Yesterday I received a call from an Affiliate Manager friend with an issue. Affiliates running ads on reserved trademarks, coupons dominating, backend tracking getting more and more difficult and the workload it was causing. Generally, my friend wasn’t having a good day.
So I suggested that we go through each item one by one and maybe my suggestions would help, and maybe they wouldn’t. But in any case my friend would at least have things to think about. And as we worked our way through the high spots everything boiled down to this. The true Value of the Affiliate Performance Marketer is being hindered by artificial means. That instead of fighting the Affiliates they should get creative and work with the Affiliates. And that there is “hidden” value that needs definition and measurement.
And here are the ideas along with the Value:
If Affiliates want to bid on your product names, etc. how about enabling them on terms everyone can be happy with? Allow the bidding as long as the links go to you. Then figure out a way to make that work in your favor. For example, Running special banners/text leading to specific “landing page experience” sites just for those affiliates that are bidding on your trademarks? Make it special, and exclusive enough that you leverage the behavior to the benefit of your brand/store?
Since “Coupons are King” right now. Embrace them in intelligent ways. Maybe have your discounts/coupons tied to a Facebook “like” button? Tweet this page to enable your Coupon? etc. and by all means find a way to have the hard working Affiliates link in those “share” items so they get a little credit. But how many high performing affiliates will promote your program knowing that your going to tie the use of a coupon/discount to spreading the affiliates links?
Leverage your Affiliates for SEO. There’s a million ways to do this. Some good.. and some downright evil. Stick with the valid, honest, and realistic ways to do this. Work with your SEO people and build up a plan that works for everyone. When a consumer searches for your keywords, and the first couple pages of Google are totally filled with your own site and those of your affiliates (and not your competitors) there’s value that makes the two items above nearly priceless. Take your time, be smart, and figure it out. It’s worth it.
And lastly, the combined cost of Affiliate Commissions and Discounts. The conundrum of a 20% discount and a 15% affiliate commission costing so much. To that I asked a simple question. “Does your Affiliate Program show a profit, or a loss”? The answer was profitable. So my response is “So What”? If your making a profit from the program (including management costs, network costs, etc.) then the discounts and commissions arn’t completely out of line.
One final subject was discussed. Defining how to measure the results! Some subjective, some objective, and some objective with subjective judgements. Sales, EPC, etc. are all good. But go through some other things as well. How many links from your affiliates on the first page of Google/Bing, etc. for your keywords? Over time, when those numbers increase do your sales increase? If you trade bidding on your own trademarks for letting your affiliates “help out” is splitting that gain 50/50 with your affiliates helping them work harder for you? Do you have any “leading/lagging” indicators in your data used to help you predict, then measure, what’s happening?
And yes, I basked in the comments of my friend of how helpful I was, etc. But really, my friend knew all of these things already. It just took a little discussion to clear out some clutter and think about that program from a fresh perspective. Are you tossing away perceived conceptions and looking at your affiliate programs in ways that help you drive sales and value your affiliates for what they’re really doing for you inclusive of the non-direct sales benefits?
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