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Affiliate Marketing for Merchants-Advertisers

1. 6 Deal Group Media 7 Kowabunga 8 Online Media 9 Paid on e consultancy 10 11 Wheel URL www dgm2 com Technolgies www myaffiliateprogr am com Group www omguk com Results com www PaidOnResults com TradeDoubler com www tradedoubler com www wheel co uk Are you an affiliate Affiliate Solutions Software Solution Affiliate Solutions Affiliate Solutions Affiliate Solutions Bespoke Advertising Solutions Provider Provider only Provider Provider Provider or software solution only Sector All All Financial All All All specialisation Are you UK only No No Yes No No No In which country UK USA UK UK Sweden UK is your main office located Contact Name Adam Black Theresa Farmer Tyson Pearcey Clarke Duncan Nicola Reed Phillip Ludgate Contact Telephone Number 0207 691 1880 1 734 728 4500 01603 763089 0141 548 8037 0207 351 9782 0207 348 1000 Fax 0207 691 1881 1 734 728 7810 0160 328 3644 0207 351 9721 0207 348 1111 Email adam dealgroup Theresa kowabunga Tyson onlinemedi info PaidOnResults Nicola reed tradedoub Phillip ludgate wheel co media com net agroup co uk com ler com uk How many years 5 8 3 2 5 15 in business Annual Turnover 12 million Not given Not given Not given Waiting for auditors 7million Number of 65 0 25 5 20 75 employees in the UK Number of active
2. 0 0 eee ee eee ceseeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeteeeeenneeeees 15 2 2 5 Don t rely on banner ads to drive CLICKS 0 2 ccccceeeceeeeceeeeceeeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeeseneeeeaneetsnees 15 2 2 6 Don t believe there is any such thing as a totally managed outsourced solution 15 2 2 7 Don t accept affiliates known to use adware or spyware eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetteees 15 2 2 8 Don t forget about tracking offline conversions ee eeeeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeneeeaees 16 2 2 9 Don t be afraid to admit to your affiliates that you are new to affiliate marketing 16 2 2 10 Don t look too much over your shoulder at your competitors affiliate program 16 3 Setting up your own Affiliate Program seerne 17 3 1 What are the basic resources that you will you need 17 SAA Attiliate MAN AGOM eiere aaa a aea aaae E e ee e a a EES 17 S12 Production SKINS zeie aeeiioaaoe caters ai eraa e araa E Teodora 17 8 1 3 Technical SHINS deiin ieou Mauss i i iiia w daei oiii eaaa 17 3 2 What linking methods will you need and what works best 17 3 2 1 Linking methods and resulting conversion rates 17 3 2 2 Banners Buttons Pop Ups and Skyscrapers W W Wu u u u dsesseveereeseree nens renerne erne 18 3 3 Outsource or do it in house s ssnnsenunnnenennnnnnrnunnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnrnn nnne 22 3 3 1 Keeping it in house ss 22 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 3 Affiliate M
3. 120 x 240 Vertical Banner 120 x 90 Button 1 120 x 60 Button 2 88 x 31 Micro Bar Rectangles amp Pop Ups Banner Size Banner Type 300 x 250 Medium Rectangle 250 x 250 Square Pop up 240 x 400 Vertical Rectangle 336 x 280 Large Rectangle 180 x 150 Rectangle Skyscrapers Banner Size 160 x 600 120 x 600 Banner Type Wide Skyscraper Skyscraper Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 18 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 UP CLICK HERE 468x60 234x60 125x125 120x90 120x60 120x240 88x31 250x250 300x250 Page 19 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 240x200 336x280 180x150 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 20 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 RSG REQS Starstylefashion Starstylefashion Sky Scraper 160x600 Sky Scraper 120x600 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 21 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 3 3 Outsource or do it in house 3 3 1 Keeping it in house Benefits of doing it in house as opposed to via an affiliate solutions provider include e You have total control over your entire affiliate program e You are able to be more proactive and reactive to affiliate requests e You pay the affiliate directly cutting out override charg
4. Do you have separate Terms and Conditions and guidelines No Yes No Yes Yes Is there a privacy policy in place Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes About your affiliate software Do you own your software outright Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Is or was your software developed in house Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Do you offer real time tracking Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Do you offer off line tracking No Yes Yes Yes No Is there a time lag on reporting statistics being updated If so please specify No No Slight delay With some statistics No What is the default currency of your software GBP GBP GBP GBP USD Can merchants see the following The Number of affiliates in their program Yes No Yes Yes Yes Affiliate Website where the No No Yes Yes Yes Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 31 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture e consultancy 4 Perfiliate Technologies 5 Commission Junction merchant s links are being served Is there an email function whereby merchants can communicate directly with their affiliates Per affiliate Yes No No Yes Yes Per Group Yes No No Yes Yes Collectively Yes No Yes
5. 141 250 25 23 300 8 UK merchants Number of active 23 500 N A 1000 2000 70 000 5000 affiliates Do you have a Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Secure Socket Layer SSL Are all areas of Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes access to your reporting part of your website pass word protected Do you have Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 38 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 e consultancy 6 Deal Group 7 Kowabunga 8 Online Media 9 Paid on 10 11 Wheel Media Technolgies Group Results com TradeDoubler com measures in place to protect against viruses and hacking Do you have No No Some No Yes Yes insurance to protect merchants should you have a catastrophic software failure or should you go bust Do you have any No N A No No Yes No affiliates that are deemed as spyware adware or malware Can your affiliate software track and report on the following Pay Per Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes impression CPM Pay Per Click Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes CPC Pay Per Lead Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes PPL Pay Per Sale Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes CPA Can you Yes May require No Yes Yes Yes accommodate customisation at a fee of Net losses for Gambling Merchants Affiliate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes performance incentives or bonuses Which of the following affiliate programs do you run Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 39 Affiliate Marke
6. Yes Yes Is there a fee for No No No No Yes amp No contact the use of for details emailing your affiliates Can Merchants No No Yes Yes Yes group their affiliates into categories for example by top performing affiliates Can merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes give different commissions based on affiliate performance or group Can merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes give different commissions based on products or services Can merchants see their affiliate program performance Per affiliate Yes No Yes Yes Yes Per group No No No Yes Yes Collectively Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Daily Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Monthly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yearly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Overall Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can merchants see the number of unique visitors that the affiliates have sent Per affiliate Yes No Yes Yes Yes Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 32 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 e consultancy 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture 4 Perfiliate Technologies 5 Commission Junction Per group No No No Yes Yes Collectively Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Daily No Yes Yes Yes Yes Monthly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Overall No Yes Yes Yes Yes Can merchants see the following Number of sales Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes leads generated Per affiliate Yes No Yes Yes Yes Per group No No No Yes Yes Collectively Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Daily Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Monthl
7. a wealth of knowledge skills and experience Let them guide you after all it s a partnership which only works if you both benefit 2 2 10 Don t look too much over your shoulder at your competitors affiliate program Being innovative fair and providing affiliate incentives will be enough to keep your affiliates motivated Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 16 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 3 Setting up your own Affiliate Program 3 1 What are the basic resources that you will you need 3 1 1 Affiliate Manager Ideally you will have an affiliate manager Someone that understands affiliate marketing in depth and has been working in the industry for a minimum of two years You are looking for someone with excellent communication skills and a deep commitment to ethical affiliate marketing practices This person should have some technical expertise and be proactive in affiliate recruitment affiliate retention and have good analytical skills as well as administrative skills This person will be responsible for validating commissions providing fresh content for the affiliates to display on their website and some one that is not afraid to challenge companies with an entrenched traditional advertising mentality in other words they will need to be able to sell affiliate marketing Salaries for an experienced affiliate manager range between 25k and 50k Remember a good affiliate manag
8. affiliate consultants to help you However be wary of anyone who claims they can provide a totally managed solution where you need do nothing at all and have no involvement The only totally managed solution that makes sense if where you totally manage your own affiliate program 2 2 7 Don t accept affiliates known to use adware or spyware Or at least be very aware of the risks of so doing Spyware is described in section 1 2 3 earlier Your biggest risk as a merchant is that other genuine affiliates quite possibly your super affiliates will drop you if you work with such software affiliates Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 15 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 2 2 8 Don t forget about tracking offline conversions For example if you have an telephone order number you will need to ensure you can facilitate offline tracking so that affiliate referred sales can be reported on even though the transaction went through another channel If you offer alternate forms of payment but have no tracking in place this will put the die hard affiliates off from joining your affiliate program Talk to your technical team or affiliate software technical contact about how to integrate offline sales into your reporting 2 2 9 Don t be afraid to admit to your affiliates that you are new to affiliate marketing Affiliates have been making a career out of affiliate marketing for some years now and have
