R.O.EYE Blog

By Gavin Hudson, Technical Solutions Manager

Inspired by a post on Lee’s blog - Last Click Commissions - Still Relevant in 2007 / 2008? there has been a bit of chatter recently about the validity of last click as a tracking and de-duplication method. For those unfamiliar with the term “last click” we use it to mean the system of attributing the sale to the online channel that the user last clicked on.

In the eyes of many, this system has a number of flaws, and can reduce the affiliate incentive to be creative in order to drive that initial “first click” and incremental sale. The usual example given is where a customer finds an affiliate blog or review, decides that they are 99% sure want to purchase the product (perhaps convinced by a review or content on the affiliate site) but decide to think about it. With the proliferation of toolbars and integrated search boxes, it’s now more than likely that a customer will revisit the merchant site not by typing in even the simplest of URL’s or by looking at their history, but simply by searching for the brand term.

If the user then clicks a paid ad, then there is a strong chance that the affiliate cookie will be overwritten by the one assigned to a paid ad - whether that be a client PPC ad, or an affiliate one.

Is this fair? Well, I’m going to stick my neck out and say “Yes”. It’s frustrating, I agree, but I really feel it’s the only sensible and just way at the moment. In an ideal world, everyone who had contributed to that sale would be rewarded, but ultimately affiliates are paid for ‘finishing’ the transaction. The key reason as to why I believe this is the best way, is that it works both ways - for every affiliate that loses out on a sale to brand PPC, you would hope that there are some that win too.

I like the example of the customer walking into a high street electrical shop. Let’s call them “Kormas”. A customer is assisted to make a judgement by talking to sales assistant X for twenty minutes, but doesn’t purchase there and then. The customer goes off, phones their partner, and comes back into the shop to make their purchase, but sales assistant Y processes the transaction. It’s perhaps a bit unfair that Y gets the credit on his sales figures, where X did all the hard work but at least it’s the same for both parties and you’d hope that over the quarter, things even themselves out. The same holds true online as well as offline.

A perceived issue with last click referrers is that PPC affiliates are more likely to gain that precious last click, at the pureplay ‘content’ affiliate’s last click. This may be true, but I guess it again works both ways, and it goes back to the affiliate to ensure that their sales pitch is convincing enough to ensure that they gain the last click!

Overall, last click tracking is far from perfect, but it’s the best we can reasonably hope to use at the moment in online media, it works the same for everyone, and at least avoids the nightmare of duplicated orders and large scale over-reporting, which can lead to (whisper it) reversals of affiliate commissions by unscrupulous merchants.

Now, what was the domain for Amazon again? Ah, I’ll just search for it…

By Chris Worthy, Programme Executive

Discount codes and vouchers have been a long term favourite with merchants as a method of passing discount back to the customer. Discount codes can vary from short term, product specific offers to generic long term codes. Discount code sites are the platform that that make discount codes available to everyone.

Obviously, consumers love voucher codes as they can see an instant reduction in basket value as a result of entering a code. Often this can be more favorable than a cash back site where the order has to be tracked, validated and credited to the customers account over a matter of months before the benefit can be reaped. They are also available to non-cashback site members – another attraction.

Of course offering discount codes on an affiliate programme would be of no benefit unless both the Affiliate and Merchant experience positive results. Offering discount codes as part of an affiliate programme can produce much greater exposure to online consumers as the merchant is promoted on many more sites. It is also important in today’s competitive market that merchants are seen in the same arenas as the competition. If merchants are not visible on a voucher or discount code site, valuable sales could be lost to a competitor.

Many discount codes sites have a loyal membership, who regularly visit the site just prior to buying their goods online. Again, access to these members is important to merchants and only possible by offering a code.

One of the top discount code sites that R.O.EYE works with is Discount Codes. DiscountCodes take a fresh approach to offering discount codes with clean and bright interface with codes from all the brands in online shopping. Discount Codes offers a range of added value benefits to customers. These include a discount star rating system to determine what the best discounts on offer are at the moment and also a selection discount codes offered exclusively to the site from merchants. Couple this with well maintained and up to date content, superb navigational interface and merchant specific email updates Discount Codes is onto a winner.

