How to make affiliate marketing work for you

Information on getting the most from your affiliate programme

Why use What kind of What should

affiliates? affiliate you be aware of
programmes when setting up
are there? a programme?
 Introduction

Contents
3 What is affiliate marketing?

6 Who are affiliates - understanding the

different types
B 10 When do you use affiliate marketing?

13 Putting affiliate marketing at the heart of

your business
16 A day in the life of a programme

20 Considering a 12 month strategy

24 Affiliates and brand

28 Managing affiliates and pay per

click search

33 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable

channel for sales and marketing

44 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable

C channel for sales and marketing

46 Glossary of terms
 What is affiliate marketing?

What is affiliate
marketing?
4 How affiliate marketing began
B
4 Implications for advertisers
4 Making money and the importance
of tracking
5 It’s not the size of the affiliate, but what
you do with it that counts

Affiliate marketing is a working relationship

whereby a merchant (online shop or
advertiser) has consumers driven to it by adverts
on an affiliate (website). If a consumer visiting
the affiliate’s site clicks on an advertisement
C and goes on to perform a predetermined action
(usually a purchase) on the advertiser’s site then
the affiliate receives a payment.

This predetermined action can range from a sale

to a referral, a newsletter sign-up to a click. It is
this cost per action model that defines affiliate
marketing and sets it apart from other channels.
 What is affiliate marketing?

How affiliate marketing began

The most famous story about how affiliate marketing began

places Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, as the father of the
channel. Around 1996 he was chatting to a woman at a party
about how she wished to sell books about divorce on her
website without becoming a merchant in her own right. Bezos
reputedly came up with a method of linking her site to Amazon
B and receiving a commission on any books sold.

New Products 1999 saw the birth of the affiliate network in the UK with DGM,
Commission Junction and Tradedoubler setting up within a few
months of each other.
The benefit for

the advertiser Implications for advertisers

is obvious;
The benefit for the advertiser is obvious; they only pay out on
they only pay
results. From the affiliate’s perspective, they only need to
out on results
become experts in driving relevant traffic to merchant websites
in order to maximise return for themselves. Remember, the
affiliate spends their own time and money driving traffic to the
merchant and only gets paid if they deliver results.

Making money and the importance of tracking

The affiliate model requires all clicks and sales to be tracked in

order that the correct revenue is assigned to each affiliate.
Tracking can either be run in-house by the merchant, or more
commonly it will be independently tracked by an affiliate
network. An affiliate network is a third party that offers services
for affiliates and merchants such as account management,
 1 What is affiliate marketing?

C
campaign advice, independent tracking and maintenance of
relationships with the affiliate base.

The affiliate needs to use special links and creative banners

from the merchant or affiliate network with code embedded in
them that allows for tracking. These links and banners are then
placed on the affiliate site and allow all clicks through to the
merchant site and subsequent sales to be tracked. It’s then the
responsibility of the merchant to validate these sales as
legitimate before the affiliate can be paid their commission.
New Products
It’s not the size of the affiliate, but what you do
“Affiliates come in all
with it that counts
shapes and sizes,
from the behemoths
Affiliates come in all shapes and sizes. Similarly many sectors
of the affiliate world ...
benefit by using a network of affiliates. Vertical sectors that
through to individuals
traditionally see great success through the affiliate channel
who produce a website
include financial services, travel, retail, telecoms, broadband based around an
and gaming. This is far from an exclusive list and whatever the interest of theirs and
merchant is looking to achieve they will virtually always find look to monetise it
someone willing to promote them. - providing the price is right. through placing relevant
adverts on it. ”

Matt Bailey,
DGM
 Who are affiliates?
– understanding the different types

7 Type 1: Niche content and personal

B
interest websites
7 Type 2: Loyalty and reward websites
7 Type 3: PPC and search affiliates
8 Type 4: Email marketers
9 Type 5: Co-registration affiliates
10 Type 6: Affiliate networks
9 Summary

Put very simply, affiliates are companies, groups and

individuals who promote advertisers (merchants) through
C one, or many of the various forms of affiliate marketing.
Affiliates strive to deliver merchants’ products or services
to their users.

What differentiates types of affiliates from one another

is which method of affiliate marketing they choose to
adopt to reach this objective. They can be broken down
into six primary affiliate types as follows:
 2 Who are affiliates?

Type 1: Niche content and personal

interest websites

Affiliates run websites that cater to a certain niche in the online

marketplace and can be an ideal way for merchants to target
users specifically interested in certain products and drive great D
quality traffic. Websites that would fall into this category include
sites offering freebies, information on certain hobbies or topics,
games and bingo websites, and retail and travel-related sites.

Niche affiliates may run newsletter activity, allowing them to push

relevant users towards merchants rather than simply running
merchants’ offers onsite. This significantly increases conversion
rates (the number of customers that complete an action).

Type 2: Loyalty and reward websites New Products

Loyalty and reward websites build a loyal user base by marketing “With co-registration,
merchants to their users and then sharing their profits with them. PPC, e-mail, newsletter
They can share these profits by offering pure cash back to users marketing and classic
or awarding them with points that can be built up to contribute affiliate banners and
skyscrapers on offer,
towards discounted online purchases through the website or
affiliates now have a variety
towards a central prize.
of different options available
to them. Each option
The idea is that by sharing profits with their users, these affiliates
results in a different quality
can build a ‘loyal’ database of users who are happy to make
and quantity of leads,
purchases online through the websites because they feel they
varying their incoming
are ‘getting something back’. revenue streams.”