9. affiliate program is your understanding of your target market and why your proposition is of interest to them If you know nothing about them how can your affiliates target their visitors to your website If you are not offering anything compelling or unique then how likely are you to convert the visitors an affiliate sends you Competitive differentiation or a clearly communicated proposition may be the deciding factor between an affiliate partnering with you in an area that already is saturated or where you are competing with an existing affiliate program that has been set up by your competitor 2 1 9 Do check on affiliates delivering no clicks or results These affiliates signed up for your program for a reason so if after a couple of weeks you still have affiliates displaying zero responses or results you need to find out why Usually there are good reasons e g e the affiliate is a novice and does not know how to put your links on his her websites e some affiliates may work up to a season in advance and are waiting for the right moment to put your links up e some affiliates may have signed up by accidentally clicking on the wrong merchant link 2 1 10 Do keep looking for new affiliates One of the cornerstones of a successful and growing affiliate program is an on going strategy for finding and attracting new affiliates to your program Unfortunately so many affiliate managers think that once launched their program will take care of itsel
10. comes to http www retailtherapyonline co uk and is forwarded onto to ASOS com and makes a purchase retailtherapyonline gets paid a commission on the total sales transaction The whole process is tracked by using an affiliate tracking ID in this case ASOS com use the software by the Affiliate Solution providers http Awww Tradedoubler com Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 8 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy STER 5 Merchant IE website KONV Affiliate eE o Tracking website software Explanation of graph 1 The visitor visits the affiliate website The visitor clicks on a link to a merchant The link points to the affiliate tracking software which will do some accounting registration of the click through 3 The affiliate tracking software writes a cookie to the visitors computer for tracking purposes 4 The affiliate tracking software automatically redirects the visitor to the merchant s website Steps 2 3 and 4 only take a fraction of a second and therefore the visitor does not notice that he she is not directed straight to the merchant website 5 The visitor browses through the merchant s website and adds products to the shopping basket Once done he she proceeds to the checkout and pays for the products 6 When the credit card is processed and payment has been taken the merchant s shopping cart software displays a Confirmation and thank you page to confirm the sa
11. services do you offer Consultancy Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Search Engine Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Optimisation Account Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes management Affiliate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes management Affiliate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes recruitment Are you two No Yes Yes Yes No Yes tiered Affiliate support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Do you pay the Yes As an additional Yes Yes Yes Yes affiliates on behalf Service of the merchant Do you offer an No No No Yes Yes No escrow When do you pay Threshold based N A Upon merchant Monthly Monthly Monthly the affiliates monthly and payment quarterly What is the 25 00 per quarter N A None 25 00 30 00 Varies affiliate threshold amp 100 00 per that they have to month reach before being paid How do you pay Cheque N A Cheque amp BACS Cheque amp BACS Direct Debit Cheque Bankers Draft your affiliates Standing Order Credit Card Direct Debits What are the costs upfront and ongoing One time set up 2000 00 From 995 3495 00 None None 3 500 00 Varies costs USD Is this inclusive of No Affiliate announce Yes Yes No No additional services If so please state which service is Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 44 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 e consultancy administration fee 6 Deal Group 7 Kowabunga 8 Online Media 9 Paid on 10 11 Wheel Media Technolgies Group Results com TradeDoubl
12. 02 with a surge of demand for affiliate marketing products and services Affiliate marketing had arrived in the UK and would be here to stay 1 2 What are affiliates 1 2 1 Affiliates of the Past So who are affiliates Back in 1999 in the UK the average UK affiliate was a Joe or Joanne sitting in his her bedroom creating hobby based websites Joe and Joanne were a 9 5 Student or Employee and the revenue they got from affiliate marketing in the UK had no significant impact on their income But Joe and Joanne got smart because they both had technical skills Not only were they able to build their own websites but also they were able to use the new emerging UK software to analyse their traffic to the point of being able to target their visitors with contextually relevant adverts Joe and Joanna s conversions went up and the money started trickling in Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 6 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy As the popularity and access to the Internet grew in the UK so did Joe and Joanne s commissions Joe and Joanne graduated from University or quit their day jobs and went into business for themselves A lot of these UK affiliates moved away from hobby based websites and set up shopping portals 1 2 2 Super Affiliates In 2000 a new breed of affiliate started emerging These were affiliates that had a combination of website design skills programming skills and th
13. 2004 e consultancy e You are not responsible for the maintenance of the affiliate tracking software e Affiliate queries are minimised leaving you with more time to recruit new affiliates into your program e Most affiliate solution providers offer additional complementary services such as email marketing search engine optimisation and assistance with PPC pay per click campaigns In terms of the cons against using an affiliate solution provider e The legal small print In most cases your affiliates are not yours In other words if you initially decide to have an outsourced affiliate solution then decide later on to develop an in house affiliate program you cannot take your affiliates with you You are bound by the terms and conditions of your contract not to solicit away from the network any affiliate If you are thinking about having direct relationships with your affiliates further down the line you should read the terms of your contract with any affiliate solution provider very carefully e The software Another potential drawback is that you need to get to grips with the Affiliate Solution Provider s software One of the common problems of a lot of Affiliate Solution Providers is that they do not provide you with a user manual Some Affiliate Solution Providers user instructions are too vague or too technical to understand To resolve this you will need a technically savvy person your end or you will need to work through the impl
14. Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide E consultancy April 2004 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd consi itancy Page 2 Jie Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy Table of Contents Introduction About the Author eeeeee ete eee ee eeeeeeeeeeees 5 TOVE SW Se ee eee mee 6 1 1 What is Affiliate Marketing ccccceeseseseeeeeeeeeeneneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseees 6 1 1 1 The Basic GConcept n memes ri dneh entente dlls 6 1 12 Origins EL nn nan tn ee een detente tendent aee die Une 6 1 2 What are affiliates assise enen scseuacinncscctunsinestinasenencummsdascierenuerniess 6 1 2 1 Affiliates of the Pastissaria a ai aeeai 6 1 2 2 Super AfMIATSS 25 tnt Men ei Ellers ein en Eee EAS ne hares 7 1 2 3 Unethical Affiliates and Spyware 7 1 2 4 What is a Two Tiered Affiliate Program 2 ccccccccesceceeeceeeeeeceneeeeeeeeeeeetseneeeeaeees 8 1 3 What is Affiliate Tracking Software and how does it work 8 1 81 TING PrOCESS iii den cher se inerte rien mani en agave cqeasenedebncarusinetsivegienesniarnea 8 1 3 2 The importance of cookies ss 9 TATE MINOS YE a hrs deat ramler 10 1 4 1 Abbreviations nnn nnn ennenen 10 V GOSS AY i ie a RU a r a a lacet andere eee 10 1 5 Tips Advice and Further Research 11 1 5 1 Online Advice Sources cecccececceeeeceeeeee
15. COM sise 28 5 Detailed profiles of 11 UK Affiliate Solution Providers 29 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 4 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy Introduction About the Author My name is Jessica Luthi and am the affiliate manager for www ASOS com My background in affiliate marketing is extensive started as affiliate manager for www ukaffiliates com in 1998 joined www affiliatewindow com in June 2000 as operations manager and then joined www ASOS com in April 2002 as their affiliate manager Prior to my arrival ASOS com had already partnered with www ukaffiliates com www cj com and www tradedoubler com within six months set about consolidating our affiliate program to just one affiliate solution provider which after careful consideration we decided we would remain with www tradedoubler com am an affiliate in my spare time with multiple themed websites and am well known and respected in the industry of affiliate marketing will be using ASOS com by way of example of a highly successful affiliate program ASOS com PLC is a fashion Internet store specialising in designer brands with a celebrity twist We are currently number two on hitwise com above Top Shop Figleaves com La Redoute Marks amp Spencer and Laura Ashley ASOS com Ltd is a PLC and the share forecast is good Our success is based on understanding our customers and their shopping habits combined with a strong pro
