Entries categorized as ‘eBiz Affiliation’
Any effective ROI assessment of online demand generation needs to be based on some form of tracking. The preferred method for understanding where the originating customer of a sale was exposed to the marketing message/ creative is the “cookie” i.e. a small text file sent via the browser to the computer at the place of exposure. When the sale is registered the cookie will provide the origination information to the tracking host/ affiliate network provider for accounting purposes.
In affiliate programmes, the key is to understand to what degree a given affiliate can be credited for a sale (I will for the sake of simplicity disregard the problems surrounding multiple origination points before a sale). Today, some affiliate networks do not make any distinction between a so called “click through” sale (the click being a definite link from the site of exposure to the point of sale) and a so called “view through” sale (the cookie has been received by inactive “viewing” i.e. visiting a big news site would be enough to actually be exposed to the cookie, the customer sometimes not even seeing the marketing message itself).
Whereas the click through method is relatively clean, the view through method is controversial for a number of reasons. Many of them should be of the greatest importance for any online marketer.
- There is a weaker link between the sale and the exposure hence one could and should question whether the sale really should be attributed to the view through point of exposure.
- This means that the cost per sale will look good – many more sales at a predefined payout level. Nevertheless, there will be false attribution of sale origination. The marketer/advertiser will think that what should be attributed to TV, radio, banner advertising or simply base demand is originating from an affiliate programme. The advertiser will pay twice for the same sale.
- Affiliate networks that do not clearly separate the two in data reports to customers are in my view not playing fair vis-a-vis the advertiser.
- Affiliates will be inclined to join programmes and affiliate networks where view through sales are highly or equally rewarded to click through sales because they will make more money with less quality effort/ traffic.
- Affiliate networks that do not up front separate the two methods often refrain from doing so because they lack tracking technology to separate the two methods and hence offer the same payout for two very different levels of interaction from the customer.
Don’t use affiliate networks that don’t tell you upfront how they manage and attribute view through vs. click through. It will cost you dearly even if your cost per sale and volumes look great.
Categories: Web Analytics · eBiz Affiliation · eBiz Demand Generation · eBiz Management
Tagged: Accounting for performance in affiliate programmes., Don't pay twice for the same sale., How affiliate performance is credited., iSales vs. Sales., Marketing ROI on affiliate programmes., Online sale attribution conflict., Pitfalls in affiliate marketing., ROI misrepresentation.
My colleague Åsa Lundell at TradeDoubler, www.tradedoubler.com and www.digipedia.se, showed me some very interesting research on transaction volumes online. The research clearly highlights how average order values (AOVs) are trending down year to date.
What is even more interesting is that the order volumes themselves are not trending down. The number of orders are probably driven by a variety of factors e.g. growth of online users and migration of offline campaigns.
On the other hand, average order values are hit by:
- Purchase patterns amid recession – people have less money and look for bargains and cannot fully afford high end products.
- Increased efficiency in online tracking – the more orders we track as a percentage of total – the greater the number of orders and the lower the average order value.
- Possibility that high AOV ecommerce items (durabels etc) are suffering more than e.g. fast moving consumer goods i.e. mix is shifting to lowend AOV.
Categories: Web Analytics · eBiz Affiliation · eBiz Demand Generation · eBiz Globalization · eBiz International · eBiz Management
Tagged: Average order values online hit by recession., Drivers of lower average order value online., Ecommerce slowing - driven by lower average order values.
For an understanding of consideration please check previous article here.
I often come across situations where overall convergence of customers on the site suddenly goes down. Many react negatively and perceive the attractiveness of offer and pricing as the key issue.
My key message for today: if the downfall comes from consideration, and your conversion remains stable, then your issue is probably explained by a change in the distribution of your leads sources.
Most sites have a mix of leads sources in their demand generation activities. The biggest source is typically search and banner media, followed by affiliates and some kind of internal demand generation e.g. offline advertising or email marketing.
Typically some types of leads will have lower consideration rates. For example, driving clicks using pop-under advertising (a new window is opened behind your browser screen only to be viewed when user is closing down browsers) tends to generate very low consideration as the proportion of irrelevant leads is high.
Although most people perceive a declining consideration rate as an issue, the consideration alone will not give you the full picture. In order to adequately assess the impact of a lower consideration on your business you need to a) understand if you are getting leads with lower consideration profiles and b) assess what the cost impact is (or ROI) on the low considerations leads you are driving. If the latter are more cheaper in % than the % decrease you have seen in proportionate consideration, chances are this is not bad news.
Categories: Web Analytics · eBiz Affiliation · eBiz Demand Generation · eBiz Merchandizing · eBiz Promo & Pricing
Tagged: consideration problems, Decrease in consideration, unexplicable drop in consideration.
Just saw an affiliate offer from Plaboy on the Pepperjam network. The offer from Playboy Store was in line with market offers in general. However, there was one small difference of course – the merchandizing creatives. Pepperjam representatives comment the offer:
“My Two Cents: These creatives are sure to have incredible conversion rates! Get out of our way – Pepperjam Network is on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!”.
It if funny how adult related content seems to differ so much from the norm.
Many years ago I was building the first broadband content offering for the biggest telco in Scandinavia. On one occasion there was a meeting between adult content mega player “Private” (Nasdaq: PRVT) and the telco to look into on-demand distribution of adult content via broadband.
The most interesting part of that meeting was when the telco representatives asked Private for input on their business case. The telco was looking for specific forecast and growth numbers. Private representatives just laughed and said “don’t worry…it [demand] will exceed your wildest expectations”.
I guess some eBiz managers have an easy life….
Categories: eBiz Affiliation · eBiz Demand Generation
Tagged: Adult content conversion, affiliate deals for playboy, creatives with high conversion., PRVT
I just read Pepperjam’s Maura Godwin’s blog from the Affiliate Summit West. There were some important points in the article that I would like to develop.
One problem with dash boards is that you seldom see what is behind it. In the affiliate space I often see very big week on week variation, only to discover that the absolute numbers are single digit. One of the problems I often come across is that there is a disconnect between the product owner (Brand, Pricing and On-line Marketing organizations) and the Affiliates themselves. I have experienced how we are running low end products at lowest price points for an affiliate audience that is high end and mature.
Most of us that have worked with affiliate networks have learned that a few affiliates account for most of the traffic. In some instances, e.g. small and medium business, there are very few pronounced and effective affiliates (this part of the business is generally CPC based).
So how do we bridge this disconnect and work closer with the vital few performing affiliates?
In my mind, the affiliate network should host an integrated meeting between the top 3-5 affiliates and the business owner at least on a bi-weekly basis or as long as a campaign is running. This way offers can be tailored to fit the affiliate’s specific audience in order to create a win-win situation. Brand organizations are more than willing in most cases to tailor price points, bundles and market communication to a specific organization if it generates better ROI.
So set up the meeting if your Affiliate Network doesn’t do it for you. You will quickly discover how much upside there is to working together.
Categories: eBiz Affiliation · eBiz Demand Generation
