R.O.EYE Blog

By Ben Friedman, Recruitment Executive, R.O.EYE

Google, earlier this week, launched their own affiliate network offering. DoubleClick Performics Affiliate will now be called Google Affiliate Network. Effectively Google have taken the network under their banner and will look to bring it more and more in line with their business over the coming months.

What impact will this have? This remains to be seen. Some will be worried about the dominance of Google in the search arena spreading into affiliate marketing where it will now control not only the PPC adverts that many affiliates use, the analytics software that they monitor it with, but also now the affiliate programmes that they are advertising!

In some ways this could help to monitor the black hat activities of some affiliates and monitor un-authorised brand bidding on a completely new level, if the areas of the Google empire are integrated effectively.

But, what’s to stop Google becoming an affiliate? This is a fear that has been expressed by a number of affiliates in the past. Why not place affiliate links as their search listings? I know it sounds a bit far fetched, but Microsoft have gone this way already with their Cashback site. Could we see this happen with another of the big three search engines? Or is it a conspiracy theory that will continue to be discussed half jokingly and half in mortal fear?

There are many other questions that are going to be asked in the coming weeks about what the implications of this bold step will mean: To what level will Adsense, Adwords and Analytics be incorporated? Which merchants are going to be drawn to the network due to the lure of the Google brand? Will Google follow Microsoft down the affiliate route?

We will have to wait and see. For now the only major change for all affiliates involved with the DoubleClick Performics network is the name.

By Dan Austin, Programme Executive, R.O.EYE

The giant that is Microsoft, in its increasingly bitter battle with Google to gain a larger share of the lucrative search market has announced it will launch their affiliate ‘offering’ by offering cash back to customers. Called Live Search Cash back; it is part of a plan by the software company to come up with new approaches for its search business as its proposed take over of Yahoo now looking increasingly sour.

This is a good move on the part of Microsoft, certainly in the PR department, as it will help promote their search service attractiveness to consumers which comes a distance third to both that of Google’s and Yahoo’s.

It is reported to be launching its cash back service with in excess of 700 merchants offering between them 10 million products, with names such as eBay, Foot Locker and Hewlett Packard already jumping onto the Microsoft cash back wagon. All American companies I hear you say, and you would be right, however its worth remembering that if this takes off State side you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be rolled out in the UK fairly swiftly. As a consumer who normally would trust the search engine results, would I start to question the relevance of the displayed ads if I knew cash back was involved? Maybe. In that case there is no way this will work and affiliates shouldn’t be worried. Right? Well in answering that question you would have to consider Microsoft’s recent purchase of the company Farecast. At the moment a travel vertical but Farecast is promising to put search results back into the hands of the consumer, Microsoft will use this recent purchase for more than just travel.

Microsoft is not trying in anyway to muscle in on your affiliate commission; it is simply trying to increase its market share of search by offering consumers a kick back for using their search engine.

What ever happens in the future with Microsoft’s cashback network, success or not, it is sure to bring affiliate activity to the forefront of consumer thinking.

Watch this space…

By Colin Telford. Affiliate Director, R.O.EYE

As the Google changes begin to sink in and ads begin to appear against previously protected Trademark terms, I wonder exactly what the fall out has been. It was billed as the most important change in affiliate marketing for some time and even prompted some affiliates to circulate white papers on the effects of the changes. Some networks themselves also reacted with emailed information, but many seemed to be too bogged down with the influx of merchant queries and concerns to be in that enviable pro-active position.

So what has the affect been? The beginning of that week saw ads appear and it looked as if it was going to be a real free for all. Some affiliates reported very profitable opportunities, with Google probably desperately trying to realign the balance and apply the appropriate quality score and cost per clicks. And this is what seems to have happened. As the week progressed, those opportunities began to dry up and costs were predictably increased.

But the most interesting outcome in my eyes are the gentleman’s agreements that are being brokered and agreed over phone calls that really only happen once in a blue moon. It’s essentially the agreement between two merchants to leave each other’s terms alone. They in turn brief their respective search agency/manager contacts and as a result the costs for that particular merchant’s search terms remain around the same (and in the current climate of cost reduction, this agreement can be seen as a saviour on some marketing schedules, I can assure you.)

