a4u Blog

After months of promising Matt, I have finally gotten round to writing a blog post, and thought I’d start with an issue I naturally feel particularly strongly about; paid search affiliates in the generic keyword space.

Before you stop reading, I’m not going to ramble on about brand bidding – an issue that’s already been discussed in great detail many times before, and one that I find quite boring. Instead, I’m going to focus on the question of:

How and why should advertisers, and their agencies, work with affiliates in the generic search space?

To give this some context, our company eConversions, is a large search affiliate, that recently began offering a paid on performance agency solution. It is our experiences from both sides of the industry that have made us acutely aware of the frustrations an affiliate faces, but also the untapped benefits available to the advertiser when both parties work closely together.

I really do believe that this will be one of the deciding factors in whether paid search has a long term future in the affiliate channel.

To clarify exactly what I am talking about here, it is affiliates, using the advertiser’s display URL in search engines, bidding on generic keywords to send traffic directly to the advertiser’s website.

I’m excluding from the argument any affiliates who have websites which they drive a lot of traffic to via paid search – that’s a totally different issue. I’m also ignoring any of the current “workarounds” which allow advertisers to have multiple listings in the generic search space. Using different hosted URLs, incorrect domains, replicated sites, etc will continue to be clamped down on as search engines increase their focus on quality.

My opinion is that, not only should affiliates be allowed to operate in the generic search space, but actively encouraged to do so. Now, there are obviously advantages and disadvantages of this, but if the following guidelines are used I believe that the risks can be managed allowing advertisers to take advantage of the significant benefits.

Advertiser Guidelines

• Choose your affiliates carefully - Do not open this up to everyone, use your affiliate network to guide you on which affiliates are experienced, trustworthy and can produce results. Ask interested affiliates to put together proposals focusing on how and why they will generate more sales whilst meeting any concerns you have.

• Set high standards for the affiliates you choose.- Let them know what you expect in terms of communication, response times, brand representation and sales targets. For example, make sure they always have someone in the office from 9am – 6pm, so if you need something changed quickly the resource is in place to do so.

• Communication – Make sure they understand what is going on with your other marketing efforts, as you would with any search agency. Also, make sure your affiliates are communicating with you regarding the brand messaging they are using.

• Understand your effective CPAs and target CPAs – This is the key to success. Make sure you understand exactly what CPAs you are coming in at on your current in house/agency generic keyword activity (including all agency/staff costs, tracking costs etc). You should aim to equalize this to the effective commission rate you are paying your chosen affiliate search partners (including network costs). Ideally you should be doing this on the most granular level possible, as spoken about by our MD at the recent TD Summit. This creates a level playing field where every sale generated will meet your CPA targets and it really doesn’t matter which partner gets the sale.

• Restrict Keywords – If you have keywords which you know are already generating a large number of sales, with an effective CPA that is lower than that you are paying your affiliates, don’t let your search affiliates bid on them. Have a regularly updated negative keyword list which search partners must adhere too.

I’m not trying to pretend it is easy, it requires a lot of work – but the benefits, if you get it right, are huge.

Benefits

• Increased Sales – Different search companies approach things in different ways. They have different technology, will try different creative and target different niches. With more than one search company working on a campaign, but with equal CPA targets, an advertiser can effectively benefit from the best ideas and strategies from each. There are a few cases where this isn’t the case. For example, one search partner could displace the other by taking a higher position, but even in this higher position have a lower CTR. However, because the search engines are ruthless in punishing poor advertisers, any inefficiency is likely to be short lived.

• Greater Coverage – Some industries, for example travel, have such a huge potential keyword universe that one party is never going to gain complete coverage. By having multiple search partners, who will, naturally, have different technologies, ideas and focuses, advertisers can gain a greater share of this space.

• Measurement – Affiliate search partners provide a great comparison against an advertisers search agency, allowing them to measure their effectiveness accurately and generally keep the on their toes.

Although many advertisers currently seem nervous to allow affiliates to become this involved in their search strategy, there are some great examples of advertisers who have worked closely with affiliates to great effect. Amazon and Expedia, for example, are two companies who have led the way on this front and as a result, both currently enjoy wide coverage throughout the search space, largely because of their willingness to engage affiliates.

To conclude, I’d like to leave you with my final thought (no I’m not Jerry Springer!). I believe search is primarily about results, and competition ensures all parties stay hungry and innovative in working towards the set goals and targets. The advertiser is the primary beneficiary, having achieved a more effective, efficient and successful search strategy.