16. Cheque Bankers Draft amp Standing Order amp BACS Cheque Bankers Draft Standing Order amp Direct Debit Cheque Banker Draft amp Standing Order Cheque Bankers Draft Standing Order Credit Card amp Direct Debits What is the turn around from payment to Five working days 24hrs Varies One working day Varies Varies Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 45 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 6 Deal Group Media 7 Kowabunga Technolgies 8 Online Media Group 9 Paid on Results com 10 e consultancy 11 Wheel TradeDoubler com technical integration What is the turn around from technical integration to launch Immediate Varies Immediate Varies Immediate Varies Do you announce the launch of the merchants affiliate program to your entire network of affiliates Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes unless otherwise instructed When do merchants get invoiced End of the month Beginning of the month End of the month End of the month End of the month End of the month Do merchants get an itemised statement Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can merchants claw back commissions Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 46
17. Product feeds Visitors referred from following product data links are typically the most likely to convert on coming to your site Text Links These are usually the second best in terms of resulting conversions Dynamic Linking Dynamic linking is a method where the merchant has complete control over what is displayed on the affiliate s website This involves the affiliate taking the linking code and inserting it into Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 17 e consultancy Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 his her website ASOS com use content units through www tradedoubler com and this is popular with the affiliates who don t know how to use product feeds Rich Media e g flash banners These do not have such a good response rate as product feeds or text links However www PaidOnResults com see vendors in the marketplace later in the guide are currently working with interactive linking methods with sound It s in its early days but it is innovative Banners and buttons see below for industry sizes and examples Banners and buttons should principally be used for brand awareness purposes They are still a popular method of linking by affiliates but are only really effective when used in addition to text links and product feeds 3 2 2 Banners Buttons Pop Ups and Skyscrapers Banners amp Buttons Banner Size Banner Type 468 x 60 Full Banner 234 x 60 Half Banner 125x125 Square Button
18. Very useful for anyone just starting out Example http www a4uforum co uk Affiliate Fraud Bogus activity generated by an affiliate in an attempt to generate illegitimate unearned revenue Affiliate Marketing Revenue sharing between online advertisers merchants and online publishers salespeople whereby commissions is based on performance measures typically in the form of sales clicks registrations or a hybrid model Affiliate Merchant The advertiser in an affiliate marketing relationship Example http www ASOS com Affiliate Network A value added intermediary providing services including aggregation for affiliate merchants and affiliates Can also be called an ASP Affiliate Solutions Provider Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 10 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy Affiliate Software Software that at a minimum provides tracking and reporting of commission triggering actions sales registrations or clicks from affiliate links Banner Graphic advertisement Button Small graphic advertisement Cookie Information stored on a user s computer by a Web site so preferences are remembered on future requests CSV File A product feed is a CSV file containing the merchant s entire product range Exclusivity Contract term in which one party grants another party sole rights with regard to a particular business function Dynamic Linking Usually a piece of java
19. als Two tier Affiliate Program Affiliate program structure whereby affiliates earn commissions on their conversions as well as conversions of webmasters they refer to the program Portal A site featuring a suite of commonly used services serving as a starting point and frequent gateway to the Web Example http Awww shopquide co uk 1 5 Tips Advice and Further Research 1 5 1 Online Advice Sources For quick answers visit www a4uforum co uk or for information about USA affiliate marketing go to www abestweb com also www webmasterworld com and www revenews com For a three month strategy plan based on a revenue share go to www affiliateprogramadvice com Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 11 eh Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 1 5 2 Further Reading The Practical Guide to building a profitable affiliate program by Neil Durrant This is an e book You can get free extracts by visiting www affiliatetoolkit com and www affiliatemarketing co uk Strategic Affiliate Marketing by Simon Goldschmidt Sven Junghagen Uri Harris and Edward Elgar They use TradeDoubler com as their case study http www amazon co uk exec obidos ASIN 1843763907 qid 3D1081847979 026 0956085 7254008 And for an American perspective Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants by Shawn Collins Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 12 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultan
20. arketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 3 3 2 Outsourcing to affiliate solutions provider eceeeceeecceeeceeeeeeeeceeeeeteeeetneeeeenteetnnees 22 3 3 3 Which isihight for YOU cc dense nn aes i nt dater Pereira eee 23 3 4 Business to business affiliate marketing cceceseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 23 3 5 Affiliates and Search Engine Marketing 24 3 6 Affiliates and DISCOUNTS ccccccssssseeeeeeceseeeeeseenseeeeeseenneneeseoconeeeees 24 4 Choosing an Affiliate Solutions Provider scener 25 4 1 Questions you should ask an Affiliate Solution Provider 25 4 2 Overview of the Affiliate Solution Providers in the Marketplace 25 42 A AAVEMISING COM sg retuc oeeaaeaii Aie E eee ne A A AeA EATE 25 4 2 2 Afiliate Future CON zisirei i e aeaa aa Ea E e EE ade ia ETETE EEEE 26 4 2 3 Affiliate WIN OW COM snu en ia aaaea aeaiiai a aa anadan 26 APA Bei SCS COM A E E E EEE A n es 26 APS Cd COM PR e e e e E a E ser 26 4 2 6 DealGroupMedia com sise 26 4 2 7 Kowabunga Technologies 26 4 2 8 OnlineMediaGroup co Uk sisi 27 4 2 9 PaidOnResults COM 05 c isesscseeedaccuc acesacstadvndemaseclcneasicasadsatsdwadede adaedesbdacandeasiencnanes 27 4 2 10 Perfiliate Technologies 27 4211 Trade Doubler GOM iii cds vieevcletewentcdicdatescgcceses dled a 27 40 12 INNe lE Sd SER ERE en aid ie dar de om 27 4 2 13 Referback COMM ev om anse oare oe e eaa oe a e aa fan nos 28 4 2 14 Smartquotes
21. ave to reach before being paid How do you pay Cheque amp BACS Cheque Cheque amp Direct Debits Cheque Bank Draft amp Direct your affiliates Debits What are the costs upfront and on going One time set up 1950 00 None None 2000 00 1500 00 costs Is this inclusive of No No Yes includes integration Yes No additional of tracking code and the services If so setting up the program please state which service is included Monthly 250 00 No 75 00 No From 350 00 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 35 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture 4 Perfiliate Technolog e consultancy 5 Commission Junction ies administration fee Account management fee 500 00 No Included No No Is this inclusive or exclusive of the set up costs Exclusive No No Charge No No How much override do you charge 30 None 20 Varies 30 Consultancy No No Free No Yes Affiliate management Included No No No Yes Affiliate recruitment Included No No No No Search Engine Optimisation No No No No At a cost Graphics 600 00 per banner pack Yes 200 00 per set No Yes Email Marketing Negotiable No Included No Yes Campaigns No No No No Yes What te
22. commission you pay the more attractive your affiliate program becomes to affiliates Look at what your competitor is offering and increase that This way not only do you attract new affiliates but you will also attract your competitors best affiliates It should be fairly straight forwards for you to calculate what you can reasonably afford to pay by way of commission on a sale to your affiliate and still get a good return on investment yourself 2 1 4 Do advertise your affiliate program on your web site This may seem obvious but you would be surprised how many merchants forget 2 1 5 Do submit your affiliate program to search engines and specialist directories Spend some time and effort on doing search engine marketing natural results optimisation and paid search specifically for your affiliate program This way you can be found by affiliates looking for an affiliate program within their specific criteria There are also affiliate directories out there which you should be submitting your affiliate program to For example http www affiliatemarketing co uk http www pwdnet co uk http www affiliate scheme co uk http Awww associate it com Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 13 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 2 1 6 Do provide product feeds to your affiliates If you have products for sale then make sure that you can provide your affiliates with a data feed of your products A product fe
23. cy 2 The Top 10 Dos and Don ts of Affiliate Marketing Following are some of the dos and don ts of affiliate marketing based on hard won experience 2 1 Do 2 1 1 Do pay your affiliate on time If there had to be a single golden rule this would be it You may be a large company or used to letting your accounts department deal with the messy business of invoicing and dealing with payments but most affiliates are very small businesses so prompt payment is extremely important to their cash flow If you don t pay on time then your affiliates will drop you They really will 2 1 2 Do employ a professional affiliate manager You don t need to employ the affiliate manager full time but you do need to ensure you have someone dedicated to affiliate management and ideally they should have some past experience in affiliate marketing The role of the affiliate manager is more than just an analyst of metrics and an expert in Excel Communication between the affiliate manager and the affiliates is key not just for passing relevant information that will help the affiliate s conversions such as the merchants top best selling products or services but also when it comes to doing individual deals A good affiliate manager with a mature affiliate program can expect to drive sales amp leads representing between 25 and 30 of all online business transactions 2 1 3 Do pay your affiliates as generous a commission as you can The higher the