By Mark Kuhillow, Managing Director, R.O.EYE 

The affiliate marketing industry has been talking about the potential opportunities mobile presents for a long time now. During the final quarter of each year, mobile is usually in every industry expert’s top 5 predictions of ‘next year’s things to watch out for’.

I have already listened to numerous presentations and speeches so far this year on the subject of mobile marketing, given by various thought leaders from the digital media industry. But in 2007, the mobile debate has had a slightly different feel. It finally seems as though the tipping point has been reached and mobile is proving to be a communication tool which the digital media industry can monetise.

Why is this happening now? My own view is that the key inhibitors to date have been driven by the fact that the technology hasn’t quite delivered the user experience which consumers require. However, with handset manufacturers now developing more capable products geared towards the mobile internet and 3G networks delivering faster connection speeds than ever before, it seems as though this obstacle has finally been removed. This opens up a range of possibilities.

The global key players have been flexing their muscles over the last few months, having seen the imminent opportunities in this space, and are developing their platforms accordingly. Google is about to Beta Adsense for mobile, whilst UK operators are moving away from the traditional ‘walled garden’ approach to offer users a more navigable experience.

However, this still leaves a key issue to be addressed - how do consumers carry out transactions when using the mobile internet? The most obvious option is reverse billing, but there is a potential problem here, initially at least, with credit balances being capped - prohibiting anyone booking their holiday over the phone for example. My prediction is that the starting point for alternative solutions will be Paypal or Google Checkout, enabling consumers to go mobile using tried and tested online payment methods.

Let us assume that all of the corner-stones are in place for mobile to be viewed as a medium which can be monetised and scaled. So, the technology offers the necessary degree of functionality, media owners have created content users are actually searching for and consumers have the ability to transact with advertisers and merchants. But what does that actually mean for the affiliate community?

The accepted view is that traditional methods can’t be employed, when it comes to mobile tracking solutions, as a cookie cannot be dropped on a mobile phone. Yet supplier specific referral codes would seem an ideal solution. By using channel and affiliate specific source codes, the referral code of a transaction’s originator can be captured. This will allow the relevant affiliate commission, based on the transactional value, to be recorded.

Finally, it is worth remembering that user behaviour is not about to change overnight. People aren’t going to immediately start using their mobiles to book holidays or take out a loan for instance. But wouldn’t it be great if while searching on your mobile to find a local restaurant, you were also presented with details of a local car park and the opportunity to click through and pre-pay for your evening’s car parking? Affiliate marketing on mobile…. Long predicted, but finally here in time for 2008?

By Gavin Hudson, Manager

Well, I think we’re finally getting back into the swing of things after a great few days at a4uexpo. We’ve caught up on our emails and been busily chasing up all those leads and sending the stuff we promised out to affiliates. This was the first event of its kind in the UK, and I think it’s fair to say it was a success!

Sessions

As I was manning the stand, I didn’t get the chance to go to as many of the sessions as I would’ve liked, but from speaking to the rest of the guys and other people that went to them, it seems that they were really well attended and received. As always, it’s difficult for speakers to judge who to aim their speeches to - they could turn up to a room full of merchants, some beginner affiliates or people who know (nearly) everything there is to know about the business, but on the whole feedback on the sessions was excellent. Particularly well received were Lee and Ciaran’s talk on social media, and I suppose I’d better mention the session Mark attended on “The Future of Networks”, there were some interesting opinions expressed and a couple of controversial comments, which is always nice if you’re in the audience… One strange quirk was that if you had paid for an “exhibitor” pass and a stand, you weren’t supposed to be able to get into sessions - this seemed a bit strange to us having paid several times what the delegates paid, but with a nod and a wink it didn’t seem to matter anyway.

Attendance

We met some great people at a4uexpo - thanks to all of you who came to our stand for a chat, a bottle of water or to enter our competitions! Expo was excellently attended and the speakers, exhibitors, delegates and organisers all rightly seemed happy with the mix of people at the Expo. Our stand was busy almost all of the time when people weren’t in sessions. There was plenty of business done, and plenty of partying too. Those people who made it for all 3 nights and still managed to look alive in the days in between deserve some sort of award of their own!

