Best network for direct-to-merchant PPC?

[Steve___]

Hi,

I do direct-to-merchant PPC on the tradedoubler network with some success, but was wondering if there was a better network out there for my kind of affiliate work. My 2 main issues at the moment are:

1. I apply for programs (that allow direct-to-merchant PPC) but get rejected by the merchant (presumably because I don't have a website)
2. The lag betwen sale and payment is 2 months+ which creates cashflow issues if you're paying for your clicks up front

Does anybody know any networks which tackle these 2 issues in a better way? i.e. faster payment and some kind of auto-accept for traffic referred from google?

Cheers, and happy new year!

[joedavies1987]

clickbank & amazon uk are the two I normally do direct linking with becuase they do accept anything, and pay frequent. I think clickbank is every two weeks. Just watch out cos theres some dodgy stuff on clickbank, steer clear of the get rich quick stuff.

I've mentioned in another post I'll be building a general offers site this year to get around this obstacle. Merchants and networks are always asking for URLS, and if all I want to do is test the merchant or network it becomes a problem because I don't have a site set up for that specific niche...

A general offers site will also compliment your direct linking efforts too, if the merchant or another affiliate suddenly starts playing on your turf, just add a new landing page for the offer on your general offers site, and you can still compete.

Beats building new sites around every time you want to test a new niche/merchant/network/offer

Joe

[yesasia]

Issue 1:
- Zanox have a direct ppc system called Look@,which allows you to set up google adwords campaigns from within the zanox system. you don't even need to login to your google account and you will be auto approved for all programs.

Issue 2
- Webgains pays weekly, so you may get paid before you need to pay your credit card

[WiganWebs]

I think Awin are my favourite network at present, but that is from a designer point of view due to they're ease at using datafeeds by means of the tools that they provide.

With direct PPC they have a deep link generator to use for each merchant, but it all depends on acceptance to be able to use it. I have been accepted into way more programs than I have been declined and they pay on an optional 2 week or monthly basis, prior to a met threshold minimum of just £25. I suppose a nice email to the merchant will help you on your way to acceptance if you give them a layout of your plans.

Aff Future also have a good acceptance rate and make it easy to deep link. Payments made at the end (ish) of every month.

I used to like tradedoubler, but as I use many sites I used to have to get each site accepted into just 1 program (something to do with click tracking), but that was a while ago and things may have changed since. I also didn't like that I was waiting for my commissions 2 months after, but that is just the way they work and lots of affiliates seem happy with that, i.e:- they are not working to a minimum budget so can afford to wait. They have many plusses though too, so I dont wish to drag they're name through the mud Its just that I have found my home with Awin and they're services and I feel they cater for all areas of web promotion, like PPC, SEO, Datafeeds, etc giving them a complete module that is fit for all types of affiliates. I also like they're detailed click, commission tracking reports and they're control panel is user friendly beyond belief.

I also have to comment on they're support. Over the last month I have sent about 10 tickets asking questions regarding merchants, and they always replied within a day.

I believe buy.at to have a good reputation, from what I have read anyway. But I have never used them so cant really give them a positive comment.

Hope that helps,
Terry

[jumbocruiser]

I am currently applying for a 12 month 0% purchase rate card that I hope will solve any cashflow issues with Adwords, you can get these from both HSBC and Halifax.

Just hope they give me a good credit limit £2k+ so i can stick on a couple of months campaigns on it, this credit crunch could restrict the limit I think.

I have a £6k credit limit on my Mint card but have to pay interest on that. Funding adwords is definately a problem.

[Michael_Nunez]

1. I apply for programs (that allow direct-to-merchant PPC) but get rejected by the merchant (presumably because I don't have a website)

Hi Steve,

On suggestion to help combat the merchant rejections would be to set up a simple landing page as your website that reads:

Affiliate Managers, Please Read Below

Hello, I am a PPC affiliate that would like to build long tail search campaigns to send traffic and sales to your site that you are not currently receiving. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via any method below.

Regards,

Steve

Steve's Contact Info

This should take you minutes to do, but should increase your approval rate, or will at least encourage affiliate managers to contact you prior to declining your application.

[lowndsy]

Webgains pretty much depends on PPC affiliates, so they are probably a good place to start.

[Ryan Gilbert]

Webgains pretty much depends on PPC affiliates, so they are probably a good place to start.

lowndsy,
The vast majority of our affiliates on the pay roll are content affiliates.

Steve,
It's simple to promote our clients via PPC.

Each client has T&C's that you need to agree to when signing up.

To get a quick over view of all our clients, you can see who you can and who you cannot promote on one screen by selecting a custom view of all merchants including their "PPC Policy and Restrictions."

Any merchant on "Prepay" will mean that we will release payment to you 'weekly' and this will enable you to reinvest much faster in the merchants program than on any other network.

We aim to make it as painless as possible for you to run your business through our network.

[hpops]

Webgains pretty much depends on PPC affiliates, so they are probably a good place to start.

I find that quite an odd perspective, I can certainly think of networks with a far greater reliance. Certainly from a merchant perspective we don't see a particular bias towards PPC.
Webgains payment system plus breadth of merchant range do make them a natural choice for the ppc starter. Awin are the second no brainer along with POR (particularly since Payment On Request).
The larger networks can be very difficult to carve a space in on ppc campaigns as they tend to be crowded out and dominated by a few (ahem) "carefully chosen partners"

[Steve___]

Thanks for the replies guys, some very useful suggestions

[stulee]

Another option might be to set yourself up a simple Shopwindow site (through AffiliateWindow), so there's something there that the merchants can see.

PS. AffiliateFuture pay around the 14th of the following month, and usually confirm commissions within 7 days I think.

[KirstyM]

Just to echo what others are saying, I've found Awin to be excellent this Christmas. I've just been paid out a big chunk of commissions from silly season before the PPC bill is due to be paid.

Mind you, that also has to do with merchants being prompt at validations... but there seem to be a few of those knocking around.

Webgains are also good for me, those weekly payments and responsive staff really help the cashflow.

Good luck.

[Omicrontau]

Out of curiousity, what are some of the ways people resolve mismatching URLs with direct-to-merchant PPC? In other words, if a merchant does allow direct traffic but does not allow affiliates to use the mercahnt URL how can PPC affiliates overcome the obvious mismatch in display URL and landing URL?

Doesn't Google prevent ads of this nature from running anyway?

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[stulee]

There isn't a legitimate way (but that doesn't mean some people don't use illegitimate ways unfortunately) of doing a direct to merchant PPC ad within the constraints you mention. And yes Google would disallow an ad with a redirect in it if it spotted it. Move along to another merchant or set up your own landing page on your own site, are the alternatives I think.

[Omicrontau]

Fair enough, but using landing pages is no longer direct-to-merchant.

Building on the Goolge issue, would affilates still be disallowed if they were using a URL like example.com/merchant? Obviously the landing page would just be "merchant" but the URLs would be more similar.

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