24. d merchants affiliate program e Jennifer joins the ACME merchant affiliate program e Jennifer refers John to the ACME merchant s affiliate program via her ACME recruiter link on her website e Jennifer gets 5 of everything that John makes referring his visitors to acme co uk however Jennifer does not get the 5 until John has reached his affiliate payment threshold These incentives were offered as ways for the affiliate solution providers to grow their base of merchants and affiliates as quickly as possible Thus it was the affiliate solution providers who paid for the second tier as it was most directly in their interests Most affiliate solutions providers have since done away with the second tier but a few still have this as an option As a merchant it is worth considering finding an affiliate solutions provider who provides this second tier as an incentive for other affiliate to join your program Indeed it is worth considering offering to pay for this second tier incentive as the merchant as a way to get more relevant high quality affiliates to sign up to your program if you get a few good ones on board you can then incentivise those ones to find the other affiliates for you 1 3 What is Affiliate Tracking Software and how does it work 1 3 1 The Process A Merchant like http www ASOS com recruits or tempts webmasters like http www retailtherapyonline co uk to take an ASOS com banner or text link and for every visitor that
25. duct range and powerful online and offline marketing campaigns Our affiliate program drives between twenty five and thirty percent of all online sales We offer our affiliates between seven and ten percent commission and we have many hybrid deals in place Our affiliate program is popular with all affiliates as our conversions are good and we offer affiliate incentives Whist run a fashion related affiliate program the ground rules for a successful affiliate program can be applied to any product or service online This affiliate review is ideal for anyone who has little or no understanding of affiliate marketing in the UK This review would be ideal for anyone just looking for the essential resources in affiliate marketing in the UK have where possible used a layman s terms approach which will help you to understand how affiliate marketing can help your online business and in turn help you make the right decisions hope you enjoy this review as much as have enjoyed constructing it If you have any comments or question please feel free to contact me info affiliateprogramadvice com Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 5 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 1 Overview 1 1 What is Affiliate Marketing 1 1 1 The Basic Concept A system of advertising in which site A agrees to feature buttons from site B and site A gets a commission on any sales clicks or leads generated for site B Affi
26. e We will achieve this by being honest to our partners providing new and innovative tools and ideas for marketing in this sector and simply by driving quality and effective results for both merchant and affiliate alike Clarke Duncan Director 4 2 10 Perfiliate Technologies A percentage of the revenues that Perfiliate the company behind the Buy at community webshops earns goes to a charity Buy at says that their success is built on their relationships with their top performing affiliates We make sure we do the basics right like always being there for support and always paying on time Malcom Cowley Affiliate Merchant Manager Amongst their client list they boast Marks amp Spencer Amazon co uk RAC amp Blackwells 4 2 11 TradeDoubler com With a local presence in 15 European markets and a client base of 660 advertisers and country networks totalling nearly half a million publishers TradeDoubler is the only truly Pan European network Nicola Reed Public Relations Tradedoubler com is a very polished company with is roots based in Sweden Their linking methods are the same as most affiliate solution providers but with a heavy emphasis on dynamic linking All affiliates must be pre qualified by the merchant before allowing the affiliate to place the merchants links on their website Their software and reporting has come on leaps and bounds over the last year TradeDoubler com are popular amongst big brands Clients inc
27. e ability to create their own software in order to ensure a click a sale or a lead These super affiliates can only be described as an elite sales force that will drive the majority of your affiliate results Whilst in numbers they will only make up a fraction of your affiliate program super affiliates will make up the bulk of your sales leads and clicks They typically each represent between 7 15 of your affiliate program revenue This may seem like a small percentage in itself but given you may have hundreds of affiliates in your program there are actually only a very small number who contribute the majority of your revenue Equally the value and consistency of results delivered by super affiliates can be considerable For example below are figures for one super affiliate from ASOS com 1 to 30 Nov 03 Impressions Unique CTR CR Commission Total served Visitors click conversion earned Sales delivered through Ratio Value ratio Affiliate x 25 891 31 163 120 36 3 04 5 000 04 41 666 99 As the affiliate above uses a combination of text links and banner links the number of unique visitors is higher than the number of impressions This is because text links are not counted towards impressions The next group of affiliates are a mediocre group that will nevertheless consistently drive results They will not deliver huge amounts but they are steadfast and consistent The majority o
28. e consultancy 10 TradeDoubler com 11 Wheel are being served application Is there an email function whereby merchants can communicate directly with their affiliates Per affiliate No Yes No Yes Yes No Per Group No Yes No Yes Yes No Collectively No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Is there a fee for No Yes No No No Yes the use of emailing your affiliates Can Merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes group their affiliates into categories example by top performing affiliates Can merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes give different commissions based on affiliate performance or group Can merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes give different commissions based on products or services Can merchants see their affiliate program performance Per affiliate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Per group Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Collectively Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Daily Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Monthly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yearly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Overall Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can merchants see the number of unique visitors that the affiliates have sent Per affiliate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Per group Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 41 Affiliate Marketing A pril 2004 e consultancy 6 Deal Group 7 Kowabun
29. e free is if they refuse to partner with companies that use these unethical marketing methods However it s hard for merchants to police sometimes Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 7 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy because unless you know that your affiliate is part of such an unethical practice it can take a while before you can see what they are doing It takes a very diligent and affiliate centred manager to insure a program stays clean You are strongly advised to do some of your own research and draw your own conclusions as to whether you want these kinds of affiliates in your affiliate program Your decision to accept them will be at the risk of losing your super affiliates 1 2 4 What is a Two Tiered Affiliate Program In the early days when UK Affiliate Solutions Providers first set up shop most offered a cash bounty for recruiting referring other affiliates into their network This method was then applied to the merchant s own affiliate program Example of a two tiered Affiliate Solutions Provider e Jennifer who runs her own affiliate site signs up to www affiliatewindow com for example e Jennifer tells John to click on her affiliatewindow com affiliate recruiter link displayed on her website and also join affiliatewindow com as an affiliate e As soon as John makes his first sale through one of the merchant s affiliate programs Jennifer gets 1 00 Example of a two tiere
30. ed is a typically a CSV or XML file containing the merchant s entire product range Affiliates then upload this data into their software and display the product data on their website providing a huge variety of fresh products to their visitors Not surprisingly click throughs from actual product data result in the highest subsequent conversions on your site Equally for copy ads provide your affiliates with the text for their website This way you will know exactly how you are being promoted and in turn you make your affiliates life a little easier Be descriptive and aim your paragraph of text at your visitor so all your affiliate has to do is copy and paste 2 1 7 Do focus on converting your site visitors more efficiently Clearly you should be trying to maximise your conversion rates anyway but think about it from an affiliate s point of view if you get paid only as a commission on conversions and site A converts at 3 whereas site B converts at 1 5 where would you choose to send your traffic If you convert well then you are going to be much more attractive to affiliates Online companies misuse the solution thinking that it s just a low cost form of advertising that will attract sales If the site involved isn t working in the first place an affiliate programme is not the solution Nicky lapino Sales Director DealGroupMedia com 2 1 8 Do sell your unique proposition to your affiliates Probably the most crucial aspect to your
31. eeeeeeceeeeeeeaeeecaeeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeseeeeesieeetsaeeeeas 11 1 5 2 Further Reading x sssactevithictnherctstsss cs n e ole et dt tete carted ieee 12 2 The Top 10 Dos and Don ts of Affiliate Marketing 13 2 1 5 1e peer meres mse a seen are meer ere ee eres eee eee ee 13 2 1 1 Do pay your affiliate on time 13 2 1 2 Do employ a professional affiliate manager 13 2 1 3 Do pay your affiliates as generous a commission as YOU can 13 2 1 4 Do advertise your affiliate program on your web site 13 2 1 5 Do submit your affiliate program to search engines and specialist directories 13 2 1 6 Do provide product feeds to your affiliates ener rn ennen nsnneee 14 2 1 7 Do focus on converting your site visitors more efficiently 0 0 0 eee eeeeeeeeeeeees 14 2 1 8 Do sell your unique proposition to your affiliates 14 2 1 9 Do check on affiliates delivering no clicks or results 14 2 1 10 Do keep looking for new affiliates 0 eee cece cence eee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeteneeeeeteees 14 2 2 DON PR PE vavcestaveetvannnsiva aa sdeveovenvcusivewea aaa a aaa 14 2 2 1 Don t worry about the number of affiliates that you have in your program 15 2 2 2 Don t look at affiliate marketing as a quick fix 15 2 2 3 Don t think of affiliate marketing as a cheap alternative to other advertising 15 2 2 4 Don t treat your affiliate as a collective group