Nichola Halford,
Type 3: PPC and search affiliates Advertising.com

Pay per click (PPC) and search affiliates bid on words and
phrases in search engines to help drive traffic to a merchant’s
website by using the sponsored links on portals such as Google,
Yahoo, MSN and Miva.
 Who are affiliates?

As well as sponsored links on portals, affiliates are now able to

E
use brand terms and improve merchant rankings within the
natural portal listings. This is called organic search engine
optimisation (SEO).

Merchants are able to choose whether they wish their products

to have affiliates bidding to promote them. If they do, they must
then decide whether affiliates may bid on brand terms or just
generic terms. Brand term means using the actual merchant
name, whereas generic term refers to using a genre or topic to
New Products bid on the product.

Companies have been Type 4: Email marketers

set-up specialising in
this form of affiliate Email affiliates send stand-alone email campaigns to their
marketing and have users. Companies have been set-up specialising in this form of
expansive and
affiliate marketing and have expansive and comprehensive lists
which allow merchant’s to target specific niches within their
comprehensive lists
target market. Email marketers tend to be paid on a cost per
which allow merchant’s
thousand (CPM) basis.
to target specific
niches within their
target market. Type 5: Co-registration affiliates

Co-registration is a fairly new form of affiliate marketing and

allows users to opt in to receive offers from third-party
merchants whilst registering on a website, but only with the
user’s full approval.

Registration details are passed on to the merchant who then

pays the affiliate for the users details. The affiliates who run
 2 Who are affiliates?

co-registration campaigns vary greatly from large portals and

companies, to medium and small sized websites and companies
who specialise in only co-registration.

Type 6: Affiliate networks

Affiliate networks are establishing themselves as ‘top tier’

affiliates exposing merchant offers to their own networks
F
of affiliates while also providing account management and
assistance where needed. These large scale networks are often
capable of providing email marketing, co-registration, PPC New Products
and classic affiliate banners and skyscrapers to be run on their
affiliate’s websites. Affiliate networks
are establishing
Summary themselves as ‘top
tier’ affiliates exposing
It can be difficult to differentiate between types of affiliates. merchant offers to
Affiliates are specialising in more and more areas and offering their own networks
different types of affiliate marketing on their websites. Each
of affiliates while also
type results in a different quality and quantity of leads, varying
providing account
their incoming revenue streams. What remains constant is the
management and
affiliate’s aim to drive performance by bringing merchants to
assistance where
their users.
needed.
B Website functionality and resource allocation
11 Marketing collateral
11 Tracking
12 Affiliate network selection

Affiliate marketing needs to be strategically

managed as part of the marketing mix and, once
established, significant benefits can accrue. There
are, however, a number of points a merchant needs
to consider which will have a direct impact on the
C
success of their programme.
 3 When do you use affiliate marketing?

Website functionality and resource allocation

The merchant needs to ensure that its website runs in an affiliate-

friendly manner. It needs to be tailored to operate in a way that
is commercially attractive to affiliates. This will involve a
certain amount of resource investment. If the merchant
gives affiliates attractive enough commission, structures,
sites, etc, the financial opportunities are significant.

Remember, the more you put in, the more you get out.
There are thousands of affiliate programmes out there, so
to stand out from the crowd you need to create something that
is more attractive than your competitors are providing.
G

Marketing collateral
New Products
If affiliates are to be used to drive your traffic, they will need the
necessary ammunition to do the job. This will vary from one “There are thousands of
industry sector to another. For instance, while product feeds are affiliate programmes out
essential in travel and extremely useful for retail, they are of little there, so to stand out
use to a financial service provider. from the crowd you need
to create something that
Have a look at the materials your competitors are offering is more attractive than
affiliates and be prepared to listen and act upon the requests competitors are providing.”
affiliates make. As with any other channel, it means updating Mark Kuhillow,
your adverts in the same way you would for TV or press. Refresh R O Eye

those creative executions as necessary, and by simply staying

up to date you’ll be ahead of the game.

Tracking

The affiliate model is based on transparency and trust. Affiliates

need to be assured that they are being paid for all the sales they
generate and that the traffic they have driven is being correctly,
fairly and accurately tracked as this will have a direct impact on
the commissions they earn.
 Who are affiliates?

Therefore, it’s essential that tracking code can be implemented

in your site. On-site tracking, however, does not take sales
conversions into account. Having the ability to frequently and
accurately validate affiliate sales is a key prerequisite when
looking to launch a programme. Affiliates must be able to see at
a glance what they have earned in commission.

H Affiliate network selection

As a third party, an affiliate network is ideally suited to providing

New Products
this tracking. In effect, it is the physical conduit between the
affiliates and the clients. Needless to say, selecting the right
Remember
network is a vital element in the process. With over 17 networks
– networks come
in the UK (e-consultancy 2006), merchants are relatively spoilt
in all shapes
for choice!
and sizes, so it’s
imperative to get
With services varying from business sector specialisation to
the right one.
offering managed solutions, it’s important to ensure that the
network or affiliate management specialist you select offers the
correct degree of sector experience and can provide you with
the necessary levels of resource and feedback. Remember
– networks come in all shapes and sizes, so it’s imperative to
get the right one.
 4 Putting affiliate marketing at the
heart of your business

Putting affiliate
marketing at the
heart of your
B
business
Metrics
14 Be selective
15 Affiliates: members of staff?
15 Summary

Affiliates are themselves businesses and as

your suppliers they need to be managed,

motivated and rewarded as such. As a

C
company you need to decide whether they are
a sales channel, or a marketing channel.

