I found out early on that most of the good data that Google gathers for advertisers is pretty limited if you are an affiliate. You will never be able to determine a true conversion rate, unless you have a merchant that allows you to put your tracking pixel on their confirmation page. Which I have seen before, but rarely.
So as affiliate marketers you have to come up with some creative solutions, one that I use on CascadeGear.com is a plain old jump script that most are using, but I place my Google conversion tracking pixel on this jump page (see example:Black Diamond Demon Backpack, click on buy button) .
This allows me to see how effective my landing page is converting, as well as the merchants. Think of it this way.
- You buy 1000 clicks that land on your Landing Page
- 400 of those clicks pass through the jump script and Google counter (40% “Landing Page” Conversion)
- You end up with 10 Sales from the merchant, you end up with a 3% conversion rate (from LP to Merchant)
Doing this allows you to determine if the leakage is on your site or the merchants. It’s not perfect of course but does you give you 1 more data set to analyze.
Resource:
26.Jan.08 
Affiliate Blog 
Comment (1)
It’s truly amazing the perception of affiliate marketing. Budgets are cut and critical mistakes are made everyday. At the high level the concept of affiliate marketing has been around a long time and is extremely fundamental, affiliates have been referred to an outside sales force since before I started in the industry.
So what are the steps? Really, it comes down to just a few. But to get there a deep understanding of what will make your product sell online is essential, how to help your team sell is required. So, if you are interested in cutting corners, I presented you with 5 easy steps. If you are interested in building a successful sales channel, then click a bit deeper.
1. Join an affiliate network
- Can you afford this?
- What’s the best way to integrate?
- CPA, CPS?
- Which network has the most affiliates?
- Which network has the best affiliates?
- Which network(s) do affiliates prefer?
- Want to go global? Your technology is everything!
- Is your network best suited for your product or offer?
- Are you merchandising your program effectively?
- How are you going to attract the biggest affiliate in your network?
- 10% or 30% of commissions, $500 minimum? Did you negotiate?
- CJ, LS, oND, SAS or Google?
- Does your cookie talk to your pixel?
- When are you launching that in-house program?
2. Recruit new affiliates
- Is that the right affiliate?
- How many fraudsters are you going to let in today?
- Do you have a compelling offer?
- How are you going to get them to respond?
- Which forums are you going to particpate in?
- Tradeshows? Affiliate Summit?
- How’s your 2nd Tier system working? I didn’t think so.
- How’s that affiliate network working out for you?
- Hiring a consultant to help recruit? Can you manage what they deliver?
- Know what it takes to get in front of the biggies like Upromise, eBates or iGive?
- Are you using Syntryx? Google? The phone?
- Are you incenting your recruiters? Hmmm…maybe that 2nd tier program is worth something?
- Affiliate directories…lol
- Outsourced Program Managers (OPM), or hire an “expert”, from Duluth?
3. Get them to signup
- Is your signup form Secure?
- Are you asking the right questions on your signup form? Too Many?
- Are you getting a W9/W8 on file?
- Where did this affiliate come from? Who referred her?
- Can you segment this affiliate by how SHE does business?
- Can you follow-up with her after she signs up? When?
- What if they don’t complete the form?
- How are you going to keep her from becoming “inactive”
- Do you have a signup bonus? Is it working?
- Is your affiliate agreement easy to read and does it CYA?
- Are you doing a background check on email marketers? SpamHaus is your friend!
- Ipods, Money or Trips, What’s the best incentive for these affiliates?
- Are you vertically challenged? Talk Coupons to Couponers!
- Is your PPC policy written to optimize your corporate program?
- Do you have an email policy?
- Are your brands and trademark’s protected?
4. Give them the tools
5. Pay them
- Is payment threshold a big deal?
- Are you being kind to your international affiliates?
- Are you paying on subsales or re-occuring commissions?
- Are your affiliates driving your ppc costs up?
- How often are you paying your affiliates? That’s easy…
- How often do you pay them on time?
- What’s your competition paying?
- Are you addressing Fraud & Chargebacks with your affiliates? Is it in your policy?
- Wire, ACH, Paypal and Checks, what do your affiliates want? Can you support it?
- 3rd party tracking pixels, accounting for crossover?
- Are you making money?
24.Jan.08 Industry Blog Comments (0)
How many of these emails have you sent out this year? Most people that touch search engine marketing deal with violations from many different kinds of advertisers, on a daily basis, but determining it’s impact is completely hypothetical and enforcing your search policy can be expensive.
So what is the impact? You could consider brand degradation a big hit. I have seen an affiliate misspell the merchants name to get by Google’s brand police. This is an affiliate who should be supporting your brand. Your keyword cost can go sideways if you don’t have the budget, a proper affiliate policy and competitive commission rates, as well as a solid plan to stick with. Corporate teams and affiliates can come in to a crowded category together and literally take over the majority of traffic. Control the costs from the bottom up.
Merchants: Measure the cost between fighting for #1 position and affiliate commissions. Who is taking the greater to risk to sell your products?
Something else to control is your customers experience. It starts with the ad they click and what we all hope ends with is a conversion. If you aren’t encouraging a quality path through to site AND through your affiliates then you are messing with how many of those conversions we get. Control the quality of your affiliates, only recruit what you can support.
What other impacts have you seen from search violations?
Tags: ppc violations
20.Jan.08 Industry Blog Comments (0)
