I note that there is another affiliate solution that allows publishers and affiliates to connect without the need for open networks, as Impact Radius gets its launch in the UK. However it is the selection of effective tools behind any solution which needs to dictate the choice of technology for a merchant. Affiliates are developing at a significant rate and offering new ways to deliver qualified traffic for merchants and the demand is very real. API integration tools, RSS feeds and dynamic creatives all form part of the serious network contenders make up and are important for the new breed of affiliates.

These types of tools aren’t yet available on all open networks however the eBay Partner Network amongst others offer these types of solutions to their affiliates on an in-house programme or closed basis. It tends to be these networks that offer an enjoyable range of affiliate genres without the risk being too heavy on any one genre.

The entrepreneurial ethos that defines affiliate marketing is under risk if tools and new technological advances are not taken seriously and adopted by merchants. Bridging this with offline tracking potentially makes an interesting option.

eBay · innovations · technology · tracking

Buy.at Sold to Digital Window

It was revealed early this week that Digital Window, mostly known as Affiliate Window, has bought the Perfiliate, otherwise known as Buy.at, which has sent shockwaves throughout the affiliate industry.

For some, concerns have arisen due to this consolidation; the inevitable monopolisation in the near future, the movement towards a larger dominance within the networks. Kevin Brown mentions that this signifies a commitment to the affiliate channel, which others have agreed that the move will enhance the affiliate ‘experience’ and to grow the affiliate space further through technological benefits and ultimate service levels.

What does this mean for affiliates? Well, if you purely based your affiliate activity on the network that you operate on, then this could put a small spanner in the works – choices will indeed be minimised and if you had certain issues in the past with either of these merged networks then you may well consider letting bygones be bygones. With merchants having reduced choices then there may be a small possibility of these being absorbed into the one, new network.

For agencies, it can make work easier working with one less network especially with all clients’ programmes in one space, but being impartial to all open networks that we do business with, it’ll surely make it harder for us to contrast and compare.

Regardless whether you are for or against the move, you still have to believe that in the long-term this integration will develop the industry as a whole. It may mean that with a majority that the new force will lead where others will follow, but anything that can improve certain tasks, or bring new ideas to the market is something that I’m all in favour of.

Both Buy.at and Affiliate Window have always been a pleasure to work with and I sincerely hope that the positives from each of these respective networks are transposed into the new network offering.

Chris

networks

eBay - Leading the way

Quality is the hot topic on the lips of every merchant, affiliate network and agency at the moment. Affiliate marketing is under the microscope, and in an industry obsessed with accountability the pressure is on to justify affiliate’s role. Many questions have been asked about the value of affiliate marketing; did the affiliate play a significant role in the generation of the sale? Does it matter where the traffic and sales come from? Should all sales be seen as and rewarded as of equal value?

eBay has attempted to answer many of these questions and has led the way with a quality drive, first developing and launching a value based ACRU (Active New Registered Users) system in November 2008. The results of the initiative were published in a whitepaper titled “The Coming Evolution in Affiliate Marketing: A Focus on Quality”, which concluded that it was possible to significantly increase ROI by rewarding publishers based on their incremental value.

Quality Click Pricing (QCP) was subsequently launched a year later in September 2009, paying publishers per click and doing away with the ‘Revshare’ compensation structure. eBay has turned the traditional CPA (cost per acquisition) model on its head – it is no longer a case of driving large volumes to achieve higher payment tiers. The foundations of the programme are built around incremental value, both from a short term and long term perspective. No other affiliate programme looks at “value” at a level that eBay has incorporated into its model. Sales revenue, life time value of new customers, user engagement and even Ad revenue are all taken into account for calculating the publisher’s EPC (EPC refers to an affiliate’s earnings per click). This in turn means that the most incremental publishers are rewarded the highest EPCs.

Rewarding for quality can dramatically change the makeup of the programme; you may find that some of the biggest publishers are delivering the lowest quality leads and sales; whereas some of the smaller publishers may drive the highest quality on the programme. Rewarding publishers for their quality sets different objectives. Instead of driving as much traffic as possible, with the hope that some of the clicks will convert, publishers are streamlining their activity and being selective about only sending traffic they feel is likely to convert into a sale.

It’s this shift in priority which has also helped open up the affiliate channel to non-traditional publishers. Media owners who would have only considered CPM (the amount a merchant will pay an affiliate when their banner has been shown 1000 times) deals twelve months ago are becoming more open to trialling alternative revenue streams if the numbers add up. R.O.EYE has been heavily involved in the development of the existing and potential publisher base – working closely with publishers to optimise their sites for QCP, we have been able to build case studies which have allowed us to go and recruit these traditional media sites.

It is still early days. But it will be difficult for the rest of the industry to put quality objectives into action. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to quality as it is a subjective view: definitions will vary by vertical and merchant with totally different objectives. This means it will be challenging for affiliate networks to accommodate their merchants’ needs. How do you report on quality across a universal tracking system? At a basic level there are a few actions we have taken to ensure our clients programmes are quality driven. These have included reviewing the affiliate business models permitted to promote the programme, The cookie latency and activity reviews to ensure the affiliate is being fully transparent about the way the are generating traffic.

When reviewing the publisher base of a programme it is possible to see that not all affiliate business models are appropriate for the programme they promote; it would be questionable whether you require a voucher code publisher on a programme that doesn’t support voucher codes for instance. Many merchants are now also starting to question whether there is value in cookie latencies beyond 24 hours. Obviously this will vary depending on the promoted vertical, but sales that occur immediately after the click are generally going to be providing higher incremental value that one that occurred 3 months after the initial cookie drop. Finally there is the question of transparency that eBay is asking of their publisher base. In an industry that is in a transition from a niche sales outlet to a professional performance marketing channel is it really acceptable for affiliates to hide their promotional methods behind masked URLs. It would be very difficult for merchants to gauge quality if they don’t know how their sales are being generated.

eBay · innovations · quality

IAB

Firstly we would like to congratulate Kevin Edwards who has recently been appointed as the new chair for the Affiliate Marketing Council. We have already been impressed by Kevin’s pro-active and pragmatic approach to driving the affiliate marketing industry forward through the initiatives outlined in his recent A4U post. We also welcome his open communication and democratic style in encouraging all stakeholders of the industry to take an active role in AMC meetings and initiatives, something R.O.EYE will be keen to be part of in the months ahead.

There have been many points already added to the agenda, but one of the areas that we as an agency would like to see the AMC really tackle is the development and support of new affiliate genres. The dominance of voucher code, cash back and incentive sites is an area that must be tackled by all affiliate managers as this reliance has been continuing for some time. As more and more merchants become aware of incrementality and question these sites, we fear the industry is in danger of having no significant volume genres to turn to and add to the affiliate mix.

This of course isn’t true to all advertisers or all programmes, but there is certainly a trend that we’ve observed and particularly in Business Development meetings when seeing the composition of others programmes that we don’t manage. While some networks are beginning to deal with this, it is something that we feel could be lead by the council to ensure support to smaller affiliates, emerging genres, as well as education of AM to larger traditional media sites (with transactional traffic).

In a typical open-forum style debate that we often have at R.O.EYE towers there were several other ideas that were discussed for the AMC:

• Discussion on how we could effectively place AM as we emerge from a recession
• Larger inclusion/discussion of the search engines in the debates (as we rely on them so much)
• Technology and Tools assessment
• Mobile technology and affiliate cross over
• UK European integration and affiliate development

We will of course be giving the AMC our continued support throughout 2010 and will be raising these points at the appropriate meetings and discussions.

debate · IAB · voucher codes