32. ementation with someone technical at the affiliate solution provider e Lack of direct contact with your affiliates Some Affiliate Solution Providers do not facilitate merchants having direct contact with their affiliates they communicate with your affiliates on your behalf telling them about your best selling products and latest affiliate incentive Our advice would be to choose an affiliate solutions provider that allows you to communicate with your affiliates directly Not only can you get vital information to your affiliates at a moment s notice but also it is perceived as more personal and valued a relationship by the affiliate the message is loud and clear to your affiliates that you care about your affiliate program This is how good financial relationships are built 3 3 3 Which is right for you Whether to run your affiliate program in house or to do outsource it will depend largely on your financial and human resources For a merchant with a small budget your main investment should be hiring the services even if part time of an affiliate manager and opting for an affiliate solutions provider that has no or small set up costs For merchants that have very little time but more budget you should consider working with an affiliate solutions providers that also offers additional services such as e mail and search engine marketing In all cases it is recommended that you use an affiliate solutions provider or software provider
33. er com included Monthly 500 00 From 25 250 00 No Charge 35 00 for the first six 300 00 Varies administration USD months fee Account None For a fee No Charge No Charge 500 00 for six hours amp Varies management fee 12 hours 900 00 Is this inclusive or Exclusive Exclusive Inclusive Inclusive Exclusive Exclusive exclusive of the set up costs How much 30 None Varies 25 30 None override do you charge Consultancy Included in From 995 00 per By arrangement No charge From 1500 00 500 1000 00 per hour Monthly month administration fee Affiliate Included in From 995 00 per No charge No charge Included in account Included in management management monthly month management fee fee administration fee Affiliate Included in From 995 00 per No charge No charge Included in account Included in management Recruitment monthly month management fee fee administration fee Search Engine Included in No By arrangement No No No Optimisation monthly administration fee Graphics Advice No By arrangement No Charge No 500 900 per day Email Marketing Included in No By arrangement No Some Dependant on monthly merchant s requirements administration fee Campaigns Included in From 995 00 per No Charge No Some Varies monthly month What terms of payment do you accept Cheque Bankers Draft Credit Card Standing Order amp Direct Debit Cheque Bankers Draft Standing Order Credit Card Direct Debits amp PayPal
34. er pays for themselves by way of the results they deliver 3 1 2 Production skills You will need a good graphic designer to create banners and other advertising graphics that will complement additional linking methods Your technical person may need to provide a product data feed as a CSV or XML file Some knowledge of the following is a must HTML various web publishing tools e g Front Page Dreamweaver Photoshop Search Engine Marketing both natural search engine optimisation and pay per click 3 1 3 Technical skills In most cases the integration of your affiliate tracking software should be pain free After all it is just a line of code that is placed on your thank you page post purchase There are occasions fairly rare when your shopping cart or website may not be able to accommodate that line of code and a script may have to be written In all cases you should ask the Vendor to send you an example of their code Pass this on to your in house techs or your Vendor s technical team They want your business and this should be free of charge and they should be able to walk you through each step There may be occasions where you need to liaise with the technical team for a third party shopping cart if you use one you may incur a fee for such technical assistance but in most cases this support should be free 3 2 What linking methods will you need and what works best 3 2 1 Linking methods and resulting conversion rates
35. es an overpayment required by the affiliate solution provider so you have credit in your account and in some cases monthly management fees e You own your affiliate relationship directly You are not bound by any third party terms and conditions which might for example preclude you from dealing directly with your affiliates All affiliate solution providers charge a percentage override For example if your affiliates collectively earn 30 000 in commissions in a one month period you could be paying up to 30 override making your monthly invoice 39 000 The override is essentially a credit or deposit against future payments Some affiliate solution providers also charge an administration fee ranging from 50 to 500 per month As we have discussed already the challenges of running your affiliate program in house include e You will need to employ some one to manage your program e You will have to deal with affiliate commission payments by cheque BACS or PAYPal this can be draining on human resources and you will have to cover the costs of postage e You will need to offer affiliate support for general info linking and financial queries e You will have to recruit your own affiliates etc 3 3 2 Outsourcing to affiliate solutions provider Generally speaking affiliates prefer merchants who opt for launching their program through an affiliate solutions provider There are three principal reasons for this e f you are using tr
36. es Yes products Product Feeds Yes No Yes Yes Yes Dynamic Linking Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Pop Ups amp Under Yes Yes No Yes Yes Search Boxes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Email Marketing Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Multi Currency No Yes No Yes Yes Multi lingual No No No Yes Yes Other Shop window content delivery system Affiliate created Custom content units Shopping channel Webservers Where are banners Affiliatewindow com Advertising com Affiliatefuture com Perfiliate Technologies Ltd Optional Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 34 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture 4 Perfiliate Technologies e consultancy 5 Commission hosted Junction What additional services do you offer Consultancy No Yes Yes Yes Yes Search Engine No Yes No No Yes Optimisation Account Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes management Affiliate Yes Yes No Yes Yes management Affiliate Yes Yes No Yes Yes recruitment Are you two Yes No Yes No No tiered Affiliate support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Do you pay the Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes affiliates on behalf of the merchant Do you offer an No No Yes Yes Yes escrow When do you pay Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly the affiliates What is the 25 for BACS 100 00 for 50 00 25 00 20 00 25 00 affiliate threshold a cheque that they h
37. f Like so many other things in life you get out of your affiliate program exactly what you put into it Growing your base of affiliates requires every bit as much thought and attention as any other aspect of your business Joel Gehman Finding and Attracting Affiliates 2 2 Don t Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 14 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 2 2 1 Don t worry about the number of affiliates that you have in your program Because it s the quality of the affiliates that matters Does it matter that Tradedoubler com may have 200 000 affiliates in their network whereas affiliatefuture com may have 150 000 in theirs Not really it depends on which ones sign up to your program how relevant they are for your target market and how hard you work with them and them with you to drive conversions to the benefit of both Most affiliates will sign up with most or all of the affiliate networks as they want to have access to as many potential merchants as possible As a merchant you really need to identify and nurture your super affiliates 2 2 2 Don t look at affiliate marketing as a quick fix If you re a bit behind on your targets and think affiliate marketing can give you a quick no risks revenue boost then think again An affiliate program can take from three months minimum to six months to get just the foundations properly established 2 2 3 Don t think of affiliate marketi
38. f affiliates in your program may have poor or no results It s the 20 80 rule 20 will drive 80 of the results 1 2 3 Unethical Affiliates and Spyware Inevitably there will be a few affiliates known in the industry as spyware Adware or parasiteware affiliates who will wish to partner with you Spyware and Adware is downloadable software e g 180solutions com or whenu com that monitors and records users browsing activity in order to try and serve them relevant advertising Aside from any concerns over privacy or intrusive advertising that this may result in for users it is also of concern for affiliates and merchants as the ads may get in the way of links and referrals that would otherwise be transacted as part of your normal affiliate relationship In the worst case scenario such software may steal or take the credit for a sale or lead delivered by another genuine affiliate Such parasitic affiliates can overwrite your affiliates links in different ways The most typical is by offering a shopper toolbar or rebate type of toolbar A customer clicks YOUR affiliate s link and makes a purchase or registers for your service Your affiliate should get paid that commission But if the referring visitor has downloaded the XYZ cashsavings toolbar it will overwrite your affiliate s link and the commission is credited to the parasite affiliate for that sale or registration The only way a merchant is parasit
