eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Marketing in a Digital World Affiliate Marketing What you’ll learn Which crucial elements go into a successful affiliate programme How to set up and run your own affiliate marketing programme Which tools and resources you will need to sell products through affiliates

What is it? Rewarding referral or word of mouth marketing using tracking online. A third party advertises products or services on behalf of a merchant, in return for an agreed commission for a sale or lead Affiliates are sometimes viewed as an extended sales force for a website

How it works

Commission models There are various ways in which affiliates can be rewarded Cost per Action (CPA) Cost per Lead (CPL) Revenue share (also CPS or Cost per Sale) Cost per Click (CPC)

How do we track this? Tracking is a key part of the process, using Affiliate tracking software Supported by an affiliate network Affiliate and marketer often use same tracking software Tracks entire process from acquiring new customers to completed actions

Affiliate tracking URL Normal: With affiliate tracking: asp?affiliateID=238&merchantID=214&pr ogrammeID=3897&mediaID=0&tracking= cube_world&url= index.html?dir=firebox&action=product& pid=1201&usg=AFQjCNGdHpzAas CefzDnyUBPxnagxqzvTA

And the cookie? The cookie collects helps collect info needed to award affiliate commission like: Referring URL and affiliate Total sale amount for commission Date and time of sale Unique order number of sale

If there is no sale? Info is still collected so that the merchant and affiliate can optimise their campaign through: Impressions Clicks Conversions

How long does a cookie last? The merchant decides the cookie period The affiliate is awarded commission only if the desired action takes place within the cookie period

Tracking headaches Affiliates aim to send targeted traffic (customers ready to buy) to a particular merchant’s website. Things that can go wrong: multiple referrals deleted cookies clashing cookies placing an order by another method

How do affiliates promote merchants? If anything goes wrong in the tracking process, the merchant will get sales, but the affiliates won’t be rewarded They do this through: Personal websites Content and niche sites lists Loyalty sites Coupon and promotion sites Search advertising

Who does it well?

What does an affiliate network look like?

Some leading Affiliate sites Explore the following examples: Commission Junction: LinkSare – Affiliate window – TradeDoubler –

Tools of the Trade Retailers need a product feed, either in XML or CSV, that contains the following: Product name Product URL Picture Price Description Shipping Price Stock status

Tools of the Trade Retailers also need: Banner and buttons for affiliates to place on their website It is good if these are interactive Decide who will monitor and drive success of affiliate campaign Keep in touch with affiliates

Tools of the Trade Affiliates must get to grips with the spectrum of digital marketing tactics, and choose what works best for them PPC or SEO? Keep in touch with merchants Other affiliates in the industry?

Tools of the Trade Some potential affiliate forums for affiliate to consider: Webmasterworld: Affiliates4U forum:

How do we set up a campaign? Affiliate marketing should grow your business, and grow with your business, so its important to plan well ahead 1. Have a clear idea of your business’s identity, goals and unique selling points 2. Determine the goal of your affiliate marketing 3. Decide whether you are going to run your own programme or whether you are going to use an affiliate network

If I use an affiliate network? Look at: Where your competitors are? Who has the kind of affiliates you want? What the joining fees and monthly fees are? How much support they can offer you What countries the network is in

Learn from your competitors Look at: Commission tiers Cookie periods Creative offerings Which affiliates they work with Networks Incentives offered to affiliates

Get the basics together Prepare: A product feed Banners and other creative offerings Decide on : Commission Commission tiers Cookie period incentives

Benefits Affiliate networks have many affiliates and merchants signed up to them They are an ideal source for recruiting affiliates if you are a merchant… Or for finding merchants to promote if you are an affiliate To the merchants, they provide a one- payment solution as the merchant

Drawbacks There are seldom contracts in place between affiliates and merchants There is still little to no industry regulation Affiliate programmes are not easily scalable

Case Study The Search Agency did something interesting They analysed the way in which the ebook retailer was running its affiliate programme and developed a solution that it called the ‘Affiliate Triple A strategy’

Case Study The Search Agency did something interesting They used: Affiliate Activation Affiliate Activity Affiliate Acquisition

What happened? Through proper planning, engagement and incentives, they managed to smash the ebook retailer’s target of 100 per cent more sales over 12 months 200% Increase in traffic 321% Increase in sales Over 18 months, the affiliate-based sales transactions increased by 629%

That’s all folks You can also read about: User Experience Design, Web Development and Design, Writing for Digital, CRM, SEO, Search Advertising, Online Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Video Marketing, Social Media Channels, Social Media Strategy, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Data Analytics and Conversion Optimisation