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Dealing with Affiliates Search Engine Strategies Conference , December 2006 Chris Henger Vice President Affiliate Marketing Shopping & Promotions Loyalty/Rewards Community & Content Comparison Shopping Search Specialists Networks Affiliate Marketing Today
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Dealing with Affiliates Search Engine Strategies Conference, December 2006 Chris Henger Vice President Affiliate Marketing
Shopping & Promotions Loyalty/Rewards Community & Content Comparison Shopping Search Specialists Networks Affiliate Marketing Today • More than 100 million web sites worldwide, many with the potential to become an affiliate publisher • A significant source of sales for online retailers • 2-20% of online sales • Performics classifies publishers according to business model
Search is a Primary Traffic Driver for Affiliate Publishers • Opportunity • Affiliates enable an advertise to dominate the page • Challenge • Managing the brand and the message • Enforcing restrictions • Controlling CPCs
Affiliate Search Specialists – Dominate the Page • Expert at natural and/or paid search • Opportunistically build new pages or entire websites “on-the-fly”: • Seasonal • Category • Product • Payout • Building a “sticky” destination site is not necessarily the objective • Able to quickly adjust and adapt to ever changing engine policies, advertiser policies, algorithms, competition, etc. • Willing to spend $$ to make $$ • Put their money at risk • Strong engine relationships and access to tools (e.g. , API’s) • Often top performers
The Search Specialists “Wish List “ • Authorization and guidelines to bid on trademarks/brand names • Ability to direct link to an advertiser’s site • Using their landing page URL as the display URL • Ability to send traffic to domain that contains advertisers’ brand • e.g., www.eddiebaueroffers.com • For lead gen programs, the capability to host the form on their own domain • Authorization letter to search engines providing permission to use advertiser’s brand in ad title and copy • Ability to build links quickly and flexibly (offline BYOL, data feeds)
Lessons Learned • There is a balance between advertiser interests and the affiliate’s need to drive traffic • Affiliate publishers are often better at focusing on conversion than advertisers • Given the proper brand guidelines, an affiliate can monetize cpc traffic better than an advertiser • If they can pay for the CPC and the advertiser can pay only for a commission on the sale, why not let the affiliate bid? • Set guidelines, communicate and monitor for compliance • Maintain a feedback loop with affiliates who can shape guidelines for the future • Provide best practices in search marketing for affiliates • Best performing keywords • Best selling products • Custom creative • Measure the impact across channels