Action Referral Occurrences

I see strawberrynet are changing to a once only cookie instead of unlimited occurences. It makes me fear that some merchants will see this option as a cost cutting exercise.

That's a shame,

The merchants we have spoken to so far, seem unaware of what "Action Referral Occurrence" actually means, even though the default option for a merchant is actually meant to be set to be unlimited. All of those we spoke to so far feel it should be unlimited based on a scenario we put to them or their perception of how cookies and sales work.

Even though there is no distinct correaltion between good and not so good performing merchants in relation to whether they have an "Action Referral Occurrence" of only once or unlimited.

In our situation, we will re-examine merchants, and if they are not a particularly good converter and have a once only "Action Referral Occurrences", then we shall be inclined to dis-clude them from our sites.

If enough of us explain what the diiference is to the merchant, then those who innocently don't know will possibly switch. From what has been gathered so far, upon personal discussion with some merchants, they are genuinely confused by what it actually means and don't know the difference..I get the feeling they think limited to "one" means any sales within a "x" number of days cookie period and that unlimited means a cookie which lasts for eternity.

Note: though this is also perculiar to some merchants on TD.

I think the fact that it's now visible to affiliates means it's less likely that merchants will have it set to once (which makes them look mean).
Already a few of mine have changed from once to unlimited, lets hope Strawberrynet are a one off.

Also not many if any repeat sales are going to happen in 14 days, even at 30 days it's not going to be above 1% or even 0.1% ... What we do need to sort out is the super mean merchants with session cookies, now that is a joke.

Yes strawberrynet is a shame especially for the UK market, where their advertising is non existent in other media forms.

I can't see their reasoning behind this.

Just had a reply from them saying that they have always had it set at once only but the upgrade set it to unlimited and they are just getting it back to how it was before when we couldn't see it.

That's ok then! They really are a nice bunch of people after all!

We've had a few problems with strawberrynet in the past. Users emailing customer care to tell us that they are getting hit with VAT bills or additional postage charges when the package is delivered. We've stopped actively promoting it for that reason.

(Matt - that wasn't a pop at S-net, just a passing comment)

I've been hassling my merchants to review the action terms for my account with mixed results.

I wont name the merchant but heres one reply I received today:

>>
Thanks for writing. I apologise for the delay in getting back to you. The settings we have selected are standard for all of our affiliates. If you feel that there is a good reason to make an exception with your site then please do send me a proposal. Perhaps we should agree to take a look at the levels of traffic and sales you are generating in a few months time and re-evaluate the current position.
>>

So before wasting more time I checked their EPC.

£0.03p.

More cost effective for me to pull their links then waste time educating this one!

LOL here, here ... bet we see this merchant on the board in a few months asking why no one promotes the program.. or better still the affiliate manager for the program sitting in the pub telling everyone how affiliate marketing doesn’t work

Now where is my link to the rather famous Jim Henson productions

Thats more like it:

>>>
I've discussed things with the site owners, and they have agreed to change the ocurrences to unlimited across the enitre network. I'll be implementing this today. To be honest, like many merchants I was not aware that CJ operated like this until you highlighted it to
me.
>>>

Thanks Pet Planet!

Quote:

---

like many merchants I was not aware that CJ operated like this until you highlighted it [/quote]

Just published an article on this, as the message seeps through I'm sure more will change to more accomodating terms. Feel free to point your merchants to it:

www.affiliatemarketing.co.uk/apr03.htm

- Neil

Neil - nice article

You might as well copy and paste it onto the forum.

Copied in below:


>>>>>

1. Action Referral Occurrences

With the launch of Commission Junction's new interface it's now a lot easier for publishers to see more detail over the handling of an advertiser's cookies and policies on repeat purchases. However, some advertisers I've spoken with don’t appear to understand the impact the choice of their options will have on their publishers.

I believe that in the past CJ have always provided the functionality for an advertiser to only pay commissions against the first sale via the 'cookies keep=no' switch. Certainly there's nothing wrong with this if the program has been structured to reward an affiliate for 'customer acquisition' rather than pitched as a revenue share play.

It's a good move on CJ's part to ensure that the terms behind cookie handling events are now defined for their publishers, but with the added level of sophistication this now offers I fear that few affiliates and indeed many merchants whom I have spoken to understand how this works!

The terminology can be a little foreign to start with.

The new interface now presents two additional fields:

a) Action Referral Period, translated this is the commonly accepted 'cookie period' (ranging from 1-120 days)

b) Action Referral Occurrences, this is the number of times an advertiser will pay a commission within the *same* cookie period (ranging from 1 time to unlimited).

Here’s where there is room for confusion.

Many affiliates are under the belief that they earn commissions for *all* sales during the active cookie period.

However, this is now metered by the 'Action Referral Occurrence' setting. The comment from one super affiliate I discussed this with, sums it up: "I feel short changed"!

Certainly if your program is designed to pay for customer acquisition then it's not a problem but if you're selling your program as an ongoing revenue share for referred customers then please ensure your action referral occurrence reflects this with appropriate unlimited occurrences.

Last week I politely emailed several merchants I work with explaining that their terms of '1 time' sales against long cookie periods while considering their low commission rates weakened their offer to the point that I could not continue to promote it. One replied instantly to agree and alter their occurrence settings - the others haven’t bothered to reply yet!