Hi guys!
I'd like to hear from merchants who'd like to work together to investigate certain affiliates.
Affiliates can, often mistakenly, misrepresent a brand despite their best efforts and so I'd like to hear from merchants who'd like to share information on the common errors affiliates make so we can all benefit from the Affiliate Window network.
On the flip side, you also get affiliates who break policies and use covert tactics and we'll share information on this too.
If you want to be involved in this little group (it'd help if you were in the fashion sector) then please email affiliates@mandco.com and we can arrange a call to discuss operations.
Cheers
Ali
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Apologies but I failed to clarify my meaning - not that any posts in reply weren't extremely helpful.
I'd like to discuss suspicious activities in general, without a name-and-shame tactic which would be of no benefit to either merchants nor affiliates.
Last edited by alisyme; 01-07-11 at 01:54 PM. Reason: Adding a revision around "investigate certain affiliates"
This doesn't feel like a very constructive thread to start and I'd imagine there would be legal issues associated with the sharing of any information (even if it is with other merchants on the same network)
If you're experiencing issues with affiliates on the network, please get in touch with your account manager, the network compliance team: compliance@affiliatewindow.com or with me directly and I'm confident we can deal with any of the issues you have outlined above.
Edwyn McFarlane – Head of Publisher Services
Affiliate Window
Email:- Edwyn.McFarlane@affiliatewindow.com
MSN:- fredwyn@hotmail.com Phone:- 020 7553 0409
We won't be sharing specific details - sorry if it sounded like that. We'll be sharing some experiences, sharing ideas on what to look out for (e.g. low impression, low click, high transaction) and ways of making sure codes don't get too viral when they're not supposed to.
If we share what we know affiliates do - whether it's methods of PPC against our policies, etc - then we can look out for our own programmes and flag suspicious affiliates to yourselves but we really need to learn together.
Regardless of which network they operate on, you'll find that sharing info is a very thin legal line. The AMC has been trying to come up with a viable solution for a)dodgy affiliates and b)dodgy merchants for the past 5 years I've been involved in the council and we can't work out a method that won't cause legal problems. There's also a big issue with objectivity - apart from blatant fraud, a lot of the time it's a case by case basis on how merchant Ts & Cs are worded or interpreted.
If you're concerned with specific affiliates' activity, it's probably best to flag them up to your network who can investigate them across their portfolio of clients. If the activity is indeed dubious, they will take action from their end and, where applicable, it will be brought to the attention of other networks too.
Hero Grigoraki
Head of Media Product
lastminute.com
Hi Edwyn,Originally Posted by edwyn123
Just curious - what legal reasons are you referring to that would prevent this kind of discussion / sharing?
Many thanks,
Kim
I'm more interested in discussing detection methods and ideas on policies that can protect merchants than finger pointing. In reference to the post above, it may be legal to a point but that doesn't make it a fair discussion. So with the right knowledge of what to look out for, you can be certain of something suspicious and report it to the relevant network but saying something like "that affiliate xxxxx is a bit weird - what do you know about them?" certainly wouldn't make me, as a merchant, comfortable.
I do inform our network - but I need to know what to look for because for every one suspicious transaction you find there are likely to be others and even successful affiliates with a good reputation may be accidentally damaging your brand.
I'd guess that it's the same as sharing customer information if you found a customer to be suspicious - it's not right to be sharing customer information with other merchants or even to be accessing it yourselves unless you're investigating an odd series of transactions. Privacy protects users information from being viewed without good reason.
I am aware of customer privacy matters.
If you want to know what to look out for I can definatly share with you some tips... Just wanted to make sure I wasn't breaking anything illegal (hopefully not!)...
1. Do spot checks on sales/traffic driving refering urls. - Check that the content about you is correct and on a url you have approved.
2. Duplicate IP addresses should be investigated as a priority. However there can be logical explanations - ie your latest promotion is doing the rounds in an office block.
3. If you have PPC restirictions, do some spot checks after hours and on misspells/variations.
4. Beware of sudden spikes in sales from new affiliates / affiliates who have not been active for some time.
5. If it is feasible (or relevant), keep an eye on the returns rate of your affiliate - do you have any where the returns rate if way above average?
6. If the sales look too good to be true for the referring url - consider investigating it - an automated redirect may be going on from another site. Be cautious of masked urls. Network-merchant terms usually say affiliates are not allowed to mask their urls.
7. If you are working with cashback sites, make sure your networks explains potential loopholes with you.
8. Certain countries/locations are known for more fraud / scams than others. Get your network to brief you on what to look out for.
9. Familiarise yourself with the industry best practices and guidelines and learn what tactics are not permitted.
10. If you are ever unsure, seek advice / a second opinion.
Other tips - raise your concerns openly with your affiliate and network. Often it is a simple misunderstanding but if the affiliate is cagey / non responsive / or point blank refuses to correct the issues / or keeps doing the same unauthorised thing, ask yourself do you really want to work with them? Sometimes your affiliates will bring things to your attention, which can be a bonus. I also usually catch 2 spyware/virus threats a year when either doing spot checks on referring urls or when doing application approvals.
Set a good example to your affiliates. Be helpful, fair and transparant as much as possible. But also be firm when you need to be and make it clear what the expectations are (ie through your terms and conditions) and have a plan for how you / your network will respond to any suspicious activities.
No need for the tone :O
Great list - the one that stands out is point 8 which is very interesting and something I'll look at!
Sorry, I cut a bit off the end of that 1st sentance as I couldn't think how to express my idea clearly so maybe it became a bit more abrupt than intended. - I was thinking customers have very clear privacy protection laws - I wasn't sure that this should be confused with affiliate tactics / and discussing suspicious examples? Other than perhaps slander, I am not sure what legal issures there are to prevent the discussion you were suggesting. If there is another kind of legal issue, I am still curious to know what it is. :-)
I don't know what the legalities are but sharing details of an affiliate that were disclosed in confidence is obviously wrong - so perhaps the legalities are around that but I'm not sure
So you want people to talk about other who are breaking affiliate policies or using "black hat" techniques to sell?
What policies ought to be, how to enforce those policies and how to respond to issues both within and out with policies - e.g. internet IP
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