After a total of 5 interesting months, in the hub of the affiliate marketing industry, I thought it was about time I gathered my thoughts and decipher exactly what I think of it.

Coming from an offline background specialising in press and television campaigns, digital advertising called to me like a beacon, tantalising me with the promise of a better understanding of the full marketing mix. The jury is still out whether I’m there yet? Despite my colleague’s best efforts to educate me on the tricks of this ever expanding trade.

My first two weeks began with a hard and fast induction to key themes and phrases like aggregator, merchant, cash-back and my adoption of an extensive list of notes and a dumbstruck expression. As time has worn on the expression has reverted back to its usual smiley disposition but I’m still adding to my masses of scribbled notes. As it turns out the rumours are true, and you guys in the digital world really do keep changing, and constantly evolving! At first, yes I found this to be mildly irritating for a novice like me, as sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with you, although now I think I’m slowly but surely starting to catch up. With my affiliate glossary in hand, I think slow and steady could possibly win the race.

From my experience so far I’ve learnt that this industry is about building strong relationships, and that this is especially true for those of us that are working within agencies. It’s important to be vocal and pro-active, and ask questions, questions, and more questions. Whether that be to my amazing talented colleagues (brownie points please) or to the many helpful affiliates that I have encountered. I’ve also leant that this works both ways too, and that we as an agency should strive to give back to affiliates. By making ourselves as attainable as possible, offering help and guidance to those that need it, and coordinating communication from merchant to affiliate. Enabling innovative opportunities to be indentified and most importantly executed. Distribution of key information from account managers is what builds a successful affiliate programme.

Plus it’s become apparent that there’s some great opportunities to build these relationships through networking events such as the A4U Expos which I had the pleasure of attending this year. Initially I felt like I was sinking in to the murky waters of the affiliate world, but then left feeling I had soaked up lots of useful tips and tricks, perfect for a new starter such as myself. So my advice to anyone new to the affiliate world is use those around you get yourself a very large note book.

advice · expo · R.O.EYE

We are pleased to announce that from the 1st March R.O.EYE will be launching the Scholl affiliate programme. Scholl is a fantastic brand and we are extremely excited to welcome them into the fold.

Scholl has been looking after feet for over 100 years, ever since the company’s founder, Dr William Mathias Scholl, made it his life-long mission to improve the health, comfort and well-being of people through their feet.

This dedication remains as strong as ever and, with the advent of Scholl’s new technologies, they are able to provide an ever growing range of footwear and foot care solutions.

To find out more about this programme please contact Daniel Austin here.

programme management · scholl

R.O.EYE are the agency that supports the eBay Partner Network (EPN) in the UK and we write regular guest articles on the EPN blog. As I work primarily with bringing on new publishers and ramping up existing ones I’ve seen many examples of the best and worst ways to set up and maintain an EPN account. Here are my top tips to make sure that yours is the best!

It’s a new year, a new decade and to help you get off on the right foot we’ve put together some helpful tips and advice for you to get your eBay Partner Network account ship shape and ready for some serious activity throughout 2010.
A well maintained account isn’t just good housekeeping, it can have an impact that is truly bankable. For example, if you have international traffic, are you earning commissions by making sure geo-targeting is implemented?  If you are using only one campaign ID and drive traffic to eBay from multiple pages, can you tell which pages are dragging your overall EPC down?

Hopefully those questions have given you enough food for thought to put an hour or so of your time into taking some of the following best practice steps:

eBay Partner Network application

If you haven’t already applied to eBay Partner Network then read this! Did you know that applications are subject to a manual review by a real human being?  Put yourself in their shoes.  The more information you provide such as your business model, traffic sources and specific URLs you intend to use, the more likely your application is to be accepted.
Here are some key recommendations direct from the eBay team that you can use as a checklist:

• Submit an active phone number where you can be reached within 24 hours of your application – there may be a phone call to verify the accuracy.
• Be crystal clear as to exactly how eBay will be promoted in your description.
• Add all domains to your account that will be used to promote eBay – more on transparency later!
• If your primary business model is not listed in the options you must fill out a special business model application form -  if not done, you may be required  to pause campaigns until a review  can be performed, or possibly have your account suspended.
• If you change your business model at a later date, always remember to change the business model within the eBay Partner Network interface.  To do this, go into the Account tab and select Business Information.  You may also need to submit a special business model application form.
• Ensure that all payment information, including the 1099 Form for US publishers, is accurate and complete and includes details on tax status where applicable – you don’t want those commissions to get held up!

Ensuring your URLs are transparent

As you may have gathered from the advice on applying for your eBay Partner Network account, eBay does require that all their publishers are transparent with their traffic sources, which includes passing though all referring URLs.  This is a vital element of all eBay’s partnerships and underpins the whole ethos of rewarding publishers for the quality of traffic they send to eBay.  As a result, the Network Quality team continually check publishers and they will inform you if a high percentage of your referring URLs are not visible.  If there is not any improvement after this communication, you may be expired from the network.
However, as we know that masking referring URLs can be preferable to publishers for a number of reasons, we have compiled some detailed advice on how to retain the masking, but pass through your URLs to eBay, which you can see on the blog Referring URL tips and tricks.

