Anyone promoting Splash PLastic?

[hens00]

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I was wondering if anyone is promoting the Splash PLastic prepaid card with Webgains.com?

If you do, then you will know that in order to receive your 10 pounds commission, the customer needs to activate the card within 45 days of receiving it.

I have been testing this campaign since December and have had 25 sales or so -but only 1 person has activated their card. So from a possible 250 pounds I have only been paid 10 pounds.

Does anyone have experience with the activation ratio? I dont want to continue promoting this service if I hardly ever get paid!

Many thanks
Henry

[Ryan Gilbert]

Hi Hens00,
The program reports a recall % of over 60% which is very high, however, these terms are present in the program description.

I recommend contacting Andrew Copeland (acopeland @ webgains.com) and find out from the client why the % is so high. This way you will get some better insight into how to adjust your promotions to increase conversion or alternatively find out why the client is unable to convert the traffic.

Hope this helps.

[hens00]

Thanks for the advice Ryan, it certainly does help.

I was not aware of the 60% recall rate, and I agree that it is very high.

Seeing as though the customer has already paid upfront for the card, you would assume that pretty much everyone would go on to activate it. In addition, there are no credit checks required, and for people with bad credit, activating this card would be a priority surely?

I dont think I will bother contacting them for an explantion. If that's their recall rate for their product for whatever reason, then so be it. If I were to adjust my promotions to increase the conversions, there is no way I would be able to get the 60% down to what I believe to be a reasonable figure.

A far easier alternative is to give preference to other merchants. All the other merchants I promote do not require the cardholder to activate the card in order to commissions to be approved, although they pay less than Splash Plastic. Ah well.

Thanks again.

[Ryan Gilbert]

Yes, the onus is certainly on the merchants to ensure they have a good approval rate and this in turn will affect their long term campaign.

As far as I can see, you only have one cancelled commission and the rest are pending approval. To be sure, let me know your account ID and I'll look into it further.

[tbp]

I promote splash plastic as well, and very dissapointed with them overall, to the point of considering dropping them.

Lots of people signing up for the cards, but very low conversions and most of them end up being cancelled.

Also hate the 2 months that they take to get approved. Apparently it's to give the maximum chance for people to activate the card, so you get the most commissions, but in practice it really doesn't work and is just a PITA.

I was initially majorly pushing them, since the commission went from £2 to £4, and then to £10. I can see how they manage to put it up so high now, as they hardly have to payout.

I also push a number of other prepaid debit cards, who pay around £4 - £6, but haven't had any cancelled and they only take a week to be validated. These make splash look extremely poor!

[Andrew Copeland]

Hi all,

Thanks very much for the feedback. It really is important to hear your thoughts on our programs and I've forwarded the thread to the Splash team for review.

Regarding the cancellation rate and the commissions, I agree that 60%+ is a very high cancellation rate. I have recently met with the merchant and we will be looking at ways to decrease that figure as soon as possible. However, it is worth keeping in mind that this particular merchants pays on activation not on application. As already mentioned, the 60 day recall period is in place to give users as long as possible to activate their cards and thus earn you commission. However, if you think that this period is too long or inefficient, please feel free to contact me and we can possibly come up with an alternative.

I am in the process of developing a program overview for the merchant as we are discussing making some large changes on the program, both to increase the conversion rate and improve affiliate communication.

If you have any requests, feedback or even complaints, it would be great to hear from you directly. Any feedback from you guys really helps to highlight areas where certain programs can be improved.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

[hens00]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for contacting Splash PLastic regarding this issue, it is nice to know Webgains are doing their best to ensure us affiliates are happy.

You mention a 60 day recall period, but is it not 45 days? Whether it is 45 or 60 days, I certainly do not believe that the period is too long. For me, the longer the period of time that a customer gets to activate the card to ensure we get paid, the better. Whether the customer activates the card 1 day after receiving it, or 10 months later, Splash Plastic will still benefit from the signups that affiliates are generating.

I do not understand why over 60% of the people would actually pay money for the card, but not activate it for use within 45 days.