Generally the best users of affiliates view them

as a sales channel. This is appropriate as the
CPA reward means there is not the uncertainty
experienced with many other marketing
disciplines.
 Putting affiliate marketing at
the heart of your business

I
Metrics

Most businesses use metrics in sales that are applicable to

affiliates, such as the overall target marketing cost per sale and
the contribution to profit of each incremental sale. If you consider
affiliates as advertising or as part of the marketing channel, they
are more likely to be appraised as part of the media buying
schedule within your business.

New Products As a sales force, affiliates can deliver a significant volume

compared to other sales channels. This can’t be done with an
uncompetitive CPA however. The highest sales levels come from
“Affiliates are
setting competitive CPAs. Excessive CPAs are not needed.
themselves businesses.
These businesses are
your suppliers, and Good affiliates stay in business because they are good at
need to be managed, connecting with consumers, providing the offers consumers
motivated and rewarded want and managing their business so that it is profitable. This
as such.” means that low CPAs won’t deliver volume as they won’t
Steven Brown, encourage the more successful affiliates to work with you
Buy.at making affiliates peripheral to your business, rather than at the
heart of it.

Be selective

Some networks specialise in different areas to serve large

companies with significant sales. Others are better at delivering
to small to medium enterprises (SME’s); some work better with
specific verticals while others work well using particular
disciplines such as email marketing, SEO or paid search.
Choose one that fits.
 4 Putting affiliate marketing at the
heart of your business

J
Also, choose an agency that considers all aspects of the sales
and marketing mix. Affiliates need to be placed at the heart
of the direct response and media schedule, to get
the best out of all channels.

Affiliates: members of staff?

Affiliates only stay at the heart of your business if affiliates

become ambassadors for your brand. To do this you usually
need to meet them regularly and ensure they have the right New Products
information about your brand, product, offers and so on. They
need to be respected as though they are a team within your To have affiliates
company. at the heart of
your business, you
Like staff they need the tools to do the job, such as a good need to choose
company website, optimised to convert customers online (or a network and,
complemented by an offline reward mechanism), good stock if appropriate,
levels if appropriate and good quality creative. an agency, that
can work with
Summary affiliates to make
them your brand
To have affiliates at the heart of your business, you need to ambassadors.
choose a network and, if appropriate, an agency, that can work
with affiliates to make them your brand ambassadors. Then have
the internal processes set up so that when they want to deliver
high volumes of profitable business you are able to provide the
support efficiently and promptly.
B Introduction
17 Daily checks
17 Data-feed
18 Affiliate recruitment / applications
18 Affiliate enquiry
18 PPC Arrangements
19 Newsletter feature
19 Reporting
19 Voucher code

C This piece illustrates the daily and weekly workload

of an affiliate programme manager. Understanding
this workload will help you to manage your
programme and make the greatest returns from
your affiliate scheme. SoYou! is a fictional women’s
fashion retailer. The activities detailed are taken
from a real retailer.
 5 A day in the life of a programme

SoYou! launched an affiliate marketing campaign through an

affiliate network in mid 2006. Up until then, their transactional
website had functioned mainly as a method for repeat purchase
from their extremely loyal customer base, or for completion of
catalogue orders.

The objective of launching an affiliate programme was to help

turn their site into an incremental sales driver.

SoYou! has an Online Marketing Manager (OMM) with overall

responsibility for running their affiliate programme. Their network
has also appointed them with an Account Manager (AM) who
supports SoYou! with week-to-week programme management
and optimisation.
New Products
Daily checks
Check for emails,

The SoYou! AM logs in to their online interface to review the network enquiries
performance of their programme. The OMM checks that sales and online affiliate
are tracking correctly and that the top performing key affiliates
discussion forums
are on track to achieve their targets.
for posts that

Both the OMM and the AM check for emails, network enquiries specifically relate

and online affiliate discussion forums for posts that specifically to your SoYou!
relate to the SoYou! programme. programme.

Data-feed

SoYou!’s data-feed is a digital inventory of all products they sell

online. It includes other information such as, a deep link to their
location on site, a link to an image of the product, a description,
the price, reference ID and category (hat, trousers, etc). This
information is used by SoYou!’s affiliates to highlight SoYou!’s
products individually.
 A day in the life of a programme

L By refreshing their data-feed on a daily basis stock levels,

product additions and prices are kept accurate on affiliate sites.
The AM checks that the latest version has uploaded correctly.

Affiliate recruitment / applications

There have been two applications from affiliates to join the

programme overnight. SoYou! like to review each application
and send a personal response accepting or rejecting the
affiliate.
New Products
Affiliate enquiry
It’s important that
The network receives a phone call from an affiliate with a
as few ‘repeat
fashion content site. The AM for SoYou! discusses their offering
customers’ as including the commission structure and cookie length. The AM
possible arrive identifies that the affiliate can make use of a ‘bestseller list’ to
through the affiliate highlight SoYou!’s products in an editorial piece on their site.
The affiliate likes the initiative and receives the content later that
channel.
day to be published at the end of the week.

PPC Arrangements

All of SoYou!’s search engine marketing is handled by one

selected affiliate, ClickFinder. SoYou! do not use a PPC agency
and as such ClickFinder have become an integral part of their
online strategy.

It’s important that as few ‘repeat customers’ as possible arrive

through the affiliate channel. To ensure this is the case,
ClickFinder worked with their clients to avoid running the PPC
 5 A day in the life of a programme

adverts where customers would otherwise easily find direct links

to the client website.

ClickFinder contacted SoYou! to discuss the effectiveness

M
of a recently implemented tiered commission structure. The
structure rewards ClickFinder an increased commission while a
specified level of sales is achieved.