Awards

Speaking of awards, the Existem team organised the very first affiliate awards in the UK. This was a great initiative, and well overdue. No awards ceremony can hope to keep everyone happy, but that’s no reason not to run one! Affiliate Window were a popular choice for the best network this year. We work with most of the major UK networks, and it’s clear that AWin have taken some steps forward this year, so it would be difficult to begrudge them the award. I’ve got to say that we were disappointed not to win the award for “Publishers Choice of Agency”, being beaten to second by Existem-AM, but really we should be pleased to receive the “Highly Commended” certificate, and indeed to be nominated in the first place by our affiliates - thanks to everyone that voted!

Venue

The venue out at ExCeL was pretty good, a good sized hall with lecture theatres - I’m not sure if being out in the Docklands and away from the more obvious nightlife in London was a good idea or a bad one, but the Fox pub seemed to be busy enough in the evenings, and the Novotel bar was busy until the early hours every night. I’m still not sure whether the bar staff greeting me by name on the second night was a good sign, or a bad one!

Overall we had a great time, and will definitely be back next year. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the event, and the affiliate industry appears to be in robust health, which is great to see.

We look forward to seeing you at next years event - if not before!

By Andy Mitchell - Senior Programme Executive, R.O.EYE

Part of the R.O.EYE office is getting ready for a migration South! It’s not often so many us get to venture to the Big Smoke at once, and we are very excited.

Information packs have been made; Posters are being printed; Competition prizes are being played with; Freddo’s are being eaten.

If you don’t know already, R.O.EYE are on Stand 20. We’ve got plenty of prizes up for grabs in a couple of competitions we’ll be running….

We have several Molton Brown gift sets from Mankind and Beauty Expert. We also have some top quality gift packs from Origins. They’ll make a perfect gift to take back home!

We have a HD Projector from our merchants MacWarehouse, MicroWarehouse and PCWorld Business to give away too.

You can enter our competitions at anytime during the Expo, but the prize draw will take place at some point on the second day, so make sure you ask us for details on how to enter!

Gav, Andy, Colin, Stu, Tony and Mark will all be at A4UExpo. So if you are looking for a serious talk about your opportunities within affiliate marketing and our programmes, want to grab some freebies or just want to catch-up with us for a chat, you are more than welcome at the R.O.EYE stand.

See you all there, bright and early on Thursday!

Afternoon!

Affiliate Summit was a great event for our sector - meeting friends and colleagues from all areas of affiliate marketing and making new contacts. Even though it was a top event, I think it’s been a while since there’s been a real buzz about our sector, I get the feeling the a4u Expo event will be just that.

Although I’m not one for partying… there are actually three over the course of the event! As always, Buy.at will inject their usual style on the event - kick starting the affair with a “networking session.” A great way to start the event, just gotta take it easy on the beers with two intensive days ahead. The second party will highlight some of the respected players in the industry and many will be truly deserved. I think that the cred that will come from an award will hold more weight than many would think. And then the closing party - not quite Ibiza style but I’m sure will go on into the wee hours of Saturday.

We’re actually exhibiting and the pop-up stand will be back out of the box, fresh from Ad:tech and the Summit. There will be two car loads coming from up north, armed with new business documents, programme collateral, merchant prizes and even a box load of Freddo’s! So even if you’re not interested in the business stuff, call by for a sugar top up.

Seriously though, we’ve came a long way in our three years of leading affiliate management. We really want to shout about it now and show how we can maximise the performance of the programmes we manage. Even today I’ve been reading NMA and old issues of bad management of programmes and lack of resource are still being raised. There’s a solution to that and there is a way of having a direct relationship with your affiliates, managing fixed budgets and spreading the mix of affiliate genres. Whatever your company or programme requires, we’ll be happy to talk to you about it.

Gav, Andy, Tony, Stu, Mark and I will all be down at the event, so we look forward to seeing you then. We’ll be at all the sessions, on the exhibition floor at all times and yes, at all the parties,  so don’t hesitate to stop one of us to talk about what you’re looking for from affiliates. Because I’m sure we can help.

See you at the Freddo stand  (Stand 20.) ….

Colin Telford

Affiliate Director

By Ben Friedman, Recruitment Executive

When recruiting for an affiliate programme there are a number of things to bear in mind. Here’s my overview of advice and tips.

Firstly ask yourself, what does the affiliate need to know?