Implement impression tracking

Why is this important?  If you combine impression data with the number of clicks, you can track the CTR.  In other words, tracking impressions will help you improve the quality of the traffic you send to eBay by showing you how well you are matching the ads to your users’ interests.
You should serve at least one impression pixel per campaign, on every page that has eBay links. However, the best practice is to serve one impression pixel for every ad on every page, as this will allow you to get the most accurate data.
Did you know that if you are using links created with the Link Generator prior to May 1st, the RSS Generator, Data Feeds, or API calls, you are probably not using an impression pixel?  Thankfully some tools already include an impression pixel, such as Custom Banner, but the Impression Pixel Generator is so easy to use there really is no excuse for not including impression tracking in all your ads! To find it in the eBay Partner Network interface, simply click ‘Tools’, then click on the link in the bottom right hand corner of your screen and you can learn more about how to use it here.

Importance of separating campaign IDs

If you do one thing to your eBay Partner Network account today, split down your activity into campaigns. As your EPC under the QCP model is calculated at campaign level, it is easy to see the benefit of splitting your activity down into different campaigns, as then you can see the EPC for each segment of traffic that you are sending to eBay.  There are a number of different ways to do this, including:

• By site if you have many of them
• By placement
• By tool
• By category
• By keyword group, if you are buying paid search traffic

It’s possibly the most important thing a publisher can do to help understand their performance and make informed decisions to optimize their activity.  It is also recommended that each campaign generates a minimum of 50-100 clicks in order for the QCP algorithm to calculate a steady daily EPC.
For more information on the importance of campaign ids, see the relevant section in the post onoptimising for QCP

Importance of Custom IDs for PPC traffic

If you are using PPC to drive traffic to specific pages on your site, and want to improve ROI by knowing which keywords convert best, implementing custom ID tracking will be a very valuable use of your time.  For example, you can pass through the exact search term in the Custom ID field, then download a Transaction Download Report from the Reports tab in the eBay Partner Network interface.  This shows exactly which keywords converted into a revenue-generating transaction and you can use this data to optimise your SEM activity.
Although this is probably the most common use, Custom IDs can in fact be used for anything that suits your needs.

Using correct Tool IDs

Want to know which tools make you the most money?  Whilst having an incorrect Tool ID will not break your tracking link, getting this right will enable you to use the Tool/Creative reports to understand what works best and make decisions to improve your performance.  It also enables the eBay Partner Network team to improve the tools we offer to you.

Geo-targeting

As touched on at the start of this blog, implementing geo-targeting means that you will be better monetising any international traffic that you get to your site.
It’s clear that sending the user to their local eBay site is preferable.  In practice, an Australian user visiting a .co.uk site reviewing digital cameras will probably want to see items listed in Australia, not the UK.  This improves user experience and conversions, and is likely to increase the EPC you receive.
Also as eBay Partner Network tracking is program specific, there are distinct tracking codes that need to be present in the eBay Partner Network link to ensure that users are being sent to their local eBay site and you are receiving all the commission due for any resulting transactions.  The first step is to check that you are signed up to all of the programs in the eBay Partner Network dashboard to ensure these are live.  More detailed instructions are available in the blog article Implement Geo-targeting Today.

Protect Your Account Information

Security with online accounts should always be taken very seriously, and eBay Partner Network is no different.  A hacked account could cost you dearly if fraudulent activity results, and of course a simple change of bank account details could see your hard earned commissions siphoned off to parts unknown.  While most security measures are common sense, we have some good practices to help prevent security issues with your account on the blog Take Steps to Protect Your Account Information.

Finally, it is essential that you keep all your user/contact information up to date and accurate in the eBay Partner Network dashboard.  Being able to speak to someone on the phone or via e-mail is essential if any questions arise so that issues can be dealt with swiftly.

advice · eBay Partner Network

Recently I’ve had meetings with several senior agency contacts whose description of last year will be one that I hope we can avoid for some time. “Harrowing” and “terribly ugly” have now turned to “phew” for many, as the light seems to be approaching the end of the tunnel. We’ve all been caught up in one way or another and for many the decisive actions taken throughout 2009 have ensured that we are best placed with the new-year upon us. 2009’s positive performance has now spilled over into 2010 and it has coincided with a noticeable uplift in briefs and pitches, so client’s confidence begins to return.

2010 - A more positive year?

But it’s the deployment of that budget from senior marketers that will demand accountability. Pound for pound, the ROI must stack up and for some the speed of that return will need to be quicker than ever. And so it’s a relief that we’re in online and how we look forward to the plethora of online tracking tools developed throughout the noughties accounting for the seismic shift of consumers from the high street onto our websites and applications. There’s little doubt about it, we’re well placed to deliver strategies for our client base that are tried and tested. With the 10th anniversary of the Dotcom bust in March, online has grown up now and traditional media channels are consequently suffering.

Affiliates remain to be a growth sector in online marketing. It’s been over 5 years now since it was tarnished with the “wild west” brush and how we’ve came on. Education and understanding allow merchants to make the channel profitable and weave it into long term marketing objectives. Networks have grown up too, and for many fraud prevention is only one of the many feathers in the bow of a range of impressive network tools. And affiliates themselves are professional outfits, having reacted to the demands of the corporate purse and thus securing long term meaningful partnerships, moving away from the bedroom image and brand bidding confusion.

A suitable affiliate platform?

So we’re onto the year of the mobile and don’t we know it with our friends over at Apple reporting numbers of handsets sold going through the roof. The imminent roll-out across multiple network providers will create a critical mass that will deliver the numbers to drive a successful new ecommerce platform. Payment method roll-out solutions are still to be championed and applications are to be standardised, but soon we’ll see some of these applications be as important as some of the early noughties’ new websites. Or will we?

innovations · technology