Newsletter feature

Each week SoYou!’s network send out an electronic newsletter

to the affiliates across their database. The newsletter highlights
important merchant developments and promotions to affiliates.

Reporting New Products

SoYou!’s OMM logged accesses reports on affiliate performance

for the month. With this information the network advise SoYou!
on the progress of specific affiliates who were previously invited
to join a bespoke incentive scheme for the SoYou! programme.

Voucher code

SoYou! want to explore offering their affiliates discount codes,

but are fearful it will have a negative impact on their existing
traffic levels. Together with their network they select one affiliate
partner with which to work. The partnership will award the
affiliate site with exclusive distribution rights of the voucher
code promotion. The chosen affiliate is a reward site with a large
member base, which will promote the offer to their end users.

SoYou!’s OMM sets up the code and informs the affiliate that
they can launch the promotion. The results will be observed
over the next four weeks before a commitment to roll out a
boarder discount code scheme is made.
 Considering a 12
month strategy
B
for merchants
Will affiliate marketing work for you?
21 What do you want to achieve?
22 How will this fit in with your annual media and
marketing plans?
23 How should you structure your commissions?
24 How do you recruit affiliates to your
programme?
23 How do you support your programme
once it is live?
23 Where do you begin?
C

The success of any affiliate campaign is largely

down to the merchant having a good understanding
of how affiliate marketing works and creating an
effective long term strategy.
 Considering a 1 2 month strategy
6 for merchants

A successful affiliate programme requires comprehensive

planning to deliver a robust and scalable structure. With the
appropriate consideration, an affiliate marketing programme
can develop into a core sales channel.

Below is a list of the key elements you need to consider when

establishing a strategy based around an initial 12 month plan…

Will affiliate marketing work for you?

In theory a performance based marketing programme will work

for any advertiser. It should not, however, be taken for granted N
that having an ecommerce enabled website guarantees a
successful affiliate programme. The affiliate community is
remunerated based on sales generated so it’s in its own interests
to assess the suitability of your business prior to agreeing to
work on your behalf.
New Products
Key considerations will include a view on the sector that the
merchant’s business operates in; a niche sector has a lower “With the appropriate
income potential than a mass market sector. The affiliate consideration, an affiliate
community will also assess the merchant’s position within their marketing programme can
sector, checking product, price, promotion and place. develop into a core sales
channel, with the potential
The quality of the website is a major concern for affiliates who to deliver in excess of 25%
of total online business.”
will review usability, functionality and aesthetics when making
their decision. Nicola Marsh,
MVi

What do you want to achieve?

Setting clear KPI’s at the start is a must and always brings up a

host of questions:

•hatWdo you really want to achieve in the long term?

• Is the programme devised to grow sales or to recruit new
customers?
•ow Himportant is sales value?
• Do you ultimately want to outsource all online marketing to
affiliates?
 Considering a 12 month strategy
for merchants
O
How will this fit in with your annual media and
marketing plans?

Affiliates rely heavily on consumer demand for products and will

be reliant on you creating demand through other media activities.
Providing your affiliates with a calendar of intended media activity
and giving them advance insight in to creative and messaging
will significantly benefit the affiliates, and therefore you.

Search traffic is fundamental to most affiliates, so it is critical

New Products
that you consider how best to complement your existing search
marketing strategy through affiliate marketing and do not allow
“Affiliates want to
the two channels to compete with each other.
feel involved in your
business, from
decisions on website How should you structure your commissions?
development through to
insights into advertising Ultimately this is the most critical element of the programme. All
campaigns.” affiliates look at their return on investment and an easy way to
Nicola Marsh, assess the value of your campaign is to look at the earnings per
MVi
click available. You must plan in advance to set maximum
acceptable cost parameters and at all times review the market
to understand whether or not your structure is competitive.

Commissions must be used tactically to encourage programme

‘take-up’, and then to manage programme growth (think long-
term). You may also want to structure your commissions to
reward separately for volume and for quality.
 Considering a 1 2 month strategy
6 for merchants

How do you recruit affiliates to your programme?

Online discussion forums, message boards and regular affiliate

events are the best way to raise awareness of your programme
and to build relationships with potential affiliate partners.

How do you support your programme once

it is live?

Communication will make or break your programme. Affiliates

want to feel involved in your business, from decisions on website
development through to insights into advertising campaigns. New Products

You must consider how you will validate sales, review affiliate
performance, provide creative updates and ensure prompt You must consider

payment. The affiliate community is very vocal so any slips could how you will
cost you dearly, especially if you are not on relevant discussion validate sales, review
forums to respond.
affiliate performance,

Where do you begin? provide creative

updates and ensure

Find an experienced affiliate resource with a strong reputation prompt payment.
amongst merchants and within the affiliate community. This is a
sophisticated and mature market where getting it right from the
start could make the difference between a distribution channel
the size of Tesco, or one the size of your local corner shop!
 Brand control
B 26 Programme terms & conditions (T&C’s)
26 Merchant approval
27 Brand benefits of an affiliate programme

Traditionally a programme structured on a CPA

basis does not lend itself naturally to brand building.
The affiliate channel works very successfully
to drive acquisitions for merchants, and in the
process commissions for themselves. On this basis,
C creatives should be sales focussed, highlighting
product benefits to the consumer with a concise
call to action.
 7 Affiliates and brand

Ultimately the end goal is sales volumes, and brand exposure

Q
is a by-product of sales focussed activity. Yet, the affiliate
landscape is changing. Merchants have started to realise that
the affiliate marketplace offers traffic driving opportunities that
can be a valuable addition to the marketing mix, rather than
solely for driving sales.