As mentioned in my previous post, I assume that a lot of Splash PLastic customers are people who are suffering from bad credit history, so surely when they receive a prepaid card which gives them the benefits of a standard credit card, then they would be quick to activate and use it.

AffiliateWindow offer the Bread prepaid card and affiliates are paid 5 pounds per application - perhaps this is something Splash Plastic are willing to consider?

[Andrew Copeland]

Hi,

During my chats with the merchant, we've looked pretty closely at the market and reviewed the different commission models out there. While Splash haven't dismissed the pay per application option the emphasis of our discussions has been on finding ways to improve the conversion rates of activations.

From the merchants perspective, paying on activation not only provides a lower risk but also a much more sustainable revenue stream for them which in turn helps to ensure that the program can keep going from strength to strength.

While not finalised, there are some pretty big plans for the program going forward. While the commission structure may not change, we're in discussions about some really nifty tools and additions which should hopefully see a much shorter turnaround on activations.

I'll keep you posted but in the meantime, please give me a shout if you need anything or have any suggestions.

[prepaidaffiliate]

Hmm.. I am still not convinced. I looked at the recall % today and it said 25% - yesterday it was like 65%.... It keeps changing and the numbers are a little confusing. It's certainly not good when you have a £1000 commission in your account and get paid £50 - TWO months later!

I would certainly have made more by working on a 20p CPC given the amount of traffic directed by our servers towards Splash Plastic.

The programme does not provide revenue share and whilst a £10 CPA sounds great, my effective CPA - to applications as oppossed to activations is really really poor.

Furthermore, we are promoting the product using the text and copy provided within the programme so as affiliates, we are doing our duty by not misrepresenting the programme. Are Splash doing their bit by chasing those who apply but dont activate their card?

I dont think so! I think there is a fundamental problem if around 60-70% of applications get cancelled two months later. I see a £1000 commission in Month 1, I invest more in promoting Splash in month 2, I see 70% cancellations in month 3 and wonder why the hell did i spend so much time and effort promoting something like this which has resulted insuch poor conversions.

I think the problem is with the product, not with the process. I promote cashplus, bread and a few others and have not faced this issue with any of them.

Extremely disappointed and waiting to see how Splash will respond. I think this is important for all affiliates and not just me!

[Andrew Copeland]

Thanks for the feedback once again PrepaidAffiliate,

I've had a look through the programs reports for the last 2 quarters and am having difficulty finding your affiliate account in the list.

If you'd like to PM or email your affiliate account name or your webgains ID I'd be more than happy to look into the matter further for you.

The reason the recall % has changed so dramatically is that Splash Plastic have recently uploaded a large file confirming a large number of activations early! I am pleased to say that over 40% of February's transactions have now been approved for payment early to affiliates.

The % is calculated on number of cancellations as a percentage of (cancelled + confirmed transactions). As the default status of the transactions on the Splash Plastic account is delayed, these do not get included in the calculation as they are neither confirmed nor cancelled.

When you retrieve your reports from the Webgains system, are you including delayed transactions when calculating the % of your transactions that have been cancelled?

As I've said in previous posts, Splash Plastic pay on activation not application like other merchants. While paying on application has not been completely discounted, the focus is on increasing the activation rates rather than completely changing the commission structure.

If there is anything else I can do to help, please let me know.

[hens00]

I too have noticed that the approval rate has now fallen dramatically from around 60% to 25%.

In addition to this, im glad to discover that some of my applications I sent through have now been activated and I have been paid my commissions.

However, I still have some concerns.

Firstly, how on earth did Splash Plastic manage to reduce their approval rates from 60% down to 25% in such a short space of time? As a far as I am aware, the 60% has been the standard approval rate for quite some time.

This reduction in approval percentage seems to have fallen around about the same time as when affiliates have began moaning about it.

At the same time, I have seen a sudden increase in my commission rates jump from 10 pounds (I was stuck on this 10 pounds mark for quite some time) to 100 pounds.