But will this be a short term fix? Competition will get stronger, targets will become higher and those involved in these agreements will move on. Then when the pressure is on, brand bidding on competitor terms will be an attractive option. And then affiliates will be called upon to spring into action and block leakage where possible. Only then can merchant’s use the redundant landing pages that their briefed affiliates built for them in the pre-May 5th panic, before that gentleman’s agreement phone call was made.

If you need any advice on an affiliate strategy to combat the Google trademark term strategy then please get in touch.

By Richard Wright. Programme Executive, R.O.EYE

Comment and speculation is rife at the moment following another apparent round of Google changes which have affected many affiliate campaigns. From speaking to our own affiliates, and following numerous forum threads, it seems that no satisfactory explanation has yet been provided, or indeed confirmation whether any changes have actually been made at all.

Given that these changes can seemingly destroy an affiliate campaign in one fell swoop without adequate warning or explanation – what does this do to the trust in the relationship between Google and their paying advertisers?

Google will no doubt argue that communications such as their Adwords Updates blog and email are in place to help guide people to build a Google friendly site. I know much of these communications refer to the quality score, however there seems to be a growing lack of faith in how these quality scores are calculated, sentiments that have been backed up by numerous affiliates reporting that their unique content-rich websites have been ‘slapped’ whereas thin bridging page sites have survived in their place.

In theory at least, unique content-rich sites should score highly in Google, but are these sites being penalised for having slow landing pages as reported in Matthew Wood’s recent article? Sites that are image-heavy certainly need to be considering whether this affects them, and we here at R.O.EYE will be doing everything we can to make sure our hosted creatives are as small as they can be.

You may also have heard about some upcoming changes regarding the display and destination URL in Google adverts to take effect on 1st April, however this is more a matter of enforcing existing rules than creating additional guidelines.

It seems that life is never easy chez Google, and perhaps if it was a complete level playing field when it came to choosing between the major search engines (SEs), then the logical outcome would be that affiliates simply would simply switch to the better solution. However this is simply not a reality when you consider how the traffic is broken down amongst the search engines, as reported by one affiliate.

Despite the issues mentioned above, the reasons why Google is so important and successful is because they are 100% committed to providing the best search tool and experience for the end user. The proof of this commitment is that they are by far the most popular SE, and as a result it you would probably struggle to live without them.

So we all need to learn ways to live with them, warts and all. In one of the forum threads a very wise affiliate said “Never, ever, rely on one company. No business can survive if it is totally reliant on another business” which is relevant to all businesses in any industry, at any time. So diversify, use other SEs and methods to generate traffic such as SEO, email, or even some offline activity such as leafleting. Use your imagination!

Other things we can all do is share our knowledge and experiences, something which I think this industry is brilliant at as evidenced in this forum thread. I’ve included seven references to various forum threads and blog articles in this piece, and in amongst all that one hopes there will be enough wisdom for affiliates to take something from and use in their affiliate marketing campaigns.

By Andy Mitchell, Programme Manager R.O.EYE

I wonder how many articles with that title have been written? 100’s? 1000’s?

Well this one is written from the point of view of an affiliate manager, and asks the question why “content is king” for an affiliate programme….

When launching an affiliate programme, you look for some quick wins that will bring in volume. This is fairly straight forward and generally involves working with some talented PPC affiliates who can add value to the programme immediately. Follow this up with ensuring that the merchant is placed on cashback sites and strategically supplying offer codes to discount code sites, you can be reasonably sure the programme will start to bring in some quick results. Obviously you’ll work with these affiliates and help them as much as possible to deliver maximum results for your programme.

But where does the programme growth come from? How do you ensure that the affiliate programme doesn’t stagnate and continues to steadily grow?

Once you reach a level where the PPC affiliates, cashback sites and voucher code sites are delivering a steady volume, you start to look for other affiliates. Generally, those ‘other affiliates’ are content affiliates, building niche sites and occupying natural listings. But why only look for them now? When the programme isn’t growing at the rate it once was?! This is a common mistake in the early stages of an affiliate programme….

In most cases, it is content affiliates that will ultimately determine whether your affiliate programme can continually grow. It is also content affiliates that can take longest to produce results, due to the nature of their type of promotion. So why not start working with these affiliates as soon as your affiliate programme launches?! That way, a few months down the line when their sites start to flourish and produce results, there won’t be a period of stagnation - just continual growth.