Using affiliates for lead generation is becoming increasingly

popular, paying on a cost per lead (CPL) basis rather than full
sale, giving opportunity to convert warm leads into sales at the
merchant end. There are also examples of advertisers without
fully transactional ecommerce sites, using affiliates for pure
traffic driving on a cost per click (CPC) or cost per unique
user (CPUU) basis.

Although these are direct response metrics on one level, it is New Products
interesting to see advertisers starting to utilise the channel for
goals that are less sales focussed, and which have additional “Although recruiting a third
brand value above the traditional CPA model. party to sell your product
does mean devolving
Brand control control to a certain extent,
it doesn’t necessarily mean
compromising your brand.”
In allowing affiliates onto a programme, you are giving them
permission to promote your product within the context of their James Briscoe,
Unique Digital
site(s). So the thinking goes, your products or adverts could
appear next to any type of content, on any old site. Although
recruiting a third party to sell your product does mean devolving
control to a certain extent, it doesn’t necessarily mean
compromising your brand.
 Affiliates and brand

R
Programme terms & conditions (T&C’s)

Before launching an affiliate programme, it is imperative that

the merchant and network decide on a set of terms and
conditions that affiliates must adhere to. For example, as a
merchant you are able to stipulate that affiliates cannot have
any hate, racist or adult content. If the rules are broken, the
merchant then has the right to suspend or ban the misbehaving
affiliate.

New Products Using terms & conditions, a merchant does have a degree of
control over where their brand is appearing. Although affiliates
“Keep your friends close are generally well behaved, these rules do need to be policed
and your affiliates closer!”
and their effectiveness will come down to the vigilance of the
James Briscoe, network or affiliate manager.
Unique Digital

Merchant approval

Each affiliate that applies for a programme must be approved

either by the network or the merchant themselves. This gives the
merchant control over the quality or type of affiliates accepted.

A particularly brand conscious merchant could be restrictive on

the affiliates that are allowed onto the programme and run a
smaller campaign on higher quality sites only. However, this
would limit the size of the programme and the volume of traffic
driven. Alternatively, a merchant who wants to maximise sales
could run a more open programme and be less strict in
accepting affiliates.
 7 Affiliates and brand

S
Brand benefits of an affiliate programme

As we have already mentioned, affiliate campaigns structured

on a CPA basis do have certain side effects which have a
positive effect on brand. Merchants are paying for sales only, so
any banner impressions or presence on affiliate sites are added
value.

For example, if affiliates are appearing in top positions on

Google for key generic search terms in your sector, presence
New Products
on their site or comparison table would be very beneficial for
brand awareness and recognition. This is especially potent for
small merchants whose brand is relatively unknown. the key to deriving

the most benefit

Ultimately, the key to deriving the most benefit for your brand
from a programme is to open dialogue with your affiliates. The for your brand from

more knowledge and insight an affiliate has into your brand, the a programme is to
better they will be able to align with your vision for the brand and open dialogue with
how best to promote it. There would be no harm in including
your affiliates.
affiliates in a brand brief!

On a practical level, a merchant should provide the affiliate with as

much product detail as possible and could look into the possibility
of more integrated content on leading affiliate sites for example.
On a personal level, a partner site is more likely to promote your
interests if you have a good relationship with them.

Keep your friends close and your affiliates closer!

A

Managing affiliates
and pay per click
B search
Search – the areas you need to focus on
30 Protecting your brand using brand term and
generic keywords
31 How to maximise your keyword activity
32 Working with trusted affiliates
32 Managing your affiliate program

As search continues to dominate the online

C scene, the need for businesses to manage their
pay per click (PPC) search activity effectively and
consistently has never been greater.
 Managing affiliates and pay per
8 click search

Recent reports indicate that Google alone now has an 80% market
share of all search activity in the UK (Yahoo! and MSN making up
a further 15%). Search is now viewed by many in the industry as
T
a reputation management system. This is due to its ability to
dictate both awareness levels and business dealings!

It is therefore imperative that brands maximise their search activity

and clients and agencies are increasingly realising the benefits of
running a complimentary affiliate programme alongside their
existing PPC campaign. Using a strategy that incorporates
maximum coverage on all search engines gives sites the visibility
and reach they require so that customers can find them quickly
and easily.

Search – the areas you need to focus on

New Products
Below is a typical search results page. There are four main areas
of visibility and Click Through Rates (CTR) vary across each. “A brand’s visibility and
ability to drive transactions
can be greatly enhanced
On average, an indication of click through from each section is as
by adopting a combined
follows:
search marketing
approach (organic, PPC
search and affiliate).”
• 26% of users click
section a Chris Garner,
– top Sponsored (PPC) Affilinet
• 20% of users click
section b
–alternative & feature
listing (algorithm based)
• 40% of users clicks
section c
–above-the-fold natural
organic search (algorithm
based)
• 14% of users click
section d
– side sponsored (PPC)
 Managing affiliates and pay
per click search

Here are a couple of

It’s therefore unrealistic and risky for any vertical industry,
examples, both from the whether it is B2C or B2B, to rely on a single channel of
financial sector: promotion such as organic search. In fact, the figures
prove that a brand’s visibility and ability to drive
transactions can be greatly enhanced by adopting a
combined search marketing approach (organic, PPC
search and affiliate).