39. ga 8 Online Media 9 Paid on 10 11 Wheel Media Technolgies Group Results com TradeDoubler com Collectively Yes Daily Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Monthly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Overall Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Other Merchants can see search engine keywords Can merchants see the following Number of sales Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes leads generated Per affiliate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Per group Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Collectively Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Daily Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Monthly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Overall Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can merchants see the number of impressions Per affiliate Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Per group Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Collectively Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Daily Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Monthly Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Overall Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Do merchants have control over their affiliates Can merchants Only on Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes view their affiliates permission based before accepting programs them Can merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes suspend affiliates from their program Can merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes auto validate their affiliates into their program Do merchants No Yes Optional Yes No Yes Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 42 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 e consultancy 6 Deal Group 7 Kowabunga 8 Online Media 9 Paid on 10 11 Wheel Media Technolgies Group Results com TradeDoub
40. iates like 180 Solutions in your network What is your policy with regards to affiliates spamming Will you actively source affiliates for my affiliate program Can introduce my own affiliates Are you 2 tier Can group categorise my affiliates so that can set commission levels and cookies per group of affiliates e Can communicate with my affiliates directly on an individual basis per group all affiliates e Can give different commissions based on different products or services offer e Can set up hybrid deals i e Cost Per Sale and CPM Can provide my affiliates with product feeds How does this work What do have to provide Can claw back commissions on fraudulent sales Do you have fraud protection measurements in place Who will host my banners Do you have merchants in your network that are in direct competition with me Can see a demo account What sets your company apart from the other Affiliate Solutions Providers 4 2 Overview of the Affiliate Solution Providers in the Marketplace Below are brief summaries of the main affiliate solution providers operating in the UK For more detail on each of these please refer to section 5 which follows 4 2 1 Advertising com Advertising com technology is run through AdLearn AdSelect is their second network Their Affiliate Solution aspect to their company is based on the principal of key account management where the focus is on close relationships w
41. if you are to remain a viable and attractive proposition to most affiliates Generally speaking the longer you can reasonably make it the better 1 4 Terminology 1 4 1 Abbreviations Below is a table which summarises the most common abbreviations used in affiliate marketing what they stand for and how they are calculated Abbreviation Stands for Calculated as Click Through Ratio Number click throughs Number impressions 100 Conversion Ratio Number sales or leads Number click throughs 100 Earnings Per Click Total commission amount Number click throughs Earnings Per 1000 Total commission amount Number Impressions impressions 1000 1 4 2 Glossary Terminology used throughout this document For more marketing terminology please go to http www marketingterms com ASP Affiliate Solutions Provider example http www tradedoubler com Affiliate The publisher in an affiliate marketing relationship Example http www kudoshops co uk Advertiser See merchant Affiliate Link A hyperlink with the affiliate identification code to the merchant s website or product Affiliate Manager Some one that looks after the merchant s affiliate program Usually has technical analytical amp communication skills and has an in depth knowledge of the affiliate marketing industry Affiliate Forum An online community where visitors may read and post topics related to affiliate marketing
42. ight 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 29 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 e consultancy 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture 4 Perfiliate Technologies 5 Commission Junction access to the reporting part of your website pass word protected Do you have Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes measures in place to protect against viruses and hacking Do you have No Yes Yes No No insurance to protect merchants should you have a catastrophic software failure or should you go bust Do you have any Unknown No No No Yes affiliates that are deemed as spyware adware or malware Can your affiliate software track and report on the following Pay Per No Yes Yes Yes No impression CPM Pay Per Click No Yes Yes Yes No CPC Pay Per Lead Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes PPL Pay Per Sale Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes CPA Can you No No No Yes Yes accommodate of Net losses for Gambling Merchants Affiliate Yes No Yes Yes Yes performance Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 30 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture e consultancy 4 Perfiliate Technologies 5 Commission Junction incentives or bonuses Which of the following affiliate programs do you run Adult e g sex or gambling No Porn No Yes No Porn No Porn A Private Affiliate Program No No Yes Yes Yes
43. ith key affiliates We strive to provide strong campaigns with competitive payouts and exclusive offers Kirsten Nielson Advertising com s roots can be found in the U S A and they have a strong foothold there However in the UK they are still trying to find their niche They offer a bespoke advertising solution which incorporates an affiliate marketing arm Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 25 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 4 2 2 AffiliateFuture com AffiliateFuture co uk has been running for the past 2 years and is now the fastest growing affiliate network with over 250 merchants They range from the big brands like Virgin Atlantic Natwest Bank and Reebok to the smaller companies like soessential co uk The network is owned by the Internet Business Group Plc www ibg co uk who are one of the advertising e commerce and professional services groups They see the differentiating facto between themselves and their competitors in terms of innovative easy linking methods and low merchant costs AffiliateFuture co uk were the first site to provide a shopping search to affiliates The Advanced Shopping Search tool is the first shopping facility to return individual products pricing images and merchant seller of any product Peter Dickenson Account Manager 4 2 3 AffiliateWindow com Affiliatewindow com were a slow starter in the industry In the early years they were perceived as the p
44. le to the customer and to thank him her for customs A short line of HTML code is placed on this page This line of HTML code contains a unique identifier like an order number and an order amount The line of code passes this information to the affiliate tracking software The software checks for the cookie written in step 3 and if the cookie is on the visitor s computer the sale will be logged to the affiliate account 1 3 2 The importance of cookies A cookie is a bit of information that is stored on a user s computer This information can be used for affiliate tracking purposes as outlined above It may well happen that a visitor clicks through from your affiliate s website but does not make a purchase on that first visit If you have set your cookies to expire in sixty days and that visitor returns to your website within the sixty day period and makes a purchase or registers for your service the affiliate is still paid a commission for that purchase or registration as it is tracked within the affiliate software Not surprisingly affiliates prefer merchants who have set their cookie expiration time as long as possible if possible 999 days You must decide what you think is a reasonable period for a sale still to be credited to a referring affiliate post the original referred visit A minimum of 60 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 9 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy days is recommended
45. ler com have to manually approve affiliate commissions Can merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes opt for auto validate affiliate commissions Can merchants Yes Yes Optional Yes Yes Yes see their CTR Click Through Ratio Do you calculate No Yes Yes No No Yes and display the EPC of affiliates merchants How long are the As long as the Forever Forever Forever Forever Forever statistics kept for merchant s example Yearly program is active Do you have anti Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No fraud protection measures in place Linking methods offered Banners amp Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Buttons Deep links to Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes products Product Feeds Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Dynamic Linking Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Pop Ups amp Under Yes Yes Yes Optional Yes Yes Search Boxes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Email Marketing Yes Yes By arrangement Yes Yes Yes Multi Currency No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Multi lingual No Yes No No Yes Yes Other Rich Media Interactive creative Virtual store fronts with flash based banners real time content with sound Where are banners Deal Group Media Merchant Online Media group Paid on Results Merchant Wheel Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 43 e consultancy Affiliate Marketing April 2004 6 Deal Group 7 Kowabunga 8 Online Media 9 Paid on 10 11 Wheel Media Technolgies Group Results com TradeDoubler com hosted What additional
46. liate Marketing is online advertising where the advertiser Merchant pays for advertising purely on results All affiliate campaigns are based on a revenue share or hybrid commission leads deal 1 1 2 Origins The origins of affiliate marketing can possibly be found in the USA in 1996 As legend has it Jeff Bezos CEO and founder of Amazon com chatted with a woman at a cocktail party about how she wanted to sell books about divorce on her website After that exchange Bezos pondered the idea and thought about having the woman link her site to Amazon com and receive a commission on the book sales This was the impetus for creating the so called first on the Web Amazon com Associates Program which was launched in July 1996 Source affiliatedirectoryinfo com US Affiliate Marketing arrived in the UK in 1999 with the launch of two Affiliate Solution Providers Uk Affiliates www Ukaffiliates com now part of Deal Group Media and Affiliate Window www AffiliateWindow com Both were following in the footsteps of an industry established company in the USA called Commission Junction www CJ com Tradedoubler www tradedoubler com were hot on their heels Back then no one knew if the UK was ready for affiliate marketing and the UK industry suffered its first casualty with the loss of Magic Button in 2001 Magic Button s investors lost confidence Over time those that remained committed to the success of affiliate marketing were rewarded in 20