This will help them decide whether they will join the programme and start to actively promote it. It will also help them prioritise it amongst their many other tasks! The main things to communicate are the commission rates, EPCs and importantly, some information about the merchant – what do they do, what is their USP, what is their online offering? It can also be good to tell the affiliate how the affiliate programme has been performing recently. If the merchant is currently running other online marketing activity – what is it and how is it going? If they the affiliate is interested then send a more detailed overview.

Be honest and open

If there are limitations with the programme then let the affiliate know what they are and how they have been, or are being rectified. It is not a good idea to get an affiliate to sign up to a programme which they are going to have difficulty producing results for. First impressions count a lot! Issues could be something such as tracking, seasonality, an inability to work with cashback sites, poor conversion rates for certain types of affiliate sites or paid search restrictions. Let the affiliate know if and when the problem will be sorted out and that they will be informed when it is resolved. They will respect you for this.

Listen to the affiliate

Ask them what areas they are strong in. Are there any initiatives that we can assist with? Can we give them any advice to develop their site or business? If the affiliate is signing up to a programme why not let them know about other similar programmes which are available? Cross selling is a huge part of recruiting for programmes for us. If someone is advertising loan companies then they could also be interested in credit cards. But will the traffic convert? Enquire about the source; it’s especially important for compliance reasons!

Get your programme out to the masses

Promoting the programme is very essential. This is because the name or the product you are promoting may not be a major brand and will have competitors to deal with. Initiatives such as our ‘Lens’ on Squidoo have proven to be very well received by affiliates. It not only covers information about us, but also shows exactly what we have to offer. This provides the information about where to find the programmes and how they work.

Make it easy for the affiliate

Nobody likes lots of information or a programme that is hard to understand or a complicated sign up procedure. Make sure that affiliates know enough about the programme to be able to run it efficiently. However there is no need to drown them with unnecessary technical information unless they ask for it. If possible, send the affiliate unique copy and their pre-tagged deeplink - the less work the affiliate needs to do to start promoting the merchant, the better.

Offer advice

The affiliate may never have run a programme in your sector before. Offer advice on where it could be placed on the site, or about unique selling points for the customer. Remember, you have the experience of working with a number of other successful affiliates on the programme, how have they done things? The more support that you offer the better the return for everyone.
How you communicate this information is up to you. Every affiliate prefers a different form of communication – some like a chat on the ‘phone, some prefer MSN, others only respond to emails. Some won’t get back to you, but will suddenly start producing sales! Gauge what the affiliate is comfortable with and stick too that – don’t be too pushy! If you are looking to do some mass recruitment, then get yourself on the A4U forum and join in!

Lastly, I know that this is not actually recruitment but, keep in contact with the affiliate. Make sure that once the affiliate is on the programme that they are not having any problems. Recruitment is only the beginning! Having a level of interaction with your live affiliates helps to build a working relationship that will aid any recruitment for future programmes.

By Andy Mitchell, Senior Programme Executive

I’ve just been reading about Microsoft’s Zune. For those of you that don’t know what the Zune is, it’s Microsoft’s version of the iPod. They have re-released it in an attempt to take on Apple’s dominance in the market. The newly updated version has got a few minor changes but it ties in with the launch of Zune Social. This is a Social Networking site and Microsoft is relying on it to catch-up with Apple.

Now this isn’t anything ground-breaking. It’s definitely not the first major brand to make a whole-hearted effort with Social Media. But it did get me thinking….If Microsoft think they can use Social sites to re-gain significant market share, then surely lessons can be taken from this and applied to the affiliate space?

So, are YOU using Social Media to its full potential at the moment? Are you even using it all?

With a bit of effort and a small amount of ingenuity, you could make a small fortune from social sites at the moment. There are so many opportunities – Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and WAYN to name just a few. There’s certainly plenty of hype around Social Networking, and to be honest, you may think it’s become a buzz word and not much else – but lets take a look a some actual examples, that work for affiliates….

Facebook probably represents the biggest opportunity for affiliates at the moment. And if you can crack it, then you are onto a winner. Recently a Facebook cashback site has been launched - http://www.isavedcashback.com/. A whole cashback site built specifically for Facebook. The advertising of it should be easy – get a decent membership and due to the nature of Facebook, it should grow automically.