Protecting your brand using brand term and

generic keywords

Building a brand is expensive and competitors can often

If you search “Direct Line car profit from piggy-backing on your brand’s search activity
insurance” in Google you find
through influencing search engine listings and diverting
that Direct Line’s website is
positioned number one in the your traffic to their own websites.
sponsored listings, but the
remaining positions are occupied If you haven’t already done so, it’s a very worthwhile
by competitors of Direct Line.
exercise to check whether your brand’s visibility is in
danger. Firstly, undertake a search of your own brand
Brand and then one for other generic, relevant additional words
Competitors “brand term + generic keyword”. Take screen shots of the
space and save them, review the sites that are bidding
Effectively, this is giving just one and ask yourself the questions: who do they promote,
listing area of optimum activity: you, or your competitors?
Continued overleaf
 Managing affiliates and pay per
8 click search

How to maximise your keyword activity Now compare this to “Zurich car
insurance” in Google. Zurich has
a complimentary affiliate program
Most customers have a feel for where they want to that works to supplement the
go online, and typically perform multiple searches, but brand’s Search strategy and
research by Onestat also shows the importance of thus manages to optimise the
covering generic longtail keywords: exposure so there are multiple
branded messages for Zurich
displayed. This gives Zurich a
• 2 word queries currently account for 30% of Search greater reach and increased
queries share of space powered by this
•wo3rds: 27% unique affiliate strategy.

•wo4rds: 17.1%
•wo5rds: 8.25%
•wo6rds: 3.7%

The chart below also shows the importance of covering

these longtail keywords. The greater number of keywords,
the greater the exposure your brand has in the longtail
(yellow portion of the graph). The benefit of this is an
increased propensity for customers to transact who type
Brand
in specific keyword phrases containing multiple words,
Competitors
i.e. “golfing holidays in the Algarve”.
Affiliates

This is enhancing visibility and

achieving four listing areas of
Frequency of searchers

Sales optimum activity.

Obviously the more listings you

have per search term the more
traffic you will receive, and hence
your competitors will receive less.

Number of keywords
 Managing affiliates and pay per
click search
Working with trusted affiliates
U
A fundamental part of a successful PPC strategy is to allow trusted
specific affiliates to use a brand’s URL and link direct to your site.
The advantages of working this way are enormous because:

• Streamlined customer journey increases conversion as the

customer goes direct to your site.
•asFter time to market on consumer campaigns.
• Minimal loss of traffic compared to affiliate landing pages (which
typically have 30% - 50% drop off).
New Products •biliAty to deep link to specific product pages.

Virgin Holidays, TUI, Expedia, Zurich insurance, BT Broadband

It can be better to and The AA are just some of the big brands which currently
operate an inclusive PPC strategy in conjunction with their own
have five affiliates
internal search activity enhancing their online results.
selling 1,000

products for you Managing your affiliate program

each month, rather
The industry move towards ‘quality over quantity’ is equally vital
than having 1,000
here. It can be better to have five affiliates selling 1,000 products
affiliates selling just
for you each month, rather than having 1,000 affiliates selling just
five products each five products each a month. This is because damage caused by
a month. brand degradation and brand proliferation as a result of an out of
control affiliate program are also reasons to work with a smaller,
more committed and hard working group of affiliates.

So remember, your affiliates are your ‘virtual sales force’. You would
not let anyone work for you promoting your brand without a proper
interview, probation period or one who’s not equipped with the
right tools to sell, and the same applies to your PPC affiliates.
 9 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable
channel for sales and marketing

Making affiliate
marketing a
sustainable
B
channel for sales
andmarketing
In-house v. affiliate network?
35 Bringing advertisers and publishers together
35 Selling it to the board
36 Case Studies

C As online advertising budgets continue to

grow in order to meet the increasing trend in
consumers’ online media consumption, affiliate
marketing is ideally placed to feature ever more
prominently on the advertising radar.
 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable
channel for sales and marketing

V Whilst search undoubtedly remains the first step in many online

marketing strategies, the cost effectiveness of affiliate marketing
has attracted online marketers who are serious about optimising
the return on investment (ROI) opportunities presented by
the internet.

Brand budget spend on TV, newspapers and magazines have

been reduced as marketing and finance directors demand
more accountability from key advertising suppliers, putting
performance marketing, and affiliate marketing in particular,
New Products under the spotlight.

The online advertising industry is seeing increasing interest from

“The performance based
advertisers and agencies; and improved professionalism amongst
cost per acquisition (CPA)
model allows advertisers
networks and publishers have made affiliate marketing a highly
to pay for their advertising attractive element to the online sales and marketing mix.
only when it generates
actual results.”
Undeniably, affiliate marketing has come a long way over recent
years, but what does the future hold? In order to ensure its
Jennifer Cheung,
sustainability and future growth in such a fast-paced environment,
Trade Doubler
there are several issues which must be addressed.

In-house v. affiliate network?

Affiliate networks provide access to robust, independent tracking

for an affiliate programme rather than an in-house programme
which relies on a software solution to provide the tracking.
Networks not only take the bulk of the administrative work out
of the advertiser’s hands, but also offer the opportunity to tap
into the expertise of their account management services and
make sure the affiliate programme performance is optimised.
 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable
9 channel for sales and marketing

Networks live and breathe affiliate marketing and keep abreast of

new developments, trends and functionality within the industry
that advertisers would be hard pushed to keep on top of X
themselves. Publishers also prefer to work with networks rather
than deal with multiple advertisers. Affiliate networks enable
publishers to fill their inventory quickly and easily via access to
a wide range of advertiser affiliate programmes through one
contact point.