Im not being funny, but is it a coincidence that when affiliates start questioning Splash Plastic approval and conversion rates, that suddenly we are getting higher conversions and more people are activating their cards?

[tbp]

I`ve noticed that since complaining in this thread, my approvals have dramatically increased.

Obviously i`m very pleased with this, but I do wonder if they were pulling a bit of a fast one before - maybe i`m just cynical though

As long as it stays like this i`m happy and will continue promoting them.

[Andrew Copeland]

Hi hens00

The early approval of the transactions is one of the steps we suggested Splash take to decrease the time taken for commissions to reach affiliates. We now receive a periodic file of approvals allowing us to release commissions before the 60 day recall period has expired. We are aiming to get this weekly.

This will have an effect on the recall % on the program. As I've already mentioned in previous posts, the recall % is the number of transactions cancelled as a % of all transactions (both cancelled and approved) once the transactions have come out of their recall period and we know if they are going to be paid or not.

The approval of a large amount of transactions will have gone a long way to dropping this rate. While I'm happy that the rate is descreasing, there is the possibility of fluctuation as transactions are approved or cancelled.

Regarding the commission rates, are you talking about the commission per activation? If so they should all be paid at £10.

I can't say from my side whether it is a coincidence that the conversion rates have improved dramatically as I don't have direct access to the Splash systems to check on transactions. However, I have forwarded over each post to the team at Splash and they are well aware of your concerns.

After a number of meetings with them, I can say that Splash Plastic are committed to making their affiliate program a success for both themselves and affiliates and have put their internal processes under a microscope to try to get the most out of the traffic sent by affiliates.

Again, we are looking at some big changes for the program and your feedback in crucial to the process. However, please bear with us as these are not decisions which can be made hastily.

Thanks again for the feedback and please keep it coming.

[prepaidaffiliate]

Hi Andrew,
With regards to "I've had a look through the programs reports for the last 2 quarters and am having difficulty finding your affiliate account in the list. " - not too happy as it makes it sound as if there is something dodgy with regards to my feedback and diverts from the criticism I have of Splash which i think was fair criticism. I think the concerns I raised have been raised by others as well and in the past, I have vigorously supported Splash which i think is a good programme in general.

This does not mean that all is well. As some of the others have noted, the stats have changed quite dramatically post criticism on this thread and it isn't really my concern if Splash are pulling a fast one - as even if they are, it won't last as they cannot continue giving commissions away if there programme has flaws. So sooner or later, if these stats and commissions to be paid out aren't genuine, they would fall flat anyway.

I agree with "tbp" - it doesn’t matter to us affiliates. If Splash can sustain the stats as they currently are or improve on them, there is no reason for me to take my business away which currently has 6 sites promoting Splash! So I am not sure how long you list is, but you probably need to look harder to see what we are doing for your programme!

Yoram

[Andrew Copeland]

Hi Yoram,

I can assure you that your feedback as been very useful when speaking with the merchant and has been taken extremely seriously. I agree that all of the criticism is fair and would like to thank both you and the other affiliates for supplying the type of constructive criticism that you have. Please keep it coming.

As most affiliates know, webgains operates a single account managment team who deals with both merchants and affiliates. Even if the feedback is not positive, it is always beneficial for me and the other account managers to receive it as we can communicate it directly to the merchant.

I've sent you a PM outlining why I was unable to find your account on our system and hope it clears up the problem.

not too happy as it makes it sound as if there is something dodgy with regards to my feedback and diverts from the criticism I have of Splash

Quite the opposite I assure you. Your feedback has been extremely valuable in conversations with the merchant. However, it is beneficial to be able to point out to the merchant exactly which affiliate is raising issues.

I can completely understand your concern regarding the sudden change in recall %. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, this was due to a large approval file being uploaded to the system. The implementation of this file has been in the works for some time, but Splash have had a change of affiliate manager which has delayed the start.

I believe that Richard, the new affiliate manager, wanted to post up here himself but is having trouble with his posting privileges so I'll probably be posting something up on his behalf later on today.

In the meantime, please feel free to give me a shout if anything else comes up.

Cheers