There’s also widgets for Facebook – if you’ve got some decent technical ability, you should be able to build a quick widget – here’s some tips to get you started - http://developers.facebook.com/step_by_step.php

Take a look at ShoeMoneys blog post from last week, for example – a US affiliate was making $15,000 per day on Facebook! Yeah, he was bending the rules slightly, but that’s a lot of money he’s made.

Now that’s simple Paid Search, just applied to a new advertising platform. So if you are a PPC expert, or even a novice for that matter, did you think to look at Facebook as the next Paid Search network? Its probably worth a try - clicks are cheap. But, a word of warning - as Keiron highlights here – conversion is really bad! Give it a go, see if you can make it work and let us know!

Have you built a Squidoo lens yet? This is more “Web 2.0”, but it can be equally if not more effective. A Squidoo lens is just a simple page that, if you target a niche, tends to rank well for related generic searches.

We’ve been playing around with Squidoo in the office – our recruitment guy Ben has set up a great R.O.EYE lens at http://www.squidoo.com/ROEYE/. But in terms of making money, we’ve got a few affiliates who have built lenses for our merchants’ products and are producing great results – daily conversions from lenses that rank well for generic terms – fantastic!

Lee Mccoy often has some great Social Media tips, so if you are looking for hints to get started, or future opportunities, keep an eye on his blog – www.leemccoy.co.uk – always a good read.

Alternatively, if you are looking for some merchants to promote via Social Media – just give us a call – we’ve got plenty of ideas!

By Michelle Anthony, Programme Executive

Here at R.O.EYE we consider programme reporting to be a large part of our jobs and many of our systems are geared up for accurate reporting.  Indeed, we have just launched a swanky new reporting tool, Icon, but it is not just client reporting which is important to efficient programme management, but affiliate reporting as well.

The frequency of validations varies from client to client, but we make an effort to feedback to affiliates at least once a week.  On certain programmes we are able to do this more often to keep publishers up to date on pending leads and conversions on a near daily basis.  In addition to this and the key word reporting available in Tracktor, we can offer bespoke reporting tailored to the needs of the affiliate.

We also focus on providing feedback on quality wherever possible. This enable us to work with affiliates to improve the suitability of the leads they are supplying to the merchant, be that making changes to the copy on their sites, adding images and creatives or editing the look and feel of the affiliate site.

Benefits of regular reporting includes allowing us to spot any problems early and work as hard as possible to resolve these, these may be simple to resolve within the account management teams, but may engage our technical solutions department, who are always on hand to offer assistance.

Our reporting and suggestions are always incredibly well received by affiliates.  It is often about the incremental changes in communicating the finer details of the product to the audience, honing in on the validation criteria and clearly explaining that the customer will be passed through to a merchant. We have seen on screen conversions rates double with minor adjustments to text.

For our finance programmes regular affiliate reporting is essential in pushing our programmes forward. Feedback goes both way and has led to changes in application forms on the client site and advancements in the information we request from clients.

By Colin Telford - Affiliate Director 

The final straight!

It’s the morning of day three and what a few days it has been. Part-time roadie, sales man, affiliate manager, water-boy (did you get the R.O.EYE branded water?) exhibitor and visitor. It’s been a fantastic couple of days. I’m sitting by the front of our stand, writing this blog entry before the masses arrive again.

Ad:tech was better than ever in my eyes. Busy both days with both potential merchants and affiliates visiting the stand, located on the ground floor. Seems to be a good spot, apart from the cheesy house music coming from the data company exhibiting opposite us - I’ve had enough David Guetta to last a life time! From a business point of view it was very healthy, as agencies, networks and clients alike now seem to know exactly how we can offer a better service to both themselves and affiliates. I’m currently working through my leads and look forward to doing business soon!

The Affiliate Summit is a smaller event to Ad:tech in terms of size, but far superior from an affiliate value point of view. It’s great to see new blood too, with affiliate marketing gaining greater scale and attracting interest from a wide range of companies and sectors. Speaking of new blood, well done to the ‘Affiliate Marketing Graduate’ from a London agency, for approaching the stand yesterday and having the courage to quiz us about our business! Although a direct competitor, I wish you luck in your journey through affiliate marketing….

Thanks to all the organisers. See you at A4uexpo - if you want to see us picking up an award have a look at www.affiliates4u.com/awards/ and get your vote in!