Bringing advertisers and publishers together

Building strong relationships between advertisers and publishers

is fundamental to accelerating affiliate programme performance
but can be all-consuming and requires a lot of commitment. New Products

This is where professional client service teams and affiliate

Building strong
forums can step in to motivate the affiliates, allowing them to
relationships between
objectively critique programme performance and optimise
settings for success. advertisers and

publishers is fundamental
Selling it to the board
to accelerating affiliate

Ultimately the overriding benefit of the affiliate marketing programme performance

model lies in its ability to generate cost-effective results. The but can be all-consuming
performance based cost per acquisition (CPA) model allows and requires a lot
advertisers to pay for their advertising only when it generates
of commitment.
actual results.

Herein lies the greatest argument for online evangelists looking

to secure additional budgets for affiliate marketing from senior
level budget holders. Affiliate marketing should naturally form
part of an advertiser’s sales - rather than marketing – budget,
and it is a long-term sales channel designed to generate direct
response.
 Case Studies

Growth of affiliate marketing

and return on investments
A
Stepheny Lauer of US retail
website www.art.com highlighted
a very interesting cost of
acquisition which they conducted.
It compared various advertising
media costs of acquiring
customers versus the amount of
revenue generated for every dollar
spent. The results were dramatic:

Medium Cost of Revenue Generated

Acquisition per £1 spent

Radio £766 £0.04

Print £504 £0.05
Public Relations £43 £0.60
Email £13 £1.33
Online Ads £11 £2.42
Affiliates £5 £3.76

(Source: Cost of Acquisition Study, www.art.com gust 2005, figures have

been localised for UK Au
market )

So much more online

buy or
reserve
 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable
9 channel for sales and marketing

Case Studies

Play.com study

B Play.com is a leading online retailer

offering books, CDs, DVDs, computer
and console games at competitive
prices. Because of the way Play.com
manages consumer orders to comply
with UK VAT regulations, standard
affiliate network pixel tracking could
not deliver real time sales reporting,
meaning that affiliates would have
had to wait a week before they could
access to their sales statistics. As a
result, affiliates were not able to be as
reactive in their promotional efforts for
the Play.com programme. By alerting
their affiliate network of this problem,
their network was able to create and
deploy a new server-to-server tracking
solution. At the end of the purchase,
Play.com’s server makes a secure
connection to the affiliate network
server, passing the purchase value
and transaction ID details back to the
network. This means commission
is now calculated and allocated
accordingly, with real time statistics
being made available to the affiliate.
So much more online

buy or
reserve

37
 Case Studies

Gala Group case study

C
Gala Bingo know their cost per
acquisition target from their own
analysis of customer lifetime value
and other channel costs. Gala
Bingo worked with their affiliate
network to ensure that they
offered the best commissions to
affiliates, providing competitor
landscape feedback and
negotiating with key affiliates in
order to deliver new members
well within this target.

The affiliate programme has

grew rapidly in just 10 months,
recording a 195% increase in new
members generated by affiliates
when comparing month results
from May 2006 against February
2007.

So much more online

buy or
reserve
 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable
9 channel for sales and marketing

Case Studies

Evans Cycles case study

D

Evans Cycles boasts 23 stores

in the UK and plans to open
five new stores each year. From
the beginning of their affiliate
programme 300 affiliates signed
up with five of them doing 85%
of the transactions. In first three
months their affiliates had generated
over £100,000 worth of business.
Working together with their
affiliate network has helped Evans
Cycles capitalise on their brand
values while offering an attractive
commission to affiliates.

So much more online

buy or
reserve

39
 Case Studies

E
Harrods case study

Harrods.com has run a

successful affiliate programme
since October 2004 and whilst
this proved a profitable sales
channel, Harrods recognised the
need to develop and implement
a bespoke strategy to ensure a
successful summer sales period.

Harrods had identified the need

for a strategic approach to one of
its key summer season. Harrods
wanted to ensure it was being
noticed by affiliates, and it was
therefore vital to gain exposure
on affiliates’ summer sales
promotions.

The project looked at the key

affiliates on the programme and
the affiliate incentive was based
on the Harrods product range
itself. This kept the cost down for
the client and also promoted the
Harrods product range through
So much more online the affiliate incentive itself.

buy or
reserve
 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable
9 channel for sales and marketing

Case Studies

Harrods case study continued

D
Results
• Number of sales in June
and July ’06 grew by 77%
compared to June and July ’05.
• Transactional sales value
increased by over 200%
compared to the previous 2
months.

• Over 300 new affiliates

were recruited and 30% of
all affiliates were actively
promoting Harrods in June and
July 2006.

buy or
reserve

So much more online

41
 Case Studies

IWOOT case study

E

Four guys, out of the confines

of a one bedroom flat, created
IWantOneOfThose.com (IWOOT)
in 1999.

IWOOT now turns over about

£10,000,000, employs 50 people
and 150 over the Christmas period.
Their core business is online and
they receive over seven million visits
to the site each year.

Affiliate marketing has an important

position to play for IWOOT. Nothing
has worked as well for them as
having a professional affiliate
manager delivering great service,
brand term policing and excellent
reporting.

“We only pay affiliates for actual

sales generated by customers they
send to our website.” says Richard
Wainright-Lee, MD of IWOOT.
“Compared to other marketing
channels affiliate marketing provides
So much more online
very little financial risk.”

buy or
reserve
 Making affiliate marketing a sustainable
9 channel for sales and marketing

Case Studies

John Lewis Case Study

D
Johnlewis.com have run a
successful affiliate programme since
November 2001. There was an
opportunity for significant growth in
2006 by utilising the affiliate base
to reach a wide range of online
shoppers.
Johnlewis.com had worked closely
with their affiliate network’s account
management team since the launch
of the programme which has seen
revenue from this channel increase
year on year. Key promotions
were communicated to affiliates
and through them to potential
customers.

