Afternoon,
Key issues from agencies to develop best practice case studies? Excellent news, were do I begin?
These points are genuine ones I have came across in my humble years in online marketing and the affiliate world. Meant for debate, not ‘point scoring’ or ‘arguments’ please.
Brand, brand, brand.
Ongoing and developing speed at a real rate of knots, clients are more interested than ever in where their brand is placed in the affiliate world. Some clients are writing different content guidelines for different affiliate genres for example, which means that they are in control of how the user sees their company and exactly how it is portrayed on ‘partner sites.’ This is a significant step on from simply “no cash back sites” for example, as they are considering the proposition and being tolerant depending on the sales potential.
Social Networking – control of affiliate content?
Merchant’s products being written about on affiliate’s own social networking by consumers sites is one thing, but their products being written about on sites that they pay commission too, that’s another thing. How much control over the second should or could they have?
Where do affiliates fit?
Having a knowledge of their marketing schedule is key and their objectives within this. A matured search campaign for example may have to be tweaked to allow for effective affiliate marketing through search affiliates (adding incremental sales.) How can we ensure that the advice is sound and for the benefit of their online schedule and not simply to protect the revenues of the search agency?
De-duplication
A mature marketing schedule and launching with three affiliate networks next week? Have you considered your users journey through that cookie hell? Paying for sales once is essential for an efficient schedule, implement the correct tools and validation policy and you will avoid being red faced in 6 – 12 months time, or even seriously out of pocket.
Compliance Issues for Finance Clients
With an ever increasing focus on online from the FSA, whose responsibility is it to ensure that affiliate’s websites are accurate and up to date? What is the role of a network with hundreds of affiliate sites and how can merchants and affiliates be realistic about turnaround times if rates or products do change? Surely having an understanding of the key genres on your affiliate programme and even a granular knowledge of the pages on their site that you are live on is the only way? Whatever the merchant is happy with, it must be an informed and transparent approach.
Defining the exact commission parameters.
Clarity needs to exist in the terms and conditions for what the agency bills the client for and what the affiliate is paid on. Only by getting total clarity on what constitutes a lead/sale will we be able to protect the affiliate from bitter disputes. This is especially prevalent in finance lead vs sale based activity.
Also, gone on for long enough here..and
am v hectic/busy:
Where affiliate marketing spends comes from in a client organisation (sales v. marketing budget)?
Issues affecting PPC, such as SE changes, particularly behavioural targeting?
Do networks with an effective management solution pose a significant threat to agencies?
Capping by genre where aff spend is from a marketing budget, e.g. not placing restrictive caps on
SEO guys.
Transparency
Hope that this helps.
Col.
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