Kayak CPC Affiliate Program on LinkShare

[Greavsie]

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Welcome to the Kayak Affiliate Program

LinkShare UK are very pleased to announce the launch of Kayak on the LinkShare UK network.

COMMISSION STRUCTURE = 50 % revenue share.

Commission Explained
Kayak offers a 50% revenue share on all visitors who are sent through Kayak to the merchant of sale. Kayak does not actually sell travel products, but rather finds the best travel deals on hundreds of our partner sites.
Here’s the way it works:
A customer comes from your site to Kayak and finds some great travel deals. When they then click on any travel deal, referring them to an actual travel supplier (i.e. British Airways, EasyJet, etc.) you get paid! (typically between 0.25 and 0.50 GBP per click). Unlike other travel sites, the best part about Kayak is that you get paid even if an actual sale does not need to occur.

About Kayak
Kayak.co.uk is a new kind of travel website. Created by co-founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, Kayak.co.uk is a search engine that helps consumers find great travel deals from 100 other travel sites.

Kayak.co.uk finds fares from airlines like EasyJet that don’t sell through online agencies. In fact, Kayak.co.uk displays more choices of available itinerary/price combinations than any other travel site.

Best of all, it’s free to use. So your visitors can save time and money by using Kayak.co.uk.

Kayak.co.uk has a strong and growing affiliate program. Help your visitors find great travel deals – and make money!

Rave Reviews = Money Saving Expert

To join click below
Existing LinkShare Affiliates - Login and apply
New LinkShare Affiliates - Join up today, if you need any help please email support

We look forward to working with you!

Your Contacts
LinkShare – Mumtaz Khamker & Andy Greaves

[dougs]

Kayak make most of their money from banner ads, so are they going to pay a share of those as well?

Doug

[Greavsie]

Hi Doug

It's unlikely, but I will check on Monday.

To be honest though, I have never actually seen your atypical banner running on Kayak even though they list them on the advertising page. The fact they are sold as CPM, leads me to believe the answer to your question would be No, since there is no commercial necessity for them to pay affiliates for clicks on banners.

Andy

[tomj]

Andy, top win m8....sounds like a decent program. I'm sure it'll be a success!!!

[Greavsie]

cheers tom. I always wondered if that was you!

I'll drop you a line on Monday.

[dougs]

Many comparator sites get lots of page views but few click outs in comparison , we know we run a decent one.

I have also talked to the MD's of several huge comparaotr sites and they all same the same. Hence have a look at comparator sites and you will see they are covered in banners being sold on a cpm basis.

My point is kayak are paying per click out, which they will be making profit on, but getting tons of banner views for free.

Cheers


Doug

[Greavsie]

Hi Doug

I understand your points perfectly, but this situation is the same with hundreds of affiliates programs, affiliates send lots of traffic to website; which they can then sell - whether that be the atypical CPM model or by asking suppliers to pay to be on the main pages to help sales.

The CPCs being paid out are more than most CSEs for instance, and unlike other comparison sites Kayak is not covered in banners. So the Sponsored links are actually more prominent and therefore I believe affiliates will generate significant revenues from this merchant.

Greavsie

[J_L]

Never heard of Kayak before. The sites very impressive i like the fare buzz option.
From an affiliates point of view i suppose cpc is the best option considering the
number of tyre kickers looking at flights.


You've got your work cut out to compete with these guys dougs, they had 20,000 users
on the site when i last looked.

I will have to revise my judgement and say you overpaid for you fly domain by 80 grand

[dougs]

Kayak is a huge American player...hence the traffic...unfortunately they have limited penetration in the UK..ask any players who are on their site how many sales they get. Ditto sidestep.

Kayak.com gears up for the UK launch

The last time I met them they had 2 staff members in the UK....there focus understandably is the US where they are massive. Travel/Money supermarket has 600 staff, Skyscanner and ourselves, asap.co.uk, carrentals.co.uk and fly.co.uk have about 25 and all are both focussed on the UK/European market

Cheers


Doug


FYI. I believe they are not paying for traffic that lands but for traffic that clicks out...that is my issue.

[J_L]

Kayak offers a 50% revenue share on all visitors who are sent through Kayak to the merchant of sale

Not worth promoting then is it
(IMHO of course)

[Greavsie]

Glad to see a little activity on the forums.

Kayak's obviously relatively new in the UK, but with the type of PR they are getting on sites like moneysavingexpert and the fact they are extremely proactive we fully expect the UK site to reach and maintain the levels of its US counterpart.

As the site becomes more popular, their CPCs will rise whilst in all likelihood the affiliates CPC's to Kayak will maintain or possibly reduce (i.e. once Google as decided you're worthy of bidding on the keyword - or whatever it is their algo decides).

Personally i think Kayak will perform very well for affiliates. "you would say this" well yeps of course - but I honestly do think they are going to rock in the UK.

I'd be happy to listen to suggestions on their program and discuss it with Kayak. So feel free to drop me an email at agreaves@linkshare.com with constructive thoughts.

Greavsie

[Greavsie]

Dear Affiliates

To make sure everyone fully understands the Kayak commission structure and how it pertains to making you money.

Commission Structure
- 50% revenue share on all visitors who are sent through Kayak to their merchant
- So for ease, think of Kayak like a travel search engine, they have Natural results & Sponsored results. But there is one important twist!

The Twist
Where possible the Natural Kayak results are actually monetised via CPC's, CPA's etc. And Affiliates are also paid commission on these where applicable!

Results are always displayed on merit (in a similar way to moneysavingexpert), but if the merchant has agreed a deal with Kayak then they will pay you 50% of everything they earn from that "action". FYI - All most all have!

Useful Information
Natural Listings - Average CTR's vary for 20-50%
Sponsored Listings - Current Avg CTR's are 5%
Display Adverts - Kayak do not run display adverts on their site currently.

I hope this makes a little more sense. If you would like to join the program, please see below
Existing LinkShare Affiliates - Login and apply
New LinkShare Affiliates - Join up today, if you need any help please email me agreaves@linkshare.com

Greavsie