Thoughts on closed Brand bidding groups

[mattb811]

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Not really the best suggestions considering BBG PPC results will always appear top of any search regardless of how effective your own organic SERP's are.

Indeed Ian, but what we are specifically talking about here is a scenario whereby a consumer has clicked an affiliate link, gone to the merchants site, decided not to buy there and then and then come back later, clicked on a paid search listing and bought.

Therefore if the affiliate were able to improve conversion then the sale would be made earlier, negating the risk of the consumer clicking on a subsequent link and the sale being deduped.

[ian-d]

Indeed Ian, but what we are specifically talking about here is a scenario whereby a consumer has clicked an affiliate link, gone to the merchants site, decided not to buy there and then and then come back later, clicked on a paid search listing and bought.

Therefore if the affiliate were able to improve conversion then the sale would be made earlier, negating the risk of the consumer clicking on a subsequent link and the sale being deduped.

Understand what you mean but what I was referring to is the initial search made by the visitor, I accept that in terms of true content, conversion etc won't be influenced as much by BBG, it's just the fact that certain affiliates have the right to gain easy clicks (albeit not always profitable) through PPC whilst everyone else must create content rich sites etc to obtain good organic SERP's. I didn't raise the issue of 'last click', that doesn't bother me and I think the existing setup is right.

I just find it's a little bit of a downer on the industry, but do fully appreciate now the reasons for such groups and can of course understand merchants wanting to look after their best customers/affiliates, that's to be expected.

I think what rattles my cage the most is some of these BBG affiliates (not all by any means) not updating their sites when the rest of us are forced to, plus a lack of accurate information. I sometimes get the impression some are involved because they are handy with ppc rather than knowing the subject/product/merchant they are promoting.

[bazza99]

Hi Doug,

Therefore affiliate cookies will be overwritten by any other affiliate who drops a cookie after them, or the merchants own brand PPC activity.

Matt

Got to say that this concerns me (specifically merchants over-writing cookies where they bid on their own brand).

Since this presumably doesn't happen when a visitor reaches a merchant's site via the "natural" listings, I can't quite see why there is an expectation that cookies should be over-written in cases where the merchant decides to bid on their own brand name.

In cases where I've become aware of this type of "de-duping" I've generally taken the approach of stopping promoting the merchants concerned. That's a personal opinion - obviously for all affiliates to make their own decisions.