Cookie Period less than Average Click to Sale

[prepaidaffiliate]

Hi all,
I have been trying to request information regarding the Splash Plastic prepaid card programme over the last week and have received no response from Webgains or the programme owners (richard.kirk@prepaytec.com

Basically, I received an email from Webgains stating that the cookie period on the Splash Plastic programme is going to be 24hrs. The Avclktosale with the programme currently is 6 days+ - so with a cookie of 24 hrs - how does that work?

By setting the cookie period to less than the average click to sale period - Splash are simply ensuring that we will not get paid for sales we are actually driving.

I think this is cheating affiliates out of commssions that are due to them and is simply wrong and I would like to see what the other affiliates have to say about this.

Could someone at Splash (prepay technologies) and webgains advise as well.

Thanks

Yoram

p.s I have posted this within the Webgains Forum as well.

[trevHCS]

There's a simpler solution to lynching them - drop the programme and then they lose the affiliates. Sounds like a daft length of time for any affiliate cookie to be honest even if the click to sale was usually immediate.

Trev

[morleymouse]

i really dont see the point in anything less than 30 days... any programme, any vertical

[Barry]

They would be better off closing their brand on PPC if they wanted to save money rather than lowering their cookie time IMO

I promote them too somewhere in the background noise of other merchants, its certainly not a good way to get affiliates to push their program. Its not really an area where people 'buy in session' is it?

Ta

Baz

[prepaidaffiliate]

Originally Posted by Barry They would be better off closing their brand on PPC if they wanted to save money rather than lowering their cookie time IMO I promote them too somewhere in the background noise of other merchants, its certainly not a good way to get affiliates to push their program. Its not really an area where people 'buy in session' is it? Ta Baz

The av click to sale is 6 days plus - so definitely not a buy in session product and with around 35 alternatives to choose from - most customers have a good look around. I think we have no option but to see how commissions are affected and withdraw from the programme. Thx..

Yoram

[chrismockford]

Hi Yoram,

Think it is an interesting topic that you have raised but you say that the Average click to sale is 6 days plus, but if the were having a "good look around" in this time isnt it quite likely they would be clicking on either alternative affiliate links, merchants PPC, display etc in this time thereby attributing the sale elsewhere.

Is the 6 days for you personally or did the merchant provide this data?

Cheers

Chris Mockford
buy.at

[prepaidaffiliate]

Originally Posted by chrismockford Hi Yoram, Think it is an interesting topic that you have raised but you say that the Average click to sale is 6 days plus, but if the were having a "good look around" in this time isnt it quite likely they would be clicking on either alternative affiliate links, merchants PPC, display etc in this time thereby attributing the sale elsewhere. Is the 6 days for you personally or did the merchant provide this data? Cheers Chris Mockford buy.at

Hi Chris,
You are quite right and it is definitely possible that they are having a good look around and we might lose the sale when they have clicked from a different source or if they choose a differrent programme.

However, the average click to sale data is provided by the network (not just for our sales) and if the average click to sale is 6 days+ (i am sure it is skewed by certain outliers), I dont see how the merchant/network benefit by setting it to 24 hrs other than ensuring that affiliates who remain the last source of having created interest are not rewarded and hence, the merchant is saving on payouts by not paying affilates their dues.

The 6days plus is the programme average.

Thx

[rich5705]

Hello all,

Apologies for my tardiness in picking this thread up. The decision was made to bring the affiliate networks in line with our own tracking of applications which is all on a 24 hour cookie.I understand all of your concerns and I will review the cookie length with the directors here at prepay at the earliest available opportunity.

Until then I guess all I can say is we are focussed on providing a good ROI for our affiliates as well as ourselves: We are the first prepaid card merchant to launch card schemes specifically targetted at segments of the prepaid market (see our new Optimum programme on Affiliate Window, or the Optimum website itself). Our card schemes were designed like this to try and boost conversion rates beyond the average for the prepaid industry. The splash website itself is being overhauled as we speak with this in mind.

We also listened to concerns about the approval rates for our programme and so introduced an automated email campaign to all new applicants encouraging them to activate and use their card when it arrived. We also introduced new functionality to our card application process to ensure transactions weren't generated if a card was paid for by retail starter pack, further lowering our cancellation rate.

We are committed to trying to increase conversion and approval rates, whilst offering industry leading comission rates. We want to maximise ROI for both ourselves and you guys, and with that in mind I will review the cookie length with the higher powers here at the earliest possible opportunity.

Richard

[Andrew Copeland]

Hi Yoram and everyone else who's replied to this,

The feedback is definitely welcome.

I just wanted to add to Richard's reply...

From a network perspective,

I dont see how the merchant/network benefit by setting it to 24 hrs other than ensuring that affiliates who remain the last source of having created interest are not rewarded and hence, the merchant is saving on payouts by not paying affilates their dues.

there is no benefit in not tracking sales so please rest assured we're doing everything we can to improve the program.

Again, thanks very much to everyone for their honest feedback...especially to Yoram for getting things kicked off. Its great to see a thread about a problem which has received constructive feedback.

If anyone has any questions or would like to speak to me directly about the impact this will have, please feel free to give me a shout.

[rich5705]

Dear all,

I am delighted to announce that Splash and Optimum prepaid cards will both operate on a 30 day cookie from now on. We are determined to offer an excellent product to you guys to promote and on this occasion we feel that the 24 hour cookie was detracting from that. Thanks for your feedback, and I hope that we can be paying you commissions soon, as your promotion of our products develops.

Richard Kirk