codes
Checking Affiliates
Communicating With Affiliates
15:30-16:00
Affiliates are businesses.Businesses are people
Events
• A4U Expo– Annual trade event– Organised by A4U Forum
• Network managed Events– Often focused on
vertical sectors
• Run your own event– Show & Tell in store?
Forums
Blogs
Affiliate Extranet
• All your affiliate info in one place:• Banners& Creative• Policies• Offers
Affiliates will often search for:“[company] affiliate”
• Prezzybox good example
One to one contact is key:
Planning an Affiliate Programme – Best Practice
• Treat Affiliates with respect• Spyware/Adware Free• Ban Pop-Ups• PPC Restrictions• IAB Policies• Affiliate Network Policies
Combating Fraud
15:30-16:00
• PPC• Lead Generation• Breaching terms• Returns
Useful Resources
Useful Resource
• Forums– www.affiliates4u.co.uk– www.acorndomains.com– www.abestweb.com
• Blogs– www.pistol101.co.uk– www.stephenpratley.com– www.internetmarketingblogs.co.uk– www.pfft.co.uk– http://www.onelittleduck.co.uk/– Network Blogs
Useful Resource
• News– Econsultancy.com– Netimperative.com– Mashable.com– Nma.co.uk
• Twitter– @pistol101– @pistol101/affiliatemarketing
Questions & Answers