47. lso known as Ukaffiliates com As one of the pioneers in affiliate marketing they continue to evolve incorporating a bespoke formula to enhance their merchants performance However one drawback is that merchants are unable to communicate with their affiliates directly With their merger with Webgravity in 2003 DealGroupMedia are able to offer an extensive range of complementary services which they see as the main differentiator between themselves and their competitors Last year s merger with search company Webgravity led a wave of consolidation in the market the future holds continual active progression and the breadth of services differentiates us from competitors James Cooper Accounts Manager 4 2 7 Kowabunga Technologies Founded in 1996 in Westland Michigan USA By being a software provider rather than a network Kowabunga charge only for the solution software and services and neither charge a percentage of sales nor require a monthly minimum payout of commissions Merchants also Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 26 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy own the relationship with their affiliates as well as having the freedom to contact them whenever they wish Their marketing partnership is with TeamAffiliate com who manage for a fee the merchant s affiliate program The software is not cheap but for any merchants wanting to set up their own in house affiliate program this company ap
48. lude Apple Dell John Lewis Renault and Kelkoo 4 2 12 Wheel Wheel is a UK based full service digital communications agency with an impressive client list Their affiliate marketing solution is part of a much broader agency offering but they are the Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 27 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy first such agency to recognise the benefits of affiliate marketing and develop skills and expertise in this area to offer to their clients such as Laura Ashley Bank of Scotland Freeserve Opodo Marks amp Spencer Below are two Affiliate Solution Providers not profiled in more detail in the affiliating matrix which follows in Section 5 4 2 13 Referback com Gambling is one of the most lucrative markets on the internet which explains why you see more and more online casinos and sports books opening their virtual doors There are several established software suppliers like MicroGaming and PlayTech Their software not only contains the casino and games but also the affiliate tracking software The online gambling industry is also one of the most controversial industries and in several countries it is illegal to offer or advertise online casinos and or sports books For several years the US government has tried to pass legislation which would make online gambling illegal Recently the South African government voted and accepted laws which will make online casinos and spor
49. nd Discounts Most merchants will have some kind of facility to be able to offer their visitors discounts typically via a special code that is entered during the buying process You should be aware that there are a number of affiliates who only advertise money off products or services so these would make ideal partners if you are happy to pass on your discount codes to them Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 24 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy 4 Choosing an Affiliate Solutions Provider Below are questions that you should ask any affiliate solution provider followed by an overview of each of the providers in the market place and then more detailed profiles of the key players 4 1 Questions you should ask an Affiliate Solution Provider e Will your technical support team provide free help with the integration If not what does it cost e How much time will be allocated each month to the management of my affiliate program e What information do we have to pass back to your software with regards to tracking a sale or lead e If you use a third party payment processor is the third party payment processor use compatible with your software Do you charge a monthly management fee If so what do get for it in return Do you provide ongoing technical support What monthly override do you charge When will get invoiced How many active affiliates do you have Do you have affil
50. ng as a cheap alternative to other advertising It does work and it is pay on performance but that does not make it cheap or mean you don t need to commit to it properly You need to keep in mind set up costs affiliate commissions affiliate incentives network override charges in some cases an ongoing management fee and any internal resource costs 2 2 4 Don t treat your affiliate as a collective group Treat them as individuals This can be hard when you are working with hundreds but good communication is extremely important Try creating a newsletter especially for your affiliates give tips to help the beginner intermediate and advanced affiliates Tell them about your top twenty best selling products or services Most crucial is to provide your affiliates with the relevant tools and collateral to help them deliver you the right customers the up to date advertising copy links graphics product data linking methods and so on 2 2 5 Don t rely on banner ads to drive clicks See Do provide product feeds above Banners can enhance other forms of advertising to create brand awareness but unless you have a graphic that is set apart from the rest you will find that text links deep links and product feeds yield higher response and conversion rates 2 2 6 Don t believe there is any such thing as a totally managed outsourced solution By all means use affiliate software affiliate networks affiliate managers and indeed
51. oor relation However by releasing themselves from the shackles of a third party tracking software company they have developed their own in house tracking and have gone on to become one of the industry leaders in affiliate solution providers Affiliatewindow com have become innovators rather then followers which can be attributed to their team of specialists in software development and affiliate marketing practices Affiliatewindow com have an anti parasite policy and fast affiliate payment 4 2 4 Befree com Now part of Valueclick see CJ com below 4 2 5 CJ com Recently acquired by Valueclick and part of Befree com CJ com s roots are based firmly in the USA with a satellite office here in the UK The Network of merchants and affiliates is enormous CJ com lost a bit of their popularity over the years perhaps becaming victims of their own success The support service as an affiliate and as a merchant was poor Navigation of the website was a long and frustrating experience However CJ com are addressing these issues and improvements are on the way The software does calculate in US dollars which can be confusing for both the UK affiliate and UK merchant However this is another issue that is currently being addressed The UK team is very supportive and attentive CJ com currently has spyware partners in their network but you can ask for them not to allow these affiliates to have access to your program 4 2 6 DealGroupMedia com a
52. our affiliates perhaps by a hybrid scheme of paying for clicks as well as commissions on conversions 3 5 Affiliates and Search Engine Marketing For most companies with an internet business one of the areas of generating a sale or a lead is through Pay Per Click PPC search engine marketing via the likes of Google Adwords Overture Espotting or Mirago Affiliates have become experts in this area as well as search engine marketing more generally Often you will find that search engine results bring back more affiliates in the top rankings then they do actual merchants There is a growing debate in the UK around what level of freedom merchants should allow their affiliates in running PPC campaigns The general consensus to date has been to let them carry on after all they are making the financial commitment and as most of them are PPC experts they continue to drive very good results However as more merchants start to run their own PPC campaigns they increasingly find that they are in direct competition with their own affiliates which risks driving up the media costs for both thereby lowering overall return on investment ROI for everyone As amerchant you need to be clear from the beginning about what exactly affiliates can and cannot do Our recommendation would be to let them do what they want but they must refrain from bidding on your domain name and any trademarks and in some cases your key product or brand names 3 6 Affiliates a
53. pears to be very popular Some of their clients include Buyagift co uk and Chipsworld co uk 4 2 8 OnlineMediaGroup co uk Online Media Group s affiliate marketing division OMGUK com was launched in 2002 initially focusing on Financial Services and Insurance programs but more recently exploring other mainstream product categories Unlike many networks OMGUK com is paid purely by performance with no set up or management charges OMGUK com see their key points of difference as being No set up or management charges Heavy emphasis on account management and brand protection Active affiliate recruitment and management Oli Matthews Head of Client Services One draw back is that merchants cannot communicate directly with their affiliates 4 2 9 PaidOnResults com PaidOnResults was set up by two long standing affiliates who have worked in the industry since 1997 They are an affiliate focused company and believe that if you don t give the same level of service to your top affiliates as you do to your merchant clients then you will not deliver top flight results for those merchants PaidOnResults are very selective in the type of merchant partners they bring onboard Although one of the newest affiliate solution providers PaidOnResults is a highly innovative affiliate marketing company For example they were the first network to introduce customer base programs We very much see Paid On Results being the market leader in two years tim
