Should you be involved with multiple affiliate networks? Why or why not?
If so, how does it work technically—from a tracking, reporting and optimization perspective?
When it comes to affiliate programs, DRTV marketers are looking for more sales with less friction. I’ve complained for years that affiliate programs need a better means to achieve scale (providing marketers with an easier means to drive actions). Scale is Google’s “secret sauce†and responsible for cost-per-click’s (CPC) trouncing cost-per-acquisition (CPA). The CPC model has won that battle…for now.
In seeking out CPA scale (and the increased actions it may bring), DRTV marketers always find their way to the “multiple affiliate network†question—should they or shouldn’t they and what’s involved? Carolyn Tang has been around this block a few times and worked both sides of the fence at affiliates like MyPoints.com and marketers like Orbitz and CollectiblesToday.com (The Bradford Exchange). Today, she works as the client services lead at Chicago-based affiliate network Shareasale.
Simply stated, there are two primary concerns for retailers when swimming in multiple affiliate network ponds. These are:
1. Proper attribution of the sale:
Avoiding duplication of counts or scores among web marketing channels (affiliate, search, e-mail, etc.)
2. Proper payment:
Avoiding duplicate payments to affiliate networks (in scenarios where customers touch multiple affiliate sites or cookies)
Following is an excerpt from my conversation with Tang that gets to the nitty-gritty of what to be concerned with and how to make the decision.
Carolyn Tang: I think in the past, the emphasis has definitely been on duplicate reporting—on having to pay multiple times on a single transaction. Obviously, this is not very cost-effective. Funny thing is the technology has evolved to the point where we have a lot more reporting tools in place, such as Omniture or any third-party dashboard reporting tool. Many times, those tools don’t necessarily track correctly. They will attribute a transaction to a single marketing channel, but because of the way the technology is set up it may or may not attribute it to the correct channel. So I think, whereas before the driving concern was on overpaying on a single transaction, it is now on actually attributing the transaction to the proper channel.
Jeff Molander: So you’re saying that the technology now has improved that? (more…)
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