Elements of Incrementality in the Affiliate Channel

Elements of Incrementality in the Affiliate ChannelAffiliate Summit East 2016

• What is an incremental sale• What are the characteristics of an

incremental sale• How can affiliates drive incremental sales• How can merchants encourage

incremental sales from their affiliates

Elements of Incrementality In the Affiliate Channel

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– Been in the affiliate industry since ~1998• Started one of the first SEO agencies• Transitioned to being a full time affiliate

in 2000• Natural search, datafeed, PPC, social, video• Moved into full time affiliate management

in 2012 – Manage affiliate programs for Fanatics.com, FansEdge.com,

NFLShop.com, NBAStore.com, MLBShop.com,Shop.NHL.com, UFCStore.com and about 20 other programs

Who Am I?

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• Definition: A sale that occurs or increases as a result of additional influence (courtesy of Karen Garcia from Lab6Media.com)– Would the sale have occurred without the affiliate there?– Would the sale have had the same value?– Would the sale have gone to another channel without the

affiliate in the click stream?– Imagine a bucket…

What is an incremental sale?

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• The Bucket Analogy – 1st bucket: 6 different hoses from 6 different sources– 2nd bucket: 6 hoses spliced off from each other– 3rd bucket: 6 hoses from one source

• Which bucket fills the fastest?

What is an Incremental Sale?

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• Incremental isn’t necessarily black or white• Examples

– Customer woke up in the morning with no thoughts of buying anything

– Customer knew what he wanted to buy but not sure where– Customer already knew what he was going to buy and where he

was going to buy it

Levels of Incrementality

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• First/Only touch – Are there other marketing channels or affiliates in the click

stream?– Was the affiliate the first touch? – Did the affiliate come later in the click stream?

Elements of an incremental sale

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• Is the behavior introducing the merchant, influencing the purchase, or closing the sale?– Each of these has benefit but some are more incremental than

others• Introducer – Most likely to be incremental • Influencer – High incrementaltiy• Closing sale – Questionable incrementality – This is where the

work comes in


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• New Customer– Is this the first time a customer has shopped at the merchant?– Is this a regular customer? Has the customer purchased before?– Is the affiliate “reactivating” the customer?


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• Time between click and sale– Is the affiliate cookie set very close to the checkout?

• Know your site metrics. How long does a normal checkout take? If an affiliate’s sales take significantly less time than that they probably aren’t incremental

– Under a couple minutes could be concerning


~16 minutes between click and checkout

~1 minutes between click and checkout

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• High Order Value– Is the order above average?– Did the affiliate do anything to encourage a bigger cart value?

• Recommending high ticket products• Suggesting multiple items• Pairing items together

– Did the affiliate cause the cart value to increase?


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• Coupon Usage– A coupon doesn’t automatically negate any incrementality– Did the coupon cause or influence a specific action?– Did the coupon help drive the sale or close the sale?– Did the coupon encourage the customer to buy from one

merchant vs. another?– Are the coupons just being used by people jumping out of the cart

to find a discount?


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• If you take the affiliate out of the equation would the customer have purchased anyway?– Other paid marketing channels

• Is the affiliate channel more efficient than other channels?– Offline marketing– Other affiliates – Regular customer


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• Be creative – new merchants, new products, creative connections

• Communicate with your affiliate manager• Drive high AOV orders• Drive new customers• Push a merchant to your audience• Jump on high demand opportunities

How can Affiliates Drive Incremental Sales

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• Know your stats/metrics• Know your customer flow• Know your affiliates and talk with them• Utilize advanced commission rules• Reward incremental sales• Pay less for non-incremental sales• Pay what a sale is worth• Be smart with coupons• Test Everything

How can merchants encourage incremental sales from their affiliates?

Contact MeEmail – [email protected] - @drcool73Skype – joesousa73http://whatdoesjoethink.com

Elements of Incrementality in the Affiliate Channel

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