PetPlan Cookie Period Reduction

[Qui Gon Jinn]

In this transition we intend to reduce the cookie period from the current 30 days, to 15 days. The reduction in the cookie window is in a bid to bring affiliates in line with all other media. Before making the final decision whether or not to implement this change, customer journeys were examined and it was found only 2% of sales were completed outside the 15 day window. With this in mind we do not foresee the change in cookie period having a major impact on the programme or sales generated.

Okay, so a cookie reduction might not exactly grab the headlines, but reading above, 2% is still 2%, better in an affiliates pocket than their own. So to put a different slant on it, are they going to increase the commission by 2% as a proportion of the current rates? Though not.

[gunneradt]

this is just a 'lets see if we can clawback some commission we might otherwise have paid' tactic

shameful

[mattswan]

Hi Guys,

I know that it is far from ideal but having analysed the past 6 months data the amount of sales that fell out of this cookie period was very minimal.

I can assure you that this is not an attempt to claw back commissions.

As the account has been taken over by Equi=Media we will be working closely together to intrdoduce incentives/commission structures to reward affiliates for their efforts on the campaign moving forward.

Thanks,
Matt

[toast8172]

Originally Posted by mattswan I know that it is far from ideal but having analysed the past 6 months data the amount of sales that fell out of this cookie period was very minimal.

So why bother to change it?

[hpops]

For the reasons stated? Not everything is a conspiracy theory.
"Can we make sure that we treat all our online channels the same in terms of tracking"
"No"
Doesn't sound right to me
Also 2% of commissions if they pay say 10% would take it to 10.2% which is kind of pointless - I would suggest that the merchant in question place the the difference in a pot for bespoke incentives though

[Qui Gon Jinn]

i don t know exactly if the trend is upwards or down wards overall on cookie lengths & haven t done an audit of those with less than 30 days, or which networks measure sales beyond the attributed cookie period, but scale it up on whoever the merchant is and the commissions soon add up.

£100k commission over a year = £2k less .. better in the affiliate pocket or stuck in the pension fund i say .. also for more considered purchases how much goes beyond the prescribed cookie period.

At what stage / length do we say cookie length is pointless? Why don't we have minimum standards.

[hpops]

I take your point mate, but to give that on a .2% comms basis would make VERY little positive difference to the program - 2ks worth of incentives would

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Yes incentives is a good option, difference is that an increase in commission ... everybody wins ... & with incentives only a few win. Maybe do both & split down the middle.

Why is it that when we view commission rates on merchants they are round whole number %'s or 0.5 denominations occassionally?

[gunneradt]

so what were the reasons in proper English?

[mattswan]

Hi Guys,

The decision was taken to bring the affiliate channel in line with all other online activity. This is a decision that has been taken by the client and not by Equimedia who are taking over the management of the campaign.

Due to a misunderstanding with the previous agency, the cookie was set to 30 days although it was Petplans understanding that this would be 15 days inline with other channels.

I would like to reiterate that this change is expected to have a minimum impact on sales and will be monitored closely.

We will be working closely with Equimedia to offer incentives and promotions moving forward to improve the campaign even further.

If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact me on the details below.

Kind regards,
Matt

[gunneradt]

theres not much to discuss really- just means affiliates make less.