54. rms of payment do you accept Cheque Credit Card amp Direct Debit Cheque Bankers Draft Standing Order Credit Card amp Direct Debit Cheque Bankers Draft Standing Order Credit Card amp Direct Debit Cheque Standing Orders Credit Card amp Direct Debits Bankers Draft amp Credit Card What is the turn around from payment to technical integration Varies Five working days One working day Five working days Varies What is the turn around from technical integration to launch Varies Two days One working day Immediate Immediate Do you announce the launch of the merchants affiliate program to your entire network of Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 36 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture 4 Perfiliate Technologies e consultancy 5 Commission affiliates Junction When do merchants get invoiced Beginning of the month End of the month Monthly End of the month Beginning of the month Do merchants get an itemised statement Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Online Can merchants claw back commissions No No No Varies Yes The remaining 6 profiles follow on the next page Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 37 Affiliate Marketing April 2004
55. script that affiliates can place on their website and where by the merchant has control over what is displayed on the affiliates website Hybrid Combination of revenue share and CPC CPM or Tenancy Linking Term used for the link from the affiliate s website to the merchant s website or vice versa Links Can mean the above or as reference to buttons banners text links product feeds or any graphical content that affiliates can use to display on their website Merchant The advertiser in an affiliate marketing relationship Example http www ASOS com Network A database of affiliates can also mean to socialise with like minded people in the affiliate industry in a business capacity Payment Threshold The minimum accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment from an affiliate program or ASP Publisher Same as affiliate Product Feed Also known as a data feed CSV or XML file containing merchant s entire product range see also CSV file Return days The number of days an affiliate can earn commission on a conversion sale or lead by a referred visitor Also See cookies Super Affiliate An affiliate capable of generating a significant percentage of an affiliate program s activity Example http Awww loquax co uk amp http www kudoshops co uk Text Link Text with a hyperlink behind it Example e consultancy Practical information amp advice for marketing and e business profession
56. that allows you to communicate directly with your affiliates 3 4 Business to business affiliate marketing If you are a business to business merchant wanting to get into affiliate marketing then you should recognise that this market area is only just developing Most affiliates work with consumers The business to business sector of affiliate marketing is very niche and still fairly insular and the right affiliates are hard to come by It is highly likely that you will need to source your own affiliates It is possible to grow your affiliate network but you may need to work that little bit harder One of the main reasons why business to business affiliate marketing has not taken off yet is that many of these businesses do not have shopping baskets on their sites and they have Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 23 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April 2004 e consultancy contact details rather than a sign up or registration page This means it is harder to track sales and conversions and assign a value to them which affiliates can earn a commission on Equally sales lead times can be that much longer even if the sales values can be much higher As an affiliate this means you risk waiting on uncertain future payouts that are hard to track as opposed to getting a regular monthly income If you are going to launch an affiliate program in the B2B space then you will need to consider how to redress these challenges an incentivise y
57. ting April 2004 6 Deal Group Media 7 Kowabunga Technolgies 8 Online Media Group 9 Paid on Results com e consultancy 10 TradeDoubler com 11 Wheel merchant s links during their Adult e g sex or No Porn Yes No Yes Yes No gambling A Private Affiliate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Program Do you have Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes separate Terms and Conditions and guidelines Is there a privacy Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes policy in place About your software Do you own your Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No software outright Is or was your Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No software developed in house Is your software No Licensed No No No Yes outsourced Do you offer real Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes time tracking Do you offer off No Yes Yes Yes No No line tracking Is there a time lag No No No Between five and Yes No on reporting Fifteen minutes statistics being updated If so please specify What is the default GBP USD GBP GBP GBP GBP currency of your software Can merchants see the following The Number of Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes affiliates in their program Affiliate Website Only the url the Yes Yes Yes No Yes where the affiliate submitted Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 40 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 6 Deal Group Media 7 Kowabunga Technolgies 8 Online Media Group 9 Paid on Results com
58. ts books illegal in their country This was unexpected by many of the online casino operators gambling marketing agencies and MicroGaming who are all based in South Africa One of the first operators of online casinos in the industry is the Belle Rock Gaming Group which runs several well known online casinos like The Gaming Club and River Belle casino Their affiliate programs are managed and marketed by ReferBack which again is one of the first companies to offer webmasters the opportunity to market online gambling on their web sites More and more affiliate marketing companies are emerging in this industry e g WagerShare CasinoProfitShare and IOG Ltd There are several forums on the internet where you will be able to contact these affiliates One of the most well known ones is probably the GPWA http www gpwa net 4 2 14 Smartquotes com SMART Quotes Lid is a personal finance broker established in 2001 They provide access to products and services from the high street lenders insurers and credit card issuers They use affiliate marketing as the way of advertising their comparison services Smart Quotes is still emerging in the marketplace and if their friendly approach is any thing to go by we envisage this finance specialist affiliate solution provider to be up there with the rest of them come 2005 Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 28 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 5 Detailed profiles of 11 UK Affiliate Solution Pro
59. usted third party software then the affiliate can be more confident that your tracking and commission reporting is accurate and impartial e They can keep track of all their merchants using one provider and one piece of software e As each affiliate solutions provider makes one monthly payment of all the commissions from all the merchants the affiliate has joined it is much easier to handle payments via a single or limited sources Most of the time the affiliate solution providers have their own affiliate payment threshold which the affiliate needs to reach At the specified time interval accumulated commissions for each affiliate are compared to the minimum payment level If an affiliate fails to meet the minimum payment level the amount is rolled over to the next period This continues until the accumulated commission is greater than the minimum payment level When this happens payment is sent a certain amount of days after the end of the period as specified in the contract Toby Simkin The main benefit of opting for an outsourced solution is in minimising the administrative demands in running an affiliate program e You do not have the demands of issuing hundreds of affiliate cheques every month e Your program is offered to the existing Affiliate Solution Provider s network of affiliates which will give any merchant a good head start Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 22 Affiliate Marketing A Buyer s Guide April
60. viders Below are the first 5 profiles The next 6 follow 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture e consultancy 4 Perfiliate Technologies 5 Commission General Details Junction URL www affiliatewindow com www advertising com www affiliatefuture com www buy at www cj com Are you an Affiliate Solutions Provider Affiliate Solutions Provider Affiliate Solutions Affiliate Solutions Provider Affiliate Solutions Affiliate Solution Provider Provider Provider or software solution only Sector All All All All All specialisation Are you UK only No No Yes Yes No In which country UK USA UK UK USA is your main office located Contact Name Robert Glasgow Kirsten Nielsen Jules Bazley Malcolm Cowley Susan Kingston Contact Telephone 0870 990 4228 0207 563 0515 0207 380 8533 0191 241 6500 0208 785 5870 Number Fax 0870 990 4229 0207 563 0599 0870 762 1826 0191 241 9302 0208 789 6520 Email sales affiliatewindow com kneilsen uk advertising com jules affiliatefuture com Malcolm cowley perfiliate com skingston cj com How many years 5 6 2 4 6 in business Number of 14 40 8 7 10 employees in the UK Number of active 400 80 238 60 125 UK merchants Number of active 20 000 500 11 000 1 000 12 000 affiliates Do you have a Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Secure Socket Layer SSL Are all areas of Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Copyr
61. y Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Overall Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can merchants see the number of impressions Per affiliate Yes No Yes No Yes Per group No No No No Yes Collectively Yes Yes Yes No Yes Daily No Yes Yes No Yes Monthly Yes Yes Yes No Yes Overall Yes Yes Yes No Yes Do merchants have control over their affiliates Can merchants Yes No No Yes Yes view their affiliates before accepting them Can merchants Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes suspend affiliates from their program Can merchants Yes No Yes Yes Yes auto validate their affiliates into their program Do merchants Yes No No No Optional have to manually approve affiliate Copyright 2004 E consultancy com Ltd Page 33 Affiliate Marketing April 2004 1 AffiliateWindow 2 Advertising com 3 AffiliateFuture 4 Perfiliate Technologies e consultancy 5 Commission Junction commissions Can merchants No No Yes Yes Yes opt for auto validate affiliate commissions Can merchants Yes Yes No Yes Yes see their CTR Click Through Ratio Do you calculate No No No Yes Yes and display the EPC of affiliates merchants How long are the Forever Varies Varies Varies 1 Year statistics kept for example Yearly Do you have anti Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes fraud protection measures in place Linking methods offered Banners amp Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Buttons Deep links to Yes Yes Yes Y

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