Results

December 05–October 06
compared to December 2004–
October 2005:

• Growth of unique visitors: 31%.

• Growth of number of sales: 77%.
So much more online • Growth of sales value: 135%.

buy or
reserve
B

Maintain regular contact

45 Affiliates working with your brand
45 Affiliates and PPC campaigns

45 Caveats

45 Timescales

C Search marketing has been the big thing to this

point, but many successful affiliate marketers are
using social media, blogging, in-house databases,
and more to promote campaigns. There is a lot
of traffic on the internet that doesn’t originate
from search engines that can be used by
affiliate campaigns.
 Affiliates add a new element to your
10 online marketing mix

Maintain regular contact

Regular communication with your key affiliates is essential to a

successful affiliate program. To promote your products effectively
affiliates will need regular updates on product developments and
incentives/bonuses to keep them motivated.

Affiliates will also have to be policed to ensure that they are promoting
the right message for your company. You will need to keep check
on what pages your ads are running on, if keyword restrictions are
being followed, new creative has been updated etc.

Affiliates working with your brand

An affiliate can be identified as good by having strong marketing skills Y

to work with an advertiser’s brand. Branding and direct response are
not promoting the same message even if they are ultimately heading
to the same goal. Affiliates are primarily concerned with delivering New Products
revenue as this is how they are paid. Therefore advertisers need to
be clear on rules/guidelines for affiliates to follow to ensure their “A good affiliate will first
activity does not infringe on the advertiser’s own branding activities. and foremost have strong
marketing skills and
Caveats appreciate the importance
of the advertiser’s brand.”
Performance-based marketing can appear to be the perfect solution
for online advertisers looking to drive sales, however it will not give
you as much control as a direct media buy such as banner ads.
Having thousands of sites promoting your campaign can appear
very appealing from the outside but in reality you will need to
handpick and monitor these sites.

Timescales

Affiliate marketing takes time to deliver its best results, be patient

and see the long goal rather then the short-term gain. Bear in mind
that you may also have to make changes to your website/landing
page and creative to get the most out of your affiliate marketing. If
affiliates don’t feel confident that they are likely to make money with
your campaign they will not be incentivised to drive large volumes
of traffic.
 Glossary of terms
CPM - (Cost
A C Per Thousand
Impressions) A metric
Advertiser - (also Click-through -
A for online advertising
called Merchant, (also called click)
where a rate is set
Retailer, E-retailer, Refers to the action
for every thousand
or Online Retailer) a visitor takes when
impressions.
Any website that they are referred
sells a product or from one website
CTR - (ClickThrough
service, accepts through a link or
Rate or Ratio) The
payments, and fulfills advertisement and
percentage of clicks
orders. An advertiser are taken to another
pg 4 for the number
website.
places ads and links of advertising
to their products impressions displayed.
Commission - An
and services on
amount of income
other websites
received by a
(publishers) and pays
those publishers a
publisher for some E
quantifiable action
commission for leads such as selling an E-Commerce -
B or sales that result advertiser’s product (Electronic Commerce)
from their site. and/or service on the Business that takes
publisher’s website. place over electronic
ASP - (Application platforms, such as the
Service Provider) Cookie - A small Internet.
An online network file stored on the
that is accessible visitor’s computer that EPC - (Average
through the Internet records information Earnings Per One
instead of through that is of interest to Hundred Clicks) A
pg 7
the installation of the advertiser site. relative rating that
software. It is quickly illustrates the ability
CPA - (Cost Per to convert clicks into
integrated with other
Action – see also commissions. It is
websites and the
CPC, Cost Per Click) calculated by taking
services are easily
A metric for online commissions earned
implemented and
advertising where a (or commissions paid)
scalable.
rate is set for every divided by the total
action that is taken by number of clicks
a visitor. times 100.
 Glossary of terms

CPA, or Associate of an advertiser

I Program) Any type in exchange for a
of revenue sharing commission. C
Impression -
program where a
The viewing of an
publisher receives
advertising banner,
link, or product on
a commission for
generating online
R
the Internet. Real-time - No delay
activity (e.g. leads
or sales) for an in the processing
advertiser. of requests for
L information, other
Pay-per-lead - than the time
pg 1 9
Lead - When a The commission necessary for the
visitor registers, structure where the data to travel over the
signs up for, or advertiser pays the Internet.
downloads something publisher a flat fee
on an advertiser’s for each qualified D
site. A lead might also lead (customer) that
comprise a visitor is referred to the
S
filling out a form on advertiser’s website. Sale - When a user
an advertiser’s site. makes a purchase
Pay-per-sale - from an online
Link - A link is a form The commission advertiser.
of advertising on a structure where the
website, in an email advertiser pays a pg 2 6
or online newsletter, percentage or flat
which, when clicked fee to the publisher
W
on, refers the visitor based on the revenue Web-based -
to an advertiser’s generated by the Requiring no software
website or a specific sale of a product or to access an online
area within their service to a visitor service or function, E
website. who came from a other than a Web
publisher site. browser and access
to the Internet.
P Publisher - (also
referred to as an Web-portal - A
Pay-for- Affiliate, Associate, website or service
Performance Partner, Reseller that offers a broad
Program - or Content Site) array of resources
(also called An independent and services, such as
Affiliate Marketing, party, or website, email, forums, search
Performance-based, that promotes the engines, and online pg 3 0

Partner Marketing, products or services shopping malls.