How can you do this?

In many ways!
Tell your affiliates what you think you’re top selling products will be for the next year. This means SEO affiliates can start building and optimising sites for those products.
Offer affiliates a higher commission on some of your key products - If you know an affiliate who is capable of producing results via SEO, then ask them to work on a site promoting these products in exchange for a higher commission - the worst they can do is say no!
Make it as easy as possible for SEO affiliates to get to work. If you are asking an affiliate to promote certain products, send them that product so they can personally review it. It’s hard work trying to promote something you know very little about!
And finally, provide content! We have a several merchants who are increasingly providing unique content to individual affiliates. Be it PR articles that weren’t used internally, or articles specifically written for affiliates, more merchants are starting to supply targeted content to affiliates, recognising the benefit content affiliates bring to a programme.

So, if you are planning to build a site to promote a specific merchant or product and need some content, ask the merchant if they’ll give you a hand!

By Andy Mitchell - Senior Programme Executive

It’s been coming for a while, but Google has recently launched Adsense for mobiles. Google Adsense clicks have risen 47% year on year, according to the Search Engine giant. In the same financial report, Google stated that partner sites contributed $1.35 billion of revenue, 35% of its total.

So, on the back of this overwhelming success Google has branched out their Adsense service to the .mobi domain. It’s the same format, the same model and is likely to have the same success, but only once mobile advertising really takes off.

“The mobile advertising market is certainly in the early stages. We are making it [financially viable] for new sources of mobile content to emerge,” Dilip Venkatachari, product management director of Google AdSense for Mobile, told Reuters

Shawn Collins has picked up on it as well here.
So for affiliates who have got a few .mobis up their sleeve, now would be a good time to start developing them. Of course it does mean you are forced to use Adsense to monetise them, but this then raises the obvious question of “which Affiliate Network is closest to a network solution for the mobile platform?”. Any guesses (or inside info?!)….

Google Adsense for Mobile will very soon be launching in the UK as well as widely across Europe.

Publishers and affiliates can find guidelines and help here.

Google’s recent acquisition of Doubleclick has set off alarm bells at R.O.EYE and others in affiliate marketing. The $3.1bn acquisition strongly suggests Google’s desire to break into the affiliate space.

And who can blame them. Affiliates, in the UK alone, helped to generate an estimated £2bn in e-commerce sales in 2006. This figure will only increase in 2007.

The acquisition, if this is indeed Google’s plan, is a cunning move as Google often reflects, through penalisations, that affiliates detract from the “optimal” user experience.

As Google currently tests its CPA based product however, this desire becomes even more evident. The one drawback for this model being that it is dependent on advertisers implementing Google Analytics tags on their sites – a major stumbling block for Google I imagine. But buying the market leading adserving solution should fix that. And by migrating to Dart for its conversion tracking, Google could in theory place a significant dent in the affiliate industry overnight.

Let’s look at a better alternative. There has been a lot of talk online about a Microsoft / Yahoo! acquisition, which would finally give Google some competition. An acquisition here would bring valuable technology such as Yahoo! Talk to Microsoft and would relieve some of the dominance Google has in online advertising revenue and web-based services. Unfortunately, to-date, this is only speculation.

In the coming months, Google’s next steps should be closely monitored. This acquisition does not only impact the affiliate industry - technology could also be at risk. If Google offers tracking solutions as a value added service to its “adwords”, there will be no charge for clients to use the software.

Such developments make me question how much of a business model remains for the adserving sector. If Google offers Dart, for free, to its existing clients - an estimated 60% market share – we might as well all close down and head to the pub.

We should be prepared for an imposing behavioural targeting model if Google starts serving inventory into its Adsense placements. And if BFP is withdrawn, as I’m sure many agencies suspect, we will be left with a monopoly media owner with a major share of the search market, a significant share of the display market, determined to operate a model totally geared towards a client direct trading relationship. Google could revolutionise advertising relationships, in a way that even Rupert Murdoch has not contemplated offline.

The potential implications of the DoubleClick acquisition should not be underestimated. Google is going to have to pull off a masterstroke in its execution to achieve full potential.

We can only hope the competition commissions, to who this case has been referred, will do us justice. Otherwise, for the first time, the future of affiliate marketing could be in the hands of Microsoft.